Dear Faculty,
We hope you have had time to reconnect with colleagues and get started on planning for the start of the school year. We all know meeting and planning for the start of school online is not easy; thank you for staying positive, asking thoughtful questions, and keeping your “why” in the forefront of your planning.
Weekly Notes
Our weekly notes will be sent out via this blog every week. We hope to get these out to you Friday afternoon before the upcoming week. It is critical that you please take the time to read these as they contain important information items and reminders. If any of you have items you would like included, please let us know by Thursday afternoon at the latest, and send the blurb or information via email.
Grade Team Leaders this year are
Early Years - Vigna C
KG - Angie Gawrych
Gr 1 - Kay Clarke
Gr 2 - Fer Latorre
Gr 3 - Tara Gray
Gr 4 - Marcus Gostelow
Gr 5 - Julia Davis
New Student Orientation - Wednesday, August 5th
New student orientation is going to be a bit different this year! Parents will receive an ES orientation video early next week. They are also invited to an ES and EY Q & A on Wednesday at 9:00 a.m.
What’s your role this year?
If you are a homeroom teacher who has a new student, please read this carefully. Homeroom teachers will schedule a 15 minute virtual “meet and greet” on August 5th. You will need to send an email to any of your new families on August 4th to let them know the time of the meet and greet. You may schedule one meet and greet meeting for all of your new students if they are in the same or similar time zone. If you have students in a North American time zone, please schedule a time that works for the families and for you. You will get an email on Monday with the time zone of any North American based family.
We know you will have to work out of the normal working hours to meet with any U.S. based students. We appreciate you accommodating your schedule in order to welcome them to our AISC community. Thank you in advance for giving up your personal time to make this happen.
Before School Starts
August 4th - Email to new families with meet and greet time (see info below)
August 5th - Welcome letter goes home to all parents (after you get the go ahead)
Include information about participating the first day and signing up for virtual home visits
August 6th & 7th - Morning (or afternoon) Meetings with students
Class Lists
By the time you read these notes, you may already have your class list. If you do not, it will be emailed to you soon. Please remember that the class lists are confidential. Parents will receive an email on August 5th letting them know their child’s teacher along with Seesaw Login details.
Seesaw
Seesaw will not be ready until August 10th. You do not need to worry about getting students up and running on Seesaw the first two days of school.
First Two Days
The weekly schedule template will come out to you soon. There will be no specials the first two days of school. Live specialist sessions will start August 10th. Specialists will not be posting on Seesaw the week of August 10th.
When scheduling morning meetings on August 6 and 7, please try to accommodate students in Europe and East Asia. Feel free to make your morning meeting an afternoon meeting.
Student Learning Facilitator Role
Cassidy and Keeley are our Student Learning Facilitators. Cassidy will be working with students in North and South America and holding class meetings, small groups, and 1:1 sessions with students. Classroom teachers with students based in North and South America will need to be in regular communication with Cassidy.
Keeley will be working with students in Europe. Since students in Europe will be able to participate in afternoon synchronous sessions, Keeley will do check-ins, offer office hours, and work with students 1:1 on an as needed basis after 4 p.m. IST. Classroom teachers with students based in Europe will need to be in regular communication with Keeley.
Celebrate and Share Your First Day of School Experience with Us!
We would love to get a glimpse of your first day of school journey.
Here's how you can share your experience with us:
Here's how you can share your experience with us:
- Submit an artifact or two of your choosing (i.e.- selfie, picture of your goal for the day/year, a snap/video
of your set up and firstgroup interaction) to commemorate this day
of your set up and firstgroup interaction) to commemorate this day
- Please edit your file name in this format: first name_last name
- Drop your artifact in this SmugMug link
Upcoming Week at a Glance:
Have a wonderful weekend!
Lynn, Dave, and Elliot
