Ahh, the pandemic world of in-person, online, and hybrid learning continues. Despite this, we have had a busy Term 2, and we are planning loads of fun for Term 3!
Term 2 Highlights:
During January we saw the return of library lessons to the library! We have our full complement of 40 lessons per 10-day cycle in Junior School, and all Year 7-9 English classes in Senior School. This makes for busy days, but so happy to have this normalcy! Students are finally having some research lessons and activities, writing puppet shows, and voting for the Siam Book Awards. We also were able to open the libraries during break and lunch, although each day is reserved for a different year group. Senior library is open after school on a rotation, and Junior library is open before school the same way. It's so nice to see children in the library first thing! Story time outdoors in the Early Years gardens has also recommenced!
We also have restarted having our You-Time activities. While we still are limited to one year group in an activity, we have had great numbers participating. Every little bit of normal (or closer to) is a victory!
February kept us busy as we worked on finalizing plans for Fully Booked Week 2022. This year we celebrated heroes: real life, literary, and historical. It was so much fun although several activities needed to be modified to fit the current regulations. Even with changes, we enjoyed costumes and games and contests to celebrate reading.
And now, to bring me even more excitement to the week, we have our enrichment book clubs going for Year 3-6 students. Our first books: Bobby the Brave (Sometimes) by Lisa Yee for Y3, Jake the Fake Keeps It Real by Craig Robinson and Adam Mansbach for Y4; The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis for Y5: and Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper for Y6. So far, what have we discussed? Well, since football plays a role in one book, we needed to discuss the differences between American Football and what the rest of the world calls Football. Idioms can confuse children from different parts of the world, leading to a discussion of the word "breadwinner." And cerebral palsy is not something many students understood creating a great discussion about the effects of it. (We also had a discussion on why the book club cannot last the entire day or happen every day despite an overwhelming number of requests for both . It may have been because maths is the next lesson. I prefer to think it's just because reading is so fabulous.)
Now we are planning two big events: First, a poetry celebration including virtual poet visits and poetry workshops along with the Shrewsbury Asia Poetry Competition, which will include students in Hong Kong and both Shrewsbury schools in Thailand! We hope this becomes an annual event with the new schools in China joining us. So much excitement!
Our second big event will take place in June with another virtual library sleepover for the Bangkok campuses. This was a lot of fun in November, and we look forward to doing it again before the end of this school year.
What else is happening? So much, but more than I have time to write about at the moment. Here's to hope of more positive changes in the future!
