The Comet

The New sletter of K. International School Tokyo
Volume 19 | Issue 1 | September 2015

In this issue...
02...Welcome to New Staff

10...Hello from KIPS

04...Message from the Board President

15...Value of Relationships at KIST

05...IB Diploma Results

16...G11 Overnight Excursion

06...Founders’ Awards

21...Secondary SRC

07...Congratulations Keerti!

22...Keio University Internship09...Kindy Playground Renovations

24...University Acceptances

From the Head of School

DATES TO REMEMBER

Welcome back to school! I trust that the summer vacation was a period of rest
and relaxation and also a source of lasting memories of times with family andfriends.
Thank you to all for your support of our Parent Welcome Nights. I hope that the
fantastic year we had last year has you looking forward to the coming year withpositive anticipation of even more progress towards our school goals.
I have sent a couple of E-Communications out recently describing the excellent
results attained by our now graduated Class of 2015 on their DP exams. At
35.89 points, our DP average for 2015 was very, very close to our school goalof 36 points by 2018 and KIST is very excited to be so close to our goal at sucha short time since our recent initiatives have been introduced. This year a totalof 9 graduates attained 40 or more points in the DP and hence have qualified
for the KIST Founders’ Awards University Support Scholarship. Thank you to
Mr and Mrs Komaki for their generous support in recognizing this exceptional
performance by awarding a total of ¥6,500,000 in scholarships to the
Graduation Class of 2015. Congratulations to all of our graduates on a job welldone and thank you to everyone in our community for your support in working
with us to provide the best educational context we can offer to our students.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our community members who
contribute to The Comet newsletter each issue. Last edition was particularly
impressive and I do hope that you enjoy what has been put together for you
this issue as well. New to The Comet this year is a section from our Board of
Directors to keep you informed about our Board and about the matters theBoard is involved with. I do hope that this new edition to our newsletter better
informs our community of some of the behind the scenes work being done tosupport all that we do here at KIST.
KIST looks forward to working with you this year as well as towards attaining
our school goals and in doing so further increasing opportunities for ourstudents. Once again, thank you for all of your support andplease do let us know your thoughts or concerns by contacting
the school, or me, directly.
Jeffrey Jones
Head of School

KIST Learning for Life KIST Learning for Life KIST Learning for Life

September 2015
14 MYP information session for G6parents and new parents (*Evening)
19 (G6-G12) High school drama
festival (@Saint Maur)
21 School holiday
22-23 Staff development days (noschool for students)
28-29 School photographs
29 PYP information session for newparents (*Evening)

October 2015
3 SAT@KIST
5 (W) Free dress day (Arranged bySecondary SRC)
8-9 (G5) Tech day camp
12 School day
12 (G1-G5) Field day
12 (G10) MYP Personal Project
information session (*Afternoon)
14 (G10) PSAT tests
17 School explanation day (forprospective parents)
19 2016-2017 enrollment
applications open
21 Last day of quarter 1
23 KISTival preparation day(Nu-G5) No school for students(S) School day
24 KISTival 201525-Nov 1 Autumn break

KIST is an
IB World
School
PYP | MYP | DP2

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Welcome to New Staff
On behalf of the KIST school community, we would like to extend a warm welcome to our new staff for 2015-2016.
We wish you all the best and hope that you enjoy your time with us!

Teachers

Momoko Aoe
MYP/DP Mathematics

Wilson Fong
MYP/DP Mathematics

Hitomi Hamano
MYP/DP JapaneseDonna Linnett
MYP English A /Intensive English

Bartholomew Miller
Grade 4B

Steven Otis
MYP/DP English A

Evelyn Pang
MYP Humanities /DP Geography

Bethan Thomas
Grade 4AELS Instructors

Jade BonusELS Instructor G1A

Geri Snow
ELS Instructor(Secondary)

Kana Furnival
ELS Instructor K2

Sarah HouseELS Instructor K1

Catherine Wells
ELS Instructor K1

Katherine Millican
ELS Instructor G1B

Karl WhiteELS Instructor K3A

Axel Norwood
ELS Instructor G2

Bridget Willson
ELS Instructor G4
Continued on next page

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V o l u me 1 9 | I s s u e 1 | S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 5

Continued from previous page

Assistants

Rebeka Amin
School Laboratory
Technician

Erika Ishibashi
LMC Library
Assistant

Ashley Chin
Intern(Elementary School)

Student Nationalities
For many years, the number of nationalities represented by the student population at KIST has been around fifty.
2015-2016 is no exception and we have started the year with 49 nationalities represented in the student body,once again confirming the truly international nature of our school.

AmericanAustralian

Bangladeshi
BelgianBrazilian

BritishCanadian

ChileanChineseCongolese

Dutch

Estonian

EthiopianDanishFilipino

FinnishFrenchGermanIndianIndonesian

IranianIsraeli

ItalianJapanese

Korean

Malaysian

MexicanMyanmarPolishRussian

Sri Lankan

SwedishUkrainianVietnamese

New Zealander
NorwegianPakistani

Panamanian

SerbianSingaporeanSouth African

SpanishTaiwanese

Thai

TurkishUgandan

Nepalese

Senegalese

Swiss

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Message from the Board President
In starting the new school year, I
would like to welcome everyone
back on behalf of the school’s
Board of Directors, the body
responsible for the management of
the school.

determined by each school. It istherefore advantageous in theuniversity admissions andscholarship selection process forschools to be considered asoffering a high quality education.

As you may already know, our“Class of 2015” graduatesachieved the best results in KIST
history in their IBDP exams. This isa great present not only for theclass of 2015, but for all KIST
students.

For our students, having an
advantage in the admissions
process is important, but gaining
an advantage in being considered
for a full or partial scholarship iseven more important. It is common
for tuition at the top US or UK
universities to be over 5 million yen
per year, and for many KIST
students, being offered ascholarship opens up more
opportunities for them to enroll inthe university of their choice.

Why is KIST so concernedwith DP results?
There are two reasons for this.
The first is related to the reason
why we adopted the IB programs.
Our mission at KIST is “to develop
competent and moral individuals
who make meaningful
contributions to our global
community”. The IB programs aredesigned to develop skills such as
analytical thinking, applied
reasoning and communication at ahigh level, which are essential in
succeeding in the complex 21st
century. Achieving a high DP scoreis proof that students haveacquired these skills andknowledge at a high level, thereby
achieving the school’s mission.
The second reason is that
achieving high scores in the DP is
an indication that a school offers ahigh quality education and this isadvantageous for university
admission and consideration for
scholarships.
Upon admissions screening,
universities gather data from the
School Profile which includes thenumber of students taking the DP
exams, pass rate, and averagescore for those passing, submitted
by the school, or directly from the
IB to evaluate the educational levelof the school. As the DP exams
are held in May, and the results
are released only in July, most
universities make judgements noton the actual score, but based on
the DP “predicted grade” (PG) as

In order to create more future
opportunities for our students, we
believe that it is our responsibility
to achieve high results in order tobe considered as a school thatprovides high quality education.
At KIST, however, we do not select
only the best students to sit the DP
exams. Our mission clearly statesthat we provide high quality
education to “highly motivatedchildren”. We will continue tosupport highly motivated andhardworking students in achieving
high scores in the DP, and ask for
the understanding and support ofthe school community.

School accounts statement
The accounts statement for theperiod April 2014 to March 2015
has been audited by two auditors,
and approved by the Board as well
as reported to the Board ofTrustees. If you wish to view thereport, please make an
appointment with our Financial
Manager, Mr Maeda, in the main
school office. According toJapanese law, only our current
students and their families as well
as school staff are permitted
access to the report. Please notethat the financial term is based onJapanese Private School Law andis not in line with our school year.

Construction
plan update
We would like
provide an updateon the construction plan for a newschool building and gymnasium.
Due to the coming Tokyo Olympics
and the accompanying increase inconstruction demand, construction
companies are unable to accept
new projects. Furthermore, thecost of labor and construction
materials have doubled. Therefore,
after discussion with Koto-ku, wehave agreed to remove the current
gym by December 2020 and themain school building by December
2022. By then, the Olympics will beover and the construction situation
should improve.
We will proceed with plans tocommence the construction project
for the new building andgymnasium in 2020. We are
currently pooling profits from
KISTival and donations for thispurpose; however, to prepare forthe possibility that construction
costs will remain high, we need tomake savings ahead of 2020. Afterthe Great East Japan Earthquake,
we deferred the increase of tuition
fees due to a decrease in student
numbers and downturn in theeconomy. The capital feescollected from families upon initialenrollment have been allocated forthe past few years towards partial
payment of the debt owing on theWest Building completed in August
2009. However, from now on, we
will plan in our annual budget forcapital fees to be saved for the
future construction plan. Thank you
for your understanding andcontinued support of the building
project and for your cooperation
with our savings plan.
In closing, the Board will bemaking its best efforts to achieve
the school’s mission at an evenhigher level, and would like to ask
for your continued support during
the 2015-2016 school year.
Yoshishige Komaki
Board President

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DP News
IB Diploma results – July 2015
During the summer vacation, the IB Diploma results were issued to the students of the “Class of 2015”. The tablebelow summarizes the performance of the candidates and also KIST graduates from 2013-2015.

Year of
Graduation

Number of
Grade 12Students

Number of
students
awarded the
IB Diploma

Mean points ofstudents
awarded the IB
DiplomaHighestKIST score*

Worldwide
mean points

2015

29**

27

35.89

45

TBA

2014

37

33

33.41

43

30.10

2013

35

29

32

42

29.81

*Maximum score: 45 points**28 students took the Diploma in 2015 and 1 student took the certificate pathway
As the table shows, the Class of 2015 was significant for KIST as this year group improved the KIST mean point
average well above previous world mean point average scores and nearly hitting the KIST target average of 36
points. Also, 28 students in the year group challenged themselves by going for the award of the full IB Diploma with27 students (96%) being successful in achieving this goal. Furthermore, the student who was not awarded the full
IB Diploma only missed out by one single point. The school compares favorably to world statistics released by the
IB in these two categories; just under 50% of IB Diploma candidates go for the full IB Diploma and of those that do,
approximately 80% are successful in this goal (IB, 2014).
Also significant for KIST was that amongst the Class of 2015, nine students achieved scores of 40 points or more:
Mina, Roshana, Jamie, Tamami and Mikio scored 40 points, with a special mention to Minami and Kouta scoring
43 points, Tatsuya achieving an amazing 44 points and finally Keerti scoring a perfect score of 45 points.
Overall, 24 students (89%) were awarded an IB Diploma with 30 or more points. Six students were also awarded a
Bilingual Diploma in recognition of studying two language A or “first” languages.
Parents who would like more general information on IB Diploma results should go to:
http://www.ibo.org/en/programmes/diploma-programme/assessment-and-exams/getting-results/
The IB publishes a “Statistical Bulletin” summarizing IB Diploma results, a link to which is on this webpage. The“Statistical Bulletin” for the May 2015 Examination Session should be published in October/November.
Congratulations to the students on their individual successes in the external DP Assessment, and thanks to all theGrade 12 teachers from last year for all their hard work in making this giant leap forward at KIST!
John Rose
DP Coordinator56

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Founders’ Awards

KIST University Support Scholarships

The KIST University Support Scholarships recognize hardworking students who achieve
high scores in their final year of the DP and are awarded to students who attain 40 points or
higher. In this year’s round of awards, a total of 9 graduates have received scholarships—thelargest number in KIST’s history. Congratulations to you all! We look forward to hearing of yoursuccesses in your studies in the coming years.
Gold Award

Silver Awards

Class of 2015
KeertiGold Award

Class of 2015
Tatsuya
Silver Award

Class of 2015
Kouta
Silver Award

Class of 2015
MinamiSilver Award

Bronze Awards

Class of 2015
Mina
Bronze Award

Class of 2015
RoshanaBronze Award

Class of 2015
Jamie
Bronze Award

Evacuation Drills
On Friday, August 28, we conducted our first evacuation drill
for the year. Evacuation drills are based on various scenarios
including earthquake, tsunami and fire. As Japan is anearthquake-prone country, the first drill was based aroundan earthquake emergency. When the students heard theearthquake announcement over the loud speaker, they got
into protective positions. After the all clear, they then moved
out onto the main field in their safety helmets and gatheredin their class groups to confirm that everyone was present.
Further drills will be conducted throughout the year.

Class of 2015
TamamiBronze Award

Class of 2015
Mikio
Bronze AwardV o l u me 1 9 | I s s u e 1 | S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 5“ T h e Co m et ”

Congratulations Keerti!
As you know, KIST had a perfect DP score for 2015, the second time in KIST history! Below is a letter from the
Director General of the IB, Dr Siva Kumari, congratulating KIST and Keerti on this amazing accomplishment.

7

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Elementary School News
Role models for our childrenYour children will become who you are:so be who you want them to be.
-anonymous
In his article titled “A Parent’s Job as a Role Model”, Dr
Anthony Kane states that the single most important
thing a parent can do to educate a child is to provide
the child with a good role model. We have an
expectation at KIST that our teachers and staff
members act as positive and supportive role models forall our students. Although I believe we have a positiveeffect on our students by teaching and modelingmanners, attitudes and temperament, we are no matchfor the influence parents have on their children.
There are many areas in which parents can and shouldmodel for their children:
1. Respect – The way we speak to our neighbors, thegreetings we offer those around us, the way we
may hold the door open for the person behind us oroffer our seat on the train to a person in greater
need, are all picked up by our children.
2. Communication skills – Our children will be
influenced by the manner in which wecommunicate. We may choose to scream andshout, or we may choose to speak calmly. Our
children will imitate the way we communicate andinfluence whether they choose to use criticism or
praise when speaking about others.
3. Positivity – Children will learn to focus on thepositive or the negative, see the glass as half full or
half empty, based on the environment in which they
are raised.

4. The value of health – Exercise, diet and otherlifestyle choices that children make are influenced
by the preferences of the parents. The following
excerpt is from an article written by the European
Food Information Council:
Children model the behaviours of those aroundthem, and when children are young, parents(and sometimes siblings) are the main rolemodels in their lives. Therefore, children arelikely to adopt the same eating habits as theirparents. Since parents have the biggest
influence at this time in a child’s life, it isimportant that they set good examples.
5. Temper management – The ways in which we
respond to stress, anger or hurt feelings will beabsorbed and imitated by our children.
Author James Lehman wrote: “Your kids watch you fora living. It’s their job; it’s what they do. That’s why it’s soimportant to try your best to be a good role model.” Asparents I do not believe it is sufficient for us tosimply try to be good role models; I believe it is ourjob – our most critical, essential, and valuable job.
I look forward to serving alongside all you as positive,
optimistic and encouraging role models for our children.
Kevin Yoshihara
Elementary School Principal
kevin.yoshihara@kist.ed.jp

References:Kane, A. (2013, July 23). A parent’s job as a role model - HealthyPlace. Retrieved August 18, 2015.
Parental influence on children’s food preferences and energy intake. (2012, September 1). Retrieved August 18,
2015.

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Kindergarten Playground Renovations
Many parents will have already noticed the extensivechanges that have been made to our kindergarten
playground this school year. It is also likely that you
may have heard about the changes from your children
who have probably mentioned their wonderful new playspace in their conversations with you about school.
The new, soft artificial turf has been a big hit and thechildren have been enjoying sitting on it, rolling on it
and playing on it in a safer and greener environment.
Back in February of this year, we began planning
improvements to the playground. In March, in an effort
to partially cover the playground with artificial turf, wereached out to the school community for donations. We
received an overwhelming response from many families
and were able to collect significantly more than our
original goal.
The extra donations allowed us to include several
additional features such as the sloping grass surface
and a mosquito trapping machine called a “Mosquito
Magnet” that attracts mosquitos without the need tospray chemicals into the air, keeping children healthyand safe. As the playground has a lot of large trees, wehave had to spray the playground for mosquitos inprevious years. With the additional donations, we werealso able to prune the trees, leaving an environmentthat is harder for mosquitos to exist. Thanks to these
additions, the instances of mosquito bites have been
reduced this year.
We would like to thank everyone who provided
donations and helped us to make these improvements
possible. The playground is now more fun to play in,
more visibly appealing, and much safer for ourstudents.
Thank you!
Please see the details of the renovations below:
Playground renovations

2,160,000 yen

Mosquito trapping machine

212,112 yen

Mosquito trap chemicals

75,600 yen

Paint

17,025 yen

Tree pruning

70,200 yen

Disposal of old matting etc.

64,800 yen

Total renovation costs

2,599,737 yen

Total donations received

2,291,213 yen

School payment

308,524 yen

Thank you!
Thank you to all families who generously gave
donations to help improve our playground. The
families below have granted permission for theirnames to be released.
G4/K3 Hirano family
K2 Terao family
K2 Furuoka family
KP2 Ono family
K3 Abe family
KP2 Takizawa family
G1 Komatsuzaki family
G1 Oh family
G1 Maeto family
G4/G1 Maruyama family
G2/K2 Ishihara family
G4 Lee family
K2/G3/G6 Ono family
G3 Sunaga family
G2/K1 Toda family
2014-2015 K3 students

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Hello from KIPS
Hi, everyone. I work at K. International
Preschool and I would like to let you know
about how our young learners typicallylearn here at KIPS.
As you may know, our preschool opened last year, so
this is only our second year. The enthusiastic learners
we have here are: Nursery children who are 2 to 3
years old, K1 children who are 3 to 4 years old, andK2 children who are 4 to 5 years old.
K1 and K2 movement time.

The school opens from 7:30 for early childcare in themorning. Our normal session starts from 8:40 andends at 3:20. Some children take LEAP classes, sothey stay a little longer. We also provide childcare,which goes till 7:00.
In Nursery class, the children learn a lot throughevery day routines. They go out to the park, have Art
sessions in the classroom and also have Music andDance classes in the morning where they go into thedance studio to hop around or sing some songs in themusic room.

From this year, we are introducing the PYP
curriculum to the K1 and K2 classes. K1 children are
currently visiting and taking photos of people in the
KIPS community to understand how they support us
and help us learn at school. K2 children are learning
about their five senses and went to the park to findout what they can see and hear using some of theirsenses.
Our uniform is a light blue polo shirt, black shorts/
pants (summer/winter), and a dark blue hat. If you
see them around in the KIST campus,
please say ‘Hi’ to these young
learners.
Eri Ozawa
KIPS Head Teacher /K1 Classroom Teacher

Office Updates
Nursery children playing in the park.

The K1 class changes its dynamics throughout theyear; the first half of the year is more of a play-basedlearning environment, which encourages them tolearn in an English environment and to introduce thestructural learning program in the next semester. In
Semester 2, the children in K1 start the Daily 5
program to enrich their literacy learning.
In the K2 class, you can hear children communicatingwith each other in English all the time. They learn
how to form capital and lower-case letters, and 42
sounds, plus some tricky words, as well. The children
in K2 use Daily Math activities (Math Daily 5) in theirclassroom.
We all go to a nearby park or to the riverside in themorning so we can stretch our bodies in a big openarea.
K1 and K2 classes have their single subject lessons
in the afternoon: Dance, Music, Art and Japanese.
We also have a KIST library session on Fridays.

Boys trousers
From this year, the color requirement forboys trousers has changed to black. This
year will be a transition period between the colors, so it
is not necessary for students who already have graytrousers to purchase black trousers immediately.
However, in situations where their gray trousers need
to be replaced, black trousers should be purchased. All
students are required to have transitioned to black
trousers by the end of June 2016.

Student health checks
This year, student health checkapplications will only be accepted on line.
Because of this change, all applications
must be completed 3 days prior to the dayof the check. This applies to all KIST and
KIPS students (excluding Grade 12).
We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to KIST
parents Dr Mark, Dr Kawamura and Dr Takada whohave kindly volunteered to conduct the health checks
this year.

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11

Elementary ELS
Teaching talkComing back to school after vacation means manythings, one of which is loads of talk. Not that I imagine
in the slightest that everyone was silent over summer.
But now, surrounded by so many peers, the number
and intensity of our daily conversations takes a sudden
jump. Not all conversations are of the same quality,
however. One role that class teachers and ELS
instructors have is to foster academic conversations
between our students.
What is an academic conversation? When we start off
with a valuable topic; when we spend time to elaborate
on our ideas and back them up by referring toevidence that we have found; when we use what ourclassmates have said as a base for going even further
with an idea; when we respectfully challenge what our
discussion partner has said, and even what weourselves have previously said (“Is that really true?
How do you know?”); and when we take theknowledge that we have made together throughtalking, and imagine how we will use it from now on in
our life – when all this happens, we have an academic
conversation (J. Zwiers and M. Crawford, 2009).
Tomoko, Shin and Johan from
G5A discuss the issue of
nuclear power as part oflearning about the concept of“perspective”. From thisconversation they learned
something new about thenature of a person’s
perspective: it can change forvarious reasons.

It takes training and practice for children to become
skilled at creating their own academic conversations.
With our ELS instructors in the classroom during Unit
of Inquiry and other lessons, we can better reinforce
and extend our students’ conversation skills. The
added benefits of these skills demonstrate further how
worthwhile it is to do this: research has shown thatwhen we begin to master the art of academic
conversation, we simultaneously become more
independent thinkers, use more and more high-levelvocabulary, and also transfer these skills over into ourwriting (J. Zwiers and M. Crawford, 2009). It iswonderful to have academic conversations at home,
too, in your home language(s). Continuing a
discussion that your child has had in English at schoolin your home language(s) will reinforce their academic
conversation skills, their understanding of the concepts
connected with the topic, and will also broaden yourchild’s vocabulary in all of their languages. What’smore, it can feed back into the classroom and give us
all new ideas to wonder about (as it did recently in
G1B – see the photo).

G1B had a homework topic on bullying, then a class discussion andpair and share conversations about this. One child told their partner
about a conversation he’d had at home, which led to the idea that if
a bully stopped bullying then maybe that bully could become afriend. This became a new idea for the whole class to think aboutfurther.

Lastly, advice about home language use and how it
helps your child’s language and cognitive development
is available in Bonnie Campbell Hill’s chapter called“EAL Family Support” that your class teacher has on
their Moodle page.
Looking forward to a year full of tons of talking andnew ideas.
Rachel Parkinson
Elementary ELS Coordinator / G5 ELS
Instructor
References:
Zwiers J., & Crawford, M. (2009). How to start academic
conversations. Educational Leadership, 66 (7), 70-73.
Campbell Hill, B. (2001). Developmental continuums: A framework
for literacy instruction and assessment K-8. Norwood, MA:
Christopher-Gordon.

Elementary Intern
A new intern in the Elementary School
In an effort to provide opportunities for teacher
trainees from around the world, this year, for the firsttime in KIST’s history, we have hired an intern from
Malaysia.
Ms Ashley Chin, who is
studying for her Bachelor of
Education (Primary Education)
degree at Taylor’s University,
Malaysia, joined us from
September 7 and will beworking with various grades
and taking on various roles
during her seven-monthinternship with us.
Please welcome Ms Chin to our school community!

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Secondary School News
Homework and technology
I hope that the year has started well for your child;that they are enjoying learning and feelingcomfortable in the school environment. I want to takethis opportunity in the community forum of thenewsletter to write about homework and student
use of technology.
We have had a general Secondary school policy
regarding homework for a number of years that is in
the student homework diary. Over the summer, I
updated the guidance that teachers and staff are
given at KIST to support this policy. In putting this
together, I referenced research that has been donethat has shown that homework, when usedappropriately, benefits student achievement(Marzano and Pickering, 2007; Protheroe, 2009). For
example, homework should have a clear purpose andexpected outcome for the students. I have also asked
teachers to try to give guidance to students on how
long a piece of homework should take students. Last
year, I received some feedback from a few parents in
our community raising concerns about how long theirchild was spending on homework at particular timesof year. Although in a Secondary school, wherestudents have many different subjects during the day,it is difficult to organize exactly how much homework
students should have, it is important that students still
have some time to relax, spend time with family andpursue any clubs or hobbies. Therefore, if you areconcerned how much time your child is spending on asingle piece of work then please contact your child’steacher directly or contact me.
Over the summer, I also
read a book that Mr Jones
recommended for parents
on Parent Welcome Nightlast year regardingchildren’s use oftechnology, “The Big
Disconnect” by Catherine
Steiner-Adair. This book is
informative for bothprofessional educators andparents alike. Linked to thison the second day ofschool this year, Grade 9
and 10 had a lesson onorganization for 2015-2016
and one of the activities was reviewing a short article
that appeared in the Washington Post newspaper
over the holiday. The title of this article gives away its
message; “My smartphone is making me dumb!”,
however its serious message, based on a case studyof the study habits of college students in the USA
carried out by researchers at Rice University, wasthat smartphones only assist learning when they areused with an actual purpose. When the college

students had
not been
instructed touse their
phones acertain way
by teachers or professors, they defaulted to using
smartphone applications that they used in non-study
time e.g. for messaging or browsing social media.
Both the book and the article serve as a timely
reminder that we need to be aware of what children
are using technology for and especially if they reallyneed to use their smartphone to assist with their
homework!
To finish, I would just like to thank the community for
their support in the dress code changes regarding
shoes and pants. Already I believe we are being
more consistent with the community in our
expectations for the former. Please don’t hesitate tocontact me at any time with anyquestions that you have as the school
year gets going.
Mark Cowe
Secondary School Principal
References:
Marzano, R & Pickering D.J. (2007), Educational Leadership. ASCD
Protheroe N (2009) Good Homework Policy. National Associationof Elementary School Principals Magazine NAESP
http://wapo.st/1H858oK (23rd July 2015)

Wanted: Relief Teachers
We are looking for casual relief teachers to cover
our Elementary and/or Secondary classes in theabsence of regular teachers. Requirements
include: Native or near-native proficiency in English
 Teaching diploma/degree (e.g. Bachelor of
Education) and/or TEFL/TESOL certification
 Prior classroom teaching experience in an
English environment
 Appropriate visa (visa sponsorship notavailable)
If you or anyone of your friends or associates areinterested and meet the above requirements,
please apply by e-mail at info@kist.ed.jp.
For more information, please check our website
at the link below:
http://www.kist.ed.jp/node/194

“ T h e Co m et ”

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13

MYP News
MYP classes back to
work
KIST Middle Years
Programme students havereturned to school refreshed
and ready for the new school
year. Classes are wellunderway, and all of the MYP
students are busy exploring
the concepts covered in their courses.

The MYP subject groups.

MYP parent information session
There will be an MYP information night for parents ofstudents new to the MYP. Led by Rob White, the MYP
Coordinator, parents will explore the nature of the MYP
and look for opportunities to support their children in
their work in the program. The session will be held on
Monday, September 14 at 6:00 p.m. in the school’s
Multipurpose Room.

MYP key and related concepts

Mr Ross leads new MYP students in Grade 6 through their firstexperience with MYP assessment practices.

MYP portfolios
All MYP students – from Grades 6 to 10 – maintain aportfolio of their best work. This allows students tocollect authentic work and reflect on their progress
through the year. The portfolio is centered on the IB’s
Learner Profile attributes. Each student collects workfrom their subject groups that demonstrates their
exploration of these qualities. They also areencouraged to document their MYP Service activities
and keep track of their contributions to school life
outside of the classroom.

Grade 10 mathematics students working through a series ofproblems.

At the heart of each of the subjects in MYP is a seriesof Key and Related Concepts. Subject-group experts in
the MYP have identified 3 or 4 enduring concepts thatmust be understood by students working in eachdiscipline. These concepts have power across manydifferent subjects and in many situations. For example,
Communication is a Key Concept in a number ofsubject groups. This speaks to its importance. As
students see the emphasis being placed on these
enduring ideas again and again, they develop andmeaningful understanding of their own relationship totheir studies. In addition to these Key Concepts, thesubjects have a series of Related Concepts that, whilestill vital, are more specific to the subject group itself.
For instance, Refinement is a concept emphasized in
Physical and Health Education. Students in PHE must
be conscious of how small adjustments to form andpractice routines can help shape their success inlearning new techniques.

Grade 8 students explore key and related concepts in Individuals
and Societies class.
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Continued from previous page

MYP personal project
Finally, students in Year 5 of the MYP have begun
work on the Personal Project. This independent, longterm activity sees the Grade 10s exploring a topic
about which they feel passionate and which they want
to explore in more depth. Students are learning theessential elements of the project process. By the endof September, they will be connected with an MYP
teacher who will act as their supervisor to help guidetheir work through the year.

PYP News
Attitudes
Welcome back to school. I hopethat you all had a restful andproductive break. The children
have acclimated to theclassrooms in record time this year and seem “readyand rearing” to go. With this enthusiasm, theInternational Baccalaureate asks for a bit of measured
attention to how we act. The articles that I’ve
presented for this column in the past have dealt withthe more common and recognizable “Learner Profiles”
which are the staple and backbone of the type oflearners that we are trying to help form here at K.
International. Lesser emphasized but equallyimportant, I now give you the Attitudes.
The attitudes consist of 12 dispositions that are
expressions of fundamental values, beliefs, andfeelings about learning, the environment and people,
as stated by the IB documentation. They are:An example of visual note taking. Here students begin to
explore the Personal Project.

Appreciation

EmpathyCommitment

Enthusiasm

Confidence

Independence

Cooperation

Integrity

Creativity

Respect

Curiosity

Tolerance

These are the core of most of our thoughts andrelationships with our fellow students, teachers andthe community around us. They are reflected in theway we approach our learning and how we feel about
it. They come into play when we interact with thosearound us. The attitudes look very similar to thelearner profiles and indeed they are included in thedefinition of them, though more specific in scope.
They are the nuances of the profiles which help us
understand our world and express ourselves within it.

Another Sketchnote on the Personal Project,highlighting the aims, requirements and objectivesof this culminating activity.

Robert WhiteMYP Coordinator

As I mentioned before, though they are lesser
emphasized, they will be looked at a bit closer thisyear in the elementary school as we forge ahead with
our mission to develop competent and moral
individuals who make meaningful contributions to ourglobal community. Please take some time to see how
you as parents, students, teachers, and administration
can help instil these qualities in ourselves and all
those who share our fantastic community with us. In
the end, we will all be winners when we interact withthe world, our learning, and our relations with thesedispositions as part of our dailyinteractions.
Clay M. Bradley
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15

The Value of Relationships at KIST
KIST guiding belief #4:
Education is a shared partnership of mutual trust
between students, parents/caregivers and the school.
In a recent study published by Pearson (2014), it was
found that PISA results are strongly correlated withthe level of involvement of all stakeholders in achild’s education. Some findings from the report
include: ‘Parents’ expectations of how well students
perform matter. Where these are higher, student
motivation and perseverance also tend to beelevated, leading to better results’ (p. 8).
 Successful schools have programs which develop
strong skills in literacy and numeracy, publish
clear expectations for progress, and haveaccountability systems in place for students andteachers to monitor progress towards those goals.
 Creating a culture conducive to learning is awhole community effort.
At KIST we feel fortunate to have strong community
support in sustaining our mission to provide ‘highquality education in a safe and nurturing
environment’. Thank you to all of our community
members for all of the support that you give to KIST
in so many ways.
Positive, inclusive conversations that take place
amongst members of our community are key tosustaining a healthy environment for our children. At
all times, even at times when we may not be aware,
we as adults are role models for our children and thechildren of others. But we are also role models forothers in our community; our actions and words haveinfluence on adult members of our community as
well.
KIST is a vibrant international community
representing over 50 nationalities; we are fortunate
for and celebrate this diversity. But each of us arealso individuals, each of having our own culture andour own value systems which may be different fromthose of others within our KIST community. It is
important to keep in mind that in such a context there
will naturally be times where we may not agree withthe opinions held by or decisions made by othermembers our community.
Developing and sustaining healthy relationships withall members of our community takes effort, but such
effort brings unquantifiable benefits for our children.
Should an instance of disagreement arise for you, I
encourage you to: remember how important a healthy KIST
community is to our children if necessary to do so, use positive communicative
approaches to address the differences in thinking
with those involved

http://www.neocate.com/images/uploads/Images/community%20village.jpg

 keep in mind that how you respond to situations isof influence to others, including KIST children andother KIST community members.
If you wish for support from the school in addressing an
instance of disagreement, or if it is a school matter/
decision that you may have concerns about, we arepleased to discuss the matter with you and, if
requested, to work collaboratively with you in resolving
the issue. If I personally can be of help in any way,please let me know by telephone or by e-mail at
jeffrey.jones@kist.ed.jp.
Once again, thank you for all that you do to sustain our
positive community culture that supports KIST students
in attaining their best.

It takes a whole village
to raise a child.
(Nigerian proverb)
Sincerely,
Jeffrey Jones
Head of School
The Economist Intelligence Unit (2014). The learning curve –education for skills and life. 2014 Report. London: Pearson.

Feeling lucky?
Why not enter our draw!
Click on the link below and complete the survey toenter your name in a draw for an IB logo carry bag.
One entry per family. Draw held 09.30.15
Good luck! Click here to enter the draw

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Grade 11 Overnight Excursion@Atami
From September 4 to 5, we, the Grade 11 students
headed out to Atami for an overnight excursion that
centralized on learning some study skills as well as
bonding with each other. To put it bluntly, this excursion
was a combination of enjoyment and seriousness withthe ratio of about 7:3, which is quite fitting for students
like us, who are about to face the real horrors of DP
very, very soon.

Day 1 (Akira)The bulk of our first day was spent on group activities,
notably the competitive-type team building activities andde-stressing lessons lead by teachers.
Team building
Upon arriving at
our venue inAtami and settling
into our rooms
after a 2-hour bus
ride, we faced thefirst activity of theday – the Team
Building
Challenges
designed by Mr Rose. This activity consisted of 2
seemingly impossible challenges that required great
teamwork between students for success. One of thechallenges was to build devices that can effectively“catch” a freely falling volleyball with a large piece of
paper, some wooden chopsticks, rubber bands and astraw: in under 10 minutes. No adhesives were
provided. Sharing ideas, agreeing upon others andcollaboratively crafting the machine were the vital skills
for this activity. In the end, one device was able toaccomplish this demanding task.
De-Stressing
After a buffet
lunch, thestudents engaged
in de-stressing
lessons hosted by
Mrs Justice and
Mr Rose, where
we learned thesignificance of destressing in DP
life and tried themout for the first time. Mrs Justice’s meditation andconcentration lessons were highly effective in clearingout any stress from our minds and relaxing them. We
learned to significantly improve concentration byobserving a small object (a rock) for a little while, noting
its traits. Students grew so fond of their rocks after thisactivity, that most of them kept the rocks until the end of
the excursion. In my case, a simple free style, deepbreath meditation routine of 5 minutes allowed my stateof mind to improve vastly: an equivalent of a 2-hournap. Many students found themselves so relaxed thatthey fell asleep in minutes.

Rotation activities
We spent the restof the afternoon
doing rotation
activities such as
the critical reading
lesson and ice
cream making ingroups of 12 students. The critical reading lesson
taught us how to deeply understand any given text byfollowing the 4 steps: question, underline, rewrite andrecite. Since we are to study our courses mostly fromtextbooks, it is important that we understand theimportance of responding to the contents of a textbooks
to develop understanding. Ice cream making was the“fun part” of the rotation activities as students were able
to make their own ice creams of their preference bychoosing from the ingredients brought by Mr Nakade.
We enjoyed throwing around the bags of unfrozen ice
cream until it formed, and eating our own ice creamwas quite a unique experience.
The evening of
our first day at
Atami wasanother set of fun
activities thatencouraged thestudents to bondwith each other.
Notably the night
games: Silent
Ninja and
Bollywood Dance Off, both of which were as enjoyable
and chaotic as they sound. We closed the day off withthe hot spring located at the roof of our venue, andpreparing sandwiches for the next day.

Day 2 (Atharva)
Exam skills
session & visit to
Kinomiya Shrine
With an early start
to the eventfulday, we were
awake by 6:30
a.m., ready for
day two of the
excursion. Starting off the day with a delicious
breakfast, we then attended an hour long session of
exam skills, which was easily one of the mostinformative sessions carried out. The session wasinterrupted halfway, to refresh the students’ minds witha trip to the famous Atami shrine. As the students andteachers approached one of the most scenic locations
through out the camp, they were greeted by the local
monk who was very helpful and informative, who
presented the tales of the shrines and the gods in aninteresting manner and kept us engaged throughout thecourse of the tour. After returning to the hotel, thestudents completed the rest of the exam skill session.
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Atami BeachThis was followedby packing andleaving to thebeach, which was
definitely one of
the most exciting
parts of the trip.
Arriving at thebeach with thepleasant weather backing the students up at themost crucial time, we first ate our own sandwiches,
followed by a series of activities at the beach. After theproud feeling of eating lunch that was made byourselves, we were all set for the first activity, sandcastle building. Sounds of cheers were heard all overas students were divided into groups of 6 and built
their own magnificent sand castles with a time limit of
one hour. Students divided their workload and started
to work in a very efficient manner. Creative ideas wereseen all around, some of them raised international
mindedness, animal awareness, famous structures,
fictional castles and even food items. Prominent
features such as moats were shown vividly. Overall thecastle building was a huge success and judges were
put in deep trouble to decide the winners.
Then all members of the excursions found themselves
on a huge dodge ball court on the beach and a friendly
competition of dodgeball started. The excitement
spread on the faces of students and teachers, as they
competed class-wise and against teachers. The
activity ended with friendly aggression and a treat ofice cream to the students from the teachers, which
was an end to the perfect trip and it was time to go
back to reality and use the knowledge that we had
acquired.
The 3-hour bus ride home felt like minutes while
returning, with a lot of laughter to play along.
Summary
The excursion was quite a memorable one, especiallyfor us students who are constantly counting down
towards the graduation – after which we will beseparated. The trip provided us with countless fun anduseful activities designed by our homeroom teachers
who deserve our gratitude for organizing such a great
trip. We all strengthened our friendship bonds witheach other during the 2-day stay in Atami, and we now
realize that the coming 2 years will require every
individual to be serious about their studies for our best
shot at the future.

17

Staff 10!
In this month’s Staff 10!,
we are pleased topresent Campbell Boyd
who joined us in 2014 as
an ELS instructor in theSecondary School. This
year, in addition to his
ELS responsibilities, he isalso teaching English. He
has also been appointed
the Secondary ELS
Coordinator.
 Tell us somethinginteresting about
your hometown.
Mr Boyd enjoying the coolshade in his cool shades.
My hometown is a villageof about 150 people in the
countryside in Northern Ireland. It is not allowed, byancient law, to have a public house. Still to today, no
pub exists.
 What is your favorite place in the world?
Freshwater Beach in Sydney. Great place to swim andsurf, and I actually got married on the beach.
 Who would you like to meet if you had the chance
and why?
Bon Scott (lead singer with AC/DC up until 1980 when
he died). I would love to hear his outlook on life, andsee if there was anything I could apply to my life. I
reckon he would have a good story or two to tell.
 Do you have any special skills or talents?
I have a great sense of direction, and hardly ever get
lost nor lose my bearings.
 Please share a little known fact about yourself.
When I commute on one of Tokyo’s crowded trains, I
put on a live album on my Ipod through myheadphones, and as I am squashed and jostled aroundby my fellow commuters, I close my eyes and pretend I
am at the live concert. It works a treat, and you canreally feel like you are at the concert. In fact, last week I
was thrown off the 6.18 from Yokohama for holding mylighter aloft and singing at the top of my voice.
 What is your most prized possession?
As standard as it may sound…my new family (wife andchild – wee George).
 What words would you use to describe yourself?
Steady as she goes.
 If you could live your life again, would you doanything differently?
Probably not. Maybe work harder at school anduniversity, but at what price?
 Is there anything you are trying to learn/improveabout yourself at the moment?
My constant battle with trying to learn Japanese.
Sometimes I feel like I am winning, other times…
 Do you have any special message for your fans?
Deep down we all know what is right and wrong. Try to
do the right thing.

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Library News
Welcome back to school! We hope you enjoyedreading many wonderful books over your summer
vacation! The KIST Library Team have some exciting
news to share with you for the 2015-2016 school year.

Meet our new LMC Library Assistant, Ms
Erika Ishibashi
Here’s some trivia about Ms Erika.
She is Japanese and a quarter
Australian who was born andraised in Tokyo – this is the main
reason why she loves this city very
much, but also considers Australia
as her second home. She loves
listening to music, watchingmovies, taking photos, readingbooks, baking cookies and playing
video games. She is a graduate of
Sacred Heart International School and Sophia
University. Her previous work was helping students on
their assignments in a Writing Center. She will be the
new “smiling face” in the LMC who will be willing to help
you find books and assist you if you need help with ourlibrary resources. Let’s all welcome her to ourcommunity!

In the LMC, we will be looking again for DEAR Poster
Models from secondary students to help us promote
this library event. So if you interested, please contact
Mr Andi and express your intention through e-mail toearn credits for Service and CAS.

Sakura Medal Book Reading Program
KIST Libraries will be
participating in the
Sakura Medal Program
again in 2015-2016.
Our books are on theway, and we can’t wait
to share the excellent
nominees for this year.
We need you to readand vote on yourfavorites. Voting will
start in October. (Hey,that’s just in time toborrow a book for

Upcoming library event
We have so many great events planned this year. First
up is the return of DEAR! We’ll start this month-long
November event with a book character costume paradeon November 3 out on the field. Elementary students
and teachers are invited to dress up as their favorite
book characters. Feeling competitive? We’ll level-up
the competition to all Grade 4 and Grade 5 students, aswell as the teachers. You can enter our new charactercostume contest to win fame and fortune! We’ll belooking for the best book character costumes in thefollowing categories – Best Twin version, Best Triplet
awardees, Best in Book Character Costume/
Participation for teachers who will receive prizes and befeatured in our next Comet article. Watch out for ourposters and ads in the library.
Then, once a week forthe rest of the month,when you least expect
it, you’ll hear a surpriseannouncement: “Timeto Drop Everything
And Read!” No matter
what you’re doing,
when you hear thatmessage from ourloudspeakers, it’s time to settle in with a good book,magazine, or newspaper. We wish the whole school
will participate, and we mean the whole school:elementary and secondary students, teachers andparents – even the principals – will Drop Everything
And Read!

DEAR! Hint, hint.)
Calling all artists, writers, videographers! The authors
and illustrators of Sakura Medal books aren’t the only
winners! Throughout the school year, students will havethe opportunity to show off their creativity through art,
essays and book trailers. Please see Mr Andi, Ms
Erika, or Ms Leslie for more information.
Q: Do you remember what kind of gem Professor Stegneeded to fix the Really Good Moves Around in Time
Machine in the 2015 Sakura Medal nominee,
Fortunately, The Milk?* Grade 4 and 5 students whowant to show off their knowledge can join our Sakura
Medal Book Bowl Team. KIST Libraries participated in
the book bowl for the first time ever last year, and ourteam came in second place! Good job, team!
Interested? What if I told you that Sakura Medal Book
Bowl Team students get to read the Sakura Medalbooks first? Sign up for Sakura Medal Club!
(*A: An emerald.)

New library database and resources
Sorry, you can’t spend all day in the library. But if you
wake up in the middle of the night with a burningquestion, KIST Libraries are here to help. The librarians
are probably asleep, but you can always access ouronline resources through Moodle!
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Continued from previous page

Secondary students need to do some research? Insteadof hoping no pranksters edited Wikipedia to saysomething weird, try our research databases. Log in to
your Moodle account and visit the Library Media Center
page for easy access to Britannica School Edition,
Destiny WebPath Express, Opposing Viewpoints,
Cengage Learning and BrainPop. Starting this school
year, we have included Classroom Video on Demand,
Science Online, Bloom’s Literature and Infobase Ebooks.
Research skills and computer literacy are important forelementary students, too! Elementary students canaccess a kid-friendly Britannica School Edition and Kids
Infobits. Check out the World Almanac for Kids, ournewest elementary online resource.

Explanation Day 2015
For the 2016 - 2017 school year
KIST will hold an Explanation Day for parents
interested in enrolling children for the 2016 2017 school year.
Administration and teaching staff will beavailable to answer questions regarding
admissions procedures, the school
curriculum, progression to universities, andgeneral features of the school. Visitors will
also be able to view the school facilities.
Date:
October 17, 2015 (Saturday)
Session times:(1) English: 9:45 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
(2) Japanese: 1:15 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Reservations close:
October 16, 2015 (Friday)

Before going online, check out Mr Tim’s article about
internet safety in this month’s Comet!

Reservations essential!

www.kist.ed.jp

KIST Library TeamInternet Safety
Hello everyone, I’m Mr Tim the K2 ELS instructor, G2
LEAP instructor, elementary ITC integration andsupport coordinator, and parent.
With mobile devices and the accessibility of computers
everywhere, it’s important that as adults we understandand monitor what our children and young adults are
doing in the virtual world. Keeping an open line ofcommunication is key to helping them stay safe online
and become responsible netizens (internet citizens).
The following are some great tips from the NetSafe
Utah project.
 Help your children feel comfortable coming to you if
something makes them uncomfortable or scared.
 Talk honestly about Internet dangers.
 Make sure children understand what personal
information is and why they should guard it.
 Share your online activities with one another.
 Agree on clear, simple rules for technology use that
apply no matter where you are.
 Identify what websites are okay and when they canand can’t be visited.
 Talk about what is and isn’t appropriate online
behavior.

I would encourage you
to watch the following
animated video fromNet Safe Utah withmore information forparents. It is available
to watch in English,
Arabic, Bosnian, Burmese, Chinese, Korean, Navajo,
Somali, Spanish, Tongan and Vietnamese.
Go to: http://www.netsafeutah.org/parents/
parent_videos.html
Then: General. For Parents, Teachers, andAdministrators. Information about NetSafe Utah (2 min
40 sec).
There are a number of other animated netsafe videos
to watch at the netsafeutah.org website. If you decide
to explore these with your child, please checkbeforehand that they are age appropriate.
The KIST library has technology
information resources.
Timothy SmithICT Integration Support (Elementary)

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Nurse’s Notes
Mosquito-borne infections
Many of you may remember that a large number of people in Japan were infectedwith dengue fever back in August 2014. This year, there have been no majorreports of infection, and there are no dengue “hot spots” in Tokyo as of August 26,
2015.
There are various other mosquito-borne infections in addition to dengue fever, andthese are widely prevalent mainly in tropical and subtropical regions. Diseases thathave a high probability of occurring in Japan or being brought into Japan include:West Nile fever, Chikungunya fever, dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis andmalaria. The major characteristics of these diseases are shown in the chart below.
Name ofdiseaseMosquito (routeof infection)

Area ofoutbreak

Incubation
periodMajor
symptoms

Notes

Africa, Europe, 2 − 6 days
Middle-East,
Central Asia,
West Asia,
USA etc.

Fever, headache,backache, muscle
pain, muscle
weakness, loss ofappetite, rash

No cases of infection havebeen reported in Japan;
however, since the mid-1990s,
outbreaks have been reported
in the Western hemisphere inEurope and America where nocases had been reported
previously.

Africa, SouthAsia, SouthEast Asia

3 − 12 days

Sudden fever andmuscle pain, rash

No cases of infection occurringin Japan have been reported;
however, there have beencases of “imported infections”
reported where patients
infected overseas come back toJapan.

South-East
Asia, SouthAsia, Central
Dengue Fever (people→mosquitoes and South→people)America,
Caribbeannations2 − 15 days

Initial fever
followed by(3 − 7days in symptoms such as
most cases) headache, orbital
neuralgia, muscle
pain

There are 2 forms of dengue
fever: a non-fatal febrile form,
and a severe form which
includes dengue hemorrhagic
fever and dengue shock
syndrome.

Culex
tritaeniorhynchus

6 − 16 days

Fever, headache,nausea, vomiting,dizziness, impaired
consciousness

The risk of developing
Japanese encephalitis after
infection is 1 in 100 − 1000,and most of those infected will
not show any symptoms.

South-East
7 − 40 days
Asia, Africa,(people→mosquitoes Central, South→people)AmericaFever, chills,
weariness,headache, muscle
pain, arthritis

Malaria is classified into
tropical, tertian fever, quartan
fever, and ovale malaria
depending on the malarial
parasite. The most type ofmalaria is tropical malaria
which may result in death iftreatment is delayed.

West Nile
Fever

common housemosquito, autogenic
house mosquito, tiger
mosquito etc.
(birds→mosquitoes→
people)Aedes aegypti, tiger
mosquitoes etc.

Chikungunya
Fever(people and otheranimals→mosquitoes→people)Aedes aegypti, tiger
mosquitoes etc.

Japanese
Encephalitis(pigs→mosquitoes→
people)Anopheles

Malaria

Japan, China,
South-East
Asia, SouthAsia(3 − 7days inmost cases)(Reference: Tokyo Metropolitan Infectious Disease Surveillance Center http://idsc.tokyo-eiken.go.jp/diseases/mosquito/)

Of the above diseases, the severity of tropical malaria is high and may result in death. Special care is therefore
required when travelling to areas of outbreak. For prevention, it is important to take measures toavoid being bitten by mosquitoes by covering the skin and using appropriate repellents. The
Anopheles mosquito, the carrier of malaria, is active at night, so take extra care at night. (Aedes
aegypti, the carrier of dengue fever, is active during the day.) There is preventive medicine formalaria, so it is advised to take this before travelling.
Makiko Whittaker
School Nurse

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Secondary SRC
The last school year was one of the most successful
years in SRC history, but this comes as no surprisesince the council’s performance has been getting
better year after year. With the help of the
Administration, we finally set up the Student Printerafter the initial proposal was submitted 3 years ago.
The Student Fund was also established, allowing
students to take initiative and organise their own
events with money from the Student Fund as financial
aid. The Student-Initiated Clubs were also facilitatedby the SRC and allowed students to create and run
clubs which they thought would be beneficial to thestudent body. To list a few more accomplishments,
we: established two Specialised Committees under
our wing: the Arts Committee and Sports Committee,
held the KISTalk event, collaborated with Habitat for
Humanity to help them raise funds for the Cambodia
trip, established an Umbrella Loaning System,
organised the annual Winter Concert, and got
involved during KISTival by opening up an
Information Booth with members who could eachspeak at least two languages.

However, many projects were left
unfinished, and many ideas were left
half-baked. As this year’s SRC, we
have a huge legacy to uphold, but it was apparent at
our first meeting this year on September 4 that we are
more than ready to keep the SRC-ship sailing to themoon. We look forward to working with all of the newmembers and hope to make this a memorable year
for KIST secondary students. Students – don’t forget
to voice your opinions and suggestions to your classrepresentative, and that there is also the SRC
VoiceBox outside the LMC where you can drop off
your written comments.
This year’s members: Parsh (G6A), Kishore (G6B),
Alia (G7A), Aditya (G7B), Ji Hye (G8A), Nimit(G8B), Alice Chae Hyun (G9A), Krisha (G9B), Nikita(G10A), Sara (G10B), Amartya (G11A), Hana
(G11B), Pranita (G12A), Saya (G12B), Angela(President, G12B), Rachel (Vice President, G10B),
Motoi (Treasurer, G12B), Nina (Secretary, G11A)
and Raj (Public Relations Officer, G12B).

Executive Officers 2015-2016
President

Vice President

Treasurer

Secretary

PR Officer

Angela (G12B)

Rachel (G10B)

Motoi (G12B)

Nina (G11A)

Raj (G12B)

Special thanks to last year’s SRC for their efforts in 2014-2015.

21

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My Summer Internship at Keio University
While making my Diploma
Programme subject choices last
spring, I thought about university
and beyond. I love the life sciences
so I looked for a summer program
to experience real-life applicationsof scientific concepts. Japanese
educational institutions rarely offer
such opportunities, especially tointernational high school students.
I was fortunate to discover that
Keio University, one of the mostprestigious Japanese universities,
was offering a medical summer
internship. With the help of KIST
college counselor Mrs Okude, Iapplied and was accepted to theintensive three-week internshipheld in the Interactive Media
Laboratory of Keio University.
The Keio Interactive Media Lab
focuses on applications of
information technologies such as
augmented reality and humaninterface. Here, students work on
exciting projects that use cuttingedge technology to simulate
experiences and conceptualize
ideas. Past projects include a“virtual rope slider” which simulates
an experience similar to Tarzanswinging on ropes, a “virtual slicer”
tablet which displays the MRI
image of the cross-sectional area
the tablet hovers over, and“AffectiveWear” eyeglasses thatcan detect facial expressions. I
was thrilled to be working withsuch a team.
With my supervising professor and
Keio students, I worked on a
medical eye-tracking project heldin collaboration with Keio
University Hospital. Our objective
was to implement eye-tracking
software in a surgical setting, as
we believe that such technology
can greatly improve medical
performance. Video footage ofsurgery from a surgeon’s view
point could help doctors reflect
upon and improve their surgicalmethods, as well as guide medical
students who have begun
workplace training. My main task
was to develop a prototype for amobile eye-tracking headpiece thatuses this specialized software. It

was an exciting yet challenging
process. I was pushed to learn
new concepts, use advanced
software, and develop fresh
designs for the product in a shortperiod of time. Working in auniversity lab allowed me to takeadvantage of top-notch equipment
and conduct experiments I
planned, but that freedom also
forced me to take initiative andmanage myself. Professors andundergraduate/graduate students
were available to give me advice,
but I was otherwise left on my own.
The late nights I spent franticallysetting up experiments andfinishing research taught me theimportance of self-management.
One of the most memorable
experiences during this internshipwas the on-site testing of the eyetracking eyewear during amastectomy procedure in Keio
University Hospital. I was lucky
enough to observe a live
mastectomy, as well as meetseveral researchers in the Keio
Medical Labs. Visiting the labs anddiscussing the latest research
being conducted there ignited myinterest in regenerative medicine
and surgery; until then, I wasn’t

Hana at Miraikan, Tokyo.

aware about how fascinating these
medical fields were. Talking todoctors, who were once students
just like me, also inspired me tocontinue pursuing my interests inmedicine and other biologicalsciences.
Despite the challenges of working
in a new environment and the 4hour daily commute to thelaboratory, the satisfaction I felt
after I completed my prototype andpresented my findings to Keio
University professors and graduate
students in Miraikan lab was well
worth it. I’m so thankful toeveryone that helped make thispossible. This internship was aunique experience I will never everforget.
Hana (G11B)
Hana and Mihir (former KIST student)with professors and mentors.

Hana’s final presentation at Miraikan.

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23College Guidance NewsThe “Class of 2015” final destinations
 24 out of 29 graduates applied to colleges/
universities during G12
 23 enroll in August/September/October 2015
USA: 10; Canada: 3; UK: 4; EU: 1; Japan: 3;
Hong Kong: 1
 6 apply to college/university after graduation
or take a gap year
83% of the “Class of 2015” applied to colleges anduniversities during their Grade 12 year and more than 95%
decided to enroll in the freshman year at one of their chosencolleges or universities from this academic year which starts
at the end of August, September or October.
As you can see above, USA was the most popular
destination for this year’s graduates, followed by UK, Japanand Canada. Due to the different admissions calendar insome countries in Asia/Pacific regions (e.g. March intakes inAustralia and Korea, and April intakes in Japan), several
students are sending applications after graduating from
KIST. Please see the latest list of universities where theClass of 2015 were admitted and enrolled.

Summer internships at SITThis summer, KIST students were invited to apply to theInternational High School Internship at Shibaura Institute ofTechnology (SIT) and three students from Grade 10(currently in Grade 11), Akira (G11A), Amartya (G11A) and
Rithvik (G11B) were accepted to this special program inscience and engineering. They spent two weeks in July at
SIT Ariake Campus and Saitama Campus to work on a
project with SIT students and faculty members at the lab they
were assigned. At the end of the internship period, each
student conducted a presentation on their project andreceived a certificate of completion of the internship from
SIT. Well done, Akira, Amartya and Rithvik!

Akira, Amartya and Rithvik

Summer internship at Keio University
Hana (G11B) completed an internship at
the Graduate School of Media Design, Keio
University in July. She spent 3 weeks
working on a medical project at theInteractive Media Lab at Keio Nogami
Campus and Keio University Hospital in
Shinanomachi. She created a prototype ofa wearable device which tracks eye
movement of surgeons during operations.
Well done, Hana! Please see more details from her article inthis issue of The Comet.

Mrs Okude’s summer US university visits
This summer, Mrs Okude attended the 2015 Overseas
Association for College Admission Counseling (OACAC), theannual conference forcollege counselors
from high schools
outside of the USA andadmissions officers
from the universities
from all over the world.
This year the
conference was hosted
by the University of Oregon and over 1300 counselors andadmissions officers got together to update information
regarding university admissions and to meet colleagues.
After the conference, she moved to Chicago to join the
Chicagoland Counselor Tour where she was invited to visit
seven universities and colleges around the Chicago areawith 17 counselors from other schools. She enjoyed visiting
Columbia College Chicago, DePaul University, Loyola
University Chicago, Northwestern University, School of
the Arts Institute of Chicago, University of Chicago,
University of Illinois at Chicago, as well as attending
presentations and campus tours, meeting and dining withfaculty members, admissions officers and current students.

New university guidance calendar on KISTnet
This year, we have introduced a new calendar on KISTnet
entitled University Guidance Calendar which all KIST
parents and G9 to G12 are able to access. You can see
upcoming events scheduled at KIST and around Tokyo.
Please check it occasionally!

Upcoming events
Presentations at KIST in the LMC
 Friday, September 4, 3:45pm, Amherst, Middlebury,
Macalester and Davidson, USA Tuesday, September 8, 3:45pm, Hong Kong University of
Science and Technology, Hong Kong
 Thursday, September 10, 3:45pm, UC San Diego, U
Illinois at Chicago, Columbia College Chicago, Loyola U,
Loyala Marymount, Xavier, USA, IE U, Spain, Yale/NUS,
Singapore Monday, September 14, 2:45pm, Goldsmiths, U of
London, UK Tuesday, September 15, 3:45pm, Chinese University ofHong Kong, Hong Kong
 Tuesday, October 6, 3:45pm, International Christian
University, Japan
University events in Tokyo (open to the public) Saturday, September 12, 11am-6pm, Education USA
EXPO by US Embassy at Sola City Plaza, Ochanomizu,
http://americaexpo.jp/
 Saturday, October 24, 1pm-6pm, Education UK by
British Council
 Sunday, October 25, 1pm-6pm beo Fair Friday/Saturday November 6/7, Canada Fair at CanadianEmbassy

PSAT at KIST (compulsory for G10 and optional for G11)
Wednesday, Oct 14 during school hours (seemore details in the PSAT letter)
Mrs Keiko Okude
College Guidance Counselor
Office hours: Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri 10:00-17:00
keiko.okude@kist.ed.jp

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V ol u me 19 | I s s ue 1 | S ept em b er 20 15“ T h e Co m e t ”

College and University Acceptances and Offers
KIST Class of 2015
As of August 2015
Key: *=Scholarship offered | Bold red=KIST graduates attending( )=Number of offers received | [ ]=Number of graduates attending

UK

Occidental College
Pacific Lutheran University*

Bangor University

Pennsylvania State University

Durham University
Glasgow School of Art

Pratt Institute

Imperial College London
Kings College London
Lancaster University
Leeds College of Art
University of Aberdeen
University of Bath
University of East Anglia
University of Edinburgh
University of Essex (2) [2]
University of Exeter
University of Kent
University of Leicester
University of Manchester
University of Nottingham
University of St Andrews (2)University of Sussex
University of Warwick
University of York (2)EU
Amsterdam University College

University College Utrecht

Princeton University*
Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteRochester Institute of Technology
Savanah College of Arts (SCAD)* (2) [1]
School of the Arts Institute Chicago
Stanford University
Stevens Institute of Technology*
Truman State University
University of California (UC), Davis

University of California (UC), Santa Barbara
University of Illinois at Chicago
University of Massachusetts Amherst* (2)University of Minnesota Twin Cities
University of Nebraska
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University(Virginia Tech) (2)Webster University
Whitman College
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (2)CANADA
University Of British Columbia (UBC) (6) [2]
University of Toronto (4)USAAcademy of Art University

Bard College
Birmingham Southern College*
Boston University*

Brandeis University

University of Waterloo
JAPANInternational Christian University (ICU) (4) [1]
Nagoya University
Sophia University (4) [1]

Brown University
California College of Arts (2)California State University, Long Beach
California State University, Los Angeles
Columbia University
Florida Institute of Technology*

Hong Kong University of Science andTechnology*

Fontbonne University

SINGAPORE

George Washington University
Michigan State University*
Monmouth College
New York University
North Carolina State University (2)Northeastern University* (3)Waseda University SILS

HONG KONG

Yale NUS College*

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25

Alumnus Report
Shreya Deshmukh is an alumnus of KIST’s “Class of 2011.” She has justcommenced a PhD in Bioengineering at Stanford University in the USA.
This time of year always feels like a
new year, and for many of us
international-schoolers, in a newschool. Eleven years ago was my firsttime at KIST, in a class full of kids
eating lunch with impressive chopstickskills. And four years ago, carrying lotsof memories from Japan and my own
chopsticks, was my first time at Boston
University. With my graduation fromBU three months ago, it’s almost time
for my first day at a brand new place –this time it’s Stanford University in
California.
That first day at BU, I met way more
people than I could remember, andhad to answer the “where are you
from?” question every time, so by theend of the day I was beginning tobelieve that my innovative “hometown”
of Tokyo/India was a real geographic
location. But in a university with 16,000
undergraduates, I still felt at home,being part of several smaller circles in
BU, the city of Boston, and beyond.
Naturally, some of my best friends
were in engineering – nothing brings
people together like struggling throughall-nighters because you all really wantto make this device work, or maybe
because you need to pass the class.
My main reason for going to BU, myfour years of education, not only madethe field of biomedical engineering areality for me, it showed me how I canapply my passions, connected me withresearchers and collaborators, andgave me opportunities to put ideas into
practice. Most of my learning wasoutside the classroom, frominternships and research projects
inside the university and outside. I
worked with not just professors,scientists and engineers, but also
healthcare workers, patients andentrepreneurs, in various cities andvillages, to understand the problems
that I was helping to solve. Today I feel
capable of dreaming big and pursuing
a PhD in bioengineering, as my first
foray into implementing my passion
with fully realised independent
projects. For this I can thank myteachers in the classroom, the lab, thefield and often the library or at home –because sometimes your friends andfamily are the best teachers – startingfrom those distant kindergarten days,
through all those schools (so many firstdays!), including KIST.

The last several months were a difficult
journey to believe in myself enough to
try embarking on something like a PhD
at the age of 21 – and until a few
months ago, I almost thought I wasbeing crazy. But getting to meet
professors at institutions like MIT and
UC Berkeley/UCSF – people who are
my role models and who seemed likefictional heroes until that point – andreceiving their encouragement topursue my dreams with them, was the
final dose of inspiration to gather all
I’ve learned, remember the causes I
am working towards, and put myeverything into the fight. After a difficult
decision process, I am slightly nervous
but incredibly excited to “engineer” mylimits, and hopefully make a differencein healthcare, at Stanford University.
However, engineering is only a smallpart of who I am.
Luckily I got to be friends with people
who don’t just talk science and maths(IB would have disapproved of only
two subject groups!). I was also part of
the uniquely interdisciplinary Kilachand
Honors College, with students from avariety of majors, from Theatre to
Business. For four years, our motleygroup grappled with subjects likestudying the classic Iliad and analysing
the public health issues of malaria inthe same classroom. We had Nobel
Prize winners for professors, and got
to interact with brilliant minds – nothingbeats getting attendance credit forhaving a heated argument with afamous author, or the man who
invented the Ethernet. I haven’t seen a
programme quite like KHC at any otheruniversity, and I look forward to it
shaping my thoughts for a long time,
kind of like TOK still pops up in myconversations, years after graduatingfrom KIST. KHC has helped me
become the kind of engineer that
understands that technical issues
should be just as important as social,economic, cultural and anthropologicalissues. This will be essential to myresearch at Stanford, especiallybecause I want to work with global
health problems, to address needs inthe developing world and areas that
direly need intervention, and I cannot
hope to make real impact if I ignore
these critical “subjective” factors.
One of my closest-knit circles evenafter graduating is in Boyd House – aquainthistoricalbrownstone
for Trustee
Scholars, acommunity
sharing
more than just a scholarship. In fact,
KIST has quite a legacy here because
3 of our alumni have been Trustee
Scholars! From these circles, myclasses, my random participation ingroups like Afro-jazz and krav maga,
and even talking to strangers on thestreet, I am lucky to know people fromall over the world and very different life
backgrounds. BU is just as
international as KIST in some ways,
and I made connections with both theIndian and Japanese communities
there, as well as the in-between jumbleof people who don’t quite fully identify
with one culture, otherwise known as
Third-Culture-Kids.
Honour cords and congratulations at
graduation are always fun, but I canappreciate its value because I haveshared the struggle with my friends
and classmates night and day for four
years, and I have always know
someone who has persevered morethan I have. That inspiration, and thememories and learning that came withthe degree, remind me that KIST isright, Learning is, indeed, for Life, andit will give me the strength to tackle thisPhD at Stanford University, and anyother challenge. It’s a more grown-up
game now, but what hasn’t changed isthe experience of packing up my entire
life into two suitcases and moving
thousands of kilometres to a place that
is, at this moment, the best place tofuel my needs and allow me to growmore than I could now imagine, until it
is time for the next adventure.
I wish everyone luck on the start ofanother new year!
Shreya Deshmukh
KIST Alumnus “Class of 2011”