Student-Led Parent Conferences & a Trip to the Galaxy Mall

April 11, 2013-

You know what's a fun way to learn what the children are doing at school?

Getting to see what they're learning from their perspective. 

On Thursday morning the girls led me through what they're learning at school via IST's Student Led Parent Conferences.  These conferences are completely led by the students – the teachers are present but the students present their own materials. 

 First was Ava's turn … I learned that Ava loves playing on the computer.  Although she doesn't enjoy writing her handwriting has improved considerably over this past year.  Ava has a lot to tell and loves sharing her knowledge with her teacher and her classmates.  

Annika was next… Annika LOVES to write.  Her writing has become more fun and interesting to read.

An example of creative writing style:

Annika's monster: "Has a roar like a kitten's surrender."

The girls even showed me what they were doing in their Chinese class – they're still a long ways away from being fluent in Chinese but I can see they're having fun.  

Since the girls clearly demonstrated that they were not only doing well in school but also enjoying school I took them to the Galaxy Mall as a treat after the conferences were finished.  (the kids had the day off from school)

Annika has been begging and pleading to go shopping at Toys R Us – she's now saved up enough money to buy a long-treasured Lego Friends kit.  How did she save the money?  Well – do you remember her painting from the Fourth Grade Art Exhibition?  I bought it from her. 🙂

Woo Hoo! Annika has enough money to buy the kit she's been oogling for several months. 

The Toys R Us in this Chinese mall looks an awful lot like its counterpart in the USA, doesn't it?

Looks like something you'd see back home, right??

Well, that was a successful shopping trip!  No whining, no begging, no pleading…so my treat for lunch! How's pizza sound?  

Sounds great to me!

> April 24- our block just had a power outage.  Thankfully the power outage lasted less than thirty minutes.<

How about Pizza Bianca?  It's one of the restaurants in this mall and we've heard that other expats like eating there. How about we give it a try???

Oooo!!!!  Love the wood-fired ovens:

Such a bright, happy restaurant!

Mmmm….pizza & lemonade:

Pizza Bianca has excellent pizza! I think we'll have to come back and try more dishes on their menu.

Check out the bigger-than-life Native American statue in the mall: