Inclusion at SISD

  I feel like by 2023, many of us have heard that journaling can support our mental health. I don't know if you're like me, but just knowing this information doesn't spur me on to do anything. Starting a new habit is hard, especially if we don't understand the benefits. Journaling is a wonderful way for us to reflect upon our day - we can think over what went well, what didn't, and how we could change things in the future. Journaling can also help us see progress towards our goals or if we need to alter our behaviours. Especially for children (but us adults, too!), journaling can improve communication skills. Journaling can prompt students to reflect on their emotions and give them new ways to say how they feel.  But like anything, journaling isn't one size fits all. There are many different types of journaling. From making quick lists, to creating beautiful illustrations, there's something for everyone.  Here are some guides on journaling: How to start a bu...

At SISD, we are so proud to be a bilingual school. We value our multicultural student body and love hearing the plethora of languages in our hallways everyday.  In order to support our students, we use many strategies to help our students grow in all languages. There are so many wonderful apps that promote language acquisition and provide translation services. We are also lucky that all of the Microsoft 365 products provide instant translation on a selection of a document or the entire document. While we want our students to be independent in many languages, this is a wonderful tool that can help them along the way.  Please follow the following steps to use the translation feature on Word (this also works on OneNote):  Click on "Review" on the top ribbon  Click on "Translate" Select "Translate Selection" or "Translate Document"  You can select your language from the bar on the right Happy translating!

Some of us will remember the 2009 Apple commercials with the tagline, "There's an app for that." Nearly 15 years later, this still rings true. We have apps for everything, from ordering groceries to logging water intake to playing music - there's an app for it.  It will come as no surprise, therefore, that there are many apps to ameliorate reading and writing difficulties. There's a long list in the graphic, but please look at our shorter list below: Speechify: a text-to-speech app; this is a great app so your learners can listen to content as they follow along (all Office apps also have this feature embedded into them). Sentence Builder: an app that supports children in building complex, grammatically-correct sentences. This is an excellent app for any students that may support with small, connecting words Notes: an app that comes on all iPhones - this is a great tool that students can use to make voice recordings to organise their thoughts or use the speech-to-t...

Adam Grant, organisational psychologist, is famous for encouraging people to "rethink" their long-held beliefs. In this 15-minute clip, he discusses habits of innovators including embracing failure and taking risks.  

 Identifying our Feelings Being aware of our emotions can help us identify what causes them - the good and the bad! It's important to be specific when identifying how we are feeling. We often feel more than just sad - do we feel abandoned or embarrassed or any other range of emotions.  The feelings wheel below can help children (and adults) to be more specific about how they are feeling. It's important to develop our ability to identify our emotions for many reasons. Are you feeling happy? Do you feel successful because of feedback from another or are you feeling inspired because of something you just watched? The specifics of why we feel happy can help us to reflect about how to create more opportunities for these feelings in our lives. Do you feel angry? Are you feeling betrayed by a friend? Is the anger actually rooted in fear? Recognising the negative emotions can also allow us to reflect on how to prevent them in the future. Many people enjoy using mood trackers to help t...

A few weeks ago many of our students ventured out into the world to expand their learning and to give back to the communities around them.  Many of our students stayed in Dubai and explored all that our amazing city has to offer. Some students in grade 5-7 travelled to Switzerland to master the slopes. Some grade 6-7 students explored the mountains of Ras al Khaimah. Other grade 7-11 students went to Fujairah to go diving and have adventures under the sea. Some of our grade 8 students voyaged to Kenya and saw some of the wildlife and helped to build a school. Grade 9 students travelled to Thailand and explored several caves. Our grade 11 students saw many waterfalls and walked on glaciers in Iceland! We are so proud of how our students behaved all around the world and are delighted that we had the opportunity to take our learning outside of the classroom.

We at SISD love bringing science to life! We encourage our students to use the scientific inquiry process to create a question, conduct research, make a hypothesis, experiment, analyse the data, and to share the findings. We frequently conduct experiments in a laboratory with goggles, white lab coats, and gloves. But, that doesn't mean you need a science lab to conduct experiments! Find a few suggestions for at home science experiments below. This might be a great way to engage the whole family during down time over spring break.  See who can create the best phone speakers !  See who can make the best paper airplane - you can judge on who can fly the highest, furthest, or any other category! Make your own rock candy - a fun and delicious experiment Do an egg drop (maybe best as an outdoor activity)