Terry Fox Run 2012 - HCMC

The Terry Fox Run is a wonderful event... in memory of an amazing young man... and raising money for cancer research.

AIS had a great turnout of participants at the Terry Fox Run held in
Phu My Hung, HCMC this year!  

The Reading Flow

I had a huge heartwarming surprise today during Club READ!

I've been reading Kelly Gallagher's book, Readicide: How schools are killing reading and what you can do about it, and in it, one part talks about finding 'the reading flow'.

Page 61 in Readicide: “Csikszentmihalyi describes the flow as ‘the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer safe of doing it.’ 

The flow is where we want all our students to be when they read, …the place where young readers have to ‘come up for air’."

This section of the book goes to say that many students have never experienced this flow with a book. Kelly Gallagher asked her students, “Have you ever watched a movie that was so good you actually forgot for a moment that you were sitting in a movie theater?” and most of her students raised their hand as a 'yes'.

But when she asked, “Have you ever read a book that was so good that you actually forgot for a moment where you were?” many have never experienced the thrill of becoming utterly lost within a book . They have never experienced reading flow.

WELL... this brings me to my heartwarming surprise today  :D

I asked the 24 students in Club READ the same two questions... I got a lot of heads shaking 'no' to the first question about being really into a movie. I was surprised!

I then expected to get more stares and head shaking when I asked the second question, about getting lost in a book... BUT instead, every single student's hand went up in the air! There were comments saying, 'Yes! I've felt like that!'

SO cool. This made my day. I knew the AIS Middle School had great students... but seriously, these kids rule. They love to read... these 24 students have chosen to join Club READ as their weekly after school activity. I am SO glad to hear that our students have experienced The Reading Flow!

We then went into some examples of books that we've gotten SO into that we forget where we are and how much time goes by...

Book of a Thousand Days, Shannon Hale

Fairest, Gail Carson Levine

The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan

Goose Girl, Shannon Hale

...and more   : )

old books vending machine

This looks so cool!

I would love to try this Biblio-Mat: an antiquarian book randomizer that is a vending machine giving out old books. 

Hmmm... when can I get to Toronto, Canada next??  :P

my recent reads

Recently I've read the following books from our middle school library:

A spooky ghost story that might surprise you along the way!

My favorite scary story author: Mary Downing Hahn! 

...Any of her books are winners in my 'book'

A cute read with mysterious twists and turns!

The following books is a very interesting read... 

...and was Mr. Kuffner's pick for his READ poster last year!

Terry Fox - 'My dream is...'

The Terry Fox run is coming up on the 25th of November in Ho Chi Minh City.

The AIS Middle School has a number of things going on around school to help gear up for this great event! Ms. Donna began the shoe activity... posting paper sneakers on classroom doors that teachers, staff, and students have written their dream on...

Some homerooms and Language Arts classes are showing a video about Terry Fox and the incredible challenge that he put himself up to...

The library also has a couple books about Terry Fox available for checkout!

2012 Spelling Bee

The 2012 Middle School Spelling Bee took place Tuesday and Wednesday, 13/14 November, and went very well. Throughout the week it was wonderful to see so many students dedicating themselves to studying the word lists and testing one another around school.

Each student in grades 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th participated in a Class Spelling Bee in their Language Arts class. The top three students from the Class Bees went on to compete in the Grade-level Bees.

7th grade (bottom floor) and 8th grade (top floor) Grade Level Bees...

7th grade 'Grade Level Bee' participants:

8th Grade Bee:

6th Grade Bee:

6th grade 'Grade Level Bee' participants:

The top three students from each grade then went on to compete in the Final Spelling Bee, held in the Canteen. The entire school was there to cheer on these students!

The final nine competitors did very well and we are proud of their encouraging and respectful behavior towards one another. It can be nerve-wracking trying to spell a difficult word in front of a large audience but each of the finalists did a fantastic job.

The final three competitors really gave each other great competition and it took quite some time to get down to the final two and then decide first and second places! In the end, 7^th-grader Leena (Le Que) took the title of 2012 AIS Middle School Spelling Bee Champion! Congratulations Leena! 

8^th-grader, Tony (Nguyen Hao), placed second and 7^th-grader, An (Hoang An), took third place. Each of these three students received a trophy, a certificate of excellence, and a dictionary.

Congratulations to all of those who qualified for the Grade-level Bees as well! Each of these 27 students received certificates of excellence for a job well done.

Hospital Visit - Sang

Making a Difference and Moments that We Will Never Forget

Once again the AIS Middle School students demonstrate what amazing kids they are. 

The Middle School held a Grace’s Cookies fundraiser in early October, as well as donating money from Casual Days. We were able to help sponsor Bui Quang Sang from the Long An Province to have lifesaving heart surgery. Sang is 12 years old and was born with a congenital heart disease.

Lina and Wendy, two 6^th grade girls participating in the Dressing Room Project (and sponsors of the cookie sale), went with Ms. Elizabeth and Ms. Stacia to see Sang in the hospital after his surgery. The Trieu An Hopsital is in the Binh Tan District. We brought Sang some get-well-soon gifts and it was great to see him looking healthy and feeling well! (A thank you goes out to 7^th grade Susie for the thoughtful gift for Sang that she sent along with us too.)

Sang’s favorite sport is football… 

hopefully he will enjoy wearing the AIS sports shirt we brought to him:

Sang holding up his two new books:

Group shot! …Ms. Elizabeth, Wendy, Sang, Lina, Ms. Stacia:

Lina and Wendy introducing themselves to Sang and his mother:

Sang and his mother:

Sang going through the Get-Well-Soon gifts we brought to him:

 

Leena describing to Sang what AIS stands for:

Ms. Stacia making muscles at Sang…

…telling him that now he can grow strong and play his favorite sport – football!

This is probably when we all laughed at Sang when he jokingly said 

he did not miss his mother’s cooking!

Ms. Elizabeth with Sang’s father…

And Ms. Linh from the VinaCapital Foundation 

(who helped us set up this wonderful hospital visit):

We will never forget Sang and our visit. 

How amazing what a difference a few cookies can make.

1st Bookmark Fundraiser

Club READ's first bookmark fundraiser was such a success... that we sold out of over 100 bookmarks in about 20 minutes!!

We are in the process of making more beautiful bookmarks and will have another sale for 2nd lunch period this Friday.  :D

Each bookmark is 10,000d and the money raised will be donated to Grace's Cookies.