October 2012

Volume 4 Issue 1 SFS TODAYSFS TODAYSFS TODAY

Seoul Foreign School, centered in Christ, inspires educational excellence & promotes Christian values, Seoul Foreign School, centered in Christ, inspires educational excellence & promotes Christian values, Seoul Foreign School, centered in Christ, inspires educational excellence & promotes Christian values,

personal integrity & responsible global citizenship through a dynamic international experience.personal integrity & responsible global citizenship through a dynamic international experience.personal integrity & responsible global citizenship through a dynamic international experience.

www.seoulforeign.org

SFS students read the most

total minutes of all the

international schools that

participated.

This past summer Seoul Foreign School

participated for the first time in a summer

reading program called the Scholastic

Summer Challenge. Students read books

and logged their minutes online at the

Scholastic website or through the free

Scholastic Reading Timer App. SFS

certainly met the challenge as students in

the Elementary School, British School and

Middle School, along with students around

the world, helped set a new world record

for summer reading with 95,859,491

minutes read!

Even more wonderful news is that out of the

32 international schools that participated, SFS

earned the top spot with a total of 610,487

minutes. Perhaps most impressive is that

overall, we ranked 27th out of 4,446 schools

worldwide!

In recognition of being the international

school with the most minutes read, the Vice

President of Scholastic Asia, Ms. Linda

Warfel, flew from Hong Kong to visit SFS

and congratulate our students. She presented

them with a trophy in recognition of their

superb efforts which will be proudly

displayed in our libraries.

Congratulations to all of our participants!

We are proud of you and amazed at this first

year’s record.

“I really enjoyed the program

because it showed me fantastic

books and encouraged me to

read more.”

Cara Chang, 5W

“The best part is at the end

when the world record is

reached, you get to say to

yourself, look at what I helped

out with. I made a world

record!”

Emily Leipold, 5W

SFS ES, BS & MS Participants of the Summer Scholastic Challenge

On Saturday September 15th, the SFS High

School held its inaugural Extended Essay

writing workshop for Senior students. After

months of research and preparation 37

Seniors dedicated three hours to the writing

process. Students were given the opportunity

to work one-on-one with high school faculty

who also attended the workshop. Many of the

students commented that the experience

was valuable, as it equipped them with

the initial momentum to get the writing

process underway. They also enjoyed Mr.

Kent’s fresh-baked goodies for morning

tea! Special thanks to Ms. Wiebusch for

organizing the morning, Mrs. Sanderson

for her presentation on in-text referencing

and all the teachers who gave up time on a

Saturday to help out.

“I found the tips given to be very

useful. However, what I liked

most was how everyone was

dedicated to writing the EE. The

environment really helped me to

focus on writing and anyone not

attending an EE workshop is

missing out” Siri Kim McFarland, HS Senior

On September 26th 2012, Ian Chamber,

Director of IB Asia Pacific visited SFS.

Over the past 11 years, Ian has forged a

successful career in education leadership

and teaching. As Director, Ian oversees the

work of professional development, authori-

zation and evaluation of schools, and the IB

Educator Network (IBEN). The Asia Pacific

region is the fastest growing re-

gion for the IB, and consists of

550 IB World Schools,

developing fourteen thousand

educators per year.

“Seoul Foreign School

represents the pioneer

school for the IB Diploma

in Korea. SFS delivers an

excellent programme and

is truly enthused and

representative of the IB

Mission. It was a pleasure

to visit, meet the excellent

leadership team and see

learning in action. Keep up

the great work!”

Ian Chambers

From Left: Blair LEE, Assistant HOS-Academics, Stuart KENT, HS IB Coordinator/Social Studies,

John ENGSTROM, HOS, Ian CHAMBERS, Dir. Of IB Asia Pacific & Kevin BAKER,

HS Principal

“While attending SFS I completed the IB

Diploma. When I went to college, I was

able to transfer the IB credits from

High School and use them as college

credits. As a result of all of my IB courses,

not only was I used to doing college level

work in High School, but I also had

enough credits for one whole semester

and graduated from college in exactly

three and a half years without taking

summer/winter courses!”

Jennifer Cha, Class of 2002

New York University Graduate

Current student at Cardozo Law School

“For a student going to a university in the

US, the IB program was not an academic

necessity. It did however, end up being

one of the most valuable aspects of my

own SFS education because it helped me

develop several skills, both academic

and non-academic, that helped me

through my college experience. I learned

how to effectively manage my time and

schedule in order to complete the extended

essay or portfolios from different classes. My

successful completion of these long-term

assignments was also the root of my academic

confidence as I received demanding

assignments in college. I learned how to

complete assignments, study for exams, and

prepare for presentations with efficiency, i.e.,

understanding what was being asked of me

and what I needed to do to maximize my

marks. The IB program made me constantly

ask these questions and truly helped me in

college, where much of the battle is figuring

out what is or will be asked of the student.”

Stephanie Lim, Class of 2007

University of Pennsylvania Graduate

“I was better prepared to face the demands of

college, particularly with regards to the

reading of texts, writing academic papers,

and giving oral presentations. An important

factor in this preparation was the IB

diploma program, which seeks to create

more well-rounded students and whose

exam and curriculum criteria are more

akin to that of particular college

disciplines directly relevant to my

studies.

Beyond academics, I believe the

community and school culture at SFS were

a step in the natural progression into a

college community. The single most

important way in which SFS prepared me

for college was fostering a desire for

academic excellence. SFS was an

environment where striving for the best

was always encouraged, and that has been

invaluable to me during my time in

college so far.”

Kevin Horvath, Class of 2010

George Washington University,

Full Scholarship Student

“The IB program helped me to prepare

for the workload that I had

experienced my freshman year of

college. Transitioning into college from

High School and managing the workload

was actually a lot easier for me than a lot

of the other people I met. One thing that

SFS intended to prepare me for, but I took

lightly and now regret, was learning how

to introduce myself as a TCK (Third

Culture Kid). Identity crisis is something

that every TCK goes through, especially in

college, no matter how well prepared they

feel like they are. Many realized that being

a TCK is a very special culture that only a

few have the opportunity to even

experience, this gives me a lot of pride.”

Alisa Kim, Class of 2010

University of Southern California

One of the things about maths is that there are

two camps – those who like it and those who

don’t. Whichever camp you fall into, the

chances are that the method used in the

British School – learning maths through

understanding numbers – is very different to

the approach used by your teachers when you

were in school. Problem-solving has been a

major part of what we have done ever since

the English National Curriculum first came

into being way back in 1988 – and some of us

were teaching when that happened!

Each year we run a number of different

‘classroom without walls’, project-based,

learning sessions – cross-curricular and often

cross–age. Key 21st Century Learning skills –

collaborating, designing scenarios to test

hypotheses, recording using technology,

speaking and listening and IT literacy form

the basis of the sessions. In October, all this

came together for a fun-filled morning of

learning in the Maths Zone – weaving maths

with PE, with cooking (always yummy!), with

IT, with looking for maths shapes in buildings

and with constructing intricate shapes.

Recording with computers, mini-white boards

and even with good old fashioned pencil and

paper, the students went from the practical

hands on to the cloud with a little help from

the teachers, the assistants and some parents!

This was the type of morning epitomised by

Lucas Remmerswaal, in his book ‘The A-Z of

13 Habits”:

“Think outside the square. Think

for yourself, don't just follow the

herd. Think multidisciplinary!

Problems, by definition, cross many

academic disciplines.”

Maths! Don’t understand it!

It’s all changed since when

I was at school. What do

you mean they are now

taught to understand what

they are doing? What’s

wrong with the ‘old ways’?

Teachers often hear

something like this at

Parent Teacher Conferences

or read about it in notes in

the students’ diaries when

the first ‘long division’

homework is sent home?

To try to alleviate some of

the parents’ angst in these areas, we

have arranged sessions for them to

discover for themselves what goes on in

their child’s maths class. But these

‘Parent Teaching’ sessions in the past

didn’t exactly have parents rushing to

attend, so this time the British School

tried a new ‘live’ approach.

The teachers across the whole of the

British School opened their doors during

one morning and invited in parents to see

how we promote the enquiring mind

through maths problem-solving. In

parallel, workshops were run explaining the

reasoning behind our approach. The

response was better than we had anticipated

- to the extent that in some

classes, we had as many parents

as students!

Parents saw hands-on, practical

applications of maths in real life

situations from the manipulative

level of the youngest Reception

class students, to the on-line

work using laptops in Year 4, to

the practical aspects of planning

a dinner and actually making the

food! Maths in action!

Problem-solving is a cornerstone

of learning maths – applying

what you know to (often) unknown

situations – and there are loads of websites

out there to help resource this approach.

One of the ones most recommended can be

found at: http://nrich.maths.org/public/ -

definitely worth a follow-up visit!

During the 2011-12 school

year, the Elementary School

trained six teachers in

Cogmed. Cogmed is a

computer based training

program that specifically

targets the development of

working memory skills. The

research shows the effects

are long-term and suggests

that working memory may be

even more important than

IQ.

The Elementary School used normative

and summative data, along with teacher

collaboration, to identify a total of over 69

students (SK – 5th grade) to participate in

Cogmed. To determine the effectiveness of

Cogmed for Seoul Foreign School many

students were given a brief Pre-test and

Post-test in both working memory and

processing speed.

The results showed that working memory

increased an average 26 percentile points

(Range 0 – 72nd percentile)

Our Cogmed students, according to

research, have managed to exploit the

“plasticity” of their brains and improve

their neural proficiency with regards to

working memory and their ability to

learn.

Teacher observations:

“The results and evidence has

differed for each individual, but

on the whole I have seen an

improvement in following

instructions and completing

tasks...”

“… ability to concentrate and

focus in the classroom and stay on

task has improved remarkably”

Student testimonials:

“I can listen to the teacher longer.”

3rd grader

“I can do more math problems in

my head.” 4th grader

“I don’t lose as many things.”

5th grader

On September 22nd, nearly two hundred

swimmers and volunteers splashed their

way to success in the SFS Aquatics

Center. The first school-wide swim meet

of the school year resulted in numerous

personal-bests with an assortment of

trophies, medals, and ribbons for

swimmers representing the BS, ES, MS,

and HS. “To have such a large event

that early in the school year, with as

many swimmers achieving ‘personal

- bests’, really says a lot about the

commitment to swimming at SFS”, says Patsy Smith, SFS Aquatics

Coordinator.

From students who were just able to

swim the length of the 25-meter pool to

those who literally left a wake in their

path, the swim meet proved to be an

exciting and personally satisfying event.

One animated swimmer said, “It was

awesome!” With the viewing deck full

of adoring fans, and the pool deck full of

energetic swimmers, the competitors are

sure to look eagerly ahead to the next

competition.

In 2012-13 we have 1-to-1 laptops in

Grades 5-7 (British School Years 6-8) and

Grades 9-10.

Giving students 1-to-1 laptops does not

automatically improve learning, but

using 1-to-1 laptops effectively does

improve learning by enabling

independence, individualised

activities, collaboration, research,

communication, media mastery and

global awareness. 1-to-1 laptops can

transform learning through activities

which would not be possible without

them. They can also help families learn

healthy use of technology with

guidance and support from the school.

Students with 1-to-1 laptops do not use

them all the time, only when they are

the best tool - typically 20-40% of class-

room time.

We do not know

what the future will

be like for our

children, but the one

thing we do know for

sure is that it will be a

future of constant

change. We can

prepare our children

for the future by

giving them strate-

gies for managing

change. With 1-to-1

laptops we can

encourage that by giving students

techniques, attitudes and opportunities to

learn new technology tools and skills

independently.

To know more about the technology at

SFS and the 1-to-1 laptop program please

visit our website at:

http://www.seoulforeign.org/page.cfm?

p=443

“My child's command of

technology has improved for sure.

He also enjoys the interactive

nature of the laptop-based

homework assignments. The

instructor seems to be present

beyond the school hours, which is

a positive thing."

"Our son is eager to do the

homework directly after school

and does not need as much help as

before."

"My child gained more confidence

to explore solutions by trying

different options on the computer

e.g. different keys for working on a

file, research skills, and

communicating with others via

email and Edmodo."

Anonymous MS Parents

ES Student

BS Students