Friday, August 17, 2018

Dear All,

A very soft start to our 2018-19 with many many interruptions.  No specific thank yous this week - instead a HUGE general thank you for everyone for:

• Rolling with any schedule changes - THANK YOU!
• Pitching in with extra duties
• For being part of end of day handover to ensure our students got to ASAs safely

Snapshot Conferences

This is your best chance to learn from parents about their child, their child's needs, strengths and interests.
Your job:  Stress the rigor of your grade, that we differentiate and most importantly LISTEN!

Thank you in advance for your time and commitment to this!

AFO Feedback Survey

We made it through the first week of school!  Please click the link above to complete a short feedback survey on this year’s All Faculty Orientation program.  Collecting your thoughts on what worked and what suggestions you may have for improvement will allow us to enhance next year’s AFO - thank you in advance for your time on this!  We acknowledge the impact of losing a day - so please only give feedback to enhance the sessions that did happen!  Please complete this survey by Friday, August 24. 

Duty Schedule

Well, we can honestly say that with the start of the year and the number of revisions to the duty schedule that it hasn’t been all bells and whistles! The duty schedule and master schedule should now be in clear alignment. We have provided a good amount of time for transition between recesses and the start of the next period.

BELLS:  8:23, 10:48, and 1:08.

• Playground & Basketball - ring the bell in the Covered Area.
• Plaza & Covered Area  -  ring the bell near the 1st grade classrooms.

WHISTLES:  12:48 p.m

• For those on  3-5 grade recess duty in ALL areas.

Kath Murdoch - NEXT Tuesday 21st August (8 a.m - 3 p.m Madras Hall)

If you are attending Kath Murdoch, please make sure you have a lesson plan written for that day and that you have found coverage for your duties. Below is the list of individuals attending Kath Murdoch and who will be covering their classroom.

Responsive Classroom #4

Postponed - to Tuesday, September 18

Wednesday Faculty Meeting - 22 August

Homeroom and EAL teachers can use this time for snapshot conferences.  All specialists will be in vertical department meetings - please check calendar invites sent from Dan’s office.

Morning Attendance

Please enter your attendance into Power School no later than 9:00 am each morning. This is a deadline.  (We must send a report to Andrew after that and we cannot be late with this)
Hazel and Padma will begin calling each unexplained absent student’s parents beginning at 9:00 am.

Any student arriving into school after 8:29 am will be considered late/tardy. These students will be issued a late pass from the gate. If a student arrives late without this, please send to the office.

Hazel and Padma will then change their UA status to tardy.

Tutoring

As per our handbook policy, ALL tutoring needs to be based on a genuine learning gap/ need and needs to be recommended by a teacher. Please ensure you refer any parents to this policy should they approach you with a tutoring request. This is consistent across AISC.

Overview of our ES process for recommending a tutor:

• Conduct initial observations, data and assessments
• Reach out to a learning support/EAL teacher/learning coach for second opinion/assessments/observations
• Should a tutor be deemed necessary - recommend the student for tutoring via TCM process or directly to Dave (be very clear with reason and data)
• Once approved by Dave, recommend to parent a tutor, frequency and length of time

We also will not be beginning any tutoring until the first week of September.  If a parent approaches you for tutoring, please refer them to this process, and inform them you are still collecting data, observations, and assessments to determine whether tutoring is necessary.

Tutoring Policy from our handbook:

In some cases, a teacher, through the principal, may recommend to parents that a student received academic tutorial help outside of school hours.  These recommendations will be based on academic need through observations and assessments carried out by teachers. 
All organisation, permission and payment for tutoring is the responsibility of the parents, although when requested, the school may be able to suggest possible tutors.  The tutor may not be a direct teacher of the student.

Back to School Night  

G3 - 5 Tuesday 28 & EY - G2 Thurs 30  SCHEDULE

3:00 - 3:35 Madras Hall Admin/Coaches/Specialists Overview of Program

3:45 - 4:15 Round 1 Grade Level Class Session

4:20 - 4:50 Round 2 Grade Level Class Session

4:50 Leadership and Specialists sweep campus and classrooms

Important points to note:

• ASAs will still continue on this day for those students involved on Tuesdays/Thursdays
• Admin/Coach/Specialist overview:
• We will cover all programmatic information - intro to ‘what is’ readers/writers workshop, balanced literacy, Bridges, Responsive Classroom and units of inquiry through C3 and NGSS.
• This means each grade level/class can go straight to academic specifics pertinent to each grade; standards, expected outcomes, core fluencies etc.
• Specialists will also introduce themselves and their programme at this time
• We will keep parents until 3:35/3:40 - and teachers can do regular ASA drop off and take any remaining students to the two supervised options:  

G3 - G5:  CIC  for movie/Playground to play

EY - G2  CIC for movie/OLC/Plaza to play

Duty schedule for Back to school night supervision will be shared soon

• Parents will transition to classrooms 3:35 - 3:45
• 3:45 - 4:15 pm - First classroom/grade level block
• 4:15 p.m - 4:20 p.m - Transition time
• 4:20 - 4:50 p.m - Second repeated classroom/grade level session
• 4:45 p.m all remaining children in CIC/Playgrounds will be collected to coveread are for pick up
• Keryn, Dave, Calley, and coaches will sweep the classrooms/building starting at 4:50 p.m
• Everyone should have left campus by 5:00 p.m

YEARBOOK Photos

Our yearbook photos are coming up next week! Please check the schedule to see when you class portrait will be.  Please make an Edmodo post in advance - stating day and time of photo.

Each faculty member must have their picture taken anytime during this week. This is not optional! Please do this!

Photos will be taken of all students and their picture will appear in the AISC Yearbook.

For parents who wish to order their child’s photos (optional), our process this year will be slightly different this year:

• Students will receive an envelope today Monday, August 21 to take home, with the list of packages
• If parents wish to order their child’s photo (optional), they need to place the exact amount of rupees in the envelope.
• Homeroom teachers need to collect envelopes - which will be given to the photographer when your class goes for the photo.

If you have any questions, please contact Shannon Zirkle, Communications Director, at zshannon@aischennai.org.

MAP Testing

A draft of the testing schedule will be sent out to Grades 2 - 5 teachers on Monday. To avoid scheduling conflicts with events coming up such as (CWW, Spirit Week, etc.) Grade 5 will participate in MAP testing during the week of September 3rd and Grades 2 - 4 will participate in MAP during testing during the week of September 17th.

Digital Citizenship Common Sense Media Tracking - from the IT office

We appreciate all the hard work you all do. We realise the beginning of the year is super busy and can be overwhelming with all the things that you need to do. We just want to make sure that you have been able to teach or co-teach a few of the lessons from the Digital Citizenship Common Sense Media Document that was shared with you during the AFO.

In order to be certificated as a Common Sense Media school, we need to track all the work done. This also ensures our students get consistent and reliable experiences in Digital Citizenship, to build upon in months to come. In that regard, we are sharing a Tracking sheet that will help to show which sessions have been completed across the grades. Each grade level has a sheet to itself with the lesson's time frame. Even if you are not following the exact timeline please make sure you mark it as it gets done along the way.

We appreciate your time and effort.

Warmly, Priya

PE/DG  

PE/Dance class will be held in room 3146 this year, Mrs Sarah's music room last year. Also, I will be having open Gymnastics during recess for grades 2-5 on Wednesday and Friday for students who are interested.

Thank you and Happy Friday,

Jane

Have a well-deserved, restful weekend!

Keryn, Dave and Calley