IST's 50th Birthday Celebration

Today IST turned 50 and we celebrated the best way possible.... by hosting International Day and eating cake! Here are some photos from the fun-filled event!

Tanzania Booth

Two of our students enjoying the England booth

Sitting on ice in Sweden

Mr. Alton playing a Japanese game similar to Pin the Tail on the Donkey

My friend Gillian and her son from secondary school

Two of my students from last year!

The Grade 3 Team

Parade of Nations

South Africa in the Parade of Nations

Tanzania in the Parade of Nations

 

Stomach Muscles in Action

 Last week, we learned all about the digestive system. One of our activities showed how stomach acid helps break down the food in the stomach with the help of the stomach muscles. We "chewed" up our food, put it in our "stomach," added some "stomach acid" and used our muscles to break down the food. The kids saw how the liquid helps break down the food into smaller pieces and enables it to be passed down into the small intestine through a valve. They also found that some foods break down more quickly in the liquid and others take more time.

While there were some "eww gross" faces and comments, overall, the kids were excited to give the activity a try. Check out the pictures!

 

IST Open House Tomorrow

Please join us from 3:00-5:00. Hope to see you there!


 

Meet Ms. Irene

 I like to jog and swim. Many mornings I am at work early jogging around the field or swimming in the pool for exercise.

I like to make myself up and collect all sorts of makeup.

I enjoy cooking a lot. Last year I helped the students in grade 3 cook spinach that they grew in the garden and I plan on doing a cooking ASA (After School Activity) this year.

Watching movies is one of the things I like to do at home.

Surfing on the internet, too.

I enjoy traveling and seeing new places.

During playtime, I like hanging out with kids and helping them.

I enjoy playing board games with my son.

I love cats and have a pet cat named Tiger. 


 

10 Fun Facts About Me!

Today was our first day with kids at IST and I am so excited to get the year going. It is a great bunch of children! Part of the process of meeting and getting to know one another is sharing information about our personal lives. That is why I am excited to participate in Blog Hoppin's Linky Party. Today is Meet the Teacher Day!

1) I live and work at an international school in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. I love being an international school teacher. It allows me to work doing something I am passionate about while traveling the world and having amazing experiences. It also helps me meet wonderful people like my spectacular assistant Miss Irene. I couldn't do it without her!

2) I have an amazing, fun, supportive and all around wonderful partner who I get to work with at school too! We have lived in California together before moving overseas. We were in Malaysia first before Tanzania.

3) My favorite movie is The Wizard of Oz and when I am down, I watch it to cheer me up. Once a year, my mom, sister and I would have Wizard of Oz night. We would get in our jammies, cuddle under the blankets with the lights off and sing along. I know the whole movie by heart.

4) I am addicted to my blog roll and follow many bloggers. The blogs I mostly read daily are teacher blogs, but I love vegan cooking, fitness and book blogs too!

5) I used to teach students with disabilities and was an administrator for 3 years before moving overseas. Teaching general education is relatively new to me as a professional and I love it!

6) Cooking and baking are the perfect way for me to relax. I am willing to try new recipes and have a little cook book collection going. As much as I love to cook, I do not eat beef, pork, lamb or much dairy. My decision to not eat mammal came to me when I was 10 years old, but the smell of bacon still gets me.

 

7) I can't leave home without earrings on. I collect them like crazy and often my earrings match my outfit.

8) Running is the perfect way for me to get going after a long day at work. I have a few running buddies in Dar and try to keep motivated to run weekly, although I do have a nagging back injury that won't go away for good.

9) I like watching sports and have gotten pretty serious into watching football. My favorite team is Chelsea! Really though, I will watch any sporting event and have a great time.

10) I am in a book club and often read multiple books at once. My favorite genre is non-fiction, but really, I love all books. In fact, the best part of my day is reading aloud to my students. Roald Dahl is one of my favorite children's authors.


 

Mchicha

 Last week, the kids went out to harvest mchicha (spinach) from the garden. We rinsed it off really well, since it was very sandy and then the kids got to work. Ms. Irene led the entire lesson and it was great to learn from her. She taught us the secrets of cooking mchicha and even taught us how to taste your dish like a Tanzanian while cooking. She is a woman of many talents. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

• mchicha
• 1 onion
• 4 tomatoes
•  1.5 carrots
• 2 tbs oil
• 2 tbs blue band (butter)
• 2 tbs peanut butter with 1/3 cup hot water
• salt to taste (Irene says "salt is unpredictable, so just keep on adding.")

Cooking Method:

• Heat oil with onions until they are brown. Add carrots in, cover and stir for about 5 minutes.
• Next, add the tomatoes and cook down for a while until it makes a sauce. Add salt and taste the "Tazanian way" (see photos).
• Add peanut butter and keep on stirring.
• Finally, add the mchicha. Cover to let it boil and let it cook down for about 5-10 minutes.

The kids did a great job and the mchicha was delicious!  We even ate it with ugali, and the kids dug in with their hands just like the locals. Some kids even lined up for seconds. Yummm!

 

IST Read-In

Today was the Read to Feed all school Read-In. The kids grabbed their books and blankets and headed out to meet all of the other students. Students spread out their blankets, kicked off their shoes and plunged their nose in a book. It was wonderfully still. I took some time to read some of my favorite picture books. I read Tar Beach, Owl Moon and More Than Anything Else.

 

PYP Plant Unit Guest Speaker

 On Tuesday, Grade 3 had the pleasure of hosting Arran's dad, Mr. Daniel, from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture. It was an exciting presentation and the students were captivated by the interesting content, numerous props and audience participation. Mr. Daniel gave a good overview about plants and discussed the plant he works most closely with, the banana.

We learned that the banana actually does not have seeds and farmers need to plant them using cuttings. The difficulty is that banana plants get sick because of nematodes. His organization helps farmers by growing bananas in the lab and giving healthy plants to farmers so that they can have a healthy crop. It was great to learn more about local plants. Grade 3 sends a warm asante sana!

 

Informational Writing: Kids News Websites

 The final writing unit of this year for grade 3 is Informational Reports. Students are researching and
writing reports related to our PYP Plant Unit. Here are some websites for kids that have many examples of non-fiction writing. Kids, take a look through them and see if you can get any tips for your writing. Enjoy!

National Geographic Kids
Scholastic News Online
Science News for Kids
Time for Kids
 

No Homework This Week

 I taught persuasive writing last week and here is one of the final drafts I received. 

Dear Miss Rorey,

   Do you like homework? Well if you do,nobody else does.We need no homework!!!!! You know why? Well here are my reasons.

   One reason is that you already give us work to do at school so why give us more to do at home.We can do more work in class.We can even make school longer.Miss Rorey you should know nobody in the earth likes homework.Please agree with me.

   Another reason is it wastes paper when we do homework.You always tell us not to waste paper so why are you doing it? You know what happens when we don't save paper.We might actually save a lot of paper if we don't have homework.

  

   My next reason is that you won't have to waste your time in life checking work.With all of the marking ,you might break your hand.You won't get bored of checking work and you will sleep through the night peacefully.

   My final reason is we can have more time to go shopping for you and buy you expensive gifts.I might even get you a flat screen tv and a sauna.Y-O-U you will be the happiest , most relaxed person in the universe.One more question do you want a mansion? If you do I might get you one.

    Please make people happy and make sure there is no homework.Thank you for reading my remarkable letter.

                                          Sincerely,

                                                        Deborah

    

P.S If you don't agree you will be hearing from my lawyer and I will get a lawyer.

No joke. And yes, her writing always has this much voice in it. Well, given that I could not stop reading and laughing, I figured that she did her job well by matching her reasons to her audience and convincing me. (A little bribe once in a while doesen't hurt either.) 

P.S. Deborah, I will wait for my mansion and there is no need to get a lawyer.