DEPARTMENT We study smarter, not harder!cdn.bosnasema.ba/ihsinternationalschoolba/download_area/1645b2289d75e5... · DEPARTMENT We study smarter, not harder! A S 0 R AJEV O 2 0 1.

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ISI English Magazine

ISIENGLISH

DEPARTMENTWe study smarter, not harder!

www.internationalschool.ba www.english.bosnasema.ba

SARAJEVO 2010

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Table of contents Head's foreward

Year in Review

Our Techers

English Classroom

APTIS Tests

Pen Pal Project

GEP Competition

Technology Use

English Champions League

Great Speakers of Middle School

Spelling Bee Contest

International Results

Masters of English 2015

Extra Lessons

English Corner Presentations

IATEFL Presentation

Academic Writing Seminar

Why I Love English

Poem by Amela Tufo

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ABOUT US Bosna Sema Educational Institutions English Department (BOSED) is strictly committed to inspiring and encouraging students to become autonomous, life-long learners.

Our courses are designed to build skills in effective language teaching and learning. Four basic language skills, namely Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing are at the center of attention along with Vocabulary and Grammar studies.

We believe that student-centered learning is the key to success and that our students through extensive reading and writing will come to understand themselves and world around them better.

www.internationalschool.ba www.english.bosnasema.ba

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Our Team

HEAD'S FOREWORD

As we are approaching towards the end of another full of activities and successful academic year, it doesn’t seem like eight years passed since I started teaching at Bosna Sema Educational Institutions. Looking back on those past years, there have been many highlights and excitements in the successes achieved by our students, academically and in other areas of school life.

English has been described as “the language of opportunity” and we have been striving for the best for our students since the very beginning. During the current 2014/15 academic year, just like in the years before, there have been many challenges ahead of our students and teachers ranging from small in-class events to partici-pating in many national and international competitions. Each challenge has been successfully overcome and our school now stands as more prestigious with increased reputation within the community. As an institution and English Department, we continue to have higher standards and higher expectations each year, yet making efforts for doing so in a supportive environment in which everyone feels valued. With highly qualified staff and with an army of exceptional students, we trust that unique and special qualities of our schools will be maintained and enhanced in the years ahead.

As always, I would like to seize this opportunity to publicly acknowledge my gratitude to our editing team and everyone who made their contribution and supported this and our other activities. Special thanks go to our appreciated parents/carers, our dear students, and our dedicated staff for all that they do to ensure that the good name of Bosna Sema Schools is maintained and enhanced within our community. They were full of ideas, extremely hard-working and pleasant to work with. That support has been invaluable and much appreciated.

Happy reading!

Mehmet AkdoganHead of Bosna Sema English Department

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September 1st – Place-ment Test for 6th grades of mid-dle schools and 1st grades of high school

October 2nd – Middle school Spelling Bee contest

October 9th - English Cham-pions League Cup for high school: Sign‐ups

October 23rd -English Champions League: Draws

November 6th -Interna-tional High School Spelling Bee contest

November 20th -Eng-lish Department of International School of Sarajevo (EDISS) Or-ganized 2nd Academic Writing Seminar

December 4th – Persuasive speaking contest for high school

December 12th - Spelling Bee 2014 Award Ceremony

December 15th - English Teachers Started Oxfordlearn

December 21st - ESOL Practice examination

December 25st ‐ English Champions League ‐ High School Fall 2014 Final Five

January 23rd - IATEFL Teacher Training and Education Program 2015

February 6th - English Champions League for Middle school

February 11th - English Champions League Middle school quarter finals

February 23rd – English Champions League Middle school final

February 28th - ISS De-bate and Speaking Contest

March 7th - General English Proficiency Test

March 14th - Hippo com-petition preliminary round

March 21st – ISS representatives participated in “English in Action” contest in Zagreb

March 28th – Masters of English competition

April 13th –Head of De-partment’s IATEFL Presentation

April 30th – Cambridge Reader’s Challenge

May 9th-10th – Hippo English Language Competition Super Finals

May 16th – Hosting Federal English Competition for Primary Schools

June 1st – APTIS Exam for 4th grades

June 8th – APTIS Exam for 1st grades

ISI 2014/15


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“They inspire you, they entertain you, and you end up learning a ton even when you don’t know it.”

Our teachers

Our teaching staff works hard throughout the entire school year on different tasks besides teaching and working with students on different projects. In order to keep up with the latest trends in their profession and in order to respond successfully to the challenges of 21st century classroom, our lovely teachers are dedicating their time to listen to the lectures of other teachers and teaching professionals. Namely, our staff members are very active in attending and participating in different workshops, seminars and pro-fessional development programs in Bosnia and Herzegovina and abroad. Our teachers use many oppor-tunities to connect with their colleagues coming from different schools and to brainstorm on common issues and challenges they are facing while working within their institutions and discuss new trends in teaching, modern methodologies and approaches as well as uses of technology in classroom.

Ferhat Karkili After finishing high school education in 1992, Mr. Karkili went to Russia for higher education and graduated in 1999.

“Every student is different; no two students react in the same way. It is our tasks as teachers to find not only what motivates each student to learn but also what motivates them to misbehave. If we can meet them at that point and take away that motiva-tion, we can go a long way towards a more learning experience.”

Džejlana Gledo graduated from University of Sarajevo and in 2009 gained a BA in English lan-guage and literature. She has had a great experience in working on several projects with UNICEF office in Bosnia and Herzegovina as interpreter explor-ing the issue and doing research on the educational background and situation within minority groups in our country. This experience made her more involved in NGO sector which resulted in her engagement in Center of education and research Nahla where she worked as ESL teacher teach-ing young learners and adults. She has also taught Business English at Nahla as part of a project of life-long learning for women entitled Business administration as well as working at Cultural Center King Fahd teaching English to adults. She has had experience in working at several state schools and her everlasting love for teaching has provided her many different opportunities for meeting students of different cultural and social background. Being infatuated with writing Dzejlana closely collabo-rated with many online magazines where she had a regular column Spirit of Time and was a deputy editor-in-chief for essay writing.She has participated in numerous teacher-training seminars and educa-tional projects in Bosnia and abroad but her most valuable experience was definitely CELTA where she gained a Certificate of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.

‘’Teaching English and being directly involved in educating young and bright minds is a privilege and a very rewarding job. We are born to serve others and what better way than serving children. Teaching makes me a better person and brings the best in all of us.’’

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Mehmet Akdogan graduated from Mersin Teacher Training High School in 2002 and entered Foreign Language Education Department of Bogazici University, where he earned his BA in English Lan-guage Teaching (ELT) in 2007. As soon as finishing university, Mehmet started working in Bosnia and started his MA studies. He earned his MA in 2010 in ELT in International Burch University, where he is currently a PhD student as well. Furthermore, he is a member of International Association of Teach-ers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL) and presented his work in Manchester in April, 2015. His research interests include Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL), Extensive Reading (ER), and In-tegrating Technology into ELT Assessment. Mehmet Akdogan has CELTA among many other prestigious certificates including those of Oxford Teachers’ Acad-emy Young Learners and Teenagers, mentorships of many national and international events and competi-tions. He got 2nd place and silver medal in interna-tional teaching competition in 2013, too. In addition, he has been the head of organization committee of Federation English Language Competition of Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2011 and he has been organ-izing “Masters of English” for the last three years.

“Teaching brings me such joy each and every day and I adore watching students as they improve and develop their confidence with English language. I have enjoyed English language since childhood; I was that child who would spend hours memorizing a lot of new English words from the books studied in class, then practice them every day! I have been spending the last eight years teaching in the school system of Bosna Sema Educational Institutions. Teaching in Bosnia has really deepened my love of teaching and working with children in the class. Moreover, I enjoy teaching/guiding online, especially on Edmodo, Qui-zlet and Oxfordlearn…etc., as it gives me the chance to work with many students–one on one–to improve their understanding and love of the English language whenever and wherever we are available.”

Emine Ozalli Can graduated from English Language and Literature department in 2009. She has worked at International schools in Turkmenistan, Yemen and Bosnia & Herzegovina. Her field of study is multicultural and intercultural education from which she earned her Master`s degree. Currently, Mrs. Emine is a Ph.D. candidate in ELT department at International Burch University.

“I love teaching in a multicultural environment and ISS gives that chance to me.”

Selma Salihagií is the newest member of ISI English Department team. She graduated in 2014 from International Burch University’s Faculty of Education among top 5 students of her generation and earned a degree of Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature. During her university years she attended to and participated in many internation-al conferences and teachers development programs where she has gained valuable acknowledgments. In the previous two years she has been researching and working on multiple case studies in fields of applied linguistics and teaching language to young learn-ers. Active research and work along with her men-tor resulted in publishing a several of their works in prestigious academic journals. As a member of The Association for Applied Linguistics in Bosnia and Herzegovina Selma had an opportunity to meet and attend to lectures of numerous language scholars and academicians from all around the world. What she has been researching for the previous four years, she put into practice first, as a part of her internship program, at Sarajevo College and now at the Interna-tional School of Sarajevo.

“There is nothing similar to language that brings people together. Thus, being able to teach a language spoken and understood widely across the planet in multicultural and vivid environment of ISS offers a great opportunity of bridging the differences and bringing together little sharp minds towards better interaction and communication today and towards better world tomorrow.”


Stories from the classroom

Teaching and learning English can be both fun and educational. All it takes is a good method along with enthusiastic and eager students accom-panied by creative imagination of a teacher.These are some of the moments from English les-son with 8th graders.

Leeson aim was to teach students elements of a storytelling which include: plot, characters, conflict, scene and setting followed by different techniques of finding the main idea and support-ing details within the text. Through singing and model writing students learned how to organize a paragraph and logically stage a story.

Enjoy and join us!

English Classroom

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This year our middle school had a privi-lege to welcome two classes of smart, skillful, and adventurous six graders. Overcoming their transition challenges these young prodigies showed us in the very beginning of the school year how seriously and responsibly they accept all classroom tasks. “My collection for the future” was one of their first English language projects where they showed their exceptional presentation and artis-tic skills.

English ClassroomSix graders breaking the ice –

My collection for the future project

SARAJEVO 2010

Revision activitiesStudents are engaged in speaking activities that include revision of grammar and vocabulary points: pre-sent perfect tense for experiences, parts of speech and phrasal verbs.The emphasis is on both accuracy and fluency and this type of communicative language teaching and in-teractive lessons provide students practice and revision of their previous knowledge and gives a teacher an opportunity to monitor, correct and allow peer teaching.

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English Classroom

Independent readingAiming to foster reading and student talking time, we created a literature corner for middle school students. Besides preparing a Power Point presentation, creat-ing a journal or designing a poster, students are given the opportunity to present the book of their choice in front of their classmates.

Focusing on the au-thor, characters, plot, and setting of the book, presenters also share their personal feelings about the book and how it has affected their lives. Presentation is fol-lowed by discussion where students and the teacher ask ad-ditional questions about the presenta-tion and a book pre-sented.

Having a peek into our students’ favorite books, we also gain an insight into their presentation skills. Majority of experts in the field of lan-guage agree that stu-dents presenting in classroom benefit in many ways. By doing presentations, they learn and gain skills in public speaking. Also, they learn how to prepare material for presenta-tion, and practice (especially one followed with feedback and discussion) improves their speaking skills.So far, we have seen a couple of interesting presentations and enjoyed both their content and speaking skills of our students.

Book presentations

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One of the most challenging language areas to study is most definitely grammar and our students often tend to feel reluctant to explore it. For this reason English teachers at ISI are trying to incorporate creative and communicative language teaching in order to motivate their students. In this system’s lesson students have had the most impor-tant insight into reporting verbs and reported speech rules and usage.

During semi controlled and free practice they have been presented with a set of reporting verbs which they needed to use in a suitable and contextual-ized way.

They were engaged and they had an opportunity to work in groups and in pairs and to internalize their knowledge. This was one of the many enjoyable English lessons at our school.

English Classroom

That Grammar

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Cooperation with the British Council

Another traditional and successful event of English Department was finished at the end of the second semester. As one of its educa-tional goals, International School of Sarajevo in cooperation with British Council organized APTIS Examination in order to gain an in-sight into the language improvement of its students.

As a result of numerous successful events or-ganized in partnership with British Council, International School of Sarajevo, a member of Bosna Sema Educational Institutions, has signed a memo-randum with this prestigious organization. Based on the signed agreement, our students are able to take the official APTIS Exams or-ganized by British Council Bosnia in Bosna Sema premises.

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In the world of technology and instant mes-saging where everyone is only a click away, six graders decided to engage in international pen friend project. Main objective of this project organized in co-operation with Anafen Okulları from Turkey is to help students improve their writing and reading skills through the letters. Furthermore, being able to exchange a piece of their world on a handwritten piece of paper, students experience a ‘new’ way of communi-cation and broaden their horizons.

PEN PAL PROJECT


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General English proficiency test was successfully done in March. Top 5 students of each grade category were chosen as contestants based on the re-sults of ESOL practice exams. General English Proficiency categories of Masters of Eng-lish aim at testing students’ general knowledge of Eng-lish at different levels de-fined by CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) using tests similar to ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) ex-ams in format. Middle school students participated in A1 and A2 categories from 6th-7th and 8th-9th grades. High school students participated in A3 and A4 categories from 1st-2nd and 3rd-4th grades. A1 category students got PET test, A2 category students got FCE test, A3 category students got CAE test and A4 category students got CPE test. Sara-jevo College (Vraca) students and English teachers have also joined us as contestants and proctors. All top students from two schools have done the test in two class-rooms. It was an opportunity to have a ri-valry atmosphere for our students.

GENERAL ENGLISH PROFICIENCY

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With the increase of computer and internet availability in language teaching on the rise, many teachers, with little or no training or knowledge in this medium as a language learning instrument, have certainly asked themselves this question once or twice when faced with the viewpoint of getting out of the comfortable (for teacher) textbook, and onto the Internet with their classes.We would like to direct the reader to one particularly en-gaging and wide-ranging option available using the in-ternet which is both learners centered and teacher active. An option which potentially involves learners in prac-tice of all skills and systems in English, while at the same time promoting learner independence and collaboration. In language teaching circles, this is known as a QUIZLET.

In order to support existing teaching practices and to make learning experience even more interesting to our technologically savvy students, our school proudly announces that we have started using oxfordlearn.com online practice. This system is intended primarily for our students but also for their teachers. With the access code available in workbooks our students have access to a variety of additional materials related to content that is being covered in classroom with related English Plus books.

OXFORDLEARN ONLINE PRACTICE

VIDEO LESSONS

QUIZLET


Very important segment of our rich educational program are video lessons. Videos presented to students are closely related to the topic of unit being covered and are presented along with accompanying worksheets, activities and other educational materials. This way, students enjoy while ex-ploiting a wealth of learning opportunities – listening prac-tice, vocabulary and grammar reinforcement.

Activities which precede and follow the video are focused on helping students learn and retain previously learned gram-matical forms, new words and phrases as well as to test their listening comprehension.

TechnologyUse

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We have finished English Cham-pions League after many chal-lenging weeks. After an elimina-tion round, top 32 students did their best to succeed in making it to the “LAST 16” stage after 6 challenging matches. They all showed their English language knowledge with great enthusi-asm. Finalists and their fans cel-ebrated their success in the cor-ridors at the quarter finals and at “FINAL 5” stage of the competition.

ENGLISH CHAMPIONS LEAGUE -High School Fall 2014

FINAL 5 HIGH SCHOOL

1. Din Buljevic - BalkanExpress

2. Haris Deleut- VolimKaragu

3. Adi Saracevic - BilboSwaggins

4. Uma Hamzic - don't_blink

5. Ahmed Redzovic- Manchester United

Final 6 middle school

1. Hadil Ardat

2. Ena Hamzić

3. Syeda Kashf Gilani

4. Duman Emine Bahar

5. Narda Hardaga

6. Rana Cetin

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Competition day in categories of debate and public speaking organ-ized by Bosna Sema English De-partment was held in February. Middle school students debated on several topics including pollution, homework policy and mass media, whereas high school students were defending their arguments debating about violence in video games, good and bad sides of the internet and

community service for high school students.The best debaters in middle school were sixth graders: Esma Gogić, Ema Sato and Emina Ozturk,

members of the team Debate no hate. Their opposing team in the fi-nal round was team of 8th graders, Unique Einstein, Martina Barreto, Michaela Ramirez, and Antonio Siepi. The best speakers in the final round were Esma Gogić and Anto-nio Siepi.Demonstrating great language and public speaking skills, absolute win-ner in public speaking category was

also 6th grader, Nur Bećirbegović. First runner-up is 9th grade student Hadil Ardat while the third position is shared between Esme Van Wieren (8th grade) and Daniel Elshazli

(6th grade) due to the same amount of points given by the jury members.Debates held in high school were no less exciting. All of the students showed excellent language skills and presented interesting arguments. Members of the team Elemen-tal Funkiness: Din Buljević, Feđa Hadžisulejmanović and Tarik Semiz won the first place being the most convincing.

Winners from each category ob-tained the right to represent our school in great Masters of English competition.

ISS Debate and speaking contest held

International School Spelling Bee contestThis year’s Spelling Bee contest brought togeth-er 19 brave bees from middle school and 25 brave bees from high school who stepped in front of the large audi-ence and showed their high level of knowledge

of words and spelling skills. After several great rounds, the winners were revealed. For the first time in the his-tory of ISS, Middle school Spelling Bee contest ends in tie.

First place is shared between Abou El Ardat Hadil and Daniel Elhazli. On the other hand, in high school first place is awarded Alex German, second place to Enisa Bajic and third place to Sara Althakafi. We congratulate to our winners and wish best of luck to other bees next year.

Great Speakers of Middle School

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TThe World Scholar’s Cup is a prestigious international team aca-demic tournament. Students from over 40 countries participate in this great competition every year. Each year, all teams explore and debate on a current global theme and they explore specially-selected topics. There are both senior and junior divisions in the competition. Stu-

dents between the ages of 11 to 14 participate in the junior division and students between the ages of 15 - 18 participate in the senior di-vision.The World Scholar’s Cup consists of four main events: The Scholar’s Challenge, Collaborative Writing, The Team Debate, and The Schol-ar’s Bowl (Multimedia Quiz).Our students Omar Becirbe-

govic, Salim Taha Yapici, and Shahriar Youzbashi, partici-pated in the World Scholar’s Cup East Africa Round in March 2014. Al-though it was our first time, our great team made it to the finals in Singapore. Besides of partici-

pation in this great event our stu-dents enjoyed in the Istanbul Trip, Mombasa Trip, Sea Safari, Nairobi Trip, Walk Safari and many other activities. Our students are working hard for World Scholar’s Cup 2015 and we wish them the best of luck.

International ResultsThe World Scholar's Cup

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Last summer, our student, Uma Hamzić, entered a short story writing competition organized by Macmillan Readers. Contest-ants were to write a 1000-word story and in some way related to sports.

After applying and sending her work to the c o m p e t i t i o n Uma and her professors were waiting for the

results with great anticipa-tion. In the end, Uma won fifth place and her story was pub-lished in a compilation book among other short stories that were sent to this compe-tition. This is her first officially published story and she is only 15. We strongly believe that more publications are awaiting us and we certainly expect to read more from this extraordinary young lady.

“Many people have asked me if it was hard to win. I cannot answer that question. I write for fun. I wrote that story and sent it regardless of hundreds of other contest-ants who sent theirs. I wrote it not to win but for the experience that comes with competing. I benefited from that.”

MacMillan short story competition

I wrote not to win, but for the

experience that comes with competing.

International ResultsISI EnglishMagazine

SARAJEVO 2010

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About GeniusGENIUS is an abbreviation of Global Environmental Issues and us. Genius Olympiad is a international competition located in USA. It promotes a global understanding of environmental issues through various categories, such as arts, science, creative writing, engineering, design and business development. It is a great opportunity for secondary school students throughout the world to prove their potential and creativity. It provides you with a chance to be the agents who will promote and contribute to greater environmental sustainability throughout their lives. Its main focus is on all aspects of global environmental issues and following goals:• To enable high school students around the world to cope with environmental problems, and to elicit their abilities to produce solutions.• To inspire high school students to contribute to the protection and improvement of the environment.• To equip young generations with environmental consciousness.• To provide a forum for youth from around the world to come together and share ideas.• To inform the public about global environmental problems.Genius Olympiad usually takes place in June and lasts for around 5 days. The first days are spent around the campus with various ice breaker activities and many activities to help you understand the aim

of the competition and also, most importantly, make friends. People from all over the world visit the Suny Oswego campus which allows you to make memorable friendships which would last for a lifetime. The campus is a lovely place surrounded with parks and nature. There is also a big lake near the camp which enables you to have an amazing view. The students dormitory is also equipped with a tv, table football, billiard, piano, vending machines and etc. Afterwards, the competition takes place in their main hall and the project set up starts and the opening ceremony takes place. The day after the judging starts and all students are questioned about their projects. Soon as that is finished the students are taken to a Niagara Falls field trip and shopping! It is an amazing experience and a wonderful opportunity to have an adventure with your new friends. The next day is probably the most important one, the award ceremony day! Students are given their diplomas and presents which almost always include some electronic device such as Kindle or Samsung tablet. A college fair is also organised during the day which consists of various school representatives introducing their colleges to Suny students and explaining them the opportunities given to them during this competition. And lastly, for an extra free, at the check out day a 3 day trip is organised to Washington D.C., NY city and IVY College tour.

Emina Zukic, 2nd grade student from International School of Sarajevo took a gold medal in the category Creative Writing and as an award got Samsung Tablet.

Amela Tufo, 1st grade student from International School of Sarajevo took a silver medal in category Creative Writing and as an award got Kindle Fire HD.

Sukejna Valjevac 4th grade student from Sarajevo College took gold medal in the category Science-Environmental Quality and as an award got Samsung Tablet.

Amina Talic and Ajla Sokol, 4th grade students from Sarajevo College took 4th place and Honorable mention in category Science-Resource and Energy.

During the competition our students had a chance to visit New York,to see amazing Niagara Falls, to meet students from all over the world and had a good time in Oswego University campus.

Students from Bosna Sema Educational Institutions participated in Science and Art project Olympiad GENIUS held in Syracuse, New York that was organized by State University of New York at Oswego 15th-20th of June.Our students achieved great success for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Ge

niu

s O

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pia

dInternational ResultsInternational Results

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HIPPO COMPETITION 2015The third International English language competition HIPPO 2015 gathered students and teachers from around the world. In an exciting preliminary round, which included 11.000 participants from Italy, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and Montenegro, our student Hana Arslanagić qualified for the final round in HIPPO 2 category.Prior to the final round, International school of Sarajevo hosted and coordinated the preliminary round on 14th of March and gathered around 60 students from our and other schools from Sarajevo region. There were five categories ranging from Hippo 1 to Hippo 5 with Reading, Listening and Writing parts.The final round was held in Lido di Jesolo, Italy and out of eight finalists in her category our Hana was awarded a silver medal. Hana is a perfect example of a dedicated, hard-working and intelligent young girl who we, as International school, are extremely proud of.Students from different countries opened their hearts and minds in order to share positive energy and thoughts. This International competition is organized and sponsored by Pearson and Global Input association and its certificate is internationally recognized.

HIPPO

International ResultsInternational Results

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“I think that Masters of English competition is really cool and well thought out competi-tion because it helps us practice and speak Eng-lish language fluently. I think it is fun to prepare speeches and research about different topics. This way, competition stimulates our re-searching and learning skills. Having all this said, I, as a winner of MoE Persuasive Speak-ing contest, am looking forward to the next Moe competition where

Masters of English 2015

Masters of English is English language competition in different categories organized annually by Bosna Sema Educational Institu-tions. This year’s Masters of Eng-lish brought together over 200 young language talents and their teachers from all over Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Each school sent 3-5 students to compete in different categories - General English Proficiency, Aca-demic Writing, Creative Writing, Spelling Bee, Debate, Persuasive Speaking, and English Champi-ons League. Students competed individually, except in the Debate and English Champions League where they participated in teams. In all 7 categories, young and en-thusiastic English language lovers showed outstanding skills. In a competitive but pleasant atmos-phere jury, spectators, contest-ants’ friends and family members had a lot of enjoyment watching young and inspiring debaters, speakers, grammarians, and writ-

ers in the race for medals.In the opening ceremony, head of English Department Mr. Mehmet Akdogan welcomed the attend-ees and emphasized the impor-tance of such event that brings together students from all Bosna Sema schools aiming to present and share their English language knowledge among their fellows.

In the break times halls were full of cheerful students participat-ing in plenty of corridor activities and enjoying in musical perfor-mances by our students musi-cians. As the day was passing, each category was gaining its best representatives. Competition finished with the award ceremony in the crowded school’s Cinema Hall.

The best ones were presented with medals, certificates and symbolic monetary awards which were handed over by esteemed members of Bosna Sema admin-istration as well as distinguished professors from English Language

MASTERS OF ENGLISH FINALISTS from INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF

SARAJEVO

CATEGORY NUMBERS OF FINALIST

STUDENTS

Spelling Bee 8

Debate Contest 16

Speaking Contest 7

English Champi-ons League Cup

9

Writing category participants

25

and Literature Department of International Burch University.

International School of Sara-jevo, as the host of this year’s competition, managed to win 30 medals. Our students, one more time, showed remarkable knowledge and performance and made their teachers proud.

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“I think that Masters of English competition is really cool and well thought out competi-tion because it helps us practice and speak Eng-lish language fluently. I think it is fun to prepare speeches and research about different topics. This way, competition stimulates our re-searching and learning skills. Having all this said, I, as a winner of MoE Persuasive Speak-ing contest, am looking forward to the next Moe competition where

“I think that Masters of English competition is really cool and well thought out competition because it helps us practice and speak English language fluently. I think it is fun to prepare speeches and research about different topics. This way, competition stimulates our researching and learning skills. Having all this said, I, as a winner of MoE Persuasive Speaking contest, am looking forward to the next Moe competition where I plan to participate in more than 1 category.”

Nur Bećirbegović-Gold Medal in Masters of English Persua-sive speaking contest.

B1 - Gulen Youth Platform

Armin Adzović SILVER

Uma Hamzić BRONZE

Tarik Imamović BRONZEB2 - Fountain

MagazineArmin Tanović BRONZEAdna Salihović BRONZEUma Hamzić BRONZE

C2 - Short Story Uma Hamzić GOLDC3 - Poetry Nedžad Spahalić BRONZE

Emina Zukic BRONZED1 - Spelling Bee - Middle School

Džan Bekrić GOLDAntonio Siepi SILVER

D2 - Spelling Bee - High School

Alan Ovčina BRONZE

E1 - Debate Contest -

Middle School

DebateNoHate

Esma Gogić, Ema Sato, Emina

Öztürk

GOLD

Unique Einstein

Antonio Siepi, Martina Baretto, Michaela Ramirez

BRONZE

F1 - Speaking Contest -

Middle School

Nur Bećirbegović GOLDHadil Abou El Ardat BRONZE

F2 - Speaking Contest -

High School

Uma Hamzić BRONZE

G1 - Eng-lish Champions League Cup - Middle School

The Unbeatables

Hadil Ardat, Alina Bushnaq, Emine

Duman

GOLD

The Braniacs Syedda Gilani, Narda Hardaga, Muhammed Enes

Subasi

BRONZE

G2 - Eng-lish Champions League Cup - High Schoo

ISS High School

Emir Hrelja, Din Buljević, Haris

Deleut

SILVER

ENGLISH EXTRA LESSONS

Depending on the availability of our teachers, our dedicated team is more than happy to help our students even on the weekends and after regular school time. Our administration sometimes arranges a timetable; however, even if it’s not prepared, our teachers are always open to find the best possible time with their students for extra lessons.

Extra lessons may target weak students to help them improve their level of English or offer an extra chance for the students to increase their mark or prepare them for some national or inter-national competition or offer a drama class...etc. In short, it has multiple purposes and the most significant part is to gain benefit out ot it.


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English Corner Presentation

SARAJEVO 2010

During the parent -teacher conference held in April, our students presented all the interesting activities they have been doing with their English teachers within the Bosna Sema English Department. While introducing to the parents and visiotors the materials they implement, books they read, and online platforms they use, students showed remarkable presentation skills and English language knowledge.

Parents were, one more time, informed about English course syllabus and with important methods and techniques our teachers utilize aiming to increase our students’ knowledge and to keep up with the latest trends in language teaching.

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International Association of Teachers of English as a For-eign Language (IATEFL) was held in Manchester this year. Our Head of English Department, Mr. Mehmet Akdogan, presented his paper titled “Listening Activities: Teachers and Students Think the same in Sarajevo?”. All the work presented is based on his classroom experience and the opinions and his students who were at 3rd and 4th grade last year.

Apart from his presentation, Mr. Akdogan met many schol-ars, teachers, professors from different parts of the world and made new connections. He also visited all of the main publishers and got information about the latest course-books, teaching methods, learning and teaching technol-ogies...etc. Moreover, he had the opportunity to visit the top publishers of English Language Teaching (ELT) world; namely, Cambridge University and its Press and Oxford University and its press.

As a member of the teaching community, he attended the conference as a participant last year and as a presenter this year and he came to our school with many useful and inno-vative ideas. We are looking forward to seeing more of our teachers in this kind of national and international events soon.

Head of Department’s IATEFL Presentation

Head of Department’s IATEFL Presentation

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Within the series of presentations and seminars from English Language Teaching professionals, EDISS (Eng-lish Department of International School of Sarajevo) hosted Assoc. Prof. Dr. Azamat A Akbarov, Dean of Faculty of Education at International Burch University on November 20, 2014. After a short personal and educational background introduction, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Akbarov delivered his pres-entation entitled ‘Academic Writing: Formatting a Paper’’. He first gave a brief information about what to do and what to avoid in writing a professional essay paper and then showed some hints on getting higher points. In short, he mentioned the following:

In the second part of his presentation, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Akbarov referred to one of the many competitions our students are planning to attend this academic year. He focused on the judging criteria and how to be success-ful for the particular competition. Our students participated in the following writing competitions this academic year: Fountain Magazine essay contest, Gulen youth platform essay contest, Genius olympiad writing contest, Scholar,s cup collaborative writing competition.The winners were announced at the closing ceremony of Masters of English Competition.

• The Writing Process Cycle• Writing an Essay Steps (Before)• Writing an Essay Steps (During)• Writing an Essay Steps (Final)• Academic vs Other Writing Styles• APA• Writing APA Parenthetical Text Citation• Citing an Electronic Source (Website)• Referencing• Quoting, Summarizing, and Paraphrasing

Academic Writing Seminar

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whyIloveEnglishI think that English is really in-teresting and fun. You can learn something new that you didn’t know. “

“I like English because we learn in-teresting and fun things. I also like it because the teacher is awesome and funny. I like her and English so much.”

“I need English in my life because I travel a lot. As a subject, I love it the most because of my teacher. English lesson is the best lesson in this school. I love English!”

“I like English because it is the lan-guage that most people know.”

“English rocks! It’s funny and inter-esting. Everybody learns it and so many different cultures can Bcom-municate through it and learn more things. It opens door of new, better world. I like it because it is COOL language. Go English!”

“I love English because I use it in everyday life. It is easy to learn it and to improve it.”

“I love English because I believe that it is the most important and the most unique language. I find it

obligatory to understand it as it is the main way of communication in today’s business world. It opens opportunities and lets us commu-nicate easier.”

“I like English because my teacher is so fun and she teaches English really good.”

“I like our English lessons because we can learn really interesting and useful things. It can also help us learn and advance our vocabulary. Learning in a fun way… It’s easy if we all give it a try.”

“I think that English is interesting and fun. You can learn things that you didn’t know. I really like Eng-lish because of the English teacher. She is fun, kind and she will help you with anything.”

“I like English lessons because of the projects and activities. I like to do projects and explanation of our teacher is great and you can under-stand everything.”

“Well, I love English firstly because I started learning it when I was five years old. It helps me communicate with people from all around the world because I friends in Africa, Turkey, Italy, etc.”

“English lesson offers a lot of op-portunities to compete in English language competitions. The teach-er is also quite skillful and she has a nice methodology. She also puts a lot of work into the lesson.”

“I like English because it helps me communicate and express my opinions. It’s fun with its own puz-zles. What I also like in English lesson is that we have a very funny and sweet teacher guiding us. Eng-lish is very useful and interesting subject.”

“I like English Free Studies the most because we read different stories and talk about our own. We also learn about things that are good for us.”

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Our students are always willing to spread love, give support and guidance to their fellow peers and to their teachers. One such example is their desire to participate in as many extra curriculum activities as possible including one recent celebration of an important date in our country-Statehood day. Our students showed talent, collaboration, respect and mutual understand-ing for each other and found time within their tight schedules to work on something together with their teachers.

Amela Tufo was one such student who wrote a poem about our country with such grace, talent and critical overview of everything that has been happen-ing nowadays and yet she managed to put emphasis on hope, love and friend-ship. She wished us all love, kindness and team spirit.

My country«Tell me more, about that country of yours.»

«About my country, you say. Lets just open a few doors.

After that, my story is all yours.»«There is not much to say, there is not much to hide. I guess we will all pray,

for this song to stay inside.»«There is not much to say, just one mountain or two. Or a few rivers, let's say,

and a couple of fish to go.»«We have a few bones unfined,

and bodies unidentified.Just a couple of crimes let's say,

or just a couple more.»«Knowing all this,

just makes you wonder.And makes you celebrate this birthday,

and a few bills to pay.»«But no matter, no matter.

You see, I am still here. Everything will be better,

For more than a couple of years.»«And to tell you about my country you ask.

You ask a lot my friend. Take this celebration as your task,

before we all end up dead.»

Amela Tufo

Let’s work together, shall we?

SARAJEVO 2010

DEPARTMENT We study smarter, not harder!cdn.bosnasema.ba/ihsinternationalschoolba/download_area/1645b2289d75e5... · DEPARTMENT We study smarter, not harder! A S 0 R AJEV O 2 0 1.

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