Students Gain New Insights During Experience Week

Secondary students left their classrooms behind during the week of March 16-20 to travel abroad on educational trips throughout Asia. The excursions were part of "Experience Week", which saw students travel to various destinations such as Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. Instead of international travel, some secondary students opted to do an internship, where they had the opportunity to gain practical experience in a particular area of interest or occupation.

New Summer Camp Brochure

It may seem a long way off, but summer is just around the corner! If you're looking for some educational and fun activities for your child, then TIS Summer Camp may be the answer. Click here to view the new summer camp brochure, where you'll find information and registration details about a variety of courses offered from June 30-July 27. This year, bus service will be available on request (limit of 30 students). Registration forms are available at the main office.

Pre-K Classes Cancelled

Pre-Kindergarten classes have been cancelled for seven days and will re-open on Friday, March 27th. The cancellation is the result of seven confirmed cases of Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease. There are no reported cases in any other grade.

For more information about Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease, please visit the Macau Department of Education website at www.ssm.gov.mo. If you have any questions regarding the Pre-K closure, please contact Elementary Vice Principal Mrs. Maurene Atherton.

TIS Community Donates To Bushfire Victims

TIS and TISPA donated 35,000 Mop to the Macau Red Cross at a cheque presentation ceremony on March 11 in the Primary Library. The funds were raised at an Australian BBQ held at TIS on February 20th. The money will be given to the Australian Red Cross to help the victims of the bushfires in Australia.

TIS Celebrates Book Week

Students participated in a variety of activities during Book Week held March 2-6. Guest storyteller Hope Chiang told some wonderful stories in English and Chinese. Journalist Tony Atherton also shared his experiences with secondary students. Elementary students enjoyed puppet shows, rap songs, musical books, and also had the opportunity showcase their reading skills to Principal Hryhirchuk and Elementary Vice Principal Mrs. Atherton.
The "Read to Places in China" project was a huge success. Each primary class picked out a destination in China and tried to reach it by reading as many books as they could. The project had students covering the country, from Hong Kong to Beijing!

Experience Week Provides Invaluable Learning Opportunities

TIS secondary students will be spending time outside of the classroom on exciting educational trips and internships during the week of March 15-22. The Grade 7s will be travelling to Guangzhou in mainland China, while the Grade 8 classes will be going to Japan.

Many Grade 9-12 students will also be travelling, either locally or abroad to destinations such as Hong Kong, Vietnam and Thailand. Instead of travel abroad, some secondary students have chosen to undertake an internship, a short-term work shadow where they can gain supervised or practical experience in a particular area of interest or occupation.

Teachers and students and will be posting information and photos of the various Experience Week trips. You can check it out on the TIS travel blog at http://www.travelpod.com/members/tis

TIS Adopts Accelerated Reader Program

The highly recommended reading program Accelerated Reader has been implemented by TIS. Accelerated Reader (AR) is a computerized progress-monitoring assessment and personalized practice tool that provides reliable and valid feedback on comprehension of books and other materials that students have read. Accelerated Reader is intended to enable guided independent reading through the assessment information it generates. Guided independent reading practice has been shown to accelerate reading growth for all students, regardless of ability.

There are three main steps to the Accelerated Reader program:
1. The student reads a library or textbook selection.
2. The student takes an Accelerated Reader quiz on the computer, which assesses the student's comprehension of key elements of the book's content. Accelerated Reader immediately scores the quiz, manages all record-keeping tasks and generates detailed reports describing student performance and progress toward goals.
3. Teachers can use the reports to guide instruction, monitor the student's independent reading and help the student select appropriate reading materials.

The Accelerated Reader program assesses whether students have read books or selections of text and indicates the extent to which they comprehended what they have read. It also tracks the amount of text read and comprehension scores over time, which can be used for goal-setting and progress-monitoring purposes.

TIS Welcomes Student Teachers

Five new student teachers from Alberta arrived in Macau recently to begin a three month practicum at TIS. They will be teaching a variety of secondary classes with current TIS teachers serving as mentors. The students are from the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada.

TIS Blood Drive A Success!

TIS parents, teachers and staff came out to support the school's annual blood drive held recently. Thanks to the many donors, The Macao Blood Transfusion Clinic received over 16 units of blood.