Re: ISY High School Week Without Walls trips

Dear Parents,
We are pleased to be contacting you regarding the upcoming Week Without Walls trips taking place in the High School during the month of February 2010. As you know, all ISY High School students participate in five-day, four-night trips to various locations around Myanmar for the purpose of experiential learning, developing learning skills and contributing to community service projects in the country. This trip is an important component to our ISY international school experience and helps students to learn more about themselves and the world they live in. The experience also helps students to draw clear connections between what we study in school and how our work is applied to the real world. These trips are a part of our program from Gr. 6-12 for all students at ISY.
All trips have already been paid for through your 2009-2010 tuition fees. Your son or daughter will be involved in one of the following trips from Monday the 8th to Friday the 12th of February 2010:

Grade 9 students.................................Mandalay

Grade 10 students................................Inlay region

Grade 11 students................................Kalaw

Grade 12 students................................Myauk Oo

All trips will be undertaken with at least five chaperones including an ISY trip leader, a native Myanmar speaker from ISY, a certified doctor and at least two other ISY HS staff. Trips will all be coordinated and planned to provide maximum safety and security for our students while at the same time being educationally sound, sometimes physically challenging and always intellectually stimulating.
Over the next few weeks, ISY High School students will be engaged in helping to plan their activities during these trips and will be working with faculty to create dynamic and sustainable community service projects in the surrounding areas that will benefit our learning community and make a lasting impact on our student's lives.
Parents are asked to talk to their children about their participation on the trips and to discuss how they can work to make a difference for the ISY community and the community they will serve during the trip. We expect parents to be available to:

a) Attend an informational meeting (time and date to be announced).
b) Sign and return the permissions slip for the trip.
c) Communicate with their child about positive trip expectations.
d) Provide support to their child to attend the trip (some spending money and also help with packing and getting to and from school or the airport on the days of the trip).

We are very excited about planning these trips and will be looking forward to seeing you at our informational meetings. We thank you for all your help as we plan and organize.

Sincerely,

Jim Gerhard
MS/HS Principal
International School Yangon