Friday, 15th December, 2017

Dear Faculty,

We have one last week of 2017 together. Let’s make it a great one. Here are some ways you (our ES faculty) brainstormed for how we can all show gratitude for one another; which ones can you apply next week?

We challenge everyone to create a gratitude goal for our final week of 2017.  Lori and I are in. Are you? 

-   -   Email a quick 1-2 lines with praise.

-  - Leave a post-it note with praise after seeing someone do something great (co-teacher or someone whose classroom you happen to be in).

-   - Liking a tweet to show support of a colleagues’ practices.

-   - Leave a card with a compliment in someone’s mailbox.

-   - Stop and say “hey. I enjoyed…”

-   - Remembering to say thank you.

-  - We can give praise to each and everyone - be it a colleague, student a co-worker or any staff. - Similarly it can come from anyone right from the top to the least.

-  - Keryn always welcomes thank yous to include in her weekly blog.  (Editor’s note...yes please!)

Speaking of...Thank yous… (don’t forget to let us know if there is someone you’d like to recognise…)

• ·         5th Grade - amazing visibility with the inquiry framework - kids are connecting with it too!
• ·         The coaches for their ‘treats’ for teachers this week
• ·         Everyone who is participating in Secret Santa - adding a little extra joy to these last weeks
• ·     Jenny and Samantha who attended the Grade team meeting this week to cover for Lily and Deepa
• ·   Finny, Vasanth and Sarah for all the attention and preparation for the upcoming winter performances
• ·       Nigel for being available to help with our ES treasures
• ·      Thank you to Hilary for all of the hard work she puts into helping the third grade team and for being so extremely dedicated that she was willing to help us from home while out sick with the stomach flu. Above and way beyond!!
• ·       Grade 2 teachers would like to thank Rachael & Carl, for helping our children plan and present their museum pieces for our Museum of Identity & Personal History. They would also like to thank Anu & Bindu for accompanying us on our field trips and working collaboratively to integrate our Social Studies unit into the Indian Studies Classroom.
• ·    And thanks, too, to the grade 2 team who guided their students in creating meaningful individual expressions of their identities and personal histories. If you haven’t seen the displays, they’re up in the FAC atrium until Tuesday.

Holiday Read Aloud Thank Yous!

As a end of calendar year read aloud, please sign up here to have Keryn, Lori, Rachael, Jet, Hilary, Carl or Alex come and read to your class for 15-20 minutes!  Consider this a gift of time - you can go and sit in the wellness oasis and have a massage, have a coffee, visit a colleagues class, read or simply relax.  Or you can stay for the read aloud fun.  We will come in to specialist or homeroom classes. Sign up for your block here.

#AdoptaGarden project

Calling all gardening/eating enthusiasts!  We have several unclaimed garden beds out the back of the FAC just   waiting for children to experiment with and grow stuff in!  Combined with the optimal weather and growing season in January/February we are excited to present the Adopt a Garden opportunity.  

Any faculty member who would like to adopt a garden bed can.  Expectations are minimal.  We will take care of all the weeding, maintenance, watering etc, and all you need to do is visit the garden once per week to watch it grow.  You could take your whole class or a group, whatever is easiest and if you need help making this ‘fit’ - together we will make a plan for how this can happen.  You may drop a lesson once per week in a traditional subject area - learning will still happen in the garden!  Maybe this connects with an upcoming unit, measuring in math, experimenting or just hands on experiential learning. We can help you make this happen because we believe in it.

What are the options?

-   - Grow a Pizza Garden

-   - Salad Days Garden

-   - Farmers Market Garden

- Butterfly Garden

We have an outside consultant, Priya, who will give teachers all the PD and support they need for the above options as well as come in once per week to assist with any growing pains.  (pun intended)

Interested? Send Keryn a direct email with which project you are interested in and we will get this started after January break.

Secret Santa ends on Thursday

Reveal who you are...or not...and don’t forget a final gift to be delivered on Thursday!  Thank you to everyone who participated!

Winter performance clothing FYI - this was sent to parents today:

For the upcoming winter performances, children should wear holiday inspired clothing; nice clothes in holiday colors-red, green, blue, gold, white.

In addition, as there is already a lot of instruction lost next week with rehearsals and performances, please do not ask to take your classes to watch the other grade levels performances. All grade levels will get to perform and watch their own grade(s) performances.

Music classes - week of 18th - 21st Dec (repeat announcement)

No regular music classes next week; all music teachers are involved in rehearsals each day and so your class will receive their music time through rehearsals and also the actual winter concert.  TAs should support children at these rehearsals in the FAC - schedule found here
If this affects your planning or meeting blocks, please work with your TA to keep the class going!

WIDA testing

We have several new children joining after the break, many of whom will need to be WIDA tested.  Please know that EAL teachers will need to make themselves available to do this during the first few days of the new academic year.

Meet AISC - Bindu Krishnamurthy - Indian Studies Teacher

Born and raised in Chennai, Bindu teaches Indian Studies in the Elementary School.  Dancing and music are her primary interests, and she learnt Bharatnatyam for eight years. Interest in music kindled her love for languages, and she speaks English, Tamil and Hindi fluently as well as a little bit of French. Bindu is also very passionate about inner transformation. She been practising Heartfulness meditation for over 12 years and is a certified trainer. She volunteers at universities, corporates, villages, government offices and in several other communities to teach Heartfulness.

Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow night at our holiday party.  Hope many of you can make it!

Warmly,

Keryn & Lori