Penang, Malaysiapenang.sisgroup.edu.my/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/October.pdf · 3 3 Issue 2, October 2018 (continued from the previous page) These amazing results are even more impres-sive

1

1

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Halloween Party p.4-6

Assemblies p.6-7

Teacher Spotlight p.8

Activity Spotlight p.9

Student Council p.10-11

Primary p.12-19

Secondary p.20-26

Sports p.27

Penang, Malaysia

S t r a i t s I n t e r n a t i o n a l S c h o o l

STRAITS TALKING Issue 2, October 2018

What would you l i ke to dress up as for Ha l loween?

Ariel

(Nhi)

Batman

(Sebastian)

Zoro

(Jason)

Devil

(Victoria)

Pony

(Joelle)

2

2

Issue 2, October 2018

Once again, at SIS, we have been winning

competitions and gaining outstanding results.

What we do in school is, of course, extremely

important, as reflected in our best ever IGCSE

results this year. However, we also offer a

plethora of extra curriculum activities that we

hope our students take part in. We always

encourage our students to be the best and

below are just some ways that students can

excel.

Amazing ICAS results:

We have great pleasure in announcing some

amazing results for our recent English, Writing

and Mathematics ICAS exams. Our students

have done fantastically well achieving some

amazing results. All our KS3 results were way

above the national average, which shows how

talented our students are!

We received, in the English exam: 1 High Dis-

tinction, 2 Distinction, 4 Credit and 4 Partici-

pation Certificates with 70% of our KS3 stu-

dents achieving outstanding results, putting

them in the top percentage of students in the

country. Special mention needs to go to

Shyuan Rhui and Jenny Ooi, who scored in

the top 1% of students in Malaysia. Jing Xuan

and Yenjoe Ng scored within the top 3% in

Malaysia.

We received, in the Writing exam: 2 High

Distinction, 3 Distinction, 4 Credit and 2 Par-

ticipation Certificates, where 90% of our KS3

students achieved outstanding results, putting

them in the top percentage of students in the

country. Special mention needs to go to

Shyuan Rhui who scored in the top 1% of

students in Malaysia. Jing Xuan scored within

the top 3% in Malaysia.

We received, in the Mathematics exam: 2

Distinction, 3 Credit, 1 Merit and 7 Participa-

tion Certificates. Special mention needs to go

to Chuah and Yenjoe who both scored in the

top 7% of students in Malaysia.

On the 10th of November, Jenny Ooi will at-

tend a gold medal presentation in Kuala Lum-

pur, where she will be honored for her out-

standing result. This is such an amazing

achievement, making her one of the highest

achievers in the ICAS exam in the country.

CHRIS TERRY

Vice Principal and

Head of Secondary

3

3


(continued from the previous page)

These amazing results are even more impres-

sive when you realise this is the first time we

have ever done these exams and we have

beaten many schools who have been doing

them for years.

Wonderful debating results at Uplands

Debating Championship:

The team of Chang Shyuan Rhui, Tan Jing

Xuan and Jenny Ooi won the 1st runner up

prize in the Uplands Debating Championship.

Shyuan Rhui also won the 9th best speaker

award.

There were 18 participating teams from vari-

ous schools and our team were the youngest

among those participants. Other participants

were Law students and A-level students, all of

whom they beat.

Our debating teams are going from strength

to strength and they are getting a reputation

for excellence that cannot be ignored. If your

son or daughter wishes to take part in de-

bates they can learn from these talented indi-

viduals and take part in the numerous upcom-

ing events that we are organising.

N o v e m b e r DI A R Y

Oct 29-Nov 2: Cha l lenge Week

Nov 3-11: Ha l f Term Break

Nov 12-23 : Assessment Week

Nov 16: Deepava l i Assemb ly

Nov 17: H istory Bee & Bow l

Nov 19-20 : Schoo l Ho l iday

Nov 23: Inte rnat iona l Day

Nov 24: Open Day— lessons 9-12pm;

Inte rnat iona l Food Fa ir (12-1pm)

4

4


Both the Straits staff and pupils had a truly spooktacular time at this year’s

Primary and Secondary Halloween parties. The MPH was transformed (due to

our hardworking parents and Secondary Student Council); it was as if the un-derworld had risen up and taken possession of the hall for one day with ghoul-

ish fun and mischief being unleashed.

Our Primary pupils were treated to free goody bags and were allowed to enjoy themselves by

trying their luck at the various games stalls staffed by our parents. This was followed by an ex-citing fashion parade where pupils got to strut their stuff and show off their

terrifying attire. There were some excellent and creative costumes but only

three could win our fantastic prizes – vouchers for MPH. In third place was Vern Zuo (4D), second went to Cindy Li (2H) while the top prize was taken by Se-

bastian Lee (RM).

Next up were the Secondary pupils who were treated to a very well-choreographed dance per-

formance by our Year 9, 10 and 11 girls (Jemerine, Gabrielle, Triss and Kassandra). Following on from this excitement was the Secondary Costume Parade with precious booty at stake: Star-

bucks gift cards. Coming third was Wei Jian (7S) followed by Ethan (9I) in second with the grim reaper himself Jeffrey (9I) taking first place. After this, the pupils got to enjoy the music and try

out the haunted maze and games which the Secondary Student Council had spent many hours

constructing. Those who survived the gauntlet of horror lined up to try it again!

A big thank you to all the staff, pupils and parents who made this year’s parties a success!

HALLOWEEN PARTY—with Mr David

5

5


HALLOWEEN PARTY—with Mr David

6

6


In this event, we celebrated a very important aspect or ‘tradition’ of our school, our very own

foundation values—the Straits Seven! They are: Creative, Compassionate, Caring, Proactive,

Collaborative, Hardworking and Independent. Both Primary and Secondary students celebrated

these values through friendly activities and games last Friday. These games were aimed at

reminding students of the values that we should apply to our everyday life and keep a good

habit of. The students most definitely enjoyed these activities and we believe that they certainly

learnt some important components in their life. Each game was related directly to the values

and, through this, we are able to nurture their potential and maintain their lifestyle in a healthy

fashion.

ASSEMBLY—STRAITS SEVEN with Ms Jacee

7

7


On the 5th of October, the Straits Heroes team

had their assembly on Volunteerism in Natural

Disasters. There were two Civil Cadet officers

who came from the Civil Cadet Academy,

Bayan Lepas, Penang, to give a speech. They

covered a great topic as a natural disaster is

something that is rarely discussed by students.

They showed a video which explained what the

role of a Civil Cadet officer is.

Corlissa and Joel, Year 5 students from Straits

Heroes, hosted the assembly by inviting Mr

Chris to give a welcome speech and then fol-

lowed by Lieutenant Muda N.G. Senthelnan-

than who began the speech on Natural Disas-

ters by asking the students some questions. All

the Primary and Secondary students had a

great time as they interacted with him.

At the end, Straits Heroes proudly presented a

token of sponsorship; 20 raincoats, worth RM

5200 to the Civil Cadet Academy, Barat Day

District, Penang. They were thankful for receiv-

ing such a large amount of raincoats for their

heroic volunteerism.

ASSEMBLY: Civil Cadets with Ms Devi, Straits Heroes Coordinator

8

8


Q1. What qualities should an ideal student pos-

sess? A desire to learn new things and the re-

silience to overcome any obstacles standing in

the way of that.

Q2. When was the last time you laughed out

loud? When I heard England beat Spain and

Raheem Sterling had scored.

Q3. What’s the best and worst thing about your

job? Best: The Light bulb moment. There is no

better feeling than seeing the students "get it."

Worst: The early mornings.

Q4. What did you want to be when you were

younger? I really wanted to be a pilot, but as I

grew older, I realised I was scared of flying.

Q5. What are you plans for this weekend?

I plan to play football and go for food with

friends.

Q6. Who is your favourite colleague and why?

It would be too hard to pick a favourite, I like

them all.

Q7. What is your favourite Malaysian dish?

Nasi Kandar

Q8. What’s your relationship status? Married to

the job

Q9. How old are you? Just turned 30 this Au-

gust.

Q10. What are your hobbies? I’m a keen surfer

and snowboarder. I also play a bit of football

and tennis.

Q11. Do you have a

secret talent? I am

surprisingly good at

baking. I used to

work in a hotel in

the French Alps

making cakes for a

living before becom-

ing a teacher.

Q12. Where have

you taught? Cornwall and Southampton.

Q13. What’s your most embarrassing moment?

I once completely tore my trousers as I was

teaching - the students definitely found it funni-

er than me.

Q14. Where’s your favourite place in the world?

Bali because it has the perfect blend of weath-

er, waves and beautiful scenery.

Q15. What were your best and worst subjects

in school? Best: Science, Maths and Geography

Worst: Art

TEACHER SPOTLIGHT on Mr Marc

Assistant Head of Secondary Academics and Science Teacher

9

9


ACTIVITY SPOTLIGHT on: Playdough Sculpture KS1 with Ms Kavitha

Q: Why are you running this Ac-tivity?

For kids to ex-press their inven-

tiveness whilst improving their fine motor and coordination skills, by using tools such as roll-ers, cutters, blades and others.

Q: Is it challenging or easy to teach students? Why/why not?

It is challenging at times, especially when it comes to prompting the kids to brainstorm and put their ideas on paper.

Q: How did you get interested in this Activi-ty?

I am passionate about arts, crafts and baking.

Q: Who is your favorite student in this Activi-ty and why?

All of them are my favourite!!! I am lucky be-cause I am always blessed with a bunch of innovative and exuberant children every term.

Q: What age level do you prefer to teach and why?

I am currently teaching EYFS and KS1 in this activity. Children with-in this age bracket have wild imaginations (super important for playdough) and an incredible spirit to boot.

Q: Have you learned new things teaching them? Give examples.

I learned plenty of eccentric colour mixing (who knew white and navy could give off grey when kneaded together) and crazy designs (pink koala anyone?).

Q: How do your students make progress?

With each passing week, I Increase the com-plexity of design to encourage the students to be more innovative.

10

10


We have a new announcement for this month. We would like to congratulate Jayden for

being selected as our new Chairperson, starting this month. It is good to have you on our

council!

As for this month, we have discussed new rules for the cafeteria. The students should not

do any bottle flipping during their break. Our representative will keep an eye on all the

students during break time. We hope that all students will follow this rule.

During our meeting time,

we did a role play session.

The group was asked to

pretend that they were all

principal of our own school.

They were instructed to

make our own school rules

in a group.

It was a fun and

communicative activity as

they could voice their

opinions. We also did a

team building activity,

which was the hula hoop

relay. It was such a great activity. Kaesav made a slapstick action—he always fell down

when he wanted to pass through the hula hoop. We had a great experience this month!

PRIMARY STUDENT COUNCIL— with Ms Nurul

11

11


SECONDARY STUDENT COUNCIL with Mr Mike

We have now designated a student council president and vice president. Congratulations to

Desmond from Year 10 and Shiwaanee from Year 9 who will be undertaking these very im-

portant roles this year.

The student council have now had a few meetings and we have discussed some

key issues in the secondary school and for the whole school. Through the power

of student voice, bibs will now be washed more often for students and a second-

ary-wide petition has been submitted to Mr. Chris for the addition of internet

bandwidth for the Chromebooks.

The students have also been helping Mr. David organise the Halloween Disco on

the 24th October and they will be creating a number of mini games to keep the

students interested. Special thanks to our event managers: Jemerine, Ivan and

Gomez.

The student council have also started duties in the canteen and on level 4 and we are glad to

see the improvement in behaviour and the number of students bringing tags already. We hope

to incorporate a study area for students at break

and lunch times in the coming weeks! Year 7 Steve, Asmitha, Brendan

Year 8 Gomez

Year 9 Jeffrey, Shyuan Rhui, Shi-

waanee, Miyu, Sato

Year 10 Yen Nee, Gabrielle, Daren,

Year 11 Ivan, Adrian and Jemerine

12

12


NURSERY with Ms Devi We have started to introduce letters and numbers in

Nursery. We have learnt about letters a, b, c and d.

Lessons were conducted with various stages of intro-duction to the letter sounds. Students were given differ-

ent writing techniques to formulate the correct strokes for letters a-d. They made crafts, according to each

letter of the alphabet learnt in the week. So far, they

have created an ant, aeroplane, bunny, butterfly, cater-pillar, crab, drum and dinosaur. They used those crafts

in their lessons to sing songs which helped them to rec-

ognise the letters of the alphabet.

In Numeracy, students explored numbers and colours.

They were given colour coded worksheets asking to follow the colours coded in numbers. They started to learn about numbers 1 and 2. They were challenged through a variety of hands-on

activities such as playing ‘Hop on the correct

number’ and singing number rhymes. Students were also given the opportunity to explore and

relate to numbers around their surroundings.

For Understanding the World, lessons were all

about exploring our senses. They were taught the senses and their functions. They also

learnt about our heart. The children were giv-

en the opportunity to use a stethoscope to listen their own heartbeat independently.

For Art, they made Halloween crafts, which they were very excited to celebrate with at our

Halloween party!

13

13


RECEPTION with Ms Serene and Mohana

It has been an exciting month for Reception as

they started to learn how to read Consonant

Vowel Consonant (CVC) words using their phonics. Some of them are incredible with

their blending and reading the CVC words. Though some found it challenging, with sup-

port and practice they were able to master it.

In Numeracy, they have been learning to count from 0-20 and backwards from 20-0.

Not only that, they have also learnt to count 1

more and 1 less from a given number from 0-20. I am impressed with how they have

grasped the knowledge of 1 more and 1 less.

In Understanding the World, we have been

learning about body parts and internal organs.

Students learned about the function of their heart and lungs. During Art lessons, they

made a 3D craft heart and lungs collage.

They have been learning about ‘Say nice

things and do nice things’ during PSED. They

were taught through songs and role play to show examples of ways they can say nice

things and do nice things.

We are looking forward to our Challenge Week!

14

14


YEAR ONE with Ms Lisa and Mr Myron

In Year 1, we have been learning about estimation in Maths

recently. We estimated using time, distance and how many

sweets were in the jar! We are now looking at 2D and 3D

shapes.

In English, we have been learning about things to make and

do. We read a story

about making a robot

and had the chance to

make robots ourselves.

We are now learning

about rhyming and differ-

ent styles of poetry and

rhyming words. We had

a treasure hunt of rhym-

ing words which was so

much fun!

In Science we learned about senses and used different words

to describe what we smelt, tasted, touched, heard and saw in

our senses stations. We are now looking at human growth

and the different stages of human and animal life.

We are all so excited for the upcoming Challenge Week!

15

15


YEAR TWO with Ms Hannah and Ms Kayleigh

This has certainly been a very busy month for Year 2. Our learning has

picked up pace and we are challenging ourselves more than we knew

we could.

In English, we have received some very interesting letters. We had one

from the aliens on the Moon. They were very rude about Ms Hannah.

They said she looked ‘odd’. Surely that’s not true, right?! Then, we had

a letter from the author of Man on the Moon, Simon Bartram. He has

asked us to help him to write a new adventure story. At the moment,

we are very excited about the letters and have asked Ms Hannah some

very interesting questions like ‘Is Simon Bartram your father?’ Hmm…

I’m afraid not Jia Khing. He is not my father. We are now trying our

best to use our imaginations and creativity

to write a very exciting story.

In Maths, we have been working really hard to practise doubling and

halving. We have learned that there are many different ways to halve

and double. We now need to decide which one we think helps us most.

It has been great to see the children improve over the past couple of

weeks. Their confidence is growing in Maths, day by day, and the more

they practise the more they understand how to apply their learning. Ms

Kayleigh and I are very proud of how hard the children are willing to

work in class now and at their desire to challenge themselves.

“My mum says why can’t we change PE to days when it doesn’t rain?”

It’s gems like these that get us through the day! We are all very excit-

ed for our Challenge Week. There are lots of fun activities planned and

I think the highlight will be the sleepover!

16

16


YEAR THREE with Ms Katie and Mr Scott

Everyone in Year 3 has been going for gold

this term! Both classes have been working

hard and trying their best to follow the school

rules to earn lots and lots of house points and

achieve gold each day. Mr Scott has been very

impressed with the level of good behaviour in

Year 3!

Year 3 have enjoyed learning lots about the

human body this term. We learned about the

bones in our bodies and the differences be-

tween vertebrates and invertebrates. We even

learned about all the

different types of ver-

tebrates. Maybe we

will have a future spi-

nal surgeon in the

making! If not, maybe

Le Vie will grow up to

be a dentist after her

great work labelling

teeth. Or maybe Sa-

haj, after he found his

incisor, canine and

molar teeth.

In English, both year

3 classes have been

looking at instruc-

tions. Mr Scott and

Ms. Katie had forgot-

ten how to make a jam sandwich! Can you

believe it? Luckily, Year 3 were on hand to

help! It was a complete disaster at first! There

was jam everywhere and the bread crushed

and mushed so badly you wouldn’t even give

it to the ducks! Thankfully, after spending a

few weeks looking at what makes a good set

of instructions, Year 3 have grown in confi-

dence and have written some fantastic in-

structions!

What a busy term it has been, but it’s not over

yet… we still have the most exciting part left…

a Maths test on Monday morning! Yay! Only

joking, we have our trip to Ipoh to look

forward to! It’s going to be amazing! The Year

3 and 4 team both can’t wait and I’m sure the

children are super excited too!

17

17


YEAR FOUR with Ms Linh

What a wonderful effort from 4D on their Volcano Assembly! Everybody did such a great job,

learning their lines and coming in character. Another exciting event earlier this week was the

Halloween Party! How fabulous to see so many of the students come dressed up!

18

18


YEAR FIVE with Mr Jack

Year 5 have been extremely focused during the first half term and continue to enjoy a challenge within lessons. We are focused on our ‘Going for Gold’ and endeavour to move to gold each day.

In English, both classes have been reading the next chapter of our class reader ‘Journey to the River Sea’. To better understand the

story and vocabulary used, we have been focusing our attention on reading comprehension tasks to develop our fact retrieval and infer-ence questions. With our increased understanding of the story, we applied our knowledge of the features of a diary entry to write our

own account in the Amazon. Our Maths lessons have seen us revisit multiplication and division

facts so we can become more confident in the formal written meth-ods. We found the concept of square numbers interesting although we are a little puzzled as to why they are called ‘square’.

In Science, we have continued on our topic of Plants, learning more about germination, and have progressed on to the life cycle of flow-er plants. We have focused on recording accurate data with the use of bar charts and look for-

ward to creating more experiments. In our PE lessons, we have been trying to develop our

breathing and stroke technique for freestyle and under-stand the ratios between inhaling and exhaling. When not swimming, we have continued the topic of invasion

games with great results. We are beginning to under-stand how space is created and that working as a team to defend and attack is important if we are wanting to win.

Roll on Langkawi!

19

19


In English this week, we read an excerpt from Jamila Gavin’s autobiography. She

spent some part of her childhood in India witnessing India gaining independence from

Britain. Mr Gwyn asked us if we knew any-

thing about it. We just stared at him and he said the magic word: Gandhi. A few hands

shot up in the air enthusiastically. Alyssa was

first to answer.

Alyssa: Is he the one with an elephant trunk?

Mr. Gwyn: No. That’s Ganesh.

Chauthi was next.

Chauthi: He was a rich man.

Mr. Gwyn: Well, he started out as a lawyer.

He might have been.

Ram wanted to add to that.

Ram: He was an old man.

Mr. Gwyn: I guess he always looked old.

Hashim still had his hand up in the air. Mr

Gwyn had no choice but to ask him.

Hashim: He had a lot of manpower.

Mr. Gwyn: What do you mean?

Hashim: He used to walk a lot.

We did not think Mr. Gwyn was too im-

pressed. Mr Gwyn finally told us that he was a very important man who worked hard so

that India could become an independent

country. Ahhh… a sigh of deep understanding went around the room. We should have

known this, we suppose. But then, we are only 10!

Dear readers, we will leave you with this

question: did you know about Gandhi when you were 10?

YEAR SIX with Ms Ahreum

20

20


ENGLISH with Mr Mike—Year 8 English – Private Peaceful Magazine Articles

Year 8 students are studying the Private Peaceful novel by Michael

Morpurgo this term. The WW1 novel has many twists and turns

and one of them is Big Joe going missing!

With the school’s new addition of chrome books, students have

been taking advantage of the Google slides feature to create won-

derful magazine articles about Big Joe’s disappearance.

All good magazine articles include the “who, what, where, when,

why and how” of the story. They should also include a gripping

headline, some sub-headings and, of course, images with clear

captions to describe what is going on.

During the unit, we also learnt how to use direct and indirect quo-

tations and many of the students’ magazine articles showcased what we had learned in that

regard as well.

21

21


MATHEMATICS with Mr Gwyn, Head of Primary Maths

I am composing this from the perspective of

someone who absolutely hated Maths les-

sons as a child at school. My father had

dreams of me becoming a high level ac-

countant and making lots of money but that

was never going to

happen. Somehow I

muddled through

Maths lessons and

gained just enough

success to pass vari-

ous exams. As a

teacher, I acci-

dentally fell into the

position of being a

Primary Maths Co-

ordinator many

years ago. As the

years have passed, and I have learned more

and more about the subject, my opinion of

Maths has changed greatly.

I will admit to attending Primary School

many, many years ago, and teaching and

learning styles have altered greatly since

then, but I now have to concede that Maths

can actually be a great deal of fun!

It can sometimes be difficult to convince

students – and, dare I say, parents – that a

massive amount of useful learning is

achieved by ‘hands on’, practical learning, or

even playing games. In Year 6, for example,

we know that we have to work hard towards

the Checkpoint Assessments later in the

year. The students, however, benefit greatly

by taking a break from ‘book type’ learning

from time to time, and making use of the

many excellent resources that can be found

online. This has now become even easier for

us now that Chromebooks are being used

from Year 4 upwards.

Making Maths fun does reap rewards. The

student that enjoys the subject will always

try harder and become more receptive to

new ideas. A varied approach to Maths les-

sons allows the student to become more

flexible and adaptive, as well as helping

them to become more co-operative and col-

laborative.

With all of these resources and approaches

available, even someone like me would have

enjoyed Maths as a young child – probably!

22

22


SCIENCE with Mr John

Year 8 students have been studying ‘Plants’. They learnt about photosynthesis and adaptations of different parts of a plant for photosynthesis.

Plants are called ‘producers’ because they can make food through photosynthesis by taking carbon dioxide and water as well as absorbing light energy and producing sugar and oxygen as a return. Students were reminded the different parts of plant such as the leaf, root, stem and flower and their specific functions.

Students were asked to bring a sample of a fresh green leaf to examine its adaptation for photosynthesis. When the leaf was put inside a beaker of hot water, students were amazed to see so many bubbles released from the leaf, especially from the lower leaf surface. Students were then introduced to ‘stomata’, the small pores which facilitate

gas exchange. Furthermore, stu-dents made slides of leaf stomata by painting nail polish on the lower leaf surface and leav-ing it to dry, then pressed a piece of tape down over the dry nail polish and peeled it back. Under a microscope, they

were so excited to see the ‘magnified’ sto-mata with their own eyes.

Nex t , t hey learnt to inves-tigate the rate of photosynthe-sis by observing pond weed pro-ducing more gas bubbles (oxygen) under bright sunlight compare with pond weed without sun-light. Later on, we put celery stalks in flasks filled with col-oured water and observed them the next day. We cut the celery stalks and found coloured dots in the cross-section of the stalk. We then observed the coloured dots under the microscope which showed the structure of xylem vessels which are re-sponsible for transporting water in plants. Finally, we grew onion and garlic from their bulbs in order to observe their roots. We were all so surprised to see how the onion bulbs could grow their roots in just a few hours. The students adopted the onion and garlic plants to take care of it at home. Indeed, learning Science is fun!

23

23


ARTS with Ms Emily, Head of Performing Arts

This term, Drama has been very exciting as

we all enter the world of Jack and the Bean-

stalk! The students have taken a strong liking

to the story of Jack and have learnt to em-

phasise greatly with the struggle he faces at

the beginning: having no food and having to

sell his best friend, Daisy the cow. We are all

enchanted by the prospect of the miracle of

the magic beans solving the poverty of a

whole village, after defeating the frightening

giant of course!

Rehearsals are well underway in lessons and

activity time, with Reception dancing to the

music of the beautiful harp and the older stu-

dents enthusiastically singing songs such as

‘Cow for Sale’ and ‘Fee Fi Fo Fum’ with Ms

Carrena and learning the routines with my-

self. I am very exciting to see all students,

from Nursery up to Year Four, reach their full

potential on stage on the 13th December this

year! Not only this, but students are busy

making the props with Mr Hasfis, painting

giant pieces of mouldy cheese, and the fright-

ening opening gates of the Giant’s castle.

Tickets will be on sale after half term from

the finance office! It’s going to be a cracking

Christmas show!

Please also congratulate these students for

getting the following roles:

24

24


I am pleased to report that all of KS3 and KS4 have returned to SIS with

vigour and excitement for their Humanities subjects. Mr David and I have

taken on the additional responsibility of teaching Geography this year as

well as History and all pupils have returned with excitement and engage-

ment for their Geographical and Historical studies and their teachers!

Additionally, this year, my activities will focus on public speaking and

debate. TED-ED club focuses on getting pupils to explore weird and won-

derful ideas and to develop the skills of team work, positive collabora-

tion, independent thinking and presenting skills. The internationally re-

nowned World Scholars Cup will also focus on the skills of debate and

team working and it is wonderful to see so many humanities students

attending these activities with enthusiasm and passion.

With assessment week approaching, after Challenge Week, I hope pupils

will continue to tackle their humanities subjects with the rigour and determination to succeed as they

have already shown.

HUMANITIES with Ms Maryam

25

25


MANDARIN with Ms Soon

Hi, 你好

（Nǐ hǎo ）!

Year 6 and Year

8 students have

learnt persuasive

writing and they

have shown

their talent in

completing a project which was titled, ‘Hand phone slides’

by making Google slides to promote their hand phone.

They chose a brand of hand phone and decided on the

model and started promoting the special features and func-

tions. They did their best in editing slides, importing pic-

tures, adding ideas to promote their ideal phone and learnt

to work as a team in making this project successful.

Year 9, 10 and 11 students were involved in writing scripts

as a topic presentation in class. They prepared a topic to

present in Mandarin within a time frame of two minutes.

They started to write sentences to build the body of the

writing task in order to produce a draft. They went through

peer reading, peer cross-checking, script editing, and final-

ly presenting it in front of the class.

I am proud of them as they were courageous and confident

in speaking Mandarin and the effort they put in is obvious-

ly seen from the excellent work!

26

26


CURRENT ISSUES AND

PROBLEM SOLVING

Elevating student aware-

ness of global issues is in-

creasingly important as the countries of the world be-

come more interdependent. Today’s students also need

an understanding of the

world’s economy, politics, social structures, and envi-

ronment in order to make the best decisions about

how to live their own lives

after high school and be-yond. As educators, it’s our

job to make sure that stu-

dents are armed with the tools necessary to distin-

guish between fact, fiction, and plain old opinion; be-

tween research or evidence

-based statements and empty rhetoric; between

exaggeration and reputable journalism – not just

“factoids” from Facebook,

Twitter, or other infor-mation feeds.

The topic of a recent lesson

was about ‘Baby dumping

cases’ which have been on the rise over the past four

years in Malaysia. Students are exposed to current so-

cial issues and they were

required to analyse the issues. Students worked in

a group and had to identify

the causes and effects of the problem and they had

to come up with a short writing based on the statis-

tics of baby dumping cases

in Malaysia. Through this lesson, students were not

only exposed to current issues but also learning

problem solving skills by

brainstorms ideas to over-come the issue occurred. I

would like to share some

general problem solving steps which I used in my

lesson.

Many teachers wish to en-

hance the problem solving skills of their students. There

is no agreed protocol to solve all problems but there are

some applicable steps in

many situations (Woods, 1994; Millis and Cottell,

1998).

Evaluate the problem,

characterise it, and identify components that are familiar

to you.

Identify what you do

know about the problem and what you do not know.

Allocate the groups' time,

specifying which group mem-ber will do which task.

Re-form the group and

share the knowledge each has

gained.

Collect the group's infor-

mation and think on the prob-

lem. Solve the problem.

Reflect on the knowledge

gained from the problem and how the group functioned in

evaluating the problem.

As a conclusion, problem solv-

ing is enjoyable as it allows students to work at their own

pace and make decisions

about the way they explore the problem. Students at dif-

ferent ability levels can expe-

rience both challenges and successes on the same prob-

lem.

BAHASA with Ms

Pattmagowri

27

27


SPORTS

U13 Football Match Report

Date: 2/10/18

Venue: Police Field (Straits Home)

Score: Straits 8 vs Fairview 0

The match did not go the way we expected. As the Fairview players were too small in size

and were younger than us, we had to replace the U13 players with the U11 players. The

U13 players still got the chance to play on the field afterwards but we had to reduce the players to 5 to show fairness and sportsmanship to the opposite team. Players like Ram

(U11), Sato, Ivan and Ayush (U13) were essential players during the match. The defen-

sive players were also essential and had their great moments too. The match ended with a win for us. It was a good result and will keep us motivated for the next one. To be honest,

we feel we are improving as a team. Let’s go Straits Dragons!!

Documents

Penang, Malaysiapenang.sisgroup.edu.my/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/October.pdf · 3 3 Issue 2, October 2018 (continued from the previous page) These amazing results are even more impres-sive