“This year P6 faced a new challenge: going globalized with our blogging project! How was this done? BDS became a member of a group of school bloggers from different countries overseas that got together in a project called Quadblogging (http://quadblogging.net/). At the moment, we are exchanging posts and comments with three other schools: St. Marks from UK, Worsbrough Common (also, from UK), and Holy Cross from Canada. We even Skyped with Holy Cross on Monday 6th celebrating Music Monday, a global event connecting classrooms around the globe with the International Space Ship (ISS) in orbit.
Here are the words from Holy Cross, one of our blogging partners:
‘May 6, 2013 – Students from Holy Cross Catholic Elementary School teacher Ginette Toivonen’s grade 4/5 FI class have taken Music Monday global! The Holy Cross class has been blogging with students from Buenos Aires, Argentina over the last few months and on Monday, May 8th they sang along with them via Skype. The song “Is Somebody Singing” collaboratively written by Ed Robertson and Chris Hadfield is being shared with the world in hopes of uniting everyone through their love of music. Students in both countries feel very strongly about the importance of music education in their schools. Music Monday is an annual event that brings together thousands of students, musicians, parents and community members across the country (Canada), to celebrate the gift of music in our lives, on the same day at the same time’.

We had the wonderful opportunity of being part of this event, listening live to Chris Hadfield, one of the astronauts in the ISS, answering questions on what life is like in the International Space Ship. Representatives from all three P6s took part; actually nobody wanted to miss it! We continue exchanging ideas in the blog, of course.

Teachers María Laura Bargas, Gabriela Baro, Sandra Secchini & Alina Tomino (P6)

The pictures were taken in María Laura Bargas’ P6, while blogging with tablets. More pictures about the Music Monday event here“.

• We welcome our new members of staff, Prof. Carla Di Corleto, Full- time Teacher of Language and Literature in Middle and Senior, and Francisco Cobos, Senior Debate Coach, and wish them a very successful academic year.
• Another exciting round of Junior and Senior Debate has started, and students are getting ready for the Acorn Cup, which starts in May. Seniors meet on Tuesdays, from 4:15 to 5:45pm, and Juniors meet on Wednesdays at the same time. All students are invited.
• March 7^th was World Book Day, and the English Department devised an interactive board (but not of the virtual sort) that had students and teachers talking about their favourite books. Some very heated discussions were witnessed as one passed the board on the way to the patio!
• Prof .Janet Lenton has set up a Creative Writing Workshop for all those students in M&S who enjoy expressing themselves through stories and poetry. The groups meet every two weeks during school hours. We are looking forward to seeing their pieces in the school anthology!
• An Interhouse Public Speaking Competition was held at BDS on April 4^th. Maga Huberman (South), Martina Irarrazábal (East), Thomas Page (North) and Lucas Gold (West) presented their speeches on the subject Ideas are our Greatest Weapon, in front of an audience of S6 students and four teachers. Both the judges and the audience were touched by the content and the delivery of these speeches. Congratulations to all four participants!
• Last but not least, Lucas Gold, winner of the BDS Public Speaking Interhouse, delivered his speech at the National Competition, organized by the English Speaking Union (ESU). The event took place on April 23^rd at the British Embassy, in Buenos Aires. Lucas was accompanied by Prof. Marta Battaglia and by his father, Mr Oscar Gold. The British Ambassador, Mr John Freeman, declared that he was “impressed” by the outstanding level of all the participants and that it was a “humbling experience” to see how they had managed to master his native language. BDS is very proud of the dedication and enthusiasm which Lucas evidenced throughout the process. Well done!