Connect 2.0

We are so excited to be approaching our first Starbooks event of the school year!

When: September 25, 2008 from 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Where: The ES Learning Hub
Why: To celebrate a love of reading

Basically, Starbooks is an evening event for all students and families in the ES to come to the Learning Hub and celebrate reading. In the past, we have had over a hundred people attending! This is a great way to connect with other families around a love of reading!

We have several activities planned for our upcoming evening:

• Art & Reading: Draw your favorite place to read in the Project Zone!
• Cozy Time: Cuddle up with your family to read a great book in the Reading Zone!
• E-books: Explore our interactive e-books in the Tech Zone!
• Reading Around the World: Listen to a fabulous story read aloud in either Dutch, Hebrew, Spanish or Thai in the Amphitheater Zone!

Each family will have the opportunity to rotate through each activity over the course of the evening.

The timeline of our evening will run as follows:

6:30 – 6:40: Welcome and Introductions
6:40 – 6:50: First Activity
6:50 – 7:00: Second Activity
7:00 – 7:10: Third Activity
7:10 – 7: 20: Fourth Activity
7:20 – 7:30: Closing and Thank You

If you are planning to attend, please RSVP here.

We’re just about one month away from the fabulous, the exciting, the thrilling, Starbooks@YourLibrary!

Please mark your calendars: on Thursday, September 25th from 6:30 – 7:30 pm, the Learning Hub will host the first (of two) Starbooks evenings this year.

These events are a fabulous celebration of reading with a variety of activities run by teachers and parents. Last year both Starbooks evenings were a huge hit! We hope to see such an amazing turnout again this year!

More info to follow in next week’s Panther Paws and here on the Connect 2.0 blog!

We are thrilled to see so many students and parents enjoying our fabulous Learning Hub! Over the course of the school year we will keep you updated about exciting events, news and information related to the Hub via Panther Paws parent e-newsletter as this blog.

To start off the year we have a few important announcements:

Date Change: Starbooks: Our first evening event in the Hub, Starbooks, will now take place on Thursday, 25 September at 18:30 due to a scheduling conflict. Our apologies for the change.

Parent Tech Coffee Mornings: On the first Wednesday of every month we will host an informal coffee morning for parents to share new and exciting developments in the world of technology that we will implement here at school. Recaps of each session will be posted here on the Connect 2.0 blog and in the Panther Paws. Our first session will be Wednesday, September 3 at 7:30 am in the Project Zone. All are welcome to stop by and join the discussion!

Hub Expectations: Creating a Culture of Learning in the Hub: We know that the Hub is a popular place after school, and we love to see students and parents reading and learning together. We kindly request that all parents, drivers, nannies and mae bans model appropriate behavior in this space. It is important that students do not see adults “napping” or “chatting” or just “hanging out” in this space, so that the focus on learning is modeled at all times. If adults need to wait for children after school, we kindly request that you please use the benches outside the Elementary Office.

E-mail and Computer Access for Parents: We understand that technological connections are essential for all families, especially those that are new to ISB and Bangkok. Stephen Lehmann, our IT Director, has implemented a wireless laptop zone dedicated to parent use in the Cafeteria and Main Library. Please bring your laptop to the EdTech Office for access. Computers are also available for parent use in the Main Library. We are asking that the computers in the ES Learning Hub be used by students and teachers only.

Please help us continue to focus the culture of our space by reminding students that the Learning Hub is a place for learning – not a playground. We look forward to seeing you here, learning!

As with every year, we are ending this school year in the Learning Hub with a full inventory of all materials.

Our inventory process will begin on May 26th, which means that all items borrowed from the Hub (books, audio books, everything) must be returned no later than May 16th.

In addition, we will stop checking out books on May 16th. This means that there will be no check-out from May 16th until June 9th (at the latest).

Please ensure that you return all Learning Hub materials by this important deadline.

The LH Team thanks you in advance for your support!

The last week and a half has seen an amazing increase in excitement and enthusiasm about reading – especially in the Learning Hub. We have students eagerly reading during every break and recess and the Hub has been packed with students taking advantage of the special collections highlighted for this celebration of reading.

Along with reading books, our ES students have been spending some of their free time exploring the interactive projects that some classes have completed online. All of the links to these enticing projects are posted on the Read On Readers wiki.  Check it out to see some of the new tools our ES students have been using to enhance and support our reading curriculum!

Over the course of the week a number of teachers participated in the “virtual readers” campaign where by they picked their favorite book and were filmed reading it. These clips where then put onto ISB’s very own IPTV network and were streamed into classrooms across the ES. This was a new and interesting way to broadcast the love for reading and books across the school.

As our readers enjoyed the casual Starbooks Café’s around campus, many were “caught reading” on tape by Mr. O’Neil. These fun, short clips have also been posted to the IPTV network to continue to promote a love of reading in the ES.

The week was a great success thanks to all the hard work from the staff and students.  It was great to hear from the kids how much fun it was to get “caught reading.”

It’s that time of year again!

Time for the fabulous, the exciting, the thrilling, Starbooks@YourLibrary!

Thursday, March 13 from 6:30 – 7:30 pm, the Learning Hub will host the second Starbooks evening. The theme for this time around is “Bedtime Stories” so come prepared: wear your PJs, bring a teddy bear and cuddle with your favorite blanket or sleeping bag – slippers optional!

This special evening will kick off ISB’s week-long Celebration of Reading! So, make sure to mark your calendars so you can experience:

• Mystery readers sharing the best bedtime stories
• Our new Reading Cafe
• Autograph signing from ISB’s very own Grant Simen’s, 7th grade author of Spirit of St. Valentine: An Expat’s Tale of Love!

All to be enjoyed sipping a tasty mug of hot chocolate! We hope to see you there!

The absolutely fabulous K12Online Conference begins next week!

This conference is completely free, totally voluntary, and it is entirely online – so not only do you not have to leave your house, but you can watch the presentations anytime!

To jump start the posting of the online workshops, Justin, Dennis and Kim will be hosting a “house party” here in the Learning Hub to watch and discuss David Warlick’s keynote presentation together. The party starts at 7:00 pm (BKK time) on Monday 8 October. This event is entirely voluntary – no one is required to come – but we would love to spend the evening learning together!

We are also planning to host another “house party” at the end of the conference for the final live event, When Night Falls on 27 October.

We are also open to setting up group discussion sessions around the other presentations if you are interested! Please let us know if this sounds like something you’d like to do!

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[Reposted from a few weeks ago]

The “K12 Online Conference” is for teachers, administrators and educators around the world interested in the use of Web 2.0 tools in classrooms and professional practice! The 2007 conference is scheduled to be held over two weeks, October 15-19 and October 22-26 of 2007, and will include a pre-conference keynote during the week of October 8. The conference theme is “Playing with Boundaries.”

This is not your typical conference though…

• It’s free
• You don’t have to leave your house
• You can attend every session whenever you have time
• It’s entirely online, spread out over two full weeks
• The sessions are available forever online
• Every resource is downloadable and customizeable
• People from all over the world attend
• It’s collaborative and interactive with multiple methods for interaction during the two weeks of the conference

Our elementary tech team is hosting two informational events for parents in the month of September:

21st Century Literacy Coffee Mornings at The Hub

Calling all parents! Wondering what your child is doing at school with technology? Feeling like they are on technology fast forward and wondering how to catch up? Looking for a place to discuss these issues and learn more about the exciting new tools your children are using in school? Join your ES Tech Team in the Learning Hub Technology Zone for our new 21st Century Literacy Coffee Mornings! The sessions will run once a month on Wednesday mornings at 7:30, starting on September 19th! Coffee and snacks generously provided by our PTA.

What: An open session to learn more about what your child is doing at school with technology
When: Wednesday, September 19th 7:30 – 8:30
Where: The Learning Hub Technology Zone

PTA Meeting Presentation: Introducing Technology at the ES!

Don’t miss this parent meeting: Everything you want to know but are afraid to ask about the technology movement!!! What is happening in your child’s classroom with technology? How is the computer used to access information and how is it used safely? What does 21st Century Literacy mean to your child? How has the computer become a tool in the classroom? Think your child is surfing the web in the ES–think again!! What is a blog — your child knows! Come to this exciting meeting presented to you by the ES Tech Department!

What: A presentation introducing parents to the exciting technology developments at the ES
When: Thursday, September 27th from 9:30 – 10:30
Where: ES MPB

We hope to see you there!