Model United Nations Team Competes in Bogotá, Colombia

The EIS MUN team was invited to compete at the Model United Nations conference hosted by Nuevo Colegio Granada in Bogotá, Colombia. This conference represented 25 schools from around Central and South America with over 250 students. It was the first time in EIS MUN team history to compete in Colombia. The team spent months preparing for the trip for this conference held from February 23-26 at the Bogotá Convention Center. The team enjoyed a day touring Bogotá and taking in the historic and cultural sites of the city. The next day they were hard at work debating global issues that ranged from landmines hazards to narcotic trafficking and even an historic committee that debated the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. All six members of the team, Blanca Mejia, Ana Ramirez, Maria Caballero, Ivanna Lagos, Jorge Jarufe, and Diego Soto preformed and debated with clarity and intelligence. Their hard work impressed the committee chairs and Diego Soto was recognized as giving the best opening speech. Both Jorge Jarufe and Blanca Mejia were recognized with verbal commendations. Congratulations MUN Team!

SOCCER SEASON 2010

It was a tough season this year! EIS teams still managed to excel.. Check this out!

1. All our 6 teams won the Regionals - Never accomplished by any school in Honduras
2. Our teams played very well. They always had the initiative and possession of the ball.
3. Our AASCA teams were for the 10th time in a row in semifinals. We also played our 9th final.
4. Our Pre- girls won the 5th Championship in this category. Giving us 32 for the Soccer program and 113th for EIS. Coach Pablo Asturias won his 9th Championship.

AASCA AWARDS:
2nd place Boys and 3rd Place Girls
Cristina Chahin, Constantino Zelaya, Cristian Handal and Desiree Albir members of the ALL STAR TEAMS
Maria Angela Pena and Diego Rodriguez M.V.P from EIS

NATIONAL AWARDS:
First Place: Prejuvenil Girls
Second Place: Infantil Boys
Third Place: Juvenil Girls and Infantil Girls
Fourth Place: Juvenil Boys

SPORTMANSHIP AWARD: Prejuvenile Girls and Juvenil Boys

Knowledge Bowl Teams Complete Another Successful Tournament

The EIS Knowledge Bowl teams used the ‘home filed advantage’ and had a great national tournament at the end of January. One of our middle school teams and one of our junior varsity teams finished third. One of our varsity teams won the national championship, with senior Jose Luis Gutierrez winning the varsity most valuable player award. Incidentally, Jose Luis has been competing on the varsity level since 7th grade.

	Under the direction of coaches Brent Wingers and Alyssa Muus in the high school and Karla Gergen and Joseph Kast in the middle school, the teams practiced at least twice a week since the beginning of the school year. Not only must the players retain large amounts of knowledge, they must also be quick with the buzzers because only the student who buzzes in first gets the opportunity

to score high numbers.Our teams showed not only high intelligence, but quick reflexes as well.

Congratulations to all participants! You make EIS proud!

Teachers Teaching Teachers T3
Conference
February 12 & 13, 2010

T3 Conference was designed to provide teachers from bilingual schools in Honduras, the opportunity of Professional Development at a reasonable cost.

	What a successful journey! Over 500 teachers attended our V Conference “Teachers Teaching Teachers” T3. All of EIS/EILL teachers had the opportunity to attend as well. For the first time ever, the Conference was held at our beautiful EIS Campus. Registration began at 7:00 am on Friday February 12th. Teachers walked in the Cafetorium and in an orderly fashion attendees sat down to wait for the

Inauguration Ceremony. Our Elementary Principal, Ms. Gina Larach, addressed the audience who listened with excitement and anticipation. Soon thereafter, Mr. Ronald Vair, EIS Superintendent, welcomed everyone and introduced our keynote speaker Dr. Michael Pragman. Dr. Pragman is a learning and education consultant, specializing in brain compatible learning and teaching for today’s educators. His presentation included interesting topics such as: Learning and the Brain – Classroom Implications and Working Memory and the Brain.

When his presentation was over, the lights went out and the EIS/EILL teachers performed a dance to the beat of “I Gotta Feeling” song they had been preparing for over a week. It was a wonderful surprise to all of our guests and showed everyone what a great team and hosts our teachers are. You can check out the video following this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KyH8mqwgm4 or search T3 dance in www.youtube.com

After the presentation, everyone headed to the conferences they decided to attend. Most classrooms were full. Amongst the most popular presentations:

This stress is killing me! …How about a remedy
Making Handwriting Easy and Fun
Teams, Games, Tournament.TGT: Cooperative Learning
¿Quien movió mi queso?
Effective Classroom Discipline and Management Part 1, 2 and 3
Why Don’t Students like School?

After attending the Saturday morning presentations everyone gathered again in the Cafetorium for the Coffee Break, diplomas and the much anticipated raffles sponsored by several local businesses.

We take this opportunity to thank the organizers, presenters, teachers, sponsors and EIS for making this a successful event! We are already looking forward to next year’s VI T3 Conference!

 

The Escuela Internacional Sampedrana Chapter Paints Mural at Villa Soleada

14 students and a teacher from the Escuela Internacional Sampedrana Chapter just completed their first mural at Villa Soleada. Once can clearly see the theme that that chose. Love, Peace, Unity, Dignity and Community all coming from one heart.
The Mural sits underneath of the awning of the SHH supply bodega. The villagers (and also student volunteers) eat their lunch underneath of this awning everyday. The chapter wanted to cheer up the space where so many workers take their breaks and to add some color to the rather bland cinder block walls around Villa Soleada.
The students from EIS look forward to being able to meet many of the students from their sister chapters in the United States in the coming weeks, as they visit Honduras during this holiday season. They already have their next project lined up (when one of the groups will be here), but I have been sworn to secrecy.

However, you all will surely be getting an update about it when the time comes. For those of you not familiar with the Escuela Internacional Sampedrana Chapter, Gina Padilla, from El Progreso, is the president of their chapter.

She has been helping out at Villa Soleada during many of the past service trips. She has worked to get a chapter started in Honduras and has managed to create a strong chapter of great students at her high school in San Pedro Sula.

AACSA Acting Festival

You and your students are cordially invited to attend the 2010 AASCA Drama Festival to be held at Escuela Internacional Sampedrana in San Pedro Sula, Honduras on February 3-7, 2010.
Shortly you will be receiving information about hotel and travel within the city. We are tentatively planning on competitions in the following categories:

Play acting, for 2-5 students (without costumes or props)--memorized play—12 minute maximum

Storytelling—8 minute maximum

Pubic address—8 minute maximum

Prose reading—8 minute maximum reading of one or more selections from novels or stories

Poetry reading—8 minute maximum reading of one or more poems

Oratory—8 minute maximum persuasive speech

Group interpretive reading—12 minute maximum group reading of a story, drama, poem, or essay

Extemporaneous speaking—7 minute speech on a questions you draw one half hour before the round starts

Demonstration speaking (with or without props)

Farrago—a 10 minute maximum presentation of a variety of genres (poetry, Prose, drama, etc) that all have a common theme, with your own transitions.

The Escuela Internacional Sampedrana Chapter had good timing this weekend.

Their visit to Villa Soleada happened to correspond with a period in which many of the Villa families were just moving into their homes. It was also good timing for Jose Zuniga and his family.

His family rented a truck from a building supply company and had them bring all of their furniture to Villa Soleada from Siete de Abril. Unfortunately he got all the way to Villa before he realized that he had left the keys to his house with hsi wife. He seemed so upset, but luckily the EIS chapter was to the rescue. They helped one of Jose's neighbors' children through the unfinished bathroom window so that the front door could be opened.

Within fifteen minutes, the EIS chapter had all of his furniture and belongings safely in his house. Jose was so thankful for the help, hardly believing his luck at having had the assistance of so many cheerful movers.

Escuela Internacional Sampedrana to Paint Mural at Villa Soleada

The Escuela Internacional Sampedrana will be traveling to Villa Soleada within the next two weeks to paint a mural. The school is the first high school SHH chapter in Honduras. Gina Padilla, from El Progreso, is the president of the chapter and has been doing an outstanding job getting her chapter organized and excited about helping out at Villa Soleada. The mural will be painted in the kitchen area, where all of the villagers (and students when they visit) eat their lunch. In order to prepare the cinder block wall for the mural, the wall had to be stuccoed in order to make it easier to paint. Check back in the next two weeks to see the completed mural.

NEW BOOKS FOR PARENTS AT EIS LIBRARY

The Library is pleased to announce the acquisition of four parenting books available for members of our school community. We are highlighting these books because they are the newest in our collection, but we have many other parenting books and magazines available in the Main Library, the ECC Library, and the La Lima library. Visit our libraries and ask a librarian to help you find what you’re looking for!


The Blessing of a Skinned Knee: Using Jewish teachings to raise self-reliant children

“The sage reflections of nationally known clinical psychologist and lecturer Wendy Mogel on raising children in a world where entitlement and competition abound have struck a chord with thousands of readers. In a culture whose values are often at odds with the ones parents wish to uphold and instill, [this book] points the way to raising self-reliant, compassionate, and ethical children.” -excerpt from back cover


How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk

“Here is the bestselling book that will give you the know-how you need to be effective with your children. Enthusiastically praised by parents and professionals around the world, the down-to-earth, respectful approach of Faber and Mazlish makes relationships with children of all ages less stressful and more rewarding.” -from back cover


Raising Cain: Protecting the emotional life of boys

“[The authors] make a compelling case that emotional literacy is the most valuable gift we can offer our sons, urging parents to recognize the price boys pay when we hold them to an impossible standard of manhood. They identify the social and emotional challenges that boys encounter in school and show how parents can help boys cultivate emotional awareness and empathy- giving them the vital connections and support they need to navigate the social pressures of youth.” -excerpt from back cover


Setting Limits with your Strong-Willed Child: Eliminating conflict by establishing clear, firm, and respectful boundaries

“Does your child constantly misbehave and ignore or refuse your requests? Is your relationship with your child based on conflict instead of mutual respect and cooperation? With the help of this groundbreaking book, you can create a positive, respectful, and rewarding relationship with your child.” -excerpt from back cover

ECC News “Preparing for the Future”

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic was the host of the Tri Association Annual Conference, “Preparing for the Future”

The ECC is proud to have been represented by Ms. Karla Carranza and Ms. Elisa Toro who also attended the Mano a Mano Project as part of the pre conference institute and culminated the first Phase of this 10 month long International Certification for Early Childhood Educators.

The Mano a Mano project goals are: • Equip teachers with current information for best practices in early childhood education • Equip teachers with the skills enabling them to make changes in their respective programs • Equip teachers with the skills to mentor other early childhood personnel Our teachers are excited to start their research project that with the purpose of improving school programs or initiatives, their quality and community outreach.

ECC has its 3rd Book Fair

Our ECC Open House was a great opportunity to have our 3rd ECC Book Fair.
Our librarian, Ms. Laura Fiallos, invited parents to choose from a selection of new, hard cover, child appropriate books in our Library for donation. Parents and teachers bought the books and donated them to the ECC Library in the name of their child or family.
A total of 37 books were donated and the money collected at the Book Fair will be used to buy more books to enrich our collection.

Thank you to all the families that contributed!

Charity Club

There was a great bake sale on Oct. 30 to raise funds to buy school supplies for needed children. We thank all parents that helped by donation of cookies and cakes to support these healthy activities that our students enjoy very much and that help them to build character.

Custom Day

It was fun to see students wearing ingenious customs contributing to school spirit, at the same time students were contributing to fulfill Charity Club’s goals. .

Guillermo Anderson visits EIS!

Guillermo Anderson is one Honduras’ most popular artists.  Originally from La Ceiba, Guillermo and his group blend Honduran percussions with contemporary rhythms.  His performances are enriched with a combination of traditional rhythms from the Garifuna ethnics such as “Punta” with other popular Caribbean rhythms.  All of his concerts, using his voice and guitar along with his talented musicians, celebrate the love, nature and beautiful Honduran life.
With several years in the National Artistic Scenery, it is difficult to talk about Honduran music without mentioning his name.  His role in the Honduran cultural scene has given him the well deserved name of Cultural Ambassador of Honduras.

On September 11th, to celebrate Honduras’ Independence month, EIS was honored with his visit where our students enjoyed his music, sang and danced his music.