Friday, 9 November 2012 The Beacon Inquirer The Beacon School A Filipino Community IB World School Message from the Dean of School Dear Parents, Beacon School is governed by a 15 member Board of Trustees who serve as guardians of the school mission, approve policy, plan strategically for the future of the school, assure its financial stability and campus development, and work proactively with school administration to ensure that school goals are met and aligned with the school mission. Each Board member serves a three-year term that can be extended. New members of the BOT are nominated by existing members, and then approved at the Annual General Meeting. Acting as ambassadors within the community for Beacon, members of the BOT provide expertise in a wide range of fields: education, social services, media, finance, law, general management, architecture, and real estate development. Nominations to the BOT are made to ensure this range of expertise. Most members of the Board are parents of alumni and children enrolled at Beacon. The few who are not provide valuable input based on their experience with other educational institutions. On Saturday, 20 October, members of the Board of Trustees met for the Annual General Meeting and a BOT meeting. As a result, the following individuals currently serve as Beacon School’s BOT officers and members. Luis Miguel O. Aboitiz Member Leandro Y. Locsin, Jr. Founding Member Charlotte Benitez Member Benjamin R. Lopez Member Fr. Carmelo Caluag Member Suresh P. Mirpuri Member Alberto M. De Larrazabal Member Agustin R. Montilla Chairperson Karla Prieto Delgado Founding Member Gisela Gonzalez Montinola Founding Member John T. G. Deveras Treasurer Nicole Panlilio Morris Member Anton T. Huang Member Dina Lomongo Paterno President & Founding Javier B. Infante Secretary Member Mr. Miguel Aboitiz served as BOT Chairperson for the past three years providing critical stability for the school community through transitions in school leadership. Mr. Suresh Mirpuri served as BOT Treasurer and, like Mr. Aboitiz, offered his time and expertise through numerous subcommittee and budget review meetings. While they have stepped down as BOT officers, they remain committed to the school by continuing to serve as members of BOT. All members volunteer generously as part of the school’s governing body. On Saturday, 10 November, the BOT will meet for a Strategic Planning session to articulate the strategic goals for the school for the next three years. This plan will complement the curriculum goals that are established through our MYP and PYP self-study and confirmed through the IB Visiting Teams’ recommendations. All the best, Mary Chua COMING EVENTS Sat, 10 Nov Tennis Tournament, 8 am, IS Manila BOT Strategic Planning Session Tues, 13 Nov Student Leadership Training, Library Extension Wed, 14 Nov Report Cards to Parents Fri, 16 Nov Parent-Teacher Conferences, No Classes Mon, 19 Nov Term 2 ASA, SPAS & MAS Begins Wed, 27 Nov DEAR, 11-11:15 am Thurs, 29 Nov Parent Coffee, 7:40 am, Auditorium Bake Sale, 8:30 am, Pre-school Area Fri, 30 Nov Bonifacio Day, National Holiday, No Classes
Transcript
Friday, 9 November 2012
The Beacon Inquirer
The Beacon SchoolA Filipino Community IB World School
Message from the Dean of School
Dear Parents,
Beacon School is governed by a 15 member Board of Trustees who serve as guardians of the school mission, approve policy, plan strategically for the future of the school, assure its financial stability and campus development, and work proactively with school administration to ensure that school goals are met and aligned with the school mission. Each Board member serves a three-year term that can be extended. New members of the BOT are nominated by existing members, and then approved at the Annual General Meeting. Acting as ambassadors within the community for Beacon, members of the BOT provide expertise in a wide range of fields: education, social services, media, finance, law, general management, architecture, and real estate development. Nominations to the BOT are made to ensure this range of expertise. Most members of the Board are parents of alumni and children enrolled at Beacon. The few who are not provide valuable input based on their experience with other educational institutions.
On Saturday, 20 October, members of the Board of Trustees met for the Annual General Meeting and a BOT meeting. As a result, the following individuals currently serve as Beacon School’s BOT officers and members.
Luis Miguel O. Aboitiz Member Leandro Y. Locsin, Jr. Founding MemberCharlotte Benitez Member Benjamin R. Lopez MemberFr. Carmelo Caluag Member Suresh P. Mirpuri Member
Alberto M. De Larrazabal Member Agustin R. Montilla Chairperson
Karla Prieto Delgado Founding Member Gisela Gonzalez Montinola Founding MemberJohn T. G. Deveras Treasurer Nicole Panlilio Morris MemberAnton T. Huang Member Dina Lomongo Paterno President & Founding Javier B. Infante Secretary Member
Mr. Miguel Aboitiz served as BOT Chairperson for the past three years providing critical stability for the school community through transitions in school leadership. Mr. Suresh Mirpuri served as BOT Treasurer and, like Mr. Aboitiz, offered his time and expertise through numerous subcommittee and budget review meetings. While they have stepped down as BOT officers, they remain committed to the school by continuing to serve as members of BOT.
All members volunteer generously as part of the school’s governing body. On Saturday, 10 November, the BOT will meet for a Strategic Planning session to articulate the strategic goals for the school for the next three years. This plan will complement the curriculum goals that are established through our MYP and PYP self-study and confirmed through the IB Visiting Teams’ recommendations.
All the best, Mary Chua
C O M I N G E V E N T SSat, 10 Nov Tennis Tournament, 8 am, IS Manila BOT Strategic Planning SessionTues, 13 Nov Student Leadership Training, Library ExtensionWed, 14 Nov Report Cards to ParentsFri, 16 Nov Parent-Teacher Conferences, No Classes
Mon, 19 Nov Term 2 ASA, SPAS & MAS BeginsWed, 27 Nov DEAR, 11-11:15 amThurs, 29 Nov Parent Coffee, 7:40 am, Auditorium Bake Sale, 8:30 am, Pre-school AreaFri, 30 Nov Bonifacio Day, National Holiday, No Classes
The Beacon Inquirer, 9 November 2012 page 2
Pre-school Program Re-Opens for SY 2013-14The Beacon School is NOW accepting applications for students who will turn four (4) years old by 31August 2013. The program provides a range of planned activities and allows for spontaneous play situations. The students engage in daily discussions about personal experiences, the community, special events, and current topics of inquiry.
For more details, please contact: Ms. Emma Entao AdmissionsOffice [email protected] 810-5046
All Beacon Parents are invited to attend a
Parent
Thursday, 29 November 7:40 am, Auditorium
Mr. Raul Bermudez, Beacon Consultant, will present on safety and security with a focus on earthquake preparedness
29 November, 8:30 am Pre-school Area
Please send extra money with your child. Lots of yummy treats have been prepared
for all to enjoy.
The Beacon Inquirer, 9 November 2012 page 3
Spotlight on IB: ASSESSMENTS With parent-teacher conferences coming up, it is timely to look into an important aspect of learning - assessments, or to put it directly: “How will we know what students have learned?” Assessment involves the gathering and analysis of information about student performance and is designed to inform teaching practice. It identifies what students know, understand, can do, and feel at different stages in the learning process. At Beacon, the approach to assessment recognizes the importance of assessing the process of inquiry as well as the products of inquiry, and aims to integrate and support both. Assessments can be summative or formative. Summative assessments are cumulative evaluations usually given at the end of a teaching unit to understand whether long-term learning goals have been met. Examples of summative assessments are an exam, a final paper, or a project. Formative assessments, on the other hand, are meant to monitor student learning in order to provide regular ongoing feedback to both teachers and students about how well learning is taking place. For instance, formative assessments will be able to identify whether a student is struggling with a particular concept, allowing teachers to address this immediately in order to enhance student understanding. There are a myriad of formative assessments that take place in the classroom (e.g., discussions, quizzes, reading responses, etc.), and many involve student engagement in assessing their own learning. Studies have shown that students who receive this kind of feedback develop the capacity for self-assessment and are able to recognize the criteria for success. This is especially crucial for low achievers who can then make significant improvements to their understanding. When designing assessment tasks, teachers ask four general guiding questions:
(1) Does the assessment link to the central idea? (2) Do the assessment strategies and tools allow for individual differences? (3) Are the criteria for success in this inquiry clearly identified for both students and teachers? And (4) Does the assessment allow the teacher to give feedback to the students and parents?
Assessments designed with these questions in mind are never simply administered tests, but meaningful evaluations of student learning. At the PTCs next week, parents will be able to look at samples of their child’s work (both summative and formative assessments), listen to teachers’ detailed observations of their child, and talk about the grades recorded in their report cards. Through open discussion, teachers and parents can work together to gain a thorough understanding of each child’s strengths, weaknesses, motivations, and learning style, in order to ensure that every student can thrive and achieve at school.
(Some material taken from Making the PYP Happen: A Curriculum Framework for International Primary Education, www.ibo.org, as accessed June 2012.)
Guidance: A Marathon, Not a Sprint, Teaching patience in school and outBy Rafe Esquith
We want our children to be happy and successful. Sadly, these days much of “success” has been defined by a student’s test scores. While tests and grades are important, there are more essential skills we can teach a child to help him be successful in the future.
I have been a public school teacher for over a quarter of a century at a school where only 32 percent of the kids finish high school. But the kids in my class, known as The Hobart Shakespeareans, finish college. They accomplish this goal for many reasons. Perhaps the most important one is that many of the lessons in the class revolve around the teaching of patience. I
have learned that teaching children to have endurance is one of the best things we can do to help a young person be able to walk through doors we parents and teachers can open.
Of course, we adults have to set the example. We have to be the people we want our children to be, and model patient behavior. I have to be a patient teacher to help develop patience in students. When my students rehearse Shakespeare, I notice 50 things they are doing wrong. At the end of practice, we’ll talk about one or two of the
The Beacon Inquirer, 9 November 2012 page 4
mistakes. The rest can wait until the next day, week or even month. Children need to see that I know that the road to true excellence is a long one, and that I am happy to take my time. It’s a marathon and not a sprint.
It’s not easy. In this fast-food society, it is understandable that children are impatient. There are even books called Algebra Made Easy and Instant Shakespeare designed to motivate by simplifying complicated material. But the truth is that algebra isn’t easy. You have to work at it. It takes thousands of hours of dedicated and patient study to become good at anything. However, in the age of instant messaging and online shopping, many people believe there can be instant knowledge or immediate mastery of a subject. We must teach kids to delay their gratification. And in celebrating the gradual process of learning, our kids become better scholars and better people.
I use the arts to teach children to be patient. The children in Room 56 learn to read music and play instruments. In doing so, they discover things that have nothing to do with music. Certainly, music teaches children how to focus and listen. But the biggest lesson is the understanding that with persistence kids can master a particular piece of music. Upon hearing a wrong note, a student generally becomes motivated to play a tune again until it sounds right. It is exciting to get better at something, and music provides the vehicle to take kids away from instant gratification. A musical piece mastered after weeks of rehearsal provides a more lasting satisfaction than the temporary rewards that a child may feel after conquering a video game.
Art projects can also be used to teach patience. Children in my class learn to hook rugs at the beginning of the school year. It takes several months to finish a project. Yarn has to be sorted by color; directions have to be followed. Eventually, stitch by stitch, the rug begins to take shape. During the project, I often ask my students what they are learning. I teach the kids to articulate the fact that they are learning to be patient. I then ask them why this is important. The children answer, “If we are patient, our lives will be better.” Children in Room 56 constantly hear that we learn things to help us with our lives - and not for the test at the end of the year. Difficult books and essays become less problematic when a child realizes that Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Parents and teachers make a huge impact when it comes to encouraging patience. Whether it is reading a book with your kids every night for several months until its completion or working on a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle, the long hours are well spent while building a better future for a child. Ironically, it takes patience to teach patience. But a skill that can change a life should never be rushed.
Esquith, Rafe. “A Maraton, Not A Sprint.” ParentGuide News. 10 Sept. 2012. <http://www.parentguidenews.com>
Rafe Esquith has taught at Hobart Elementary School in Los Angeles for 24 years. He is the only teacher to have been awarded the president’s national Medal of the Arts. His many other honors and awards include the American Teacher Award, Parents magazine’s As You Grow Award, Oprah Winfrey’s Use Your Life Award and People magazine’s Heroes Among Us Award. Esquith’s latest book is Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire, Lighting Their Fires (Viking Adult). Submitted by: Gary Genil, MYP Guidance Counselor
Indoor PlantHaving good air indoors in a room you spend a lot of time in matters a lot, especially when there is an Air conditioner running. A simple solution to fresh air is very easy. The Snake Plant (also known as The Mother In-Law’s tongue and Sansevieria Trifasciata) is a very good air-purifier and it can tolerate random water schedules and can be in low light places, but it will rot easily if overwatered. A study by NASA shows that this is one of the best air-purify-ing plants because it absorbs toxins like nitrogen oxides and formaldehyde. These plants will be put in your classrooms because some of them have no windows therefore no access to fresh air for the whole day in school! - Saj Mirpuri from MYP
**The school has placed plants in many classrooms to contribute to better air quality.
Library Post1.Thank you so much to Mr. Leon Araneta and Saj Mirpuri for the books
you donated to our Library!
2. The Philippines is observing “Library and Information Service Month” this November. Sharing in the celebration, Beacon School donated more than 150 books to The National Library!
Photo on the left: The National Library Director Atty. Antonio Santos receives the donations thru Mrs. Agnes Manlangit, BS Librarian
Sports News:
Congratulations to Beacon Chess Team who won the team event awards at the First MISAA Chess Meet held on 24 October. Francis Benaventura and Renan Ignacio are the coaches. We are proud of you. Go Barracuda!
Beacon Varsity Tennis The Beacon Tennis Team plays in its first tournament this Saturday, 10 November at the International School Manila. Our thanks to Mrs. Reggie Barrientos for coordinating efforts for our tennis program.
TEAM A BOYS:1st singles: Gelo San Diego-Nazareth (G8 PL)2nd singles: Miggy Ong (G8 PL)3rd singles: Diego Barrientos (G4 IdV)1st doubles: San Diego and Ong2nd doubles: Barrientos and Tyler Ramsey (G4 IdV)
TEAM B BOYS: 1st singles: Andro Barrientos (G1 KP)2nd singles: Javier Tengco (G4 IdV)3rd singles: Amanu Santiago (G5 CR)1st doubles: Barrientos and Tengco2nd doubles: Anton Veloso (G4 IdV) and Ridge Gonzales (G4 IdV)
TEAM A GIRLS:1st singles: Justine Lee (G5 CR)2nd singles: Chynna Chua (G6 CL)3rd singles: Sasha San Pedro (G4 JF)1st doubles: Lee and Chua2nd doubles: Sasha and Cecilia Ignacio (G5 SO)
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S M T W T F S S M T W T F S July 9 Leadership Team returns1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 July 16 In-service training begins
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 August 1 Term 1 begins
