The Comet

The New sletter of K. International School Tokyo
Volume 20 | Issue 3 | March 2017

In this issue...
03...CIS News

25...Project Rousseau

10...The Bookworm Reading Challenge27...Japanese New Year Party

11...Decisions and Consequences

28...Week of Code

12...Nengajo Activity Fundraiser

30...Habitat for Humanity

20...MUN Conference in Shanghai

32...Recycling Initiative

22...Economics in the Real World

33...TASSEL Activities

From the Head of School

DATES TO REMEMBER

Dear KIST Community,
After two long years of hard work from all areas of ourschool community, we are proud to announce that KIST
has attained full accreditation status from the Council ofInternational Schools (CIS). In attaining this milestone, KIST joins a global
community of over 511 CIS schools located in 112 countries around the world.
CIS provides a well-recognized ‘stamp of approval’ showing that KIST meetsstrict requirements in areas including whole-school operations, school
governance, and curriculum.
As you know, 2016-17 is KIST’s 20th year of operation and we are proud tomark our 20th year with this significant accomplishment (the CIS letter ofaccreditation also appropriately arrived on Mr Komaki’s birthday!). A big
THANK YOU goes out to Mr Sullivan, as CIS Accreditation Coordinator, for his
leadership of our community efforts and to all of you who supported us invarious ways to attain this school goal!
As we welcome Spring, we also welcome the final months of this school year.
In addition to successful completion of our IB evaluation visit and attaining CIS
accreditation, we have enjoyed many well-enjoyed school events since theWinter break.
Once again this year, a big THANK YOU to the Sakamoto family and to our
KIST Community Association for supporting our annual Japanese New Year’s
Party. I am always pleased to see our community come together to provide ourstudents with an opportunity to celebrate the culture of our host country andenjoy testing their sumo moves on real-life rikishi. The New Year’s Party is afavorite event of the year for me – thank you to all the KIST parents who cameout to support the event and, in doing so, put smiles on our students’ (andteachers’) faces.
The World Cultures Day event organized by our KIST Library Team, was agreat success this year as well. We were blessed once again with wonderfulweather as KIST students and staff enjoyed sharing their various cultures
through costume, dancing, food and other presentations. Thank you to theparents for all the support you provided with costumes and to those who cameout to support the event. From book readings to bake sales, thank you to ourCA and the many parents who volunteered; thanks also to our Library Team forthe countless hours they contribute each year towards this school event.

March 2017
15 (G2-G3) Mathematics diagnostic
testing
16 (K1/K2/K3) Kindergarten concert
rehearsals
17 (K1/K2/K3) Kindergarten concert(*Morning)
20 Student-led conferences
20 Spring university fair
24 Last day of quarter 3
24 DP Art exhibition
25-Apr 2 Spring vacation

April 2017
3 School resumes for all students
7 (G1-G1) KIST cross countrymeet
10 School photographs (for new andabsent students)
12 (K1/K2/K3) Cross country(*Morning)
17 (G10) DP subject options
session for parents and students(*Evening)
19 (G7-G11) Math field day(Hosted@Zama)
21 ISTAA cross country invitational
21 (G12) Last day of classes
24-28 (G12) DP study week (G12teachers available)
27-28 (G5) PYP exhibition
28-May 19 (G12) DP examinations
28-May 7 Golden Week vacation

Continued on next page

KIST Learning for Life KIST Learning for Life KIST Learning for LifePYP | MYP | DP2

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Continued from previous pageI am writing this before the event takes place, but I
hope that you were able to attend the MYP Personal
Project Exhibition and celebrate this significant
accomplishment that marks the end of our Grade 10
students’ MYP journey. Each year the exhibition offers
the KIST community a chance to learn more about the
MYP, about our students’ interests, and about theamazing things that are going on at KIST. A big thankyou to Mr White and to all of our staff who supported
the Grade 10 students as supervisors. Thank you also
to our Grade 10 parents for the support, commitment,
and of course patience, you provided at home.
We have two more exhibitions coming up this semester.
First is the DP Art Exhibit on Friday, March 24, a
wonderful way to kick off our week-long Springvacation. I hope you are able to come out and enjoy
this display of the creative works of our DP students.
Thank you Mr Jones (not me!) for the countless hours
spent planning and preparing for this well-attended
community event. Following the Art Exhibit is our PYP
Exhibition where our Grade 5 students share about
their 10-week culminating personal inquiry of the PYP.
Thank you to Mr Archibald, Mr Grant, Ms Parkinson andall the teacher supervisors for their hard work guiding
the students’ inquiry, and to all the parents for yourcommitment in making this annual event a success.
In January, our Grade 12 students completed their first
set of Mock Examinations and have the second Mock
Examination session coming up March 6 – 13. These
two sessions are in place to support our students asmuch as possible in preparing for the actual IB DP
Exams which take place April 28 to May 19. The mockresults thus far have been promising and we lookforward to another successful year for our Grade 12s.
To our Grade 12 students – good luck with your studies
and know that the whole KIST community is cheering
for you to attain your best on your exams.
I hope that you enjoy this issue of The Comet. I lookforward to seeing you at one of the many upcoming
events. In closing, I leave you with some of the positive
words that the IB had to say about KIST during ourevaluation visit. Please do be sure to read theconcluding remarks and commendations from the CIS
report enclosed in this issue of The Comet.

“

KIST is commended for promoting
open communication based onunderstanding and respect. The
school has built a stimulating
learning environment throughout
the school community.

”

Well done everyone and enjoy the hanami season!
Sincerely,
Jeffrey Jones
Head of School

From the Board President
KIST gains official CIS accreditation
Last November, wewelcomed a week-long joint
evaluation visit from theCouncil of International
Schools (CIS) and theInternational Baccalaureate(IB). We are very pleased
to announce and would like to celebrate the factthat KIST has been granted official accreditationfrom CIS.
Along with its long-standing authorization fromthe IB to offer the three IB programs, andrecognition by the Tokyo Metropolitan
Government as an educational foundation, KIST
has joined the ever-growing list of schools aroundthe world to be accredited by CIS.
On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would liketo express my sincere appreciation to Mr Jones,
the Head of School, CIS Accreditation
Coordinator, Mr Sullivan, and all members of theschool community—staff, parents and students—
who were involved in the self-study process fortheir hard work and efforts in helping us toachieve this milestone.
Thank you all for supporting KIST.

What is the purpose of scholarships?
In the previous issue of The Comet, I wrote about“why we learn”. The various scholarshipprograms we offer at KIST are an extension of
this. The programs exist to reward and provide
financial support to students with excellent
character and academic proficiencies, with theaim of promoting achievement of KIST’s mission.
Specifically, the aim of the scholarship programs
is to increase the number of individuals who havea similar goal of wanting to “develop higher levelknowledge and skills in order to be able tocontribute to creating a better world”.
Every year, very talented individuals apply for ourscholarship programs, but many do not seem tofully understand our mission. It is my hope thatthe students who apply for and receive
scholarships do not take the benefits they enjoy
for granted, but will have pride in what theyreceive and the spirit to contribute what they
have received to the community and the larger
world through their actions.
Yoshishige Komaki
Board President

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CIS News
CIS represented a true collaborative effort from allareas of our KIST community and we are proud toshare with you the concluding remarks from our CIS
accreditation report.
Thank you to everyone who supported KIST in attaining this school goal.

Concluding remarks from the CIS accreditation report:

KIST, as befits its philosophy, is a self-aware community and justly proud of its
ethos, its academic success and its collaborative relationships. It is also aschool focused on putting into place those structures and procedures, which
will enable it to move to the next stages of strategic improvement. The Boardand leadership teams have already demonstrated the capacity to drive
academic success and the realisation of their students’ potential forthemselves and for the world that awaits them.
Within the last three years the school has made sustainable progress in many
key areas. It has reviewed and clarified its vision, mission, guiding beliefs andeducational goals. These are well understood by the whole community.
Students at all levels can articulate in age-appropriate language their drive to
become ‘global citizens’ and are proud of their school. The Board, leadershipteams and staff show a clear commitment to the vision and mission and leadby example in communicating these to the school community.
The school is firmly committed to its journey towards internationalism andrecognises that it is a concept to be internalised as well as expressed throughfestivals and fashion. Staff and students celebrate in class the diversity of thestudent population, developing a fluency in English alongside Japanese.
Through extracurricular and service activities, students debate world issues
and engage in projects to support those less fortunate than themselves.
The learning environment for students reflects the caring but persistentattention of the school to their academic well-being. Students respect theirteachers, knowing that they in turn are respected. Parents are welcomed into
the school and play a supportive and constructive role in its activities. Facilities
are maintained to a good standard and this adds to the overall climate of
teamwork and respect.
KIST is a listening school. Board and management teams are to becongratulated on their timely response to the challenges identified in the CIS
Preliminary Report, the Opinion Surveys and in the various sections of the Self
-Study report. The Visiting Team is confident that the Recommendations in its
own report will be addressed with determination and vigour. However, it also
invites the school fully to appreciate the many Commendations which reflect a
substantial journey accomplished in relatively few years.

Continued on next page3

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4Continued from previous page

Commendations from the CIS accreditation report:(commendations are areas where the school showed particular strength, beyond the expectations defined by CIS)
In relation to the School’s Guiding Statements,
CIS commends:


the school community for its understanding of andcommitment to the vision and mission of theFounders and for being able to articulate this as
an inherent part of their conversations.

the students for their motivation and commitment
and for their acceptance of the school’s highexpectations for their academic achievement.



the Board and Senior Management Team forcreating a definition of International Mindedness
which promotes a real depth of understanding andsensitivity to other cultures among the wider
school community.



the Senior Management Team and staff fordeveloping a broad range of international andintercultural activities within the constraints of theacademic timetable.

the school catering team for the quality of its
healthy and freshly cooked meals and for sharing
information on sources of the ingredients.

In relation to School Culture and Partnerships for
Learning, CIS commends:


the Service Coordinator for providing opportunities
for students to experience other cultures such as
the Habitat for Humanity and TASSEL projects in
Cambodia.

In relation to Operational Systems, CIS
commends:
the Senior Management Team for supporting an
increase in IT support staff, the updated wireless/internet, and an increase in the amount of tasks
that are outsourced. This is a result of acting on
Endicott survey results.

In relation to School Governance and Leadership,
CIS commends:

the Board of Directors for providing sounddirection, continuity of leadership, and effective
support for the school.



the Board and Head of School for their positive,
trusting, open and interdependent working
relationship.



the Head of School for providing dynamic andresponsible leadership for the school’s
educational programmes, well supported by the
Senior Management and Instructional Leadershipteams.

In relation to Faculty and Support Staff, CIS
commends:
the school community for the positive
relationships demonstrated by all stakeholders,both within and beyond the classroom.

the Head of School and Board of Directors foraddressing salary discrepancies for staff byintroducing initiatives to keep school fees low inorder to achieve the school’s Mission.

In relation to Access to Learning, CIS commends:


the IT support team for providing an effective
method of tracking students’ progress across theschool.



the Senior Management Team for the range oflanguage support programmes the school
provides.



the previous and current school nurses for theirorganisation of electronic and paper based
records of students, available to all staff, and their
excellent communication with the wider schoolcommunity about health issues.

Farewell to Ms Amanda!
Last September, KIST welcomed its
second teaching intern from Taylor’s
University in Malaysia. Over the past six
months, Amanda Lee worked tirelessly tosupport students in the Elementary Schooland has now returned to Malaysia tocomplete her university study to become anelementary school teacher.
Thank you Ms Amanda for
all that you did for KIST.
We wish you the best withyour studies and hope thatyou remember us andcome for a visit again! We
will miss you!

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Elementary School News
Coding for kids
There are many benefits to learning coding skills. Apart from the obvious,
such as developing logical thinking skills, Porter (2016) explains, “Computer
coding is the universal language of the planet. People who know how tocode will be able to communicate across countries and cultures, beinnovative, and solve problems more efficiently, with no barriers to impede
their success.” This idea matches well with our school’s shared beliefs ininternational mindedness.
In an effort to develop enthusiasm for coding anddemonstrate how it is applied in the real world, twosets of guests were invited to KIST to present to ourstudents. On Wednesday, February 22,
representatives from Oracle Japan presented to
our Grade 4 classes. This presentation demonstrated to our students many
real world applications for coding and how it affects our daily lives.
On Thursday, February 23, representatives from
Afrel, a company which works with Lego robotics
sets, presented to our Grade 3 classes. Through theuse of robotic controlling software, our students learned how to code basic
commands for the Lego robots.

Roan and Raito (G3A)

Computer coding is a skill which can be a lot of fun to learn
and one which children can learn in their free time. It
teaches logical thinking, instills problem solving skills, andpromotes creativity. As Steve Jobs said, “Everyone should
know how to program a computer, because it teaches you
how to think!”
For those students who are interested, many engaging and fun online coding games can be found at code.org.
Kevin Yoshihara
Elementary School Principal
Reference:
Porter, J. (2016, July 14). 4 Benefits Of Learning Programming At A Young Age. Retrieved February 19, 2017, from https://elearningindustry.com/4-benefits-learning-programming-at-a-young-age-2

Really Rubbish Orchestra
As part of their new unit of inquiry, students in
Grade 4 are busy exploring the acoustic propertiesof materials and building musical instruments using
recycled materials. Keep an eye out for the Really
Rubbish Orchestra!

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PYP News“A Village”
We often fall into the common thought that therelationship that your child holds with schooling is
primarily between the student and their teacher. This
could not be farther from the truth. Here at KIST, youwill find that many more community members are
involved in the education of your child than istraditionally considered in the reciprocal relationshipbetween the two.
Considering this notion with regard to the elementary
school, a team of educators is involved with the day-to-day implementation of your child’s education. During
the course of a day, your child will interact with anumber of educators that are essentially collaborators,
not just mentors or leaders. This instills a sense of
responsibility to the process in young learners bygiving them choices on the direction their learning can
grow.
Each class has language support staff whose job is tofacilitate your child’s learning of language, regardlessof whether or not they are fluent. Japanese, physicaleducation, art and music, delivered by teachers
regarded as experts in their fields, share perspectives
that drive a child’s imagination or hunger for
expressive ways to live their lives.
Administrators and office staff who are familiar withstudents and their particular learning styles can step inand assist on a variety of learning experiences that falloutside of the traditional
disciplinary roles one
would assume to find,round off the on-sitecommunity members
who are essential toyoung learners lives.
Reaching the end of this long list of support and care,
one would naturally be content to rest assured that thechild is well on their way to success, but it is lacking
one of the most important and influential members yet
to be mentioned. That would be you as the parent.
You must find a way to support your child’s learningfrom the home. We ask that you remember thatlearning begins at home and is a reflection of thevalues instilled in your child from home. The resultsthat you see from your child are equally yourresponsibility along with the rest of the schoolcommunity.
If you are ever at odds with how to positively influence
your child, reach out to the school community
members who are in this journey with you and let us
make a difference in your child’s future together. As
the saying goes, “It Takes a Village to Raise a Child”.
Clay M. Bradley
PYP Coordinator / Elementary School Vice Principal

MamemakiOnce again this year, we celebrated the Japanese seasonal event, setsubun,
on Friday, February 3 with a mamemaki (bean throwing) activity. As inprevious years, we had arranged for K1, K2 and K3 to participate in thisactivity; however, with the closure of the K3 classes on that day due toinfluenza, only K1 and K2 were able to participate this year.
This year, in consideration of those with food allergies, the children made theirown mame (beans) using paper clay. The children listened to a story that
explained the origins of the tradition and sang a song about mamemaki. Whenthey were all ready to throw their mame, some scary oni (demons) camesliding into the room. (The floor seemed to be a bit too slippery for the oni whowere wearing socks!) The children bravely fought off the oni with their beanscalling out “Oni-wa Soto! (Demons go away!)”. Some children started to cryfrom fear, but as a result of their courage and the power of beans, the oni, who
may have wanted to stay longer, ran away. The children cheered fortheir courage and success in chasing the oni away. It looks like wewill have another safe and healthy year ahead.
About the mamemaki (bean throwing) tradition...
Large mamemaki events are held at temples and shrines to chase away
diseases and disasters, and to wish for a good year ahead. Japanesefamilies also do mamemaki at home, calling out “Oni-wa Soto! Fuku-wa
Uchi!”(Out with demons; in with luck).

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K1 Mini Exhibition
To finish up our unit, ‘How we express ourselves’,
the K1 classes held a mini exhibition to display thecrafts and artwork they had made. Throughout theunit, the students inquired and explored lots ofdifferent ways of expressing their creativity, ideas,
thoughts and themselves. The students werecommunicators speaking in front of many people
including their parents and other visitors.
The nursery students from Shirakawa Kamome
Hoikuen came and enjoyed looking at the K1
students’ artwork. Some elementary students,
teachers and secondary teachers also came andlooked at the displays and asked questions. The
grade 5 buddies helped their K1 buddies set up theirarts and crafts on their own exhibition boards. Their
big buddies stapled their art on the boards anddisplayed their crafts on the tables.
There were questionnaires left for parents tocomplete with their child. Some of the questions
were: What is this? What did you use to make it?
Did you like making it? Which artwork is yourfavorite? Many of the visitors asked the samequestions. The students were able to answer thesequestions with confidence.

They were risk-takers to be in a new situation andstood in front of their own boards, answering
questions from many people from the school and theneighborhood. The students proudly hosted thisexhibition to show how they express themselves. A
big thank you to everyone that took the time to cometo the K1 classes, view the displays and ask
questions to the students. We are so proud of all theK1 students for their hard work. Good job K1!
Claire Yoneyama
K1A Teacher

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Exploring Paper in K2A
As part of their Unit of Inquiry, ‘How the world works’, K2A
learned about different materials and their properties. The
students investigated paper and its uses, and used paper
combined with different media to create a collage. The
background was created by experimenting with baking soda
and vinegar to create a chemical reaction that splattered thepaper. Other paper was folded and the shape was changed
to make origami animals. The students could recognize thisas a physical change, as well as cutting the paper to maketrees and flowers. In Japanese class, they learned how tomake complex origami
animals which wereadded to the artwork.
Finally, they usedpaper to represent
themselves throughdrawing. During eachcreation, the students
demonstrated they
were thinkers byconsidering what they
could do with paper,and how its properties
could be utilized tomake art.
Catherine Wells
K2A Teacher

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K1 and K2 News
Secondary students supporting the aftercare service
We have a variety of extracurricular activities after
school. After care is one of the services that we
provide for K1 to Grade 2 students to assist working
parents. Through this service, students are able toremain at school until 6:30 p.m. under thesupervision of our early childhood staff. From 3:30
to 5:00 p.m., students from the Secondary School
also join us in supporting this activity. Thesestudents are from the Secondary Childcare
Committee – organized by G11B students Selena
and Seina with the support of the CAS Coordinator,
Mr Nakade.
This is our first year running the after care service
with assistance from secondary students. In the DP,
students study 6 main subjects and also 3 extra
subjects. One of the extra subjects is called‘CAS’ (Creativity, Action, Service). Participation by
students in the childcare committee is counted
towards their CAS requirements.
During after care, the secondary students have a lotof responsibilities, and the early childhood staff
count on their support. If the students arrive late, wehave less hands to supervise the children, and ifthey took this time as their own social time, wewould need to provide more adult supervisors. For
our young learners, spending time with our highly
motivated MYP and DP students always helps themlearn!! Thank you to Mr Jones for the brilliant idea,
and to Mr Yoshihara for making it happen!

World Cultures Day
I would like to take this opportunity to thank theparents for your cooperation in supporting ourlearning environment at KIST.
On World Cultures Day, the K1 to K3 students
enjoyed eating the snacks from the bake sale.
There were all different kinds of snacks available;some of them were in large goodie bags whileothers were smaller, but all the items must havetaken a long time to prepare, and they all gave thestudents a chance to enjoy different tastes fromother countries. Also, during the storytelling time, thestudents enjoyed not only the stories but also thenational costumes that the parent storytellers wore
for us. Lastly, in our class, parents from China
introduced one of their most important events—
Chinese New Year—by giving the students anopportunity to cook Chinese dumplings. The children
watched a short video clip about Chinese New Yearand then cooked dumplings with support from theparents. In addition to the dumplings that thechildren prepared in class and took home for theirfamilies, the volunteer Chinese parents had preprepared 100 dumplings, which were cooked in theclassroom for the students to try.
Our students
are from all over
the world andall this support
increases the
curiosity andfamiliarity they
have toward thecountries where
their friends
come from.
Without the
support ofparents, none of
our eventswould havebeen successful
and we would
not have beenable to provide
practical learning opportunities for our students.
Thank you again to our super supportive parents.
Eri Ozawa
Early Childhood Coordinator(K1, K2) / K1B Teacher

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The Bookworm Reading ChallengeOver the past month, G4A have been improving theirreading skills by taking on The Bookworm Reading
Challenge. Since the beginning of the school year I
have been most impressed by the class’ appetite forreading, resulting in me often having to tell them to put
their books away! However, I gradually began torealise that despite being avid readers, the students
were not reading widely across different genres. A
survey confirmed my suspicions, revealing that
humorous and adventure-themed graphic novels were
extremely popular, whilst classic novels and works ofpoetry were largely overlooked.
The Bookworm Challenge required the students toread material from ten different categories within athirty day period. Students needed to read books fromall the categories for a Gold Award, at least five for a
Silver, and a minimum of three for a Bronze. The
various categories were selected after looking at theresults of the survey and consulting with Ms Hynes,
who suggested the inclusion of a Merit Award (GoldAward plus an additional Sakura Medal book) toprovide an extra challenge for enthusiastic participants.

The ten categories were: a biography
 a poetry anthology
 a How to book a book in another language
 a traditional story
 a classic novel a book recommended by a friend
 an Elementary School Sakura
Medal book
 a Middle School Sakura Medal book a number lottery book (random)Every day, students had at least
fifteen minutes of class time to read,and the majority continued theirreading at home too. After thedeadline, each student had an in-depth interview toensure that they had actually completed the reading,and to help me understand more about their individual
experiences. The responses were overwhelmingly
positive, with nearly all the students commenting thatthey enjoyed the classic novels far more than they
imagined they would. In fact, some students admitted
that they did not know what a classic novel was before
and were surprised that they enjoyed stories that were
written in ‘the olden days’. Popular choices were: Windin the Willows, Black Beauty, Treasure Island and theSecret Garden.
I was thrilled that everyone achieved a Silver Award or
higher, with four students receiving a Merit Award. I
hope that this positive experience will encourage thestudents to continue to broaden their reading habits,
and to realise that reading more widely can be bothenjoyable and beneficial to the development of theirreading skills.
Bethan Thomas
G4A Homeroom Teacher

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V o l u me 2 0 | I s s u e 3 | M a rc h 2 0 1 7

Decisions and Consequences
We make decisions every day. As soon as we are awake, westart making decisions: when to get up, what to eat, what to wear,
where to go, how to get there, when to get there, who to play with,what to say and so on, until we decide to go to sleep. We don’teven consider some of the simple decisions we make. However,
we need to understand that even simple decision making is a very
important process of our lives. We sometimes forget that every
decision we make has a consequence. Everything about andaround us is a result of our own decisions. If we make a bad
decision, then we can’t complain about the consequences, therefore, we must think carefully before we act.
We are currently leading a community circle activity with Grade 3 students, focusing on this topic. With Mr Green,
Mr Sullivan and Ms Watanabe’s support, students are able to evaluate their decision-making skills, and predict theconsequences of those decisions. They are now able to apply decision-making strategies to make the best
possible choices for themselves and others.

We also made a display in the Elementary foyer called“I made a smart choice”. Students are contributing their“smart” choice of the day and the consequences ofthem, on the beautiful paper butterflies which Ms Cat
kindly made for us. K2A students are learning about
the sequences of the action in stories as a part of theirstorytelling activity for their unit of inquiry, so they areable to choose the smart choices that fit our IB learnerprofile.
We are organising an assembly on this topic in Marchwith Grade 3 and K2A students. I will be sure to let you
all know how it goes in the next newsletter.
Kana Furnival
Student Conduct
Coordinator(Elementary)

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Nengajo Activity Fundraiser
For the second year running, we
ran our nengajo (New Year’scard) activity fundraiser as part of
the winter concert celebrations.
Students once again enjoyed withenthusiasm, decorating theircards and sending them out tofamily and friends.
A total of ¥12,240 was raised!
This will go towards supporting
the programs run by the Art in All
of Us organization. http://
artinallofus.org
I would like to take thisopportunity to thank the various
teachers, Elementary students
and Grade 11 students who were involved in helping
run this activity, and a huge thank you to the KIST
community for your invaluable support towards thisfundraising initiative, the proceeds of which will be verymuch appreciated by children elsewhere in the world in
their expression and enjoyment of Art.
Helen Campbell
PYP Art Teacher

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Elementary ELS
Request for mother tongue book
recommendations
We’ve just celebrated World Cultures Day where all of us
at KIST could share parts of our languages and culturesthat we might not always display on a regular school day.
As part of the celebrations, the KIST Libraries havelaunched a campaign to build our collection of mothertongue books, with your very important help. The libraryteam is asking the adults in our community to think about
what books in your mother tongue you loved to read as achild and as a teenager, and recommend these books for
the KIST Libraries to buy (we are also very happy toreceive donations of slightly used mother-tongue books
popular with children). This way you can help give yourchild, and other children with the same mother tongue,
the chance to borrow literature in their other languages aswell as in English when they visit the library.
Mother tongue reading is not only crucial for its own sake,but is simultaneously a central factor in learning literacy inEnglish. Research into bilingual education tells us not
only that children can develop their mother tongue
without slowing down the development of English, butwhat’s more, “reading skills acquired in the native
language will transfer readily and quickly to English, andwill result in higher reading achievement in English” (E.
Garcia, 2008).

Muskaan (G5A) reading in Hindi and Dawon (G4B)
reading in Korean.

Nikol, Selin and Ai (G5A) reading in Russian, Turkish
and Tagalog, respectively.

Please take advantage of this chance to help ourstudents. Especially for Tokyo residents for whom it ishard to locate the books you want in your mother tongue,
this is a precious opportunity for the KIST community towork together to develop an amazing collection.
Rachel Parkinson
Elementary ELS Coordinator / G5 ELS Instructor
Reference:
García, E. (2008) Bilingual Education in the United States. In Altarriba
and Heredia (Eds.), An Introduction to Bilingualism: Principles andPractices. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Pp. 321-343.

Liwei (G3B) and Andrew (G4A) share a book in Chinese.

Fill in the form to recommend a book in your mother tongue on the
Elementary Library / Library Media Center Moodle page here:

http://bit.ly/2lxC4a6

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KIPS NewsKIPS P2 and KIST K1 gathering
On Thursday, February 16, the KIPS P2
children had their first short gatheringwith the KIST K1s. The K1s normally
have Buddy Reading time with the G5B
students; however, as the G5s are busy
preparing for their big event—the PYP
Exhibition—they used this time block to invite KIPS P2 children to their classrooms.
The K1s were so excited to welcome the P2 children into
their class as now they are very responsible in how they
spend time in the classroom. The K1s also wanted to be big
brothers and sisters to the P2s just like their G5 partners!
The age of the K1s and P2s and the actual size of theirbodies is not that different, but for the K1s, KIST is theirschool and they were so very confident in showing it to theP2s and in helping them go to the toilet, to the sink to wash
their hands, and to the big field to play.
Due to the weather, we had to cancel one session, but weare planning to hold more of these days for the children tointeract. Our very youngest children are learning how to becaring and responsible members of the community.

KIPS and KIST supporting each otherOn Friday, January 13, the KIPS community participated in alarge evacuation drill. Prior to the drill, the children ate
survival food—dry bread—for their afternoon snack. Afterthey had finished eating, the actual drill began and everyone
started to evacuate from the KIPS building to a safer place—
K. International School. The children who cannot yet walkwere piggy-backed by KIPS staff, and those who can walkwere led by the adults all the way to KIST while wearing theirsafety helmets. Upon arrival at KIST, the children gathered in
the MPR to listen to an earthquake story while waiting fortheir parents/guardians to come to pick them up. Some of
the children were so relieved to see their parents that they
started to cry when they saw them.
The children from KIPS also visit KIST occasionally to use
our big field. When we – KIST community – had a half term
break, KIPS had their normal school days. The KIPS
teachers took an advantage of using the big field with only
20 children! Those two days were pretty windy, however,with nothing to hide the sun, but with the soft artificial grass,the children enjoyed the time spent on the field.
We are physically at different campuses, but we all help
each other!
Eri Ozawa
Preschool Coordinator“ T h e Co m et ”

V o l u me 2 0 | I s s u e 3 | M a rc h 2 0 1 7

15

Kids Baseball School
A charity baseball school for children was held on Sunday,
December 11, 2016 at Jingu Gaien Stadium indoor practicefacility. Eight elementary students from KIST participated in
the practice which was led by Mr Kimiyasu Kudo, the fieldmanager of the professional baseball team, SoftBank Hawks.
Participation in the school provides a great opportunity forinternational students who do not usually have the chance toplay baseball. This is the 8th year that KIST has been invited
to participate.
At the time the school was held, the area around the stadium wascrowded with people enjoying the colored autumn leaves, and thestudents enjoyed walking through the bright autumn scenery on their way
to the stadium. When they reached the field, there were children fromlocal baseball teams warming up in their uniforms. Seeing the other teams
made our small group of KIST students feel a little nervous.
After listening to a greeting by Mr Kudo, five professional players taught
the children how to throw. Among the five was last year’s top draftselected pitcher. The group then split up into positions: pitchers, catchers,
outfielders and infielders. Fortunately, the pitcher’s group was taught by
Mr Kudo himself. From his extensive experience, he has developed anefficient training method that is less burdening for children and helps toprevent injuries. In this method, children practice swinging strongly with alight baseball bat for 30 minutes until they can produce a zipping noise. At
first, this was difficult for the children, but as their form improved, they
started to be successful. When they began throwing the ball after thisexercise, they were able to throw a good strike. This practice, which was
based on sports biomechanics. was very meaningful for the children.
Students who joined other groups also seemed to enjoy learning fromprofessional players. At the end of practice, all participants received an
autographed ball. Some students also won autographed gloves, mascot
dolls and baseball caps as prizes in the lottery. For students who were notable to participate this year, please look forward to next year as we may
be invited again.
Akihiko Nogami
Baseball CoachWorld Scholar’s Cup Reflections
From preparing for the World Scholar’s Cup (WSC) to
participating in the actual Tournament of Champions
competition (at Yale University, November 18 – 21,2016), every moment of the process was amazing. My
fellow team members Nimit (G9B) and Aditya (G8B)
can attest to that. All through the preparation, I had thejoy of acquiring new knowledge across a wide range ofsubjects and developed skills such as critical thinking,debating and argumentative writing.
Topics in the WSC come from a range of issues
including science, law, history, literature and the arts;
therefore, I was able to learn about a variety of issues
relevant to our society today. Also, in the actual
competition, I was able to expand my knowledge andviews regarding various issues by debating andsharing opinions with other participants from all over

GaOn (G9B)

Nimit (G9B)

Aditya (G8B)

the world. We challenged each other’s views as wellas our own, and we were all able to develop moremature ideas in the process. I was personally able tobecome more knowledgeable and global-minded.
I thank my teachers for helping me develop throughout
the experience and would like toencourage other students to join to
become better “scholars.”
GaOn (G9B)

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Sleep Deprivation
The difference between six and eight
hours of sleep – and how to increase
sleep time
With the increase in academic demands, and evenmore of technological distractions, it seems many of
our students are getting fewer hours of sleep eachyear. Although many of them claim that they canfunction off fewer hours of sleep without suffering
decline in performance, research suggests this may
not be the case.
According to David Dinges, the head of the Sleep andChronobiology Laboratory of the Hospital at Universityof Pennsylvania (USA), individuals who consistently
receive six hours of sleep were incapable of sustaining
their attention as long as their counterparts who
received eight hours of sleep. Furthermore, there wasa steady decline in memory, fluency and speed within
the participants for each passing day that theyreceived six hours of sleep. So, what participants
sleeping for eight hours could remember after reading
once, participants with six and four hours of sleep
needed to read the passage several times to retain thesame information.
Gregory Belenky, who heads the Sleep and
Performance Research Center at Washington State
University (USA), discusses about these cognitive
deficits as: “you don’t see it the first day. But you do infive to seven days. Unless you’re doing work that
doesn’t require much thought, you are trading timeawake at the expense of performance.” (Jones, “How
Little Sleep Can You Get Away With?”)
Most interestingly, when participants in this sleep study
were asked to rate their own performance, they statedthat despite feeling sleepy, they were getting adjusted
to the new sleep patterns and it was not affecting theirperformance. However, their results on these tests
showed the complete opposite. So, contrary to whatmany of us wish and our students believe, we cannot
train ourselves to be five-hour sleepers, or sleepers
who need less sleep than what is genetically decided
for us. Furthermore, the sleep-deprived among us arepoor judges of our own sleep needs. (Jones, “How
Little Sleep Can You Get Away With?”)“...we cannot train
ourselves to be fivehour sleepers.

”

Now, how can we increase sleep? Here are a few tips
for helping our students get more sleep on a regularbasis.

1 Turn off electronics
well before going tobed
Dim the lights and turn off allelectronics about 60 minutes before bedtime. Bright
lights alert our brains that it is time to be awake, sostart signaling otherwise as early as possible. Ideally,
your electronics should remain outside of your
bedroom to avoid all temptation of checking messages
and email before sleep and especially during the night.

2

Keep a consistent sleep/awake
schedule, even on weekends

Staying up and sleeping in later than normal can cause
social jetlag, which are shifts to your body’s naturalclock, the same way that traveling affects your body.

regularly
3 Exercise
Research suggests that those who exercise
regularly get the best sleep. If you are inactive, adding
a 10 minute walk every day could improve yourlikelihood of a good night’s sleep.

a soothing pre-sleep routine
4 Establish
Everyone relaxes differently, so whether it’sreading a book, taking a bath, or having a chat withyour siblings, find a routine that relaxes you andmentally prepares you for sleep before you slip into
bed.

Avoid caffeine by the afternoon
5 Caffeine may stay longer in your system than you
might think. Experts recommend avoiding drinking
caffeine by early afternoon to guarantee it won’t keep
you up in bed later.
Momoko Aoe
Student Care Coordinator (Secondary)
References:
Jones, Maggie. “How Little Sleep Can You Get Away With?” The
New York Times Magazine. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/
magazine/mag-17Sleep-t.html
Klein, Sarah. “Sleep and Exercise: Vigorous Exercisers Report The
Best Sleep, Poll Say.” The Huffington Post. http://
www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/04/sleep-exercise-sleep-inamerica_n_2784457.html 4 March 2013
Klein, Sarah. “37 Science-Backed Tips for Better Sleep.” The
Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/17/
better-sleep-tips-best_n_4958036.html

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V o l u me 2 0 | I s s u e 3 | M a rc h 2 0 1 7

Intensive Drama Workshop
The Intensive Drama Workshop is a workshop which
revolves around the theatrical skills of the students;
this involves almost everything related to theatre. It’sa great way to see how expressive you can be in atheatrical way and it’s also a great way to interact withother students.
The workshop was two weeks and we created a playthat was fun for us to make and for the audience. We
also learned the fundamentals of acting, and what itreally means to act. Now, how did we do this in two
weeks and successfully strengthened our theatricaltalents by ourselves? We didn’t! Two amazing drama
teachers from New York (Yes, all the way from New
York) came to teach and help us in drama, and trustme they’re talented. They were able to narrow ouracting into raw emotion, create a bigger theatricalenvironment in KIST and helped us build a play we
could all relate to, all in the time span of two weeks!
One of their movie works is also nominated for the
SXSW Film Festival 2017! (You can watch theirworks at http://elofilms.com).
The workshop gave everybody the spotlight and still
managed to incorporate teamwork. Nobody felt left
behind or incapable because we were able to support
each other and praise our ambiguous talents. I candefinitely say that everybody’s favorite part was
improv—having to come up with a backstory and acharacter on the spot always ends in a hilarious
scenario. We expressed our personalities in thesecharacters that were so weird and unrealistic, yet wewere able to expand on that and create a strong odd
character. I think that’s what made the drama
workshop so friendly, the fact that we could be weird

and no one would
care because
that’s just how weroll. So
everyone’s
favorite part waseither the improv
activities or the
donuts weearned.
We expect theworkshop to
return in August
and we are excited to show you
what we can do. Consider joining
the workshop too, it’s astounding
what we can do together.
Thilo (G8B)

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G12 TOK Excursion to the Mori Art Museum
How have humans viewed the universe?
To what extent is our knowledge on theuniverse based on faith? Or is it…?
Recently, the G12 Theory of Knowledge class got theopportunity to visit the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi.
The exhibit ‘The Universe and Art’ offered a diverse
range of pieces from fossils, mandalas and even the
old Japanese Sci-fi novel, Taketori Monogatari.

Our trip to the Mori Art Museum for
TOK was a very interesting
opportunity for us students to gain adeeper understanding of the ideas wewere learning about in class in a different
environment. The exhibition titled “The
Universe and Art" explored different
perceptions of the world around us andhow it came to be the way it is today. It
was particularly fun to see all the unique
art pieces that at first glance seemed to
not relate to the concept of our universe,
but after reading the description andusing our "TOK minds", made a lot ofsense!
—Armina (G12A)

I
Prior to this trip to the museum, we learned about theAreas of Knowledge such as The Arts, Natural
Sciences, Mathematics and Religion as well as theWays of Knowing including faith and imagination. We
had numerous discussions on how and why we knowwhat we know and explored the different perspectives
in knowledge. All of what we learned in class werereflected in the museum, and opened doors tonumerous questions on our knowledge of the universe.
As knowledge seekers, some of the students in ourclass had some things to say about the trip which you
can read on this page.
All in all, the exhibit highlighted the interdisciplinary
nature of knowledge and helped expand ourunderstanding of our universe. It was very nice to havea break from the extremely intense DP and we lookforward to becoming TOK experts! I would like to end
this article with a question: To what extent is Art
imagined reality?
Moana (G12A)

learnt that the integration of scienceand arts can be very informative andinspiring. The trip allowed me to reflect as a
TOK student. I really enjoyed the exhibition!
—Hardik (G12B)

T

he exhibition was very insightful as itshowed artworks that were a
combination of many disciplines/AOKs,
illustrating how our knowledge is crossdisciplinary. It was an experience like noother and I would love to attend exhibitions
like this again!
—Mirabelle (G12B)

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Artscape
Artscape is the major
Kanto Plain international
student art exhibition,
now running for over 35
years! Once again thisyear, the event was heldat the Azabu Kids toTeens Hall and works were on display from twelve
schools in the Kanto region from Grades 5 through 12.
The strength of these shows is always in the diversityof the work shown and the many media represented,
with each school showing to its own strengths. Over 50
nationalities were represented in the show.

Yuuki (G10A)

KIST students from Grade 5 to 11 were represented
with a great range of different mediums anddemonstrations of creativity. It provided a truly great
experience to collaborate with other international
schools and enjoy the work of so many emerging
artists.
Well-done to all the amazing and creative participants!
Luke Jones
MYP/DP Visual Art Teacher

Li Ran and Chae Hyun (10A)

New Faces
Since the last issue of
The Comet, we havewelcomed two new staff
members—Dominic
Arnold who has joined
the Elementary School as
the new Teaching
Assistant for the K3classes, and Yoshimi
Machida who has joined
the team at KIPS as apreschool teacher for theP0/P1 class for 0 and 1
year olds.

Qinghong (G10A)

Battery Danger
Dear KIST Community,

Dominic Arnold
Teaching Assistant(K3)

On behalf of the schoolcommunity, we wish you
both the best in your newroles and hope that you
enjoy your time with us.

Given the large number of members from ourcommunity that have small children, I would liketo raise more awareness of the dangers thatbatteries pose for small children. Recently, mybrother’s wife lost her beautiful, 2-year-old niece
because she swallowed a battery. The little
button batteries that are found in many modern
electronic devices can cause severe
hemorrhaging if ingested (BBC article).
However, this situation can be avoided byensuring that all batteries are kept away fromyoung children in a secure location and bychecking to make sure that all electronic toys
have childproof covers for any batteries that are
required. Now might be a good time to do a quick
look around your house to see if there are any
batteries lying around.
Sincerely,

Yoshimi Machida
Preschool Teacher(KIPS P0/P1)

Matthew Archibald
G5A Teacher

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MUN Conference in Shanghai
From January 19–22, 2017, the KIST Model United Nations (MUN)
team attended the eighth annual CISSMUN conference at Concordia
International School in Shanghai. The KIST team, which included
students from Grades 9 to 11, represented the Netherlands and
Kenya in General Assembly and the Human Rights Commission,joining nearly a thousand delegates from around the world.
The theme of this year’s conference was “Responsibility to Protect”
and each committee addressed issues in hope to create resolutions
and/or take action to help others less fortunate than ourselves. Erik
Paulson, the conference organizer, said that he hoped that theconference would help participating students to “take the critical firststep in cultivating an ethic of service to others”. The goal and missionof CISSMUN is to provide a venue in which students of diverse
backgrounds can hone the skills of research, public speaking andnegotiation while cultivating the virtues of active global citizenship andprinciple-centered leadership.

Participants:
Akino (G9A)
Marlinah (G9A)
Heizo (G9A)
Kenzo (G9A)
Lilya (G9B)
Shridhar (G9B)
Gautham (G10A)
Krisha (G10A)
Ayumi (G10A)
Igor (G10A)
Naman (G10B)
Meng Ting (G10B)

Ayumi (G10A) and Meng Ting (G10B)

The KIST MUN Team

Naman (G10B)

Igor and Krisha (G10A)

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MUN Scrimmage 2016
KIST’s Model United Nations club hosted anothersuccessful MUN scrimmage on Saturday, November
26. There were five schools that participated in thescrimmage, which included the British School in Tokyo,
St Mary’s International School, Tamagawa Academy,
Yokohama International School, and KIST.
There were 82 delegates who debated issues in thehigh school MUN, while 15 students participated in our inaugural middle school MUN scrimmage. The middle
school delegates created a resolution to address the North Korean nuclear program, while the high schooldelegates drafted resolutions for two issues: combating
xenophobia and protecting the rights of religious and ethnic
minorities, refugees and asylum seekers in Europe and theUS; and granting women equal access to ownership andcontrol over property, financial services, inheritance, andnatural resources.
Jiu (G11B) and Natalie (G11A)

I

remember my first MUN conference. A room filledof people a lot older than me wearing serious
expressions. I remember looking up to the chairs,
thinking how confident they were and how they could
manage the whole conference by themselves. Little did
I know I would be one of them two years later. The
2016 MUN Conference was by far one of the mostmemorable conferences I attended, as this was the firsttime I chaired. It was at first terrifying to address a large
number of students, especially when I had never met
the majority of the delegates before. Nevertheless, I
gradually became used to the audience and carried out
my role confidently. What was different from the past
two conferences was to be able to listen to the debatesfrom an omniscient perspective. Previously, I would
listen to the arguments from the delegates, and decide
whether to be for or against their resolution. Although I
still had the pressure to keep the house in order, it wasinteresting to listen to both sides, without the need topick a side and be expected to fire a question to thedelegate. The role of a committee chair is to keep thehouse in order, meaning to keep the debate undercontrol because at times, some delegates would bevery passionate, as well as aggressive, which would
result into a never-ending debate. This not only
lengthens the conference, which prevents other
resolutions to be debated, but at times frightens thefirst-timers and prevents them from voicing out theirarguments. Additionally, the chairs are required todeliver the instructions, take attendance, record how
many times a delegate spoke, count the votes, andmost importantly encourage every delegate to speak atleast once during the conference.
Natalie (11A) – Committee ChairT

his was my second year as a member of the MUN club andmy first year participating in the MUN scrimmage. Prior to
the scrimmage, I thought that it would be quite casual with fun
debates with students from a variety of different schools. That
was why I was very surprised when I actually participated in thedebates. Many delegates were very strong and expressive, it
was very different from the debates we held during club itself. In
short, the competition was crazy. Maybe it was due to the factthat it was my first time participating in a debate; I was in a daze
a lot of the time, lost and confused slightly by all the heat of the
discussions. However, I do not at all regret engaging myself inthis event as actively as I could, as the whole experience wasmuch more fun and eye-opening than I expected it to be. I hopethat next year will prove itself equally if not more fun andcompetitive, and so I am earnestly recommending all of thepassionate debaters at KIST to give it a try.
Ji Hye (G9A) – High School MUN DelegateMy experience in MUN was very fun and I got to learn many
new things about current issues. MUN is a great
opportunity to improve your communication and debate skills
and you also get to interact with students from different schools.
So I recommend MUN to everyone, as it allows you to explore
the world from different perspectives.
Nishi (G7B) – Middle School MUN Delegate

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Economics in the Real WorldIn Semester One, the Grade 9 students started an introductory Economics unit in I&S. After
gaining the conceptual understanding of the basic economic problem, the laws of supply
and demand and the non-price determinants of supply and demand, the students had tobring theory into practice in the form of a business pitch. Inspired by the TV series Dragons’
Den and Sharks’ Tank, the students had to come up with a realistic business idea and pitch
it to potential investors. To help the students connect the abstract Economics concepts withreal life situations and to provide some inspiration for business ideas and making creative pitches, the classembarked on two excursions. One was in-house, in which KIST hosted the Head of International Business
Development and Licensing Polygon Pictures Inc., Jack Liang. That same week, the students headed out to the
National Australia Bank (NAB) in Nihonbashi to make their pitches to real bankers and received valuable
feedback. When the Grade 9 students made their final pitches for their summative assignment, they had somereal-life examples and experiences to draw from! Here are some reflections from the teachers.
POLYGON PICTURESNATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK

Reflections from Ms Evelyn Pang

Reflections from Ms Geri SnowThis is my second year teaching theGrade 9 Individuals and Societies unit on
Economics and I am so thankful I had thechance to work on it again this year toenhance the learning experience for theGrade 9 students. What was particularly
rewarding this year was working with Ms
Snow to organize interaction sessions
between our students and people in thecorporate world, who make use of the
Economic theories we teach to make daily
decisions in running their companies/
organizations. It was as much an eye opener
for me as it was for my students when Mr
Jack Liang (Producer, Head of International
Business Development and Licensing) cameinto a combined G9 lesson to share histhoughts on working at Polygon Pictures, a
digital animation studio based in Tokyo.
Seeing the students ask relevant questions
and discussing Mr Liang’s opinions after his
sharing made me realize the value ofteaching anything in real-world context. Whatsatisfaction I gained seeing ideas ‘click’ in a
student’s
head as theyrecognize therelevance ofwhat they
have learnt –the seed ofknowledge
has sunkroots andsprouted!

Mr Jack Liang introduces Polygon
Pictures to our G9 students.

Ms Pang and I decided to be risk takers
and try to bring the Grade 9 Economics
unit to life! We were fortunate to have contacts
in the KIST community to reach out to. Our visit
to NAB was facilitated by Mr Jay Bailey, Headof Management Assurance. He and hiscolleague Masato Hori watched businesspitches from both G9A and 9B and gave
valuable feedback to all groups. The presenters
packed a lot of effort and information to theirfive-minute time slots and went above andbeyond the material studied in class, leaving
everybody in the room impressed! It think thatthese formative presentations gave the students
the feeling, confidence and experience that theyneeded to make the equally impressive pitches
for their products of their own design for thesummative task. To paraphrase Mr Bailey, there
is likely acollection of
futureentrepreneursin the group!
Ji Hye, Rohith,
Kenzo and Heizo(G9A) deliver theirpitch at NAB.

Marlinah (G9A) offers a sample ofher product to the “dragons”.

Rohith (G9A) explains a non-pricedeterminant of supply for his product.

V o l u me 2 0 | I s s u e 3 | M a rc h 2 0 1 7“ T h e Co m et ”

Economics Students Visit the Bank of JapanO

n February 14, 2017, the Grade 12 DP Economics class got the opportunity to visit
the Bank of Japan (BOJ). As students who take a keen interest in economics, it
was a rewarding experience for us all to stand in the middle of what is arguably the mostimportant financial institution in the country. This trip took us beyond the confines of our
Economics classroom and gave us invaluable exposure to how economics functions in thereal world.
Our trip got off to a good start, with our not facing any problems either on the way to or
inside the venue. Upon entering the BOJ, we were introduced to our guide and he informed
us about the purpose of the BOJ and its different departments. He also told us that the BOJ
dealt with transactions that were over 100 trillion yen each day, a fact that simply blew mymind. It was shocking to find out that one institution alone was capable of handlingtransactions of such volumes. He then led us into a hallway decorated with the portraits offormer governors of the BOJ. These portraits were housed in the old BOJ building, built by
Tatsuno Kingo, who was also the architect who designed Tokyo Station. We were thenshown the former meeting hall for the BOJ officials. After this, we were shown to a former
vault of the BOJ in which gold and bank notes were once stored. The defenses set up toprotect the vaults were quite extraordinary. A three-layered door made of steel and shaped
like a sideways Egyptian pyramid guarded the door of the vault. Its weight was over 25
tonnes, and this was only the first door that protected the vault. Additional doors were also
installed to ensure maximum security.
After a comprehensive tour of the old and new buildings of the BOJ, we were ushered into
a room where we sat down and listened to a lecture about the policies the current
Japanese government is undertaking in order to push the economy on the right track. He
lectured us about the reasoning behind the central bank deciding to pursue negativeinterest rates at -0.1%. This rate is not an interest rate on borrowing and does not meanthat the BOJ pays firms interest for borrowing money! (sadly we do not live in an ideal
world). Rather, this is an interest on deposit, meaning that if firms would like to save moneyin the BOJ, rather than gain interest, they will have to pay the bank an interest of 0.1%. This
is to encourage financial institutions to save less and lend out to businesses more.
Grappling with such concepts that are not taught at school was quite thought-provoking andcertainly helped us better understand how the economy of Japan functions at a global level.
This trip was a great opportunity to push us Grade 12s to understand information beyond
what is in our textbooks and help us develop an appreciation for the work that these
institutions do for the country we live in. Special thanks to our DP Economics teachers Mr
Erickson and Mr Boyd fororganizing such a
wonderful trip.
Rithvik (G12B)

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Secondary SRC
Secondary School dance
On December 14, 2016, the SRC held the Winter Wonderland Dance. A total of 79 students
attended this event. The SRC conducted a survey on the student body, asking students what
they wanted the money earned from the entrance fee to be used on. The results showed thatthe majority of students desired new sports equipment. The SRC is currently in the processof purchasing new sports equipment so please stay tuned for further updates!

Middle School dance
On February 17, 2017, the SRC had the first middle school dance of the year. The theme of this dance was World
Cultures Day, and we had several participants who contributed in the spirit of the event by wearing their national
costume. A total of 50 students attended. The SRC made a profit of ¥16,540 which will be used to pay for sport
uniforms for our futsal team. The SRC is willing to spend their money to benefit the KIST community.
Let your voice be heard, and share your ideas regarding the use of the general budget through the SRC
voice box!

New SRC executive
The SRC has recently experienced a change in its structure; the executives are now in office during the periods
January and December in comparison to the previous September to June terms.
We present to you the SRC Executives of 2017-2018…
President

Vice President

Secretary

Treasurer

Public Relations Officer

Rachel (G11A)

Sara (G11B)

Nimit (G9B)

Krisha (G10A)

Shouheng (G11B)

Upcoming events
As semester 2 has begun, the SRC has a number of projects taking place. This year, we will be holding a Free
Dress Day on March 10, to commemorate the dreadful earthquake and tsunami that affected the Tohoku region on
March 11, 2011. All donations will then be sent to the victims of the earthquake to aid with their recovery.
Secondary SRC

Safety Training for Staff

Our KIST Mission
KIST provides academically motivated children from diverse
cultural and social backgrounds with high quality education
in a safe and nurturing environment to develop
competent and moral individuals who make meaningful
contributions to our global community.
KIST is committed to ensuring as safe an environment as
possible for our students and community members. During
February, a total of 42 staff members participatedsuccessfully in either general or advanced CPR and AED
training as arranged through the Fukagawa Fire Department.
Thank you to the staff who attended these sessions to learn
more about how to respond in emergency situations. Further
training sessions are planned for May and August.

“ T h e Co m et ”

V o l u me 2 0 | I s s u e 3 | M a rc h 2 0 1 7

Project Rousseau
From February 2 until February 6, KIST welcomed four
secondary students (and one adult chaperone) from
Project Rousseau, a US organization that provides
opportunity and support for academically motivatedsecondary school students from adverse backgrounds(adverse defined as less than 10,000 USD annual
combined family income and one other hardship).
The visiting students were placed with host families
from the KIST community, providing them opportunity
to share about their cultures while learning aboutsome of the cultures represented at our school. During
their time in Tokyo, the students spent one full day at
KIST visiting classes with our Grade 11 students andwent on various learning/sightseeing excursions
around the Tokyo area. From KIST, the students
departed for a stay with families from a Japanese
school in Kyoto before heading back to the US. I am
sure that the experiences at the Japanese school
contrasted well with their experiences in our KIST
multicultural community and provided the students
with a positive impression of internationalization in
Japan.
Reports from the KIST host families, from KIST
students, and from the Project Rousseau students
themselves indicate that this exchange program was
highly successful and a very positive learning
experience for all involved. Thank you to parents/
students and staff for supporting KIST in making a
difference in the lives of these four students throughthis homestay exchange. In particular, KIST would liketo send out a very BIG thank you to the Imanishifamily (G6 & K3), the Moore family (G6), the Li family(G5 & G2), and the Hasegawa family (G9 & G5) for
their hospitality and kindness as host families for the
students.

“

A message from the Project
Rousseau students:
We would like to say to a huge thank you to the
KIST community and our host families for giving
us such a warm welcome in Japan. Before weleft we are a little scared, for some of us it was
our first time abroad and none of us spoke thelanguage or knew what to expect from Japaneseculture. However, everyone we met at KIST wasso friendly and interested to learn about us aswell as share their lives in Tokyo with us. Ourhost families were so caring and taught us a lot, it
was exciting to experience their culture,
hospitality and how they treated their guests withsuch respect. Spending time in KIST was also
very interesting and we would have loved tospend more time in your classes as we learnt somuch and felt so included. We all feel moreculturally aware after the trip and are relishing
opportunities to travel again in the future. Thankyou so much for allowing us to spend time withyou and for giving us this once in a lifetime
opportunity we will never forget!
Rosa, Juan, Shantell and Kathy

It was a wonderful experience I’ll never forget.
(Aki, G5A)

”

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V ol u me 20 | I s s ue 3 | M arc h 20 17“ T h e Co m e t ”

Nurse’s Notes
How not to spread the flu

One person gets the flu (influenza) and everyone
else has it too before you know it!

Clean hightouch
surfaces

According to the Centers for Disease Control andPrevention (CDC in USA), the flu virus can spreadeven before symptoms appear, and you can infectothers up to a week after you first become sick.
However, by practicing a few simple rules, you canhelp keep others well and prevent the flu fromspreading.

Clean anddisinfect hot
spots
regularly
including doorknobs, desks or keyboards. It isalso possible to catch the flu by touching asurface or object that has the flu virus on it andthen touching your mouth, eyes or possibly your
nose.



Get vaccinatedHealth experts say getting vaccinated is the
single most important thing you can do to preventthe flu. There are two types of seasonal flu
vaccine: the flu shot and the nasal spray vaccine(FluMist).
The flu shot is recommended for all individuals 6months and older. The nasal spray vaccine isapproved in the USA for healthy people aged
between 2 and 49, and women under 50 who are
not pregnant. Individuals with chronic healthconditions are not advised to take the nasal sprayvaccine.
The flu shot can cause fever, headache or chills
as well as soreness at the injection site. These
symptoms are typically mild and disappear within
one to two days. Inform your doctor before
receiving the vaccine if you are severely allergic
to eggs or mercury, or if you have had a negative
reaction to a vaccine in the past.
Vaccinations are recommended in October or
November up to the mid-December before thestart of the flu season.



Cover coughs and sneezes
The flu virus spreads through droplets from themouth and nose. Use a tissue to cover yourmouth and nose when you cough or sneeze.
Throw the tissue away immediately and wash
your hands. If there is no tissue handy, cough orsneeze into the crook of your elbow. Help yourkids to practice these habits as well.

Wash your hands frequently
Wash your hands with soap and warm water andscrub for 30 seconds, while you sing the “Happy
Birthday” song twice. Prepare alcohol-based handsanitizers for areas where sinks are not available.
Remind children to wash each time they use thebathroom, before they eat, and after they comehome from school or outside.



Avoid touching your eyes, nose andmouth
The flu virus can live for two to eight hours on
hard surfaces. That is why it is so easy to catchthe flu virus without knowing it. You can get theflu if you touch an infected doorknob or lightswitch and then rub your eyes or bite your nails.
Keeping your hands away from your face can bedifficult, especially for children, but remind them(and yourself) often.



Stay home
If you or your children get sick, you and yourchildren should stay home to prevent the flu fromspreading. Try to limit close contact with others asmuch as you can (up to a week).



Practice healthy habits
Get plenty of sleep, eat a well-balanced diet, anddrink lots of fluids. Take time to relax each day tomanage stress. Practicing healthy habits cankeep you and your family well this flu season.

Stephanie Pae
School Nurse
References: Laurie Herr, 7 ways to flu-proof your home, Healthline,
Retrieved from http://www.healthline.com/health/flu-proofhome
 Influenza Prevention; Hand Washing for 30 seconds, Nikkei
Duel, Retrieved from http://dual.nikkei.co.jp/article.aspx?
id=1965
 Key Facts about Influenza (flu), Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/flu/
keyfacts.htm

V o l u me 2 0 | I s s u e 3 | M a rc h 2 0 1 7“ T h e Co m et ”

Japanese New Year Party
The Japanese New Year Party—an annual school event—was held
this year on January 25. We were fortunate on the day to be blessedwith warm, sunny weather to celebrate the event. Students enjoyedrice cake (mochi) pounding and mock sumo bouts with 23 sumo
wrestlers from the Kisebeya sumo stable. The sumo bouts were heldin the gym. After calling out “Hakkeyoi nokotta” (ready, go), groups of
4 to 5 students tried hard to push the sumos off the mats. When thestudents succeeded in pushing out one of the wrestlers, there were
big smiles on their faces, and red marks on the wrestler’s body. The
students were also provided with the opportunity to see behind-the-scenes sumo staff in action as they called out
the wrestlers’ names, played the taiko drum, and tied up the hair of the wrestlers.
Outside on the concrete area, students enjoyed mochi pounding. To accompany the mochi, parent volunteers
prepared various toppings which the students could choose from: sweet beans (adzuki), soy powder (kinako) andseaweed (nori). There were big smiles on the faces of the students as they enjoyed eating mochi with their friends.
During their break times, the sumos played basketball and tag with the students. This provided an additional
opportunity for students to interact with the sumos. We would like to express our sincere appreciation to the
Kisebeya sumo stable for their generous support of this event every year, and to the parent volunteers.

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V ol u me 20 | I s s ue 3 | M arc h 20 17“ T h e Co m e t ”

Week of CodeThis school-wide event—held from February 20 to 24—involved
activities and presentations from some of the world’s leading coders
and tech companies. It would not have been possible without theenthusiasm, skills and commitment from many people, including: Presenters: Kevin Lim, Matt Smith, Ryoichi Seto, Mr Suzuki.
 Translators: Jiu (G11B), Ms Wakasa
 The IT Team: Mr Whittaker, Mr Downey, Mr Tim
 Staff: Mr Sullivan, Ms Watanabe, Mr Honda
 Special thanks: Yuki Suga, Sugar Sweet Robotics
Support the school next year
The event this year was a wonderful success and a great indication of the learning that can take place with
community support. We are appealing now to the KIST community for individuals and companies who would be
able to inspire future generations of coders and engineers at next year’s event. If you feel you can contribute inanyway, please complete this form.
For more photos and video please visit: Moodle > LMC > Clubs & EventsThe IT Team

Guest speaker: Kevin Lim
Primary organizer of Tokyo Indie Fest 2017

Kevin Lim

The Coding for Life competition is part of the Tokyo Indie Festival, an independent
video game design festival taking place in Akihabara in May. KIST is submitting
teams who are currently designing an arcade machine to be judged by some ofthe video game industry's top professionals. After the judging, the Tokyo public will
pay tokens to play the game, and the winner is the game with the most tokens at
the end. The Coding for Life competition encourages students to think creatively,
program effectively and build with an engaging design, and all students are encouraged to attend thefestival to experience the professional and student games.

Guest speaker: Matt Smith
Producer/Game designer at Friend & Foe

Matt Smith

Matt Smith is well known for being the creator, designer and producer
for Tetris Monsters. He went through the entire life cycle of the game,
which had moderate success worldwide. Before Tetris Monsters, an EA
title, Matt was the producer at PopCap for classics such as Plants vsZombies, Zuma’s Revenge, PopTower and more. He was with PopCap
when they were a small 10-person studio till they got acquired by EA. Matt shared his experiences with
G6 and G8 students. He also answered many questions, providing expert guidance and inspiration to
support students with their current coding projects.

Guest speaker: Ryoichi Seto
Manager, Oracle Academy

Ryoichi Seto

Oracle is an American technology company that specializes indatabases. Java, and My SQL are also famous products owned byOracle and widely used (KIST’s website uses MySQL), JR East (for train
timetable management), McDonalds, Sky Perfect TV are someexamples of local companies that rely on Oracle for their day to day
operations. G10 students undertook work experience at Oracle last year.
Mr Seto used a wheeled robot to demonstrate how code becomes
physical movement and reactions to an environment.

Guest speaker: Mr Suzuki
AFREL JapanMr Suzuki (left)

Afrel is a Japanese Education based company focusing
on robotics education and LEGO Programming toschools, individuals, after schools and companies. For thesessions they provided 12 sets of robots for all G3
students, to give everyone the opportunity to experiencecoding.

V o l u me 2 0 | I s s u e 3 | M a rc h 2 0 1 7“ T h e Co m et ”

KIST Loves LegoFirst Lego League
During the Winter break, two teams
from KIST – the KIST Rangers andCosmic Koalas – competed against
other schools with their Lego Robots.
Held at the Tokyo Institute ofTechnology and Science, the first
Lego League is part of a worldwide
event.
Members of the Secondary School
Lego club had worked hardthroughout the semester, not only
learning to code the robots, but toprepare presentations for the event.
Teams competed against the clock tocomplete tasks, sometimes loosing
points as fast as they can make them!
Well done everyone and we wish you
all the best for next year’scompetition.
There is an exciting video of theevent at:
Moodle > LMC > Clubs & Events

Lego RoboSumo Challenge
Teams from the secondary school Legoclub, and also the elementary K-Tech Legoclub are currently designing and building
robots for The RoboSumo Challenge.
The annual robotics event will be held at St
Maur International School, Yokohama where
teams of Lego engineers program a robot toemulate Japan's national sport, sumo. The
robots must independently push out theircompetitor without falling out of the ringthemselves through a series of programmed
sensors, motors and design which shouldmatch the quick-thinking, balance andstrength of champion sumo.
The winning teams will be crowned Tokyo's
Robo Sumo Champions of 2017. Good luck!
Mr Tim, Mr Downey, Mr Whittaker
The IT Team

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V ol u me 20 | I s s ue 3 | M arc h 20 17“ T h e Co m e t ”

Habitat for Humanity (H4H)
What is H4H?
H4H is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation
established in the USA in 1976. The members of H4Hfrom 80 countries, alongside the volunteers locatedacross the globe work towards helping those inpoverty in developing nations, through the carefulconstruction of houses for families. KIST has beenworking with H4H since 2006.

Participation costs and our plans
The 2017 KIST H4H team will send around 15 of its
members to Vietnam in June 2017 to participate in theconstruction of a home. However, to actually fly
overseas, we need to pay for construction materials,
donations to the local community, accommodation
costs and travel expenses, which results in a total costof around ¥230,000 per person. As a result, in the past
only families who could afford to pay the cost wereable to participate in the construction. However, the2017 KIST H4H team sees unfairness in this and thisyear for the first time in KIST’s history, we havedecided to seek corporate sponsorship for the amountof ¥2,500,000.

How does it work?
For companies and business owners interested in our
activities, we are able to visit your office to give a
detailed presentation on the various aspects of theactivities and the merits and benefits of sponsoring the
KIST H4H team. As of February 15, we have madepresentations to representatives from 6 companies
and organisations.
For inquiries, please contact the 2017 KIST H4H teamleaders:
Hiro Komaki / Yukinori Honda
hiro.komaki@kist.ed.jp / yukinori.honda@kist.ed.jp

2017 KIST H4H Team Iwate
overnight excursionF

rom February 11 to 13, the H4H Team was invited by
Iwate Prefecture for a 2 night 3 days excursion. From
all the places we visited, such as the amber museum,
Jyoudogahama, Morioka wanko soba restaurant, snow
festival, Iwate bank, etc., the one I remember the most is
Sanriku Earthquake Study Train. For 70 minutes, we were
given a lesson about the East Japan earthquake disasterthat occurred on March, 11, 2011. The train passed
through many places that were destroyed due to thetsunami and what I saw was the same as the view fromthe television right after the earthquake. It recalled thememory of all the terrible things that happened during theearthquake and it was very heartbreaking. By taking thistrain, I was able to become more aware of theearthquake, and learnt how to raise awareness of disasterprevention. Even though Iwate was attacked by a huge
earthquake, we all learned how
beautiful and warm place Iwate is, andwas overwhelmed by how people aretrying their best to recover from theearthquake. The 3 days that I spent in
Iwate with my H4H members were oneof the best 3 days that I’ve everexperienced, and I definitely want tovisit Iwate again.
Su Bin (G11A)On the last day of our Iwate trip, we were given an
opportunity to visit the headquarter of Iwate bank tomake a presentation in front of the Iwate bank staff on theinsights of our activity and fundraiser plans. After receiving
the guest card at the entrance, one of the staff led us tothe meeting room. We, including the teachers, were all
nervous when the presentation started as it was the firsttime for the KIST students to present in front of acompany. Since we could not present according to theircircumstances and needs, we were unable to get thefinancial sponsorship we wanted. However, people from
Iwate Bank were very polite and supportive in giving us
advice after listening to our long presentation. Our
experience at the Iwate Bank has
allowed us to realise some of the issues
we need to overcome and taught us thedifficulties of going out to the society
when we become an adult. Therefore,
the time we spent at the Iwate bank wassuch a valuable experience for all H4H
members.
Taisei (G11A)

“ T h e Co m et ”

V o l u me 2 0 | I s s u e 3 | M a rc h 2 0 1 7

World Cultures Day Student Seminar
MYP students attend seminar to mark World
Cultures Day
Students in Grades 9 and 10 ended the recent World Cultures Day
with a student-led seminar in the LMC. The discussion, under the
direction of Igor (G10A), touched on a variety of subjects
connected to language, identity, culture and international
mindedness.
DP students Seina, Sneha and Miu (G11B) each had a chance toexplain how their lives and their time as students has been
affected by complicated and rich connections to language andculture. The students were joined by MYP teachers Mr Lee and
Ms Aoe, both of whom also have a lot of experience in reflecting
upon such issues.

Igor (G10A) led the discussion this year.

Lilya (G9B) was in the audience for the seminar and prepared thefollowing reflection.

As soon as I entered the school building,I saw children running around, except
unlike any other day, they were runningaround in their national costumes. I saw
some children wearing the Japanese kimono
while others were wearing the Korean hanbok. Each childwas wearing a different costume from another, all of them
representing different nationalities.
During advisory class, we watched a live talk-show
discussion between Ms Aoe, Mr Lee, G10 student Igor,
and G11 students Seina, Sneha and Miu. The six hosts
talked about their struggle and coming to terms with theircultural identity.
From attending international schools, I have been
subjected to a mixed culture. Although I am fully
Japanese, English is my first language and I have gotten
many questionable looks in my life from “not acting how I
should act as a Japanese-looking person”. This
presentation made me realize that I was not alone, thatmany students in international schools face the sameproblem of cultural identity and struggling to identify
themselves to one country and one culture. Many students
feel like they represent more than one nationality, making
them global citizens of the future. I realized that where you
have lived or which country you were born in doesn’t haveto be a part of a person but instead, who you really are on
the inside is what matters the most.

Mr Lee makes a point while Sneha (G11B) andMiu (G11B) look on.

Ms Aoe also gave her thoughts on culture andlanguage.

I believe this presentation was very important for students
our age to be subjected to as we are facing the period of
critical growth. It made students realize that they were notalone when facing cultural identity crisis and that it isperfectly fine to feel proud to be a citizen of more than one
nationality.

Photos by Emiri (G10B)

Seina (G11A) spoke about her experiences.

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Recycling Initiative
The paper recycling boxes and the OneLine Art Challenge
Last year, Hotomi (G6A) and I (Ryu G10A) formed aservice group called “Recycling Initiative.” Our intention
is to promote recycling in KIST and bigger communities.
This is because recycling materials are eco-friendlier
than stuffing them into the garbage bin, and will reduce
the rate of global warming. By doing so, we want the
future generations to see a blue sky, to see different
types of insects and animals, and to be able to breathe
fresh air.
In December of last year, Hotomi, Milan (G10B) and I
made six new paper recycling boxes for the first floor of
the secondary school, to begin changing the school. We
did this because since the original recycling boxes thatwere plastic boxes were poorly located. Furthermore,unlike the machine-made boxes of the past we handmade the recycling boxes with cardboard boxes andgreen paint. This sort of effort was put in them so thatstudents develop some sympathy or care for the boxes
and for recycling itself. This was a good way to startsince students can now recycle anything – textbooks,
scrap pieces of paper, or their old newspapers at home.
Still, I felt like a lack of engagement with secondary
students can have little effect in how much they recycle.
This needed to be changed.
Hence, our group came up with a fun and challenging
art activity that could involve many students: the “OneLine Art Challenge.” The art challenge is simple; todraw things with only one line. The theme of thischallenge was recycling, community, or nature so that
artists would think of the global problems regarding
garbage and waste. Since we wanted many students toparticipate, our group members decided that our groupwill choose the 5 designs we think are best, and let thesecondary students rank the five designs through a
popular vote. These designs would then be
implemented on the paper recycling boxes on the firstfloor.

secondary students casted their votes on the design
they liked most.
The winner of the One-Line Art Challenge is Hitomi(G10A). Her beautiful one-line drawing of a woman
wearing a dress while being covered with thorns mademe remember about the rose princess in one of the folk
tales. The rest of the results are labeled below:

1st

3rd

Hitomi (G10A)

Miu (G11B)

House color: Blue

House color: Green

Chae Hyun (G10A)
House color: Red

4th

Varsha (G10A)
To make this challenge more attractive for the students,
we used the “house points” system of the secondary
school. (In secondary school each student is grouped
into one of the four “house colors” – red, blue, yellow
and green. These four houses compete by getting more“house points” than another. The house with the mosthouse points at the end of the year wins.) We set 100
house points for 3rd place, 200 for 2nd place, and 500
for 1st place.
We promoted this activity by putting up several posters
and making a 30-second advertisement video
throughout the week of January 30 to February 3. To
get lots of designs we also promoted the activity indifferent home rooms, and in Mr Jones’ art class. Thismay have lead the One-Line Art Challenge towards
success. Around 30 distinct designs were submitted bysecondary students from February 6 to 9, and 171

2ndHouse color: Yellow

5thMinn Thant (G7B)
House color: Red

The One-Line Art Challenge was engaging for these
five artists along with the other students who submitted
their one-line drawing. It was also engaging for those
non-artists, since many students participated in the
popular vote. I, too, had fun by being able tocommunicate with my group members effectively todevelop and pursue an idea.
Thank you to the SRC, the homeroom teachers, otherstaff members, and my group members for making thishappen. I hope our group can do something moreengaging, meaningful and creative in the future.
Ryu (G10A)
Recycling Initiative Co-founder“ T h e Co m et ”

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33

TASSEL Activities
In addition to teaching English to Cambodian children,
TASSEL has organized several fundraisers at KIST on
special occasions to collect donations to financially
support Cambodian families with basic needs.
Last December, TASSEL held a special Christmas
fundraiser: a Santa Claus photo booth. This specificallytargeted elementary students at KIST, aiming toincrease awareness about less privileged children in
Cambodia who are of the similar age and encouraging
their help for those children. Taking a photo with Santaand making donations to TASSEL was a simple way forthem to support Cambodian children. Many students
were not only interested in having a photo taken, butalso in the organization, TASSEL. In addition, someparents expressed their appreciation of our actions to
support Cambodian children.

My firstyear
joining
TASSEL has
been amazing.
TASSEL is anorganizationthat provides
education to
Cambodian children who need help. I volunteered to be a
VSEE (video chat application) teacher, and the children arevery adorable, and when we end our class, both us and thestudents in Cambodia wave vigorously at each other; making
it hard to cut the call. Teaching them has been very
enjoyable, especially when we play games. They clap andseem very happy when they get a question correct.
Joining TASSEL has allowed me to realize the joy in helping
people, and how the people in Cambodia require help. Thisis because I have experienced a time where I was not able toteach the students due to connectivity issues. I feel that
helping the children in Cambodia is crucial for a better future,
because children are the hopes for the future. Joining
TASSEL, I gained experience in helping people, and I willdefinitely join TASSEL next year as well.
Meng Ting (G10B)

I
TASSEL also organized another fundraising event thismonth: a Valentine’s Day rose campaign. We delivered
more than one hundred roses to KIST students andteachers on Valentine’s Day together with heartfelt
messages from the senders. This fundraiser was
successful in that TASSEL was able to spreadhappiness among the KIST community with beautiful
roses and chocolate, and collect a fair amount of
donations for Cambodian families.
Being a TASSEL member for two years now, I am glad
to be able to participate in these activities and tosupport Cambodian children. I particularly enjoyteaching English to them through VSEE because their
enthusiasm towards each lesson makes me smile aswell. It is also impressive to observe their significant
improvements in English within only a few months.
Hoping that our contributions can lead to some
improvementsin their future
lives, TASSEL
will continually
put in efforts to
help Cambodia.
Hyun Jeong(G11B)

think that joining TASSEL has changed me for the better.
I have always loved working with children, but thisopportunity to work with Cambodian children has taught me
to even love my students. All the children who come to learn
from us are energetic, kind and lovely kids who genuinely
want to learn from us. They try their best to improve, andthey never get unmotivated. One of the many characteristics
I love from these children are that unlike several people(including me), they never whine about having too muchwork to do or having too much stress because of school. I
love that every single one of these children have themotivation and a determined attitude to study and learn.
These children have taught me to value what I have andwhat I am being provided. Every time the children get excitedwhen they get a question right, the way their faces light up
happily truly warms my heart. I think I speak for all TASSEL
instructors when I say that I really love teaching thesechildren.
Varsha (G10A)T

ASSEL is an amazing experience to be a part of. We doeverything we can to help the less fortunate children of
Cambodia, and along the way we come to realize andappreciate our life and also our responsibilities to make thisworld a better and equal place for everyone of all
backgrounds.
Nikita (G11A)

B

eing a teacher for the Cambodian kids has been really
fun, and it has allowed to me to be more responsible.
Every week the students wait to be taught by us, and seeing
them have fun during class is one of the things I enjoy mostabout being in TASSEL.
Natalie (G11A)

34“ T h e Co m e t ”

Spotlight on Clubs
Photography Club (Elementary)
What better way to express yourself and document
events than through pictures! In photography club weacquire the fundamental principles of taking andinterpreting pictures and videos. Our aim is to learn how
to take effective pictures, and use our acquired
knowledge to effectively document events at KIST.
Being part of the elementary school photography club is a
big responsibility as our club will be scheduled tophotograph school events. So far, our club is alreadyscheduled to part take in documenting the school’s World
Cultures Day event. These photos, and future ones as
well, will be displayed on the school’s monitors aroundcampus.
Children these days have access to a world of technologythat wasn’t available to me at their age. I wasn’t able totouch a camera until my high school days, but when I did
it changed the way I viewed the world. By exposing thestudents to professional projects their creative interest will
not only be sparked, but they will also be learning
important skills that will help them with future projects tocome.
Justin Wilson
Club Supervisor

Japanese Drums Club (Secondary)
Has anyone noticed the loud noise from the Secondary musicroom on Friday afternoons? It is the sound of wadaiko – Japanesedrums.
Wadaiko is a simple instrument that anyone can play by striking it.
However, it is also a very complicated and profound instrument as
the sound produced differs according to how it is struck.
Wadaiko is a great way to exercise and relieve stress as players
not only use their arms, but also their full body and different
muscles.
The wadaiko club is for students from Grades 6 to 10 and operates
every Friday afternoon. During club time, students first participate
in warm-up exercises without striking the drums before moving on
to basic rhythms. In order to play the drums well, we also work on
maintaining a good posture and raising our arms high up in the air
so that the visual performance is good as well as the sound. Afterthe basic practice, we play more complicated rhythms to create amusical piece.
We are currently aiming to perform at the end-of-year concert, andclub members are practicing hard every
week. We hope you will enjoy watching as we
perform Please look forward to witness theperformance in perfect order and harmony.
Tatsuya Sakuma
Club Supervisor

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Library News
World Cultures Day
Thank you to the CA Library Committee,
parents, students and visiting guests formaking this year’s World Cultures Day—held
on Friday, February 17, 2017—a phenomenal
success.
The day began, in glorious sunshine, with abeautiful rendition of Adele’s “Rolling in theDeep” from secondary student vocal group, And Peggy. This was followed by a Japanese sword
performance and the ever-popular national costume parade.
As arranged by the CA, Nanako Hayashiya and Anko Hayashiya performed a traditional Japanese dance ‘Nichibu’and more in the gym for K1 to G8 students.
In the MPR there was a wonderful art exhibition from students, and multilanguage video recording from the SRC.
The food booth was very popular, with my favorite cupcakes disappearing
very quickly.
In the foyer students listened to stories read by parents and staff inJapanese, Chinese, English and, for the first time, Welsh.
Secondary students volunteered their time to visit elementary classes to help students learn Telegu, Chinese,
Mandarin and Korean.
This is just a small glimpse of the day’s activities. Please visit Moodle > Library > Clubs & Events for more photos
and videos.
Mr TimTeacher/Librarian

Sakura Medal voting
Elementary students have been reading and voting on 2017 Sakura Medal books since October. As I write this,we’re up to 60 votes, but that number will have gone up by the time The Comet goes to press.
By working together and encouraging each other to read and vote,students have unlocked the first two levels of book rewards: at 25
votes, the Elementary Library purchased an additional set of Zita theSpacegirl books, and at 50, we were able to buy extras of Cleopatra inSpace. Next up: at 75 votes, the library can order additional copies ofthe ever-popular Amulet series!
To celebrate the number of votes so far, the elementary students
enjoy a special “Sakura Popcorn Party” in the secondary LMC. Do you
think we can reach 100 votes, and win an extra set of Reina
Telgemeier’s oeuvre, including Smile, Sisters, and The Baby Sitters
Club graphic novel adaptations? Come by the Elementary Library andcast your vote!

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Continued from previous page

New and improved LMC & EL Moodle pages
The Library Team has been hard at work bringing you a new
and improved Moodle experience!
Research links—The new go-to resource for teacher
recommended age appropriate research links to online
resources. These include many subscription services only
available to KIST students via Moodle.
Citation advice—A challenge for students of all ages. New
and improved support for APA referencing. Essential for all
students particularly those working on the Grade 5 exhibition,
extended essays, and personal projects.
Book Bloggers Blog—Peruse the book reviews by KIST students if you can’t decide what to read next! Leave acomment and start a conversation. Did you read a book that you loved (or hated)? Email your review tolibrary@kist.ed.jp and we may feature your review in the book bloggers blog! You can review books from the
KIST Libraries, or books you’d recommend we add to our collection.
And so much more!
Visit the KIST Library Moodle pages at:>>Elementary Library (Or type: http://bit.ly/2lFNaHw)>>LMC (Or type: http://bit.ly/2lFNpm3)

FEEDBACK PLEASE...
How can we further improve the LMC and EL Moodle
pages to better support students and parents? Let us
know please with this simple feedback form.
(Or type: http://bit.ly/2lPs2Rz)

UPDATE: As of this week, all KIST/KIPS parents and all G1-G12 students can now access these great LMC
resources (Thank you Mr Whittaker)!
Mr Tim and Ms Hynes
The KIST Library Team

Athletics Update
ISTAA U-18 volleyball
KIST Comets were back on thevolleyball scene this past year
participating in the ISTAA league
and did quite well despite limited
numbers. The girls Comets were
two points away from making the final and a
top 2 finish but won the 3rd place game.
The boys had it tough but battled losing the
3rd place game. Thanks to all who
participated including Coach Lee! Hope all
had a great time along the way!

ISTAA U-18 basketball
Both the boys and girls
U-18 Comets’ season iscoming to an end with agame remaining and thetournament. Coach Otis
and Coach Grant have seensome positive signs and so
hopefully this leads to successat the ISTAA tournament.
Dennis Ota
Extra-Curricular Clubs and Athletics Coordinator“ T h e Co m et ”

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CA News
Second Harvest for K. parents
On November 18 and December 2 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., forthe second year in a row, we visited the Second Harvest Japan
organization located in Asakusabashi to provide volunteer
assistance. We volunteered there to better understand the activities
of Second Harvest, for which our students have been runningvolunteer food drive activities for some time. Both days spent
volunteering at Second Harvest involved helping with foodpreparation for the following Saturday’s soup kitchen. We firstprepared and cut a lot of vegetables and washed potatoes for meals,
and also received a 20-minute lecture about Second Harvest fromthe staff. There were also other volunteer members present who
were not K. parents, both individuals and volunteers from corporate
programs, and we enjoyed working together.
This was our first volunteer activity this year and was a goodexperience for everybody. We recommend this activity for those
involved in food drives as well as the G4-G5 parents involved inFood Loss initiatives through the PYP Exhibition.
Our committee is planning to go back there for more volunteer work.
We encourage any parents interested in finding out more about
Second Harvest to join us next time.
Students Events Committee (CA)Japanese New Year Party
We held our Japanese New Year Party on January 25 this year.
Thank you for the great support from the Kise sumo stable master for
coming to school along with the stable’s sumo wrestlers to help
prepare the mochi rice cakes and play sumo together with thechildren, who had a wonderful time.
Actually, the preparation for the party started from previous day. The
school purchased organic mochi rice (glutinous rice) directly from a
farmer with the kind help of Mr Kikuchi from the school café (CaféTomato). We used 70 kg of rice at this year’s party!
On the morning of the previous day, volunteer parents diligently
prepared the rice by first washing the grains with water and thensanitizing all the equipment to be used in making the mochi (thesame equipment was thoroughly cleaned and sanitized after use toprevent any possible food-borne illnesses). The cleaned rice wasthen soaked in fresh water overnight. Starting early on the morning of
the party, school staff then steamed all the rice. Event participants
pounded the steamed rice together with sumo wrestlers using awooden mallet and mortar to turn the grains of rice into delicious
mochi.
Thank you to all the school staff and parents who helped the day
before and on the day of the party, especially given the cold weather.
Mochi is known as a good fortune food. Didn’t it taste particularly
good, as it was made with everyone’s enthusiastic cooperation!?
KIST Community Association

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Staff 10!
In this month’s Staff 10!, weare pleased to present Yu
Shan (Evelyn) Pang whojoined us in August 2015 asa teacher in the Secondary
School. Originally fromSingapore, Ms Pang iscurrently teaching
Individuals & Societies andGeography. She is also thehomeroom advisor for
Grade 12B.

Ms Pang (center) hiking up Mt
Jimba with friends.

 Tell us something interesting about yourhometown.
You can drive from one end of my country Singapore to
the other end – whether North to South or East to West– in less than an hour. (Yes, you’re reading it right –this ‘country’ – my homeland, nation, island – is also
my beloved ‘hometown’.) What is your favorite place in the world?
My favourite place is anywhere in the world with the
combination of family, friends and food. Throw in sunny
weather to the mix too.
 Who would you like to meet if you had the chance
and why?
My future self. I want to be encouraged to keep goingstrong in this journey called life.
 Do you have any special skills or talents?
My Creator has given me the ability to locate the silver
lining in every dark cloud – that’s a very handy skill fora world that is not without its share of dark clouds.
 Please share a little known fact about yourself.
I enjoy roller coaster rides and need to go to Fuji-Q
Highland someday!
 What is your most prized possession?
I have a firm and secure hope that is an anchor for mysoul – this hope never fails to see me througheverything.
 Which IB learner profile attribute do you mostclosely identify with and why?
Thinker; in fact, a little too much over-thinking? (Referto comic picture: A conversation between Brain andHeart, from Theawkwardyeti.com.) My brain usually
dominates
mostconversations
I have withmyself. I
believe I needto develop the‘Balanced’
learner profile
attribute in mylife!

 If you could live your life again, would you doanything differently?
No. I’m quite satisfied with how my life developed andalso with who I am as a person now, imperfections andall.
 Is there anything you are trying to learn/improveabout yourself at the moment?
I want to continue to develop (or rather, retain) mysense of wonder so I can continually learn, unlearn andrelearn things.
 Do you have any special message for your fans?
“Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but
only empties today of its strength.” (Charles Spurgeon)
I read this recently and say this as much to myself as toall of you: Do not be distracted or overwhelmed bywaves that come all at once and ‘keep us from thebiggest small things we’ll ever do, which is to just be
faithful with today’. Do the ‘biggest small things’ you’llever do well, today.

Office Updates
Lost and foundThe lost and found box
located beside thereception counter in thewest building is
overflowing again. Items
include uniforms,
electronic dictionaries,
chargers, recorders,glasses, water bottles
and more. Items notcollected by March 24
will be disposed of. If you
have lost any items,
please be sure to checkthe box by this date.
Families are reminded toensure that children’s
names are written on all
personal belongings
brought to school.

Student withdrawals
At this time of year, it is common forsome families to move to othercountries after being transferred forwork. In this situation, please be sure
to submit the Student Withdrawal Form to the office
as soon as possible prior to the date of withdrawal.
The withdrawal form is available on the school website
at the link below:
http://www.kist.ed.jp/node/5

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39

University Guidance NewsKIST Career and University Guidance
HandbookAs you may be aware from E-Communications #173
(February 2, 2017), the KIST Career and University
Guidance Handbook has been released. It covers
general information about higher education systems inmajor countries as well as information about careerand university planning to support our students andparents. Please click here to login to access to thisdocument.

KIST Spring University Fair
March 20, 2 p.m. – 4 p.m. in the gym
This year again, KIST will hold a university fair on
March 20 (the day of the student-led conferences). We
will host 23 universities (20 from Japan, 1 from
Australia, 1 from Canada and 1 from EU) this year.
Most of the Japanese universities attending offer fullEnglish programs and several others conduct IB
Special Entrance Exams for their regular Japanese
program. This annual event is open to the whole
school, including the elementary school (parents only,
no elementary children please!). Please come to meetthe representatives from each university to gather
information about options after KIST. See the flyer forthe list of participating universities.

G9 and G10 University Information
SessionMarch 17, 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. in the gym
Planning ahead for university is very important for
students and parents. Please come to this session
which will cover the topics below:
 University planning: when should you start?
 Insight into the university admissions process: How
does it work? What are universities looking for?
 How do you apply to universities from KIST?
 The Standardised Test (SAT) and Language
Proficiency Test DP subject choices
 How to make university choices

G11 University Information Session
March 20, 12 p.m. – 1 p.m. in the LMC
G11 students have started working on their future planusing the booklet called Life after 2018! My Post-KIST
Plan. The G11 University Information Session will
focus on how to use this booklet to help students plan
their higher education options as well as general
information about college admission in major countries.
All G11 students and at least one of their parents are
expected to attend this event.

University guidance calendar
March and April is another peak season for university
visits at KIST and college fairs in the Tokyo area.
Please check the University Guidance Calendar andjoin the events!

Mrs
Okude’svisit to St
Andrews
University
inScotland,UK

One of the oldest buildings at

In February, Mrs
St Andrews University.
Okude attended
the Counsellors Conference at St Andrews University
in the UK. It was a wonderful opportunity to visit thethird oldest university in UK (after Oxford andCambridge) which celebrated its 600th anniversary acouple of years ago. Although it is a very old andestablished university in a historic town, the university
is very international with around 40 percent ofinternational students and 45 percent of international
staff who are dedicated to innovative research andstudies. I enjoyed meeting with faculty members fromall six schools of St Andrews and exchanged
information with high school counselors mainly fromthe US and Canada and a few from China and HongKong. Please contact me if you would like to know
more about this university.

Mrs Okude’svisit to St
George’s,
Universityof London,UK
On the way
back home, I
was able to
make a shortvisit to St
George’s,
University of
London where
KIST alumnus,
Jiaying and Mrs Okude in front of St
Jiaying (Class
George’s, University of London.
of 2016),commenced her first year in the medical program in
September 2016. St George’s has served as a hospitaland a medical education institute for more than 250
years. It is notable that Edward Jenner who performed
the first vaccination for smallpox studied medicine at
this university from 1770 to 1774. Please see thearticle written by Jiaying in this issue of The Comet,
and contact me if you are interested in studying
medicine in the UK or other countries.
Mrs Keiko Okude
Career and University Guidance Counselor
Office hours: Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri 10:00-17:00
keiko.okude@kist.ed.jp

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Alumnus Report
Jiaying is an alumnus of KIST’s “Class of 2016.” Sheis currently in her first year at St George’s, Universityof London, and is studying medicine.
Six months have passed since I
moved to South London, where St
George’s, University of London isbased. It is specialised in providing
healthcare education, and I am
currently in my first year of the fiveyear course studying to become adoctor. In this article, I would like toshare my experience so far inuniversity, as well as the process I
went through applying to medical
school.
The medicine course is separated
into two main parts: two pre-clinicalyears learning the foundation
sciences and necessary skills, andthree clinical years building up on theknowledge through placements in thehospital. In the pre-clinical stage, thetwo components that make merecognise that I am actually studying
medicine are the clinical skills session
and learning anatomy in thedissection room. From week one
there has been a clinical skill session
every week, beginning with how togain consent from the patient, to a full
respiratory examination using astethoscope that I have just learnt in
the past few weeks. These sessions
follow the small-group anatomy
lessons in which pre-dissectedcadavers are used. How anatomy istaught varies depending on theuniversity, and there are pros andcons to each method. For example,
while I learnt anatomy by examining
each system in the body, in someuniversities a group would dedicate
an entire year dissecting one
cadaver, and through the processlearn regional anatomy layer to layerfrom the surface.
Similarly, while some medical schools
are university-based in the pre-clinicalyears, others are hospital-based. St
George’s is a hospital-based
university, that is, the teachingfaculties are connected to hospitalwards, specialised clinics, accidents
and emergency centre, and researchfacilities. Patients are transferredthrough the corridor where students
queue for the lecture theatre, thesimulation ward is next to the actual
rehabilitation centre, and it is acommon scene to see surgeons ingowns buying lunch at the student

union shop. I like this aspectof the university, since it
helps me link together what I
am learning now to where I
might encounter it in the
future. There are also plentyof occasions to work with
Jiaying (second from left) and friends.
students majoring in other fields as
well, including paramedics, diagnostic
but also applicable to medical ethics;
and therapeutic radiographers andand surprisingly mathematics,
physiotherapists, which prepare us toparticularly statistics has been highly
work in a team in actual healthcare
relevant to fields such as
settings.
epidemiology (and so the IB formula
booklet remains to be a good
Being surrounded by people who arecompanion of mine!) Much broader
all studying to become healthcare
and deeper topics are being covered
professionals is inspiring, but at thein a much shorter amount of timesame time it could be very stressful
now, but the study habits that I havetoo. Living in London helps me todeveloped in the past few years are
mitigate such stress and the sense ofproving to be extremely useful, at
becoming narrow-sighted. From
least so far, half a year into medical
central London, Tooting is far enoughschool.
to have cheaper groceries, but closeenough to visit the museums andAlthough I had a clear idea of what I
libraries every weekend, thirty
wanted to study after graduating highminutes by tube. I have also pickedschool, I had no idea where I wanted
up playing competitive karuta again
to study when it came to the stage ofby reaching out to other enthusiasts,
college application. I prepared for all
and have since had the opportunity tothree potential options for me: UK,
acquaint with people outside
US and Japan. Each country required
university who are of different ages
different complementary tests,
and doing work that are irrelevant toincluding SAT and TOEFL for
medicine. I have met a girl throughAmerican schools and IELTS,
this activity who is currently doing the
UKCAT (UK clinical amplitude test)
MYP, and has told me that she is
and BMAT (biomedical admissions
consolidating her subject choices fortest) for British schools. I remember
the DP. This reminded me of how thetaking one examination every two
choices that I have made three years
weeks during the summer breakago, have brought me to where I am
between grade eleven and twelve,
now.
although I wish I had more time toChoosing the subjects that I wasgoing to undertake in the Diploma
Programme was not a very difficult
decision for me. I was passionate
about, and was determined to study
medicine in university, so my subject
choices were reflective of my interest:
namely biology, chemistry,
psychology, and mathematics inaddition to English and Japanese.
These subject areas continue to playa crucial role in my studies as a firstyear student in university. Biology
and chemistry lay the foundation forthe clinical science knowledge that I
must gain in the first two years before
going into the hospital wards from thethird year; psychology is not only
essential when studying psychiatry,

prepare for each test. The interviews
following the application were during
term time before the mock exam, andflying to three places around theglobe for three different interviews on
separate occasions is a very
memorable experience for me.
After moving my focus away from
American universities since they onlyoffer medicine as a graduate course, I
was faced with an excruciating
dilemma between going to the UK or
staying in Japan. In fact, I still do. I
think I will continue to reflect on thisfirst life-changing choice I have made,that will most certainly impact on thepath I take in the future.
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41

Continued from previous page

Clearly, the place to study is an
important factor that everybody would
consider carefully, and I believe that
this is especially true for anyone whowants to study medicine or obtain adegree that is completed by receiving
a license to practice approved by thecountry. Such licences are often nottransferrable to other countries. For
example, the medical licence issued
in Japan is not acknowledged in theUK, and vice versa. Thus choosing tostudy in the UK not only characterise
my decision of staying here for the
next few years, but to me it is mydetermination to spend possibly morethan a few decades in this country.

the duration of course is shorter in the
UK than in Japan, five and six years
respectively. Additionally, because
Japanese universities usually begin in
April, there will almost be a gap year
between graduation and commencing
university. My mind was not set evenafter graduating from KIST, as I
prepared for the student visa
application. Japan is after all where I
have grown up, and where I feel most
comfortable. In the end, it was the
anticipation for the opportunity ofgaining new experiences, meeting
different people, and becoming
exposed to more perspectives thathas driven me to fly to the UK.

It was a huge decision to make,considering that I had never been to
the UK before making the application.
I have spent a long time weighing thepros and cons of the two options: interms of the choice of university
within the country, the number ofJapanese universities that accept
applications to medical school with IB
grades are still limited (as of 2016,
only three, but it is increasing),
whereas most, if not all UK medical
schools implement IB application
process through the UCAS system.
Financially speaking, Japanesenational university would have beenless expensive to complete themedical degree compared to studying
as an international student in the UK.
The course taught in Japan also
included my particular field of interest,
the integration of traditional medicine
into contemporary medicine, which isoften overlooked in the UK. However,Indeed, the people at St George’s arefrom all kinds of backgrounds comingfrom different parts of the world. The
variety celebrated by the community
is demonstrated through the numberof societies and clubs. Despite beinga highly specialised and relatively
small university, there are more than
two hundred societies ranging fromacademics (such as the anatomy andwilderness medicine society) tosports (the rugby-football club is oneof the oldest existing rugby clubs inthe world!), religion (Islamic society,
Christian union and so on) to drama(comedy, musical…), charities to selfawareness. In the language society
which I take part in, for example,
student-led weekly sessions areoffered in more than ten languages,
and I am learning basic Arabic,
Russian and Spanish while teaching
Japanese myself. Outside theuniversity, it is inspiring to see that

Jiaying with a statue of Edward Jenner.

most food – burgers and Chinese
take-outs are available in Halal, andhow cultural festivities are also notedon the calendars.
Over the past six months, the change
in environment has influenced me tobecome more independent, both instudying and outside academics,
which is in turn rewarded by greater
freedom. It is always a pleasure to
notice that I am building up on what I
have learnt before and fitting
everything together, and gaining
different views in addition to what has
moulded me until now. I still don’tknow if I have made the best choice
for me. I think I will not know until
many years later I would have foundenough reasons to justify that it was agood decision. Until then, I am
enjoying this vibrant city.
Jiaying
KIST Alumnus, “Class of 2016”

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