Dave and I would like to thank all of you for writing such detailed report card comments for your students. We know the parents will appreciate your insight about their child’s progress.
Upcoming Week at a Glance:
Report Cards
When you have made the necessary changes to your report cards, go ahead and add them to PowerSchool. If you would like Dave or Lynn to reread any comments, please let us know.
Faculty Position Changes
We have a few shifts in positions for the second semester.
Mona - covering Sruthi’s maternity leave in 4SK
Vigna - teaching EAL for 2FB and 3RF
Vinita - TA for 5FA and 5RS
Kay - EAL for 4SS
KG - becomes one section - Angie - Lead/Steffi - EAL - Keeley maternity leave
EY - becomes one section - Jayashree - Lead
Vision Day Celebration Slides and Survey Results
Vision Day 2021 is in the past and now it's time to CELEBRATE. Please enjoy a few minutes clicking through the Vision Day Celebration Slides with your class at a convenient time. This slide deck will be sent directly to student emails to allow them to look at it on their own as well. Thank you to all who completed our staff survey and for supporting students to take their survey. Here are some highlights:
- 93% of students surveyed reported being happy with their project experience
- 93% of students surveyed gave their project a 4 or 5 score on a scale of 1-5 for working with different teachers and students
- Some words used to describe what students learned included: Resilience, innovation, collaboration, cooperation, and creativity.
We will use the feedback from both student and teacher surveys to inform planning for our next Vision Day experience in March/April 2022. If you would like more specific data from your project, please reach out and we can email project-specific comments.
Professional Development Update - from OTL
The spring calendar for ECIS learning events is now available - opportunities range in price from FREE to 300 GBP. From Designing for Equity to Teaching Non-Fiction to their Middle Leader Certificate program, ECIS has a wide range of options.
HS History Day Celebration
History Day Celebration 2022 information
PCA Giving Tree 2021
It’s the season of peace and joy, and goodwill to all. This month we will be giving you the opportunity to give to those less fortunate than ourselves, in the spirit of the holiday.
This year, as in 2020, the PCA Giving Tree will be online. We will collaborate with local charitable organisations to create Amazon wish lists, which enable you to purchase books, craft materials, food, blankets and other essential items. These will be delivered directly to the organisations. Please see the loom video below, presented by Keshav and Govind, for more information.
https://www.loom.com/share/cb58957111d14326b4aa066fdd8dc8b4
The link to The Giving Tree - where you can access the wishlists and information about the charities is below:
Wellbeing in the Workplace!
Check out the following three activities and interventions for a few quick and easy ways to get you and your colleagues thinking about workplace wellbeing.
Workplace Mindfulness
Workplace stress is one of the leading causes of physical and mental health problems (Sonnentag & Frese, 2003; Szeto & Dobson, 2013). This worksheet poses three simple questions to help workers combat work stress and increase satisfaction with work.What Behavior Do I Want to Change?
Improving safety, diet, physical activity levels, and general health often requires habit change. This worksheet helps employees create the focus needed to revise old thinking and behaviors to pursue more positive behaviors.Understanding Mental Health Stigma
The ongoing stigma surrounding mental health issues can prevent people from speaking up and getting the support they need. This handout highlights the harms of mental health stigma and can facilitate discussion about supporting colleagues living with mental illness.
Twitter Digest
Here are just a few highlights from the week gone by!
Click here to see more from the #AISChennai Twitterverse.
From the Counselors
As we begin to settle into the rhythm of in-person school, with some consecutive school days under our belts, we may begin noticing that some students are struggling with basic school skills, such as raising hands before speaking, sitting in circles, turn taking, following simple instructions, transitioning from one activity to another, and coping and social skills with friends.
Most of our students have missed 20 months of social/emotional skill building and school routines. How might you address this?
Continue to explicitly teach and reteach classroom routines and expectations. It can never be too basic and simple. Students feel safe and secure when they know what is expected of them, and they can predict what might happen next.
Clear visual schedules posted in your classroom, including your specials, core subjects, snacks/recess. This is very important for students to develop their own sense of control and awareness of what is coming for the day, so they can mentally plan for those transitions.
Using books to teach and reinforce social and play skills; are you noticing arguing, issues with turn taking or other social conundrums? Ms. Babs and Ms. Teena are amazing at finding appropriate resources for you on these topics. A read aloud followed by a discussion is a wonderful way to address behavioral themes in your classroom in a safe, non-judgmental way.
And, we’ll start all over again after Winter Break! With patience, repetition, kindness, a sense of calm purpose, we can help students with the continued uncertainty of the world by creating safe, secure, and predictable classroom spaces that have a rhythm and flow that is conducive to their development.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Dave and Lynn
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