Ms. Nielké Matthee is a dedicated educator specializing in Mathematics, Science, and Physical Education and Health (PEH). She graduated from Stellenbosch University in South Africa and has amassed seven years of teaching experience. Currently, she has been living in Hong Kong for three years. Known for her energetic and holistic approach, Nielké believes in creating an environment where learners can reach their full potential. We welcome her to AIS as our new Middle School Mathematics and Science teacher!

My husband, Mr. Martin, who is also a science teacher, and I sought to embrace a new challenge. We were eager to experience an international school environment where we could contribute meaningfully and make a difference.

I appreciate that the core values of the school align with my own beliefs and what I consider important in life. It is much easier to navigate life when one is guided by principles that resonate deeply, fostering a sense of community and connection rather than focusing solely on the individual.

My husband and family inspire me profoundly. They teach me the importance of love and gratitude for what I have. They challenge me to become a better person and to strive for righteousness. They instill in me the values of generosity and care for others. As my mother would say, when we give with the right hand, the left hand should remain unaware of the action.

I have a passion for netball; I enjoy both playing and educating others about the game. Additionally, I love traveling and engaging in outdoor activities with my husband. I also view cooking as a means of relaxation and a way to unwind.

Today, I had butter chicken accompanied by some vegetables for lunch.

I firmly believe that a smile has the power to change a person’s day. Life is not solely about grand gestures; it is the small, everyday moments that we recognize and acknowledge that can make a significant difference in the lives of others. Therefore my goal as a teacher is to make a meaningful impact.

Ms. Bridget Maher is originally from New Zealand but her father was a pilot so they lived all over growing up including LA, London and even Hong Kong for a short time in ’96. Ms. Maher went to university in Bristol, England before training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). She has a dog called Flora who is 14 this year! She joins us at AIS this year as our new Middle School Performance teacher!

I was looking for an adventure and a change in my career and remember my time in Hong Kong as a child very fondly. I saw a position advertised for MS Performance and was instantly drawn to it.

There is a real sense of community here. Everyone has been so welcoming and I’ve settled in quickly. The core values of Love, Knowledge and Justice really are imbued into the way we teach here which I love.

I like to play the piano after a long day to wind down. During my holidays I like to write and I finished my first screenplay over the summer. I’m also looking forward to doing some of the amazing hikes that HK has to offer.

I’m a creature of habit and have a marmite and cheese sandwich every day.

We’re pleased to welcome Mr. Martin Oosthuizen to the Middle School Science team! Originally from South Africa, Mr. Martin began his teaching career there before making the move to Hong Kong, where he has lived for the past three years. He brings with him not only a passion for science education but also a strong belief in the power of positivity and connection. Whether it’s through inspiring students in the classroom or reflecting around a campfire, Mr. Martin lives by the motto: “Don’t tell me the sky is the limit when there are footsteps on the moon.”

My wife and I have been living in Hong Kong for three years, and we were looking to make a difference in a more established school with a different curriculum. I strongly resonate with “Love” as one of the school’s core values, as I believe that love should be at the center of everything we do, which caught my attention.

I enjoy being at a school that drives innovation and has a strong focus on putting the well-being of every student first. I have experienced a very welcoming community, and I look forward to contributing to the community in a positive manner.

My wife and family back home. I believe life is all about the times you spend with your special people. Make memories while you can!

I enjoy being a coach and exploring the outdoors Hong Kong has to offer. When I have the time, I also enjoy reading!

Usually, what my wife makes (I am a very grateful and spoiled husband) – My ideal lunchbox is leftover “braai” (loosely translated to a BBQ but very different!) meat and a classic “braaibroodjie” (translated to a sandwich toasted on a grill) .

On Friday, March 7th, 2025, the members of AIS Eagles Robotics Team 5253A—David Yi, Kevin Chan, Nicholas Chan, and Runbo Zhao, all in Grade 8—sat down with Learning Activator and Middle School Robotics Coach Mr. Jeremy Green for an interview following their recent success at the Greater Bay Area Robotics Tournament held at Victoria Shanghai Academy on 22 February, 2025. Team 5253A had a spectacular run during the tournament, finishing 3rd overall out of a field of 33 teams from 14 different schools across the region. For reference, 5253 is AIS’s school code for VEX Robotics.

Congratulations on finishing 3rd in the Greater Bay Area Robotics Competition! This comes after finishing second overall in the AIS tournament and taking first place in the AIS driving skills challenge. How does it feel to have made it this far?

Nicholas: I am very proud of my team because I didn’t think we would make it this far. After looking at other teams’ robots, ours was the smallest one there! I am very happy that we were able to achieve this result.

Runbo: Me too! When I look at our robot and our code—especially since our code needed lots of adjustments throughout the season—I feel very proud. We tried our best, things went very well, and we actually made it to the finals in the GBA tournament! We couldn’t believe the smallest robot in the tournament made it that far!

David: I am very proud.

Kevin: I am very happy. Sometimes during practice and even in competition rounds, our robot didn’t always work as we intended. However, by responding quickly to problems and making necessary adjustments, we were able to make it to the finals.

What was the inspiration behind your robot’s design? Did you make any major adjustments throughout the season?

Nicholas: Runbo designed our robot himself. His idea was to build a smaller, faster robot. Our robot’s speed and maneuverability were much better than the larger bots, which used pneumatics kits for their intakes. Instead of throwing the balls into the goal like many other teams, our design allowed for direct placement, making our robot more precise.

The main adjustments throughout the season involved reinforcing weaker joints and refining the arm mechanism to move more freely when placing balls in the goal.

Runbo: The build was entirely my design, which gave me confidence because I knew how to fix it if something broke. The biggest adjustments were with the code—we had to keep revising it to make everything smoother and more responsive.

Can you tell us about your specific roles on the team? How did you divide responsibilities, and how did teamwork play a role in your success?

Runbo: I was the designer, builder, and driver.

Nicholas: I helped write some of the code and contributed to design ideas for the build. I was also responsible for strategizing with our alliance teams before each round.

David: I was the main coder. It took about a month to develop the base code for our bot.

Kevin: I helped with strategy and organization on tournament days.

Did you have any experience with robotics before joining VEX at AIS?

Runbo: I had experience building with LEGO kits, which helped me understand some basic robot design principles.

David: This was my first time doing robotics, and learning to code for VEX was a new challenge.

Kevin: This was also my first time, and I’m very thankful for Runbo’s leadership.

Nicholas: This was my first time as well. The biggest challenge was understanding the code and troubleshooting issues. The building process felt more intuitive.

How did you feel at the start of the GBA competition? Did those feelings change as the day went on? What were the biggest highs and lows of the event?

Runbo: At first, we thought we wouldn’t do well because our robot was much smaller than the others. However, once the matches started, we realized that many of the larger, more complex robots weren’t necessarily more effective. That gave us confidence.

Nicholas: Every single robot was bigger than ours! But as the day went on, we noticed that some teams had issues with mechanical failures due to their complex designs. We were happy that our reinforcements had paid off, making our bot stable and reliable.

What was the most valuable lesson you learned during the competition? Was there anything unexpected that challenged you?

Runbo: Never give up! At the start, we had balance issues that made our robot less effective. We adjusted by adding weight to the base, which slowed it down slightly but made it much more stable.

Nicholas: Teamwork and communication are essential. We saw teams that got frustrated when things went wrong, which only made their problems worse. When we faced setbacks, we discussed solutions and focused on improving in the next round.

VEX uses a unique format where teams must collaborate with another school instead of just competing against them. How do you feel about that aspect of the competition?

Nicholas: The format is great because it requires strategy discussions with other teams. We analyze each bot’s strengths and decide on the best roles for each team in a match.

Runbo: I agree. Collaboration makes the game more enjoyable. If we didn’t work with other teams, the competition would be very different, and it would change how we design our bot.

Kevin: Nicholas and I act as the team diplomats. We make sure we communicate effectively with other teams before each match.

Looking ahead to next year, what are some things you want to improve or do differently as a team?

Runbo: We need to improve our coding skills. If we create a more complex design, we’ll need stronger programming to support it.

Nicholas: Our robot design was strong this season, but we need to refine it further to improve scoring efficiency. If we aim for VEX Worlds in the USA, we’ll need to rethink some of our approaches.

What advice would you give to students interested in joining the robotics team but who might be nervous about getting started?

Nicholas: Just give it a try! It’s not as complicated as it seems. We take it step by step, and experienced students are always willing to help.

Runbo: Robotics can be competitive, but good teamwork and planning make it easier. It’s important to have a design, test it, and keep refining it.

What was your favorite moment from the competition?

Runbo: Scoring a season-high 97 points in a single round when paired with another high-ranking team!

Nicholas: That match put us in the top six, and we stayed there for the rest of the event. We knew we had to stay consistent to make the finals, so we worked hard to maintain our performance.

Does robotics align with your future plans? Do you plan to go into a computer science, engineering, or design-related field?

Nicholas: Robotics has sparked my interest in coding. I think I’ll study computer science.

Runbo: I love VEX Robotics, and I hope to pursue a career in engineering and robotics. Designing, building, and coding something that works is an amazing feeling.

David: I plan to study computer science. Coding for robotics has been a fascinating experience.

Kevin: I’ll probably study computer science in high school. It’s really interesting.

Congratulations again to Team 5253A on an incredible season! We look forward to seeing what you accomplish next year.

On March 28, 2023, Mr. Jeremy Green, the AIS Learning Activator, and Mr. Zachary Post, the AIS Middle School Principal, sat down with Xuan Ao (Steven) Liu and his mother, Esther Liu, to discuss his passion for art and a rare, out of this world, accomplishment. 

When did you first discover your passion for art?

S: I was very young! Probably around Grade 1. I enjoyed drawing for fun in my free time here at AIS.

What are your favorite art forms?

S: I prefer drawing cartoons, but when I want to draw properly, I enjoy sketching using pencils the most – sketching realistic stills such as scenes from nature or the city, even smaller items like fish and turtles. I have entered competitions for drawing Victoria Harbour and Lion Rock as well.

I really enjoy drawing scenes from the natural world, especially when I see complex or complicated things.

What’s the most complicated artwork you have created?

S: Definitely it’s the historical wild animal sketching that I have done. In total, a piece can take me up to 30 hours to complete. That was for an art school competition. 

Have you ever tried digital art?

S: I have tried but I find digital art to be more complicated as I have to relearn the tools in order to create. I prefer the traditional methods. 

Who are your favorite artists?

S: I honestly don’t know many artists that I really like. Many of the artists I have studied usually use humans as the subject of their artwork and since I have not yet begun to draw humans, it’s more difficult for me to relate my interests with their work. I’m just not there yet. The closest I have drawn to a human subject is a character from “Pirates of the Caribbean” and some “Dog Man” comics.

I would say my biggest influences have been my mom and dad and my art teacher Ms. Shackleton. My dad is an architect and has encouraged me to create drawings a lot since I was a child. Both of my parents often give me ideas for making my artwork more unique.

Mrs. Liu, are you an artist as well?

E: Not this kind of art, but I actually have a Masters in Opera.

Steven, since you have been here at AIS since EC2, you are a great person to speak about how the school promotes creativity and builds confidence for creating.

S: The art teachers here are amazing! They give me a lot of freedom and ownership over the types of art that I want to create. They provide materials and guidance but I get to create what I want. Right now in art we are practicing still life.

What types of contests have you been involved with and what awards have you won?

S: I have been involved in some competitions here at AIS, including the Literacy Week Bookmark Contest for 2022-23 and the Winter Fair Poster Contest for December 2022. I also received honors from the International Youth Art Exhibition Repin Academy of Fine Arts in June, in July I won the 2022 Youth Artwork Competition of China and French from the Sino-French Youth Art Competition, and I have received honors from the CEIBS Youth Pioneer Art Competition, Central Academy of Fine Arts Foreign Art Education Exchange Center, China Academy of Art Wangjing Creative Competition Center, and the China Academy of Art.

It’s really cool that your artwork has been sent to space! What was your motivation to join the Tian Gong Painting Exhibition?

S: The rockets! Ever since I was very young, I have enjoyed spacecraft and rockets. I love astronomy.

At the time of the competition, the Winter Olympics were being held in Beijing so I decided to create a painting around that theme to celebrate how China had successfully arranged the event and built the stadiums for it.

How did you feel when you got the results that you had finished second?

S: I felt really good, but I honestly was expecting to finish in first place. With more experience, I hope to get first place when I am older. 

Are you thinking about being an artist in the future?

S: Yes, thinking about it. I would love to study art in Cambridge. 

Mrs. Liu, how have you motivated Steven in his artistic endeavors and what advice would you give to parents with younger children who want to get them more involved in art?

E: In the beginning, I had no specific idea for giving him motivation to pursue art, but I just helped him to develop some ideas and did not give him any rules or limitations. It was just about ideas, the freedom to draw. Ever since EC2 with his first teacher, Mr. Wise, who encouraged Steven to draw in his free time because he saw that he had potential. His first real direct encouragement to draw came from Mr. Wise.

The second teacher is Ms. Shackleton, his Middle School Art Teacher. By this age, during parent-teacher conferences, I began to express areas that I wanted to guide Steven’s progress in and she was very supportive and was happy to guide Steven in the areas that we requested. She is very supportive and always says Steven has lots of potential. Because of their encouragement, Steven now attends art classes outside of school as well for more intensive training. He’s been attending them for two years now.

Steven also spent a lot of time during COVID school closures taking online classes for sketching and his skill improved a lot during that time.

Lastly, Steven, if someone was interested in getting into more serious drawing, where would you suggest for them to start?

S: Just grab a notebook and a pencil and bring them with you during the day. Try to sketch whatever you see that you find interesting. If it doesn’t look good, it’s okay. You can always redraw it and keep redrawing it until you develop an understanding of lines and shading. There’s lots of great YouTube videos that offer tutorials. You can also try to practice drawing things you see in your books, like comics. 

So, just don’t be afraid to give it a try and it doesn’t have to be perfect, just keep working on it.

What would happen to learning if you collapsed the timetable, paired teachers, and co-designed community and passion driven projects? This is what American International School does for one week each year with its “PBL intensives.” It is now in iteration 3.0.

The results have been incredible…

Teachers have re-configured their classrooms to be more learner-centered. Built partnerships for learning experiences with the community to make them more authentic. Invited student voice and agency to ensure learning meets their needs. In short, it’s transformed the culture around teaching and learning.

Zachary Post, the Middle School Principal was at the helm of these PBL intensives. I sat down with Zach to learn a bit more about them, and how we can use a week off the timetable to accelerate, onboard, and ‘power up’ PBL on our own campuses as well.

Congratulations to the completion of our 2021-22 academic year! We are extremely proud of our learning community for making this a special year despite the incredible challenges we faced. We came together and never gave up. We acted with kindness and we committed to excellence. Thank you for staying strong. As always, we celebrate our students’ achievements on the last day of the academic year with an End of Year Awards Ceremony.

Find all photos from the End of Year Award Ceremonies here! 

Our Expected School-wide Learning Results (ESLRs) Awards are given to students who exemplify what being an AIS student should strive to be. The Empowered Thinker is a student who accesses and critically evaluates information, demonstrates flexibility, creativity and innovation, applies learning to real life situations, and is reflective. The Global Citizen is a student who values and respects diversity, makes a positive difference, assumes responsibility, and is action-oriented. The Effective Communicator is a student who listens actively, organizes ideas to produce clear and coherent writing, uses appropriate media to convey messages, and is articulate. Lastly, the Well-Rounded Individual is a student who leads an active, balanced and healthy lifestyle, embraces new opportunities and challenges, works well both independently and collaboratively, and is engaged.

The school emblem, the Eagle, is a universal symbol of strength, endurance and pride that unites our community under the motto Justice, Knowledge and Love. These students chosen by faculty for the Eagle of the Year award demonstrate the core values of our school and embody the qualities of our ESLR’s of Global Citizenship, Empowered Thinking, Effective Communication and being a Well-Rounded Individual.

G5 Eagle of the Year	G6 Eagle of the Year	G7 Eagle of the Year	G8 Eagle of the Year
Nga Kiu C.	Melis O.	Sarthak C.	Anna Wing Lam L.

The Justice, Knowledge, and Love awards are based on our Core Values. The Justice Award celebrates students who are fair, open-minded, honest, and responsible. The Knowledge Award celebrates students who engage in the pursuit of truth, and who actively develop the skills needed to successfully investigate the world. And lastly, the Love Award celebrates students who are united within AIS, including whole-hearted cooperation, collaboration, kindness, and school spirit.

The school emblem, the Eagle, is a universal symbol of strength, endurance and pride that unites our community under the motto Justice, Knowledge and Love. These students chosen by faculty for the Eagle of the Year award demonstrate the core values of our school and embody the qualities of our ESLR’s of Global Citizenship, Empowered Thinking, Effective Communication and being a Well-Rounded Individual.

G9 Eagle of the Year	G10 Eagle of the Year	G11 Eagle of the Year	G12 Eagle of the Year
Edward Frederick C.	Angelo Hyoung June P.	Maia I.	Palak Utsav G.

Our Expected School-wide Learning Results (ESLRs) Awards are given to students who exemplify what being an AIS student should strive to be. The Empowered Thinker is a student who accesses and critically evaluates information, demonstrates flexibility, creativity and innovation, applies learning to real life situations, and is reflective. The Global Citizen is a student who values and respects diversity, makes a positive difference, assumes responsibility, and is action-oriented. The Effective Communicator is a student who listens actively, organizes ideas to produce clear and coherent writing, uses appropriate media to convey messages, and is articulate. Lastly, the Well-Rounded Individual is a student who leads an active, balanced and healthy lifestyle, embraces new opportunities and challenges, works well both independently and collaboratively, and is engaged.

The Emory Book Prize was created by The Emory University Hong Kong Alumni to recognize American International School’s talented students and to raise awareness of the many things that make Emory University a top destination for students seeking an education in the US.

The AmCham Charitable Foundation Prize Book Award was established by the American Chamber of Commerce in 1986. A prize book and check for HK$1,000 is presented to each awarded student in the next graduating class who combines excellence in scholarship with achievements in community service, leadership, and other related fields.

The Harvard Book Prize is one of the highest awards a school can make to a student in the junior class”. As defined by the Harvard Alumni Association, the Book Prize is to be awarded to an outstanding student in the next-to-graduating class who “combines excellence in scholarship and high character, with achievements in other fields.

The EARCOS Global Citizen of the Year Award comes with a prize from the East Asian Region Council of Overseas Schools, and an opportunity to apply for a grant to sponsor a service project of the student’s choice. This student is selected for being a proud representative of his/her nation while respectful of the diversity of other nations, has an open mind, is well informed, aware and empathetic, concerned and caring for others encouraging a sense of community and strongly committed to engagement and action to make the world a better place. Finally, this student is able to interact and communicate effectively with people from all walks of life while having a sense of collective responsibility for all who inhabit the globe.

From December 9, 2021 until the fifth wave of COVID moved AIS online, Grade 5 and 6 students in music classes taught by Mr. Robert Kilvington-Shaw (Mr. K-S) worked with a class set of iPads on a unit about notation using the app Staff Pad. Following the work of Dr. Ruben R. Puentedura, who outlined different degrees of classroom technology integration, Mr. K-S’s goal was not to simply substitute traditional hand-written musical notation, but to augment the learning of notation with an enhancement.

In the past, Mr. K-S would teach the various lengths of notes, and students would have to rewrite notes in various rhythms that still added to the original number of beats. Students learned that one whole note was the same as two half notes and was also equivalent to four quarter notes.

“There’s a debate in musical education circles at this age and stage as to whether we should give them standard notation at all as it can be a huge barrier to learning. It’s like saying we’re going to speak Spanish by learning the grammar rather than just speaking Spanish.”

— Mr. Robert Kilvington-Shaw, MS Music Teacher

“There’s a debate in musical education circles at this age and stage,” Mr. K-S noted, “as to whether we should give them standard notation at all as it can be a huge barrier to learning. It’s like saying we’re going to speak Spanish by learning the grammar rather than just speaking Spanish.” However, Mr. K-S saw the value of teaching it with Staff Pad on the iPads because it connected input of notation with the output of the rhythm it symbolized by digitally playing back what they had written.

Through this work, students have developed aspects of AIS’s Expected Schoolwide Learning Results. Their aural identification and listening for understanding as well as organization of ideas created opportunities to strengthen their Effective Communication skills and they continued to grow as Well-Rounded Individuals through the new opportunities and challenges they experienced.

Unfortunately, the fifth wave of COVID brought the iPad lessons to an abrupt halt. Mr. K-S had envisioned taking the notation work with Staff Pad to then apply their skills of writing on the GarageBand app and have students write their own music on various instruments.

From October 25, 2021 to November 19, 2021, Grade 7 and 8 students in Ms. Isabel Law’s Engineering, Design, and Innovation class worked with a class set of iPads during their unit on Algorithms and Programming as well as their unit on Design and Technology. Students worked with three major apps on the iPads. One was the Lego Spike Prime app that provides Block Programming, Proper Programming (Python), and Building Guide options to help students’ learning.

In Grade 8, students used the Thunkable app on the iPad, a free, user-friendly tool for beginners to learn how to develop an app. Thunkable is a Block Programming based tool with a variety of layout options for app developers. It’s an easy way to learn app development without a proper programming background knowledge and syntax structures. Students also used the Mimo app that has templates for beginners to learn basic HTML and CSS programming. Mimo is an Integrated Development Environment app, which contains a built-in “preview in browser” function so website developers can easily render their webpages and make corresponding amendments while constructing websites.

Students are expected to put together their basic skills that they learned in each small unit in the EDI class. They then develop a final project by following the Design Thinking Framework. Here are the steps that to help students to developed as Empowered Thinkers and Effective Communicators, two of our Expected Schoolwide Learning Results:

All projects have different stages of work that involve Social, Personal, and Applied Learning, AIS’s Learning Models. Students have to use different apps and tools from the iPads to capture their learning evidence and be able to use it as an effective communication tool. i.e. airdrop photos and/or videos after editing on iPads for their group or individual work, developing blueprints and design screens by using Apple Pen and specific apps, testing the app development results on iPad as a mobile device. They must work together for some projects, assess individually through applying discrete skills in their final projects.

All projects have different stages of work that involve Social, Personal, and Applied Learning, AIS’s Learning Models. Students are able to be Creative Communicators and Innovative Designers and make connections with the real world or society.

Not only are these skills important for EDI but transferable to the future. Students are able to be Creative Communicators and Innovative Designers and make connections with the real world or society. They are able to apply their design cycle skill when developing a project idea by using the Design Thinking Framework. The design techniques such as Colors, Typography, Layout and Compositions and Images that they learned in the EDI class are benefits for any presentation work.

From November 15th to November 19th, 2021, AIS Early Childhood and Elementary School students developed their love for literacy. Not only were there daily events, but homeroom classes had a variety of activities from a Literacy Week Choice Board from which to choose as well.

On Monday, ES teachers dressed up as book characters. 

On Tuesday, children’s illustrator and author of Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea and Rot: The Cutest in the World Ben Clanton virtually illustrated with Grade 1-4 students exploring the creation of hybrid characters. Following Mr. Clanton, New York Times best-selling author/illustrator of The Dot, Peter H. Reynolds, zoomed in on Wednesday to share the power of storytelling to develop our AIS key mindset of confidence. Not only did Mr. Reynolds offer a read aloud, but Middle School students joined classes from early childhood to G4 to read aloud to the students in a beautiful cross-divisional collaboration. 

On Thursday, the Early Childhood team took a school favorite book, Michael Rosen’s “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” and transformed the area around the EC castle to all the locations of the bear hunt ending in EC2 TA Mr. Phong Nguyen hiding in a tent-converted cave pretending to be the bear.

While Monday was reserved for teachers to dress in costume, on Friday, our ES students wore character costumes bringing their favorite characters to life. In addition to the daily activities, students were able to participate in choice board activities such as mystery read-alouds, blackout poetry, story walks, Bingo for books, and a communal poetry activity where students wrote poems on a leaf and added it to an ES school poetry tree. Besides activities, students competed in both a grade wide illustration contest and a class door decorating contest too. The entries were overwhelming and clearly reflect the talented student body of AIS. Congratulations to Class 4M for their winning door based off of the book Stuck by Oliver Jeffers. 

Thank you to the hard working AIS Literacy Team members including Ms. Amber Stice (EC2), Ms. Mary-Jean du Plessis (Gr1Jr), Ms. Miki Akaishi (G1), Ms. Heather Gibbs (G2), Ms. Natalia Capacho-Suarez (G4), Ms. Katy Smith (G4), and Ms. Rosa Park (Library).

While ES was buzzing with a love for literature, Middle School also celebrated Literacy Week with their own set of activities. 

On Monday, MS kicked off the week with “Hats Off to Reading!” where students and staff wore hats throughout the day. There were also Wanted Posters in the courtyard and in Humanities classes, students created poetry from pictures.

While ES had a visit from Ben Clanton and Peter H. Reynolds, in MS, New York Times best-selling author Kelly Yang visited virtually and shared how her experiences living in Hong Kong and immigrating to the United States influenced many of the characters of her young adult novels. Students also created book spines and played scattergories in Humanities classes. 

“I am Comfortable Reading!” was the theme for Wednesday where students and staff wore their house shirts so they could read comfortably during “D.E.A.R.” or Drop Everything And Read in class.

Thursday’s theme was “Sock it to Me with a Good Book!” so students and staff wore fun socks. In advisory, students played a Kahoot! to find out what books their teachers were reading while they had a Literacy Trivia House Competition in Humanities. On the last day of Literacy Week, students and staff could be found wearing bright colors as the theme was “Get Lit’erature!” In conjunction with ES and HS, students that joined this Charitable Free Dress Day donated HKD$20 for a grand total of HKD$11,502 which was donated to the Nepal Moonlight School. 

Mr. Anthony Goga (G5/6 Humanities), Mr. Rafi Khader (G5/6 Humanities), and Ms. Erin Durrant (G7 Humanities) formed the MS Literacy Week Team who thoroughly enjoyed engaging the MS scholars in different literacy activities that they don’t always get to enjoy each day. This was an opportunity to celebrate the use of language in all its different forms. They took great joy in reading and writing at AIS! It is truly the heart of their day.