CDS Phoenix Rising
Cheongna Dalton High School's Weekly Newsletter
January 12th, 2020
From The Assistant Director
CDS Community,
I hope our students have had a restful and relaxing weeks long break and that they are ready to return to school for our third term! I certainly am looking forward to welcoming them back to campus tomorrow morning!
While there have been no classes over the past four months, Dalton students have still been quite busy! Following mid-year exams in December, a great deal of students participated in the fifth annual Dalton Model United Nations multi-day event held right here on campus. This was a great opportunity for students to explore new or existing passions, challenge themselves, collaborate, and have a lot of fun. It was a major success and one of the best DALMUN events to date!
We also sent 34 students to Chiang Mai, Thailand last week to give service to the local communities. For 7 days they worked hard building the foundation of a vocational training center, teaching English, planting trees, and gardening. As one of the chaperones I had the pleasure of seeing the impact our students made on the community they worked in. As a community that depends upon its tourism - the English language is seen as a way to immediately improve the local student’s prospects. While they teach English in schools, it is a rarity to learn from fluent speakers. Our students poured their hearts into their work receiving praise from the school principal, teachers, and the Rustic Pathways staff. Not only did the school faculty appreciate what our students did, but so did the children. The smiles on their faces, determination to learn, and playful attitude left their mark on our students. While these students gave up a week of their vacation and put forth a great deal of effort they received so much in return. I'm so proud of this group!
This week we will also be holding a parent information session on Friday the 17th at 1pm. This session is a special one, and we hope that ALL parents can join. We wish to tell you about some of the disciplinary changes that have been made as well as a new app we will be using to help inform our students and their parents. I really hope you all can join us. Please see the more detailed information about this below.
Have a wonderful day!
All the best,
Mr. Jason Musselman
Assistant High School Director
Winter Break Roundup
DalMUN in December
- Grace (Young Eun) Cho - Secretary General - Class of 2020
Service Learning In Northern Thailand
For the 4th time in our young schools history students headed to South East Asia with Rustic Pathways to serve others. This year students gave up the end of their winter break and headed to Chiang Dao, Thailand. While there they participated in a cultural exchange, helped pour the concrete foundation of a vocational skills training center, cultivated the grounds for about 20 coffee trees which they planted and much more. Here is what one student had to say about his experience this past week:
"Through Rustic, students received the joy of making an impact. In several group discussions, students often expressed how they thought the impact they made was not just one-way. While we surely gave a lot through great physical labor, we realized that we gained a lot as well. An example of this was teaching at a local elementary school in Thailand, from grades 1 to 6. Students had to pre-plan their lessons to show in front of a class. To do so, they had to put themselves into the shoes of the teacher. Having never taught before, and still being students themselves, teaching children was a very tough experience. The language barrier between the kids and the students made teaching even harder. The children’s enthusiasm and the huge smiles on their faces, however, made the experience truly worthwhile and heartwarming for all of us. Since Thailand is a country where tourism holds a significant portion of the economy, we recognized that teaching children basic English, or even sparking an interest to help them further learn the language, made an enormous impact on the children’s future lives.
Before the trip, I thought that with such a massive group of over thirty people, our individual effort would be less compared to the previous years. Everyone proved me wrong. We encouraged each other to work even harder, and by the end of the trip, I was shocked by all of the great accomplishments that were made by all of us. Through Rustic, we all found our inner strength to persevere in benefiting the surrounding environment. I made many great friends along the way, and I am grateful for such a wonderful experience."
- Charles Kim - Student Trip Leader - Class of 2020
Beyond service, students got the opportunity to experience a whole new culture, enjoy various cultural and historical sites, visit two night markets, white water raft and play with elephants at a sanctuary outside of Chiang Mai. It was an incredible trip!
Next years trip will be in January 2021 so mark your calendars if you were unable to make it this year!
Upcoming High School Events
Parent Information Session: What is PBIS & BehaviorFlip?
Before that launch we wish to fully inform parents about our current behavior policies (PBIS) as well as for what and how BehaviorFlip will be used.
We urge ALL parents to sign up for this application and attend this information session. If you are unable to sign up, deleted the email or did not receive an invite please contact the High School office for more information.
Parents should also note that the school plans to hold a monthly parent meeting during the third Friday of every Month from 1pm to 2:30pm.
Friday, Jan 17, 2020, 01:00 PM
Cheongna Dalton School, Gyeongseo-dong, Seo-gu, Incheon, South Korea
RSVPs are enabled for this event.
Cheongna Dalton School
Email: jmusselman@daltonschool.kr
Website: www.cdshighschool.kr
Location: Cheongna Dalton Foreign School, Gyeongseo-dong, Incheon
Phone: 82 32-563-0563
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cheongnadaltonhighschool/