From the Mouths of Sixth Graders

Sometimes when the holidays come around everyone rushes out to buy presents. Sometimes we're happy to be with the ones we love. Sometimes we find warmth in the words of our young. And hope. As the semester ends grade six is asked what a global citizen means to them. It's part of their unit by the same name. Here is a smattering of their definitions. May their words lead the way to a wonderful new year for all of us!

• Global citizens are interdependent individuals that collaborate to make a difference in the community.
• Global citizens are helpful and make a positive difference.
• Global citizens are people who think about the effect of their actions on the present and the future.  They do what is best to benefit our world, making it a better place.
• Global citizens are future-focused, empathetic, warm-hearted individuals.
• Global citizens are ethical people who work collaboratively with others to improve lives.
• Global citizens are collaborative, interdependent individuals who help build community.
• Global citizens help to build communities that put a smile on people’s faces and a bigger smile on the world.
• Global citizens care for others both in and out of their community.
• Global citizens solve problems to make the world a better place.
• Global citizens show that they care for others and the global community by being accepting and empathetic.
• Global citizens impact communities by cooperating, being inquisitive, and expanding their knowledge.
• Global citizens care for the environment.
• Global citizens are future-focused people who believe that they can make a difference in their community.
• Global citizens are proactive and interact with the global community in a positive way.
• Global citizens are welcoming and let anyone join their community.

Action Packed Final Two Weeks

Just over the past two weeks a good amount of things have happened related to our school. In focusing on nature and sustainability here are some highlights:

• The MS ISTA trip to Telunas, Indonesia featured 40 ISKL students performing (physical theatre, dance, clowning and storytelling) in natural settings along side SAS and AISS (Singapore).
• Grades 1, 5 and 6 welcomed d'Arcy Lunn who focused on global citizenship and what it means for our students.
• Grade 8 is well underway on their newly-revamped unit on Climate adaptation. A big part of this is the role playing of students with regard to a variety of global issues as they relate to specific countries; a sort of MUN meets GIN format. 
• Grade 7 is well underway for planning their Ecology Symposium which will take place in January.
• Grade 6 service learning classes are already honing their skills and interests to global issues and will be identifying a specific service learning experience soon. One class has decided to focus on poverty. 
• Our grade 1 students combined their global citizenship voices to create a video about sustainable Christmas celebrations (here). 
• Grade 3 has been incredibly active on the "green" front this past month
• They welcomed Ecocentric Transitions to build their own vermi-composting bins. Four bins now reside in our grade 3 classrooms. 
• They visited the Klang Gates stream to do water quality testing with the Global Environment Centre.
• They have also been working on identifying appropriate tree species for the outside of our Melawati campus wall where the new wall has been build just outside the gym. 
• Our Preps have been planting seedlings for their new Garden Tower. 
• HS Earth Club organized our very first Farmer's Market which, small though it was, was heralded as a great new direction for our community. And, of course, the on-going Community Recycling continued on that same day bringing in over 1 tonne of recyclables. 

Can you believe all that has happened just in a past few weeks at ISKL?  Thinking about it, it's a whole lot of work, effort and great learning going on!  Just the type of thing you like to see before heading into a long break. Happy Holidays to everyone!  See you in 2015!!