The Informer - the International School of Stavanger

The Informer August 26, 2005
High School/Middle School New s
The times of the period classes have
changed and are quite different from last
year. This change has allowed for some
longer blocks of teaching time and to
accommodate some changes to the language
program within the middle
school:
This year all middle school students
will learn Norwe g i a n. The Native
N o r wegian classes will be separate
classes from the non-native classes. The
n o n - n a t ive classes have three leve l s :
beginner, intermediate and advanced.
All classes take place at the same time
so there is a great deal of flexibility for
movement within classes.
Also for the first time this year, all middle
school students will learn French or
Spanish (last year the native Norwegian
students could not do this). The classes
have been organized by level of competency
rather than by grade. This means
that there may be students of mixed
grade levels, but similar ability.
In homeroom, the main focus has been
on the 'settling in' process. All students
have been issued with an agenda (for
organizational purposes) and they all
have an individual locker (for book,
binders etc.) and they share another
locker (for other items e.g. a PE bag).
All students should now have a lock
(either combination of key) on their
locker.
All students are advised to keep their
agenda up to date and organized. They
are encouraged to write in all assignments
(and the due date). In addition,
they will receive important dates and
events to put in their agendas. I would
encourage you to take a regular look at
your son/daughter's agenda. The ISS
agenda should not be used as a personal
journal.
We will also have 'surprise' locker
check days....just to make sure that no
undesirable items are lost in the back
somewhere!
Our homeroom theme this month is, not
s u rp r i s i n g ly, entitled ‘ O rga n i z a t i o n
and Time Management’ and students
will be invo l ved in discussions and
activities related to this theme. In addition,
we will also focus on note-taking
skills and study skills.
MS Student Council – 2005/2006
Middle school students in grades 7 and 8
h ave been encouraged to campaign for a
position on the exe c u t ive committee of the
middle school student council. There are
four positions ava i l a ble: P re s i d e n t, Vi c e
P re s i d e n t, S e c retary a n d Tre a s u re r.
Student council (StuCo) is responsible for
o rganizing many of the middle school
events throughout the ye a r. Students wh o
wish to be part of the exe c u t ive committee
will be campaigning all next week and
their campaign will culminate in indiv i d u a l
speeches (date still to be decided). All MS
students will then cast their vote. In addition
to the four exe c u t ive committee members,
there will be nine homeroom re p re-
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