Dear Faculty,
Thank You’s
- Kay,
Morgen, Deepa, Tiffany, John, Ross, Janna, Jyotsna, Elliot, Megha,
and Julia for filling out the digital citizenship tracker sheet
- Kay,
Seema, Deepa, Angie, Scott, Priya, Ula, Karen and Jen for opening their
classroom this week for our first learning walks - so many routines
established already and expectations were high!
- All
homeroom and EAL teachers for hosting the snapshot conferences this week
- Priya
V for getting our students up and running with their devices and accounts
- Everyone
who attended Kath Murdoch and prepared substitute plans
- Everyone
who covered for your colleagues who attended Kath Murdoch
- To
the nine AFO survey respondents
TGIF
Yay -
first one of the year. All school - Sunset Grill at the Westin. Friday
31 August, starting at 5:00 - See you all there.
Feedback on AFO - Last call!
Thanks to
the nine faculty members who have already filled out the survey gathering
feedback on the AFO program this year. What we’ve heard back has already
been helpful …
- “After
the session on differentiation I was able to plan on how to work with
children at different levels, and use various tools to support language
development.”
- “Giving
us the required reading to do in advance was very helpful and interesting
too! Everyone had a turn to share what was understood.”
- “Would
be great to work with a coach to develop extension activities for
different areas, and then share these with other grades!”
We’d like
to hear from more of you, so we are keeping the survey open for one more week.
Please do take the time to share your feedback! Here’s the link.
Professional Growth Plans
By the
beginning of September, Dave, Calley and I will be scheduling individual
meetings with everyone to review your Professional Growth Plan for this year.
Reminders and key points from email:
Professional Goal Pathway (PGP) - September 15th
New Teacher Pathway (NTP) - September 30th
Self Assessment Pathway (SAP) - September 30th
Plan on
30 - 45 minutes per conversation with your supervisor:
·
Come prepared to dialogue about the following
prompts:
o What
helps you hear appreciation?
o What
helps you consider feedback best?
o What is
something you wish you were better at?
o What
might you want me to gather data on/look for during classroom walk throughs?
o How
might you like to receive this feedback?
·
And explore your draft goals (PGP/NTP), domain/standards
(SAP-S) or area of concentration (SAP-X).
o What is
one thing that excites you about your focus area(s)? One thing that does not
excite you?
o With
each goal/standard/etc., what are your intended results?
o What
challenges do you anticipate? What have you learned from similar situations?
What do you think will make you successful this time?
o What PD
will support your goals? Bring ideas so together we can help you manage
your PD days across the year.
Let
your supervisor know if you have any questions!
Celebrations of Learning
The schedule for Celebrations of Learning and other assemblies for this year has been set and
posted. Guidelines for class presentations and suggested timings are
included in this document. When it’s your turn to present, you’ll receive
a link to a Google Slides presentation at least a week in advance, with some
ordered placeholder slides for you to edit and add to, as necessary. Please
remember that your whole class does not need to be present (although they may).
You might instead choose to showcase a few students’ learning. Another idea for homeroom teachers is to
reach out to your specialists’ colleagues to share something to celebrate! If you need to change your celebration date,
please reach out to Calley to help facilitate that. And lastly, thank you to the teams who are
presenting next week on short notice. We appreciate your
flexibility.
Home Learning FYI (this is going in the parent notes today!
Home learning is well underway in the Elementary school. Our
students from Grade 1-5 are already bringing home reading books and should be
reading, or engaged in a reading related task every day. Other home learning
tasks will be starting in Grades 3-5 next week so please look out for these
tasks coming home and enjoy this learning with your child.
Responsive Classrooms Training - Altered Schedule for Friday
On
Friday, September 7, so many of our faculty will be out for training that we
will need to run an alternate schedule. Many specialists are
participating in the training, and so we will put together a schedule that
gives homeroom teachers their normally scheduled breaks. Students may not have
the same specialist learning programme. It will be important for us to
communicate effectively about this new schedule. Look for details soon!
Class T-shirts
Instead
of a field day t-shirt this year, all ES students will receive a class/grade
t-shirt by the end of September. These will be worn not only for field
days, but also field trips, and any other special events you decide as a
grade/class. Perhaps we can wear them to certain learning celebrations?
Colours will be determined by grade, and Anita’s art students will design a
common image for the front of the t-shirt, which will also say “AISC
Elementary”
The back
will have the class initials eg. EY5JB or G4MG and under that we can print your
class name, or a class quote or a class logo!
Please
work on this with your class, and submit to this document by Friday 31 August. Please also indicate number of t-shirts, and sizes.
We will order 4 spare for each class for new students who may arrive mid
year.
(We will have sample sizes for you to view from Monday in the ES office)
MAP Testing
MAP
testing will occur:
- Week of September
3rd - Grade 5
- Week of September
17th - Grades 2, 3, 4
Here is a link to the
testing schedule.
For Grades 2-5, below are some documents/links you’ll want
to access prior to testing.
- Teacher
log-in page (Important - Make sure you have
tried logging in prior to testing.)
- Teacher Instructions
- Student Intro to MAP testing
Leveling & Our Libraries
Are our
efforts to level our libraries supporting readers? A recent article in
the School Library Journal provides the latest research on this common
practice.
Yearbooks are offered FREE of CHARGE to anyone who wants one.
While each student will receive a book, each teacher MUST OPT IN. YOU WILL NOT
RECEIVE a yearbook unless you respond to this survey and reminder emails will not be sent.
This is an ALL-SCHOOL Yearbook and the ONLY Yearbook. (CAPITAL LETTERS
are for clarity, not for tone of message). Thank you for filling this
out! THE YEARBOOK CLASS APPRECIATES IT!
Thanks. Peter Jacobson.
UN International Peace Day at AISC
AISC celebrates our community and international-mindedness on
United Nations International Peace Day, on Friday, September 14 with a Parade
of Nations. More information on the Parade of Nations will be shared by Todd
Welbes and more information about AISC’s International Day celebration on
Saturday, September 15, will come from Kirsten Welbes. If you are
interested in learning more about UN Peace Day and opportunities to connect to
your classroom, please see the resources found at the UN web site.
Have a great weekend!
Keryn, Dave and Calley
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