March 2, 2022

The Owl 2/23/22

International Festival Week 2022!

It’s finally here – International Festival 2022!

Every morning this week, we are “premiering” the videos of ISP homeroom classes. You’ll be able to find them on our special International Festival 2022 padlet. Check your email for the link and password! Please join us every day to celebrate culture, our teachers, and our students! Yes, feel free to send the link and password to friends and family members.

Our heartfelt thanks goes to the following parent volunteers:
Francisco Fernandez, Rob Hauer, Jon & Yoko Greeney, Ildiko Arndt Smith, Jeffrey Barnet, Aaron Lutze, Peter Rhoads, Kristopher Taft, and Reid Thompson

We couldn’t have made International Festival Week happen without them!

ISP Featured as IES Showcase School!

The Inquiry Educators Summit (IES) 2022 has selected the International School of Portland as a model school for annual Summit! TIES is a virtual conference for tens of thousands of educators worldwide. Lots of “big-name” education professionals speak and lead sessions. It is hosted by Toddle, an all-in-one teaching-learning platform for IB and other progressive schools.

As a model school, we present who we are, what we do, and what makes us so special. Kelly Rogers, Constanza Wilkes, Taka Fuji, Christy Appleberry, and Libni Coulibaly, will also present a panel about ISP’s 5th Grade Exhibition. The panel expands on the collaboration, culture and language that is a huge part of the Exhibition process.

Check out the International School of Portland on the Inquiry Educator’s Summit website! A lot of IES showcase and session access is fee-based, but you’ll be able to check out the speakers and watch a video about our 5th Grade exhibition: https://www.toddleapp.com/ties/showcase/

IES is well-known by the international educator network and more locally, and it’s an honor to be recognized! Congrats to Kelly Rogers to taking the lead on this and to all of our Faculty panelists!

Please welcome Bethany and Reeve

You may have seen some new faces around campus lately! We are pleased to welcome Bethany Wright-Phipps and Reeve Moir to ISP. Bethany is our Assistant Health and Safety Coordinator, and helps Brandy out with all of the massive work that currently entails!

Reeve may be already familiar to many of you, as he has been a substitute in many of our English and Specialist classes, as well as Global Kids. Reeve will be our long-term English Teacher substitute through the end of the year for both.

Thank you so much or your support, Bethany and Reeve! Welcome to ISP!

Oregon Battle of the Books is Back!

Hey 3rd-5th grade readers! The wait is over. It’s OBOB Time! Oregon Battle of the Books is a state-wide voluntary reading motivation competition. Teams of 4 students read books from a published reading list and engage in fun and exciting “battles” that test reading comprehension.

Just like last year, ISP students will compete in an internal ISP-ONLY event.
The good news is that we are planning for battles to be IN-PERSON this year!
The competition date is scheduled for May 6th so let’s get book-busy!!!

Step 1: Read this Fact Sheet: ISP OBOB 2022.pdf for details about how OBOB will work this year at ISP, where to find the books, team formation, etc.

Step 2: Click here to register students for participation by March 4th! (Do you have to already have an identified team to register? No way! On the form you will be able to include names of previously identified teammates OR can request to be on a team that we create for you! There will be a place for everyone who wants to participate!)

Step 3: Official teams will be confirmed and announced on March 7th.

Step 4: Start reading! We’ll be here to answer questions and help along the way.

Ready, get set, READ!

Moving Up Sessions for PreK, LowK, and Kinder Families

Current Early Childhood families – Come hear about the year ahead! Mark your calendars and please join us for these special “Moving Up” information sessions:

Current Prek families to learn more about LowK: Tuesday, March 8th, 9:00-10:00am
Current LowK families to learn more about Kindergarten: Wednesday, March 9th, 9:00-10:00am
Current Kinder families to learn more about 1st Grade: Thursday, March 10th, 9:00 to 10:15am

All Sessions will be via Zoom. We will send out the links shortly to each grade level.

No rsvp is necessary. We hope to see you there!

ISP Auction Gala: THANK YOU

Thank you, International School of Portland community for making our 2021-2022 Global Gala a huge success! You contributed over $200,000 for our students and teachers including over $144,00 (and counting!) for our Literacy, Language and Literature special appeal.

Your special appeal gifts will go to work immediately to provide key tools to promote track language literacy including:

· Hard-to-procure books that are written in our track languages, or are high-quality translations.

· Opportunities for leveled reading to be offered in all track languages, allowing students to build their literacy skills day after day.

· Supplemental digital learning tools that reinforce literacy learned in the classroom, such as Level Learning that advances phonetics in Spanish and character learning in Mandarin.

Beyond ensuring that our classroom books enhance students’ literacy, cultural fluency, and vocabulary, our classroom literature collections will be curate with an equitable lens, representing the diverse voices and experiences of our community.

It’s not too late to contribute! To donate, text GIVEISP to 44-321 or click here to visit our special appeal website. https://secure.givelively.org/donate/international-school/isp-2021-2022-global-gala