Friday, April 05, 2019

Dear All,

Welcome back from what sounds like (from everyone) a wonderful break!  

Thank Yous

• 4JH & 4JN are happy to welcome Ms. Sai back!
• Who volunteers to spend a day with 18 sweaty five and six-year olds as they tour a farm in the South Indian sun? Jen Cypra does! Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar? Not Jen, but she sang right along with us. Thank you for joining The Cookie Cars are their latest adventure!!!
• The teachers and students of 4JN and 4JH want to thank Ms. Hilary and Ms. Priya for the amazing planning and support for the paper slide video for our 'Global Trade' Unit. We couldn't have done it without you!
• Thank you to Amanda for leading a session for teaching assistants on reading interventions.  Great feedback all around!
• Thank you to Elliot for modeling a Looking at Student Work protocol in Grade 5.  We took a deep dive on multiplication by improper fractions - fun stuff!
• Thank you to Clinton from Jen for working so hard to organize our space.  
• Thank you Radha and Uma, as well as Chandini for your hard work in WIDA testing this week.
• Thank you to Ross, Jyotsna and Janna for your environmental awareness work with Grade 4 students Mihika, Sahana, and Jeongyeon, and also Anita for sharing the protest art of Grade 5 students, for yesterday’s Inspiration Conversation about Environmental Responsibility.  
• Kudos to grade 4 and 5 teachers for their ambitious work with PBL during your most recent social studies units! Thank you for inviting me along on your journey through our conversations and with time in classrooms. Mary Kelly.
• Thank you Megha, Kay, Janna, and Elliot for sharing what you have learned through your professional inquiries as well as offering thoughtful feedback to others during our most recent Inquiry through UbD Strand sessions.  Your contributions to our learning community are appreciated by all!
• Well done grade 2 on implementing your learning from Suzie Boss with your current unit on entrepreneurs  which incorporates service learning! 

Upcoming Week at a Glance

Monday 8th April	Grade 2 WIDA testing
Tuesday 9th April	Bea Cameron visiting SAISA track and field athletes arrive EY parent coffee 8:45 - 9:45 a.m. BBT
Wednesday 10th April	Field and covered area closed Opening Ceremony for track - line the halls at 8:30 a.m. Faculty meeting time for PGE reflections
Thursday 11th April	Field and covered area closed SAISA track and field
Friday 12th April	Field and covered area closed SAISA track and field EY-G5 Learning Celebration
Saturday 13th April	Cognitive Coaching Training Starts (4 DAYS)

Last Athletic parade of the year!

Next Wednesday, April 10th at 8:30 AM the SAISA Track & Field parade will begin. It will leave the gym, go up the stairs to the fitness room and then walk the corridor to the MS Office, take right and go up the stairs to the top floor, loop back toward the gym, but take a right and pass the science classrooms and continue past the MS classrooms. Then it will go down the circular staircase to the bottom floor and then come back to the courtyard. It's a little longer route than usual - but we have ES, MS and HS students on the teams. Please come out to cheer on our athletes for our final home hosted event! 

We'll be in the courtyard and finished with the opening ceremony by 8:50. As usual, please line the hallways and cheer as they go by and line the second floor balconies or outer corridor of the unity courtyard to observe the opening ceremony from the outside of the courtyard -- please note that we'll have 200 athletes, and almost 60 coaches and officials so keep the inner courtyard open for them. Thank you!

Field and covered area closed

From the afternoon of Tuesday 9th April, the field and the covered area will be roped off. This will restrict our recess areas to the plaza, playground, OLC and library. If you are on covered area or field duty on these days please help children to avoid trying to enter these areas, and supervise the plaza and playground instead.  

Grades 2 and 4 will be in the plaza for drop off and pick up meeting spots Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of that week.  

Election Day

Thursday, April 18 is a Poll Day for General and Assembly bi-elections in Tamil Nadu and has been declared a public holiday. There will be no classes (or virtual learning), student activities, or scheduled meetings. Campus will remain closed.

SIOP: A blended learning opportunity

Ever wanted to learn more about SIOP, but simply can't find the time? Well, you're in luck! The Office of Teaching & Learning is offering 2 blended learning opportunities for the 2019-20 school year. First, participants complete an online SIOP self-study program from the Center of Applied Linguistics. Then, we meet face-to-face to unpack this amazing approach to planning & teaching. More details can be found here.

So, if you are interested, please complete this survey by Monday, 8 April. Also, if there are any questions, I am more than happy to oblige. Hope to see you there!

Peace-Sarah

Math Intervention Awareness

This past Wednesday, TAs have had an introduction or a refresher on using the Bridges Intervention materials to support student achievement in small group lessons. Also this past week, several teachers have reached out to Calley for assessment of struggling students, and support in planning their last two months of math instruction. Are you wondering about a student’s achievement? It’s a great time to capitalize on your TA’s new learning and request support in assessing a student from Calley. Please send an email or come chat about any student of concern.  Whether you take intervention action now, or use the data to inform next year’s teacher and make a transition plan, it’s a great time to get more info. 

Have a nice weekend.

Keryn, Dave and Calley