Sunday, May 27, 2012

ISLN Readers' Cup 2012

8 schools, 18 teams, 102 contestants across 3 divisions! Great participation and lots of fun at the 2012 ISLN Readers' Cup. The students competed with great spirit, and certainly knew their books well, as is reflected in the tied result for first place in the Younger Readers' Division.
Results were:
Younger Readers - Equal First Place tp SJI, UWC East and UWC Dover. Second place CIS. Third place SAIS.
Older Readers - First Place UWC Dover. Second place CIS. Third place AIS.
Mature Readers - First Place SJI. Second Place AIS. Third Place GESS.
A big congratulations to these teams, and to all teams that participated.
A special mention must go to SJI which was the only school to compete in all three divisions. Well done.
Our grateful appreciation to our hosts, UWC East; our judges; our wonderful Quizmaster Mr Bruce Home, and our sponsors Bookaburra Books for the major prizes  and APD for the audience prizes.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Librarian Knowledge Sharing Workshop & Job-Alike -- in KL Oct 5-6, 2012

FYI:  for librarians from FOBISSEA (Federation of British International Schools in SE Asia) and the Kuala Lumpur Librarians' Network.

Two of our former Tanglin colleagues -- Rob George and Barb Philip -- are hosting a librarian PD event in KL with special guest Marj Kirkland, former National President of the Australian Children's Book Council, who was the keynote speaker at our first Hands on Literacy conference in 2008.

For more information, see this site -- http://alice-smith.libguides.com/JAW


Hands on Literacy @ AISS, Saturday, Nov. 17, 2012

Thanks to the result of the poll, the decision has been made to continue with Hands on Literacy in its full form this November.

The Australian International School will be the venue with Ben Farr (TTS) and Linda Twitchett (AISS) as the Co-convenors of the HOL committee.

They are looking for volunteers for the various subcommittees as well as any suggestions of a theme for this year's conference.  Fill in the form below and press the Submit button at the bottom.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

AGM Minutes & Membership Fee Reminder

The minutes of the AGM held April 23, 2012, at the new Lakeside campus of CIS are now online -- on the wiki.  See http://silcsing.wikispaces.com/Minutes

Note that the subcommittee which agreed to meet to continue discussing Hands on Literacy and other network PD initiatives is still exploring options.  Watch for updates very soon.

DUES now due

A reminder that our membership year starts on April 1 and ends on March 31, so we are already into 2012-2013 in terms of fees.

Click here for this year's Membership Form.  It contains all the information you need.

POSSIBLE AUTHOR VISIT: Jerry Pallotta

Debbie Diaz from UWC has a teacher-librarian friend in the US who highly recommends Jerry Pallotta -- and indicates he would love to come to Asia.

She writes:

"He is definitely one of the best we have had in the last 20 years, if not the best....If you go on Jerry's website (jerrypallotta.com), you will see he has written hundreds of books which makes for a great bookfair.  Don't know how parents react over there, but here they went crazy.  He is definitely for elementary kids.  Extremely funny—the kids adore him.  He is very charismatic and is like a kid himself----thus--- their adoration!!  His presentation is amazing, he will autograph until the cows come home.  There is so much you can do with his books because they are mostly non-fiction.  Older kids love them too.  There are wonderful projects you can do in advance.  Classrooms can make their own alphabet books, etc"

Jerry is probably best known for his many alphabet books, e.g., 



STORYTELLER: Cassandra Wye - Asia tour in Nov/Dec


Stories in Motion
With Cassandra Wye
On tour Singapore November – December 2012

A firm favourite with Singapore audiences, Cassandra has been invited back to Asia once again!

Stories in Motion: her unique blend of circus, theatre and dance, with an exuberant, expressive and energy-filled approach to storytelling, has taken Cassandra around the globe from Barbados to Borneo, from the depths of the rainforest to the roof of the world.

She has worked across the educational spectrum, from universities to nurseries, creating intimate shows for profoundly disabled children and on the streets with audiences of 1000’s. She has inspired adults and children to tell stories around the world and directed performances of young people for local, national and international festivals.

She offers international schools a wide range of performances, workshops and staff training that can be tailored to suit either the needs of your national curriculum or to International Baccalaureate system. 

Her performances celebrate the finest of folktales from around the world and are often bespoke creations to suit the school – to meet a range of themes from human rights to healthy eating

Her workshops introduce children and young people to a kinaesthetic approach to story-telling, story-making, creative writing and collaborative performance.

Her staff training inspires educators to use storytelling as a catalyst for learning across the curriculum from maths to music –making, from kindergarten to senior school, both indoors and outside the classroom

What people have said about her work:

“Being her usual exuberant self, Cassandra delivered her stories with much gusto and enthralled her young audience who simply loved the gestures and repetition used in her storytelling sessions” Director British Council Penang

“Her impish enthusiasm is infectious” South China Morning Post Hong Kong 


 “An incredible skill in engaging the children's imagination, teaching with a tremendous sense of fun” Festival Coordinator Barbados


For more information, reviews and photos of her work – please visit her website: www.storiesinmotion.co.uk or email cassandrawye@yahoo.co.uk  or ring her via skype.
   

APD Singapore distributes Epigram Books, including the new SherMay Loh book

The second book in SherMay Loh's "Archibald" series -- Archibald and the Black Knight's Ring -- will be published in June.   Book launch at Kinokuniya on Sat, 2nd June at 2.00pm

From APD Singapore:

We are pleased to announce our appointment as the exclusive distributor for Epigram Books Pte Ltd for the ASEAN region with immediate effect for all new titles publishing in April 2012 and beyond. Taking of orders for ALL backlist titles published before April 2012 will begin from 21 May 2012 only. 

An independent publisher based in Singapore, Epigram Books is known for putting together well-designed and thought-provoking titles.
Epigram Books began as a division of the award-winning design firm, Epigram, but registered as a separate entity in July 2011 in order to strengthen its focus on championing local writing.

Epigram Books publishes all manner of fiction--novels, short stories, plays,
 children's books and some poetry. They have published works by literary pioneers Goh Poh Seng, Stella Kon, Lloyd Fernando and Robert Yeo. Other prominent authors include playwrights Tan Tarn How, Ovidia Yu, Chong Tze Chien, Jean Tay and Haresh Sharma; and award-winning children's authors Adeline Foo and SherMay Loh, who is an international Moonbeam Children's Award winner. 




Epigram Books also reflects Singapore's mad obsession with food by publishing both recipe books and food guides. In 2012, Epigram Books started the Wee Editions imprint to support local designers, photographers and artists through a unique series of compact coffee table books.


You may contact APD at apdacad@apdsing.com should you require more information or assistance. 

LOCAL AUTHOR: Adeline Foo - "The Thing Under My Bed"


Adeline Foo writes to us re a picture book she wrote in 2009 that she feels has not had the attention it deserves, as she was busy promoting Amos Lee when it came out.

See the website of illustrator Chris Martin, who travels through Singapore from time to time, according to Adeline -- so available for possible school visits.

SYNOPSIS:

The Thing Under My Bed
Written by Adeline Foo
Illustrated by Christopher Martin

Buster loves snacking just before bedtime. Take a peek under his bed and you'd find crumbs, discarded wrappers and half-eaten bits of food. One night, Buster hears strange noises from under his bed!

'Grrrllll'… a stomach growls hungrily, 'tsk, tsk, tsk'… fingers scratch impatiently, 'tek-ca-toh, tek-ca-toh, tek-ca-toh'… feet drum menacingly, and 'cssshhh, cssshhh, cssshhh'… a tongue sloshes around looking for food!  Is there a monster under the bed?  Is Buster safe?  Read this story and have a good laugh at what's really making all those dreadful noises!

LOCAL AUTHOR: Daniel Wong & "The Happy Student"

Read below information about a new book and author here in Singapore who is available for author visits.


From his website:
Daniel Wong graduated summa cum laude from Duke University in 2011 with a double major in Mechanical Engineering and Economics. Born in South Africa, he lived in Hong Kong and Singapore before heading to Duke University (Durham, North Carolina, USA) on a full academic scholarship. Before college, Daniel spent two years in the Singapore military as an infantry battalion manpower officer, and currently holds the rank of First Lieutenant. Daniel is passionate about education and has given numerous talks to students about topics such as goal-setting, time management, college life skills, and developing a personal vision for your life. He also gave a TEDx talk at Duke University entitled Realistic Idealism: Seeing People as People. He writes regularly about topics related to education, career, and personal development at www.daniel-wong.com. 


Links:

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Readers Cup -- update

All the information about the Readers Cup competition is on the Red Dot website -- www.reddotawards.com -- however, there is a bug when viewing the site (a Google Site) using Internet Explorer.  Recent edits aren't showing up (as SJI International learned today -- when their IE screenshots didn't match mine (taken using Chrome and Firefox)).

Two important links are therefore repeated here:

Sample Questions -- Google Doc
(separate sheets in the spreadsheet for the three categories)

Team Registration Form

Date:  Thursday, May 24th
Time:  Arrive at 3:30 pm for a 4:00 pm start
Location: Auditorium in Block A, UWCSEA East, Tampines campus  (click here for a Google Map)

Questions?  Email Linda Twitchett or Debbie Diaz