January 2016

A PUBLICATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY SCHOOL OF ADDIS ABABA

ADDIS ABABAICSInternational Community School

L UEYIU UmEN NuI D S

ADDIS ZENA S T U D E N T N E W S

Welcome01

Table of contents:WelcomeEarly Childhood PlaygroundWeek Without WallsGrade 3 LettersHigh School MusicalSTEAM WeekISSEA TournamentInternational DayVisiting Author

p. 1p. 2p. 3–5p. 6p. 7–8p. 9–11p. 12p. 13–14p. 15

Welcome to the newly revised Addis Zena, formerly the Zena Admas magazine. Addis Zena means “new news” in Amharic. We have revamped the look and feel of the magazine and have dedicated it solely to student reflections about their experiences at ICS. The Addis Zena will come out two times a year both in printed and electronic formats.

We hope you enjoy this new twist on a long- standing traditional ICS publication.

Early Childhood Playground

02

Honk if you like cooperation, creativity and gross motor skills!

At ICS’s Little Eagles Nest, students use bicycles to practice sharing while developing physical fitness in a fun setting. Recently the ICS maintenance team painted lines and arrows along the hard surface play area to increase bicycle safety.

EC4 students discussed the change by using an adapted version of de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats framework. The students used just three of the thinking hats—the yellow hat to talk about positive aspects of the new bicycle track, the black hat to talk about possible problems or negative aspects of the track, and the green hat to share ideas, such as solutions to possible problems.

Children’s thoughts . . .

POSITIVE ASPECTS• We won’t crash our bikes so much• Some people think the track is fun• We get exercise on the bikes• It looks cleaner• It’s my favorite color

NEGATIVE ASPECTS• There are only two big bikes. Other bikes are too small.• Some kids go the wrong direction• Some kids don’t park the bikes• Some kids walk across the track• The traffic gets slow• It’s ugly

IDEAS• We can get more big bikes• Teachers can be police officers on the track so people go the right direction• Kids can take a driving test to show they know how to use the track and park• We can add a zebra crossing for people to walk across it• We can get bike horns• We could add glitter, flowers, or flags to make it nicer

We plan to help the children put their ideas into action soon.

EC4 students are already taking “tests” to get their driver’s licenses, and EC3 students will do the same soon.

Good luck!

Week Without Walls03

Grade 5: Wolliso and Wenchi Crater

Week

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ADDIS ABABA

ICS

what a long hike it would be. I could make out some of the houses in the village we would visit but they were tiny! Even though it was a hard hike everyone was having fun talking to their friends and got distracted from tiredness. Everyone encouraged each other to keep going and not give up. No one was allowed to whine during the hike back up or they would not get brownies at the top in the bus. - Ryleigh and Naomi

On our way to Negash Lodge we visited a school located in Wolliso, called Obi. ICS 5th graders taught everybody in the Obi 5th grade a game called Hex. It was hard and challenging to teach them how to play because we couldn’t talk to them in English because they could not understand us. We had to use sign language to teach them how to play the game. We gave out a lot of gifts like soccer balls, jump ropes and some school supplies. Finally we sang our school song and they sang theirs. Our trip was fun! - Solomon, Neo and Christopher

Negash lodge has just built a new part to the lodge. Grade 5 students had the honor of being the first people to stay there. Everybody was really excited

about the hotel rooms. Mostly becausethere were no adults in the rooms and we could vis it other peoples’ rooms. Sometimes when it got crazy we were sent back to our rooms. - Eldana and Zeinab

In addition to learning about migration, an important part of WWW is the class growing closer as a team. In the handcuffs game, two students wore handcuffs that were tangled. The challenge was to get loose without removing the handcuffs. To succeed at this activity we had to communicate and persevere. - Oluwaseun

Even though WWW was packed with learning we still had time to play. The best things was getting to swim. We had so much fun splashing. Miss Kate said the water was clean enough so we took a swimming test. Once you passed swimming test you could swim by yourself. - Lanner and Tiago

Wenchi Crater is located approximately 114km southwest from Addis Ababa, located between Ambo and Wolliso. An extinct volcano, the crater contains a large lake, hot mineral springs, waterfalls, beautiful valleys and farmland. There is an old monastery with a church on one of the lake islands.

Student comments . . .

At Wolliso, 5th grade students went to hike to the bottom of Wenchi Crater to learn about human migration by talking to the village elders. How did this village in Wenchi Crater come to be? Mariya the village elder told us that about 700 years ago, the volcano was extinct and people went there to escape fighting in Northern Ethiopia, they wanted a place to hide and be safe. - Garv, Menna and Mariya

When I got my first look at the lake at the bottom of the crater, I realized just

Week Without Walls

04

Bahir Dar, "Lakeside Town" in the local language, is situated at the southern extreme of Lake Tana. Grade 6 students focused on how the geography, climate and natural resources of a region influence how people live and work.

Feedback from students . . .

Week Without Walls was a major success. This experience changed us and made us more mature in many ways.

The main focus was the ICS Learner Profile Traits of being Knowledgeable, Communicators and having Open-Mindedness. We also developed our independence and courage to try new things.

We communicated with people in Bahir Dar so that we could learn about how people in Ethiopia live outside of Addis

Ababa. Our main project at Bahir Dar was to make a travel blog about the Lake Tana and Bahir Dar region. What an amazing place in Ethiopia! Many people have stereotypes about Africa, so our goal was to communicate different viewpoints on what you can experience in Africa. We put all of these photos and experiences into our blog and many people commented and asked us questions. Along the way, we had fun hiking, riding in a boat, and visiting children at the SOS village. We even saw hippos! We also had a city tour and visited the new and impressive stadium and saw a breathtaking view of the Blue Nile near the presidential palace. We published our blog and had a Skype Night with students from Malone Middle School.

Skype night’s main goal was to share knowledge and communicate to the kids in Malone, New York. We were open-minded in our conversations and they were with us.

They were interested in the stories we told about our lives in Africa. We taught each other things about our schools and about our experiences on our trip. We also learned to think beyond our own stereotypes because these kids live in New York, but not the city!

The experience was a lot of fun because we got to express our learning in a different way. It was different from grade 5 WWW because we were more independent for this trip. We stayed in groups in the hotel with a teacher inside the room last year, but this time, we had our own rooms and were responsible for our belongings and making safe choices.

One highlight of the trip was the language exchange with the SOS students and when we went to the Blue Nile Falls. The trip was awesome and we will remember it for the rest of our lives!

Grade 6: Bahir Dar

Week Without Walls05

Grade 11: Sidama

whenever they learned something new - like cutting with scissors or seeing the end products of their work in origami. These lessons, all in all, provided the best opportunities for one to one interactions with many of the children taking part, and this is mainly proven by the fact that each 11th grader has the memory of at least one kid they had made a special bond with.

I remember the first girl I talked to when we met the kids on our first day at Common River. This girl, whose name is Mintamir, asked me if I could be her friend. I was instantly surprised at how loveable these kids already were. I then asked her about her family, where she is from, her friends and her lessons at school, and shortly afterwards we started playing games. The next day, however, she completely took me by surprise. After we hugged and said our greetings she told me that she bought cookies for me from the shop because I was her friend and that’s what friends do. Though Mintamir, a girl merely 8 years old who would have benefited from the money, bought me cookies. It was the most selfless and caring deed I have experienced in my life. Her act really touched, as well as shocked me.

Afternoon activities revolved around volleyball, frisbee, and other organized games with the kids, Epads talks with teenage girls on menstrual hygiene and female empowerment, tukul painting and coffee picking.

These activities allowed us to extend our interactions with the kids and the

Sidama is a zone in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region of Ethiopia, located 300km from Addis Ababa, and is the leading coffee producing zone in Ethiopia.

Comments from students . . .

School trips are known to be exciting, educational and experience building and the grade 11 Week Without Walls trip to Common River in Sidamo did nothing less. The eleventh grade class took part in a series of activities with children from grades 1 to 4 at Common River, working with them on previously planned lessons. These lessons were set under 4 major categories – Math, Language, Art and Physical Education – and students were expected to take leadership roles in terms of teaching the children as well as finding means to develop, reflect on and get opportunit ies for exemplify ing the Creativity, Activity and Service (CAS) completed in the IB.

Each category had 16 lessons in total that ran over the course of two days, with 4 lessons for each grade level. The process was considerably exhausting, but it was absolutely pleasing having worked with children through an extensive language barrier and taught them something new and fun. In art, we taught kids to make hand prints out of paint, masks and origami, and even the timid or shy children eventually came out to interact and work enthusiastically with us. It was also heartwarming to see their faces light up

Common River community as a whole in a manner that was somewhat informal compared to the lessons; thus, we were able to form friendships with the children as well.

The other highlights of the trip obviously revolved around food, but the whole process was much more interesting, peculiar and enjoyable as we prepared the food ourselves. Students were divided up into cooking groups for breakfast and dinner, and though each team had some minor crises once in a while – like being the unlucky individual who cracks a bad egg or changing parts of the dinner plan a couple of hours away from service – each group managed to supp ly everyone with edible and more or less appetizing food. - Herma

Thus far, I would say that our trip to Sidama has been on the whole an immense learning experience for me, and no doubt has it been for the rest of the group as well. Nevertheless, one aspect of our stay at Common River stood out to me more than others now that I take a look back at the trip. I remember teaching math to this one adorable girl, but unfortunately cannot recall her name nor the grade she was in. However, what still remains of her in my memory is her expression when she looked up at me as I e x p l a i n e d t o h e r t h e b a s i c s o f multiplication. A solid image of her pure and genuine happiness, even now, still remains in my mind. She had such an absolute and downright sincere smile on her face every time she looked at me, and it made me realize that those children at Common River, despite not having everything in the world, were still pleased with what they did have and constantly had a smile on their faces. It made me recognize how fortunate I was to be able to go down to Sidama and be able to experience that. As a whole, it has now made me want to appreciate and live each and every single day as if it were my last. - Izabela

Persuasive Letters from Grade 3A

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As part of their persuasive writing unit, students from grade 3 realized they were missing recess equipment. So they decided to do something about it. They wrote letters to elementary and school leadership. The next steps will be to work with leadership and find a long-term solution to the lack of and missing equipment.

Here are some student letters . . .

Dear Mr. Laney,

We need more balls, jump ropes and hula hoops. We need more balls because sometimes people accidentally throw them on the roof. Many balls have gone missing, and recess is not fun without balls. We also need some more hula hoops because most of them are broken and bent. I feel that the size of the hula hoops in our class is too small for us. We will take care of them very well if we have more. Additionally, we need some more jump ropes because a lot of people are wanting to play with the jump ropes. We will be active if we have all of this equipment. - Lulit

Dear Mr. Cooper,

We need more balls because there are not enough balls for everybody, and we care a lot about our balls. We are not having fun because some of the balls are on the roof, some are worn out and many have disappeared. If you give us some more balls, we will take good care of them by playing with them nicely. Everybody will have fun and be happy, and we will be more safe. - Julian

Dear Mr. Laney,

I think we need more balls, jump ropes and hula hoops. We need more balls because we don't have a lot of fun at

recess without a soccer ball and a basketba l l . Somet imes ou r ba l l s disappear and when the balls get on the roof, it is hard to get them down. We also need more jump ropes because we only have two jump ropes, and we can't share because sometimes it is hard to share when you want to jump rope by yourself. We lastly need more hula hoops. Our hula hoops are getting worn out because we use them a lot, and people throw the hula hoops. Next time, when you give us hula hoops, jump ropes and balls, we promise we will take good care of our e q u i p m e n t . W h e n w e h a v e o u r equipment, we will be happy, and it will be fun. Most importantly, we will be safe. - Malka

Dear Ms. Ballantyne,

We need more balls, jump ropes and hula hoops. We need balls because recess is not fun with one worn out and shredded soccer ball and only two basketballs. We also need more jump ropes because there are only two jump ropes, and it is hard to share. We need hula hoops because many of them are twisted or worn out. - Marc

Dear Mr. Schooler,

We need more balls, jump ropes and hula hoops to have fun because we work hard. - Raey

Dear Mr. Schooler,

We need balls, jump ropes and hula hoops. First we have only two balls. We need more balls because there are so many people in one class. Some people can't play with two balls. Second, we have only two jump ropes, There are 65 kids and two jump ropes. Some people don't share jump ropes, or they just want to play alone. Even if we share the jump ropes, there are people left out. Third, our hula hoops are old and broken. We will play with the hula hoops carefully and properly. - Hyunji

High School Musical07

The

International Community Schoolof Addis Ababa’s

Production of

HIGHHIGH

MUSICALMUSICALSCHOOLSCHOOL

ICS high school students put on agreat show performing Disney’sHS Musical. What did it all entail? There was drama, there was dancing, there was ball juggling and there was of course singing! The production included 13 songs, 12 weeks of rehearsals, 32 cast members, 16 student and 4 adult production crew members!

The show ran for two nights with a sold-out show on Friday. Proceeds will go to Operation Smile. The cast and crew were able to have two dress rehearsals with an audience. The first rehearsal was in front of the elementary school and the second was in front of students from Bingham. Having the opportunity to perform twice in front of an audience before opening night really elevated the performance. Students learned how to time their lines with audience laughter and applause.Congratulations to all involved!

Student reflection . . .

Doing High School Musical was the highlight of the semester for me. It was a lot of fun. What I really liked about it was the fact that I got to meet new people. People I normally would not have met. It was a great bonding experience.

I played the role of Coach Bolton. It felt good to be the coach because I was able to exercise authority. It felt good to be in charge. I would definitely recommend taking part in a musical. Being in a musical teaches you a whole new set of skills. Skills you don't get from ordinary acting. The biggest thing this musical helped me do was overcome my stage fright. We preformed for 4 different audiences over 4 nights. So, by the 4th night I was felling really good and there was no sign of stage fright. Doing this musical definitely goes on my list of things I would love to do again. - Krubel

High School Musical

08Book by: David Simpatico

Based on a Disney Channel Original Movie written by Peter BarsocchiniSongs by Matthew Gerrard & Robbie Nevil, Ray Cham, Greg Cham & Andrew Seeley, Randy Petersen & Kevin Quinn,

Andy Dodd & Adam Watts, Bryan Louiselle, David N. Lawrence & Faye Greenberg, Jamie HoustonMusic Adapted, Arranged and Produced by Bryan Louiselle

STEAM Week09

Thoughts fromgrade 10 students

STEAM week at ICS is an opportunity for grade 10 students to select a Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, or Mathematics stream to focus their energies outside of their normal classroom schedule.

Some student reflections . . .

I loved taking a break from actual school work and getting a taste of real life. We discovered archi tecture and th is program was really great and I felt that we learned the applicable part of these subjects and that was really fun and eye opening.

Loved having the freedom to create what I wanted to and motivate myself to work hard towards my passion. I also liked how we had a break from school, and had just a week to do what we personally like to do.

That we had a chance to do what we want. This made it more exciting to come to school, and that it was not just sitting in the classroom and learning things but you are moving around doing things you choose to do because you have a passion about it.

Well I learned a lot of facts but what was nice about this experience was not only just learning but the chance to explore and ask questions and observe lots of things, it was a lot of fun.

I l e a r n e d t h a t t e a m w o r k a n d communication is essential for a project to work and become a success.

I learned that almost everything around us and everything we use, was coded. Making robots was really fun and entertaining. Everyday I was eager to do more things with my robot, working in groups was a problem for a while until everyone came together and chose what to work on. At the end of the day I went home and thought about of how I c o u l d i m p r o v e t h e r o b o t , a k a MazeRunner. This was a fun experience, the supervisor let us do what we wanted as long as we were working on our robot and there was no pressure.

Designing buildings is not easy! You have to get every detail there is and measure a lot of things. I also learned that working in a group of people you feel comfortable with makes all the work easy.

I learned that time management is a key factor in the planning and execution of a passion project.

I also learned that the conceptions you have before are very different from the conceptions you have after you research your project.

Time management is the biggest thing I've learned. In addition to that I learned more about the topic I was researching.

I learned that many people had different interests that are not always appealing to other people.

We learned that creative thinking always pays off.

I learned how to be more responsible because we had to we had to be there on time.

I learned new concepts and how to get research questions and implement them.

I learned that sometimes your project doesn't always turn out how you envisioned it.

I have learned a lot of things in this project. I was quite passionate about this project, evident by the early start of the project, and spending a lot of time. I l e a r n e d a l o t a b o u t e l e c t r i c a l e n g i n e e r i n g a n d m e c h a n i c a l eng ineer ing , bu i ld ing a remote-controlled quadcopter. I also learned about hydraulics, creating a robot, powered by hydraulics. I learned how the concept of hydraulics worked through the syringes and the tubes.

This was my first week and I LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just that i t was fun and a great experience and that you should do this again next year. It was fun, and I wish we could do it more often. Was a good learning break and I feel that in science I h a v e l e a r n e d m o r e i m p o r t a n t information than I would have in class.

STEAM Week: Passion Projects

10

Student feedback . . .

However, the most striking teaching moment came on our last day. We were studying the soil in an acid-impacted section of the Garden where the native juniper forest is slowly recovering. The students first discovered a large, brightly coloured locust. Then we found dozens and dozens more. But they were not all the same! The older locusts with complete wings were a dull green, while the younger ones were black with vivid accents of yellow and red.

What we had stumbled across was an example o f “dens i t y -dependent phenotypic plasticity”, or perhaps more simply, a real life example that powerfully illustrates several concepts in the IBDP and NGSS science curricula. Not just that, w e w e r e o b s e r v i n g t h e n a t u r a l progression seen in many locust species: from individuals to swarms.

As Ethiopia is in the midst of drought, witnessing the birth of a swarm of locusts was a particularly poignant learning experience. - Rishab

The t r ip to Gul le le was real ly an exhilarating experience. It was a beautiful place with a lot of biodiversity with the view from the top leaving you breathless.

It was an awesome experience visiting such a place. It’s a place with such cool and clean air it makes you want to stay. It was such an awesome experience to visit the Gullele Botanical Gardens. - David

Taking advantage of our ICS partnership with the Gullele Botanical Gardens, G10 students visited the gardens for their STEAM week projects with one of the goals to promote authentic inquiry in young science students and to help raise awareness about the opportunities that are available to our entire community, namely the Gullele Botanical Gardens.Highlights of the week included the discovery of this yet unidentified chameleon species and the students first discovering dozens of large, brightly coloured locust, observing the natural progression seen in many locust species: from individuals to swarms.

The Gullele Botanic Garden is the first of its kind in Ethiopia, and also the newest and largest botanic garden in Africa. The Gardens sit in the Gullele and Kolfe Keranyo sub cities and encompasses about 705ha of green space devoted to species conservation, research, education, ecotourism, activities, and the provision of practical education to students.

Going to Gullele Botanical Gardens off t h e R i n g R o a d w a s f u n . G u l l e l e strengthens the Ethiopian economy, tourism and influences soil conservation, recreation and provides a spot with clean air, science and research as well as a safe place for plants and wildlife. Climbing mountains in the secluded, biodiverse garden before we visited a pine forest and seeing a vervet monkey is a nice break from the school campus that lies in filthy air.

I feel we didn’t spend enough time in the region; the bus drives were a little long and I would’ve liked access to the greenhouses. - Sidney Our trip to Gullele Botanical Gardens was amazing. It was a brand new experience that once again proves that Ethiopia has a lot to offer. We saw what was to become a lodge which would bring plenty of tourists. Gullele is located in Addis Ababa so there is no excuse not to visit it. You have the opportunity to see all types of wildlife. There was a lot of diversity from the plant species. We also got to climb mountains which led to some beautiful views. - Yanet

In the Gullele park, aside from the perennial rivers, is a reservoir of rain water that will be used for the trees of the surrounding area. This reservoir lies between two huge mounds of soil. One mound is covered with plastic with the purpose of conserving the rain water in the reservoir. Above these two huge mounds of soil and all around the

Continued on p.11 >>>

STEAM Week11

reservoir, bricks are held by strong nets. These bricks are used to stop or rather reduce the rate of soil erosion on occasions of heavy rain and floods.

On the other mound of soil, there are little to no plants growing. However upon close inspection, there was one plant (I don’t know its name) that lives on soil that is neither fertile nor moist. This plant is able to live in these harsh conditions because it is a c3, c4 intermediate plant (this means that it is able to combine two types of photosynthesis systems to make its own food and survive). - Marda

Gullele is a beautiful biomedical forest. Honestly before yesterday I had never even heard about this place, which is really sad. This place isn’t actually ready or completely finished they still have a lot more work to do, there is a lot under construction, they still need to build lots of things including the roads. Gullele is filled with all sorts of plants that have been discovered so far in Ethiopia. In the Nursery there is a diversity of plants, the goal is that they can bring any plant from any place in Ethiopia and put it in one place for everyone to see.

Because some plants are used to a certain temperate and sometimes that does not add up to the temperature in Addis Ababa, they put it in the green houses, and slowly they try to change the temperature so that the plant gets used the temperature in Addis Ababa and they can take it out and put it with the rest of the plants for people to see.

Today we went to the nursery and we took some beautiful pictures of all the different flowers and I learned small facts about plants I’d never seen or noticed before. For example I didn’t know what stinging nettles were but today I learned

that these plants have white thorns that contain acid once they have matured and this is for self protection. So if a living thing attempted to harm the plant (or just touch it) the plant would release a “weak” acid into your blood, which would hurt very bad. - Ragib

The Park was simply a breath of fresh air. But the first sight was not what you imagine. At first you glare at the image of the construction of the Park. Then sink in the thought of what might be possible to achieve in this infrastructure, staring down at the straggly shaped building. The building’s structure was brilliantly engineered in the shape of eucalyptus leaf.

Then staring down from the birds eye view is s imply breath taking. The mountain’s trees covered by the shade of the c louds f i l l your eyes wi th imagination of what might be possible. The site of the house didn’t end with the view.

The house also contained lots of interesting furniture and quarters. But the thing that fascinated me was the huge pizza oven. Next there was the dam, but oddly it looked more of a lake or pond container than a dam. The surrounding areas and mountains were covered with different mechanisms to prevent soil erosion.

It was also a habitat for different plants and animals (birds, reptiles…). Next we visited a guard house, which will be used by the tourists for viewing. I really enjoyed our conversation about IB on the guard house. It also had a nice view of the surrounding area.

During our first day’s return trip towards campus, we got to explore the forest of

the pine trees. It was the most beautiful forest that I had ever seen in Ethiopia. I couldn’t possibly imagine that such a forest would exist inside of Addis Ababa. Our teacher, Mr. Murphy, pointed out that these trees are from the western reach of our planet. As we were walking around the park, we encountered an abandoned play-ground. My first thought was that the sight would be a perfect place for photo-graphy.

The next day, we went to the garden area of the park. We were told that we would be seeing a lot more in the near future. The garden was so beautiful, I didn’t want to leave it out of my sight for one minute. There was a large collection of plants for different regions of Ethiopia. For someone interested in gardening, this is heaven (not me).

The thing I liked most out of the park was the fresh air when we were hiking up the mountain and walking to our destination. The park was a place to socialize and educate. But most of all a place of freedom from the city. A place where you could hear the wings of the butterfly. A place where you can observe an ecosystem in action, and admire the process from the meadow of grass and the shade of the trees. - Amanuel

ISSEA Tournament

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What was it like to host students?Much like having family visitors, you were basically had to become their friends because you shared a house with them for a long weekend. It was generally a lot of fun, it’s nice to have people your age to relax with.

What did you and your family enjoy most?It was nice to be thanked at the end, you felt appreciated for what you had done prior. I also went out to dinner with them with a friend of mine and his guests, and that definitely was a lot of fun.

Would you do it again? Why?Definitely, it’s great to get new friends from all around East Africa, and there is almost no burden to having them with you. I've never had an issue with hosting and it’s always good fun.

What was challenging about hosting?There were no challenges and it was relaxing and easy, with no hiccups.

What did you learn?Having moved a lot myself, adapting to new situations has become very easy for me. It was definitely interesting to have to become friends with people almost instantly, and see what you could make of it in 4 days it taught me a lot about myself.

What will you do differently when you are hosted for an event?When I get hosted by other people, I will try and make them feel like I am not a burden by staying flexible.

What would the students you hosted say about being hosted by you?I feel like they would say that I was a good sport, kind and took care of them. We became good friends by the end, talking and laughing about the same things! Definitely something to do again. - Lot

Why did you volunteer?Because I like Born Free and to see people run.

What was the benefit of volunteering?That I got to miss my first three blocks.

What were the challenges?Passing out the water while they were running.

Will you volunteer again? Why?Yes I would volunteer again because it is cool to see all these different people running representing different countries. - Hanna

What is it like to compete?There isn't anything more terrifying than knowing that you only have one chance. Unlike other sports where you have several games to prove your worth of a trophy, a medal, or the respect of the other teams, with track, you only have one shot at it.

The whole season has been preparing you for those few minutes that it takes you to complete the 800 meter dash, or your final throw of a discus. In both instances milliseconds and centimeters have the ability to separate you from first and last place.

There isn't anything more motivating than the knowledge that someone somewhere is working just as hard as you and is getting better each time they jump over a hurdle or muster the strength to make it to the top of the final hill before the finish line.

The only thing that you can do is work harder, run faster, jump further, and throw with all your might so that from the point that you stand at the starting line, get ready to throw, or jump you know that you have done all that you can do and now is your time to show it. - Maeve

International Day13

INTERNATIONAL DAYCelebrating the Diversity of our ICS Community

International Day 2015 was another huge success. This year the event included our flag parade representing over 80 different countries, entertainment from students, parents and staff and a food fair with 14 vendors representing cuisines from six continents and host countries. International Day is a grand ICS tradition where the school and greater ICS community can gather together to celebrate our diversity!

International Day

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I felt proud to carry the flag for Argentina and to say hello in my language. My favorite part of the day was when, together with a group of Latino girls, we danced a traditional Cumbria dance. At first I was very nervous to perform on stage in front of everyone, but in the end it was fun. - Clara

Its like being a delegate at a UN conference, except this time you are representing your country underneath the sunlight. - Joshua

I wasn't really nervous about carrying the flag because I carried it last year and didn't personally have to say the greeting. My favorite part was the cultural performances, especially from China and Japan. - Izabela

I felt proud and excited when I was holding the flag. International Day makes me feel important. My favorite part of the event was saying hello in our native language. I would do it again because I like saying hi to people in my native language. - Abdoukarim

Carrying the flag was an exciting experience. I felt proud to represent my country. To me International Day means showing our cultures to others and experiencing new things, learning about other cultures and having a good time. My favorite part of the event was all the different food booths from different places. It was a fun experience and I would like to do it again but I also want to give others the chance or cheer on my friends from the crowd. - Mei-lin

Comments from our flag bearers . . .

I felt very proud and nervous to carry the Nigerian flag because of all the strength which great men and women in Nigeria had in order gain our freedom from the British and become an independent nation on 1 October 1960. International Day means celebrating the achievement of different countries, sharing love, learning cultural traits from different countries and most importantly proving that we can co-exist peacefully and happily together without any need for violence. My favorite part was carrying the flag of Nigeria, trying different countries’ delicious dishes and being able to enjoy a colorful event. I would do it again but as a senior it's time for me to pass that honor to someone else and I wish them all the fun that comes with it. - Godswill

Being a flag carrier was amazing, it was nice to represent my country. It also felt nerve racking but fun to show people your culture and your nationality. - Johan

I was really nervous and excited!! I loved carrying the flag, it made me feel proud to be the oldest in ICS to carry a flag. Some of my friends don't even get to carry their flags! International Day means we can show other people our traditions of our country. You can share food, clothes, traditions, and dances! My favorite part of the event was the different kinds of FOOD!! For example the sushi, spring rolls, chicken, or other amazing dishes! I would definitely like to experience it again! - Abel

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Visiting author Helaine Becker made quite an

impression on our G3 and G4 students!

Here are some student reflections . . .

“Did you know ICS had a visiting author last week? Her name

was Helaine Becker. She was AWESOME! She writes books from

poetry to non-fiction, she writes them all. My favorite poem is

her poem, Ode to Underwear!” - Filippo

“If you have not met her, well you should because I have heard

creative ideas from her, she makes me go WOW!” - Menna

“She was cool and shared a lot with us but I have some more

wonderings. Why were some of her poems not published and

where’s one of her dream places to live? Why did she write

what she wrote?” - Aidan

“One of the things I learned from her was that she always

wanted to be an author as a child! My favorite part was when

she talked about her books!”- Ciara

“Overall I think she is a great and very kind author and I

definitely want to talk and let her come to ICS again.” - Richard

“She is very funny and unserious! She loves to write spy books

because her parents used to hide stuff from her and so the only

way she could find out what it was by spying.” - Aryan

“Dear Helaine Becker…thank you ….for giving all the kids a

good time and making us laugh.” - Seun

“She has a great personality and has funny poems to tell. I

learned that poems can be put in funny ways and that you can

write a story at whatever age.” - Zeinab

“She answered all of our questions then told a very funny poem

about how her mom acts before her coffee, we all laughed at

that. She told us a story with only her hands, no words, it made

me really think about what she was trying to tell us. She is a very

good and funny writer!”- Elisabeth

“Dear Helaine Becker, I am sad that you left but part of you is still

in me because I will always remember “Ode to Underwear”. -

Silvia

“I love your underwear poem. The way you presented it was

amazing, you know with the pig underwear. I can’t wait to read

more and more of your books!” - Maya

Visiting Author15

Tel: (251) 11-371-1544 Web: www.icsaddis.edu.etEmail: info@icsaddis.edu.et