MIDD LE SCHOOL

Friday Bulletin
Weekly Publication for Middle School Parents ISSUE # 21
W EEK OF FEBRUARY 4 TO 8, 2013

From the Middle School Office

Dear Parents: This week we bid farewell to one of the most familiar faces and voices in the Middle School Aubrey Fensantos. After six years of dedicated service in the Middle School office, Aubrey is embarking on a new adventure and starting the next chapter of her life as an expat in the United States. Her warm smile and friendly demeanor will surely be missed by many members of the school community. We wish her all the best. Over the past two weeks, you may have noticed a new face and voice in the Middle School office. We welcome Kristine Fong to the team and hope you will help her feel welcome. Kristine comes to us from the Elementary School After School program and we are thankful that she brings her knowledge of the ISM community with her. She has jumped right into Middle School life and is ready to assist students, parents and teachers. Welcome, Kristine! Recently, we also said farewell to our librarian Karen Stewart. Unfortunately, Ms. Stewart had to return to Australia for medical reasons and will not be returning to ISM. Our thoughts are with her during this difficult time as she pursues treatment. We would like to congratulate all the students who have recently participated in festivals sponsored by the Association for Music in International Schools (AMIS). A small group of our strings and choir students travelled to Beijing and a few of our band students went to Myanmar. We are proud of these students as they showcased their talents, forged friendships with other student musicians, and represented ISM. The Middle School Classroom Without Walls (CWW) week is nearly here. CWW is part of the regular Middle School curriculum and affords students the opportunity to discover more about the Philippines and what it has to offer. The activities that the teachers plan also aim to cultivate a stronger sense of community and service. For these students, the trips often become their most treasured memories of Middle School. Information and permission slips have been sent out through your childs Homebase. If you have not received the information or if you have any questions, please contact your childs Homebase teacher or the site leader in charge of the activity. On Wednesday, February 6 we are hosting a Parent Transition Meeting for Grade 4 parents whose children are moving to grade 5 next school year. The presentation will run from 5:00 6:00 P.M. in the Little Theater. On another calendar note, the Middle School Party scheduled for February 8 has been postponed to March 15. Looking ahead for parents of grade 8 students Please note that the High School Course Selection Meeting has been moved to Tuesday, February 19 from 5:30 6:30 P.M. in the Little Theater. The meeting will not take place on February 21 as printed in the school calendar. Have a fabulous weekend!

Inside this issue:

From the Office of Admissions and Advancement / Art Auction From the Operations & Security Office From the ATAC Office Industrial Agriculture: Is Your Food Safe? Middle School Choir From the AFAC Office MS Academic Bowl Tryouts MS 3rd Season Tryout/Training HS 3rd Season Try-out Schedule Adult Language Courses at ISM 2 6 8 10 12 13 14 15 16

UPCOMING EVENTS
FEBRUARY
6 Grade 4 to 5 Parents Transition Meeting (5:00 P.M., LT) MS Party (Grade 5 to 8) rescheduled to March 15 Classroom Without Walls (CWW) Grade 8 Parents HS Course Selection Meeting (5:30 P.M., - 6:30 P.M., Little Theater) MS Parent Coffee (7:45 A.M., Little Theater) No Classes (EDSA Revolution Holiday) No Classes: Faculty In-Service Grade 8 Course Registration

8 11 to 15 19

21 25 26

Yours in Education, Simon Gillespie Middle School Principal Clarissa Sayson Middle School Assistant Principal 27 to Mar. 01

MARCH
4 to 8 Course Registration

The Yearbook Pictures are now available for pick up in the MS Office.

Yearbook photo retakes will be on Tuesday, February 5. Please proceed to room 1118.

POWERSCHOOL GRADE UPDATE

Feb 8 Progress Reports Distribution

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From the Office of Admissions and Advancement

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ISM Community Art Auction

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Withdrawal Procedure for Students Leaving ISM

For those students who will be withdrawing from International School Manila this year, the following procedure applies: Parents are obliged to inform the School officially through a WITHDRAWAL NOTIFICATION FORM, before the second Friday of May, if their children will not be returning to ISM. Failure to do so will lead to a deduction of US$1,000 from the Facilities Upgrade Deposit (FUD), in compensation for having held a space for the child and thus preventing the School from offering that space to another child prior to the summer holiday break. The Withdrawal Notification Form can be obtained from the Admissions Office or directly from the ISM website www.ismanila.org under Admissions > Re-Enrollment & Withdrawal > Withdrawal STEP 1: Return the Withdrawal Notification Form to the Admissions Office or scanned and e-mailed as an attachment to admissions@ismanila.org . Upon receipt of the Withdrawal Notification Form by the Admissions Office, a copy will be forwarded to the appropriate School Office and the Finance Office for their action. The School Office, upon receipt of the Withdrawal Notification Form, will initiate the student clearance procedure which requires a Middle or High School student to have the Student Clearance Slip signed by the indicated teachers and offices for clearance. For Elementary students, the Elementary Office will handle the withdrawal clearance. Note that school transcripts and records will be available from the particular school office approximately fifteen working days after the childs last day of attendance at ISM. Please coordinate directly with the particular School Office if you require other arrangements. STEP 2: If required, and when completed, the Student Clearance Slip must be taken to the Cashiers Office. Only after the Cashier has received and signed the completed clearance form will the childs transcript or school records be released from the Elementary, Middle or High School Office. Please note that one copy of the transcript is provided free of charge, additional copies cost P100 each, payable at the Cashiers Office before release. Please coordinate directly with the particular School Office if you require more than one copy of school records. STEP 3: In order to receive your Facilities Upgrade Deposit or FUD (formerly the Special Project Deposit) refund, the following must be submitted to the Cashiers Office: 1) Signed Student Clearance Slip 2) Signed Facilities Upgrade Deposit Certificate Please note that the FUD refund will not be released before your childs last day of school and may take up to thirty (30) days. Only the person whose name appears on the FUD Certificate may claim the refund at the Cashiers Office. Please call the Cashier at 840-8506 if you have questions regarding your FUD Certificate. Please allow the withdrawal process to go smoothly by starting the process early. Thank you for your help and understanding. If you will be withdrawing before the end of the school year and wish to receive your childs YEARBOOK please submit the appropriate form to the School Office. The forms are available through the web site: Admission > Re-Enrollment

& Withdrawal>Withdrawal
Elementary School Yearbook: ALAALA Middle School Yearbook: SALINLAHI High School Yearbook: KAWAYAN Sincerely, Stephanie H. Hagedorn Director of Admissions & Advancement admissions@ismanila.org

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From the Operations & Security Office

Operations and Security
Access and parking within the campus are important security and safety issues. For the well-being of all members of the ISM community, those entering the school campus are requested to follow the procedures outlined below.

Vehicular Access
During drop-off and pick-up times, vehicles may enter through Gates 2 and 3. Those entering through Gate 2 should proceed to the drop off area and, once the student has alighted or boarded, they should exit via Gate 1. Those vehicles entering through Gate 3 must turn into the covered parking area and use the designated drop-off areas. All vehicles must exit through Gate 1. Alternatively, vehicles entering through Gate 3 may park in the covered car park. The spaces reserved for parentdriven cars should only be used by those vehicles which are driven by parents themselves. Vehicles in which parents are traveling, but which are driven by a driver, should not use these spaces. Rather, they should park elsewhere in the covered park or make use of the outside spaces next to the power center. Please note that Gate 2 may only be used by members of the ISM community in possession of a valid ISM ID and vehicles displaying a valid ISM vehicle sticker. Family/company drivers should not remain within school once they have delivered a student. They should exit the school and return no sooner than 1:45 in the afternoon for pick up. Visitors to ISM may only enter through Gate 3. There is an area for short stay visitors parking near Gate 1.

The Pedestrian Gate

Location The pedestrian gate is located in the perimeter fence mid-way between Gate 1 and Gate 2. There is a paved area between the road and the perimeter fence, allowing easy access to the gate. The pedestrian gate is solely for the entry of members of the ISM Community at the beginning of the school day. It will only be open between 7:00 and 7:45 (8:00 to 8:45 on Wednesdays). Due to parking restrictions and in the interests of security it will not be open in the afternoon for pick ups. During the time it is open, it will be under the supervision of members of the ISM Guard Force.

Drop-off Procedure
Drivers should stop adjacent to the paved area and students should alight from the right side of their vehicle. The driver should then move off, clearing the space for other vehicles dropping off students. Under no circumstances should a student be dropped off from the outside lane. This is dangerous as the student would need to walk across the front of another vehicle. Drivers are reminded that traffic regulations forbid parking on the roads around ISM. Therefore, vehicles should only be stopping for the brief tine it takes for a student to alight. Drivers must not wait for anybody to return to the vehicle.

Car Stickers
The car stickers for the school year 2012/13 are available from the security office. Each ISM family will be issued one vehicle sticker free of charge. Any additional stickers will be issued following payment of Php100.00 to the cashiers office. In order to facilitate the easy recognition of authorized cars at the gates, the stickers should be affixed to the top right corner of the windshield. Further to this, old ISM stickers issued in previous years should be removed.

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ID Cards
ID cards should be worn at all times while on campus. If you have not been issued an ID card, or you have lost it, you should obtain one by visiting the security office and completing the appropriate application form.

Vehicle checks
The practice of inspecting vehicles will continue. During off-peak hours all vehicles will be checked before they are allowed to enter the campus. During peak hours (drop off and pick-up times), all vehicles without valid stickers and randomly selected vehicles with stickers will be asked to undergo an examination. Whether an examination is conducted or not, it is important that the security staff at the gates are able to identify the occupants of vehicles entering the campus; therefore IDs must be clearly displayed. Vehicles with tinted windows must roll down windows to allow a clear view of the interior of the vehicle.

Drivers, Helpers and Bodyguards

Drivers, helpers and bodyguards should not be waiting on campus for students throughout the school day. After dropping off students they should exit the school grounds and not return more than 30 minutes before dismissal time. Those who repeatedly fail to comply with the regulation will have their access privilege suspended. Only those vehicles carrying parents or other people with business within the school will be allowed to return to the campus before 1:45 p.m. There are designated areas for unaccompanied drivers, yayas, helpers and security escorts to wait for parents and students. Unless specifically authorized, they may not enter any other area. In the interest of security, and to prevent congestion at the pedestrian entrances to the covered parking area, parents are requested to emphasize to their employees the importance of cooperating with the security staff and remaining in the appropriate areas.

Termination of Employment
In the event of the termination of service of a family employee, parents are asked to secure the former employees ISM ID card and return it to the Security office. If this is not possible, it is important tat the Security Office is still informed of the change of circumstances. Finally, I would like to thank all members of the ISM community for their cooperation in helping us maintain ISM as a safe and secure environment for our children.

Firearms
All members of the ISM community are reminded that it is strictly forbidden for firearms to be brought onto the campus. This includes concealed weapons carried by bodyguards for close protection. Any person arriving at the school with a firearm should inform the gate guard and arrangements will be made for the weapon to be safely and securely stored during the visitors stay.

Security staff directions

Our security team is endeavoring to make the school as safe and secure an environment as possible for all members of our community. We as that everybody cooperate with us in this important task. In particular, all those entering our campus are requested to comply with any direction given to them by members of our guard force. In the event that anyone is unclear as to the purpose of such instructions they can seek clarifications from the security office. Please note that it is the parents responsibility to advise their staff accordingly. Thank you for your cooperation. We are looking forward to another successful semester at International School Manila.
Regards, MICHAEL FLYNN Director Operations & Security

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From the Athletics & Activities Office

3rd Season sports are fast approaching (Badminton, Softball and Track & Field) see tryouts and practice schedule via the ATAC blog schedules pages. http://atac.ism-online.org/schedules/hs/ http://atac.ism-online.org/schedules/tryouts/ IASAS Golf makes its debut this year at ISKL. If you want to be a part of history and represent ISM in the first ever IASAS Golf Tournament, contact Mr. Hamaguchi to register your name. ISM will host IASAS Tennis Jan 30-Feb 3. Please come and support our Bearcats tennis teams at IASAS. You can find the schedule via www.iasas.asia. A big THANK-YOU to ISM families that agreed to host an IASAS Tennis athletes. Housing letters for the IASAS Track and Field event is now available via the ATAC blog. Please sign up early to house a visiting track athlete in April. For general information about housing at IASAS tournaments see the housing and hosting page. http://atac.ism-online.org/iasas/iasas-housing/ IASAS Tennis matches start Thursday Jan 31st. The schedule is very busy with 204 matches to be played over the 3 days. To help you understand the schedule, a match consists of 3 singles games S1, S2, S3 and 2 doubles games D1 and D2.There is also an 8th or alternate player for each team who play matches as a part of the tournament. The alternate player can be used in case of injury/illness in singles or doubles if needed. To win the match, you need to win 3 out of the 5 games. It is a round robin format with all teams playing each other by Saturday lunch time. By Saturday afternoon the finals are played based on the round robin results. All 8 courts on our new roof facility plus our 2 courts at the covered court will be utilized for the tournament, so there will be plenty of great tennis matches to watch during the 3 days. For those of you that are unaware or are new to ISM, both our ISM boys and girls teams are defending IASAS champions and our girls team is going for a 3rd win in a row this year. The event will be live streamed via www.iasas.asia and IASAS tournaments are wonderful events to host and we look forward to putting on a great event for the visiting teams in our new facility. We hope for great support from our ISM community during the event to cheer on our teams as they do battle against the IASAS schools. Whilst we are hosting tennis our other 2nd season teams will be battling it out at the following venues for their season ending IASAS Championships and we wish them the best of luck. You can follow their progress via live score and streaming sites at www.iasas.asia

Rugby/Touch at Kuala Lumpur Basketball at Singapore Swimming at Taipei

Please come along and check out the action when we host our IASAS friends from Singapore, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Taipei and Bangkok!

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Our MS boys B and girls tennis teams have made it to the ISTA league semi finals to be played on Feb 16. The MS Gold girls and boys basketball teams also play their semis and finals this Saturday at ISM MS gym. Good luck to all players. Our varsity girls basketball team won the ISSA league final, that was played last Tuesday night over Assumption 43-31. Congratulations to players and coaches! Well done JV and MS boys Rugby teams who took out the local league finals last Saturday. The Bearcats Rugby boys made it a triple sweep this season winning all 3 divisions of local school boy rugby. The Faith Academy Hardeman Cup Basketball tournament gave our IASAS teams solid final preparation for this weeks IASAS in Singapore. The Varsity boys lost in OT in the bronze medal game and our girls won the 3rd place trophy with freshman Tori and Chiara being recognized for the alltournament team. Congratulations also to our JV and Varsity girls touch teams who also won the ISM Touch Invitational played on Saturday. Both teams played very well to take out the 1st place trophy. We wish our girls touch players the best as they head for Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday. A great way to stay in touch with the ISM ATAC program is to subscribe via RSS feed to the ATAC blog and also to follow via twitter (see twitter feed on the blog home page). Each Monday I will post the weeks happenings and highlight important events for students and parents information on the ATAC blog and in the regular Friday parent bulletins. GAME SCHEDULE PDF: (access to game schedule information) Information about all mid-week/ weekend fixtures for ISM teams can be found via the ATAC blog. Please note the game schedule does change often due to involvement with many local schools so please check the page regularly to find out the latest information of where and when the Bearcats teams are playing. Click on schedules tab or the Bearcat logo to be directed to the power school secure site http://powerschool.ismanila.org/public/ You will need your power school user name and password to access the game schedule pdf. HS Student registration for ATAC activities: (new for school year 12-13) A Google doc registration is now available for all HS students who will take part in any ATAC seasonal sports teams, MUN and Cultural Convention programs. Please take the time to complete this online registration for activities that you plan on joining this school year. Please access the form via the HS Student Registration tab found under the Helpful Shortcuts bar on the ATAC blog home page. Please note this is for HS students only and you must use your school email address to access the link. Personal gmail or hotmail addresses will not allow you to access the page. BEARCAT DEN: http://atac.ism-online.org/bearcat-den/ Our Bearcat Den is open for business, please drop by to check out the range of Bearcat products. We have a great team of volunteers who run the den and are always looking for more people to help out. If you are interested in joining a fantastic group please contact any of our den members during den opening hours. We have a new volunteer coordinator thanks so much to Carolyn for stepping forward to take on this role. If your interested in joining the Den volunteers please contact Carolyn Ching for details carolynqching@yahoo.com. We are always looking for new volunteers and encourage parents from ES/MS to join our group. Regular Opening Hours for the Bearcat Den: Wed and Fridays from 11:30am 1:00pm and each afternoon from 2:30-4pm. Regards, Mark Pekin Director of Athletics/Activities

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Industrial Agriculture: Is Your Food Safe?

We are Kushagra and Juliana, grade 8 students, and we want to present our findings on the subject of industrial agriculture. This project was completed during first semester for our Changing Our World class, in which we had to make a change using media. We chose to write an article about our findings on industrial agrculture.

Industrial Agriculture has many negative effects on our environment, health, and economy. This method of agriculture uses synthetic chemicals, fertilizers, and pesticides to grow the food, making it detrimental to health as their use leaves harmful residues in the body when ingested. This method of farming uses a greater amount of land, energy and water compared to sustainable farming. The toxic chemicals damage the soil and the nutrients in it, which adversely affects the life and disrupts ecosystems. After World War II, the idea of industrialized farming spread in different parts of the world. One initial reason for such widespread use of industrial agriculture was that an organic farm was more labor intensive, and there was a general shortage of labor force in the developed economies. The developing economies often indiscriminately emulated these methods even though they had abundant labor force. It negatively affects the environment lowering the quality of life and harming all species living nearby. Industrial agriculture uses resources such as fossil fuels, water at an unsustainable rate. It contributes to water and air pollution (caused by the high concentration of animal wastes which produces harmful gases like hydrogen sulfide, methane, ammonia, and carbon dioxide), soil depletion (extensive use of a monoculture), diminishing biodiversity and dying fish. Furthermore, the food that is being produced such as grain is being fed to animals and not directly to humans making this system very inefficient. The extensive use of antibiotics to prevent infections and diseases in animals makes the antibiotics inefficient. The pesticides in the production of crops can result in cancer for workers and consumers. Industrial agriculture has an extremely negative effect on human health. Crops produced by the use of pesticides, bacteria, chemicals, leave harmful chemical residue for all who consume them. Small sustainable farms produce healthy, high quality food and preserve the environment. Factory farms produce high amounts of waste which can drain away into the groundwater and jeopardize the people of exposure to infectious and deadly bacteria such as E coli (small rodshaped bacteria that can lead to food poisoning). Factory farming creates air pollution which is potentially dangerous for the farmworkers and the surrounding community. The argument that Industrial agriculture is cheaper than sustainable farming is not true. Sustainable farming provides jobs for the members of the community enabling the local economies to grow and flourish. An University of Minnesota study shows that small sustainable farms with a gross income of $100,000 made almost 95% of farmrelated expenditures within the local communities, thus boosting the economy, whereas another study by the same university reveals that large farms with gross income of $900,000 made less than 20% of farm related expenditures.

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Industrial Agriculture uses massive amounts of energy to produce very little food. According to David Pimentel (professor in the Cornell university), industrial agriculture uses 10 units of energy to produce 1 unit of food. This worsens when animals are fed grain instead of grass. It takes 7 Kg of grains to produce 1 Kg of beef, 4 Kg of grain to produce 1 Kg of pork and 2.4Kg of grain to produce 1Kg of Chicken.

Table 1 shows the relationship between how many people one farmer could feed in different years. In 1900, one farmer only had to supply seven people whereas in 1999, one farmer had to supply food for 96 people, thus indicating the drastic increase in the population of U.S. Table 3 shows the relationship between the diminishing number of farms in the U.S, and the increasing size (acres) of these farms. Therefore, while the population of U.S increased, the number of farms decreased but the size of these farms increased dramatically. There is an alternate method of farming called Organic farming. Organic farming is a method of agriculture which strictly prohibits the use of synthetic chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides or genetically modified food and uses environmentally friendly resources like natural compost, crop rotations, biological pest control, etc. Organic farming has more nutritional value largely in vitamin and mineral content. The soil is more nutritious which makes the plants more nutritious. Nutritious plants mean healthier people. Organic farming is free of health harming substances such as pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides, which means that is healthier because there is no harmful chemical residue. An organically grown plant can actually resist most diseases and pests without the use of pesticides. The cost of growing organic food is much cheaper than industrial agriculture because the use of chemicals is prohibited in organic farming. Organic farming is more drought resistant than industrial farming.

Kushagra S. and Juliana A.

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Middle School Choir

Last weekend, 10 middle school students participated in the AMIS Choir and Orchestra music festival in Beijing. They joined more than 20 other schools in rehearsing and performing beautiful music including the world premiere of I CHOOSE THE LIGHT, which was specifically composed for this festival. Highlights of the trip included visiting the Great Wall of China, performing for a middle school assembly, and meeting many other young musicians from the other schools. Mr. Odendaal, Ms. Hausman, and Mr. Gillespie are very proud of these talented musicians!

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From the After-School Activities Office:

There will be no afterschool activities from February 11 to 15 due to Classroom Without Walls! Second session after school sports activities: badminton, volleyball and cricket will start on February 18, 2013 (Monday).

Please note that the Broadway Bound film

shown in MS Assembly featuring staff and faculty dancing Gangnam Style can now be viewed on Google Docs. Either use the following link:
https://docs.google.com/a/ismanila.org/file/ d/0BxGdVbAOpwfJZk1CZWk3c0Fla0k/edit

or simply search by typing in Pablo. Many thanks once again to everybody involved in the making of the movie.

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Middle School Academic Bowl Tryouts

Do you know lots of interesting facts and general knowledge? Are you fast on the buzzers? Do you like Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader? THEN COME TO Academic Bowl Tryouts!! WHERE - Room P046 (Mrs. Birchenalls classroom) WHEN - Thursday 7th February and/or Friday 8th February 3:05 P.M. 3:30 P.M. (sharp). The successful students will represent ISM at the next Academic Bowl competition which is to be held here at ISM on Tuesday 5th March.

All Middle School students are very welcome to come to the tryout sessions!!!

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