NUACHTÁN MIDDLE SCHOOL | December 2020

During the month of November our students had the opportunity to participate in different events, where they demonstrated their skills acquired throughout their educational years at the school. Our goal is to continue providing experiences that allow them to acquire new knowledge and life skills. We know that the first semester of the 20-21 school year has been a challenge, to find balance in our actions, as defined by the IB community profile, ‘Balanced: we understand the importance of balancing diferente aspects of our lives – intelectual, physical,  and emotional – to achieve ‘ well-being for ourselves an others’.   

With enthusiasm students from Middle School, High School and teachers participated in our traditional Boar Rally. They demonstrated their communication skills, teamwork, academic knowledge and physical abilities. Congratulations to all for their great work.

On November 18th and 19th, MS students participated in the CISMUN 2020 Model United Nations, national and international schools managed to discuss, negotiate and resolve international conflicts.

Academic…

By Pilar Mones

We will now talk about the material that is being used in the ‘Literature’ class in Middle School, we will also give you the opinion of our teachers regarding the benefits of this collection.

The Collections Program (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) has been designed to help students develop skills to analyze complex texts, to determine evidence, to make critical reasoning, and to communicate thoughtfully.

Collections is effective for creating passionate and thoughtful readers in the classroom as it features diverse materials and activities, allowing students to interact with different types of content and develop the tools they need to think critically, expand their curiosity, and tackle challenging concepts, as well as:

• Improve reading and analysis of texts
• Refine the ability to take tests and reason critically
• Learn to communicate more effectively, in various ways

https://forms.hmhco.com/lp/downloads/93244/Collections_2015_Digital_Platform_Walkthrough_and_Evaluators_Guide_Brochure.pdf

Collections inspires teachers to have creative instructional choices by providing an abundance of unique resources, fully supported by scaffolding that makes teaching exciting.

Starting with reading that engages students and makes them want to respond, it continues to teach students the skills necessary to craft those responses orally and in writing.

Classrooms with Collections are current, creative, and challenging.

• Dramatic stories, contemporary events, and texts of various genres and levels ensure that the content is age-appropriate and always engaging for students.
• Instruction facilitates meaningful conversations about texts to promote inquiry and active learning, helping students with annotation, analysis, and creative thinking.
• Online tools help students review, evaluate, and incorporate textual evidence and encourage feedback from both peers and teachers.
• Interpretation assignments and mentoring texts offer practice and support in perfecting listening comprehension, as well as in articulating speech and writing.

https://www.hmhco.com/programs/collections/overview

REVIEWS:

Miss Sandra Parra: The benefits of using the Collections book are:

• Its versatility and its combination of text and technology.
• The A&E, Bio and History sections transport our students to different times and places using videos with genuine images and voices.
• The multimedia section encourages our students to read news, reports, literary adaptations, daily announcements.
• The Performance tasks section creates opportunities for our students to respond in an analytical and creative way through complex texts.
• Each unit has an “interesting topic” which connects our students with topics of great interest for them.

Prof. Benjamín Rodea:

• Collections is a series of books that focus on reading literary works from the world library, bringing students closer to knowing the ways of thinking of other times and other countries while they practice English, promoting reasoning by presenting moral challenges that, led by the teacher, help to improve the use of a second language while learning new vocabulary.
• It is a system that uses literary features to promote production, both oral and written, while promoting knowledge of literary works of proven world value.

Middle Years Programme (MYP)

By Alicia Silva

I LIVED

These days when we are all looking to escape reality, for me it has been music. Even in different languages ​​that can connect me with another culture. I also use a lot of my energies in pursuing creativity, for my students, for my fellow teachers, for myself. Which brings me back to music, almost always.

And now, you may wonder, what is Miss Alicia talking about and what does it have to do with the title of this article? To which my answer will be again, music. This time I am not going to talk about music class and how the MYP works. If not, I want to highly recommend a song that my students surely know, the group is called OneRepublic and the song is ‘I Lived’.

I love this song in particular and it connects with what I would like my children and students to experience in their lifetime. I put the first paragraph here so that you can enter into context with me:

Hope when you take that jump

You don’t fear the fall

Hope when the water rises

You built a wall

Hope when the crowd screams out

They’re screaming your name

Hope if everybody runsYou choose to stay

This message for me is very powerful because in my interpretation it talks about how we live life, how we face challenges and arrive to solutions. From my perspective as a teacher, it makes me reflect on how I want my students to take their learning further and always accompany them, as a powerful tool tailored to their needs. Did you see that it had to do with the topic of the article? Now, to you who is reading this, I would like to ask you a question: How do you consider that the learning you have had in the past in the classroom has impacted your life now? Hopefully you can see the connection between your learning and your skills.

At Colegio Celta Internacional we strive every day to make this a reality for our students in the classroom.

It is with interdisciplinary projects that we foster these connections with skills; these types of projects serve as a bridge from factual to practical knowledge.

One of those projects is the one that will be working on in the Middle section between Design and Physical Education. Two completely different subjects that, when joined, rescue the best of both and guide the knowledge and application of both subjects. Facing teachers with the challenge of collaborating remotely through a common purpose in planning, seeking authentic interpretations of their content. Thus favoring fertile and continuous learning during teaching and learning; where the most benefited are our students. This type of practice is carried out in all IB – MYP schools on a compulsory basis.

Here are the testimonies of MYP teachers around the world who tell us how interdisciplinary units have inspired their work.

Geir Frode Stavsøien | MYP Music Teacher

‘In Music, we achieve goals that we would never achieve if it weren’t for interdisciplinary units, and I think that is something formidable. These units are not only useful for students’ learning, but also for mine, because they help me to demonstrate my learning attitude throughout life’.

Paul Victor Venter | MYP coordinator and math teacher

‘From my perspective, I always like working with colleagues who consider mathematics an independent subject. Interdisciplinary units that include a mathematical component allow teachers and students to develop a deeper understanding of the important role that mathematics plays in the real world around them’.

Annie Termaat | Secondary school principal and MYP science teacher

‘I am passionate about rethinking my subject from the perspective of my colleagues’ work. The collaborative work process in different subjects and the creative adaptation of the content of the interdisciplinary units through practical science work helps me to stay motivated and full of energy’.

REFERENCIA:

https://blogs.ibo.org/blog/2019/07/03/las-unidades-interdisciplinarias-en-colegios-pequenos-que-ofrecen-el-pai-primera-parte-las-ventajas-de-un-grupo-reducido/?lang=es

Psychopedagogy

By Paola Llop

ANXIETY, A NEGATIVE EMOTION?

Hello Celta community, it is a pleasure to meet us again with more information that I hope will be helpful. First of all, I want to thank you for attending the tripartite interviews, it was very pleasant for us to be able to share the academic and emotional performance of our students, as well as establish lines of improvement.

As you may recall, we were evaluating two important aspects in the emotional area, depression indicators and anxiety indicators. Last month I shared with you information that can be helpful to identify elements that tell us about depressive traits, now I will talk about anxiety.

Many times I have come across the belief that anxiety is something ‘bad’ or ‘negative’, however, to be able to talk about it, you have to understand it. Anxiety is not a bad thing, it has a reason to be part of our life, anxiety is a protection system, it helps us anticipate, adapt and get out of a situation that puts our life at risk.

Anxiety is a sense of danger, problem, or threat that is about to happen. When does it become pathological?

I will share with you a comparative chart, in which you will be able to recognize characteristics of adaptive and pathological anxiety.

We will review the characteristics accompanied by an example for clarity. Example: Pop quiz in math…

What to do if I identify features of pathological anxiety? We share three anxiety control techniques that might be helpul.

Distraction: The most important thing is that you pay attention to your internal sensations, for example, heart rate or sweating level. So, you use distraction, with activities like singing, dancing, starting a conversation with another person, observing objects around you and giving it three different uses, finding five blue objects. In this way, you can also learn to anticipate feared sensations and practice the distraction technique before they appear.

Slow diaphragmatic breathing: It is one of the most effective in overcoming anxiety. The steps to follow to carry out slow breathing to help us know how to control anxiety are the following:

1. Place one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach.
2. Take a breath, slowly, and notice how you draw it down, swelling your stomach and belly, but without moving your chest.
3. Hold the air for a moment in that position.
4. Release it, little by little, slightly sinking the stomach and belly; again without moving the chest.
5. Try to stay relaxed and increase that state of relaxation each time you breathe out.

Self-instructions: This technique will help us to know how to control anxiety , by modifying anxious thoughts. This method redirect our fears through messages that we send to ourselves. Example:

‘These sensations cannot cause you any harm’

‘Don’t fight your feelings. Just accept them. They will pass’

‘Avoid amplifying your fear with catastrophic thoughts that have no real basis’

‘My fear tries to warn me of an unreal danger. Therefore, I will not listen to him’

If you require further guidance in relation to this issue, do not hesitate to contact the department of psychopedagogy.

Chimeno C. (2018). ‘How to control anxiety? Effective and practical techniques’. Retrieved on November 13, 2020, from https://blog.cognifit.com/es/como-controlar-la-ansimonio/

Student life

By Carlos Zermeño

Almost everyone has activities that we like to do, activities that we could be doing for hours and which we enjoy without putting too much effort in it. Running, coloring mandalas, listening to music, dancing ballet, watching movies, reading books, answering crosswords or even collecting stones.

Sometimes we can mistake a hobby for down time and think that we are just wasting time. But we couldn’t be more wrong; Hobbies, beyond representing enjoyment and entertainment, help us to improve mental health, disconnect from routine and promote our well-being.

There are so many hobbies of so many varieties that we could find one regardless of our age, gender or personal interests. According to experts, there are several reasons why hobbies are beneficial:

• Develop and expand our capabilities, learn about our talents.
• Disconnect from the routine and reduce stress.
• Combat nervousness, anxiety and depression.
• They contribute to self-control and mental balance.
• They promote creativity, healthy competition and discipline.

 It is never too late to start with something you can enjoy.

Bibliography:

Anónimo. (2020). Hobbies. 03/10/20, de Psicólogo Alcalá de Henares – Madrid Sitio web: https://psicologoalcaladehenares.com/2016/09/21/importante-tener-hobby/

María Jesús Núñez. (2019). Importancia de un hobbie. 02/10/20, de En Terapia Psicología Sitio web: https://enterapiapsicologia.es/por-que-es-importante-tener-un-hobby/

Anónimo. (2020). ​Ocio: ¿por qué es importante tener un hobby?. 05/10/20, de Temmpo Sitio web: https://temmpo.es/blog/ocio-por-que-es-importante-tener-un-hobby.html

Dates to remember

DECEMBER 7th to 16th  – P2 exams (semester)

DECEMBER 11th – CTE

DECEMBER 18th – Christmas event

DECEMBER 21st to JANUARY 11th – Winter Break

Editorial

Mónica Antuna | Middle School Principal

Ma. Del Pilar Mones| Academic Coordinator

Alicia Silva | MYP Coordinator

Paola Llop | Department of Psychopedagogy

Carlos Zermeño | Coordinator of Student Activities