The first time the noun resilience was introduced to the English dictionary was in 1620. It was derived from ‘resiliens’, the present participle of Latin ‘resilire’, which means ‘to recoil or rebound’. In the 1640s, resilient was used to mean ‘springing back’. It had roots in the same Latin verb ‘resilire’, but was not used figuratively about individuals or groups of people until 1830. In 2000, Suniya Luthar, Professor Emerita at Columbia University’s Teacher College and Foundation and Profes...

On Friday, June 5, UNIS celebrated our J4 students. Facing the challenges of the last few months, our students have risen to the occasion as true heroes would. The Student Council elected at the beginning of the school year, with grace, eloquence, humor, kindness and determination, spoke not only in the name of all J4 students, but in the name of the entire Junior School student body. With the same conviction, our J4 teachers expressed how proud the entire Junior School is of the achievements...

Grant Wood was born in 1891 on a farm near the small town of Anamosa, Iowa. Wood is one of the major figures of the American regionalist school which flourished in the 1930s and whose favorite subject was rural life in the Middle West. With my intention to illustrate this Newsletter with a representation of the summer to come, "New Road", created by the artist in 1939 came to mind. It may seem a strange choice. Surely one year ago Georges Seurat's "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande ...

Our school's closure due to the Covid-19 Pandemic has disrupted routines that the Junior School is usually proud to organize. While the current situation has forced upon us some challenges to overcome, there are still key moments in your child's journey at UNIS we do not want to miss. Some are more easily replicated in our Distance Learning Environment, and some need to be adapted to our "new normal". Communicating with families regarding our students' learning journey is essential. It is wit...

"We Are the World", the famous charity single originally recorded by the supergroup USA for Africa, was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie one night before the song's first recording session, on January 21, 1985. It brought together some of the most well-known artists in the music industry at the time. The song was then released on March 7th as the first single from the album. A worldwide commercial success, it became the first ever single to be certified multi-platinum, and raised ...

Today is a very special day, Mother's Day. Felipa Domenech Ferrés was a mother. Like most children, her son, Salvador, owed her a lot. She supported his artistic interests, tolerated his anger, his dreams and his lies. Yesterday my daughter approached me as she was working on a video project to celebrate her "Mama", my wife. She asked me, recording my answer: "why do you love Mama?" There are a multitude of reasons why I love my wife, one of them identical to the reason that I love my own mum...

In August 2019, Jack became one of the youngest people to climb the Grand Teton in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Jack is a J4 student in Ms. Camilo's homeroom. When he was offered the opportunity to take on the challenge, Jack made a decision to try. He was not only climbing a mountain, he was challenging is own capacity to adapt in the face of adversity. A few months ago, Jack and I were sitting in my office with his mother and Ms. Scullin discussing the climb. I was intrigued by his story and I co...

We are pleased to offer a full roster of engaging and fun activities for our JS students beginning this Wednesday morning, April 29, to be led by both JS faculty and Tut House students. Registration is open! We would like to thank all of the teachers and high school students who are leading or co-leading these activities, as well as Dr. Lidana Jalilvand, our Director of Special Programs, and Zakaria Baha, Director of Student Activities, for their coordination. And we are grateful for the pati...

"Children are the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future." John F. Kennedy gave us these words and, because they are the world's most valuable resource, children need to know they are loved, supported and safe. But as we parents know, it can be hard and it is a lifetime responsibility. Current events are challenging the harmonious and safe balance we strive to give our children. I am a dad and, like anyone else, my children are everything to me. I want them safe. Two ...

This Sunday morning you should have received an email with your child's Distance Learning Plan 2.0 schedule for the week ahead and important information concerning the roll out of the plan over the next two weeks. During this week of April 13, as explained, the homeroom teachers will welcome your children for two major moments : morning meeting live with directions for the day, check in live at the end of the day. The literacy and math activities will be asynchronous while we continue to work...

You may wonder why Antoine de Saint Exupery was chosen to begin this Newsletter and to welcome everyone back from a two-week break that was like no other. You might consider that the author of "The Little Prince", by inspiring dreams and inviting us to escape our reality, may be very welcome in this time of challenges and uncertainty. Some might see a fragile attempt to invite us to take to the air and travel, to our distant families, to our dream places, far away from a virus that unfortunat...

It appears to me that this Newsletter is one of the most difficult to write on this Sunday afternoon. And it is not because the birds are chirping and calling my name outside, as always, careless about a worldwide situation that affects every single one of you in many different ways. It is because I am facing the incredible tension between the celebration of what our teachers, parents and students, together, have been able to overcome and accomplish in such a short time, and the humility we m...

Putting the Distance Learning plan in perspective. We understand that the circumstances we find ourselves living in now make everything about our daily lives a challenge. The UNIS JS Distance Learning Plan is completely new to both teachers and their students. Our message here is to assure each of you that the school recognizes that every family will approach Distance Learning in their own way, and at their own pace....

It appears to me that this Newsletter is one of the most difficult to write on this Sunday afternoon. And it is not because the birds are chirping and calling my name outside, as always, careless about a worldwide situation that affects every single one of you in many different ways. It is because I am facing the incredible tension between the celebration of what our teachers, parents and students, together, have been able to overcome and accomplish in such a short time, and the humility we m...

As you know from Dr. Brenner's Monday evening message, the UNIS campus is closed tomorrow, March 10th. While we wait for lab test results for a faculty member, the school will remain closed. Any information contained in emails from Dr. Brenner will always be the most up-to-date and will supersede information contained in this JS newsletter. Should school closure be required for an extended period of time, the school has made contingency plans to operate with remote learning. Teachers are now ...

Last week was an opportunity to begin new initiatives with our students in order to get to know them better. This is a critical component towards supporting their success and their well-being. As you may also experience in your own line of work, urgency, reactivity, and priorities sometimes distract us from the simple moments when we could take the time to learn from one another. In fact it is in these simple moments, when we pause and take time together, that we may positively address the is...

The Junior School Student Led Conferences will be held on the following days: Wednesday, March 18 from 5:00 to 8:00 pm (J1 - J4 only), Thursday, March 19 from 8:30 am to 3:00 pm (PK/JA - J4), Friday, March 20 from 8:30 am to 3:00 pm (PK/JA - J4). Sign up will be available from Monday, March 9 at 7:00 pm until Monday, March 16 at 7:00 pm. Please note that appointments on the evening of Wednesday, March 18th will not be available for Pre-K and JA parents as it is too late for those students to ...

Now that most of you have had the joyful experience of watching our students, your children, singing and acting on stage during our traditional grade-wide Winter Concerts, we can recognize together the emotional and intense power of music. Excitement and happiness merged in our UNIS Theatre throughout our students's stunning performances lead by Ms. Travis, Ms. Boekholt and Mr. Dod. And for those who need more than these words to be convinced, here are a few visuals of true happiness captured...

It was the summer of 2017, 126 weeks ago. As Director of Academic Technology at UNIS for the past three years I was gearing up to return to campus. The telephone rings. After three years leading the IT department and the usage of technology in support of academic growth, I looked forward to a fourth year with a sense of peace, and equipped with a 5 year plan. It was a time to enjoy the department's hard work of the previous three transformative years."No trumpets sound when the important deci...

Community service projects are a great way for students to develop real-world skills such as: Leadership skills, Problem-solving skills, Collaboration skills, Communication skills, Time management skills, Organizational skills... Most importantly, students gain confidence and learn that their actions can help to have a real impact on the people around them, and they develop a richer perspective of the world they live in, while they connect their learning to the real world. So today we want to...

Semester 1 Report Cards for Junior School students will be published on Friday, January 24 at 5:00pm on the Veracross Parent Portal. We encourage you to review this report card with your child to celebrate his/her achievements during this past semester and engage in conversation on their potential growth. Friday, January 31 is the deadline for questions about a specific JS teacher’s grading. Please contact the teacher directly by email no later than the 31st. Please note that recently enrolle...

This week, as we are about to celebrate Dr. King’s legacy with our students, school communities should reflect on more than Martin Luther King's civil rights record, but also examine whether their schools are living up to his "dream" for education. We invite all of you to go back to the "Purpose of Education", written by Martin Luther, Jr. at Morehouse College in 1947. There is much to find in the legacy of Dr. King's words that aligns with our UNIS Mission. Today, I invite everyone, parents,...

Making New Year's resolutions dates back to antiquity. Babylon was a key kingdom in ancient Mesopotamia from the 18th to 6th centuries BC and the Babylonians were the first to have implemented this ritual of promises. Originally the Babylonians vowed to their Gods to return agricultural equipment that they had borrowed, and to pay off their debts, so that they could begin the new year on good footing by supporting healthier relations between neighbors and by encouraging everyone to assume the...

Horace was a Latin poet who lived at the end of the first century, before the Christian era. He was born in the south of Italy, in Venusia, on December 8, 65 BC, and died in Rome on November 27, 8 AD. Rallied with the Augustan Empire, he wrote for the power in place, under the influence of who today would be called the Minister of Culture. Horace remained famous for his lyrical poems and his numerous testimonies on the customs of his time.There is a lot we can say about Horace, a lot we have ...

One of the great privileges to being a Principal is to have so many opportunities to learn with our students and to be delighted by their creativity in solving problems ingeniously designed by their teachers. Lily and Ines were in the hallway outside the CoLaboratory debating the best way to guide their robot to follow an exact path designed on the floor. The process would be very different than one they might use to drive a remote control car bought in a toy shop. The idea here was to progra...

The haiku (俳 句), a term coined by the poet Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902), is a highly codified and calligraphed poetic form that originated in Japan.  The poet Bashō Matsuo (1644- 1694) is recognized as one of the first haiku poets. Traditionally, the haiku must include a notion of season (kigo) and a break (the kireji). If the haiku indicates neither season nor particular moment, it will be called Moki; and if it is about human weaknesses, not nature, and is treated in a humorous or satirical wa...

Your parents might have tried to convince you that “the best way to get something done right is to do it yourself!”. Today, I am going to prove my father wrong. Just this once... Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th U.S. President, said “the best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men and women to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling while they do it.” By being a school leader who can honor Theodore Roosevelt's memory, allowing our teachers, parents and ...

The "obligation to remember" is the moral obligation to remember a tragic historical event and its victims in order to ensure that such an event does not happen again. This expression, which appeared in the 1990s about the Second World War and in particular the Holocaust, has expanded to other tragic episodes of history. The "obligation to remember", was however first promoted in the aftermath of the First World War by victims' associations, then by local authorities and by states, even thoug...

Hans Hofmann was a German-born American painter considered to have influenced Abstract Expressionism.  But he was also a renowned teacher. His thoughts on "simplification" will inspire my Newsletter this week. "The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak." - Hans Hofmann. I will therefore eliminate the unnecessary, and my message to you here will be short and simple: We would like to express our gratitude to you, parents, for attending Parent Tea...

In 2015, three researchers from the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick led research (1) on the correlation between happiness in the workplace and productivity. For them, greater employee happiness results in higher productivity without sacrificing quality. Their conclusion was that “companies like Google have invested more in employee support and employee satisfaction has risen as a result. For Google, it rose by 37 percent; they know what they are talking about. Under scien...

It was great to welcome our students and their families back this morning after the well-deserved break. This Friday evening, November 1, you will be able to book conference appointments with your child's teachers. Detailed instructions in order to secure your appointments using our online booking system will be provided in a separate email from our IT Department.Parents meet JS homeroom teachers, as well as Mother Tongue language, ELL and Learning Support teachers for 20 minutes and other sp...

“Transfer is a cognitive practice whereby a learner’s mastery of knowledge or skills in one context enables them to apply that knowledge or skill in a different context. Because transfer signals that a learner’s comprehension allows them to recognize how their knowledge can be relevant and to apply it effectively outside original learning conditions, transfer is often considered a hallmark of true learning". (1) When teaching Mathematics, or any other subject, to our students, the goal is to ...

On Sunday morning as I sat down to write this newsletter I proudly thought to myself that I had a plethora of topics to choose from: the Cardboard Challenge 2019 was incredibly successful, the weather was epic, and our students and parents were very creative; UN day is coming soon, a highlight of the year and a celebration of our diversity; the MAP testing for J3/J4s went very well and the teachers are beginning to analyse the data collected, a giant chess board will be installed in the playg...

Reading with your child is likely to be one of the regular literacy activities in many families. The image of a parent in an intimate and warm moment sharing a book with their child is viewed by some as the iconic representation of family literacy. Although research focusing on literacy practices in the home environment is relatively recent, studies have already considered the various angles this practice of reading to the child has, and the direct impact on his/her development. Therefore it ...

There is much to be discussed within our community. We are facing unexpected challenges and we recognize that there are differing views held. There are facts, interpretations, emotions, and caring. We believe that everyone in our community has only good intentions. In this moment of gravity, our Mission Statement is what connects us all. I invite everyone to pause and to read it. "Under the auspices of the United Nations and guided by its ideals, UNIS provides an inclusive and diverse learnin...

I owe my passion for the ocean to Jacques Cousteau. Cousteau was a well known author-explorer-inventor-filmmaker-oceanographer, who inspired many generations by sharing the wonders of the oceans with the world.  Upon his death in June, 25 1997, French President Jacques Chirac said that Captain Cousteau was "a great Frenchman who also was a citizen of the world. An "enchanter [...] probably the best known Frenchman internationally"...

The last 3 weeks have been an opportunity for the Junior School Leadership to share with all of our faculty, as well as the new-to-UNIS families we met during orientation, our theme for this school year: collaboration. collaboration is a purposeful relationship in which all parties strategically choose to cooperate in order to accomplish a shared outcome (1). We welcomed our JS teachers by challenging them in an activity which inevitably led to a discussion about the need for collaboration in...

Heraclitus of Ephesus (c. 535 – c. 475 BCE) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, and a native of the city of Ephesus part of the Persian Empire (1). "No man ever steps in the same river twice". Heraclitus' famous formula "Panta rhei" ("Everything flows") shows that everything changes forever. For the Greek Philosopher, everything, even what we believe is immutable and firmly stable follow this tireless movement. He is in this sense the philosopher of the movement. For him there is only one t...

Below you will find a link to the Parent Guidelines with all the Back to School information you will need to support your child in a successful beginning to this school year. We encourage you to review all the information available to you. To guide you in the information that may be a priority. You will find also a new page added to our Guidelines: "New to UNIS" with a short bio and photo of the new faculty joining the Junior School this year. The Weekly Newsletter will be sent every Monday a...