Dear Faculty,
Great week with a mid-week day off. We hope everyone enjoyed celebrating
Indian Independence Day!
As usual, a lot of important information here so please read carefully!
Thank yous and shout outs
- Vigna
for covering for Angie in kindergarten.
- Amritha,
Melissa, Mary Kelly, Linda, and Vanessa for supporting Early Years and
Kindergarten.
- Thank
you to Keeley, Tara, Scott, Fiona, Amy, Tiffany, Sarah, Kay, Salome,
Hilary, Preetika, Leontheen, Becky, Jen, and Julia for responding to the
AFO survey. We appreciate your feedback and will use the input!
- To
Becky for populating our first FCF document. It will close next Tuesday
before Thursday’s meeting.
Back to school
As you are aware, these will be happening next Monday and Tuesday
mornings. Please put the following reminder to parents on SeeSaw:
Back to School
Mornings (BTSM)
Please join us next (pick one date from below)
·
Monday 19 August - Grades 3-5
·
Tuesday 20 August - Early Years - Grade 2
BTSM begins at 8:45 a.m in the Madras Hall. Following this curricular
orientation of all core areas and specialist areas, you will be invited to our
grade level presentations for specific information pertinent to your child’s
learning this year. Please join us in ……(insert location)
Room Parents
The PCA will again be reaching out to parents for solicitation in
interest in being either a room parent and or a grade level PCA rep. Should you
have any direct questions pertaining this, or would like to suggest name(s),
please let Sossity know at: ssossitypca@aischennai.org
Summary of AFO Survey Feedback
Overwhelming, the feedback was incredibly positive with comments
appreciating the increase in protected class time. Thank you to the 14 people
who took the time to provide input; this will definitely be used in future
planning.
Below are some comments from each of the specific sessions:
Documenting student learning:
- It was nice to hear that because it is a trial year, there will be
a range of what people feel comfortable with and how much/little people
use. Moving forward as a school to make it more consistent and streamlined
will be great, but giving us permission to try and find our comfort level
was a nice message to hear.
- It was useful to be reminded that documenting student learning can
be used as a tool for reflection and to drive instruction.
- Documentation for learning and as learning benefits students and my
learning as a teacher too.
- Clarifying the why of using digital portfolios
was an important discussion for us to have as a staff.
Suggestions for further work on this goal:
- Analyzing the documentation: What standards does the document
demonstrate? Is it an assessment of, for, or as learning? Looking at the
documentation from different perspectives and interpreting its information
from those perspectives.
- Teachers who have diligently begun collecting and documenting
student portfolios could share their best practices and enlighten
colleagues on the pros and cons of documentation.
Hands on Seesaw session:
- These sessions were AWESOME! Very well orchestrated and FUN.
- I liked hearing the parent perspective from Sherriden. It was also
really powerful to hear personal stories from teachers that used it last
year.Just having the opportunity to have some hands-on exploratory time
was super beneficial.
- The introduction to Seesaw in quick rotations
made the afternoon pass quickly in addition to being very informative!
Suggestions for further work on this goal:
- ES section time could be earmarked for
exploring the repertoire of activities that Seesaw offers.
- Maybe looking at more examples /
exemplars of high quality student posts / reflections across grade levels?
Overall ES AFO Feedback:
- Every year, I’m impressed by the organization
of our school’s AFO. I am so appreciative of the breakfasts and
lunches that the school provides for us to reconnect with our colleagues
after the summer break. I really appreciate working with this supportive,
professional and friendly community. Thank you!
No suggestions. I really enjoyed the session and appreciate everyone's hard work in preparing. I felt the class time was adequate and the sessions worthwhile. Great pacing! - I appreciated the balance of meeting and
classroom time. I think focusing the meetings on ES initiatives was really
helpful.
- I liked having many of the meetings on the
first days and time in the room or with our teams on the last days. This
way, I could use all of the information I had gained and use it for and
during my personal planning time. I appreciated the initial meetings with
coaches and would have liked one to talk about science or social studies
to start thinking and planning ahead.
Q12
Faculty Community Forum - Thursday, August 22nd
As per the “you” request that we offer opportunities for faculty to
offer input, our first faculty community forum we will be talking about clarity
of expectations related to transitioning to specials and expectations regarding
cell phone use for students. If you are interested in dialoguing about these
two topics, please join us at 7:50 a.m. August 22nd in the Principal’s Office.
Please remember that this is totally optional.
Faculty Meeting next Wednesday - Early release section time (2:30p.m
Madras Hall - bring a device)
The focus will be:
- Continuing
on work documenting student learning, and in particular confirming
agreements for this
- Using
Seesaw as a platform - for specific questions you may have/support you
would like, please give input for the IT team here:
- Understanding
support mechanisms and systems for teaching and learning in the ES
Dismissal Reminder
Please be sure to have your class downstairs ready for pick up by 3:30
p.m. Classes can begin transitioning for dismissal after 3:26 p.m.
Snapshot Conferences - August 26th - 30th
Snapshot Conferences will soon be underway, and
this is a great opportunity to learn from parents about their child, including
their needs, strengths and interests. Homeroom teachers - here is a link to a template for parents to sign up for snapshot
conferences.
Student Records on Documentation
A few teachers have been asking about
how to find last year’s records on PS. If you want to include this in your blog
please do.
Link to Finding
previous years WIDA and Running Records Score.
ES/MS Twitter
Please follow the ES/MS Library on
Twitter. We will post information about events and happenings that you will
want to keep up with!
The handle is: @biblio_babs
Titles and Treats
The ES/MS Library invites all faculty
members to our annual Titles and Treats celebration! During this time, you are
welcome to browse our new books, let library staff know which ones interest
you, and have a coffee and a treat on your way back to class.
When: Thursday, August 29th 8:00-8:30
am
Where: ES/MS Library @ CIC
What: Come browse new books and have
a treat!
ASA’s Season 1 Information for HR Teachers
Here is the list of students in your classes that are enrolled in ASA
programs for Season 1. This will not be emailed separately.
Throughout the first week of ASA’s, please bring students to the ES
Cafeteria. On the list of students and locations sheet provided, a Table Color
is provided for student drop-offs. These tables will be located in the ES
Cafeteria.
After the first week of ASA’s, please
allow grade 3-5 students to travel to their ASA areas more independently. The
locations are also listed on the sheet with the list of students. If you have
any concerns or questions, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Pre-Budget Priority Thinking
As you know, each year we follow a budget cycle to plan for the following
year. This year we are adding a generative thinking step so individual faculty
members have input on the budgeting process. This is especially important in
terms of new programs, resources or facility ideas. Kindly take a few moments
to think about new ideas for your programme or subject area.
Specialist Pre-Thinking
We will ask specialists to complete this form
with broad strokes estimates of your individual needs/ideas and give them to
your HOD no later than August 30th. HODs will then meet with the administration
to preview budget needs shortly there after. Please note that this form is
non-binding and the same budget process as before will still continue. That
process, along with the ordering forms, will begin in October.
Homeroom teachers, your GTL will be meeting about this next Monday, and
so more information to come for you all then.
Here is our next Responsive Classroom blog post with resources for
moving ahead for the first 6 weeks.
Responsive Classroom (Week 2)
Dear RC Teammates,
Hopefully, you are feeling really
good about the first few days of school! Next week, we are essentially entering
week 2. Last week, this space was dedicated to creating goals for the
year. Once goals are chosen, the next step is to focus on Creating
Rules/Agreements. Be sure you have a clear connection to goals. This
process will set the foundation for the year. Check out slides
10, 11 and 16 for more information. For the videos on slide 16, there are
examples from K, 1st and 3rd-grade classrooms. Each video is an excellent
example of rolling out the rules creation process. For additional information
on the process, here are additional resources from the RC book- Rules in School.
Thank you for continuing to take steps together towards making our school a
Responsive Classroom school!
Socially, Emotionally and Academically yours,
Alex and Elliot
Have a wonderful weekend!
Keryn, Dave, and Calley
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