Sting #9 - Universal American School in Dubai

UAS Mission Statement: Universal American School provides a challenging, inquiry-based American
and internaonal educaon that empowers students to be caring individuals. Crical thinkers, and
responsible global cizens.
Inside this issue:
Letter from the Principal
Le<er from the Principal 1
Dear Parents and Students,
English Department
3
Islamic Studies Dept.
3
Arts Department
4
Foreign language Dept.
4
Student Council
4
Computer Department
5
The ﬁnal week of school almost over and we starng the summer vacaon very shortly. Since the last
edion of the Sng we have
had some major events, including the senior graduaon at the
American University in Dubai. It
was a wonderful evening. Thank
you to all who contributed in
making the ceremony so memorable. I wish all the seniors all
the best as they prepare to begin the next phase of their educaon.
Science Department
6
Library News
7
Math Department
9
Counseling Department
9
Social Studies Dept.
10
Athlecs Department
11
Athlecs Banquet Photos 12
Graduaon Photos
13
Last night we had our Annual Athlecs Awards in our Mulpurpose Hall. Athletes, coaches and their
parents enjoyed a great evening where each team was recognized. Congratulaons to all the students
who took part in the athlecs program. Thank you to all the coaches for their dedicaon and support
throughout the year. We are very proud of our successes this year but most of all of the sportsmanship
displayed on the ﬁeld by our students. A huge thank you must go to Mr Buschini for all his hard work
and dedicaon to the athlecs program this year.
This week we had the academic award assemblies for grades 7-11. Congratulaons to all the students
who were recognized for their academic achievements and their dedicaon to studies. The recipients of
the Principal’s award this year are:
Grade 7: Roberto Jimenez
Grade 8: Neveed Huq
Grade 9: Elianna Hanna
Grade 10: Simran Vedvyas
Grade 11 Natacha Khalife
This year the Harvard Book Prize
is awarded to Janan Al Khaja.
The Book Prize is awarded to an
outstanding student who is academically excellent, with exceponal personal qualies and who
makes a signiﬁcant contribuon
to school or community. Janan
was recognized for her high academic excellence and her contribuons to the UAS community
thought MUN and Student Council.
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Letter from the Principal cont’d.
Last week the grade 8 students presented their Service Learning Projects. It
was an evening ﬁlled with
excitement as students
described their projects
and contribuons to the
community. Many volunteered at Senses, Posh
Paws and other centers.
There were many beach
clean ups and drives to
donate clothing and books
to the less fortunate. Well
done to all the students
and Ms. Honigford on a
successful project.
This week the ﬁrst DIS-UAS MUN conference was held. The event was organized and planned enrely by students.
It was very interesng to see the students from both schools work together
on presenng and preparing resoluons. The 2-day event was highly successful and I congratulate Alia Aleali and Janan Al Khaja and their team for taking this iniave and making it successful.
Two of our grade 10 students were
involved in a tree planng ceremony
with some of our youngest students.
It was a fun event with great ecological signiﬁcance. Thank you to Simran
Vedvyas and Sara Esmaeili for leading this event.
As we end this year we must unfortunately say farewell to some of our teachers. I would like to thank them for their contribuons to UAS. Some of the teachers have been at UAS for several years and we are sad to see them go but wish them all the
best in their new ventures.
Teachers who will be leaving UAS this year:
Ryan Hellmann (ELL)
Elizabeth Garro< (English)
Jason Schmidt (English)
Vicki Murray (librarian)
Ola Hamed (Arabic/AFL)
Maram Juma (Arabic/AFL)
Molly Jane Layton (History)
Teresa Lundgren (Art)
Adam Kuestermann (Counselling)
Rick Parina (Math)
Alex Alford (Science)
Kane Barrie (Science)
David Kosal (Science)
Raji Varghese (lab technician)
Thank you all for another very successful year at UAS. I wish all of our families a safe and wonderful summer vacaon.
Simone Sebban
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English department
Summer advice for Parents
A common queson parents have during parent/teacher conferences is “What can we do at home to help my child do beer in
English?” The answer to that queson becomes even more important during summer months to prevent students’ reading comprehension and crical thinking skills from deteriorang during
months away from the classroom.
What can parents do? Make sure your children read! This might
mean reading the books along with them so that you can ensure
that they are, in fact, reading, but we all need to read. Reading
acvates a part of the brain that all the video games and web
surﬁng in the world don’t touch. It promotes imaginaon and reﬂecon, and it increases skills that directly impact students’ test
taking abilies.
What else can parents do? Have conversaons with your children –
grown up, adult conversaons – not queson and answer sessions,
but conversaons where you solicit your teens’ opinions on events
in the world around us, then ask them to support their views with
reasons. The late Senator Robert Kennedy used to have his children
come to dinner each evening with a clipping of a current event
which they wished to discuss, and discuss they did. Today, his nine
children have leading posions in government, business, and nonproﬁt organizaons. They are making a diﬀerence in the world
around them, a world they no doubt learned to care about around
that dinner table.
Another thing parents can do? Have your children write. You don’t
need to assign essays, but write to each other – beyond the texng
of the smartphone. Put a white board and marker on your refrigerator and write messages to your children, messages that they have
to answer in wring before they open that refrigerator. The messages can be silly, senmental, or even sophomoric, but encourage
daily wring. Buy your child a journal and reward him or her for
wring in it.
Showing that you value reading and wring models these skills to
your children. Conversing with them on an adult level not only
prepares them for entering into the conversaons around them in
schools, colleges and universies, and the world around them, but
it keeps those important lines of communicaon open and helps
them build self-esteem. While strengthening your child’s crical
thinking skills, you just might discover what a complex young adult
you are raising.
Movated students oLen ﬁnd out what books are on the reading
list for each year and use the summer to read those works ahead of
me – that way when the class covers the book, it is the student’s
second me through it. That student’s chances of success have
been increased greatly.
Listed here are the works that are oLen covered in each year.
Some teachers may make slightly diﬀerent choices, but there is no
such thing as wasted eﬀort when it comes to reading. In addion to
reading a Shakespearean play and poetry selecons virtually every
year, the following works appear on reading lists:
Grade 7: Nothin’ but the Truth by Avi and mythology (there are lots
of diﬀerent sources for this, and kids love them!)
Grade 8: The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton and Holes by Louis Sachar
Grade 9: The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien and House on
Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Grade 10: Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Into the Wild by Jon
Krakauer, Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, Of Mice and Men by
John Steinbeck, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Woman in Black
by Susan Hill and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
Grade 11: A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, 1984 by George Orwell,
Othello by Shakespeare, and Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller.
Grade 12: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou and
Karnak Café by Naguib Mahfouz
Have a great summer!
The UAS Secondary English Department
Islamic studies department
Dear parents,
As we are closing another successful year, the Islamic Department would like to thank you all for your cooperaon and support during the academic year. It is a pleasure to work with you and keep you updated with your kids’ achievements and progress. We realize that the more communicaon we build with you, the more success our students will make. Please keep up
your support.
This year we have applied a new system in our assessments and we designed it based on Bloom’s Taxonomy. This style of assessment helped us measure the levels of skills that our students have. It also encouraged them to be lifelong learners by using high order thinking such as using analysis, evaluaon and synthesis skills. We have also started implemenng some iPad
technology in our classrooms. Aurasma app was used in some classes to create videos by students and save it on line. Prezi is a
dynamic slide presentaon that has more features than PowerPoint.
We will connue our good pracce as well as iniang more next year. We are happy to hear any suggeson that you like to say. We wish you a good summer holiday and looking forward to teaching your
children next year. Be safe! Be happy!
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Arts department
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Foreign language department
ALer a year of hard work and many changes in the department we
are ﬁnally reaching the ﬁnish line and we are all ready, students
and teachers alike, to take a well-deserved break. We are looking
forward to seeing all of you again next September with a lot of
exing news : a new Spanish teacher, Extravaganza (our language
fesval) will come back in a new form (no spoiler at this me, sorry) and of course a wave of new students as well as a new Senior
class that seems determined to do everything bigger and louder
than their esteemed predecessors.
At this me of the year we get a lot of quesons along the line of
“what can we do over the summer to improve our French/
Spanish?”. Well there are a few easy things that could be done and
that would not take away too much of your much needed free
me :
•
•
•
Watching TV in the language you study (TV5 or France 24 are
good examples for French),
Read in French (anything from Shampoo bo<les to comic
books),
If you are lucky enough to go to a French or Spanish speaking
country, do not be shy, use what you’ve learned, even if you
only say hi. It is always nice to realize people can understand
you in a diﬀerent language.
So to sum it up, relax, pracce a bit and have fun.
Hasta luego and bonnes vacances
Student council
Another end of the school year, another round of selecng the members of next year student council and above all the promise of a nice
summer vacaon aLer a fairly busy 10 months ﬁlled with talent shows, cookie and art compeons, dodge ball tournaments and treasure
hunts, bouncing castles and many more great acvies. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the student representaves who
freely give of their me and work hard to make all this possible.
We will be back in September, be<er than ever and some of the returning students are already full of ideas and surprises. They will also be
here one day before the oﬃcial start of the year to meet and greet the new students. On the 31st of August they will show them around the
school. Grades 7 to 9 orientaon will be from 8am to 10am and grade 10 and 11 will be given the grand tour from 10:30am to 12:30am.
Next year’s representaves :
Grade 8
Roberto Antonio Jimenez
Majed Albanna
Aisha Anoohi
Rawan Osama
Grade 9
Naveed Huq
Markus Dimoulas
Lara Elhlak
Mia Khab
Nour Shreim
Grade 12
Janan Al Khaja
Anne-Marie Nasra
Lina Ibrahim
Grade 10
Dries Pla<eau
Mona El Cheikh
Estelle Bainbridge
Aya Dandache
Renata Morones
Elianna Hanna
Ahmad Khayat
Grade 11
Danielle Jabbor
Hiba Moaswes
Stephany Dimoulas
Asma Anoohi
Sabine Osseiran
Rand Habbal
Mira Tamer
Alexander Van Zyl
Simran Vedvyas
computer department
As we draw to the close of an excing year with interesng IT exploraons in Robocs, iPads and much more, we want to wish all our students a relaxing break and safe travels. We are sure that the debates and discussions in the IT classes around the social and ethical issues of
IT in terms of privacy, security and reliability will keep our students thinking and reﬂecng as they travel and encounter body scanners in the
airports, CCTVs in the malls and also when they tweet and Instagram their adventures and summer thrills! Such is the all pervading nature of
IT!!
We also want to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Seitsinger who will become full-me Math faculty next year and hence no longer
teach Computer Studies courses. The computer department and the students will miss the ever enthusiasc Mr. Seitsinger in the IT classes, though all students will connue to enjoy his Math classes!
The IT department also wishes the Class of 2014 all success in the IB exam results. We are sure you will do us proud!
Ms. Sherifa Ali. Mr. Jason Seitsinger and Ms. Sudha Sunder.
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science department
Science Department Says Goodbye to Departing Members
Alex Alford:
Mr. Alford has been teaching IB Biology, Grade 9 Science, and Grade 7 and 8 Science at UAS for the past two
years. In addition, Mr. Alford has also been involved with the MUN team. Students will miss Mr. Alford’s sense
of humor and engaging discussions, and we will miss having Alex as part of our science team. We wish him the
best of luck as he begins a new adventure in Istanbul, Turkey.
From Alex Alford:
"I've had a great two years at UAS and am happy that I started my internaonal school journey here. I really
enjoyed working, travelling and laughing with everyone. If anyone is going to be Istanbul, be sure to say hi!"
Kane Barrie:
Mr. Barrie has been with UAS for three years, and during that span of time taught IB Biology, Grade 10 Biology and
Chemistry, and Grade 9 Life Science. Mr. Barrie has always shown a caring heart and a good sense of humor, and
we will all miss him at UAS. The rugby team will miss him as well, as he coached the team to new levels of competitiveness.
From Kane Barrie:
“I have loved every minute of working at UAS. I have always felt like the school, as a whole, has been a supporve
and friendly environment to be part of. It has been great to watch students grow and develop into young adults
with the ability to success in the real world. I have really enjoyed being part of the UAS rugby program which has
had some downs but mostly has been posive, not only for me but for the students that took part. Even when we
had 8 people at training the players showed great commitment and passion to learn and support the program and each other.
I would like to thank every teacher at UAS for their support but especially David Kosal, Morgan Smith and Lana Coetsee. Without them it
would have been a much diﬀerent situaon for me.
My two daughters have also really enjoyed a<ending UAS and have developed into understanding and mature young adults, mainly because of UAS. My daughters will connue their journey at UAS and therefore thankfully, I will connue to be part of the UAS community as
a parent.
I intend to keep in close contact with many staﬀ of UAS and I am very grateful for my me at UAS.
Thank you UAS community for all that you have done for me and my family and may we connue to be a part of each other’s journey.”
David Kostial:
Mr. Kostial is finishing his fifth year at UAS. During this time Mr. Kostial has been the Science Department Curriculum Leader, Theory of Knowledge (TOK) Coordinator, and has mainly taught IB Chemistry and TOK. Mr.
Kostial and his wife, Ms. Stockbridge, will be moving to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.
From David Kostial:
“It is never easy to leave a community one feels a part of, with people I love working with and sharing experiences
with. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with all the students, staff, and parents who are a part of the UAS community. My deep appreciation goes to the science department, the secondary faculty and support staff, the UAS
administration, the PTO, the Fine Arts Booster Club, Scorpions Booster Club, and everyone else who makes this a
great place to work where we all have common goals in mind—to enrich the students’ lives and education as much
as possible—and have some fun in the process!”
Raji Varghese:
Mr. Reji has been an invaluable member of the science department for eight years as the lab technician. In this
role Reji has given continuous dedication and support to the science teachers in arranging labs, purchasing chemicals and supplies, keeping inventory, and managing the lab storage space and classes so they are kept safe and
follow government and safety guidelines. Reji will be missed for the many laughs we have shared, along with
his patience and flexibility to fulfill last minute requests and obscure equipment lists from students during Extended Essay and Group 4 project time. Thank you Reji!
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science department cont’d.
POSH PAWS ANIMAL SANCTUARY
Gr 11 Biology students of Ms. Coetsee’s class went to visit the Posh Paws Animal Sanctuary
on May 8th and 15th during their double lessons.
The aims of the excursion were mulple. One aim was to expose students to animals they
would not normally encounter, and overcome fears like touching and holding a snake,
feeling the quills of a hedgehog, feeding a bull or stroking an ostrich. A second aim was to
understand how the classiﬁcaon system in the IB curriculum can be applied. Thirdly,
students observed animal behavior, and
develop conclusions on how similar and
diﬀerent we are from other animals. For
example, the male baboon Aboe made a display by “mock a<acking” us, and students
learned why we should not smile when we look at primates. The importance of approaching an animal correctly was demonstrated and brought into pracce. Last but
not least, the excursion gave students
an opportunity to assist an organizaon
that depends on donaons from the
community. A valuable lesson was
learned: keeping an animal as a pet is
for life, we should not get an animal if we cannot provide, and wild animals need to be in
the wild – not in cages. The students gave a donaon as an “entry fee” but also brought
much needed fresh vegetables to feed the animals.
For the students who went, it was not about earning a CAS hour or fulﬁlling a curriculum
objecve, but it was leaving with memories to treasure.
Library news
Taaleem Poetry Award
What is the competition?
The theme of the 2015 Taaleem Poetry Award is Wonderland, which is the overall theme of the
2015 Festival. The competition is held in Arabic and English. Entrants may choose their own title in
keeping with the theme of Wonderland.
You can find some tips on writing a good poem from emirateslitfest.com
What is the prize?
Winners will be honored at the 2015 Festival and all the winning entries will appear in a published book. As well as a trophy,
each winner will receive five copies of the book and an opportunity to attend a session or workshop at the 2015 Festival.
Who can enter?
There are four age categories, which relate to your age on 23 November 2014.
Ages 11 and under – up to a maximum of 32 lines
Ages 12 – 14– up to a maximum of 32 lines
Ages 15 – 18 – up to a maximum of 32 lines
Age 18+ for undergraduates in full-time education – up to a maximum of 32 lines
Please read carefully:
• By entering the competition, entrants agree to observe the terms and conditions of the Competition, including permission
•
•
to publish winning entries and to use photographic images of entrants where appropriate.
Judges’ decisions are final and no correspondence will be entered into with regard to these decisions.
In accordance with normal conventions for international writing competitions, entries which do not adhere to the said
terms and conditions will not be considered.
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Library news cont’d.
How to submit:
• Write your poem – use your imagination and creativity to the full, but do remember that the theme is Wonderland
•
•
•
•
Check that you have followed all the rules
Complete all sections of the online entry form
Submit emirateslitfest.com
Winners will be notified in early March before The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature (3-7 March 2015).
The Award Ceremony will take place during the Festival, on 7 March 2015.
Oxford University Press Story Writing Competition
What is the competition?
The title of this year’s short story competition is The Next Best Thing. This title was chosen by author and illustrator Sarah MacIntyre when she visited the 2014 Emirates Airline Festival of Literature. The competition is held in Arabic and English.
The closing date is 23 November 2014.
You can find some useful tips on writing a good story emirateslitfest.com
What is the prize?
Winners will be honoured at the 2015 Festival, and all the winning entries will appear in a published book. As well as a trophy,
each winner will receive five copies of the book and an opportunity to participate in a session or workshop at the 2015 Emirates LitFest.
Who can enter?
There are four age categories with different word limits which relate to your age on 23 November 2014.
Ages 11 and under
up to a maximum of 500 words
Ages 12 – 14
up to a maximum of 1000 words
Ages 15 – 18
up to a maximum of 1500 words
Age 18+ for undergraduates in full-time education
up to a maximum of 1500 words
Please read carefully:
By entering the competition, entrants agree to observe the terms and conditions of the Competition, including permission to
publish winning entries and to use photographic images of entrants where appropriate.
Judges’ decisions are final and no correspondence will be entered into with regard to these decisions.
In accordance with normal conventions for international writing competitions, entries which do not adhere to the said terms and
conditions will not be considered.
How to submit:
Write your story using your imagination and creativity to the full, but do remember that the title is The Next Best Thing
• check that you have followed all the rules
• complete all sections of the online entry form
•
submit to emirateslitfest.com
Winners will be notified in early March before the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature (3-7 March 2015).
The Award Ceremony will take place during the Festival, on 7 March 2015.
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It was another great year for the Secondary Mathemacs Department at UAS. MAP tesng
was successfully implemented in Grades 7-9, several students won awards in the various
Canadian Math Compeons and three teachers parcipated in the UAS IPAD iniave.
Next year, we will be implemenng several technology-based iniaves to help increase
student achievement as well.
We are looking forward to next year as Quenn Painter will be taking over the reigns as
Math Curriculum Leader. The department will also welcome Daniel Bozi from Sweden and
Kayla Buschini from elementary to the math department. Richard Parina will be leaving UAS
aLer ﬁve years to return to the United States which is either sad or good depending upon
who you talk to. ☺
Secondary Counseling for 2013-2014
Summer is literally right around the corner, with less than one week of school remaining. It’s hard to believe that the school
year is over; the year has passed by very quickly indeed. As we all gear up and prepare to head out on our summer adventures, there is always a constant thought about the upcoming school year, and what changes are coming up in Secondary
Counseling.
As some of you might already know, Mr. Kuestermann will be leaving UAS. He is
joining Dubai English Speaking College where he will be heading up the PSHE program. Mr. Kuestermann will be missed, not only by students, but by all of us remaining here in the counseling department. Mr. Kuestermann has been a great
asset to the building of our counseling program. During the four years at UAS, he
was able to establish strong and meaningful relaonships with the students. He
was also a big part of introducing the secondary counseling handbook, the secondary counseling curriculum and the advisory classes as his contribuons. We
wish him all the best of luck in his future endeavors.
We are very excited to have Mr. Gaﬀney on board as Mr. Kuestermann’ s replacement. We are sure he
will be a great asset to meeng the needs of our students, as well as bringing with him a new dynamic
approach that will allow us to connue to oﬀer services to our students at UAS. Mr. Gaﬀney will be
the counselor for grades 7, 8 and 9, while Ms. Zeina will remain the counselor (social/emoonal) for
grades 10, 11 and 12. Ms. Heibein will remain as the University counselor for grade 11 and 12.
In addion to welcoming Mr. Gaﬀney to our team, we will also be working on further developing the
counseling curriculum using the ASCA (American School Counselor Associaon) Naonal Model and
the Internaonal Model for School Counseling Programs. Not only will this connue to more clearly deﬁne the role and
funcon of secondary school counselors at UAS, but it will also allow us to further meet the needs of our students from a
preventave and proacve stance, as well as connuing to promote counseling as an integral part of the overall secondary
curriculum.
We hope that you all have a wonder-ﬁlled summer. We will see you ready for the New Year in a few short months.
Adam Kuestermann
Holly Heibein
Zeina Mouganie
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Social studies department
The Social Studies department would like to wish Parents and Students a wonderful summer break. We would also like to
congratulate the grade 12 class of 2013/2014 on the compleon of their ﬁnal exams and graduaon. This was a tremendous achievement and they are to be commended for their accomplishments. We wish them every success in their further
endeavors.
This year we have three new teachers joining the social studies department next August. Hal O< joins us from his previous
post in Singapore and will be teaching IB Business and Global Cizenship, Kara Haines who joins us from upper elementary
and will be teaching middle school Social Studies, and ﬁnally Jennifer Zimbrick who will also be teaching middle school Social Studies.
The Social Studies department would also like to thank you and a sad good bye to Molly Jane Layton for her vast contribuons to the Social Studies Department over the last number of years. We wish Molly Jane the best of success in her return
to graduate school next year.
We would also like to wish Marcia Pilato all the best in her new post as the ELL coordinator. She will be sadly missed in the
Social Studies oﬃce.
The Social Studies Challenge is under way this week. This is a fantasc event where students pit their knowledge of current
events and social studies related content against one another. Last year was a great success and enjoyed by all. We would
like to wish all the contestants the best of luck.
We look forward to a very producve and excing year in Social Studies next year.
Tracey Anne Cummins
Social Studies Curriculum Leader
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UAS ATHLETICS
2013-2014
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Athletics banquet
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