Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Have a wonderful long weekend whether you are staying here in Chennai, or heading off for this extended weekend. Please know we are very thankful that you are here in the ES with us, and for everything you do daily to make this a wonderful place for all our students.
Remember to thank others too! We head into a very busy time of year, so remember we are all working from places of good intentions, and as Ralph Marston said “What if you gave someone a gift, and they neglected to thank you for it-would you be likely to give them another? Life is the same way. In order to attract more of the blessings that life has to offer, you must truly appreciate what you already have.”
Working with Data
For the next faculty meeting (November 30th) each team will be able to work on an area of curriculum of their choice, with strong encouragement to work on an area including data analysis. Here are some suggested areas:
- On demand analysis and implication for future unit teaching points/small group instructions
- Pre/post bridges assessments
- Analysing existing (or recent) running record data and thinking ahead to next guided reading groups
- Looking at current and upcoming social studies/science unit. How are student responses or formative assessment being used to determine further lessons/engagements for the students
Running Record Data
As we near the end of the semester, we would like to enter the Running Record assessment data you have into our Learning Analytics programme. Please make sure all current data collected this year is up to date for all of your learners by Monday, December 12 on your spreadsheet. Please then share these with Cheryl.
Home Learning Draft policy
Just a heads up that the homework committee have a draft new personalised homework policy. This will be previewed with PCA reps for any additional perspectives to be considered before we unpack this as a faculty. After we have done this and heard everyone’s feedback, then it will be distributed to all families.
Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony
Our ES choir will be singing at the Christmas Tree Lighting at the Hyatt Regency on Monday Dec 5th. In a change from previous years, the hotel will be providing food and soft drinks only. We encourage as many teachers as possible to attend to support our students.
Emergency Drill
As per the schedule, our second emergency exercise for this year will be conducted on December 01st (Thursday) at 09:00hrs. It will be a bomb threat evacuation situation.
Situation: Evacuation to Safe Haven due to bomb threat incident.
Please refer to the email sent on Wednesday 23rd.
Inquiry book club reminder - from Rachael
As discussed in the November 2nd Inquiry session, we are excited to offer three book clubs to facilitate and spark discussion, learning, and integration of conceptual understanding in our classrooms. Please see the surveys below to indicate interest. Please know space is limited, as well as meeting day and time majority interest will be honored. Thank you, and I look forward to working with you on this exciting initiative!
Hour of Code - From our IT team
Each year the largest single learning event in history gets bigger, and we hope to get even more learners involved. From December 5-9, children and adults all over the world, including our school, will devote at least one hour to learning how our digital world works.
Coding is constructive play, or what we call hard fun. When we code we use critical thinking skills such as design, analysis, evaluation, and problem solving to be creative while having fun. With code we can be entrepreneurs, artists, communicators and collaborators to name just a few.
We will continue to offer you and your students opportunities during regular class time as well as lunch and after school. There are connections to nearly all content areas, even programming synthesized loops in music and writing choose your own adventure stories.
We invite learners from all grade levels to participate and share in the fun. Here are some ways you can get your learners involved.
- Book some time with your Tech Coach to discuss ways to integrate coding into your curriculum to enhance a lesson or unit.
- Book a slot in the HS or ES/MS CIC and bring your learners there to explore stations set up with different challenges
- Encourage your learners to visit the CICs / FAC Cafeteria at lunch for some organized fun (ES to the CIC, MS/HS to the FAC cafeteria)
- Simply send this link to your kids and give them some time explore. https://studio.code.org/
Upcoming Dates For Your Calendar
Nov 24-25 Thanksgiving break - enjoy!
Nov 30 Wednesday Afternoon Meeting: Section Meeting (In teams)
Dec 1 Emergency Drill (see email sent)
Dec 1-2 Sherriden Masters visits AISC (new DTI)
Dec 2 Grades 3-5 Celebration of Learning 8:45
Dec 2 RISE Event 2:30
Dec 3 Strategic Plans Futures Summit 9:00-12:30
Staff Holiday Party @7:00pm
Dec 5 Christmas Tree Lighting at the Hyatt Regency
Dec 5-9 Grades 3-5 Art Exhibition
Nov 24-25 Thanksgiving break - enjoy!
Nov 30 Wednesday Afternoon Meeting: Section Meeting (In teams)
Dec 1 Emergency Drill (see email sent)
Dec 1-2 Sherriden Masters visits AISC (new DTI)
Dec 2 Grades 3-5 Celebration of Learning 8:45
Dec 2 RISE Event 2:30
Dec 3 Strategic Plans Futures Summit 9:00-12:30
Staff Holiday Party @7:00pm
Dec 5 Christmas Tree Lighting at the Hyatt Regency
Dec 5-9 Grades 3-5 Art Exhibition
Dec 14 Grades PreK - 2 Winter Concert 2:00 - 3:00
Dec 15 Grades 3 - 5 Winter Concert 2:00 - 3:00
Dec 16 Holiday Assembly 8:45-9:30
Dec 16 Last day of School before the Winter Break (regular school hours)
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Keryn & Lori