Student of the Week

Week 39: Commander Leonore M. 'Flowermunch' Gaedke

When you have earned nicknames like 'Commander Gaedke' AND 'Nonore Flowermunch' you can say for sure that you have learned to balance all of the important things in life. Leonore has spent the year abiding by the Jascha Heifetz rule that 'There is no top,' and that 'You never finish practicing.' She has maintained a steady course of improvement while constantly looking further to see where she can improve. While doing this, she has maintained subzero levels of HUbris and atmospheric levels of HUmility. We look forward to seeing your list of achievements grow in the coming years. Don't forget to keep us updated about all of these once you are settled back in France...or stationed at Cape Canaveral. 

Week 38: Kotaro Chiba

The penultimate Student of the Week award goes to Kotaro Chiba who has spent the year showing how to quietly progress and be the best Kotaro Chiba he can be. Just recently, the words, "Kotaro, you are so generous," rang out from the basketball court after a player on the team against which Kotaro was playing was accused by some of restarting the game too quickly and without warning which led to him scoring a goal. Kotaro accepted that in the interests of keeping the game going, the goal should be conceded. In addition to this generosity, he has shown himself to be fair, thoughtful, and kind. Just ask any of the two new students who arrived from Japan in the past school year about what has helped them to settle in at H.I.S. and the contribution made by Kotaro (among others) is sure to be mentioned. Thank you for being the person that you are!

Week 37: YunJu Paek

The YunJuNoon earns the award this week after a year-long effort to challenge herself in every possible manner. At the beginning of the year, YunJu had decided that she likes Maths and is good at it. She was going to be known as YunJu The Maths Ninja. Soon after that, it was quite obvious that YunJu was correct. She is good at Maths and really enjoys solving mathematical problems. That was all good and well but YunJu found herself feeling unchallenged. She decided the best thing to do would be to challenge herself more in other aspects of her learning and so she did. Now she is flying high as a well-respected artist, scientist, author, and social scientist. She has shown a remarkable amount of improvement this year in all aspects of school and this has been entirely due to the fact that she has become more interested in everything there is to learn in both Grade 5 and life. All hail The YunJuNoon!

Week 36: Dr. Leo Luther Lee, Jr.

Leo Lee earns the award this week for the year's worth of valuable contributions that he has made to the classroom spirit. Leo gets along well with everyone because he understands the value of teamwork. He is always thinking of others and always striving to improve his own skills as much as possible. On a number of occasions this year, Leo has earned himself a Helping Hand ticket for remembering or noticing something the rest of us hadn't. Look out for him in the future. He has broadened his list of interests to extend so wide that when we finally see him in the news headlines in the future, it will be hard to predict what great thing he does next. Keep up the excellent work, Leo!

Week 35: Eliezer Adrian Romero

Professor Eliezer A. Romero has been showing up on the classroom radar once again over the course of the past few weeks. He has maintained his keen interest in history and has been seen clarifying points and stating well-researched points during group and class discussions. He has played a crucial role recently in shaping his group's play about the Cold War and, even though may have felt that the task of writing a play about this particular period in history was a little daunting, he has decided to use Senator Joseph McCarthy as a central character in the play and he and his collaborators are well upon their way to finishing their plot and script. Most impressively though, is the major improvements that Prof. Romero has made since joining the class at the start of the year. He has shown the most lexile growth in his Achieve 3000 activities and has been writing his Iowa tests like a seasoned professional this past week! See you at Romero's Pizza and Pasta in the not-too-distant fUtUre to celebrate all of these achievements!




Week 34: Art Chen

Art has spent the year multitasking like a true professional. Whenever he needs a day off of school or accepts and outside award at Assembly, we are never quite sure which of a long list of good reasons it is that he needs to be somewhere or was awarded something. In addition to all of the above, Art made a great impact on the entire class when he introduced us to legendary violinist Jascha Heifetz. Not only did Art maintain his place at the top of the class by meeting all of the criteria for the assignment, he left us inspired by the words of Mr. Heifetz and me, particularly, interested in finding out more about this great man. Finally, as we all know, 'situational awareness' is one of the skills among many thyat we focus on in Grade 5. This week, Art was the first student in three years of me teaching Grade 5 to notice that the Spelling words for Week 34 are exactly the same as those from Week 14, way back in November last year. Art was the only student in the class to say, "Wait, didn't we already do this?" There's a first time for everything, so we can be sure that a number of 'Firsts' in terms of what the future holds for us will be published because of the work of Art Chen.

Week 33: Yukino Shinmoto

Yukino has been in Taiwan since the end of March. In the four short weeks since she joined us on the first day of the fourth quarter (that's April 9th) for those who aren't following my point, Yukino has made some of the most remarkable progress we have ever seen. Some of her classmates are even dazzled by the level of independence she has shown. Understandably, Yukino is not able to complete everything that is assigned to her until she has a better grasp of English, but she has worked so hard to learn as much English in just four weeks that she is solving Maths problems and answering questions in Science so well that we are all continually impressed by the perseverance she has shown. We have known you for less than a month, Yukino, and you have done more than we have space to mention in detail here to dazzle us with your brilliance. Keep up the great work!

Week 32: Toma Sano

Toma blasted his way into the top spot this week after two major achievements in addition to all of the other remarkable progress he keeps showing.  He has only been in Taiwan since November last year and has only been learning English since he arrived. He has cheerfully overcome a fractured finger and a bruised leg in the short time that he has been with us and is being more careful about his physical well-being these days. However, he understands that accidents do happen and that when they do, he just needs to get up and keep doing what he does well. In that respect, Toma has achieved two massive milestones this past week. Not only did he earn a place on our Wimpy Kids Superstars Wall of Fame for regularly writing in his journal, he delivered a flawless performance on one of our trickiest Spelling tests last Friday. Toooooomaaaaa!!!!!

Week 31: Rikuto Kohgami

Rikuto has maintained his excellent performance since the last time he was seen on this list. He has continued to work hard on his Lexile Levels by reading as much and as often as possible on Achieve 3000. His hard work has paid off and he is currently ranked among those who are reading at a proficiency level that sets them on a strong path of College and Career Readiness. Rikuto remains a team player who is considerate, fair, and always aware of his surroundings. He respects the ringing bell rule in our class and knows to quieten down and pay attention when it rings. He is extremely helpful when it comes to helping new students settle in and this is evident in the ever-improving performances of our newest students. Thank you, Rikuto!

Week 30: Isaac Oliver

Isaac returns to claim the title for the second time this year. He has been on a steady path of improvement in all aspects of school life this year. He recently made the impressive jump in lexile level on Achieve 3000 that now places him firmly on track for College and Career Readiness. In addition to this big achievement, Isaac has shown an increased level of dedication to his writing assignments. He producing very impressive work that demonstrates that he is putting the required of time and thought into each article and story that he writes. If this is not enough, Isaac has been voluntarily helping the newest of our classmates to adjust to life in Taiwan. We can all understand how difficult it can be to move to a new country and have to learn how to learn (yes!) in a completely different language to the one we learned in before and that we speak at home. Isaac has patiently and productively made this transition smoother for students who find themselves in this tricky situation. Thank you, Isaac!

Week 29: Kotaro Chiba

Kotaro is back on the board for the usual reasons and a little more than the usual. He dominated the game of Kahoot last Friday and ended up being the overall winner. The game involved questions related to not only the Science and Social Studies that we have learned in class recently, but also general ideas about education and how to be the best you can be. If you want to know more about how to be the best you can be, Kotaro comes highly recommended by the Grade 5 class as an expert worth consulting on the matter.

Week 28: Daniel Kim

Daniel is back in top spot after putting in the usual performance that we can expect from him. He has worked as hard as usual and dazzled us with a brilliantly-written Historical Fiction piece titled "My Life In The War." Upon finishing this, he started working on another short story about the slave trade titled, "Equality." Writing is not the only area he has shown exceptional skills in. He and Rikuto are currently ensuring that their plant survives the Spring Break because of the self-watering system they have developed. Daniel is a life-long learner in the making who knows how to ensure his own long-term flourishing. Watch out for presentations about him in future Heroes Weekmonth speeches.

Week 27: Leonore Gaedke

Leonore earns the award this week for never slowing down. In fact, she seems to speeding up in her ability to grasp new concepts and is gathering new knowledge and skills from all directions as she makes her way into the final quarter of our Grade 5 year. We are fast approaching Heroes WeekMonth (yes, you read that correctly) and we are all looking forward to seeing who it is who inspires Leonore to be who she is. To help us deal with the anticipation until then, we have Leonore's Historical Fiction presentation to look forward to next week. I can't wait to see what happens to the characters she has written into the history of the sinking of the Titanic!

Week 26: Yolanda Lee

Yolanda continues to persevere through the most difficult of challenges. She does her best in every lesson to understand what is required of her. She always checks the meaning of new vocabulary in order to enhance her understanding of the work and does well to review using the best methods we have learned in class ahead of a test. Her written assignments are always submitted for editing well ahead of the deadline and the quality of work that she is producing continues to rank among the highest in the class. Excellent work, Yolanda!

Week 25: Raby Bun

Raby has worked his way to this week's title by doing what he is known  to do best, noticing details and contributing interesting points especially about current events to discussions. Raby has good research skills and can remember details about an event along with specific facts. He makes valuable connections between what we are learning and what is happening in the world. Keep up the great work!

Week 24: John Dioufus

John 'Johnny D.' Dioufus was the only student who came to school every day last week so, due to his 'Perfect Attendance,' we have no choice but to award him Student of the Week for Week 24. Please remember to read the weekly newsletter each week Johnny. That way you will know when to not show up for school. This, among many other reasons, is why you have been stuck in Grade 5 for seven years and counting.

*See below to find out who really snapped up the title for Week 24.

Week 23-24: Morris Huang

Morris has been performing at an exceptionally good level in recent weeks and would have been awarded Student of the Week in Week 23 had it not been comprised of only two days. He is thus our recipient for both Weeks 23 and 24 as they fell on either side of the Lunar New Year celebrations. Morris has been putting a great deal of effort into the Thought Questions posed in Achieve 3000 and put a lot of effort into producing a very impressive answer to the question about what Franklin D. Roosevelt meant when he said, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." He has contributed valuably to his Lego team in preparation for our International Expo in two weeks and is demonstrating a consistent passion for learning that makes our current Grade 5 classroom the dynamic learning environment that it is. Keep up the excellent work, Morris!

Week 22: Toma Sano

Toma has settled quite nicely into our class. He has been busily familiarizing himself with our routines and is steadily learning to communicate better in English. In the short time that he has been here, Toma has mastered his dictionary and Google Translate skills and makes use of them in everything he does. In our Topic 10 Performance Assessment, Toma effortlessly solved the word problems using keywords and the mathematical concepts we had learned. He is starting to apply these skills in Science and Social Studies too which is heartening too. Toma ended this week by mesmerizing his classmates with the How To video he made in which he demonstrates how to make a multi-coloured origami cube. Excellent work, Toma!

Week 21: Andrew Liu

Andrew earns the award this week for some outstanding acts of independence and helpfulness. He has shown on a number of occasions that he is a dedicated student and his recent increased interest in what he is learning is starting to pay off. He has shown good improvisation skills in class and continues to contribute productively during group activities. Keep up the great work!

Week 20: Celina Park

Celina is the last recipient of the award for Semester 1. This is her second Student of the Week award and she has earned it by doing her absolute best in every endeavor in class. She has, along the way, gained a good deal of confidence and has been doing a fantastic job of communicating with all of us. Keep up the great work, Celina!

Week 19: Kotaro Chiba

Kotaro is one of those students who gets things done. It does not matter where he is or what he is doing, he always gets things done. In class, he can be relied upon to work steadily and carefully and even when he makes a mistake, his first thought is to check to see where he went wrong. He has recently been making the headlines on Achieve 3000 after spending a lot of time learning as much as he can and improving his reading skills over the winter vacation. He and Leo have led the charge this past week by preparing a surprise for two of our good friends who will be leaving Taiwan at the end of the semester. If you're impressed by this, don't forget to check out his soccer skills during our recess. As always, you will see him getting things done out there, too. Thanks for the hard work, Kotaro!

Week 18: Terry Chu

Terry demonstrates on a daily basis how to use good reasoning and critical thinking skills to solve problems. He is determined to succeed when faced with even the biggest of challenges. His creativity and ability to demonstrate an idea both visually and verbally contribute nicely to how we think about a concept during discussions. Terry's journal is one of the most interesting that I have had the privilege to read as it contains a wide variety of information and thoughts that are brought to life through Terry's unrivaled artistic skills. Among all of these achievements, it is Terry's exceptionally well-written Research-based Argument essay that earns him the award this week. Well done, Terry!

Week 17: Rikuto Kohgami

Rikuto is our first Student of the Week of 2018. He was recently one of the high-flying Grade 5s who made huge improvements in their Lexile Levels by reading as much and as often as possible on Achieve 3000. Rikuto's improvement is evident on a daily basis and his overall performance continues to impress all of us. His excellent work is not confined to the classroom. Rikuto is a team player both inside the classroom and outside of it. In class, he has done a fantastic job with Toma who recently arrived from Japan. Rikuto has made his settling process into the class so much easier as he has explained very carefully to Toma how we do things in class. This is often done without any teacher prompting required. His written work is constantly improving and it is clear that he always aims to do his best. During recess, we can often be frustrated by certain events or the behaviours of others. Rikuto understands that remaining calm and maintaining his composure in these situations is more important than reacting in anger or complaining about what has happened. Keep up the great work Rikuto!

Week 16: JuHyuk Park

JuHyuk is our final Student of the Week of 2017. He earns the award for many reasons. He was recently one of the high-flying Grade 5s who made huge improvements in their Lexile Levels by reading as much and as often as possible on Achieve 3000. JuHyuk was also one of a handful of scientists who remembered to relate what they know about forces and motion to the escape rocket that their newfound alien friend was trying to build. In addition to his achievements this week, JuHyuk's overall performance continues to impress all of us who share a classroom with him. He demonstrates daily that he is aware that Grade 5s are no longer learning to read but instead, reading to learn. He spends a good deal of time on Achieve 3000 even when articles have not been specifically assigned as homework. This has improved his reading and writing skills. He is currently co-editing a novel being written by one of his classmates. JuHyuk has a realistic understanding of what education is. He knows that Google already knows everything so the only way to stand out in the future is to show what you can do with what you know. We look forward to seeing the fUtUre yoU JuHyuk!

Week 15: Isaac Oliver

Isaac earns the award this week for a number of outstanding performances throughout the past week and especially the past month. He produced a very well-written Interpretive essay in addition to showing his ability to pay careful attention to detail on the Topic 7 Maths test, a test renowned for confusing even the greatest of Grade 5 mathematicians. If that's not impressive enough, Isaac was also one of two students this week who showed the largest Lexile Level gains in his reading responses to Achieve 3000 articles since the start of the school year. He has also shown an ever-growing awareness of two key learning goals of Grade 5 which include being able to read to learn along with making statements like, "Don't worry, I had a question, but I figured it out by myself," and "It's okay, I got it." His attitude and skills in this regard are going to come in handy in all of his future learning. Thanks for all of the hard work, Isaac!

Week 14: Leo Lee

Leo has always been one of the most helpful students we know at H.I.S. What a lot of casual observers don't notice though is the depth to which Leo's ability to assist others goes. From reminding me to take a photograph of Toma when he first arrived (I admit, I hadn't even thought to do it until Leo reminded me) to carrying heavy loads to assist others and remaining aware of who is responsible for what on the Duty Roster, Leo proves on a daily basis that his Situational Awareness is right where it needs to be to find success in Grade 5. In addition to this, Leo's excitement about world events both past and present has helped him become both the reader and writer any educator can be proud of.

Week 13: Christine Lan

Christine has quietly worked her way to earning this award for outstanding work not only this week, but in the weeks preceding it too. Although she has always shown a great deal of diligence and perseverance when it comes to her work at school, Christine has recently started sharing her ideas more confidently with us. She has found her voice and demonstrated that she knows how to use it, both in her verbal and written communication. She took a bold step and mentioned in her journal that she was 'annoyed' when she did not get the grade she wanted for her journal entries. Instead of focusing on how annoyed she was, she set about producing work worthy of getting her photograph up on the Superstars Wall of Fame for Journal Writing. This week, it was evident that she is going to continue to dazzle us when she settled on a big idea for her Interpretive Essay and went on to defend the idea really well. Thank you and well done, Christine!

Week 12: Celina Park

Celina receives the award this week for being, as her Student of the Week certificate states, 'Quietly Impressive.' There is an endless list of reasons for how she earns this description. To begin with, she has only been in Taiwan for three months, having never spoken English or learned in an all-English environment before. Although it is evident that she is still learning the basics of English, she has done a fantastic job of showing that she is learning, she is applying what she is learning and most importantly of all, she refuses to give up and her results are among the most impressive Maurice and I have seen this side of the Jafoorangooly River...or any other river for that matter. It was heartening to learn from Celina's parents when we met for the PT Conferences that she has been doing an incredible job at home ensuring that her younger brother Luke is settling into life in Taiwan without feeling too overwhelmed by the challenges he faces. This is what makes Celina our Student of the Week!

Week 11: Art Chen

Art was one of the first six Wimpy Kid Superstars when the inductees were announced recently! A huge contributor to this was the fact that Art takes his journal home as often as he can. In addition to this, Art made a great deal of effort to improve his handwriting after submitting his Personal Narrative. He takes suggestions and constructive criticism to heart and shows that he knows how to improve when it is needed. In a discussion related to Native Americans this week, Art was the only student who realized that Native Americans receive little mention during discussions about the Civil War. He also knew that disease played a very big role in the deaths of most Native Americans following the arrival of settlers from Europe. He is the one and only Art E. Botastic!

Week 10: Amy Wang

Amy has quietly spent the last ten weeks showing steady improvement in all of the work we have done. She is not afraid to try and when she is not sure, she keeps at it until she understands what is required. She is currently writing a fantastic story about Princess Sliveria who faces a dilemma brought about by her parents and their distinctly different backgrounds. In between writing and revising this story, she always finds time to add entries to her daily journal. She was one of the first six Wimpy Kid Superstars last week! Nice work, Amy-Jo!

Week 9: Pepijn van Dijk

Pepijn has settled nicely into the class and life in Taiwan. He has been making valuable contributions during discussions in Maths, Science, and Social Studies. His efforts to learn in an all-English environment are starting to pay off. When Pepijn isn't impressing us with his in-class performance, he can be seen playing a pivotal midfield role in his recess soccer team. Keep it up, Professor van Dijk!

Week 8: Leonore Gaedke

Leonore continues to impress us with her organizational and presentational skills. She is very careful in everything she does and is always sure to check in to make sure that she is following instructions carefully. Leonore is always ready to help and often makes suggestions that lead to the smoother running of classroom procedures. Thanks for the hard work, Leonore!

Week 7: Ryota Too

Ryota has made his way to Grade 5 using all the skills we have come to associate with his superhero persona, RYOTAMAN! He has stayed on task all year, thought carefully before completing his work, and has contributed to discussions on a daily basis. It looks like we're off to another good start to a school year, RYOTAMAN!

Week 6: Florence Fisher

Florence is our recipient this week for consistently putting in a lot of effort. She offers good insights on a daily basis and makes valuable contributions during classroom discussions. This week, Florence did well to connect the importance of literacy to the slave codes that prevented slaves in 19th Century America to meet in groups. She pointed out that not only would they be able to organize resistance movements against slavery by doing this, but that those who could read and write would be able to EMPOWER other slaves by teaching them the same skills. Nice work, Flo Fish!

Week 5: Daniel Kim

Daniel receives the award this week for showing up each day and doing what he does. He is a very hardworking student and puts a lot of time, effort, and thought into the work that he produces. He is a team player who works hard to make sure that his group or team works and learns effectively. It has been  a great year for him so far and I am looking forward to whatever else he is able to show and teach us as the year progresses.

Week 4: Adrian Romero

Adrian has spent the past two weeks proving that he has all the skills required to set a fine example for all of the other students. He has worked hard to complete his routines correctly, finish his work in class and work and think independently in doing so. He has put a lot of time and effort into his Thought Questions when completing his Achieve 3000 homework and all of us benefitted from his thorough analysis of character and meaning when we discussed the important elements of Because of Winn-Dixie.

Week 3: Yolanda Lee

Yolanda earns the award this week for her outstanding effort in everything she does. She completed her Science poster using details that made it look just like a well-researched Science report. Yolanda is not afraid to ask questions when she does not understand. She is a fine example of what a good student is.

Week 2: Yunju Paek

Yunju is the first visible student in Grade 5 to earn the award. She has done a fine job of mastering all of our classroom routines and continues to demonstrate that she is prepared to be the best Grade 5 she can be. Keep your eye on her if you want to know how to succeed in Grade 5.

Week 1: Jaforee N. Visible

Jaforee earns this first award for being the only student who attended school every day last week. Nope, no other reason.