Middle School Art (Ibu Dewi)

Welcome back to a new term! How happy we are, that even with the challenges in online learning, we have had a successful first quarter. It has been great to see students working on their studies in a positive manner and navigating their class work and assignments effectively online.

I encourage parents to assist with the Art program during this time, by providing some art materials for their child in order to maximize their learning process. Please contact me at dsoetanto@sis.sch.id for further information on this. In Art class, we hope to make this term as much fun by learning, exploring and in creating works of art online as if we were in the classroom.

Grade 7

The Grade 7 Art class has been working very hard to expand their knowledge in multiple areas in the program with a major focus on perspective. Initially, the students were asked to observe their surroundings. They learned to open their imagination to see in simple perspective what was around them and ultimately, to transfer what they saw onto their paper through art. They also learned to create a distance illusion through dark and light colors, which is called “Atmospheric Perspective”.

Students also learned about other areas of perspective. They demonstrated their knowledge and understanding of “Worm Eye-View”, which means viewing an object from below. The group enjoyed creating art work through practical activities on this topic. Students also explored one point perspective in a more detailed way and were able to apply what they learned in their art work. I have enjoyed watching the progress from the students in Grade 7 Art class.

Grade 8

In the first quarter, Grade 8 students started their studies in Art class with a unit on collage. In one of the activities, students cut out pictures from old magazines or printed out pictures, and arranged them on background paper to introduce themselves and their cultures. Students were expected to demonstrate their understanding of what makes a collage aesthetically pleasing to the eye. They also needed to consider how they could effectively show themselves and their culture through the forum of art.

In the next unit, Elements and Principles of Design, students were given an opportunity to explore and research a variety of given artists. Students then needed to choose one artist that had inspired them the most. The objective was for students to learn about the characteristics of the artist’s works. The final task was for students to apply their findings in their own artwork. It has been pleasing to see such wonderful work from this class during these units.

See also: Tech Mastery Unleashed: Exploring Student Creativity Through Diverse Technology Projects

High School IT (Mr. Okeefe Charles)


Online learning hasn’t dampened the desire of the High School students to do well in every topic that they have covered so far. The students have grown accustomed to having both synchronous and asynchronous lessons for their classes. The majority of their lessons are synchronous which is done through Google Meet.

It has been both a challenging and an exciting first quarter for the 9th grade Computer Science students. This is due to what they have been working on for the past 10 weeks. The unit that students have been looking at is Web Development and Creation.

This unit covers the introduction of the three main languages that are used to create web pages: HTML, CSS and Javascript. HTML is used to display the content that appears on a webpage, CSS is used to enhance the appearance/presentation of the pages and Javascript is used to create interactivity between webpage and the user. The students have worked hard throughout the quarter to understand each language and have learned how to write codes to create a variety of webpages.

As a part of their final assessment they have been given the task of creating a complete website that should consist of at least 5 webpages on a topic/interest of their choice. The website should incorporate the use of all 3 languages that they have covered. The submission for the assignment is the end of this week and I think they are excited to submit what they have produced. I am also excited to see their end product.

The 11th and 12th graders at SIS are doing the AP Computer Science A from the College Board for this academic year.  The AP Computer Science A introduces students to computer science through programming. Fundamental topics in this course include the design of solutions to problems, the use of data structures to organize large sets of data, the development and implementation of algorithms to process data and discover new information, the analysis of potential solutions, and the ethical and social implications of computing systems. The course emphasizes object-oriented programming and design using the Java programming language. AP Computer Science A is also equivalent to a first-semester, college-level course in computer science.

The course is broken down into 10 units and we have covered 4 units out of the 10 so far. In addition to the online lessons, students also have access to the AP Classroom. The AP Classroom is a dedicated online platform designed to support teachers and students throughout their AP experience. The platform provides a variety of powerful resources and tools to provide year long support to teachers and enable students to receive meaningful feedback on their progress.

In closing I would like to say that there are challenging times ahead but I am convinced  that these students will rise to the challenge and achieve their end goals because of their current work ethics.

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