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Kozak Korner #06. September 09, 2022

 

 

Director's Message

Dear KIS Families, 

Thank you for those who attended our parent meetings this week. It was very nice to see you and hear from you how things have been going. There are other coffee chat dates and topics below.  

If you haven’t had the chance, please complete the Family Campus Comfort Level Survey. We know that there is a range of comfort that exists in Kyiv and Ukraine right now, so we would like to get a better idea of how our community feels about everything.

We are also forming a PTO group of some parents and staff who will plan some opportunities for families and students to get together. If you are interested in joining, please just let us know.

Thank you for your continued support. 

Sincerely,

 

 

Luke Woodruff
Director
Kyiv International School

 

Key Dates

20 September - Testing at KIS

20 September - Community Coffee Chat

27 September - Counseling Program

27 September - Mathematics MAP Testing

29 September - Language Usage MAP Testing

4 October - Reading MAP Testing

  Parent Korner

Would You Like To Join PTO?

We all know how important for the school and community is Parent-Teacher Organization. It helps families adjust to life in Kyiv by providing information about the school and living in the city. It organizes events throughout the year to build a stronger sense of community. It provides a communication link between parents, teachers and staff.

If you feel the call and would like to join our PTO team, please let the school know or email: pto@kyiv.qsi.org.

If you are a new parent at KIS, feel free to join KIS Moms & Dads group on Facebook to stay connected.  

FAQs

  Elementary & Middle School  Korner

 DI's Message

September 9, 2022

Dear Elementary and Middle School Families,

This week I have two areas to share updates about, communication and Passion Projects.

Newsletters/Communication: The main source of information for parents is the Kozak Korner. In addition, parents receive more specific information that is somewhat different according to the age of the child.

Parents of children in the 5 to 9-year-old classes should be connected to their child’s classroom through Seesaw. Besides serving as communication between teacher and students, teachers are also sending regular newsletters to parents via SeeSaw message. If you aren’t yet connected to Seesaw, or aren’t receiving messages, please email your child’s homeroom teacher to sort out the snag.

Parents of children in the 10 to 13-year-old classes should start receiving a new form of communication within the next week. For students in this age range, Microsoft TEAMS is the main meeting space and content sharing platform for teachers and students. We’ve worked with our IT department to add a new feature – a weekly parent email. That means parents will be able to see the status of all their children’s assignments as well as any upcoming assignments. The Assignment tool in TEAMs is used for both in-class work and homework – teachers will be using this tool more often to facilitate communication. If you are curious about what the email looks like, please follow this link to learn more: Send weekly assignment summaries to parents and guardians (microsoft.com) I have heard that the email may first appear in a Spam or Junk folder, so please give those folders a scan. If you don’t receive an email by 19th September, please email the Middle School office (kismsoffice@kyiv.qsi.org) and we’ll investigate the problem.

Passion Project: The Passion Project Team matched up students and mentors this past week. Starting next week, students will be getting to know their mentor teacher. Also, students will work with their mentor to define their Passion Project goals more clearly.

As always, please email if you have any questions or concerns.

Best,

Mrs. Grossman

 

 

 

Carla Grossman
Director of Instruction
carla-grossman@kyiv.qsi.org

 

School Day Schedule

  Secondary Korner

 DI's Message

What’s going on in Secondary?   

This week we started the week with a Morning Mindset of all our Secondary students and teachers.  We had a chance to look back to Day 1, Friday August 26th through a couple of videos of the day compiled by Mr. & Ms. Hume. Please have a look:   

 

 

There was a consensus that this felt like it happened a long time ago! 

INDEPENDENT STUDY 
This year our students are working with a teacher to engage in the independent study of wellness, physical education, art or photography.  This non-traditional way of learning allows students to pursue their own interests and connect these to our curriculum. 

Here are some examples of how the classes work: 

Wellness & Physical Education
Students decide what kind of fitness they are interested in and connect their wellness portfolio to that activity.  The students set goals, choose what they want to achieve, and Ms. Olga Shliakhovska guides them through the process, by helping find an appropriate assessment.   Student choices include swimming, football, cycling, gym workouts and walking.  In the coming weeks Ms. Olga will help the students design their own fitness plans.  Mr. Prima is following a similar structure with his Secondary I Wellness class and the Physical Education class.  Students are demonstrating their skills in capoeira, a Brazilian martial arts and hockey as well as joining Mr. Prima’s open fitness classes Period 4, twice a week (optional, but popular!)  

Visual Arts  
Ms. Helen Kasian and Ms. Nataliya Chervonyk are supporting the visual arts independent studies.  Students have met individually with these teachers to discuss their areas of interest and decide on projects.  Weekly deadlines provide structure, but choice allows for creativity.   Some examples of projects include:  Paper mâché based on Louise Bourgeois sculptures, Doodles inspired by Jim Bradshaw’s, Fred Blunt’s and Jon Burgerman’s Doodle Art and contour line drawings inspired by Henry Matisse and Pablo Picasso. 

Doodle Art, Anna P.  

Photography 
Ms. Hume has taken charge of the photography and is supporting students to explore their interests in this area.  Starting with a more structured approach, Ms. Hume has given an assignment and students will meet next week to look at and discuss each other's work.  The cummulative project will be an exhibition at the end of the year.  This week’s assignment is a photographic exploration of the "elements of art".    

ART - Independant Study 
Four Images On 
"Finding Beauty" - By Taya G

School Day Schedule

Photography Walk

First page of the PDF file: SchoolWidePhotoWalk1
First page of the PDF file: SchoolWidePhotoWalk2
First page of the PDF file: SchoolWidePhotoWalk3
First page of the PDF file: SchoolWidePhotoWalk4
First page of the PDF file: SchoolWidePhotoWalk5

Languages Other Than English

LOE teachers:

This year, the LOE team is smaller.  We are:

Anastasiya Rabchun - French
Sergey Berezhny - French
Kateryna Munteanu - German
Vita Slobodeniuk - German and Ukrainian
Dana Horbunova - German and Russian
Daria Filatova - Russian
Alba Becerra Perez - Spanish
Maria Bizhyk - Ukrainian

Ukrainian and Russian for Parents
Next week, some Language clubs will start their work. 

Dear Parents, if you have never learnt Ukrainian or Russian and would like to do that, you can also have a virtual lesson at KIS. Please, mark it on your schedule.

Ukrainian Introductory (vita-slobodeniuk@kyiv.qsi.org)
Monday 12th, Period 5: 1.10 - 1.50 pm,
Zoom ID: 949-036-4810, pw.: Ukrainian.

Russian Introductory (dana-horbunova@kyiv.qsi.org)
Wednesday 14th, Period 2: 10.10 - 10.50 am,
Zoom ID: 218-901-3162, pw: Russian.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact the teacher.

 

 

Sergey Berezhny
LOE Coordinator
sergey-berezhny@kyiv.qsi.org

  Learning Stories & Week Highlights

  This Is Us: Educator Profile

Kyle Mims
Titles: Secondary History Teacher 

Why am I teaching: I enjoyed working at a science and history children's museum. Working with the kids and explaining the exhibits, watching eyes grow with new information and questions led me to go from museum to classroom. I wanted to be surrounded with curiosity and help students explore and find answers to their questions, while sharing my passion of geography and history.

Favourite Quote: “History is not about dates, quotes, and obscure proviso. History is about life; about change; about consequences. Cause and effect. It’s about the mystery of time. And it isn’t just about politics and the military and social issues, which is almost always the way it’s taught. It’s about music, poetry, and drama, and science, and medicine, and money and love.” - David McCullough

Favourite thing about KIS: Being part of those who are passionate about what they are doing, the way of life they are living, and being sure that you are heard and everyone will help you when needed.

Athletics

High School students meet to plot their activities year ahead.

Physical Education

During PE on Friday students created their own T-shirts for doing sports activities. Each T-shirt has its own unique style and design.  

Rita' story:

"When I was 6 years old, and I first met Mr. Prima at school, he called me Babushka. So I decided to call him Dedushka. Since that time I remember our first meeting with him and I am happy to have Mr. Prima as my teacher."

Katya's story:

"I made a T-shirt with Persik. Do you know Persik? Everyone should know who Persik is. He is present during the lessons on TEAMS and helps me to study. He is my super dog."

Middle School

"Should you push the Button"

Teacher: Daniel Burke

This past week the 12-year-old class explored various "Literary Devices" such as irony, symbolism, and imagery. The students also reviewed character and plot development, conflict, foreshadowing, and were introduced to new vocabulary from the short story. The name of the story that the class examined was "Button, Button". This story introduced the students to a moral and ethical dilemma from the protagonist that led to a captivating discussion and debate. For a follow up, the class had to write an epilogue and create their own "Push the Button" devices. The 12-year-old team is very proud of all the hard work and effort that the kids put into this assignment! 

Secondary

Photography

KIS Photography Course is designed to build creative knowledge and solid photography skills. In photography class students learn:

  • How camera works
  • Exposure in photography
  • Shutter speed in photography
  • Camera Focus
  • Aperture & Depth of Field
  • Full Manual Mode
  • Camera lenses and focal length
  • The importance of understanding light
  • Camera ISO, megapixels & sensors
  • Composition in photography 
  • AND MORE... 

The following photos were taken by the secondary photography student Marcel F. 

 

  School Announcements

Dear Campus Community,

As you know, we have Classifieds section on the Connect Page of the school website. The Section contains the following branches: 

RECRUITMENT

PROPERTY

COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS  

If you have an announcement you would like us to place there, please email kozakconnect@qsi.org .

School Calendar

First page of the PDF file: KISSchoolCalendar2022-23