Friday, 8th February, 2019

Dear Faculty,

A busy and slightly unusual week with Erin Kent and some surprise emergency drills. A big thank you again for all your flexibility and patience with this. We really appreciated your cooperation and support in moving so quickly and attending to your classes the best you could.

Tomorrow many of our ES students are participating in an AISC blue vs white swim meet. If you are on campus, come cheer on our raptors!

Upcoming Week at a Glance

Monday 11 Feb	EY - G2 Art Exhibition EY5 & G1 Family Literacy morning Field Trip - 4 RC (8:45-12:00)
Tuesday 12 February	G2 Family Literacy morning Field Trip - 4 JN (8:45-12:00)
Wednesday 13 Feb	G4 Family Literacy morning All faculty meeting
Thursday 14 Feb	G3 Family Literacy morning Teachers visiting from ASL (American School London) Field Trip - 4 JH (8:45-12:00)
Friday 15 Feb	G5 Family Literacy morning EY5-G2 Learning Celebration Field Trip - 4 MG (8:45-12:00)
Saturday 16 Feb	Feb Fling International School Writers Summit Faculty first aid training

Thank yous…

• Leontheen and Barbara for taking their Roots and Shoots club on a Saturday field trip to the TREE foundation
• All the faculty who helped with last Saturday’s Maker Carnival: Deepa, Priya, Jen, and Anita
• A great big THANKS from Alex to all of the teams for making Erin Kent’s visit a big success!
• Thank you to Keeley, Gemma, Vanessa and Jack for getting the ball rolling this week with Girls’ Soccer on Thursdays
• Thanks to Deepa, Julia, Vanessa, Vigna, Angie, and Ross (among others!) who are tweeting with #aiscelementary to share your awesome work.
• Grade 4 team and Linda - thank you in advance for sleeping over at school tonight with your students!  Thanks to specialists who are helping out with activities and dinner too.
• Grade 2 would like to thank Jen and Dilip for organizing a messy, engaging and super hands-on erosion design challenge for our students.
• A great BIG thanks and a WOOHOO! to the EY3 & EY4 teachers for letting Grade 2 explore, use, and play in their mud and sandbox in the Outdoor Learning Center! Sincerely Grade 2 Students & Teachers

Reminder and Clarity on Alarms

Thank you to everyone for your patience and collaboration on Wednesday’s unexpected drill. ES teachers were very professional and calm and we appreciated that in a challenging situation. Going forward, we need to emphasize that if an alarm ever sounds, even for a moment, we will follow drill procedures and evacuate. Should you not hear the alarm, but another faculty member alerts you, please join in and help out without question. Thank you for your understanding.

Field Closed for Morning Recess on Monday, February 11th

Due to a number of students leaving trash on the field, we have decided to close the field on Monday for morning recess. Students playing soccer were previously informed about keeping the field clean, but, unfortunately, have not done that. Please talk with your students about not eating their snacks on the field and about the importance of picking up after themselves when they are outside. This will not only help keep the soccer field clean, but all areas of our elementary section.

Learning Celebrations - Seating on Time

Building on the success of our recent on-time start for ES faculty meetings, here’s a reminder to teachers to get students seated for Learning Celebrations by 2:43 PM in the FAC. Please consider your walk time and transition time so that we can start and end our Learning Celebrations on schedule.  

Specialists, if you have a class that ends right before a celebration, please take the students over to the FAC directly from your special to avoid transition delays, unless you’ve made another arrangement with the homeroom teacher. Any questions? Please ask.

Student - Teacher Feedback

During the week of 18-21 February Grade 3-5 students will be completing their student teacher feedback survey. This survey should take less than 5 minutes to complete. Homeroom and EAL teachers will work together in triads to cover each other so these surveys can be completed without the teacher receiving feedback in the room.

Students should carry their device to specialist lessons that week. (Once surveys are done, no devices are needed to go to these classes.)

TAs please plan to spend the first 5-10 minutes in one Art, Music, PE, and IS lesson for each of your two classes.

WL feedback will only be given from Grade 4 & 5 students who spend all year with one WL teacher. This will happen on Monday, and also only be in Spanish and French; Dave or Keryn will be present for the first 5-10 minutes of these classes on Monday.

Links will be emailed directly to each student on Monday morning the 18th.

Report Card Timeline for upcoming Progress Reports

It is time to start thinking about the upcoming progress report cards that will go home with the students after their Student Led Conference. These are the one-page report cards that assess progress within the learning habits, and also the one PSE paragraph narrative.

Proofreading is going to be a big focus going forward with report cards. We feel it is important to clearly clarify the role and expectations of your colleague proof readers. We are hoping that many undetected errors will be avoided this way.

Please click here to sign up your colleague proofreader and to read the proofreading guidelines and expectations. All specialist teachers, learning support, and EAL teachers need to be proofreading at least one class.

Monday 11 - Wednesday 27 February	Begin writing PSE narrative progress report comments. Please ensure to familiarise yourself with the style guide and proofreading process
Wednesday 27 February	Faculty meeting dedicated to student led conferences Focus on SLC will be ‘preparing students to show and tell their own growth story’ Progress report cards due to colleague proofreader by 5pm
Friday 1 March	Progress report comments signed off by proofreader and given to admin proofreader - 5pm Should numerous errors be detected, admin will return to proofreader to correct over the weekend (deadline will be given)
Tuesday 5 March	Report comments returned to teacher by 8am - begin entering in powerschool
Thursday 7 March	All comments entered into powerschool by 8:30 am        Sherriden and team will run reports and printing will begin at 8:30 a.m
Monday 11 March	Admin will do final check of printed reports, and begin delivering to homerooms
Mon - Thurs	Teachers prepare students to use progress reports as part of their growth and progress data in SLC
Thursday 14 March	Student Led Conferences Students will share their report cards with their parents, explaining strength and growth areas (as developmentally appropriate)

Visiting Author

Here is a message from the library! This year's visiting author is Morris Gleitzman; author of over 40 books and Australia's Children's Laureate for 2018 and 2019. Please find the author schedule so that you know when your students will get to work with Morris. Any questions? Please email Jet.

Early Years 5 - Grade 2 Art Exhibition

We invite you to the ‘Lower Elementary Art Exhibition’ starting from Monday 11th February 2019 through 21st February 2019. This is an one time opportunity for you to view the fabulous artworks created by the Early Years 5 to Grade 2 students under one roof.

The grand display will be at the FAC Atrium.Please do make time to visit and encourage

all the effort put in by our lower elementary students.

Elementary Art Team (Mr.Joseph, Ms.Priya & Mr.Clinton)

WRAP Testing Grades 3-5

WRAP testing will begin on Monday, February 25th and end on February 28th.

From Roots and Shoots Club

Leontheen and Barbara shared that the Roots and Shoots club had a very successful Marine Biologist Field trip last Saturday at the Tree Foundation. The 9 students that attended had a fantastic time and really learned a lot of information!  Here’s an excerpt from the letter that they shared with the Tree Foundation after their visit.  Lots of authentic student learning happening here!

“We also learned how you help rescue turtles and if possible you try to get them back to the sea. We learned if a sea turtle has at least 3 flippers, it can often return back to the sea. But it takes a lot of hard work to make sure that the turtle can survive back in the sea. It was interesting to see both freshwater and sea turtles. We support your idea to make a turtle pond at the elephant sanctuary. Those turtles would love that new habitat.

Happening on Campus:  Feb Fling

Faculty parents, don’t miss out on a fun, on campus activity next Saturday, February 16th.  Feb Fling is a ton of fun sponsored by the high school service clubs.  We hope you’ll come check it out and have a blast!

 

Hey Attentive Readers! Win a Coffee!

Thanks all for reading. Today’s mystery question is, “What’s the first step for every level of report card writing and proofreading?” First two people to respond here win a complimentary beverage from the iHub. And congratulations to Vanessa L, Mona, and Scott, who were the first three respondents, of many, who knew that Waitangi Day is New Zealand National Day, celebrated by our own Kiwis, Keryn and Tara.  

Have a great weekend everyone!

Keryn, Dave & Calley