While PGIA students took the Iowa Standards on Wednesday, our foreign exchange students from Eurocolegio Casvi Villaviciosa in Madrid were guests of the St. Thomas Historical Trust. Muchas gracias to Vince "Doc" Palancia of the Historic Trust who met with these students on campus last week and then guided their tour around downtown Wednesday.
Congratulations to our Volts Varsity Basketball Team on the school's first basketball win! Basketball is pretty new to VIMSIA with this being our boys second season. Go Volts!
“Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
Ms. Ferguson's Thursday Art Club started off with a bang last week. Her students did beautiful leaf rubbings and paintings - they look so proud, don't they!
The Thursday Art Club is for Full Day Primary and Lower Elementary students. Wednesday Art Club is for Upper El and PGIA. Anyone that may still be interested in joining either of Ms. Ferguson's Art Clubs, please let Ms. Hunt know.
From Michael Bornn: The students are immersed in science. Today we started at 9:00 am with our first lab, it's now 9:25 pm and they are still in a lab. And no one is complaining. In fact I have had to pull students out of labs to go to the next lab. One of our talented students asked the professor " if I could come back later". Each student is finding their interests. They are interacting with each other more and more. Mr. Palmer is observing their interests and adding more lessons over breakfast and dinner breaks. All I have to do is listen, watch and try and recall my science knowledge to follow the topics. They are also observing and learning about the Israeli way of life.
Six PGIA students are at the Weizmann Institute this week further igniting their passions for science. "Each student seems to be passionate about a different area of science. This is amazing to watch and will be life-altering for these students. We are seeing science right now that will change the world," from Head of School Michael Bornn, who is chaperoning the trip.
The Weizmann Institute of Science is one of the world’s leading multidisciplinary basic research institutions in the natural and exact sciences. It is located in Rehovot, Israel, just south of Tel Aviv. The Institute has a long history of investigation and discovery rooted in a mission of advancing science for the benefit of humanity.
Six PGIA students are traveling to Israel to visit the world renowned Weizmann Institute of Science. The PGIA has been collaborating with the Weizmann Institute online for the past several years as a part of our End Session STEM programs. This year we were invited to send students to a specially created Science Camp just for us! Mr. Bornn, Andy Palmer - Physics and Science Teacher, and Mr. Kevin Williams are chaperoning the group. PGIA 12th grader Marcus, 11th grader Aneesh, 10th graders Darby, Hannah and Vanshika and 9th grader Karen head out today and will return next Sunday.
The trip will begin with a three day science camp at the institute with some of the most accomplished scientific minds in the world! The group will also visit the Masada Desert, the Dead Sea and Jerusalem. What an amazing opportunity for these young minds!
This year alone, VIMSIA students will have traveled to Santa Domingo, Madrid, Israel, China, New York, Amsterdam and the Yucatan. Incroyable!
Eagle scouts: chaperones Andy and Kevin with student marcus
So here's a tip. If you are sending your child to the middle of the desert, send them with three Eagle Scouts!
“Life isn’t meant to be lived caged within walls and mindsets. The only way to break free from the shackles of monotony is to travel. Bon voyage.”
“I throw my glass, that others might throw their jade.”
A huge thank you to all of the donors that made this trip possible!
As part of her MYP Personal Project, a culminating event in year 10, Darby entertained an enthralled audience Wednesday evening with a Shakespeare performance including pieces from As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, The Tempest, The Taming of the Shrew and Othello.
Kudos, Darby. Very well done!
“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.”
Congratulations to our VIMSIA chess players and Coach Allen. We had several students participate in the interscholastic chess tournament held January 16. Kudos to Amir, who took first place in the 12 and under category, Kinze who took second place in the 9 and under category and Keo who took third place in the 12 and under category. Go chess!
“ Parents may be familiar with the growth mind-set, but they may be using it toward the goal of the next test grade or school application. That’s not what it is. It’s about learning and improving and loving the process. Those other things come about as a byproduct.”
Bienvenido to the eleven 7th and 8th grade Spanish exchange students that joined us from Madrid last week. We are so excited that we have embarked on an exchange program with the Eurocolegio Casvi School just outside of Madrid, Spain. These 7th and 8th graders will be here at the PGIA for six weeks. In February, 13 of our PGIA 7th and 8th graders will travel to their school in Madrid for six weeks. The Madrid students are being hosted by the VIMSIA families whose children will travel in February.
What an amazing opportunity for these students to improve their foreign language development, immerse themselves in cultural interaction, and make international friends for a lifetime! As our Head of School often states...
“We don’t live on simply an island, we don’t live in simply the United States - we live in the world, and our students must become conscientious global citizens. ”
The weekends for these students and their hosts are filled with great island and Caribbean excursions, we are so proud to show off our island to these friends from Spain. Thanks to Mr. Williams for putting together this video of their trip to Coral World. Spanish friends, share this with your friends at home so they can see what you're up to!!
Students in Ms. Ferguson's Thursday Art Club experimented with mixing the primary colors, creating patterns and painting between the lines on canvas! Looks like they had fun creating these beautiful works.
Each year, the Hebrew Congregation of St. Thomas honors Martin Luther King by recognizing local seniors with the Martin Luther King Service Award. PGIA Senior Khalese Potter was among the honorees this year and in true Khalese fashion - held the audience in rapt attention. After her speech at the synagogue, Khalese was asked to present her speech to the VI Legislature.
Khalese is invited to present her speech to the VI Legislature
“One of the proudest moments is to give these students a moment to speak their mind and feel empowered. We want them to know that their words really matter and they can make difference. More valuable than the monetary award is their moment to shine and be an advocate for what’s right in the world.”
Seeing Khalese at the podium, making her views heard is a sight that will certainly not end here. Khalese will most certainly go on to great things and make a difference in this world. Be the change, Khalese! We are so proud of you.
“Understanding our differences begins the journey to regarding each other as individuals and allows us to recognize differences as just that rather than viewing them as threats to the sanctity of another group’s ideals.
My ideas seem idealistic Dr. King, but as education and the celebration of diversity progress they become more realistic each day. So to paraphrase your words, I accept my finite disappointment today, but never loose my infinite hope for tomorrow.”
VI Culture with Ms. Francis, Coding Plus Plus with Ms. Schlesinger and Mr. Fong, Organic Gardening with Mr. Berry, Shakespeare with Ms. New, Photography with Clay Jones, Yearbook with Ms. Tess, Martial Arts with Master Scott - Huge thanks to all of our enrichment instructors and to Ms. Helen for putting together such a great enrichment schedule!
Any parent with more than one child knows that all children are unique individuals with traits, tendencies, likes and dislikes of their own. For that matter we all know that each individual should be valued. Thus it should be no surprise that in education there are numerous correct and successful methods to maximize student learning.
It is imperative that a community has more than one successful education method or school to facilitate the teaching of all its members. The span of education techniques and philosophies is indeed impressive. Years of dedicated research and efforts by talented teachers have created numerous methods to achieve student learning. The challenge is to develop and to sustain many methods in a community and to match each student with the most appropriate learning method or school.
Many of us know of students that "failed" in one school and "excelled" at another. Whether it was because of a different environment, student learning method, or teachers, some students perform better in different schools.
It is not as simple as one school is better than another. Instead it is a matter of what program best matches the child’s unique personality, home environment, DNA, culture, and other traits and conditions. Yet it is also a function of a school's and family's commitment to identify a student’s best learning method.
I say all of the above to emphasize our need to support, enhance, and improve as many schools in the V.I. as possible; not just a select few. In my previous article, I wrote that one commonality between South Korea and Finland was to educate ALL their residents and not only a portion of their country. The same principle should be promoted in the V.I., whereby the community should help numerous schools improve and facilitate the student learning of ALL.
Do not think "help" merely means money. Many times what is needed to improve is not just money but an array of other items from focus to philosophy to conviction to leadership to implementation of a growth mindset to parental support to vision to...
Of course, investing money wisely cannot be overlooked.
The price of improving as many schools as possible is that schools which do not maximize their effort, nor student learning methods and overall performance, will disappear from the educational landscape.
Today we welcomed back graduates from our very first IB graduating class to last year's class. Huge thanks to Mrs. Elger for organizing an alumni luncheon today to bring our graduates back. The PGIA Juniors and Seniors were invited for a round table discussion about life after PGIA. We are so proud of all of our students and so appreciative to these alumni for taking time to share their stories. GO GRADS!
Visiting PGIA IB Alumni
L to R on top:
L to R on bottom:
The current 6th graders are working with Mrs. Elger, Mrs. Bump, Mrs. Morrison and Mrs. Batten to discuss their MYP expectations and homework packets for the spring.
Way to go UE-PGIA transition team!!
In the early 1960s, Finland was in a dire economic situation. The leaders of Finland realized a strong education program was the key to economic opportunity. Finland realized to improve their country's standing they had to educate ALL their people.
Today Finland is largely recognized as the leader in education programs. It did not happen over night but was executed over decades with a steady course.
The Finns do not throw a lot of money at education; in fact they spend 30% per student less than the United States. They do not mandate this or that, they provide guidelines to schools and leave the implementation to principals and teachers at individual schools. Testing is not the foundation of their education program. It's only the PISA test results that have determined the Finnish program to be at the top. According to Pasi Sahlberg of the Finland Ministry of Education and Culture, "We prepare children to learn how to learn, not how to take a test."
Education is more than testing high. Timo Heikkinen, a Helsinki principal states, "If you only measure the statistics, you miss the human aspect." According to Linda Darling-Hammond, Finland was once poorly ranked educationally, with a turgid bureaucratic system that produced low-quality education and inequalities (does that sound like the VI?) Now the country boast, a highly equitable distribution of achievement." The Finns focus on educating all their residents not just a select few in a couple of schools.
What they do:
Value teachers as the top of society; teachers are recruited from the top 10% of the graduating classes from universities. Many have advanced degrees. And they pay them well and provide extensive training to educate them how to teach and how to think creatively.
People in Finland trust their teachers and empower their principals and teachers to do what it takes to educate a student. No student is ignored in the classroom. If individual tutoring is required, such is done; if a student needs to be held back, the parents support the teachers’ decision. Emotional, academic and health care help is provided to all students. Standards are set high and they go after them. The Finnish standards are not lowered to meet some artificial test score. Raise the bar and expectations of students and they will exceed them. If one expects less, they will receive less.
If techniques and programs fail, they try new methods. They are always seeking to improve (the growth mindset). Music and visual arts are incorporated into the curriculum, for music in early childhood helps develop linguistic capacities. Play is valued. School and learning should be enjoyable, not a burden. Much is learned from athletic activities. Students are required to learn at least two languages. More than 50% of the adult population in Finland participates in adult education, because education never stops.
It took Finland 40 years to see the fruits of their efforts, but the rewards have been substantial. Many of the above items can be implemented in the Virgin Islands. For Finland individual learning is the foundation. Teachers are trained to focus on how to teach students who learn by different methods. At VIMSIA, our analogy is that teachers have a quiver on their back with numerous teaching skill arrows in it. Dedicated teachers must keep pulling out skill arrows until they find the right one for each and every student. Some students may only need one arrow; others may need 50 arrows before you find the right skill that reaches the students’ learning abilities. Teachers collaborate to develop teaching methods and curricula, and incorporate parent cooperation.
The socialist programs, which are a part of the Finnish life, cannot be incorporated into our society but other methods can be implemented to obtain high education and economic results. The Finns have lengthy family leave programs to facilitate parental education early in life as part of their social structure. In the VI, we can improve the quality and access to 0 to 6 year old education. It's a scientific fact that the early learning ages of 0 to 6 are critical to a child's development.
South Korea: on the other side of the world, South Korea has also developed a top rated education program on the other side of the spectrum...absolute control and mandated discipline. Education is considered the primary means to improve the country's economic standing. They study year round, failure is not an option, hard work and perseverance is required. There is no attempt to make education enjoyable, it's a question of paying the price early on in life, to reap the benefits later via a better career. The Koreans spend more per capital on education than the US. Teachers make 25% more than their US counterparts.
Korean students study nearly around the clock for12 months a year. Parents sacrifice resources for their student’s education. Testing is the core of the Korean system. The system is very technologically driven. Teaching is the top career choice; teachers are highly regarded and are paid very well. Teacher training is continuous; they are always improving teaching methods, not stuck in traditional ways. Parents are involved and teachers are always inspiring students to do better. Expectations are high.
Both countries realize a bright future is a function of quality education; both have quality education systems and sound economies, yet their education measures are not similar. Both Finland and South Korea have had a commitment to quality education as the foundation of their countries. The Virgin Islands need not replicate any of the specific programs of either of these two countries; what is critically important is adopting the two commonalities: make quality education the top priority and hire the best people as teachers, pay them well, and train them to the max.
Suggestions for the VI:
· Hire talented people to teach and pay them appropriately; provide extensive professional development programs and raise the quality of teachers.
· Improve early childhood programs from ages 0 to 6 and promote attendance.
· Educate and empower teachers and principals to establish high standards and methods.
Keep in mind; a successful education program requires the parent, the teacher and the student to work collaboratively. There can be no Finnish or Korean style turnaround in VI education without all parties coming together to agree on the commitment of education. The viable future of the Virgin Islands will be determined by the quality of our education system for everyone...not a select few.
VIMSIA/PGIA parents and students from the Four Corner and Sibilly Parking shared Holiday Cheers with their School Bus Inc. Drivers assigned to their route. They collected funds and gifted their bus drivers with a VISA gift card and lovely gourmet basket. Huge thanks to our wonderful parent, Vicky C. for organizing this cheerful project.
Carter had a very successful swim meet this weekend in Puerto Rico. She qualified to represent St. Thomas at the CARIFTA games as part of the USVI National Swim Team. Such a huge honor! Her time on the 50m free was 31.18 and the 200m free was 2.32.26. She dropped a total of 17 seconds from her personal best this weekend. Congratulations also goes to Max who won first place overall in his age-group. We are so proud of both of you.
Virgin Islands Montessori School and Peter Gruber International Academy - a Montessori and International Baccalaureate Toddler through grade twelve private school in the beautiful U.S. Virgin Islands. Ask for Admissions 340-775-6360.
VIMSIA 6936 Vessup Lane, St. Thomas USVI 00802 info@vimsia.org Phone: 340.775.6360 Maps and Directions Staff Portal
