Grade 8-10 Spring Dance

When I first had the idea of a “Dance” – I did not think people would actually dance. To my surprise, the entire group of students was hopping, doing the limbo and dancing to the “Macarena” by the end of the night.

I really enjoyed the dance and thank Annalisse for all of her help with music and tech support. Thanks to Sr. Lopez, students were also able to do Karaoke in the music room.

Matt, Grade 9

Students brought donations and we were able to raise €165 for Make Chang Possible!”

 

100 Stars For DP Physics Students

The Diploma physics classes spent Tuesday morning at the House of Astronomy and the MPI for Astronomy in Heidelberg. Thanks to Roger Lee for a fascinating lecture on exoplanets and to our PhD-student guide who showed us two working telescopes and the 100-stars model.

text & photos: JVG

 

Grade 1 Consumers And Producers

Grade 1 cut many of the flowers from the flower beds outside, Friday the 13th and sold them for 20 cents each.  The students are learning about how people become consumers, and the stages of production.  Working in the pouring rain, grade 1 was able to fill four buckets of flowers, and earned 43.41 Euros!  Later, we will discuss as a class how we should spend the money to become consumers.

To learn where our products come from, and the steps involved Grade 1 was given the challenge of becoming Tomato Paste producers.  There were given tomatoes, and various tools and had to inquiry and ask questions to try and find out how to make their own tomato paste. Follow one group on their learning journey as they create their final product in three movies in the H.I.S. Facebook Page.

text, photos & films: EM, Grade 1

Soundscapes and Soundportraits

What does Heidelberg sound like? How does H.I.S. sound? If you were to portrait yourself using only sounds, which sounds would you choose?Grade 9&10 German Language & Literature students are taking part in a project supported by the Bavarian Radiostation. The students will be working with a professional media coach next week to produce a Sound Composition.

A small number of schools from different parts of Germany were chosen to take part in the “Klangforscher” project, which is also a competition. In May the students travel to Frankfurt to make professional recordings at the Radio Station. The students started to brainstorm ideas for their Sound Composition in class this week. 

The link will take you to a map of Germany, indicating which schools are taking part in the “Klangforscher” Project. Can you find H.I.S.?

http://www.klang-forscher.de/schulen 

 

text & photos: AS

Grade 12 Students Keep Up With Their Home Languages

Rebecca and Vivien have both recognised the importance of their home languages. They explain why they have continued to work on them as part of their IB Diploma Creativity, Activity and Service (CAS) programme. They both chose to translate a poem to give you a flavour of their language. If you would like to post something about your home language and include a poem or other translation that would be wonderful!

Vivien:

As a student with a varied cultural background and a Romanian mother, I want to explore my Romanian heritage. A good start to that is mastering the Romanian language first. The Romanian language is very different from any other language that exists. Despite Romania being the only country in Eastern Europe that speaks a Romance language, the Romanian language is the closest living language to Latin, even with its large Slavic influences. So, any Latin fans can take an interest to Romanian.

I travelled to Sibiu, Romania. Sibiu is a culturally rich and centuries old town with an international community. I participated in a two-week course called Romanian A2 at the ROLANG school. There I received exercise and workbooks to use on the course. I found it a very balanced holiday/work course because in the morning you learn Romanian in a University Building and then organized events take place in the afternoon, which you can participate in if you’d like to.

I have chosen a poem by Mihai Eminescu named Vainly In Those Dusty Classrooms…. It was written in the 1800s, and is about how the content you learn in school doesn’t automatically give you all the answers to your life and fulfill your wish for a better world.

 În zădar în colbul școlii…

În zădar în colbul școlii,

Prin autori mâncați de molii,

Cauți urma frumuseții

Și îndemnurile vieții,

Și pe foile lor unse

Cauți taine nepătrunse

Și cu slovele lor strimbe

Ai vrea lumea să se schimbe.

Nu e carte să înveți

Ca viața s-aibă preț ­

Ci trăiește, chinuiește

Și de toate pătimește

Ș-ai s-auzi cum iarba crește.

 

English Translation:

Vainly In Those Dusty Classrooms…

Vainly in those dusty classrooms

And throughout moth-eaten volumes

Do you strive to find life’s beauty

And fulfill its inmost duty,

And in vain on greasy pages

Do you seek the gist of sages,

Nor with their contorted wording

Can you change the world’s unfolding.

No amount of bookish learning

Has the answers to your yearning,

So live life until you pass,

All that suffering amass,

And you’ll hear the growing grass.

 

As a child growing up with three different languages and cultures, Greek is my favourite language as it is very beautiful. Despite modern Greek, being the language I speak, and ancient Greek being very different, people often confuse the two.

I decided to start learning the Greek language because I am proud of my heritage and would like to be able to understand and speak to my Greek family in their native language. I also think it is a great language with very interesting and beautiful sounding words.

As evidence of my learning, I have chosen to translate my favourite feminist poem by Rupi Kaur, author of the New York Times’ best seller ‘Milk and Honey’. This poem is about how a women’s beauty is valued above all of her other characteristics.

Original Poem:

i want to apologize to all the women

i have called beautiful
before i’ve called them intelligent or brave.
i am sorry i made it sound as though
something as simple as what you’re born with
is all you have to be proud of
when you have broken mountains with your wit
from now on i will say things like
you are resilient, or you are extraordinary
not because i don’t think you’re beautiful.
but because i need you to know
you are more than that

 

Translated into Greek:

Grade 4 Gets Going!

Grade 4 was working hard to get their bike driving- license.  We went to the “Jugendverkehrsschule” in Kirchheim to work with the traffic officers. They taught us the rules of the street in order to be safe on our bikes when on the street.

On our first day we practiced using our knowledge of traffic signs and the rule “Rechts-vor Links”.  On our second training day we were practicing turning left.

The third practice day was in real traffic in Kirchheim and on the last day we had our final practical test.

The test went well.

The whole experience was educational as well as fun.  Most of us are more confident on their bikes now, but we all need to continue practicing.

text: Grade 4 students

Welcome Back

H.I.S. wishes everybody a good start into the first week of school after Spring Break. It was quite obvious today that spring has indeed arrived along with some sunshine and beautiful flowers on our playground.

We were glad to see our extension has “grown” during the break, too.

photos: AS