National Honor Society Induction Ceremony

On Wednesday, our annual NHS Induction Ceremony took place. Among the many guests was Mrs. Joann Ryding-Beltes, Vice President of the American Farm School, who delivered the keynote speech to the new inductees. We thank Mrs. Ryding-Beltes for her wonderful message about character and its importance in life. Finally, we are proud to congratulate the following students, our newest members of Pinewood’s Chapter of National Honor Society, for their outstanding achievement in scholarship, leadership, service and character:

Snezhana Boneva, ‘13

Marco Bustamante, ‘14

Ioannis Emmanuelidis, ‘13

Aristotle Leventidis, 13

Despoina Lioliou, ‘13

Juan Nieves, ‘13

Quarter 2 & Semester I Honor Roll Awards

Congratulations to all the students for their achievement in Honor Roll for Quarter 2 and/or Semester I.  Please visit our Secondary Honor Roll page to see a full list of all the students.

Happy 100^th Day of School!

On Monday, February 13, our Kindergarten class celebrated the 100^th day of school with many different forms of 100…Cheerios, the favorite children’s book, “Happy 100^th Day!” by Susan Milord, special hats, banners and sunglasses, special counting activities and a parade around to the other Early Years classrooms. Of course, the celebration is reflective of student-centered approach to teaching mathematics that Mrs. Mizas uses in her classroom. The celebration also marks the passing of more than half of the school year! Happy 100^th Day to everyone! For more information and a slide show please visit Mrs. Miza's article.

Book Week: February 20-24, 2012

During the week of February 20^th, we will be celebrating literature, reading and all things books! With the generous time and organization of the English Department and the Librarians, we have put together several very special events for our students, all with the goal of instilling joy into the hearts of our students. Along with special reading activities, just a few of the highlights include a visits by Fern Sutton, a children’s picture book illustrator from the UK, the Aristotle University Theater Group, who will perform excerpts and adaptations from Shakespeare’s As You Like It and a special Secondary Seminar presented by our students and teachers and centered on the theme of the week…”Are books still relevant?”. We welcome you to join us at any of these events. For a full list of events and times, please click here: Secondary Book Week Schedule, Elementary Book Week Schedule, Library Competition 2012 or visit our Book Week 2012 page on your website.

Diplomatic Training Simulation

On Saturday, February 11th, a Diplomatic Training / Political Science simulation A100 took place. The training course imitates the official course that all new American diplomats must take at the US Foreign Service Institute. This event took place at the Bissell Library at the American College of Thessaloniki. Two groups of students from Anatolia and Pinewood participated in the training. The program included a variety of skill workshops, such as: watching a video and answering some questions, taking notes, public speaking and cable drafting. Another exercise was to present and plan an event for the celebration of July 4th at the US Embassy in Manama, Bahrain. Participants were divided into two groups and assigned different roles. After that, they presented plans, ideas and critiqued each other. Students then interviewed with a committee of established training staff members such as David Wisner, Stelios Kelaiditis, and Constantinos Constandinidis. The members of the committee individually interviewed students to determine their hypothetical positions in the U.S. Foreign Service. The simulation concluded with students presenting the flags from their assigned countries. We are pleased that Pinewood’s Dimitrios Filinadas, ’13 and Anna Maria Kartali, ’13 took part in this simulation.

Reminders:

• Please be sure to visit our Activities page to view next week’s After School Activities schedule.
• The Pinewood MUN team competes this weekend at Anatolia College's MUN Conference. We encourage you to visit the conference and witness our students in action.
  
• Middle School students will visit the Museum of Thessaloniki Jewelry on Tuesday, February 21^st with Mrs. Spiliakou’s Host Country Studies classes.
• The Carnival Party for Early Years and Elementary students will take place on Friday, February 24^th. Please see your child’s teacher for details.
• Quarter 3 Interim Reports for Secondary students will be emailed home on Friday, February 24^th.  Please visit our Interim Reports page for details regarding these mid-quarter reports.
• Our librarians invite you to read the article of the week, The U.S. changes its nationwide standards for testing to accomodate a growing number of ESL students, and to view the February Library News by visiting our Library page.
• Be sure to read Mrs. Kainz's article about our Middle School D.E.A.R. project.
• There will be no school on Monday, February 27^th in observance of Clean Monday.

Dr. Roxanne Giampapa

Director