The Comet

The New sletter of K. International School Tokyo
Volume 17 | Issue 4 | June 2014

In this issue...
Farewell from Mr Rothkopf…p. 3

Commuting to and from School…p. 10

Attaining our KIST Mission…p. 4

Education for Tomorrow…p. 11

Grade 5 PYP Exhibition…p. 5

G4: Honing Research Skills…p. 13

Journey to the Spelling Bee …p. 6

Sakura Medal Book Trailers…p. 15

Math Field Day…p. 7

Sports and Athletics Update...p. 16

MYP Personal Project…p. 8

Family Day 2014…p. 22

From the Head of School

DATES TO REMEMBER

I hope that the whole KIST community is feeling well and enjoying the fresh,
spring air. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support ofthe implementation of new initiatives such as the Key Stages and IGCSE into
mathematics, which as we have stated previously, will aid our students’development and bring successful results.
We are particularly mindful of the importance of mathematics and English (theschool’s language of instruction) as learning tools and the importance ofbuilding the knowledge required in all grades from an early age. This issomething that I mentioned at our Family Day, and is something that is
supported by data published by the UK government, with the following points
being of particular note: Language and mathematics levels have a greater impact on overall levels
than all other subjects.
 Students who achieve good grades in mathematics in elementary school
achieve better grades in most subjects in secondary school.
The DP, which is the final step in a child’s education at our school, teaches thetheoretical thinking skills desired by companies, analytical ability,communication skills and a variety of other skills. Therefore, a successful DP
grade is a passport to the world’s best universities. However, the programme isextremely challenging, and so the shortest way to achieving this success is inpreparing steadily over time, and as the data above shows, the key is in
improving mathematics and English ability.
With the implementation of Key Stages in mathematics, parents will be able tosee clearly their children’s level of progress. This June, Key Stage testing will
also be incorporated into English which will allow us to measure and identify
your child’s level of progress and lead them onto the path of success in the DP.
Initially, the Key Stage test in June will only consist of a reading test, but weare also considering a writing test in the future. Thank you for your continued
support of the school’s policies and in supporting your children.
I am also pleased to announce that this August, we will be opening a newsister school, K. International Preschool in Nihonbashi-hamacho a shortdistance of 2 km (7 minutes by car) from the main KIST campus. The newpreschool is intended for 2 to 5 year old children to develop the English ability
and attitudes required at KIST.
Continued on next page

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

June 2014
6 (G1-G5) Elementary concert(*Afternoon)
6 (G6-G12) Secondary concert(*Evening)
10 (G5) Promotion ceremony(*Evening)
10 Peer student-led conferences
11 (S) Secondary awards assembly
11 (G10) Promotion ceremony
11 (W) Last day of school forstudents (Half day for students)
12-13 Office open
16-27 Summer day camp
18 (W) Semester 2 reports issued
by post30-Jul 25 Office closed

July 2014
28-Aug 8 Summer academic
programAugust 2014
14 (K1/K2/K3) Parent welcomenight
18 (W) First day of school for all
students
27 (G1-G5) Parent welcome night
29 (G6-G12) Parent welcome night
29 (G12) College information night

KIST is an
IB World
School2“ T h e Co m e t ”

V ol u me 17 | I s s ue 4 | J u ne 2 01 4

Continued from previous page

We will also offer the opportunity for KIST students up
to Grade 5 to learn skills like piano and dance inEnglish at the new school. I will inform you of further
details in the near future once everything has been
confirmed.
I would also like to take this opportunity to announce
that Mr Stephen Rothkopf, our Secondary School
Principal, will be leaving us at the end of the current
school year. Mr Rothkopf’s appointment as Secondary
School Principal came at a very difficult period in theschool’s history following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake
disaster; however, he took on the challenges of amanagement position enthusiastically. I am very
grateful to him for his efforts and wish him happinessand success in his new endeavors. For Mr Rothkopf’s

successor, we have appointed our Secondary School
Vice Principal, Mr Mark Cowe, as our new Secondary
School Principal.
Finally, once again this year, a large
number of students will graduate from
KIST. It is also the time of year when
we say farewell to other students andstaff who will leave us. I would like to wish all those
who are leaving, all those who will remain at KIST, andto the entire school community, all the best for successin your future endeavors.
Yoshishige Komaki
School Director/Head of School

Elementary School News
Summer learning
2013-2014 has been a fun and productive year in the
Elementary School. As the weather turns warm and wenear the end of the school year, many of us havealready begun thinking about the upcoming summer
holiday.
Even though our students will not be attending school
during the summer, there are still many opportunities
for them to continue to learn while on holidays. Luckily,
the summer holiday is a chance for students to apply
what they have learned in authentic, real life situations.
Whether travelling or not, keeping a journal of thesummer holiday is a great way for students to continue
to write. A holiday journal not only reinforces writing
skills, but the other subject areas can be integrated into
the writing. Our students can draw maps of the places
they visit and add information they researchthemselves. Photos, drawings and artwork can also be
added to the journal to prompt even more descriptive
writing and explanation. Writing and sending postcards
to friends and relatives is also another purposefulwriting activity which helps students learn to explain
their thoughts concisely.
If children receive an allowance, counting and keeping
track of their pocket money is an important skill which
can be reinforced over the summer. Estimating andcalculating the cost of shopping trips will review
mathematical skills they have learned. When travelling,
have your children estimate the time and distance tothe destinations. This will help them to see theconnections between, distance, speed and time.
Students can also use their computer and mapping
skills to plot routes to their favorite holiday destinations
calculating time, highway tolls or train fares, anddistance.

If the weather
turns wet, there
are still many
fun andeducational
destinations
around Tokyo.
Museums,aquariums, science centers and showrooms canprovide hours of enjoyable learning. Arts and crafts
activities at home can inspire creative thinking andproblem solving. There are also numerous entertaining
online sites which can help children review what they
have learned and have fun discovering more. Please
see the list below.
Recommended websites:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/
http://www.coolmath-games.com/
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/
http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/math-games/
And last, but certainly not least, reading! Children
should be encouraged to read every day. We should
expose our children to a variety of age appropriate
books, magazines, websites and other readingmaterials and promote the joy in reading. Reading
together, asking questions and discussing the stories
and topics are ways of providing motivation andstimulating thought.
I wish you all a pleasurable, productive and inspiring
summer!
Kevin Yoshihara
Elementary School Principal

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Farewell from Mr Rothkopf
It has been four years since I joined KIST and I have
had the honor of being the Secondary School Principal
for the past three years. During my tenure at KIST
there have been many times of celebration,achievements and of course challenges which I
believe has brought many of us closer together. I havethoroughly enjoyed working at KIST and appreciate
the support students, parents, teachers, office staff
and the senior management team have given
throughout. The processes we have put in placerequire significant ongoing collaboration of which all ofthese groups at different points continually contribute.
I want to thank each and every community member for
all your support, and for entrusting me with the care of
our students. I am indeed honored to have been given
the opportunity to be part of the KIST community.
During the past four years, I have grown professionallyand will treasure the memories and friendships I havemade during my tenure. Being part of KIST and living
in Japan will certainly carry on as my wife and I movecloser to family in Europe.
Having worked closely with Mr Cowe for the past 4
years, I am confident the school will move ahead very
well as we continue the transition to new leadershipduring the remainder of the school year. This will
include building on the considerable enhancements
made in curriculum planning and inspiring greater
student involvement which is typified by the Secondary
School Representative Council.

It is certainly difficult to say
goodbye to the parents andteachers, but the hardest part isof course saying goodbye to thestudents. I have very muchenjoyed watching our students
grow up and come into theirown. The variety of talents andindividuality our students demonstrate is truly inspiring.
Just as when students eventually move away fromhome to attend college or university, I too must
challenge myself with different leadership experiences
so I can continue to grow as an educator and life-longlearner.
To the entire KIST community, I want to thank you forletting me be a part of our community of learners who
are making a real difference in the lives of ourstudents.
Lastly, I want to thank Mr and Mrs Komaki for theircountless support and guidance for which I am
extremely grateful.
Warmest regards,
Stephen Rothkopf
Secondary School Principal

Spotlight on Clubs

Community Noticeboard

Secondary badminton club

A “Community Noticeboard” has been set
up next to the basketball court outside theMultipurpose Room in the West Building.
The purpose of the noticeboard is to share
information about events and activities
being held in the local and wider
communities that may be of interest to our schoolcommunity. Please be sure to check it when you visit
the school. Also, you are welcome to bring any posters
or advertisements you wish to display; however, pleasebe sure to review the recently distributed ECommunications No. 246 for information regarding theuse of this board.

Drive! Flick! Smash! These were some of the types ofshots made each week during the Badminton Club
season. This year the Badminton Club members had
fun playing both competitive and friendly games with
one another. Some of the members even invented
some creative variations to the game, which only
made the matches more enjoyable.
Badminton is a great form of exercise as well as being
a lot of fun! The Badminton Club is open to all G6-12
students. We look forward to seeing you next year!
Keith Erickson
Badminton Club3

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Attaining our KIST Mission
As we come to the end of another school year, it isappropriate to reflect on how well we are attaining our
mission to deliver quality international education that is
also accessible to children from a variety ofbackgrounds.

quality educational programming, we must also
consider how well we are doing at making sucheducation accessible to families from a variety ofbackgrounds. One way that we do so is by keeping ourtuition fees as low as possible.

Best-Schools.UK.org recently published a ranking of
the best IB DP schools in the UK based on DP overall
point averages. For these UK schools offering the DP
to cohorts of at least 15 students last year, DP overall
point averages ranged from first place at 40.1 points to37th place at 29.3 points. Ranking data can be viewed
at:
http://www.best-schools.co.uk/uk-school-leaguetables/ib-schools-large-cohort/

Also provided in the abovementioned UK ranking data
was the tuition fees for each of the schools included in
the rankings. We are proud to also report that KIST
ranked lowest amongst these UK schools in acomparison of tuition fees (converted to GBP).

We are pleased to report that when we include KIST
DP results from last year into the ranking data, KIST
ranks among these top UK schools as well.
 KIST ranks at 30th place with an average DP scoreof 32 points for candidates receiving the Diploma.
 KIST ranks at 36th place with an average of 30.7
points for all candidates (including our candidates
who did not receive the Diploma).
While these results represent a comparison of DP
performance, such DP results are not possible without
whole-school commitment and solid educational
programming at all levels of the school. Recent studies
show that successful educational programming isdependent on supportive families that are expectant of
results. We appreciate our strong community support
towards initiatives we have recently introduced andthose we will introduce next year – such as additional
Mathematics and English support in the Elementary
School and Academic Writing classes in the Secondary
School – to attain our school goal of a 36 point averagefor DP over the next 5 years.
While the above is convincing that KIST is delivering

While comparison of context makes a comparison of
our tuition fees against those of schools in the UKdifficult, the cost of living in Tokyo and the UK could besaid to be comparable. However, in order to compare
our tuition fees to those of locally based schools, a
couple of weeks ago I also prepared a comparison of
our tuition fees against those of international schools in
the Tokyo area and am proud to report to you that our
fees are significantly lower than other establishedTokyo based international schools.
We believe that the KIST community’s commitment has
resulted in another year of results evidential of us
attaining our mission to deliver accessible, quality
education.
I hope that everyone is proud of all that we haveattained together thus far and that everyone is excitedabout even further progress we will make as we work
together henceforth to attain our school goals.
Thank you for all of your continued support. I wish all
KIST families a restful and safe summer full of
wonderful family memories.
Jeffrey Jones
Director of Education

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Grade 5 PYP Exhibition 2014
Back on April 24 and 25, our fifth
grade students got a chance todemonstrate their knowledge thatthey have assembled over the past
several years with the summative
learning task known as“Exhibition”. As a culminating
experience, students have an
opportunity to engage in acollaborative, transdisciplinary
inquiry process that challenges
their acquired skills of investigationand problem solving. This is nosmall task. It is challenging not
only for the students but also forthe most seasoned of educators.
This year’s exhibition team was led
by two “new-comers” to theprogram. Mr Matthew Archibald
and Mr Scott Grant took the helm
and piloted the process from the
beginning in a fresh anduncluttered burst of exuberance
that was contagious. Theirleadership style along with theirshared goal of “getting it doneright” helped motivate the students
to do their best. The team wasjoined by the 5th grade ELS
Coordinator, Ms Rachel Parkinson
and a host of elementary teachers
who served as mentors. These
members facilitated the students inaccessing their own knowledge
and using it in positive andproductive ways.
Students put their thoughts
together and created a central idea
as a group which served as thedriving force for the investigations.
“Human made systems andorganizations have positive andnegative effects on our lives andthe environment.” Under thiscentral idea, students chose avariety of topics; Poverty and Child
Labor, Nuclear Power, Water
Pollution, Animal Shelters, Building
Safety, Smuggling, and Traffic
Management, to name a few.
Groups and individuals arranged
for interviews with people in thecommunity in order to get firsthandknowledge about the topics.
Research was carried out in athorough and painstaking mannerand the students as a whole built asound knowledge of the issues. As
students dug deeper into thesubject matter, excitement ran
high, building towards a grandscale presentation on the night ofApril 24 to which parents andfriends were invited. The
presentations were done in a
professional manner that made it
evident the students understood
the material. The information wasaccessible from a visual/emotional
perspective as there was anemphasis on ideas being
presented “face to face” rather
than resorting to a heavy relianceon technology. This made thechildren’s yearning to share theirinformation and enthusiasm more
apparent.
One aspect of the exhibition which
has changed over the years has

been tomakethe focus
more
local inits scopeandreach.
Students
choose topics that need real
responses and solutions in order tobe resolved and in turn sustained.
The final element in the equation isthe concept of “action”. In the past,action has been difficult to achieve
or unsustainable because offactors such as geographical andpolitical considerations. Choosing“local” issues increases theprobability of more effective andrealistic action and results which
can be more easily monitored. As
the process is in reality ongoing,
we look forward to hearing more
about the outcomes and long-term
effects that our students’
explorations have shaped.
In closing, we would like to wish
our grade five students good lucknext year in the secondary school
along with a wish of good luck to
the grade 5 teachers who will be
putting their second Exhibition
together! Great job all around!
Clay Bradley
PYP Coordinator56

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Journey to the Tokyo Japan Times Spelling Bee
This was my 4th year participating in the Japan Times
Spelling Bee. During my years of participation, I havedeveloped an ever-growing fondness for words. I
learned many new words and also made many
mistakes that helped me progress even further, and I
would like to share some of the lessons I learned during
my journey.
The National Spelling Bee began in the United States ofAmerica in 1925. The first National USA Spelling Bee
was a competition between 9 students from 9 statesacross the country. The competitors who were chosen
had already won their classroom, school and regional(state) competitions to be in the National Spelling Bee.
The 89th National Spelling Bee takes place this year at
the end of May, with 281 spellers from the USA and all
the way from Japan and China, who will represent theirrespective countries. A lot has changed with thespelling bee since 1925, and it is getting more popular
day by day. The first spelling bee in Japan was held in2009 and is gradually gaining popularity with around 40
schools participating each year from Okinawa,
Shizuoka, Fukuoka and other areas, including Tokyo.
The spelling bee and the words interested me, and kept
my focus in a number of ways. What got my attention isthat English is spoken differently in different parts of theworld and English borrowed new words from otherlanguages like Latin, Greek, French, Spanish,Portuguese and Italian. The next thing that interested
me was the etymology of words. The etymology is thelanguage of origin(s) the word is from, basically thelanguage it derives from and its original meaning. The
etymology plays a big role in words, because English
borrows words from other languages. There have beenwars, beliefs and misunderstandings that changed

English words. For example, when the Frenchconquered England, the French language influenced
English, and English borrowed many French words.
Another thing that interested me were root words. Rootwords are base words from which we derive new words
by adding prefixes/suffixes. Root words fascinate me,as they are the building blocks of the English language.
It is possible to ask for the definition and etymology ofwords in the spelling bee.
Initially, I thought that spelling bees are just about
memorizing words, but then I learned that spelling bees
aren’t just about memorization, although a goodmemory would assist you. The delivery of words is also
equally important. Even if you make a carelessmistake, you are out of the competition. For example, if
you try to spell “accommodate” and you spellincorrectly as “acommodate” you are out of thecompetition even if it is just a silly mistake. Although,preparation is essential, a small element of luck is alsoneeded. Nevertheless, luck favors the well-preparedmind. It is also important to remember that the spellingbee is more about competing with the dictionary thanwith your fellow spellers.
Lastly, I think spelling bees are important educationallysince they require motivation, confidence to spell infront of a crowd and courage to acknowledge and learn
from successes and failures. For me, winning wasimportant but sticking with it and being competitive iswhat inspired me to compete several years in a row. I
think this sort of mindset is helpful for many things
beyond spelling bees.
Gautham (G7B)

Courtesy of the Japan Times
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/03/23/national/spelling-ace-bostrom-wins-2014-bee/#.U2jdqq2SyE0

V o l u me 1 7 | I s s u e 4 | J u n e 2 0 1 4“ T h e Co m et ”

Math Field Day
On April 23, 2014, thirty “mathletes” from KIST
attended the annual KPASSP Math Field Day event at
Yokota High School. Our students from Grade 7 toGrade 12 performed very well during the morning
individual competitions and showed leadership in themixed school teams during the afternoon Math Mania
competitions.
Here is what some of our students had to say:

Lae Eun (G8B)
Math Field Day was a great
experience. Though it is easy tothink that the day is wholly academic
and is only for math lovers, it wasn’t.
The test that takes place before
noon is academic, but it requires
more thinking rather thanmathematical skills. It was more likemath puzzles than typical school
math tests. The afternoon event,Math Mania, is a speed quiz groupcompetition. We worked in groups
with students from different schools.
Not only did we solve mathproblems together, but the event
contained several fun bonuses, suchas singing. It was a great experiencethat I look forward to participating in
again next year.
The coaches would like to congratulate all participating
students for their hard work training for the past 3 months.
We would also like to recognize the following students forrepresenting KIST on the podium.
Lae Eun (G8B) - 2nd place in G7-G8 category
Hana (G9B) - member of the 1st place team
Daiki (G12A) - 2nd place in G11-12 category
Min (G12B) - 1st place in G11-12 category
Great job to everyone!
Christopher Tihor
Team CoachAndre Ito
Team Coach

Hana (G9B)
Math Field Day was really fun andenjoyable. I met so many smart kidsfrom different schools and gradelevels – it was mindboggling how
more than three hundred students
like me were gathered for one event!
I was able to challenge myself andtest my mathematical ability during
the individual contest, and I gained asense of accomplishment andsatisfaction afterwards. The
afternoon group competition was
also awesome: everyone was justhaving fun trying to solve mathproblems as quickly as possible. It
took commitment to attend theweekly meetings and complete thecontest papers, but it was all worth
it.

7

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MYP Personal ProjectA celebration of learning—Personal project in
focus
On March 7 in the KIST gym, the annual Personal
Project presentation night was held by the proud G10
students who presented their 6 months’ worth of
personal project work to their parents and othercommunity members. It was a celebration of learningthat everyone seemed to enjoy.

Grade 10B student, Raj, presenting his
topic to his underclassmen.

While the students admit the process was hard andchallenging, they also say they definitely enjoyed theexperience.

“

It was a 50/50, because we got to choose
the topics we found interesting (…)
but the report was very stressful.

During the school day on Friday, students presented
their projects to their peers, underclassmen, teachers
and the school staff. Personal Project is all aboutcelebrating the growth and learning process ofstudents completing their last year of the MYP.
The students have been researching their chosen
topics for 6 months and have come up with many greatideas to share with the KIST community! The projects
ranged from formal PowerPoint presentations, student
bound books, informational videos, all the way togames made by the students. The variety of topics
really showed a personal side to my fellow Grade 10
students along with creative displays.
Preparations for the presentation started from the endof school the day before, with the students eager andcheerfully working on their stands to make the best
presentation possible. The next day, the students
spent their day presenting to their peers andunderclassmen.

Megan (G10B)

Not only did the G10 students get a chance toresearch and display their interests, but they also had
a great time learning with their upperclassmen!

“

The topics are very interesting (…) theway they present is very fun.
Grade 8 student”

Overall the personal project is an experience which
irradiates with positive energy.

“

The students have a very positive
approach (towards learning).
Leo (G10A)”

This environment promotes respect from and to
everyone. As a relative newcomer to Grade 10, I amvery happy to report on the Personal Project.
Kei (G10A)

Grade 10A student, Motoi, presenting his
topic on π (Pi) for his fellow peers.

”

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V o l u me 1 7 | I s s u e 4 | J u n e 2 0 1 4

DP News
Grade 12 final IB Diploma exams!
In May, the Grade 12 students completed their final IB
Diploma examinations. This is the culmination of their
two-year studies in the IB Diploma curriculum and the
majority of their grades awarded by the IB come fromtheir performance in these very important
assessments. Students complete their examinations in
conditions set up by the school following IB guidelines
and procedures, sometimes on-site but sometimes offsite, to ensure the necessary quiet conditions (seephotographs), and their finished exams are sent toteachers and other relevant subject professionals
employed by the IB for assessment. Some KIST
teachers are employed by the IB in this capacity,although they will not be assessing any KIST students’work. The assessment of student work done in the final
IB Diploma examinations takes approximately twomonths and students are able to access their overall
grades in early July. Each year in the September issueof The Comet, the school publishes a summary ofthese results to the school community.

Off-site IB Diploma examinations

chosen from one of the two (SL) or three (HL) texts
studied in Part 4. Students then have 20 minutes toprepare a 10-minute commentary that they present totheir English teacher. In this commentary they need togive context and content of the text and the passage aswell as analyze it for literary devices. It is a challenging
assessment and requires students to be able to ‘thinkon their feet’, using all the information studied in class.
Many thanks to Mrs Hall and Mr White for their timeand dedication in organizing this event and to the LMC
staff for their support in ensuring the necessary
conditions in the school.

Extended Essay:

English oral examinations in the LMC

Approximately every 5 years, the IB
conducts an unannounced inspection of aschool to observe how it organizes the
final DP examinations. This happened to
KIST this year on May 9, and I am
pleased to provide feedback that theinspection went very well. Nigel Gardner,
the representative conducting theinspection on behalf of the IB wrote thatthe examination he observed was “verywell organized and competently run”.
Many thanks to all the teachers and staff who help the
Diploma Coordinator to organize these examinations at
KIST.

Two Grade 11 curriculum events:
Completion of Oral Commentaries andExtended Essay drafts
English Oral Commentaries:
In the middle of May, Grade 11 English A students
completed an Oral Commentary. This task is worth
15% of their external English A grade awarded by the
IB in July 2015. Students are given an unseen passage

In the middle of May, Grade 11 students were also
required to submit a first draft of their EE. This draft isapproximately 1500-2000 words and allows thestudents to demonstrate what they have found so far toanswer their research question and the structure their
EE is taking. Teacher supervisors will read these firstdrafts and provide mainly verbal feedback to their EE
students before the summer vacation.
Grade 11 parents can help support their son/daughterby finding out about the EE on Moodle. The DP
Extended Essay Moodle Page has all the resourcesthat parents need to support their child. Parents canalso ask their son/daughter about their EE first drafts
and even read what they produced!
The following information is very important:Students should be working on their EE overthe summer vacation. It is an ideal time tocollect any final resources or conduct any final
research and to have a few hours just to focus
on writing the EE full draft. A full draft of the EE
is due on Friday, August 29, the end of thesecond week back at school. Full instructions
on the DP EE full draft are available on the EE
Moodle Page.
Mark Cowe
Secondary School Vice Principal/DP Coordinator

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Commuting to and from
SchoolNurse’s Notes

I have been visiting the station in the mornings lately
and I am very pleased to see so many students
representing our school well by wearing our KIST
uniform correctly and demonstrating good manners
during the commute to school.

It is getting hotter, but are you taking
the necessary steps to look after yourbody? The number of people who suffer from heatstroke during June and July is on the increase and it ismost common for heat-related illnesses to occur when
the temperature soars after the rainy season, and the
body has had little time to adapt to the heat.

There are a number of students, however, who are
doing other things while walking through the station(talking on the phone, texting, playing games, etc.).
Doing things while walking increases the probability
that an accident will happen, which may result insomeone getting inconvenienced, or even hurt. This is
the reason why walking while doing other things is
considered rude and why KIST expects students to
refrain from doing it.
The School Handbook is currently being updated andwill include clarifications about school behavior
expectations. In the meanwhile I would like to clarify forparents the school expectations for students whencommuting to and from school.
 Refrain from playing video games at any time while
commuting to/from school.
 Students are expected to follow the uniform code infull during the entire commute to/from school (shirtstucked in, skirts of appropriate length, hair tiedback, etc.).
 Students are expected to demonstrate goodmanners while commuting, this includes, but is not
limited to, observing the following local customs:
 Refraining from eating/drinking while walking.
 Refraining from eating/drinking while riding thebuses/trains (drinking tea/water is ok).
 Refraining from doing other things while
walking.
 Refraining from talking on mobile phones on thebuses/trains.
Students who need to contact their parents upon arrivalat the station are asked to move to one side of the
walkway and stop to make the call.
As parents, your support in modelling the above
behaviors and helping students meet the above
expectations is sincerely appreciated. Thank you!
Jeffrey Jones
Director of Education

Protecting against heatstroke“It is important to take careof your health on a daily
basis.

”

People who are overweight, lack physical fitness, havea weak immune system or who are suffering fromfatigue, diarrhea, fever or other illnesses are also at
higher risk of heat-related problems and so it isimportant to take care of your health on a daily basis.
The main ways to keep healthy are sleep, exercise anddiet. Start each day by opening the curtains to let in asmuch bright light as possible. Eat breakfast, be active
during the day and take part in light exercise in theevening. Also, take a bath or shower in the evening,turn down the lights to relax, and get enough sleep.
These are all important factors in maintaining a healthy
lifestyle.
The other day, a student came to the Nurse’s Roomsuffering with a headache. It turned out that he had
been so busy studying the previous evening that hehadn’t slept. He then rested for an hour in the Nurse’s
Room and felt well enough to return to class.

“

Proper sleep eliminates
fatigue and stress of the
body and mind...

”

Proper sleep eliminates fatigue and stress of the bodyand mind so it is important parents check their child isgetting enough sleep, and when they wake up, checkthat they feel refreshed and ready for the day ahead.
Makiko Whittaker
School Nurse

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Education for Tomorrow
It has long been argued by past generations that thethree ‘R’s of ‘R’eading, ‘R’iting, and ‘R’ithmetic should
form the basis of any child’s education. While it may notseem wise to label an educational belief on misspelledwords, the value of these three skills, and theirtransferred importance in education, remains
unquestioned today and surely will for generations to
come.
However, 3R-based educational models are nothingunique to any one particular country or group ofcountries. Through increased educational programming,
what were once underdeveloped countries now outrank
countries historically thought to be leaders ineducational programming. These new leaders, including
many countries in Asia, are attaining better results in
educational testing such as the OECD’s PISA tests ofreading, science and mathematics. Friedman (2011)
reports that in the increasingly competitive globalized
world of today, even Grinnel College, a small liberal arts
college in Iowa with only 1600 students, attracts 200
plus applicants from China each year, half of whom
have perfect scores on the math SAT. The reality today
is that ‘average’, or even ‘above average’ performancein the 3Rs is an insufficient credential for entrance into
recognized universities. 3R skills are important - hence
the increased supplemental programming being
introduced at KIST to support our students- but they are
no longer sufficient in themselves.
In order to solve the problems of tomorrow andcontribute meaningfully to our global community, KIST
believes that education today must prepare students
not only in the 3Rs but also in the three ‘C’s as well.
These skills, identified by Harvard’s Tony Wagner in
The Global Achievement Gap, are ‘C’ritical thinking,oral and written ‘C’ommunication, and ‘C’ollaboration.
Through our IB programmes, all of which emphasize
development of 3Cs alongside the 3Rs, KIST students
develop conceptual understanding and analytical skills
as they inquire into a variety of topics in real-life
contexts, they learn to communicate and present theirunderstanding bilingually, and they collaborate to solve
problems in the classroom context and beyond. The
quality of this year’s Grade 5 Exhibition, the Grade 10
Personal Projects and the Grade 12 Extended Essays
reflects well on our students’ 3C proficiency and theirreadiness to meet the demands of the next level of theirlearning.

11

Class of 2014
Congratulations to theClass of 2014!
KIST is proud each year to graduate anothergroup of hard working students and see themoff to universities around the world, confident
that their IB experiences have prepared themwell to not only perform at leading universities
around the world, but also to make a positive
difference in making our world a better place
for all.
Congratulations KIST graduates of 2014! We
hope that you cherish your memories of KIST
and move forward with confidence and prideknowing that you have the committed KIST
community here waiting to celebrate yourfuture successes, and support you with yourchallenges, as you continue ‘learning for life’on the next phase of your educational journey.
We wish you all the best!
Jeffrey Jones
Director of Education

New Faces
Since the last issue of The Comet, we have welcomed
a number of new staff members to our team. On behalfof the school community, we wish you all the best andhope that you enjoy your time with us.

Christopher Carufel
ELS Instructor (G3)Emi Hisamatsu
Science Laboratory
AssistantLeia Wakasa
Translator/Interpreter

Aikka Watanabe
Teacher’s Aide
(K3-G1)Friedman T. & Mandelbaum P. (2011). That used to be us: How
America fell behind in the world and how we can come back. Farrar,
Straus and Giroux: New York.

Jeffrey Jones
Director of Education

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Library News
Sakura Medal book challenge winners
Students who participated in Sakura Medal voting wereentered into a raffle once for each vote they cast. Nine
lucky winners took home a tosho card, six fromelementary and three from secondary. The Sakura
Medal is chosen by students at international schools
across Japan, so your votes help honor your favorite
authors and illustrators! Congratulations to our winners
and thank you to everyone who participated in thisreading programme.
Our elementary winners were:(L>R) Diana (G1B), Lingfei (G1B), Leika (G2A), Hotomi (G3A),
Kishore (G4A), Yoo Mee (G4A)

Summer reading andresearch support toExtended Essay
Starting June 18, students cancheck out English language fiction books from the
Elementary Library and LMC for summer reading. To
borrow fiction books during summer, the libraries will be
open until June 27 and will resume library services on
July 28. During the summer, all students are expected
to be responsible in taking good care of borrowed
books from the library. All library items are subject tofines if lost or damaged.
DP students can also borrow non-fiction books andresearch items to help with the extended essay
requirement full draft on August 2014. The DPEE
Moodle and LMC Moodle pages will be available tosupport the research needs of the new G12 students
throughout summer. In case of link failure, pleasecontact directly the IT department at:
robert.whittaker@kist.ed.jp

Our secondary winners were:

Popular library activities returning nextyear Yatta Card Challenge Hungry Readers Challenge
 Drop Everything And Read (the next level including
Writing) World Cultures Day (formerly known as International
Mother Language Day)
 Sakura Medal Books, Sakura Arts and Sakura Book
Trailers
 iCapture(L>R) Pranita (G10A), Keerti (G11B), Sarah S. (G8B)

Sakura art entries submitted tointernational level competition
Students were invited to create art for the Sakura
Medal artwork competition. The winners, chosen frominternational schools all over Japan, are sent to theauthors and illustrators who win the Sakura Medalvoting. KIST students submitted some excellent work
this year. These students’ works will be displayed in thelibrary next school year. Thank you for your hard work!
Here are some of the Sakura Art entries made by our
secondary students.

2014-2015 will see the return of popular activities in the
KIST Libraries, with some fun new twists! Our Yatta!
Card and Hungry Readers challenge encourage
students to embody the IB Learner Profile and to readwidely, hungry for more!
KIST will continue participation in the Sakura Medalbooks, the art contest and book trailers competitions.
We look forward to see what our students will create in
response to their favorite Sakura Medal books in 2015.
The secondary students will also have the chance todocument their world and share it with us as theiCapture: digital photography challenge will returnfor another year of student photography.
We’re shaking things up in the library, too! While someof your favorite events will continue as ever, we’ve
made some exciting changes to DEAR (DropEverything and Read) and World Cultures Day(formerly known as International Mother LanguageDay) at KIST. This year’s DEAR program is expanding
to include time to Drop Everything and Write their own
stories in Elementary or viewpoints on global issues inSecondary.
Continued on next page

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13Continued from previous pageThe International Mother Language Day will now becelebrated as World Cultures Day at KIST to expand
our vision for a day to honor international-mindedness
and learn more about cultures around the world by
sharing our languages, customs and traditions.

New library activities
 International Dot Day (for Elementary) Trip to International Library of Children’s Literature(for Elementary) Student Center for Excellence in LMC (forSecondary)Community & Service in the library
If you are thinking of using some of your summer days
for community service, you can come to the library from
June 18 – 27 to help the librarians with some technicalwork such as covering books and tidying up the

shelves. This MYP C&S opportunity is open to students
in Grades 6 to 10 only. Please contact Ms Hynes via email at leslie.hynes@kist.ed.jp if you’re interested.

Thank you leaving staff
Our LMC Librarian, Satoko
Yoshimoto, will be leaving KIST
Libraries at the end of the 20132014 school year. Miss Satoko
has been a member of the KIST
Libraries staff since 2009. She has
been an invaluable member of the
KIST Libraries community and she
will be missed. We wish her thebest of luck in her new position.
The KIST Libraries Team

Grade 4: Honing Research Skills for the Coming Year
Inspired by the Grade 5 students, whose research for the PYP
Exhibition blew us all away, Grade 4 has been having a blitz onparaphrasing skills. With their own information report coming up for
their final unit, Sharing the planet, can the Grade 4s also tell us
everything they have discovered about their central idea using only
their own words? Judging by the number of paraphrasing strategies
they picked up on while spying on a “researcher”, they’re well on theway to putting together quality reports. Many of them have starred“collect the main points” or “cross out unimportant info” as the strategy
they will focus on during their current research. As they put this into
practice, they’ve even begun figuring out alternate or additional
strategies, and providing some advanced tips for each other to add toour strategies chart. Grade 4, you are well on the way to facing next
year’s challenges.

Finding the best online dictionaries.

Here are some photos of the Grade 4s at work.
Rachel Parkinson
Elementary ELS Coordinator

Advice for classmates.

Working out new strategies forparaphrasing a detailed article on
pollution.

The finished product of one team’s research.

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Staff 10!

Office Updates

In this month’s Staff
10!, we are pleased topresent John Rose
who joined us in 2013
as the Science
Subject Area
Coordinator in theSecondary School. He
has been appointed DP
Coordinator for 20142015.

Purchasing shoes
For many students, a new school
year means purchasing new school
shoes.
Sporty Mr Rose enjoying a game ofcricket on the field with students
between science lessons.

 Tell us something interesting about yourhometown.
I come from a country town in Australia called Dungog(it means hill with no trees in aborigine).
 What is your favorite place in the world?
Railay Beach, Thailand; it is just a beautiful place.
 Who would you like to meet if you had the chance
and why?
I would love to meet the queen of England to ask herquestions about the commonwealth countries and thehistory of England and how England was formed afterRome left.
 Do you have any special skills or talents?
I don’t know if being a good cook is a special skill; otherthan that nothing I’m just an average Joe.
 Please share a little known fact about yourself.
I like to dance ;) What is your most prized possession?
Probably my father’s tie as he passed away 2 years
ago, it holds special memories for me.
 What words would you use to describe yourself?
Fun, loving person that tries to make everybody happy,
but is realistic.
 If you could live your life again, would you doanything differently?
Actually I wouldn’t change anything with my life.
 Is there anything you are trying to learn/improveabout yourself at the moment?
Ha, I would like to lose a bit of weight but Japanesefood is too good!
 Do you have any special message for your fans?
Make love, not war.

Currently, most students are wearing the correct
footwear (all black), but for those who are not, we ask
that you try to purchase one black pair of shoes overthe summer holidays suitable for wearing to school.
We suggest that you try swapping information with yourfriends or searching on the Internet to find shoes thatyou like and that match the school’s uniform
requirements.

School fee payments
The payment date for the first installmentof school fees for 2014-2015 was May 15.
Please ensure that you make this payment
as soon as possible if you are yet to do so.
Payment deadlines for school fees are
May 15, September 15 and December 15
every year. In the case of a national
holiday, payment is due on the following weekday.

Applications for Summer Programs
Payment of course fees for both summer
programs is required in advance. We areunable to confirm places for either
program, including those made online,
until your payment has been confirmed.
If you are yet to do so, you can confirm your place bycompleting the payment using the designated summer
program bank account, or by paying cash at the school
office. Furthermore, we do not issue invoices so pleasecontact the office if you require one.

School lunch orders for 2014-2015
The closing date for changes orcancelations to school lunch orders for the
new school year (from August 2014) isJune 11. For all changes orcancellations, the School Lunch Order
Form must be submitted to the office bythis date. The form is available from theschool website at:
http://www.kist.ed.jp/files/pdf/enrolment/School%
20lunch%20order%20form.pdf
Please also note that we are unable to accept
changes or cancellations to orders after the June 11
closing date.

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Sakura Medal “Book Trailer Contest”
Splendid achievement!!! First prize won by Aska and Ibuki (G8A) on thenovel “Kokoro-no Mori” (Middle School Section A) and many more prize
winners from KIST!
On May 1, the winners of the Sakura Medal Book
Trailers Contest 2014, held by the International
School Japanese Teachers Committee, wereannounced. From KIST, 5 entries won prizes,
including the First Prize won by Aska and Ibuki (G8A)
with their entry on “Kokoro-no Mori”. The prize
winners received certificates from the committee.
The contest began in 2012 and is run by theInternational School Japanese Teachers Committee
to promote reading. For the Secondary section, thestudents read a novel or picture book from the
Sakura Medal book list and created a book trailer up
to 2 minutes in length. The assessment criteria
include: “richness of expression”, “usage of digitaltechnology”, “would it inspire others to read thebook?” and more.
The students participating in the contest created their
original trailers with creativity, expression andtechnique, and demonstrated an in-depth
understanding of the application guidelines, while
taking care not to infringe copyright. Parents andteachers were not allowed to assist. The participants
worked on their projects intensively for two weeks
during their Japanese classes in February. The
classes participating were G9 and G10 Japanese A(Kamo-sensei), G9 and G10 Japanese B (Phase 5)(Kanazawa-sensei), G8 Japanese A (Matsui-sensei),and G8 and G9 Japanese B (Phases 1 and 3)(Yamashita-sensei). A total of 54 trailers wereentered into the contest.
As the winning trailers would be displayed for viewing
on YouTube, the students obtained YouTube
accounts. Out of the trailers created, some students
were not able to apply due to copyright issues.
The students had to overcome a number of hurdles
in order to be able to apply on time. For the G8Japanese A class, the entire process of participation
was incorporated as part of their unit “introduction to
media” and the students experienced the significanceof “public acceptance of information the media wants
to distribute”.

The names and sections of KIST students winning
prizes in this year’s contest are as follows:
Middle School, Section A
First Place Award
Aska and Ibuki (G8A)“Kokoro-no Mori”

Second Place Award
Erika and Ellen (G8B)“Densha-de Ikou”

Third Place Awards
Yurika and Amina (G8B)“Watashi-o Shiranaide”

Seina (G8A)“Password Ango Battle”

High School, Section B
Second Place Award
Raghav (G10A) and Raj (G10B)“Shiiru-no Kakurenbo”

Takashi Matsui
MYP Japanese Teacher

The prize winning trailers may be viewed at:(Japanese) https://sites.google.com/site/jtabktrailercontest/winners/ms-a-2014-msawinners14(English) https://sites.google.com/site/booktrailercontestenglish/home/ms-a-2014-ms-a-awards-2014e

15

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Sports and Athletics Update
It has been another successful season for KIST athletes andsporting teams. Our student athletes have represented ourschool at a variety of events in Tokyo and the surrounding
areas. Sporting the new KIST uniforms, our kids not only
look like winners, but also perform with the confidence of
winners.

Elementary sports and athletics
Our elementary athletes have competed in three major
events this winter/spring season.
The BST (British School in Tokyo) invitational Aquathalon
took place on Tuesday, March 18. The Aquathalon is acombined race involving swimming and running. Our
students performed very well despite their lack of swim
racing experience. Both schools, BST and Nishimachi,
support swimming programs within their PE curriculums.
What we lacked in the pool we made up for on the track. Ourelementary kids again displayed their superior runningabilities. We had many excellent individual efforts andmanaged to capture two medals in the G3 Boys division.
Congratulations to gold medalist Keanu (G3A) and silver
medalist Soma (G3A). These boys were the fastest
swimmers and runners
combined in G3. Whata great event!!
On March 21, our mini-basketball team,made up of selected
G3 to G5 students,
travelled to BST tocompete in the ISTAAChampionship
Tournament 2014.
Many schools were
present including:
BST, Montessori
School of Tokyo, New International School and Nishimachi
International School. We entered a “BLUE” team into the top
division and a “WHITE” team into the second division. Bothteams competed hard through the round robin tournamentand managed to make it into the final match. The “WHITE”
team fought hard but lost their final match to a strong teamfrom Nishimachi, finishing second place on the day. A great
effort! The “BLUE” team made it through the qualifying stage
in first place. They faced a very talented team fromMontessori School of Tokyo in the final match. Our boys
played their best basketball of the day and easily handled
their opponents to be crowned the ISTAA Mini-BasketballChampions 2014. Congratulations KIST ballers!

Congratulations Mini-Basketballers!

4 x 50 m relay
G3 Girls: KIST 1st (37.45)
G4 Girls: KIST 1st (36.34)
G5 Girls: KIST 1st (34.18)
50 m individual sprint
G3 Girls
1st: Miu (8.47)
2nd: Sola (8.72)
G4 Girls
1st: Hanna (7.78)
3rd: Rina (8.04)
G5 Girls
2nd: Maki (8.39)
4th: Saki (8.51)

G3 Boys
1st: Sho (7.93)
G4 Boys
1st: Ryuta (7.81)
2nd: Seung Bin(7.88)
3rd: Kishore (7.92)
4th: Kaiser (8.21)
G5 Boys
1st: Arata (7.52)

Our final Elementary event of the year saw KIST hosting 5
visiting schools for the annual ISTAA Elementary Soccer
Championships. Schools in attendance included The British
School, Columbia International, Montessori Tokyo,
Nishimachi and New International. Our soccer club, coached
by Mr Sullivan, played 5 very competitive matches over thecourse of the afternoon. After the five rounds of play no one
was a match for the highly skilled team from BST. KIST
ended up in 4th place. Better luck next year boys!

The BST Relay Meet was a friendly event held on Tuesday,
March 13 involving selected students from G3 to G5. Threeschools were invited to this event: BST, Waseda
International and KIST. The top runners from each grade
and school faced off against each other in individual 50 m
sprints and two relay races, 4 x 50 m and 4 x 200 m. All thework we do in our PE “warm-ups” (sprint training exercises)
was put on display as our kids dominated the individual 50 m
sprints. Our relay teams, despite the lack of practice andtraining, ran very strong.

Results
4 x 200 m relay
G3 Girls: KIST 1st (2.44)
G4 Girls: KIST 2nd (2.34)
G5 Girls: KIST 2nd (2.30)

G3 Boys: KIST 2nd (2.35)
G4 Boys: KIST 2nd (2.25)
G5 Boys: KIST 2nd (2.21)

Continued on next page

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17Continued from previous page

ISTAA and high school sports
Basketball
ISTAA boys and girls basketball season came toan end at the beginning of March. All of our teams
had phenomenal seasons under a new coaching
staff this year. Basketball has been a strong sportfor KIST over the past three years and the teams
did not disappoint. All U14/U18 Boys and Girlsteams were the defending champions of the ISTAA league
coming into the season. For a second year, and U18 boys
third year, all of our teams were ISTAA BasketballChampions. Thanks to Coach Miller and Coach Grant foryour time and efforts. GO COMETS!!

U14 Girls ISTAA Champions 2013, 2014
U18 Girls ISTAA Champions 2013, 2014
U14 Boys ISTAA Champions 2013, 2014
U18 Boys ISTAA Champions 2012, 2013, 2014

over Canadian International (Boys 12-0 and 9-1; Girls 11-0
and 8-0), Columbia International (Boys 10-4), British School(Girls 5-2) and International Secondary School. KIST has
been extremely competitive again this season.
The U18 teams recently participated in the ISTAA final
tournament at BST on June 1. Both teams came into thetournament seeded high. The boys struggled through the firstround and lost a hard fought battle to the Canadian School.
They continued through the tournament to finish in 4th place.
The girls’ team entered the tournament in the top seed. They
easily moved through the first round defeating KAIS by ascore of 6-0. The final match saw our girls facing their rivals
from BST. Their regular season match saw KIST winning 5-2.
After 50 minutes of play the final score was 1-0 in favor of thehost team BST. The girls finished in 2nd spot. This was our
girl’s first loss all season. Congratulations on a great season
girls!!
Big thanks to coaches Mr Jude Ross (U18 Boys), Ms Lucila
Zornosa and Mr Ilich Granados (U18 Girls).

BaseballThe KIST Baseball team had four friendly matchesvs St. Mary’s International School this season. St.
Mary’s has a long tradition of baseballdevelopment and their teams are always verystrong. Although our squad was on the losing side
for all of these meetings (1st game 12-5, 2nd game 13-11,
3rd game 12-6, 4th game 19-2) and battling injury, the boys
showed improvement with every game. The boys will makegood use of this experience for next year’s contests. Positive
season boys! A big thank you to coach Aki-sensei, Matsuisensei and the team managers Riko (G8B) and Eimi (G9A).

Message from U14 Coach Kenyon
It has been a season of development for this year’s U14
futsal team. I am happy to say that an almost entirely newgroup of players, who played as individuals at the start of theseason, have worked hard to adopt the tactics and strategies
practiced in training and now resemble a team who play for
one another. Many of the team took on feedback and criticism in a positive manner and have grown to become morerounded futsal players. All of this was encompassed with an
8-0 win against ISS in our final warm-up game.
I hope that the team continues to grow and gives their all at
the ISTAA tournament at BST on June 8. Finally, I would
personally like to thank the parents who have attended ourgames, especially Mrs Sivakumar who has kindly supported
us both at ourhome, andaway games.
Mr Kenyon

FutsalThe ISTAA Futsal season is underway and KIST
U18 teams return as defending ISTAA Champions.
The opening matches have seen some impressive
performances from our U18 boys and girls with wins
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Continued from previous page

ISTAA most valuable athlete awards 2014
These awards are chosen by the Athletics Director (MrLeroy) and represent the most successful and active
KIST athletes at each level of competition in the ISTAA
league for the competitive year of 2013-2014. There
are many athletes in our school that represent KIST in
multiple sports and clubs and this is a way to celebrate
their commitments.
U14 Most Valuable Female Athlete
Emiri (G7A):U14 Volleyball; U14 Basketball ISTAAChampions; U18 Basketball ISTAAChampions
U14 Most Valuable Male Athlete
Ke Yi (G8B):
U14 Basketball ISTAA Champions; U18
Volleyball and Baseball
U18 Most Valuable Female Athlete
Keerti (G11B):
U18 Volleyball ISTAA Champions; U18
Basketball ISTAA Champions; U18 Futsal
U18 Most Valuable Male Athlete
Motoi (G10A)
Co-captain U18 Volleyball; U18 Futsal
and Baseball
Most Valuable Graduating Athlete
Miku (G12B)
Captain 3 seasons and 3 time ISTAA
Volleyball Champions 2012, 2013, 2014;
Captain 3 seasons and back to back
ISTAA Basketball Champions 2013, 2014

Sakura Medal Book Report
ContestFirst prize in the lower grades goes to
Homare (G2A)! Awards for 5 others!
This year, the 5th Annual Sakura Medal Book Report
Contest was held. The contest aims at developing
Japanese ability and an enthusiasm for reading throughfriendly competition among students attending
international schools where different languages areused. Each school was able to select 5 entrees in total
to enter a lower and higher division. This year there
were close to 100 entries, with 9 entries being fromKIST students. The contest provided an opportunity forstudents to learn report writing skills in class throughconsidering questions such as: When reading a book what part moved you themost?
 Why did it move you?
 What were your own feelings?
 What is the best way to structure an essay so that iseasy to follow?
Furthermore, parents kindly provided an assigned
reading book appropriate to their child’s own personal
interests, and all of the students challenged themselves
to include the things that they had learned at school intheir essays. Thank you to all of the parents for yoursupport! The contest will be held again next year so wehope to see lots of fantastic entries once again!
Yoshiko Torikai
Japanese TeacherAward Winners

Keerti, Miku and Emiri with their award certificates.

What a great year in sport for KIST Comets! Keep up
the good work and let’s get ready for 2014-2015
seasons!! Enjoy your summer holidays and be safe!
Jay Leroy
PYP/MYP PE Teacher / Athletics Director

Lower Grade DivisionFirst Place Award
Homare (G2A) “ Shige-chan”
Second Place Awards
Remi (G2A) “ Shige-chan”
Shin (G3B) “ Janken-no suki-na onna-no ko”
Encouragement Award
Sara (G3A) “ Majo-no shuukuriimu”
Higher Grade Division
Second Place Award
Rei (G4A) “ Kokoro ya”
Encouragement Award
Ryuta (G4A) “ Kokoro ya”

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College Guidance News
College acceptances for the “Class of2014”
It is our pleasure to announce that KIST has had
another successful year in college acceptances. On
the right is the list of universities which offeredacceptances and offers to the “Class of 2014” up to
May 31, 2014. There are some students who are still
waiting for their results or are planning to start theapplication process after graduating from KIST, so
this is not a final list for the Class of 2014. This year
again, our students were admitted to many major andvery selective universities in the world including
KAIST, University of Hong Kong, Boston College,
New York University, George Washington University,
Florida Tech, UC Santa Cruz, UBC, McGill University,
University of Toronto, London School of Economics,
King’s College, University of Edinburgh, Akita
International University and Waseda University. It isnotable that many students have received partial tofull scholarships from universities to cover their tuition
and fees.
Congratulations! We wish you continued success inthe future!

Attention G9 and under! Major changes
to the SAT from 2016
The College Board has announced the following
major changes to the SAT from 2016:
1. The essay section will be optional and will return to
1,600 points from 2,400.
2. Obscure words to memorize only for the test will
not be included. Only words useful for college andcareers will be tested.
3. Evaluate the abilities to read and analyze thecontent of various types of scientific and othertexts containing graphs and charts in the reading
section.
4. No penalty points for incorrect answers.
These changes have been made in response toongoing criticism that the current SAT test does notmatch the content that students study in school andrequires them to put in a significant amount of extra
work outside of school and forces families to pay asmuch as $20,000 for tutoring and to attend special
preparation programs if they want to achieve highscores on the test. The current president of theCollege Board that offers the SAT said that he madethe decision to redesign the test to solve those
problems.
For more information, please read the announcementfrom the College Board at the link below:
https://www.collegeboard.org/deliveringopportunity/sat/redesign
Mrs Keiko Okude
College Guidance Counselor
keiko.okude@kist.ed.jp

KIST College Acceptances and Offers
Class of 2014

*Scholarship offered (number of students accepted)
As of May 31, 2014

UK

University of Edinburgh (3)Queen Mary University of London (2)Ashton University
Durham University
King’s College London (2)London School of Economics and Political Science
University of Birmingham
University College London (3)University of Exeter
University of Leeds
University of Liverpool
University of Nottingham
University of Surrey
University of West of England, Bristol

USA

Birmingham Southern College*
Boston College*
Boston University*
Florida Institute of Technology*
George Washington University* (2)Lynn University
Midwestern State University
New York University*
Northeastern University* (4)Pacific Lutheran University* (3)Pennsylvania State University
San Jose State University
Soka University of America*
Syracuse University
UC Santa Cruz
University of Iowa
University of Oregon* (3)University of Wisconsin, Madison

CANADA

University of British Columbia* (7)McGill University* (2)Mount Allison University*
Simon Fraser University
Trent University*
University of Northern British Columbia
University of Toronto*
University of Victoria*
York University

JAPAN

Akita International University
International Christian University (2)Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University
Sophia University, Faculty of Liberal Arts (6)Waseda University, Political Science and Economics*
Waseda University, Advanced Science andEngineering (2)

KOREA

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
HONG KONG
University of Hong Kong

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Alumnus Report
Kei Komaki is an alumnus of KIST’s “Class of 2012.” He is currently in
his second year of studies at International Christian University inTokyo.
It is already 2 years since I
graduated from KIST and entered
International Christian University(ICU). ICU is a private Japanese
University in Tokyo, and I enteredthrough the admission process for
the September entrance foroverseas students andinternational school graduates. It
will be my honor to share myexperiences and learnings at ICU
in order to help you understandhow practical and high quality the
IB programmes offered at KISTare.
I currently major in physics, while
taking the teacher-training courses
as well as leading the university
drama club. Recently, I played thelead role, Jean Valjean for the bighit musical, “Les Misérables”,
which was a great success having
a total audience of approximately
800 for the 4 performances. As you
can see, I am enjoying myuniversity life, but focusing on mystudies and assignments at thesame time. ICU adopts theAmerican liberal arts education
model, and aims for the students togain knowledge from a wide variety
of fields. Therefore, although I
major in physics, I take courses in
psychology and history of music.
One of the attractive points of ICU
is that it offers a lot of classes inEnglish, although it is a Japanese

university. Even if the class isoffered in Japanese, textbooks
may be in English, or we get tosubmit or take the assignments
and tests in English. The largest
advantage of majoring in physics
at ICU is, due to the small classsize, students get to use
experimental apparatus which areusually only for graduate students,
while still an undergraduate. As
ICU gives strong emphasis on thequality of education, I am
surrounded by many serious
students with a high level ofawareness, which creates a great
learning environment for me.
ICU is well known for offering highquality education, and thus is oneof the most selective universities
for those who enter through theordinary admissions process fromJapanese high schools. Therefore,
I was a little worried at first, if I wascompetitive enough. However,after entering, I found out I had
great advantages over others as
one who has gone through the IB.
For example, I found thedifferences of Japanese educationand that of the IB, in various
aspects, such as writing
experiment reports, presenting inclass, and analyzing literature. I
become aware that I was exposed
to an advanced level of learningthat the Japanese high school

students were not able toexperience. I could also feel theadvantages of an IB education not
only in academics, but in ways
through which leadership andcommunication skills are required,such as participating in
extracurricular clubs. Recently, I
was asked by a professor in theteacher training course to give alecture on IB education. After thelecture, I heard many students
comment that they too, “wanted toexperience the IB”.
My message for KIST students isthat the IB education you are going
through will definitely become adriving force for your future. You
are so fortunate to have theopportunity to receive this great
learning experience, and I want
you to make the most out of it.
What you have gone through andput effort in, will be a valuableasset in your life.
Kei Komaki
KIST Alumnus“Class of 2012”

Study after study has shown that students who participate in IB
programmes are better prepared academically for universitylevel courses, and are more likely to graduate (and graduate
sooner) than other students. This year, more than one million IB
students worldwide will have participated in the Diploma
Programme. IB programmes develop the intellectual rigour andpersonal, emotional and social skills students need to live, learn
and work in a rapidly globalizing world.
International Baccalaureate Organization, 2014
http://www.ibo.org/recognition/eventsandinitiatives/hei/documents/HED-short-flyer-14032014-FINAL-web.pdf

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IT News
Why KIST decided to go Windows only.
We understand that manyorganizations operate in an Apple
and Windows environment andthat in such an environment it
seems to users that Apples areable to do everything, and someargue more, than Windows based
PCs can. But in our KIST context
we simply cannot provide support
for both operating platforms and I
will try to present you with a few
concrete examples of what
technical complications we havewith hopes to gain yourunderstanding of our decision to
only permit access to our network
by Windows based hardware(machines with a windows logo key
in the keyboard) from the 20142015 school year.
Earlier this year we had a scienceclass where a teacher preparedPowerPoint slides with animations
that was critical for the students towatch in order to grasp theconcepts being taught in theirclass. Despite Office being
available on PC and Mac it is not
the exact same thing, the menus
the display the keyboards
shortcuts you use on a PC
compared to a MAC are different.
Although PowerPoint generally
works on Windows and MAC OS
PowerPoints with ActiveX built into
the PowerPoint do not. As a result,these students then came to theoffice asking to borrow a school
laptop so they could view thecontent that would not display on
their Mac OS, essentially taking
away access to a library for thecurrent G6-G9 students which
would not have happened if thesestudents had followed the school
recommendations of bringing a
Windows laptop as their main
computing resource. As weallowed students to bring MAC OS
to our school until now, it was quitedifficult to get a student to install
Windows on their machine when
our regulations did not say they
could not use Mac OS.
Although Windows 8.1 can run on
Mac hardware, the next problem
we have for students who dochoose to use Windows running in
a Mac OS environment is that thetechnical knowledge needed to do

this for some students is quitedifficult. For example, we had astudent who had a Mac OS andWindows 7 installed on theirmachine and due to the way thatthey installed Windows they ended
up running out of disk space forWindows to run and as a result
could not load Windows at all. This
student was not strong withcomputers and they lost all theirdata on their Windows installation
as a result. So when Windows
stops working in this situation,
managing the Mac OS becomeskey to solving this problem andthat is something we do not havethe technical support for. This is
another example of why we wish to
only have Windows-based
hardware used at KIST. Otherwise
we risk having students in theunfortunate scenario of us not
being able to support them fully.
The reasoning to unify hardware is
the same reasoning behind why
we ask G11 students to purchasethe exact same TI84 graphic
display calculator for math class.
While there are many varieties ofgraphic calculators that do thesame functions as a the TI84, thebutton you need to press, thedisplay menus on the screen etc.
are not the same for all models.
Not unifying graphic calculator
purchases creates an inefficientteaching environment as teachers
would be required to teach
operational use of many different
models. By unifying the hardwarein this context, we are able tobetter support students in using thetechnology and to direct more time
to supporting learning.
We had a similar situation in a
recent G8 mathematics class witha student who had Windows
installed as a virtual machine on
Mac OS. The class was using
Graphmatica, available for both
Macs and Windows PCs. However,
the instructional procedures Mr
Jones taught the students were not
the same for the Mac scenario(CTRL+A cannot be entered on theMac) and this resulted in thestudent needing to ask a question
as to how to do what was beingtaught on the Mac. As Mr Jones is

not familiar
with Macs, he
was unable tosupport thestudent, and the student had tofigure out how to annotate thegraphs on their own (which theysuccessfully did). While this is a
simple example that was easily
overcome, it does demonstratethat even though Macs seem very
similar to Windows PCs, they do
not operate in the same way.
This is a simple example of where
not having the same hardware as
the teacher can interrupt the flowof lessons where it shouldn't andthis has the potential to impede
learning of the whole class. Thiskind of thing has been happening
across G10-G12 for the past two
years. We even had a lesson
totally cancelled due to a
document created in Windows
Word 2010 and locked down forprotection to preserve formatting
would not open in Office for Mac
2008. Even though Office for Mac
and Office 2010 should becompatible they are not a complete
match, there is still a substantial
gap between features. Using
approved software formats does
not solve this issue; aligning
hardware and software to what theschool uses does.
Our objective in creating a one
platform environment is tominimize technology related
interference to instruction andhence ensure the greatest amountof time spent supporting student
learning. We would rather havestudents use their time grasping
new concepts and applying theirlearning rather than unnecessarily
struggling how to use technology. I
hope these examples better clarify
for you some of the reasons for ourdecisions related to student
laptops requirements.
Thank you for your understanding.
I look forward to hearing from youagain
Rob Whittaker
IT Software/Hardware Coordinator
KIST IT Office

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