Dear Faculty,
What a wonderful week of writing it has been! And this weekend with the Grade 5 Sleepover tonight and the Blue and White Swim meet tomorrow (Sat) it is also going to be an amazing weekend for many of our ES students.
Thank yous….
- Lily, Amy & Sweety, Barbara & Deepa, Scott & Alli, Jyotsna & Dee and Becky and Salome for hosting Christy Curran with a lab-site in your class. Thank you for being vulnerable and fantastic - it was wonderful being in your classes and viewing them through a literary lens
- All teachers who covered a class to allow these lab-sites to take place
- Everyone who wrote and passed on a gratitude card this week - plenty more in the ES office
- Thank you for all the community calendar feedback; we have amended what we can!
- Meg, Kay, Lily, Fer and Anna for leading parts of our PS-2 Learning Celebration today
- Becky, Marianne, Salome, Babs, Megha, Kelly, Widi and Ron for ‘sleeping’ over at school with the Grade 5s tonight (Friday)
- Shannon for her time, coordinating and taking the Staff Group photo
(**As per the Q12 Data Survey, a reminder that these recognitions can come from anyone - if you have a team member or colleague you feel deserves a shout out, please let Lori or I know by Friday morning)
Celebrating Writing
Some takeaways Christy noticed during her visit that all Homeroom and EAL teachers can be proud of
- Gorgeous charts
- Condensed mini lessons
- Routines established; partnerships, paper choice and the use of writing notebooks
- Teachers using the ritual of writing themselves to set the scene of independence when transitioning to writing
- Student writing up and celebrations planned for
- Teachers asking thoughtful questions to extend their own learning and practice in WW
Yay! We will continue working on our commitments/essential agreements towards Writing Workshop at our upcoming faculty meeting next Wednesday (see below).
Wednesday 5th April - Faculty Meeting; ES Cafeteria
Focus: Commitments to Writing Workshop & Digging further into the dimensions of the C3 framework
This faculty meeting is for all returning Homeroom, & EAL teachers. Indian Studies and WL teachers could join us at 4:10pm for the C3 part.
Any HR/EAL teacher leaving us is welcome also, however, could instead continue to use the time for other classroom related planning & preparation. All other specialist teams should continue to build on ATLAS maps and unit documentation.
STUDENT SURVEY
Here is the link for the Grade 3-5 student feedback survey. Please set aside a few minutes to have the students complete this next week.
Covering Duties
If you are going on a field trip, or have another school commitment during your regular duty time, please remember to arrange for a duty swap with a colleague. Cheryl/Hazel will only be providing cover for teachers absent from school.
Group Photos
We distributed Class Group Photo prints for Teachers and TAs to your classrooms today.
Blue and White Swim Meet
Many of our ES swimmers will be competing in AISCs very own ‘Blue and White’ Swimmeet tomorrow (Saturday) from 1 - 4pm. Come out to support our young swimmers!
Grade 2 Mela!
Join us on Friday, April 7th, from 9:30am to 11:30am in the main cafeteria, covered basketball courts and field for food, fun and crafts.
Grade 2 has been working on our SEVAI service learning project. Students are producing items and developing activities in collaboration with the students from Seva Samajam, a local school in Taramani. We will have a variety of goods and services for sale and recommend bringing between 250-500 rupees, as the average cost of an item is 100 rupees. All proceeds will be donated to the students at Seva Samajam. This is an integration of our economics unit exploring the exchange of goods and services, consumers and producers and the choices people make when purchasing goods and services. We have adopted a project-based approach integrating economics in social studies, money in math and persuasive writing. We hope to see you there! :)
WrAP Test, Grades 3-5
Grades 3-5 teachers, please select two writing periods this week to administer the WrAP test. Once completed, please send the booklets to Lori.
Exemptions: Students admitted since January 2017 with WIDA Writing scores of 1.0-2.9 are automatically exempt from WrAP testing. A list of these students will be compiled by Karen. Any additional exemptions would be decided on a case-by-case basis by the EAL Coordinator.
EAL teachers will have the opportunity to work with their newcomers who are exempt during the two writing blocks while others take the WrAP test. Let's try to identify some quiet spaces for this instruction. There will be Grade 1-2 WIDA MODEL testing going on at the same time, so we'll have to be creative in finding space. Feel free to drop in and use Lori’s office any time.
MAP Testing
Map testing will run from April 10-20 with make ups being completed after SLCs. The draft schedule is attached here. The schedule is designed to avoid special classes and special events, and to let IT know when and where to be. Please know, though, that there is a high degree of flexibility with MAP testing and tweaks to the schedule are certainly possible. Do what’s best for your students; let Lori know if you’d like to make any changes to the schedule.
Interested in helping out at the Blue Cross Animal Shelter? Sign up in the link above and join us on Saturday, 8 April from 9:00 - 12:00ish and be ready to be smothered with puppy and kitty love.
Poetry Month is in April
"The month of April will mark the beginning of our Poetry Month in our World Languages grades 3-12. We will be highlighting poetry and all that it brings the world! The French School and the World Languages will collaborate to publish a book of original poetry comprised of student work.
Any student is welcome to submit one original poem to Poetryschool600113@gmail.com by April 10, 2017. The original poems can be written in any language. Please submit an English translation of poems written in languages other than English, French, or Spanish."
There will be a banner and posters going up around the school as well, and in April we will be making a display in the courtyard of all that our students 3-12 have done to celebrate the month.
Date Change
The High School Theater Production recorded in the community calendar for Friday, April 21 and Saturday, April 22 will instead be held on Thursday. April 20 and Friday, April 21. Kindly mark your calendars. More information on the play and ticket sales will be shared soon.
PCA Ball
Don’t forget next Saturday night is your chance to ‘join us on the red carpet’ with the PCA Ball. Pull out your dancing shoes and pick up a ticket next week!
Lower ES Swim Gala Schedule - April 13
8:45-9:15 - Grade 2
9:15-9:45 - KG
9:45-10:15 - Grade 1
Upcoming Testing Events
Please keep April’s testing events on your radar:
WrAP for grades 3-5 will happen the week of April 3-7. The tests will take two writing periods to complete, and can be scheduled at the teacher’s discretion. Specific information about test administration will come from Lori next week via email and/or team meetings.
MAP for grades 2-5 will occur from April 10-20 (with the majority of testing happening between April 10-13 and 17-18). The schedule will be linked to next Friday’s announcements; as with previous testing sessions, teachers will have some discretion to move testing blocks as long as we can arrange IT support to help troubleshoot any issues. Expect to hear from Priya soon, as she prepares devices for testing.
WIDA testing has a staggered administration throughout April. Click here to see the specifics of testing dates and locations.
That’s all folks! Have a wonderful weekend.
Keryn & Lori
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