The Comet

The New sletter of K. International School Tokyo

Since 1997

Volume 15 | Issue 2 | December 2011

In this issue...
KISTival 2011…p. 2

Victory for Volleyballers…p. 12

Grade 8 Mountain Camp…p. 7

Secondary SRC…p. 12

Grade 5 Camp to Nagano…p. 8

Nurse‘s Notes…p. 14

Role of the School Counselor…p. 9

Grade 6 Nikko Excursion…p. 15

Drop Everything And Read…p. 10

Cross Country News…p. 16

Personal Project in Focus…p. 11

College Guidance News…p. 17

From the School Director
First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the entire schoolcommunity for all of your support at October‘s KISTival. Despite heavy rain at
the start of the day, we received a large number of visitors and the whole event
was a great success. Thanks to everybody‘s hard work, we were able to raise
1,640,541 yen to expand library resources, 1,640,541 yen to redevelop the
ECE playground, 1,913,964 yen for emergency and disaster equipment, and273,424 yen for the East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Support Appeal. Fulldetails on money raised are available in the KISTival report on page 2 of thisnewsletter.
KIST was established with the vision of providing a high quality international
education for children from all backgrounds, so that its graduates, working
earnestly through a holistic education, will one day become valuable assets tothe world as global members of society. Already, 14 years have passed since
KIST was founded. However, in the past 4 or 5 years, due to rapid expansion
and various other factors, I believe the school has strayed slightly from thisfounding vision. Nevertheless, this year the management team is working
together to make reforms and get the school back on the path of its founding
vision. Details of these developments will be published in a separate letter tofamilies at a later date; however, I am pleased to hear all of the positive
feedback from many members of the KIST community supporting the changes
that have been made this year.
As the leader of the school, I will ensure that we continue to proceed witheducational reforms and look forward to your continued support in guiding us toa successful conclusion.
Yoshishige Komaki
School Director/Acting Head of School“Eachnew, a day learn sonrelear d just as im methingn something portant,
old.”
—Rob
ert Brault

DATES TO REMEMBER

December
9 (W) Clubs program ends
10 MUN Conference (@KIST)
13 Short Tuesday
14 Winter Concert
17-Jan 8 Winter Vacation
19-20 Office open

January
5-6 Office open
6 2012-2013 enrollment
applications close
9 (W) School resumes
16 (W) Clubs program resumes
17 Short Tuesday
25 Japanese New Year celebration
27-Feb 3 (G11/G12) DP mockexaminations
30-Feb 1 (G9/G10) Semester 1
examinations
30-Feb 3 2012-2013 enrollment
interviews
31 Short Tuesday

February

Applications for 2012-2013
Just a reminder to families wishing to apply for admission for siblings not
currently enrolled at KIST, the due date for applications for April and August2012 entry is Friday, January 6, 2012. We would appreciate your cooperation
in informing any of your friends with eligible children who may also be
considering enrollment at KIST next year.
KIST Learning for Life KIST Learning for Life KIST Learning for Life

3 (K1-K3) School holiday
6 Staff Development Day (Noschool for students)
7 Semester 2 commences
8 (G6-G10) Brain Bowl (@KIST)
10 (W) Free dress day
10 Semester 1 reports issued
10 (S) SRC dance
17 School holiday
22 Artscape (until March 12)
22 (G5) PYP Exhibition Explanation
Evening2“The Comet”

V ol u me 15 | I s s ue 2 | D ec em b er 20 11

KISTival 2011
We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all members of the school community who contributed in any way tothe success of KISTival 2011. Although the morning started out with rain, it cleared up throughout the day. Morethan 3,000 people passed through the gate and profits reached over 5,400,000 yen as indicated below. Next year,
we hope to incorporate more of an international theme, with games and activities from around the world, so if you
are returning to your home country during the winter vacation, you might like to bring back any national costumes
you may have. If you have any other ideas or suggestions to improve the festival, please e-mail your comments toinfo@kist.ed.jp.

“ T h e C o m et ”

V o l u me 1 5 | I s s u e 2 | D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 1

Elementary School News
ABC world news interview
Two of our Grade 2 students and five of our Grade 3
students participated in an interview recently with ABC
News. Some of the interviews were included in ―WorldNews with Diane Sawyer,‖ in a story on children fromaround the world to commemorate the world
population hitting 7 billion. The program was shownnationally in the United States on October 31. Don‘tworry if you missed it—you can see the full story byclicking on the ABC News link in Moodle on Mr
Brunton‘s Corner. Thank you to Ms Nomura forarranging the event!

has ended, it is hoped that students and adults taketime in their day to just stop everything and read forthe enjoyment of it. Enjoy even more photos on the
Elementary Moodle site, Mr Brunton‘s Corner!

K1-K3 cross country

Bottle caps for polio vaccinations
Thank you for continuing to bring in your PET bottle
caps for recycling.
Organized by
Johnathan (G5A),
the project is goingstrong. Johnathan
and his family takethe caps far away
to be recycled,
about 40 kilograms
at a time. So far,approximately
50,000 bottle caps
have been collected
and recycled,
providing polio
vaccinations for 62
people. Thank you
for your support inthis worthwhile
activity!

Yet another first! All K1-K3 students participated in a
Cross Country Run at the
nearby Kiba Park on November
30. Thank you to the parent
volunteers who ensured
everything went smoothly andsafely. A special thanks our―Aki-sensei‖ and ―Mr Jay‖ fororganizing the event. Akisensei spent a lot of timearranging for our use of thepark and busing to keep theevent as planned and for that
we are very thankful. Pleaseenjoy the many photos of ourmany happy students on Mr
Brunton‘s Corner!

K1-G5 book character parade
We held our first K1-G5 Book Character Parade on
November 30! Everything went smoothly as students
paraded around the field for the other students to see
how they dressed up as their favorite book character.
The event was to celebrate the end of our DEAR
(Drop Everything And Read) whole-school read-a-thonwhere everyone at school stopped what they were
doing to read for 20 minutes together each Monday in
November. Though the whole-school time for DEAR

Mr Brunton

Greg Brunton
Elementary School Principal

3

4

V ol u me 15 | I s s ue 2 | D ec em b er 20 11“The Comet”

PYP News
Elementary SRC
The Elementary Student
Representative Council (ESRC) is
up and running for 2011-2012. The
ESRC is composed of the
Executive Committee, made up of
Grade 5 students, and a classrepresentative from each class, K3
to Grade 4. The ESRC is thestudent voice of the Elementary
School and is responsible forhelping to solve problems andmake decisions. The first order ofbusiness was to organize the Free
Dress Day for November. The
ESRC decided to donate theproceeds to the Elementary Libraryand the Tohoku earthquake
victims.

The ESRC members createdposters, announced the Free
Dress Day to their classes andcollected the donations. All of the
ESRC members are enthusiastic
and ready to help contribute to the
Elementary community. It looks
like it is going to be a productive
year for the ESRC.

Information sessions
and coffee mornings
This autumn many parents
attended the information
sessions and coffee mornings.
The first information session
was an introduction to thePrimary Years Programme forparents new to KIST and the
PYP. The different componentsof the program were covered
including the written curriculum
and the learner profile. The second
information session presented thetaught curriculum and inquiry
approaches. It gave a brief
overview of inquiry practices andprovided examples from KIST‘sown classrooms. Parents were
given the opportunity to see theinquiry cycle in action by seeing
what was happening in the Grade5‘s current unit, Where We Are inPlace and Time. Another way tolearn about the PYP andElementary program is coffee
mornings. These are an informal
opportunity to discuss a variety of
topics with the Elementary School
Principal and PYP Coordinator andto get to know other parents.
Topics discussed so far include theYearly Curriculum Overviews andreporting at KIST. The next coffee
morning will be on Thursday,
January 12, from 8:30 to 9:30 in
the MPR. Thank you to everyone
who has participated so far. We
look forward to seeing
you at the next coffee
morning.

Elementary Student
Representative Council
2011-2012
Executive Committee
Co-Presidents
Kevin (G5B)
Julian (G5A)
Vice President
Keri (G5A)
Secretary
Natasha (G5B)
Treasurer
Varsha (G5B)

Collaborative planningThis year, KIST adopted ―shortTuesdays‖ every other Tuesday.
You may be wondering what thestaff are up to on these early
dismissal days. These days give thestaff the opportunity forcollaborative planning. Teachers
have the opportunity to meet witheach other to plan units and todevelop curriculum. During thesecollaborative planning sessions
teachers developed the Yearly
Overviews and are also meetingwith single subject teachers (Art,Japanese, Music and PE) to plan
integrated units. A group ofteachers have also started a ‗study
group‘ to talk about literacy at KIST.

The collaborative planning sessions
have been instrumental in allowing
teachers to develop curriculum andthe program at KIST to help offer
the best possible education for ourstudents.
Elizabeth HeardPYP Coordinator

The ESRC Executive with Ms Heard.

ESRC Class Representatives
K3A: Haruki
K3B: Koki
G1A: Deniz
G1B: Mimi
G2A: Kishore
G2B: Norifumi
G3A: Saki
G3B: Kai
G4A: Nimit and Heizo
G4B: Kai

“ T h e C o m et ”

V o l u me 1 5 | I s s u e 2 | D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 1

Secondary School News
New systems designed to improve student learning
December already! The school
year certainly goes by very fast as
we had so many exciting things
happen during our first 4 months ofschool. As we are about to breakfor the holidays I feel it important toreflect on academic initiatives
already in place along with things
to look forward to in 2012 and a bit
beyond.

Block scheduling
In August block scheduling wasintroduced. The students clearlyseem to enjoy ―short Tuesdays,‖
but it is important to reflect on why
we implemented this schedule. It
was designed to reduce thenumber of classes students havein a given day while extending
instructional time to allow for moreenriching activities where students
build and apply their own learning.
Students now have fewer
assignments due on a particular
day allowing them to focus more.
From a teacher‘s standpoint thisalso allows greater individual
student focus. Students andteachers have quickly adapted.
The introduction of short Tuesdays
has increased teacher professional
development opportunities
internally and has helped provide
increased teacher collaborativeplanning time further supporting
our goals as an IB World School.

Live@edu
The school also introduced a new
e-mail system which is making iteasier to send communications toall families and students. The
choice of Live@edu supports ourgoals of simplifying processes by
providing students a ―personallearning environment‖ in which
they can have access to essential
school related systems in a single
web page portal. This includes
Moodle, the LMC (Library Media
Center) book cataloging system,
online databases provided by theschool for research and of course
e-mail. KIST offered its first ever IT
workshops for parents to help
support the introduction of

Live@edu. The goal was toprovide sessions in both
English and Japanese toensure parents becamefamiliar with the systems (email and Moodle) students
are using as part of theirstudies. If you haveLive@edu questions pleaseaddress them to our IT department
directly.
Live@edu workshops served togauge interest in this type of forum
and as such we plan to offer IT
workshops for PowerSchool
parental access towards the end of
the school year. For those notfamiliar with PowerSchool, this is a
student information system thatallows teachers to keep an online
Grade Book. Student class lists,schedules, attendance and reports
are all integrated into this secure
web based application. Early in theschool year teachers began using
PowerSchool to take attendancefor each class. We are just now
introducing the Grade Bookfunctionality to teachers and plan
to use this throughout theremainder of the year. This willthen allow teachers and the IT
department to work out potential
bugs before opening access toparents and students at the
beginning of the 2012-2013 school
year. Access to PowerSchool will
eventually allow parents/students
to see progress by accessing
PowerSchool via the Web. Thissystem ensures privacy and may
eventually do away with the need
for written progress reports asreporting will become much moremeaningful as updates andcomments can be provided
once assignments arecomplete. The intention is toprovide more ownership to
students by allowing them toknow exactly how they areprogressing prior to progressor end of semester reports sothey can make informed
choices in their learning.
Internally, the school can
integrate several systems
currently being used into

what I like to refer to as ―one single
point of truth.‖
Last year we introduced Moodle.
Moodle has proven to be an
excellent course management
system. I highly encourage parents
to log into Moodle with theirchildren in order to receive a
guided preview of what is going onin specific classes of interest.
Moodle is intended to provide
instructional support material for
academics while PowerSchool will
provide information on actual
student achievement.
All families should encourage theirchildren to use the school provided
e-mail for school related activities.
Regular updates are sent to
Live@edu e-mail accounts via theSecondary Blog as well as school
wide information.
I wish all families a very happy andhealthy holiday
season and lookforward to theremainder of the
2011-2012
academic year.
Stephen Rothkopf
Secondary School
Principal

Mr Rothkopf

5

6

V ol u me 15 | I s s ue 2 | D ec em b er 20 11“The Comet”

DP News
Grade 11: Setting up the extended essay
Since the start of November, Grade 11 students havebeen setting up their Extended Essay as part of their
DP curriculum. The EE is an in-depth independent
research assignment where students are given theopportunity to explore an academic topic that interests
them. The EE is a compulsory aspect of the IB Diploma
as it develops student skills of research and time
management and their intellectual curiosity. Ultimately
students produce an essay of between 3,000 and 4,000
words on a research question that they develop
themselves from their chosen topic.
Taking advantage of the extra Advisory class in the DP
timetable this year, students have just finished the unitthat helps them to start their EE. They have had two
lessons from Mr Cowe, the EE Coordinator on what is
the EE and choosing a topic and have had a further two
lessons from Mr Andi, our new teacher-librarian on how
to go about finding information on a topic. Each student
has also been assigned a subject teacher for support.
It is now really over to the students! In the next few
weeks they need to be finding out about their chosen
topic and meeting with their subject supervisor and Mr
Andi at least once. For some students, the EE is achallenging part of the IB Diploma because of its
independent nature, therefore parents can help support
their son/daughter by finding out about the EE on
Moodle. The DP Extended Essay Moodle Page has all
the resources that parents need to support their child. In
particular, the timeline of the EE and the examples of
excellent EE‘s are well worth a look. Two importantgoals in the process are developing a research questionin early January 2012 and then March 2012, wherestudents need to present a detailed outline to theirpeers of their EE.
There are some fascinating topics chosen thus far and
we look forward to hearing what the Grade 11 students
find out!

extend student (and parent) thought! Parents looking tofind out more about TOK should go to the Moodle Pageor look at the DP Course Descriptions on the school
website. They can also ask their son/daughter whatsorts of activities they are doing in TOK and also ask
them about their TOK journal. The TOK journal is aseries of reflections that each DP students makes andbuilds related to some of the main knowledge issues
that arise in the TOK subject. It ultimately helps students
generate examples and thoughts that will be vital to dowell in the TOK Essay and Presentation. The more theyreflect, the better!

Grade 12: Semester mock examinations
Grade 12 students are continuing learning in the second
year of the DP. This is the most challenging year of theirprofessional life so far as they complete most of theassignments that go towards their final IB Diploma.
Given the demanding nature of the DP, many students
will need to do a little to some work over the holidays
and parents should bear this in mind when planningspecial events to end the year!
At the end of January, Grades 9 to 12 will complete
Semester Examinations. For Grade 12, these will be
Mock Examinations for the IB Diploma Finals in May andsubject teachers will be setting a full examination in
many cases. It is fair to say that the week of the Mocks(January 27 to February 3) will be the most demandingof the school year for Grade 12. Although they are not
the final exams, students do each subject one day after
the other and definitely find them far more tiring than thereal things. Also, they have less time to prepare than for
the final exams in May.
Therefore, if your son/daughter tells you that they are
under pressure at the end of January, they probably
genuinely are! Students will actually receive a timetable
for their examinations BEFORE the winter holiday.
Mark CoweDP Coordinator

Grade 11 TOK: How do we know?!
For some of us, the week is winding down on a Friday
afternoon. But for Grade 11, it‘s reaching a crescendoas block 4 is when they have one of the foundations of
their curriculum; their TOK lesson for the week. Theoryof Knowledge is one of the compulsory elements of the
DP and revolves around the question of ―How do I
know?‖ From time to time in their six subjects, students
will be learning about the nature of the subject and how
knowledge is generated. In TOK class it all comes
together!
So far this year, students have reflected on themselves
as ―Knowers‖ and what knowledge is while they havemost recently been exploring how language shapes anddetermines what they know. The Grade 11 TOK Moodle
Page has all the resources that teachers are using todeliver TOK and also some extra extension material to

Grade 11: CAS advisory class
CAS Advisory is a bi-monthly 60 minute session devoted
to exploring the structure, philosophy and student
engagement of the CAS programme here at KIST. Thisvaluable block in the students schedule provides
guidance in all aspects of their CAS programme, frombrainstorming and planning activities, to interactive tasks
designed to further develop their understanding of
benefits from participation in the programme. A numberof activities have been completed in these sessions. For
example, students worked together to match CAS
activities to the fundamental learning outcomes the IB
requires them to engage through the programme.
Another Tuesday afternoon session was devoted to
explicitly reviewing the requirements and rubric ofreflection, with guided practice writing relevant
reflections. Students have also mapped posters
C ont i nu ed n ex t pa ge

“ T h e C o m et ”

V o l u me 1 5 | I s s u e 2 | D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 1

C o n t i n u e d f ro m p re v i o u s p a g e

identifying aspects of the learning
outcomes through drawings and text,
and have held dialogues on theappropriateness of a variety of activities.
Most recently, students viewed the CAS
activity of some of their peers including
listening to those who participated in the
youth forum, TEDXYouth, held at Tokyo
International School on Sunday,
November 20. This involved students
presenting what they did, how others
may have benefitted from what they did,and how they perceive their own benefit
from the activity.
It is making a big difference this year
having this CAS session in the school
timetable as it is providing students witha solid starting point toward thefulfillment of their CAS requirements.
Also new to the program this year isteacher CAS Advisors, who have been
instrumental during these sessions inproviding guidance and support.
Evidence from student reflection ejournals shows that genuine selfawareness, learning and understandingof the values of the IB learner profile arebeing achieved. Parents can evenbecome involved in supporting theirson/daughter in the CAS programme bylooking at their account on the Manage
Bac information system and asking
them about their CAS experiences.
Daryl Bates
CAS Coordinator

Calendar 2012-2013
To assist families planningoverseas trips, the dates ofschool vacation periods forthe 2012-2013 school year
are listed below. Families
are asked to make arrangements
accordingly to ensure that students areback in Japan ready to start school
after each vacation period on thecorrect date. The complete calendar
will be distributed later in the year.
First day of school: August 20
Autumn break: October 21 – 28
Winter vacation: December 15 –January 6
Spring break: March 23 – 31
Last day of school: June 12

Grade 8 Mountain CampThe Grade 8 students participated in an overnight
excursion from September 28 to 30. This particular
camp provided a valuable opportunity for students toparticipate in activities not possible in the Tokyo area. Students
traveled to Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture by train and then bus. While
enjoying the natural scenery students engaged in team building
activities, rope and harnessing orientation, Dutch oven cooking,journal writing, forest orienteering and nature appreciation games
connected to environmental science awareness.
The students all showed a high level of engagement and reallyseemed to enjoy this particular adventure. This was the first time weplanned this particular itinerary, but plan to include it for next year‘s
Grade 8 students. A big thank you to our trip organizers, English
Adventure.
Kevin Murphy, Marina Babaeva, Atsuko Yamashita, Christian
Baker
Trip Leaders7

8

V ol u me 15 | I s s ue 2 | D ec em b er 20 11“The Comet”

Grade 5 Camp to Nagano
A camper’s journal
October 5, 2011
Today Grade 5 arrived at school at 7:30 to go on an
exciting adventure – away from parents – CAMP! I was
so excited about going to camp but nervous because
this was the first time I was leaving my parents. Our bus
finally arrived and Ms Rabenau taught so many
students to knit as we rode.
When we arrived at Northstar Camp, the teachers told
us who we were rooming with and I was assigned withall my best friends. I could not believe it – we are all inthe same room! We are going to be up all night having
fun, I thought!
October 6, 2011
Today, I woke up at 6:30 a.m. andI was so excited that I was not
grumpy. Mrs Riemer came into
our room around at 7:00 and said
we could go to the game room. It
was so exciting!
Our group found things on atreasure hunt this morning. We
had to guess what the item wasfrom clues. Did you know Mr
Siddall has a miner‘s light for riding his bike at night?
Soon it was time to walk to the waterfall. The waterfall
was so beautiful and huge. I took lots of pictures. In the

Learning That Makes Sense
Early one Tuesday morning, the Grade 5 students
arrived to their classrooms and were surprised to seethat the two rooms had been torn apart. Students
were not allowed into their rooms. This was part of atuning in activity for the unit ―Where We Are in Placeand Time,‖ a study on migration. This activity was
designed so the students would feel displaced andwould also have to figure out how to get on with theirday, even though they had been dislocated.
The goal of the unit is for students to understand thecauses of migration, the effects of migration and theimpact of migration on cultural identity. Along the way,
students completed a pre-assessment demonstrating
what they knew about migration already, developed
their own questions to research, video Skyped with aformer refugee, played an immigration simulation game,reflected on what they were learning through a Moodle
forum, interviewed one of the recent tsunami victims
who lost her family‘s house and are now creating
podcasts including information about the challenges,
risks and opportunities involved with migration.
Doesn‘t learning in this way make you want to be a
student at KIST?

afternoon, we didmore fun activities.
We worked as
partners and walked
blindfolded so one
partner could not see.
We also worked as a team and walked on skis with fourof us. Mr Aki made it so fun and counted for us. Next,
rocket launching was my favorite. Mr Siddall put more
and more water in so the rockets would fly very high.
Tonight was such a fun evening. We built a bonfire androasted marshmallows for our smores. I loved the way
my hot marshmallow melted the chocolate onto mygraham crackers. Then Mrs Riemer and Kevin told
scary stories but more funny than scary so I could still
sleep.
October 7, 2011
Leaving camp is so
hard for me today. I
know I will be with all
my friends at school,
but it will not be thesame as staying
together here. We
were independent,
learned teamwork,
but mostly we had fun together. I will miss Northstar
and Grade 5 Camp forever!

“ T h e C o m et ”

V o l u me 1 5 | I s s u e 2 | D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 1

Understanding the Role of the School Counselor
How parents and their children can utilize the school counselor
You may or may not have had aschool counselor in your highschool, or growing up throughschool. If you did, you probably
used them for college planning or
perhaps when going through a sadtime. Today‘s school counselors
play an integral role in schools, butsometimes old stereotypes canlimit the understanding of how best
to have them help you and yourchild. This article discusses someways parents and students canengage and understand the role ofthe school counselor. A school
counselor‘s main function is tosupport students in achieving theirfull potential. For example, a
student may come to school afteran argument with a friend andhave a difficult time concentrating
on anything, much less math class.
In that situation, a student knowsthat the school counselor can beused as a sounding board andconfidant to help them express
their feelings, or perhaps to use asa resource for further action. By
seeing a counselor and dealing
with the problem, the student isthen able to concentrate in classagain. What follows is a discussion
on topics that are the main areasof focus for counselors ininternational schools.

Transitions
Mr Fishman offers transition
assistance for new students,
students moving between
divisions, students transitioning toa different school or country;
ultimately students graduating fromKIST and preparing for college andcareer paths. Being in aninternational school environment
means that some of the families inthe school are here for a while andare then transferred to anothercountry or back to their homecountry. Leaving friends andfamiliar places can be very difficult.
While there is always an edge of
excitement at the thought of a newplace with new friends, thetransition between leaving a placeand going to a new place isimportant and can potentially be avery stressful time. Counselors canhelp deal with future fears of ―whatwill be‖ and ―what ifs‖ as well as
deal with finding closure andsaying goodbye in a time that isfilled with unknowns. Similarly,
being at an international school
also means that friends come andgo, and even if you or your childare not the one leaving, your child
may also be affected by those
close friends leaving. They havefinally found a good friend, andnow they are moving away again.
Making new friends over and over,as well as keeping in touch withfriends over long distances, can betime and energy consuming.
Dealing with this separation andabandonment must be taken
seriously as it can affect academic
success.

Academics
Students often have a difficult timewith time management andorganization, also a big componentof stress management. When
students learn to manage theirtime, structure their homework,and practice procedures androutines, procrastination will beless of a problem. If a child canlearn healthy strategies that
actually work, dealing withincreasing levels of stress later onin life becomes more manageable.
Such strategies may include time
tabling, prioritizing, identifying andeliminating distracters, learning
how to ask for help, etc. Proactive
advisory classes are offered in theSecondary School about: the MYP
and DP programs, career
exploration, bullying prevention,
tolerance, decision-making,friendship issues, time
management, study skills, respect,tolerance, cliques, self-esteem,
multiple intelligence, peerpressure, and conflict mediation.

HealthGrowing up is not always easy.
Sometimes difficult problems arise:bullying, stress, sleeping
difficulties, fears, and generaladolescent angst. Counselors haveresources and information to help
students and their families get

through trying times.

Confidentiality

Mr Fishman

In any counselingsituation with a student, it is madeclear that what is shared during asession remains between thecounselor and child. The
exceptions are if there is a threat tothe child‘s well-being, anotherchild‘s well-being, or somethingillegal is happening. To enable theprimary goal of counseling (that ofassuring children‘s well-being)such cases must be reported toadministration. As the counselor
works together with different
experts, (school nurse, outside
doctor/psychologist, school
administration, teachers, parents,etc.) an overall understanding ofyour child‘s situation can often beachieved when requesting Mr
Fishman‘s involvement inemotional well-being related
issues.

Emotional well-being
Students‘ emotions can interferewith learning that could be taking
place at school. Changing families(going through divorce/separation),abuse (emotional, verbal andphysical), any of the health-related
issues mentioned above, anddepression, are just a few of theemotional difficulties a student may
encounter at some point in life.
With help from Mr Fishman, help
can be given sooner rather thanlater; when not only academicallythe student begins to slip, but
emotionally become less social,less motivated, less lively and lessdriven. Through individual, groupand class interventions, counselors
are able to help your children in a
way that many adults and friends
are not able to. There is thismutual understanding of trust andconfidentiality, which assures asafe environment for sharing.
Allowing for children to open up
and allow feelings to be expressedthat otherwise would remain
repressed and bottled up; possibly
leading to negative behavior
somewhere down the line. While
C ont i nu ed n ex t pa ge

910V ol u me 15 | I s s ue 2 | D ec em b er 20 11“The Comet”

C o n t i n u e d f ro m p re v i o u s p a g e

the counselor can be most supportive withchildren and family, limitations do exist,
and lead to the topic of the counselor
being a good resource for further help.

Resources
With the above mentioned responsibilities
as well as monitoring of students,
counselors may not be able to always givethe individual attention that a child orfamily may require. This, however, is not a
problem, as the school counselor has
many resources available for every family,
no matter what the cultural background. A
few such resources include outsidereferrals (to hospitals, doctors,
psychologists, counseling agencies,
Tokyo English Life Line (TELL), etc.,
publications (newspapers, journals,
internet research, books, etc.), andfacilitation meetings (where the counselor
has gathered feedback from the teachers
and the parent just needs to meet with thecounselor for general advice, or meetings
with teachers and parents are facilitatedby counselors).
Overall, the counselor‘s position is one ofan umbrella metaphor. The counselor isable to retrieve information from different
perspectives (teachers, administration, thelaw, books, internet, parents, otherstudents) working within confidentiality
and help your child make a responsible
and informed decision or choice in life.
Making use of the school counselor
benefits not only the child, but the parents
as well. When getting older, teenagers
start to naturally push their parents further
away, grasping for independence, abiological wedge if you will. With another
adult in their life, parents can rest assured
that the emotional well-being of theirchildren is still considered important asthey become young adults. It is therefore
important as a parent to feel comfortablecontacting your child‘s school counselor atany point of the school year, whether aproblem is occurring at home or not, if you
need information pertaining to your child‘ssocial and emotional health, and/or
academic performance always feel free tocontact Mr Benjamen Fishman, so if
assistance is needed, introductions are nolonger necessary and help can be given
immediately.
Mr Fishman‘s office is located on the 3rd
floor of Main Building.
Benjamen A. Fishman
Student Welfare Counselor (K-12)

Drop Everything And Read
November was DEAR month
The whole KIST community
celebrated DEAR (DropEverything And Read)month this November. The
activity aimed to promotereading for pleasure to allstudents and ultimately,
develop their life-longlearning skills.
Teachers and staff worked
together on the promotion of
DEAR by sharing their favorite books through posters that weredisplayed around the school.
Students in both the Elementary and Secondary Schools
participated in this school-wide reading activity every Monday during
November from 8:40 to 9:00 a.m.
It was a successful activity as the library staff caught teachers, staff
and students reading their books in the classrooms, art room, gym,computer room and even in the main school office.
We would like to thank all the homeroom teachers, staff andstudents for their support and participation of this library activity.
Andi Licuanan
Teacher-Librarian“ T h e C o m et ”

V o l u me 1 5 | I s s u e 2 | D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 1

11Alumnus Report

Personal Project in Focus

Disha Parikh is an alumnus of KIST’s “Class of 2010.”
She is currently in her second year at Hong Kong
University, majoring in biotechnology.

The Middle Years
Programme offers an...a creative,
internationally recognizedchallenging
and highly structured modeland all-inclusiveof education for students
aged 11 to 16. Generally, it is experience fora programme that offers
different academic challenges all Grade 10
and criterion-based
students.
assessment. Individually, it isan amazing journey of growing up andembracing all the challenges that the world of today
puts in front of every MYP student. And the final stop on
this 5-year-long journey is the personal project – acreative, challenging and all-inclusive experience for all
Grade 10 students.

Fit for life at Hong Kong U
I have realized that university life
is all about making your own
path, with every step you take.
Before coming to Hong Kong U, I
was unsure about where thatpath would take me. Now, morethan a year after graduating from
KIST, I am glad to be where I
am.
People often ask: why HKU? Or,
why study biotechnology? Well,
as a completely personal opinion,
I think that it‘s not about getting to an Ivy League school,
but rather, about finding a place that fits for you. Hong
Kong U has been that place for me; academicallystimulating and rewarding. Being awarded the Science
Research Fellowship this year enabled me to pursue
research as part of my virology professor‘s researchteam.
My past year has
been all about―settling in‖ andbecoming
accustomed tothings around me.
It‘s been a year ofexperiencing a
different kind of life,
be it living in a dorm,
attending high-table dinners (that take you straight toHogwarts from Harry Potter), traveling around Southeast Asia, casually meeting Nobel Laureates for an
unforgettable lunch, being invited to perform for HKU‘scentennial celebrations, organizing events at the Global
Lounge with other international students or pulling an allnighter with friends…not for studying, but to chill at anear-by harbor just to watch the sunrise. In one word,it‘s been ―amazing‖!

“”

The personal project should be a product of thestudent‘s own initiative. It must be structured around the
topic that truly interests the student. Being connected to
one of the areas of interaction and based on different
skills developed through the programme, it should mostof all reflect the student‘s personal experience of the
MYP.
The process of completing the personal project is led by
the student and supervised by a teacher. The student isrequired to demonstrate the commitment, as well as theability and initiative to work independently, which
prepares the student for moving into the final stage of
the IB programmes – the Diploma Programme.
After the completion of personal projects, the schoolorganizes the Personal Project Exhibition wherestudents present the outcomes of their experiential
learning to their fellow students, teachers and parents.
We hope that as many of our community members as
possible are able to join this celebration of inquiry
learning honoring student achievement as they
complete their last year in the MYP.
Vedrana Pavletic
MYP Coordinator

The end of DP, and leaving
KIST, was a weird and mixed
feeling. Leaving a place I called―home‖, and saying goodbye tofriends and family wassaddening, but who knew it
would be a start to something so
awesome? :)Disha Parikh
The University of Hong Kong
BSc. Biotechnology Year 2
KIST Alumnus, ―Class of 2010‖

The MYP Personal Project Exhibition will be held at
KIST on February 23 and 24. Further details will beannounced closer to these dates.

12

V ol u me 15 | I s s ue 2 | D ec em b er 20 11“The Comet”

Victory for Volleyballers

Anyone for Softball?

Congratulations
to the KIST
Under 18 Girls‘
Volleyballteam—the
ISTAA
champions! The
girls beatInternational
Secondary
School 2 - 0 inthechampionshipgame held in
the KIST
gymnasium on
Saturday,
November 12.

You may not have known it, but there is aschool softball team for parents and staff!
The team promotes friendly sportsmanshipamongst members through practices and tournamentswith other adult teams. The team usually meets twice amonth on Sundays on the KIST playing field or at otherlocal Japanese schools and baseball grounds in Kotoku. A wide range of ages are represented, withmembers ranging from their twenties to their sixties.
The team is currently recruiting new members ahead ofnext year‘s season. If you are interested in joining, oreven just coming along for a look, please contact
Akihiko Nogami at akihiko.nogami@kist.ed.jp.

Well done girls on a fantastic achievement! And special
thanks to coach, Mr Lee, and assistant coach, Ms
Pavletic, for helping the girls reach their winning form.
The team includes: Nina, Akiko and Michiru (G10A),
Moyu, Miku and Erika (G10B), Shifa (G11A), andShay and Sara (G11C)

Secondary SRC
This year‘s 2011-2012 Secondary Student
Representative Council has started off successfully
with the KIST Halloween Dance, which raised over
38,000 yen. This money will go towards the SRC
budget, which will be used to help fund upcoming
SRC events. The SRC received a significant amountof support and positive feedback for the dance. The
feedback was well received and the SRC is looking
forward to the next SRC dance, which will be held in
February.
Homeroom representatives have also been selected
for this school year. These students will represent thestudents of their homeroom in our weekly SRC
meetings.

Secondary SRC
Homeroom Representatives
Some of theactivities that
we will beorganizing forthis school year
are sporting
events, freedress days,
dances, andcharityfundraising
events. We arelooking forward
to a great year!

Grade 6A: Nikita
Grade 6B: Hee Yong
Grade 7A: Yasmine and Radhika
Grade 7B: Nina
Grade 8A: Mihir
Grade 8B: Azzam
Grade 9A: Kouta
Grade 10A: Min
Grade 10B: Bilal
Grade 11A: Ria
Grade 11B: Miri
Grade 11C: Yeon Soo
Grade 12: Paolo

Secondary SRC homeroom reps with Mr Fishman.

“ T h e C o m et ”

V o l u me 1 5 | I s s u e 2 | D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 1

 Is there anything you are trying to learn/improveabout yourself at the moment?
I am reading the most ‗literature‘ I have ever done in mylife. Every New Year‘s Day I promise to myself that
―This year I will learn English‖ but end up giving up by
the end of the week.
 Do you have any special message for your fans?
Studying, as long as you know how to do it, can bedone anytime, and something that once you go out into
the world may be necessary, even if it‘s not yourstrongest field; so for now, let‘s at least enjoy classes
together.

Staff 10!
In this month‘s Staff 10!, weare pleased to present
Etsuo Kamo, one of KIST‘slongest serving staff
members. Kamo-sensei
joined KIST in 1997, theyear of the school‘sfounding, and is a Japanese
language teacher in the
MYP and DP.

13

Kamo-sensei in theclassroom Tell us something interesting about yourhometown.
I was born in Kobe and lived there until I was 18 years
old. When I was a child, bananas were a luxury item
imported from Taiwan. I don‘t think that there weresuch things as refrigerated ships back then and sobananas were picked and shipped while still green, but
if the ship was delayed due to a typhoon or something,the ice used to preserve them would melt, and thebananas would ripen early, they would then be sold forcheap on roadsides as nearly rotten food. My dad
would buy them and bring them home and so I believedthat bananas were a black spotted skinned fruit until
junior high school!
 What is your favorite place in the world?
I‘d off course like to say Kobe, but as the house andtown I lived in were burned down in the Great Hanshin
Awaji Earthquake and is now ‗another town‘, I suppose
I would have say ‗the Kobe in my memories‘.
 Who would you like to meet if you had the chance
and why?
My chemistry teacher from high school. Duringchemistry, I was always with my best friend and we
stood at the back not taking any notes, yet it‘s the onlyclass I remember taking during those two years.
Thanks to that teacher, I was not only able toremember the contents of the textbooks, but also all
the Q&A sessions, and came to like chemistry.
 Do you have any special skills or talents?
I like trying new things; from the so called arts,
photography, gardening to go, chess and evenmountain climbing and tennis, all of which I am fairly
talented at (or so I believe), and I have a special skill tobe able to give them up after 2 or 3 years.
 Please share a little known fact about yourself.
I guess what I wrote in the first question about beingfrom Kobe. Also, until I received my Japanese teaching
license 12-13 years ago, I was actually a science guy
who hated literature and English.
 What is your most prized possession?
Children…that‘s probably what my best students wouldsay.
 What words would you use to describe yourself?
―I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.‖ If you could live your life again, would you doanything differently?
Learn to speak at least English and immigrate to Africa,
which was my dream in high school.

Office Updates
Communicating with KIST
When corresponding with the school regarding yourchild (e.g. when notifying the office of an absence),please provide your child‘s full name (e.g. Taro Suzuki)
as well as their grade and class (e.g. Grade 3B). All
absences should be reported directly to the office, notto individual class teachers.

Withdrawals and documentation requests
Families withdrawing children from KIST this month are
asked to notify the school as soon as possible bysubmitting the Student Withdrawal Form available on
the school website Contact >> Forms page. Anyrequests for documentation such as teacher
recommendations must also be submitted as soon as
possible via the Request for Documentation Form.
This should be submitted directly to the office, not toindividual teachers. Letters of recommendation take up
to two weeks to prepare. Requests received in the last
week of school will not be available until after the
winter vacation.

Arriving late to school Attendance for students in Grades 1
through 12 is taken in the classroom
at 8:30. Students must be in theirclassroom by this time or they will bemarked absent. Students who enter
the school gates before 8:30, but failto be in their classrooms on time, will also be marked
absent. Entrance to the school after 8:30 will bemarked as a late arrival.
 Late arrivals are marked as temporary absences.
Students who arrive late for school must report to thereception counter and complete a late slip in order tochange their absence to a late arrival. Students who
fail to report to the reception will be marked absent.
 Please contact the school office by 8:30 if your childis going to be late for school. Exceptions are madefor lateness due to unavoidable situations such as
train accidents etc.
 Students should obtain a certificate of train delay(chienshomeisho) from staff at Kiyosumi-Shirakawa
Station if they are late due to a delayed train.
Students who submit this certificate are marked as an―excused late arrival‖ which does not count against
their absentee rate.

14

V ol u me 15 | I s s ue 2 | D ec em b er 20 11“The Comet”

IT News
Live@edu update
It has been 2 months since KIST
officially moved all schoolcommunications over to Live@edu
and we hope that this has helped
families communicate more closely
and conveniently with theirchildren‘s classroom teachers andother families in the KIST
community. Although manyfamilies are taking advantage ofthe new system, there are still anumber of families who have not
yet logged into their accounts.
Please make sure to use
your KIST Live@edu
account for all schoolcommunications. KIST
staff and teachers nolonger communicate via
personal e-mail addresses.
Please contact me via the e-mailaddress below if you would like toconfirm your login details or if you
require assistance using thesystem.
We have also been introducing
Live@edu to students and it has
been very well received by
students as young as Grade 2 all
the way up to Grade 12. However,
we often see that younger students

Nurse’s Notes

do have difficulty in remembering
their passwords so we ask thatparents spend time with theirchildren and help them practicejust logging into their accounts in
one go without mistakes. A lot of
valuable classroom time is lost withstudents not remembering theirpasswords. We are also planningto get K2 to Grade 1 students tolog into Moodle with their
Live@edu accounts, but realize
this will take a lot longer toachieve. We encourage parents totalk to their children about Moodle
and to have your child show you
how they use it and talk about the
many photo galleries our teachers
spend a lot of time putting
together.

Did you know?
You know you can connect yourLive@edu account to asmartphone/tablet giving youaccess to all of your schoolcommunications on the go? If you
haven‘t done this yet, please makean appointment and drop by theschool office to ask the IT guys forhelp. It only takes about 5-10
minutes.
As of November 2011, Microsoft
reported that more than 22 million
people are using Live@edu. In

Japan the Inzai City Board of
Education and the Wakayama City
Board of Education are noted
users of Live@edu.
In the next 2012-2013 academic
year, Live@edu will change its
name to Office 365 for Educationas part of a global update to theservice. As we learn of moredetails we will pass them along to
the school community.
In the last school year, KIST has
nearly doubled the number ofcomputers available for student
and staff use to 300. And the new
wireless system is being utilized by
students and staff to provide
access to online resources
everywhere on the school campus.
Please e-mail me if you have any
questions or need help with
Live@edu.
Rob Whittaker
IT Software/Hardware Coordinatorrobert.whittaker@kist.ed.jp

The Nurse’s Room is located next to the main
office and is open daily from 8:30 to 3:30.

My name is Mari Nameshida and I am the new full-timenurse. As the cold and flu season is upon us, I hope thefollowing information will be helpful for you and yourfamily.
Please make sure your children gargle once they arrive
home. Gargling is an excellent way to combat bacteria
in the mouth. Gargling with salt water and mouthwash isrecommended. Gargling salt water is suggested for asore throat. For best results, gargle for at least 15
seconds. Neither salt water nor commercial mouthwash
is intended to be ingested, especially by children, so
please instruct your children how to gargle correctly.
In Japan, the flu season peaks from December to Marchwhen the air is dry. If you would like to be vaccinated, aflu shot takes about one month to have the maximum
effect, so I suggest scheduling an appointment as soon
as possible. The price is about 3,000 to 4,000 yen, but it
depends on the hospital, so please check the cost inadvance. Please be careful as insurance does notnormally cover the vaccine. Usually children‘s vaccine ischeaper than adult‘s and children under 13 have tohave 2 shots.

Under current flu conditions, if a child has
flu symptoms, please take them to adoctor 24 hours after the symptoms
appear as flu tests are not accurate if it is
too soon. Children should stay home until Ms Nameshidathey are free of fever for at least 48 hours
because they are contagious during this time. This is
usually about 3 to 5 days. Unfortunately, the flu cannot
be prevented 100% even if a flu shot has been provided;
however, a vaccine will typically lessen the symptoms. If
you would like more information regarding colds and flu,
please see the following the link:
http://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/index.html
When we have students who are suffering fromcontagious diseases such as flu, chicken pox and lice,
we inform class families via E-Communications. If you
have any questions, please feel free to contact me via email or stop by my office and we can meet in person.
Mari Nameshida
School Nurse
mari.nameshida@kist.ed.jp

“ T h e C o m et ”

V o l u me 1 5 | I s s u e 2 | D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 1

15Grade 6 Nikko Excursion
Grade 6 students headed out to Nikko in the earlymorning of November 9. After a 2-hour train ride, thestudents attended a pottery exhibition and painted small
ceramic cups using traditional paints. They were served
lunch and headed to Rinnoji Temple, where they did a
guided tour. They asked many questions and toured thetemple of Dragon Tears. The building design allows forsounds to travel from one certain spot, ringing andmaking a painting of a dragon seem to cry. Students
were able to see ancient paintings and buy small tokens
to remember their visit.
On Day 2 we woke up early and were treated to amountain hike. This was a highlight as the students
were free to run and explore, as well as learn about the
habitat from our knowledgeable guides. They saw somedeer and learned about the way the water system works
in Japan to be
sure that all
citizens haveaccess toclean water.
Students took
many pictureson this day
and walked
through themountain on
wooden paths
and bridges.

New Faces

Welcome to Shun Nakade
and Emma Hodgson.

Shun Nakade has been appointed tothe position of Secondary School
Administrative Assistant.
Shun said of his position: ―Hello. My
name is Shun. I grew up in thisneighborhood around the school, andknew the school building and property even before it
was K. International School. Shortly after finishingjunior high school, I went to study in Oregon for 3 years
and moved to Seattle for 2 more years. I am very
excited to be here and hope that I will be a good
addition to the KIST community.‖
Emma Hodgson will join the
Elementary School staff after the
winter vacation as the new Teacher‘s
Assistant for Grade 1B.
Emma said of her position: ―Hi, myname is Emma and I will be arriving inTokyo from Hong Kong in December. I
have been co-teaching a Grade 3 class for a year anda half in a nurturing IB international school. I am
looking forward to working with KIST students andexploring the Japanese culture.‖

We werehiking behind
Mt. Nantai andthis activity
took up mostof the day!
After the hikewe visited
Nikko Nature
Museum for a short film about the changing seasonsand the natural habitat that we had just explored. We
ended the day with a visit to Kegon Falls and the 3-floor
observation deck.
Students ate all meals together and spent time at nightplaying team building, and treasure hunt games in abasement room in the hotel. All students were
responsible for their own belongings and behavior andreally enjoyed the opportunity to interact with theirteachers in a more personal setting.
Day 3 we visited the Edo Mura village where the kids
attended ninja performances, haunted houses, geisha
parades and were thoroughly soaked by pouring rain.
It was a wonderful experience for all involved.
Kara Haines
Secondary English-Humanities Teacher

Drama Festivals
This fall, KIST Secondary students
had a great opportunity to participate
in the Kanto Plains Drama Festivals
hosted by Yokohama International
School (High School Drama Festival) and The British
School in Japan (Middle School Drama Festival). The
students were given a chance to meet new people, tomake new friends and to enjoy fun and challenging
activities led by professional drama producers. The final
performances for both festivals were truly amazing anddemonstrated excellent creative thinking andcooperative skills of all participants. As chaperon, I wasespecially proud of KIST students who represented ourcommunity at these significant events. Congratulations
to all participants!
Marina Babaeva
DP/MYP Music
Teacher

16

V ol u me 15 | I s s ue 2 | D ec em b er 20 11“The Comet”

Cross Country NewsKIST runs away with the gold!
KIST students have been training inside and outside ofschool in preparation for this cross country season. The
KIST PE staff have been working on fitness andconditioning units across the whole school. BothElementary and Secondary grades have made it theirfocus to learn about different aspects of athletic
training, health and fitness as well as the theories that
support them. We would like to think that thisknowledge and hard work gave our children an
advantage coming into the inter-school cross countrymeet.
On November 18, KIST students gathered at Arakawa
River to compete against each other in the annual
KIST Inter-House Cross Country event in hopes ofqualifying for the ISTAA championships. The winners of
the inter-house event then advanced on to the ISTAAInter-School Cross Country Championships held at
the same location on November 25. KIST advanced
over 70 students to this championship race whocompeted against eight other schools and had great
KIST Inter-House Cross Country
Grade 1 Boys:
Keanu (G1A)
Yudai (G1A)
Harunosuke (G1A)
Grade 2 Boys:
Kaiser (G2B)
Kishore (G2A)
Ross (G2B)
Grade 3 Boys:Samuel (G3B)
Deniz (G3A)
Hee Sung (G3A)
Grade 4 Boys:
Salim (G4A)
Kenzo (G4B)
Nimit (G4A)
Grade 5 Boys:
Keina (G5B)
Shin (G5B)
Keigo (G5A)
Grade 6 Boys:
Hikaru (G6A)
Taisei (G6A)
Hee Yong (G6B)
Grade 7 Boys:
Hee-Jun (G7B)
Haruto (G7B)
Akira (G7A)
Grade 8 Boys:
Tyson (G8A)
Rei (G8B)
Jisang (G8B)
Motoi (G8B)
Grade 9 Boys:
Salam (G9B)
Maung Wai (G9B)
Roshana (G9A)

Grade 1 Girls:
Tomoko (G1A)
Tia (G1A)
Sara (G1A)
Grade 2 Girls:
Rina (G2A)
Minagi (G2A)
Zoe (G2A)
Grade 3 Girls:
Saki (G3B)
Maki (G3A)
Aisha (G3B)
Grade 4 Girls:
Emily (G4B)
Reina (G4B)
Sara (G4B)
Grade 5 Girls:
Hina (G5B)
Ruiran (G5A)
Asami (G5B)
Emiri (G5A)
Grade 6 Girls:
Riko (G6B)
Yi-Ting (G6A)
Hana (G6A)
Grade 7 Girls:
Moana (G7B)
Kotone (G7A)
Eimi (G7B)
Grade 8 Girls:
Nino (G8A)
Ayaka (G8B)
Angela (G8A)
Grade 9 Girls:
Rina (G9B)
Rei (G9A)
Jamie (G9A)
Tamami (G9A)
Keerti (G9A)

Grade 10 Boys:
Adam (G10B)
Sashank (G10A)
Abhinav (G10B)
Grade 11 Boys:
Alakhsa (G11B)
Ashutosh (G11A)
Jae Hyoung (G11C)
Grade 12 Boys:
Eric (G12)
Ryosuke (G12)
Cameron (G12)

results. KIST students were very successful, taking
away many medals with top times. In addition, ourstudents made us very proud by taking home the top
team award. This trophy is awarded for the combined
total points scored by a single school. KIST students
scored upwards of 15,000 points with the next bestteam trailing by almost 800.
So congratulations to all whocompeted and those who supported
our children on these triumphanttwo days for KIST. And special
thanks to the parent volunteers who
made these events possible. We
could not have done it without you!
Jay Leroy, Chee Lee, AkihikoNogamiPE Teachers

Grade 10 Girls:
Akiko (G10A)
Miku (G10B)
Moyu (G10B)
Grade 11 Girls:
Monica (G11C)
Marie (G11C)
Sara (G11C)
Grade 12 Girls:
Ewa (G12)
Na Yeong (G12)Sung Hye (G12)ISTAA Inter-School Cross Country
Grade 1:Boys
Bronze: Keanu (G1A)
Girls
Bronze: Tomoko (G1A)
Grade 2:Boys
Silver: Kaiser (G2B)
Grade 3:Boys
Bronze: Deniz (G3A)
Girls
Gold: Saki (G3B)
Silver: Maki (G3B)
Grade 4:
Girls
Gold: Emily (G4B)
Bronze: Reina (G4B)
Grade 5:Girls
Silver: Hina (G5B)
Grade 6:
Boys
Gold: Hikaru (G6A)
Silver: Hee Yong (G6B)

Girls
Grade 10:
Silver: Riko (G6B)
Boys
Bronze: Yi-Ting (G6A) Gold: Adam (G10B)
Grade 7:Girls
BoysBronze: Akiko (G10A)
Gold: Hee-Jun (G7B)
Grade 11:Silver: Haruto (G7B)
Girls
Girls
Gold: Monica (G11C)
Gold: Moana (G7B)
Silver: Marie (G11C)
Bronze: Kotone (G7A) Bronze: Sara (G11C)
Grade 8:Boys
Gold: Tyson (G8A)
Bronze: Rei (G8B)
Girls
Gold: Nino (G8A)
Bronze: Ayaka (G8B)
Grade 9:Boys
Gold: Salam (G9B)
Bronze: Roshana (G9A)
Girls
Bronze: Keerti (G9A)
Participating schools: KIST, The British School inTokyo, Canadian IS, Columbia IS, International
Secondary School, KAIS IS, The Montessori School ofTokyo, Nishimachi IS, Tokyo IS

“ T h e C o m et ”

V o l u me 1 5 | I s s u e 2 | D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 1

College Guidance News
Closing dates for college applications in majorcountries such as the US, UK and Japan are coming
soon and the College Guidance Office is very busy
assisting Grade 12 students to finalize theirapplications, checking application forms and essays,
asking teachers to issue a predicted IB grade and a
letter of recommendation, sending school documents
including school reports for the past three or four years
and more. You may see Mrs Okude chasing students
and teachers at school to get request forms orsignatures on letters.

College presentations at KIST
Nearly 30 universities and colleges from all over theworld visited KIST this year from September toNovember. One of the major advantages to attend thecollege presentations at KIST is that you can meetcollege representatives at school and obtain
information directly from them. Most of therepresentatives come from admissions offices and aresometimes members of faculty. On October 27,
Professor Gill Steel from Doshisha University Kyoto
visited us and provided a presentation about theuniversity‘s new English program, Institute for the
Liberal Arts.

College information
Finding the right place to go after graduating from KIST
is one of the toughest decisions to make for students
and parents. Too much information or too little
information? The College Guidance Office is the placethat you can start exploring your future career anduniversity/college options. So please drop by anytime
to see Mrs Okude during her office hours: Monday
through Friday except for Wednesday from 10 a.m.
- 5 p.m. You may just come to peruse college catalogs
during lunch time or afterschool. Also, there are many
opportunities to know more about colleges/universities:
attending college presentations at KIST and college
fairs, visiting campuses, talking to students and alumni
and so on. The following are some examples for KIST
students this year.

Special tour of Meiji Gakuin University
Through the courtesyof Meiji Gakuin
University, a special
tour for KIST students
was conducted during
the autumn break. Six
students from Grade
11 and 12 joined thetour and visited theuniversity‘s Totsuka campus on October 17. They hada chance to meet professors and obtain information
about the Department of Global and Transcultural
Studies, a new 4-year program taught only in English.
A model lecture class was provided by Professor
Michael Watson and students enjoyed participating in areal setting. The lecture was about the global market oftranslated literature from the perspective ofcomparative culture. Our students were actively
involved in class discussions. After the presentationand model lecture, we enjoyed a walking tour of thebeautiful campus
conducted byProfessor
Alexander
Vesey.

Alumni talk
It is a joy to know
our graduates areenjoying their lives
somewhere in theworld through emails, photos andletters. But it is a
special moment
when we see themback at school. We
always appreciate their appearance in classes, justpopping in to talk about their experiences after
graduation. PPO (Class of 2011) spoke to ourGrade 11s on December 9. He shared about hiscollege life at the University of Chicago and gave
good advice for the DP. KIST is currently building a
database of alumni so you may have more chances
to keep in touch with each other.

Japanese books about the IB
I have received several inquiries from parents about
how to get more information about the IB in
Japanese. This is one of a few books published inJapan: 「国際バカロレア 世界が認める卓越した教育プ
ログラム」(相良憲昭・岩崎久美子編著 2007). This
book was based on academic research conducted
for the Japanese Ministry of Education andScience. The researcher and author is Ms Kumiko
Iwasaki who became a close friend to the KIST
community and joined our last trip to Tohoku when
we were volunteering to provide meals there after
the earthquake. You are able to check it out fromthe KIST LMC.
Mrs Keiko Okude
College Guidance Counselor
keiko.okude@kist.ed.jp

17

18

V ol u me 15 | I s s ue 2 | D ec em b er 20 11“The Comet”

KISTival 2011
Thanks for the
memories!