Friday, January 17, 2020

Friday, January 17, 2020

Dear Faculty,

Happy New Year and New Decade! Welcome back to semester two. We hope you all had a wonderful break and are raring to go with your students. It is great seeing so much learning in action in the many classes we have popped into this week. Keep up the amazing start!
Here’s to 2020 and the ‘20s be full of learning and growth for all of us.

Thank you and a big shout out to all involved with the opening of 3RS and the knock on faculty reshuffle that was created; Rebecca, Elliot, Julia, Leontheen, Tiffany, Fer, Sruthi, Kristina, Deepa, Tara, Fletch. An amazing start for our newest students!

Upcoming Week at a Glance
Day
Events
Monday 20 January
-
Tuesday 21 January
Staff Telephone Tree Test 7 pm
Wednesday 22 January
3:45 - 5:00 Sectional Meeting - Documenting Student Learning - Madras Hall
Keryn out - WTI NESA  
Thursday 23 January
12:25 Newbie Lunch - SHED
Keryn out - WTI NESA
EY - Field Trip
Friday 24 January
Keryn out - WTI NESA
EY - Field Trip

Second Semester Calendar Changes
As a reminder, please note the following changes to the second semester calendar.  
Full School Days
Friday, February 14
Monday, March 23
Monday, May 4
Thursday, June 4 

Holiday – No School
Tuesday, April 14

Congratulations to Preethi for her recent wedding to Kevin!
Q12 Patterns
Over the next few weeks, we’ll share some findings from our last conversation about Q12. In the interest of making it digestible, we will share one at a time your feedback on an important point. We’d like to thank everyone for their thoughtful and proactive responses to the prompts in our last Q12 reflection session. While there’s always room for improvement, we are proud of the work that you have done, and the accomplishments we’ve made together. How have you started 2020 strong, by clarifying what’s expected?

Knowing What’s Expected
  • Positive: having a target was helpful
  • Communication has improved: Faculty Forums, early blog, better blog, and referring to the blog all contribute to more clarity.
  • Early Blog Release is a plus. Blog as a whole is better! we read it more!)
  • We feel more clarity for co-teaching models with agreements
  • We understand our personal job descriptions 
What can we refine
  • Make sure that blogs are aligned
  • Provide more clarity for TAs - trainings, meetings, job roles & responsibility
  • Suggestions: Informal but scheduled admin check ins, with more time to reflect and give input
If you’ve made one of the suggestions above, please reach out and share your vision of how this suggestion might go forward.  

Yearbook Photos
Between January 27th - 29th Individual Yearbook photos of New Students and students who were absent during the earlier photoshoot in August will be taken. The student list will be shared closer to the date.

Mid year PGE Reflections - optional conversation 
At this time of year, mid way through your goal cycle, we encourage you to make some mid year reflections on the progress you have made on your professional learning goals. If you would like to process this with your supervisor, you are welcome to make an appointment via Padma/Hazel. We would be more than happy to chat with you about your progress! New teachers will have received information from their supervisors about their formal mid-year write up.

Student-Teacher Feedback
During the week of 27th January, Grade 3-5 students will be completing the Student-Teacher Feedback survey. Keryn, Dave, and Calley will proctor the surveys in Grades 3-5 homerooms on the 27th and 28th. Before students complete the survey, Keryn (Grade 5), Dave (Grade 4), and Calley (Grade 3) will spend 10 minutes talking with the students about the survey and how to write constructive comments. 

The  survey itself should take less than 5 minutes to complete. Students should carry their device to specialist lessons that week. (Once surveys are done, no devices are needed to go to these classes). Links will be emailed directly to each student on Monday morning the 27th.

TAs please plan to spend the first 10-15 minutes in one of each specialist lessons for each of your two classes.

Upcoming Literacy Mornings

Invitation to Participate in a Focus Group on the Coaching Program at AISC.
What
The Learning Coaches invite you to participate in a focus group on the Coaching Program at AISC. Should this be something you are interested in, please let us know by filling out this form. LINK TO FORM

Why
Purpose: Teachers to share perspectives and experiences with coaching in order to guide coaches in planning and to further the coaching culture at AISC. 
Non-Purpose: Evaluate coaches. Judge teachers about their choices around coaching. 

How
Teachers will engage in dialogue with colleagues from sections across the school in response to guiding questions.  Coaches will listen and take notes. 

Note:
As part of the ongoing collaboration between the coaches at AES and AISC, our colleagues from Delhi will be visiting us for a two day collaboration to further develop our respective coaching programs. The AES coaches will observe our first focus group on January 31st.  Our shared reflection on these focus groups will enrich our conversations on Saturday.

Thank you for your time and consideration. - AISC Learning Coaches

Have a wonderful  weekend! 
Keryn, Dave, and Calley

No comments:

Post a Comment