"Serve the World in the Name of Our Lord!"
CSIS Newsletter
March 24th, 2023
Character Building & Leadership
For the first seven weeks, secondary students learned about God the Creator, and elementary students learned about the Holy God. How does God's creation of the world affect your perception of Him, His creation, the people around you, and your life? How does the fact that God is perfect and holy affect how you want to live? The more we learn about our God, the more we have the confidence to live our lives. It also gives us a stronger desire to love God and others more. If we study God's Word, experience Him in our everyday lives, and see His work in our lives but do not have a change of attitude or behavior, we may have grown physically but are still spiritually a newborn.
Message from Pastor Lee
The warmth of spring has finally arrived. A bright spring sunlight drove out the cold winter air and the whole world is filled up with life again. You are living the spring of your life. You are the hope for your parents, your nation, and the kingdom of God. All creation survives the rest of the seasons by receiving fresh air and water, the earth's nutrients, and the sunlight of God’s grace. I bless you that you would experience many blessings through the CSIS friends and teachers, learning opportunities, and the abundant grace of the love of our Father. I hope that you drive out all your fears, negative feelings, and worries, thinking that you need to constantly grow and develop so that you can have a brighter school life. Peace be with you as you dwell in God.
School Announcement
Ruth EunJeong Ahn (Academic Dean & College Counselor) and Rebecca Lee
Farewell, Pastor Mike. See You Soon.
We send our condolences to our beloved late Pastor Mike Hanjin Cho. On February 19th, he was called by our Father God in Heaven. If you don’t know who Pastor Mike was, he was a brother in Christ, a teacher, a pastor, and a Life Designer who would always greet people with a huge smile in the morning. He had an amazing voice and a heart for God; when he led worship with the Sunday School students on Friday Prayer Night, I am sure God would look down from Heaven and smile. He was a foodie; he loved school lunch and oftentimes would go for the second round. He was always so chill and had his own sense of humor, which brought laughter to many of us.
Pastor Mike always had a medical problem with his heart. The night he was called to heaven, he was hospitalized with fluid in his lungs and a weakened heart. It is still hard to believe that he had to leave so suddenly at such a young age. We mourn because we cannot see him momentarily and we grieve for the families and friends who were close to him. However, we do not grieve as those who do not have hope. We are thankful that he is with the Father and that he does not have to deal with the pain, fear, or worries of the world. His mother said that she was pretty sure that he was smiling when he went to heaven.
A memory wall for Pastor Mike has been set up in the main building lobby for three weeks. During the secondary Monday Chapel, students and teachers had a moment of silence to pray for him and his family. On Friday's teachers’ PD, teachers gathered together to share about Pastor Mike and pray for his family. Let us keep praying for his family for strength and peace.
CSIS PREP School Begins!
Starting from February 1st, 2023, CSIS Prep School started!
Here is a message from Ms. Moon Young Park, who will be leading our Prep School:
“Hello! I hope our children will learn the joy of learning and growing wisely as God’s children through life in CSIS. We learn various activities like cooking, origami, library activities, and learning english, math, and korean through fun activities. English music class and PE class are always lively! We also learn character building on how we can obey our creator God. I always pray that the students will grow as true children of God through worshiping and praying.”
Teachers’ Winter Workshop: Teaching for Transformation
From January 25th to 27th, 2023, CSIS hosted another Teaching for Transformation workshop as a continuation from last summer. We invited the primary instructor, Jeremy Horlings, from Canada to teach us more about practicing TFT in our school. Two other Christian schools in Korea joined the workshop to share the learning experience: Story School and Sepum Christian School.
Teachers shared how they have practiced their Storyboard, Storyline, and Deep Hope in their classrooms throughout the semester and celebrated the learning. During the three days, teachers learned how to set learning targets, throughlines, and FLEx (formational learning experiences) when planning a unit. All these components come together to teach our students to have authentic learning experiences of being and becoming Kingdom builders. The goal of TfT is not only exposing God in all things but also guiding students in their calling to heal the parts of the world that are broken. It is to move from knowing to doing; to be less about information and more about formation.
In our deepest desire to create a peculiar people of God’s story who are engaged in real work that forms self and shapes the world, teachers will learn, practice, and teach a Christian curriculum that is not just about talking or having the Christian worldview but connecting faith and knowledge that results in transformative action. We want our students to play their role in God’s story as, but not limited to, beauty creators, community builders, creation enjoyers, God-Worshipers, Earth-Keepers, Image-Reflectors, Justice Seekers, and Servant Workers. Below are the images of TFT throughlines: the role that each of us gets to play in God’s story.
ADHD Presentation/Workshop ADHD
On Wednesday, February 15th, Ms Calie Jo A’Bear led a presentation on ADHD for teachers at CSIS interested in the topic and supporting students with ADHD. ADHD stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. ADHD is not a learning disability, but it can affect certain skills that make learning difficult. It is quite common for students to have a learning disability with ADHD.
The teachers watched a video called, "What is ADHD?" by Thomas E. Brown, Ph.D. (video), before attending the workshop. People with ADHD will, most of the time, show difficulty staying in tune or paying attention to the things they are not interested in as if multiple TV channels are playing simultaneously. Most people will complete the tasks they are not interested in as long as they know they have to be done, but people with ADHD are challenged to focus on things they are not interested in. it is not under their voluntary control. ADHD is not a matter of willpower; it is a matter of how the brain is wired.
Here are some of the difficulties that many people with ADHD have:
The things mentioned below are things everyone has trouble with sometimes; people with ADHD simply have more trouble with them.
1. Organizing their environment or time and getting started on things
2. Regulating their sleep.
3. Completing long-term tasks/projects on time.
4. Writing–organizing ideas and putting them into paragraphs
5. Managing emotions such as feeling hurt when the other person did not intend to harm or annoy them, having an urgency to purchase or have something they want immediately, worrying too much, or coming up with a scenario that did not occur.
6. Low short-term working memory–remembering things that happened a few minutes ago or yesterday.
7. Monitoring action: Difficulty slowing down or speeding up when necessary. They will speak out of turn, jumping into something without thinking about it.
Dr. Brown suggests that it is crucial to design a way of helping them to work with their strengths and work around their difficulties. It is important to have an accurate evaluation of each student with ADHD–which problems they have. Then, we can form a team of teachers, parents, and doctors to assess the child’s strengths to help him/her succeed and reach his/her full potential.
As CSIS teachers, we would like to commit to trying the following to support students with ADHD:
Compassionate curiosity: Do not assume that we know everything about the student, ask caring questions to check on the child’s feelings, listen and observe instead of making quick judgments, imagine the student’s experience, believe that every student wants to be known, and be patient.
Accommodations: Accommodations are adaptations or changes in educational environments or practices that help students overcome the barriers presented by their disability (tackling how the students learn as opposed to what the students learn): Presentation, response, setting, and timing/scheduling.
a) Presentation: When presenting the information to students with ADHD, teachers should use simple, clear, concrete instructions.
b) Response: Response is how the student shows what they know. Teachers ought to use multiple means of expression, considering the student’s strengths and talents.
c) Setting: Setting is the characteristics of the classroom environment. Teachers can create flexible seating, such as a bouncy cushion or stretchy bands to wrap around the chairs. Teachers can avoid students sitting close to the window, door, or back area with too many distractions.
d) Timing: Teachers should consider the time of the day. For example, lengthy activities and exams taken right after lunch can distract students with ADHD from focusing. It is also helpful to track students’ after-school activities and help them get organized through color coding the instructions or schedule, demonstrating and checking how to write a homework checklist, using graphic organizers, and teaching how to take notes.
Managing Behavior:
a) Preventative Measures: Prevent issues before they occur. Tell, remind, and model the rules.
b) Non-verbal signals
c) Brain breaks: A brain break can be active or inactive. These are short breaks that help students to refresh their minds and get back to the lesson.
d) Emotion checks: This helps both the teacher and the student to be aware of their emotions and express their feelings healthily.
e) The Acting Out Cycle: It is a model of how a student’s behavioral response often occurs in the following phase: Calm-trigger-acceleration-peak-deescalation-recovery. Being aware of this cycle and taking preventative measures can help manage student behavior.
Story School’s Visit: Mutual Learning
On Friday, February 24th, the teachers from the Seoul Story School visited CSIS. Story School, CSIS, and Sepum Christian Schools are part of the partnership for “Teaching For Transformation (TFT).” In order to learn the application of TFT, the partner schools visited our school and the Story School teachers observed the lecture from 1 PM to 3 PM. Here are the words of impression of the Story School teacher after listening to the lecture of CSIS teachers:
“The listening and focusing culture is very very impressive. We could observe the energetic and bright aspects of children. While watching the results of activity and throughline in the classroom, we were astonished at teachers’ creativity and we really learned a lot. Thank you.”
“We could observe the teachers’ effort to collaborate their deep hope with throughline and their different teaching protocol in lecture were amazing. I liked how it was rooted in the culture of this school.”
“The students in 9th grade World History class were so active that I really wanted to hear it again and I wanted to learn from the teacher’s attitude towards lecture preparation.”
“The questions and answers were actively communicated throughout class time and it was interesting to watch how students were delightfully learning through diverse activities.”
“During 10th grade English Novel class, it was impressive how students were nodding their heads and listening carefully, while others were talking. I envied the culture of students actively discussing without the need of teacher’s intervention. I also liked how students shared their thoughts and perspectives by applying through lines. It was very amazing to observe the teacher meticulously recording students’ participation to evaluate.”
“In the elementary classes, TFT education was incorporated into each teacher’s unique style. The procedures on how class were conducted and organized were not typical and it was impressive on how it is organized with structure that students can understand well. I could feel the teachers’ abundant effort and thoughts.”
“I was thankful for how both the elementary school teacher and the children welcomed us with a bright greeting. It was impressive to see the students praising the Lord from the beginning of class time to the end, remembering His actions by shouting out together, inviting the children to the daily topic before practicing the calculation and formula, letting the students always know the school and lecture announcements using posters and boards. I also thought the importance of parent participation could be naturally recognized after I observed the check boxes for parents in the Character Building book.”
“It was impressive to see how students freely ask questions, proceed the class based on discussion, and stimulate students’ imagination and ask questions to think about during 9th grade World History lecture. I felt that the teacher had thought and prepared a lot for students to easily understand and connect. It was a really interesting and fun lecture that I even wanted to participate in the next class.”
“It was amazing how students prepare for the class beforehand and understand the contents fully in 45 minutes without the teacher's intervention in the high school English class. It was impressive to see how teachers incorporate students to the class who do not individually/actively participate in class, how students discuss thoughts on diverse topics, and how they keep the discussion from going off the topic. I remember the initiative atmosphere of the student."
“It was really impressive to see the culture where teachers continued to encourage children, students attempted to give presentations, and teachers made their students participate in classes.”
After the visit, the Story School teachers thanked CSIS for permitting them to observe different classes and they said it was a valuable time to learn from our teachers’ academic passion and excellent lecture organization. We hope these three schools will be established as leaders of Christian education that cooperate and serve for the development of Christian education in Korea.
Class Observation Day
March 14th (Secondary) and 15th (Elementary)/
Engage in supporting the students with their work/projects/activities. We thank you for the survey you filled out; your feedback helps the teachers grow because it gives them the opportunity to be more responsive to the student’s needs and interests and improve/adjust our teaching approaches for student growth. Thank you for coming!
Parent-School Conference
Elementary PTC: March 20th-31st, 2023 | Secondary PTC: March 20th-24th, 2023
It is the Parent-Teacher Conference (PTC) week again! Although parents can book an appointment with the teachers to discuss their child anytime during the school year, PTC is an official week that allows meaningful conversations that can bring many positive changes in the student’s school life. Most of the time, parents wonder how their child is doing socially and academically. We, teachers, understand that sometimes it can be difficult for the parents to bring up issues and concerns because they do not want to burden us or offend us. Thanks to God, many of the conversations that take place during PTC bring about promising results because both parents and teachers desire.
Elementary Announcement
Ms Calie-Jo A’Bear & Ms Joanna Glenn (Elementary Head Teachers)
New After-School Class, English Drama
Here is the introduction of Jeong Seon-ah, the teacher in charge of the new after-school English theater class that started this semester:
“Hello, we've just successfully started the new after-school subject 'English Drama'. Every Tuesday, there are 15 students in G3-G5, and every Friday, there are 9 students in G1-G2. We've enjoyed the variety of 'Theater Games' which are played in famous theater companies and some universities (Theater Major) around the world. 'Theater' will help students develop their physical abilities, expressiveness, creativity, musical and rhythmic skills, and collaboration. We expect to discover the students' talents by exploring many scripts and acting training.”
Lend on Hand Donation Drive
Our hearts were deeply saddened by the devastating earthquake that struck Türkiye, leaving many people without anything. Our elementary teachers felt compelled to help in any way they could and invited our students to join them in praying for the people affected by the disaster as prayer warriors. During the chapel service on Wednesday, we shared the situation with the students and made cards in the Character Building class to send a message of hope and love to Türkiye.
We also asked if anyone could donate materials by Friday, and our community responded with overwhelming generosity. The administrative staff and teachers worked tirelessly to sort, label, and pack the donated items into boxes, and with the help of Pastor Lee and Hansoon church, we were able to send two truckloads of supplies to Türkiye!
However, the people there still need our prayers and support. Let's continue to pray for them every day and trust that God will hear us. As the prophet, Jeremiah said, "Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you." (Jeremiah 29:12)
Secondary Announcement
Mr John Kim (Middle School Head Teacher) & Mr Greg Kim (High School Head Teacher
Secondary Spiritual Retreat: Knowing God’s Goodness, Justice, and Righteousness
Praise God for allowing us to have a spiritual retreat outside of campus! For three days and two nights (February 1-3, 2023), middle and high school students and teachers had a retreat at Moobong Youth Center in Pyeongtaek. The central theme of the retreat was “Knowing God: His goodness, justice, and righteousness,” based on Jeremiah 9:23-24. We learned how we should not limit our understanding of God based on how we want to see him, but we should believe in the God of the Scripture. We also learned how sometimes Christians could feel unfair or even jealous of the non-believers who seem to prosper, but the things on earth cannot compare to the glory of God.
The significant activities we had were the Worship Service, Public Testimony Sharing, Family Group Sharing, School Life Workshop, One-to-One, and Student Council activities. The teachers led the School Life Workshop with different topics. Students could sign up for their best two options: Inseparable School Life and Christian Life, Christian Relationships and Dating (Grade 9-12), Leadership 101, 10 Things I Would Tell My 18-Year Old Self (Gr.9-12), Live the Story: Play Your Role, Conflict Resolution and Effective Communication, Being a Witness for God (How to Write a Testimony), and Foundation of Economics (Managing Money as a Student).
During the One-to-One, our go-to activity, students would sign up with another student from a different grade for a 13-minute conversation. Student council prepared engaging family group activities such as creating YouTube Shorts using the given background music and conveying a message related to the music and playing Human Yutnori. On the last worship night, students and teachers prayed for one another and shared their takeaways from the sermon and worship during snack time. It was terrific to hear student volunteers’ testimonies on the last day before we headed back to school. Sharing indeed encourages and challenges believers to grow together in faith. We appreciate the Parent Council for providing boxes of snacks! We praise God for keeping us all safe and working despite our failures, weaknesses, and lingerings.
Middle School Golden Bell
From March 7th to 8th, the Middle School Student Council prepared a special event to promote using English and increase vocabulary skills: The Golden Bell. Students were given two weeks to look up the English definition of vocabulary words (a total of six different vocabulary levels) given beforehand. On the first day of the Golden Bell, students gathered in their homeroom class to play the first match. Survivors played the final match on the second day in Grace Chapel. We used the program called “Kahoot” to boost engagement and excitement; Students could come up with unique nicknames to play the game. Three winners of the Golden Bell were Jane Cho (6J), Bio Moon (6L), and Sharon Kim (8).
Grade 6 Pixel Art Project 6
‘How can we encourage CSIS families to enjoy worship and worship God daily in a way that pleases Him?’ With this driving question in mind, the sixth-grade art project incorporated Pixel Art and biblical integration (Teaching for Transformation: TfT). The majority of the students shared how they have a family devotion only because it is a school assignment, and many of their family members are not too excited to meet together once a week to worship God. Some students shared how their parents attempt to make the worship time more enjoyable and meaningful, and the students participate in fulfilling that goal. To change our perspective and attitude towards daily worship, including family devotion, students had to use the knowledge and skills they learned about pixel art to achieve this goal.
[Award Ceremony] Celebrate Students’ Progress and Achievement!
Congratulations to the following students who have shown remarkable progress, achievement, perseverance, or/and Christ-like behavior during the first semester! Even if you did not win an award, do not be dismayed because the teachers know how hard you studied last year. We hope to celebrate the little achievements and stories of failures and lessons we learn daily. It is these small moments of challenges, failures, and trials that make us more substantial every day.
ACSI Distinguished Christian High School Student Award in Christian Service, Leadership, Academics, Fine Arts, Athletics: Chaekyung Lee (11), Ha Eun Sung (10), Ji Hyun Lee (10), Ju Ho Shin (10), Min Jee Amber Kim (12), Saerin Nam (11), Seung Hyun Seo (11), Soeun Claire Kim (10), Sooho Lee (10), Sooah Sally Na (11), Soyoon Kong (11), Sung Soo Kim (11), Ye Eun Cho (10), Yoon Jung Chae (10), and Yun Seo Cho (12).
Boot Camp & Walking Camp (Plan & Prayer Request)
Our eighth graders will have a week-long boot camp with Mr John on an island near Geo-je, where fewer than a hundred residents dwell. Grades 9-12 will be mountain hiking and walking throughout the walking camp week (T-F). One of the core goals of the boot camp is to prepare students to go to high school in the following areas: spiritual, academic, physical, and social growth and readiness. High school students will hike and walk for three nights and four days to learn endurance and cooperation.
We ask for your prayers in the following areas:
- For the teachers to rely on God as they plan the events.
- For God to protect our teachers and students from danger, sickness, temptation, and evil.
- For students and teachers to be united under Christ and reflect God’s character throughout the camp.
- For everyone to attend and have a meaningful learning experience.
- For us to trust that God is working and is in control of everything.
[CSIS Alumni News] An Interview with Seoyeon Kim-Bucknell University Graduate
1. 간단한 자기소개 부탁해요. 전공과 학교, 앞으로 희망하는 계획이나 진로는 어떻게되나요?
My name is Seoyeon Kim, class of 2018. I just graduated from Bucknell University. I majored in neuroscience and minored in chemistry. I plan to graduate school in organic chemistry (Ph.D.). I got accepted into Yale, Cornell, UC Davis, and Purdue (Jan. 24).
2. 대학교생활에서 가장의미있었던 경험은 무엇이었나요?
I think research experience was the best part of my undergraduate career. Under my professor’s outstanding mentorship, I led my project, met a lot of new people/professionals, and had a chance to publish a research paper.
3. 대학진학을 준비하는 CSIS동생들에게 꼭 해주고싶은 조언이나 당부의 말이 있을까요?
Challenge yourself! Try stepping out of your comfort zone. I met a lot of my good friends and mentors from places where I never thought I would find good people. Try going to professors' office hours or taking courses that you haven't really seen yourself in! Hopefully, this could be a chance for you to get to know more about yourself and your interests.
I always tried to think about the process rather than the result. I always thought that it was a process to find who I am. I was frustrated at times, but I focused on why I failed and tried not to repeat the problems.
I was ambitious in my academics, so I just tried my best during high school. It was like a process of knowing what I like or dislike, narrowing my interest. Once I came to college and took various courses, I found what I would like to pursue in my career which helped me to focus on my academics.
I spent a lot of my time on the student council or praise team during my time at CSIS which helped me to serve and learn about the community. It was a great opportunity to learn more about myself by interacting with students who share the same interests and concerns, and I would definitely recommend being involved in communities/club activities like these.
High School Reading Theater
On February 14 and 15, the 11th-grade Creative & Artistic Expressions class and 10th-grade Fiction Works class respectively performed an unofficial high school reading theater. To learn the purpose of voice and tone in writing and literature, they were given the task of performing a reading piece out loud. The 11th graders individually chose a piece of poetry or the lyrics of a song and combined them with personally selected background music for their solo performances. The 10th graders performed in groups to dramatize the stories they had chosen. The classes invited anyone free at the time to come and attend as an audience. Quite a few teachers and students from elementary, middle, and high schools came to observe the performances. Having an audience gave the performing students a greater sense of responsibility and practice in doing performances. One 10th-grade participant mentioned, “I learned that tone is important in expressing emotions.” Another commented, “I learned the importance of teamwork.” It was a first experience for many of them, and though they felt nervous initially, they felt proud of themselves for displaying the fruits of their efforts so efficiently in front of a respectable audience!
New Staff & Faculty
Prep School Teachers - Mrs Moon Young Park (left) & Rachel Park (right)
School Newsletter Editorial Team 뉴스레터편집팀
2022-23 2학기 뉴스레터는 3월과 6월에 발행됩니다.
Supervised by: Mrs Ruth Eunjeong Ahn, Mrs Rebecca Lee, and Ms Anna Kim
Written by: Principal Lee, Mrs Ruth Eunjeong Ahn, Mrs Rebecca Lee, Ms Calie-Jo A’Bear, Mrs Jisoo Kim, Ms Joanna Glenn, Mr Greg Kim
Reviewed by: Mrs Ruth Eunjeong Ahn, Mr Greg Kim, Mrs Rebecca Lee, and Ms Anna Kim
Translated by: Danny Seung Hyun Seo (11), Rachel Sooyeon Lee (11), Sally Sooah Na (11), and Eric Joonyoung Ahn (11).
Designed by: Mr Song, Seokmin
· 고유번호 : 135-82-64403 · 대표자명 : 이 웅 · 업체명 : 한순교회
· Address: 37-30, Yonggu-daero 2753beon-gil, Suji-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, 16869 Korea
· Tel: 031-265-9646 · E-mail: withcsis@gmail.com
Copyright ⓒ 2006 Christian Sprout Intercultural School. All rights reserved.
Comments