A Thought from the Director
Dear RIS Family,
I hope by this time that you have found a comfortable rhythm in your daily schedule and activities at school. I also hope that you are finding this to be an exciting year, inspiring you to grow and meet meaningful challenges.
At the Senior Convocation ceremony in August, I talked to our seniors about growth - keeping alive the spirit within each of us to strive for betterment. Keeping your mind alive means you will always pursue knowledge and wisdom. Keeping your heart alive is to be reminded to spread love and compassion wherever you go. Keeping your will alive means staying strong amid difficulties, and having the resolve to commit to something that is bigger than yourself. I hope that you will always strive to grow into a fuller person - in heart, mind and soul.
Among the goals for this school year are to hold more personal enrichment activities such as retreats providing opportunities for us to grow academically, professionally, and spiritually as well as in rapport and friendships. We now have a curriculum coordinator in each section, who will help to further concentrate efforts on collaborative planning and implementation of standards-based learning and assessment, which our teachers have worked on tirelessly over the last few years. RIS has an outstanding international college-preparatory curriculum that has helped our students gain entry to leading universities around the world for close to five decades. We are very proud of our curriculum - but to stay ahead we need to continually update and improve ourselves - and grow.
ESL is another priority this year, with a brilliant workshop by Dr. Virginia Rojas in August starting us off. Following the workshop Dr. Rojas noted the change we have undergone to address the needs of a growing number of students coming from non-English backgrounds. Dr. Rojas praised our administrators and teachers as representing "an immense resource to the school community. Their level of professionalism, energy, and commitment to get it right was readily apparent at the training sessions. These efforts are inspirational and RIS staff should be commended and applauded accordingly."
I would like to second this praise and express my appreciation to all the teachers, administrators and staff who help make Ruamrudee a great community. To parents, I give my assurances that we will continue to improve our teaching strategies, professional development, and curricular amd extra-curricular resources and facilities to inspire life-long growth for every learner.
God bless you, |
