Friday, September 14, 2018

Dear Faculty,

Great spirit week at AISC! Huge thank you to all of you who got into the spirit of things and dressed up - created such a fun learning atmosphere this week. Look at all these sleepy people below...

International Day

Tomorrow is international day on campus from 11:00 a.m - 3:00 p.m. We look forward to seeing many of you there to sample different nationality food and learn new things from the different country booths. Kids love seeing you there so thank you to those of you who can make it!

Twitter Challenge Winner

First winner of our twitter challenge goes to Amritha - her tweet below got the most amount of likes for any tweet using the #aiscelementary hashtag. Keep tweeting everyone - look out for next weeks’ winner!

Upcoming Week at a glance

Monday 17 Sept	MAP testing starts for Grades 2, 3 and 4 9:00 - 10:30 every day. **Specialists teaching G2-4 during this time should check in with homeroom teachers
Tuesday 18 Sept	5BT and 5JD leave for CWW in Pondicherry - chaperones;  Becky, Julia, Preetika, Jack, Keryn and Adithya
Wednesday 19 Sept	Early Release Faculty meeting - Vertical team meetings, see info from Dan and your vertical team lead
Thursday  20 Sept	-
Friday  21 Sept	EY5 - G2 Learning Celebration 2:45 pm in Madras Hall 5BT and 5JD return from CWW in Pondicherry HS Discover India trips depart

Thank yous

• Thank you to everyone in each of your indispensable roles to make our UN Day Parade run smoothly and such a celebration of all our students’ and cultures
• Thank you to Giovanni, Kay, Jack, Jen, and Mary Kelly for your great help at the BBB
• Thank you to Fifth Grade teachers for being flexible and letting their students step out for rehearsals
• Thanks for the nurses for soothing the many shoe-bites that come from wearing ill-fitting but festive Spirit Week footwear
• A huge thank you to everyone for making our first fire drill so amazing. All the students had quiet voices and exited the building quickly. A special thank you to EY 3 and 4 for helping your students exit the building in a quick and quiet manner especially since it was during their nap time.
• Becky and the 5th Grade team with getting ready for the first Pondicherry CWW next Tuesday

Family Math mornings

The week after next we have scheduled Family Math mornings as a way for parents to better understand our math programs. The structure of these will start with Calley at 8:45 am explaining some core fluencies etc for each grade in a parent-coffee style presentation and then parents will join with their children in class to explore a math engagement together. Dates for this are on the community calendar:

• Grade 1:  Sept 24 Madras Hall
• Grade 2:  Sept 25 Madras Hall
• Grade 3:  Sept 26 Madras Hall
• Grade 4:  Sept 27 Madras Hall
• Grade 5:  Oct 10 BBT
• EY5:  Nov 21

Please can all homeroom teachers post this on their Edmodo page by end of day Monday, then a reminder the day before:

Family Math Mornings

We are looking forward to seeing all parents next (insert date and time) for our Family Math Morning!  This is a wonderful opportunity for you to come in and learn more about our math programme and participate in hands on activities with your child. See you then!

Continued Learning Walks

Thank you to those of you who welcomed Dave, Calley and Keryn into your classrooms for our first round of learning walks. Over the upcoming weeks, Joelle, Jessica and Keryn will be conducting another series of learning walks. We are excited to see the alignment from EY - Grade 12. Calley will also be bringing around ES specialists on learning walks to learn more about EY3 - Grade 2 progressions. Thank you in advance for welcoming us in to your  class!

Change of Personnel

Due to an unexpected required medical procedure, Ms Seema will be absent from school for the next few weeks. Ms Radha Anand, who has been working as part of our learning support department will step into the role of EAL co-teacher for both Ms Kay and Ms Marea's first grade classes.

Upcoming Student Growth Conferences and Progress Report
All teams by now should have seen the progress report format. These report cards will communicate progress around our learning habits as well as one PSE narrative comment. This comment should focus on transitions to the new grade/class/school, relationships formed, learning habits and choices being made and as much as possible use the language from the AISC Vision of a learner.  

A reminder of deadlines for these as well as proofreaders can be found below. Here is the report card writing style guide for your easy access. If you would prefer to send a sample PSE narrative comment to your proofreader for helpful feedback, please do so well in advance of the deadline!

Wednesday 26 Sept	Faculty meeting focusing on growth story conferences - HR, EAL and LSS teachers Please bring data for one child to practice telling growth story;  this can include but is not limited to:  F&P, early literacy checks, writing on-demands, math pre and post assessments, unit formative assessments etc etc
By Thursday 27  September	Homeroom teachers completed narrative comments given to EAL co-teacher to proof  **vital step
F A L L    B R E A K
By Monday 8 October (end of day)	Comments  (google doc) due to admin for final proofing (can be shared with admin proofer over break if ready early)
Wednesday 9 October	Edited comments returned to teachers, can begin entering narratives into PowerSchool
By Thursday 10 October 3pm	All report information entered into PowerSchool
Friday 12 October	Reports printed by ES office, final check
Monday 15 October	Reports given to HR teachers to give to parents at growth story conference

Faculty Parents

Should your child have an event that happens during the school day which you would like to be part of, it is imperative you let your supervisor know well in advance. Please contact your supervisor with a suggested cover plan when you seek approval. We will endeavour to support faculty parents attending such events when it is possible for us to do so, however, if options are available to attend events outside of your teaching hours, that would be preferable.

Tutoring

For students in your class that you are recommending to receive tutoring, this form must be completed before tutoring is approved. This will also help document who and why each student is being referred for tutoring. Once the form has been submitted, Dave will review the form. If the data warrant that the student is in need of tutoring then the next step will be to connect the student with a tutor.

Have a great weekend,

Keryn, Dave & Calley