Week 16 - January 17, 2018
Important upcoming dates
Friday January 19 Normal school day for NOVA
Friday January 26 End of Semester 1
Friday February 2 Parent-Teacher Conferences
Thursday February 15 No school for students
Friday February 16 No school for students
Tuesday February 20 End of Semester 1 Reports go home
Monday April 2 Spring Break commences
Tuesday April 10 School resumes after Spring Break
Dear Parents,
Welcome back to the first week after Winter Break. I trust that you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year, hopefully, spent with family and friends. I was fortunate to spend time in Greece, Serbia, Turkey as well as a week here in Skopje, so I feel very refreshed after a busy semester and I am ready to fully embrace the extremely busy and exciting second semester.
It is an exciting time for teachers and students as we embark on the full trial of the new curriculum units. Over the next few days your child's teachers will be giving you more information about the International Curriculum units they will be studying this quarter. I hope that as parents, you will ask plenty of questions of your children and engage with them during the learning process. All classes should now be communicating with you via their own Weebly pages, so please please keep an eye out for updates. Teachers will email you when an update is ready with the link and password.
I will try to feature a couple of class pages each week. This week you can see the Macedonian Language page by following this link http://macedonianlanguagenova.weebly.com/
and the Grade 8 page by following this link http://gradeeightnova.weebly.com/
All school Weebly pages have the same password which is novaparents
After this next assessment period, teachers will be preparing the end of semester reports that we anticipate reports being sent home around February 20. There will be more information about this in coming weeks.
Student Services News
This week our counselors, Ms. Platz and Mrs. Rice visited all the elementary school classrooms and taught a lesson on what counselors do and the tools they need to be successful. The students then wrote or drew what they wanted to be when they grew up as well as the tools and skills necessary for that job. To bring this learning home, you can talk to your children about the jobs you have had in your life. The 2 articles below from the counselors discuss how to talk to your children about careers.
Helpful tips for talking careers with your child - Read all about it here.
Careers for women - Women only represent 26% of the STEM workforce. Encouraging women and others who are underrepresented to enter these fields will ultimately improve these professions, maximizing innovation to create products and services that are better representative of all users. In addition, jobs in these areas offer higher than average salaries, and employment in STEM occupations are expected to increase much faster than the overall growth rate for occupations. Read more here.
Tech Update
The site is called newsela.com and it is used in reading recovery. It turns news into text with activities and dictionary. Students can leave notes on each sentence or word. If you are interested you can see it in action by following this link. https://newsela.com Please find a sample of what the students have been working on in class in the main photo album below.
Normal school day this Friday
Please note that despite this Friday being a holiday for some organizations, that it will be a normal school day for us here at NOVA.
Photos this week
Once again we have a variety of photos that have been provided by teachers about fun and interesting activities that took place this week. Below are the teacher descriptions of what the photos are about and the photos are in the slideshow below. We hope you enjoy viewing them.
Teacher Descriptions
We are learning about outer space. Ms Cait - PK4
Our 5th grade students were creating still life by using bright colors in the French artist Henri Mattise’s style. They were using the painting technique.
Our 6th grade students were working on gradation of complementary colors, placed inside of a fruit shape. They were using the painting technique.
Our 7th grade students were creating cold atmosphere in their project in Pablo Picasso’s style during his Blue period. They were using the painting technique.
Our 8th grade students were creating portrait of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty. The students were using three art techniques: drawing, painting and collage (mix media). Ms Monika - Art
The second grade students turned the "Stories" by L.N. Tolstoy into colorful reading boxes, during the winter break. The students were proud to present verbally their work, full of vivid illustrations, small constructions created by different materials and what is the most important - precise story analyses.
The third grade students started the New Year by celebrating their December's success. The students worked hard in small groups. They were rotating their roles and were following the writing process. The effort of the third graders resulted with their very first books in Macedonian language, and our school library will be richer for few more, new titles. Ms Despina - Macedonian Language Teacher
Grade 2 practicing typing on BBC Dance Mat Typing
Grade 4 working on Scratch (animation with coding) projects
Ms Spireva - Elementary and High School Computer Science Teacher
Grade 2R students wanting eagerly to save the Earth and the rainforest tried to make recycled paper on their own. They were cutting used paper, soaking it in warm water and blending into a smooth mixture. After, they were trying to turn the mixture into a thin piece of paper using some screen and their hands. They got some really nice pieces of recycled paper! Ms Angelina - Grade 2R
Who said that learning grammar is boring? Our ESL 2 students are having a blast learning about verbs and verb tenses using a variety of online resources. You can download the ABCya Games app on your iPhone, iPad or any Android device you may be using, and have your child learn and have fun simultaneously! Ms Buralieva - Elementary ESL Teacher
As a class we had a chance to analyze trade in ancient Egypt. Over a three-class period we looked at ancient Egypt's trading partners as well as the role of trade in ancient Egypt. Scholars represented different ancient kingdoms, such as Byblos, Canaan, Anatolia, and Crete, in order to understand the trade relationship between these ancient peoples. Following this activity scholars had the opportunity to engage in a trading simulation. As a class we transformed the room to look like the Nile River. Scholars lived along the river and received benefits based on their location and profession. Scholars had the chance to trade the goods they had to see how long they could survive in the simulation. Following the simulation we answered reflection questions to analyze the importance of trade. Mr Polizzi - 6th Grade LA/SS Teacher
Kindest regards,
Russell O'Neill
EMS Principal
Important upcoming dates
Friday January 19 Normal school day for NOVA
Friday January 26 End of Semester 1
Friday February 2 Parent-Teacher Conferences
Thursday February 15 No school for students
Friday February 16 No school for students
Tuesday February 20 End of Semester 1 Reports go home
Monday April 2 Spring Break commences
Tuesday April 10 School resumes after Spring Break
Dear Parents,
Welcome back to the first week after Winter Break. I trust that you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year, hopefully, spent with family and friends. I was fortunate to spend time in Greece, Serbia, Turkey as well as a week here in Skopje, so I feel very refreshed after a busy semester and I am ready to fully embrace the extremely busy and exciting second semester.
It is an exciting time for teachers and students as we embark on the full trial of the new curriculum units. Over the next few days your child's teachers will be giving you more information about the International Curriculum units they will be studying this quarter. I hope that as parents, you will ask plenty of questions of your children and engage with them during the learning process. All classes should now be communicating with you via their own Weebly pages, so please please keep an eye out for updates. Teachers will email you when an update is ready with the link and password.
I will try to feature a couple of class pages each week. This week you can see the Macedonian Language page by following this link http://macedonianlanguagenova.weebly.com/
and the Grade 8 page by following this link http://gradeeightnova.weebly.com/
All school Weebly pages have the same password which is novaparents
After this next assessment period, teachers will be preparing the end of semester reports that we anticipate reports being sent home around February 20. There will be more information about this in coming weeks.
Student Services News
This week our counselors, Ms. Platz and Mrs. Rice visited all the elementary school classrooms and taught a lesson on what counselors do and the tools they need to be successful. The students then wrote or drew what they wanted to be when they grew up as well as the tools and skills necessary for that job. To bring this learning home, you can talk to your children about the jobs you have had in your life. The 2 articles below from the counselors discuss how to talk to your children about careers.
Helpful tips for talking careers with your child - Read all about it here.
Careers for women - Women only represent 26% of the STEM workforce. Encouraging women and others who are underrepresented to enter these fields will ultimately improve these professions, maximizing innovation to create products and services that are better representative of all users. In addition, jobs in these areas offer higher than average salaries, and employment in STEM occupations are expected to increase much faster than the overall growth rate for occupations. Read more here.
Tech Update
The site is called newsela.com and it is used in reading recovery. It turns news into text with activities and dictionary. Students can leave notes on each sentence or word. If you are interested you can see it in action by following this link. https://newsela.com Please find a sample of what the students have been working on in class in the main photo album below.
Normal school day this Friday
Please note that despite this Friday being a holiday for some organizations, that it will be a normal school day for us here at NOVA.
Photos this week
Once again we have a variety of photos that have been provided by teachers about fun and interesting activities that took place this week. Below are the teacher descriptions of what the photos are about and the photos are in the slideshow below. We hope you enjoy viewing them.
Teacher Descriptions
We are learning about outer space. Ms Cait - PK4
Our 5th grade students were creating still life by using bright colors in the French artist Henri Mattise’s style. They were using the painting technique.
Our 6th grade students were working on gradation of complementary colors, placed inside of a fruit shape. They were using the painting technique.
Our 7th grade students were creating cold atmosphere in their project in Pablo Picasso’s style during his Blue period. They were using the painting technique.
Our 8th grade students were creating portrait of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty. The students were using three art techniques: drawing, painting and collage (mix media). Ms Monika - Art
The second grade students turned the "Stories" by L.N. Tolstoy into colorful reading boxes, during the winter break. The students were proud to present verbally their work, full of vivid illustrations, small constructions created by different materials and what is the most important - precise story analyses.
The third grade students started the New Year by celebrating their December's success. The students worked hard in small groups. They were rotating their roles and were following the writing process. The effort of the third graders resulted with their very first books in Macedonian language, and our school library will be richer for few more, new titles. Ms Despina - Macedonian Language Teacher
Grade 2 practicing typing on BBC Dance Mat Typing
Grade 4 working on Scratch (animation with coding) projects
Ms Spireva - Elementary and High School Computer Science Teacher
Grade 2R students wanting eagerly to save the Earth and the rainforest tried to make recycled paper on their own. They were cutting used paper, soaking it in warm water and blending into a smooth mixture. After, they were trying to turn the mixture into a thin piece of paper using some screen and their hands. They got some really nice pieces of recycled paper! Ms Angelina - Grade 2R
Who said that learning grammar is boring? Our ESL 2 students are having a blast learning about verbs and verb tenses using a variety of online resources. You can download the ABCya Games app on your iPhone, iPad or any Android device you may be using, and have your child learn and have fun simultaneously! Ms Buralieva - Elementary ESL Teacher
As a class we had a chance to analyze trade in ancient Egypt. Over a three-class period we looked at ancient Egypt's trading partners as well as the role of trade in ancient Egypt. Scholars represented different ancient kingdoms, such as Byblos, Canaan, Anatolia, and Crete, in order to understand the trade relationship between these ancient peoples. Following this activity scholars had the opportunity to engage in a trading simulation. As a class we transformed the room to look like the Nile River. Scholars lived along the river and received benefits based on their location and profession. Scholars had the chance to trade the goods they had to see how long they could survive in the simulation. Following the simulation we answered reflection questions to analyze the importance of trade. Mr Polizzi - 6th Grade LA/SS Teacher
Kindest regards,
Russell O'Neill
EMS Principal