Bulletin #23 | February 25th, 2020

 

Most educators agree that one of the most authentic real-life educational experiences available to schools is the so-called Model United Nations program.
The first of these events took place in 1949 in the US and the idea quickly spread. The JFK began offering this in the early 1990s in Middle School, but was stopped temporarily in 2004 and was revamped and established the following year in High School where it has been popular ever since.

 

Model United Nations (MUN) is designed as a simulation of the real United Nations. Participants are allocated to one of various committees to discuss and debate real life issues facing the world. The students all have to assume the role and real-life position of their allocated country, representing authentically the opinions and actions of the delegates as they would be in the real United Nations meetings. Students spend months researching and preparing their ‘position-papers’ so that they can debate the issues of their committee staying true to the role they are playing of real delegates. At the end of the event best-performing delegates are recognized with awards as ‘Best Delegates’ or ‘Best Delegation’ (for a school).

 

Since we began the new High School MUN we have grown to include once more our Middle School, and since last year we have even started to involve 5th graders too!

By establishing our own event each October (Union and Peace), we encouraged other schools in Queretaro to join us and then create their own events. In this way we have helped the development of a group of about 10 schools here in Queretaro in order for many students across the city to compete locally with other schools. We also compete nationally with many other ASOMEX schools. Union and Peace is now a recognized ASOMEX event and attracts students from across the country. I have also received enquiries from schools as far as Costa Rica and Guatemala. Although we are yet to have an impact internationally, we are on the way there!

 

Over the years we have won many ‘Best Delegation’ awards and countless students have been successful as ‘Best Delegate’. After winning consecutively in such an event in Puebla we were approached by Georgetown University in Washington and invited to participate in their event. After three years at Georgetown we were honored last year to be invited to New York, to perhaps the world’s most prestigious MUN event including a session in the actual United Nations General Assembly Hall!

 

Earlier this month, a group of our students participated once again at Georgetown, and they all had an incredible time and learned a lot. We also participated in Monterrey and proudly won several awards: Matilde Cueto and Maxime Bron were awarded Honorable Mention, and Felipe Rubio took home a Best Delegate. All of you did an amazing job representing JFK while discussing global issues. What an incredible opportunity for those students and such an honor for our school!

 

We keep on building on our successes as a school and looking for more opportunities to help each of our students to develop their interests and talents in as many ways as possible. This is all part of helping to build on elements of our Mission: Leading and Serving, as well as moving on with our Vision of Achieving the Extraordinary!

 

• International Fair. We had a very nice ceremony for Mexican Flag Day on Monday where we honored not only the Mexican flag, but all the flags of our multicultural community. We had three Preschool students participate in the flag parade: Mia from Russia, Leo from Australia and Yoshany from Dominican Republic. Many other families helped to support the stand from their countries in the international fair. Hopefully, this will be a tradition that continues to grow at our school. Thank you for your participation!
  
  
• Click here to see Flag ceremony photo gallery 
  
  
• Click here to see International Fair photo gallery

• Next week from Monday to Friday, March 2 to 6, we have the very important Stanford standardized tests. They measure how your child is doing in all English subjects.
  
  
• JFK relies on Stanford to provide an objective, unbiased account of students' abilities.
  
  
• Doing poorly on the Stanford test could mean that your child will miss out on academically advantageous opportunities in the future. The results go with him or her to our Middle School and High School, and are the most important indicator when other schools call me to ask about a child’s performance (even more important than their grades).
  
  
• To ensure that your child's Stanford performance accurately reflects his or her abilities, help your child in some simple pre-Stanford routines:
  
  
  • Read together. Children who read do better on tests. Our children who finish the JFK Reads program score on average much higher than those who did not.
  • Tell your child that you want him or her to do well on these tests because they will have a major impact on his or her future.
  • Tell your child that you believe that he or she can do well on the test
  • Get a full night’s sleep so he or she is fresh and ready for the test.
  • Eat a good breakfast