Friday, October 30, 2020

I hope you had fun celebrating Halloween with your students. Next week is a busy one with India Week events everyday. 

This semester, almost 50 HS students have chosen "Service for Small Frys" as their Wellbeing choice during our bi-monthly sessions. They've done different types of service for the elementary school teachers and students: creating Design activity models or non-English videos for Jen Cypra; creating video lessons of Wellbeing concepts for Mr. Jack; leading 4th and 2nd graders in games. These photos show us this week with 2nd graders scavenger hunting and at the end of our 4th grade Kahoot session. 

 

   

 

   

 

 Upcoming Week at a Glance:

Date	Time	Event	Details
November 2		ES India Week	See details below
November 3	9:30 a.m.	Literacy Morning Grades KG-2	Zoom link
November 4	3:45 p.m.	All Faculty Meeting
November 5	9:30 a.m.	Literacy Morning Grades 3-5	Zoom link
November 6

 

India Week - November 2nd-6th

So many of you are involved in helping us celebrate India Week next week; there are lots of exciting events planned. Please make sure to post the daily events for your students. Also, if you want to adjust the screen time for your students on the mela days, feel free to do so. This is the “go to” document for activities, resources, and events. 

 

Here are the slides with the event Zoom links and Mela activities and Zoom links: 

Lower Elementary Information

Upper Elementary Information

 

You will find the faculty India Week Dance here. Homeroom teachers, please post this on Seesaw Monday morning as a kick off to India Week. 

 

**Plus a Cartoonist on Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. for upper ES students.  

 

 

India Week Bookfair

In celebration of India Week, from November 2nd-8th, our local partners at Tara Books and Tulika Publishers are offering the AISC community a 20% discount on any purchase! If you are looking for handmade books, unique gifts, local artwork, or beautiful stationery, please take a look at the links below.

 

Please use coupon code AISC20 at checkout at the below link:

Tara Books

 

Tulika Publishers

Erma Anderson’s Math PD Session 2 (Tuesday, October 27th)

If you missed Erma’s math session this week or if you attended and wanted to view her session again, here is part 1 and part 2 of Tuesday’s recording. There is one more session this semester. Feel free to join even if you missed the first two sessions.

 

Morning Meeting Schedule - Specialist Rotation

Specialists will begin a new morning meeting rotation on Monday, November 2nd. You will find the updated schedule here along with the link to the morning meeting times for each class. 

 

ES Student Support Process

1. When a concern arises regarding a student, please contact the student’s parents to share your concerns and gain any insight about a change in the student’s behavior or academic performance.

2. Contact your grade level counselor, Linda (EY-G3) or Michele (G4-G5), to hold a Student Discussion Meeting regarding your concerns and interventions you have tried. 

3. Following the Student Discussion Meeting and before referring a student to a Teacher Collaboration Meeting (TCM) for academic or behavior support, please ensure you have implemented at least one specific intervention and gathered data regarding the effectiveness of that intervention. If a student is continuing to not make progress, please fill out the TCM Referral Form.

4. Attend a Teacher Collaboration Meeting which is held on Mondays from 7:55-8:25 a.m. Once the TCM Referral form has been shared with Linda or Michele then you will receive a calendar invite to the meeting. 

*When considering a specific intervention, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Coaches, ES Leadership, LSS, or Counselors, for ideas. Here is a link to specific interventions for different subject areas.

 

Vision Day (3-5)

Thank you for your commitment to making Vision Day memorable and engaging for our students.  Here are a few updates:

• October 30: Students will receive project invitations, lists shared with project teams

• November 10: Project teams send Vision Day schedules and reminders to students 

• November 16: Homeroom teachers confirm students are all set (Morning Meeting)

• November 18: VISION DAY!

• November 19: Students complete reflection and provide feedback (Morning Meeting)

Please reach out to Mary Kelly, Jen, or Jack with any planning needs, questions, and suggestions.

 

TA Evaluations

Similar to the process that was established last year, there will be two times in which TAs will evaluate their own performance and then meet with their homeroom teacher to discuss their self-evaluation. Homeroom teachers will complete the evaluation in the spring. Here is a link to a document that describes this process in more detail and has a timeline for this school year.

 

Zoom Reminder

Please use the screen sharing feature only when necessary as students can’t see each other when someone is screen sharing. We know many of you have the student names listed in a particular order during the greeting to make it go faster. Try pasting the names in the chat rather than screen sharing so everyone can see each other for the greeting.

 

It’s Time for Operation Appreciation!

In lieu of the annual Operation Appreciation parade on campus, we would like to invite students to thank our support staff at AISC as part Operation Appreciation. Please share the Flipgrid link with your class on Monday, November 2 and encourage your students to show their appreciation. If you have any questions please contact Mary Kelly. 

EY-2 Flipgrid

Grade 3-5 Flipgrid

Nandri!

Team Operation Appreciation

 

Coaches Corner

During our Connect, Reflect, and Celebrate sessions this week we reflected how celebrations impact wellbeing. We have uplifted our students through celebrations in many ways this year. You are invited to share your ideas here.  How might you celebrate students, a colleague, and yourself in the coming weeks?

We also reflected on how we continue to intentionally work to build positive relationships while teaching, learning, and collaborating online. 

Resources to explore:

• Creating Moments of Genuine Connection Online, Jennifer Gonzalez, Cult of Pedagogy

• How to Maslow before Bloom,, Edutopia. Consider how these strategies can be adapted to virtual learning. 

• How Getting the Doodle Bug can Help your Mental Health. TES

• A Little Guide for Teachers: Teacher Wellbeing and Self-care, Bethune and Kell.  Just released - eBook available

 

Have a spooktacular weekend!

Lynn, Dave, and Elliot

 

 

Friday, October 23, 2020

We’re coming to the end of October already - conferences are done, Halloween is approaching, India Week is around the corner and Vision Day is on the horizon! There is a lot going on in the elementary school. Let’s celebrate where we have been and appreciate the opportunities ahead of us. 

 

   (So, so true. Thank you!)

 

 Upcoming Week at a Glance:

Date	Time	Event	Details
Oct 26
Oct 27	3:30-4:30 p.m.	Erma Math PD Session 2 Zoom link
Oct 28	3:45 p.m.	EY-2 Faculty Meeting Zoom link G3-G5 Vision Day Planning in Planning Teams Grades K-2 add India Week Mela Slidedeck to your virtual classroom, Seesaw, and/ or daily slides (see below)
Oct 29		Grades 3-5 add India Week Mela Slidedeck to your virtual classroom, Seesaw, and/or daily slides (see below)
Oct 30		Grade level Halloween events

 

Report Card Timeline

Below is the report card timeline. We've worked to streamline the process and ensure the most possible time for revision and turn around for teachers and readers. You will notice as you read through the report card timeline that we are unable to give you time on a Wednesday to write report cards. Unfortunately, it’s just how the calendar of events fell this year. To give you as much time as possible, I have asked tech to work on a very short timeline. We will get a more detailed document about report card writing to you in next week’s faculty notes. 

Wed, Nov 25th	Wellness Afternoon
Wed, Dec 2nd	Faculty Meeting (MSA School Report)
Tues, Dec 8th	Comments given to faculty proofreader by 4:00 p.m.
Wed, Dec 9th	No Faculty Meeting - Proofread Buddy comments
Thu, Dec 10th	Comments returned from faculty proofreader by 3:30 p.m., corrections made
Fri, Dec 11th	Comments given to admin by 4:00 p.m.
Mon, Dec 14th	Comments returned to teachers by admin, corrections made
Tue, Dec 15th	All corrected comments entered into Powerschool by noon (12:00 p.m.)
Thu,  Dec 17th	Any final corrections made by homeroom teachers - this is the final check by 4:00 p.m.
Fri, Dec 18th	Reports go home to parents

 

Erma Anderson’s Math Workshop (Session 2)

Please join Erma for the second math PD session on Tuesday, October 27th. Feel free to join even if you missed the first session. This opportunity is open to all teachers and TAs. 

 

Wednesday Faculty Meeting

EY-grade 2 teachers will be meeting with Dave, Alex, and Chaitanya to talk about handwriting and small group engagement. Please use this Zoom link. 

 

Grades 3-5 teachers and anyone else involved in the Vision Day will have time to plan their project. We will not come together as a large group. If you are working with another teacher, please plan to meet using your own Zoom link. 

 

India Week - Nov. 2nd - Nov. 6th

Bindu and a team of teachers have a fantastic lineup of presenters, activities, and events for India Week. All of the events are during the school day, and we appreciate your flexibility in rearranging your schedule so your students can attend the events. This document will be updated as Bindu finalizes activities, resources, and events, but it will give you a sense of what the week will look like. The banners/graphics will also be shared with you via email.

 

Bindu will email classroom teachers a slidedeck with the India Week mela information next week. Please make this available to students.

 

KG-Grade 2 - make mela menu slidedeck available on Oct. 28th

Grades 3-5 - make mela menu slidedeck available on Oct. 29th

 

 

Coaches Corner

Literacy and Lucy

Did you read the American Public Media article on Lucy Calkin last week? The article builds on their previous reporting on effective reading instruction and the science of reading. The new article is worth reading. Check it out: Influential literacy expert Lucy Calkins is changing her views. You can read Lucy’s response here. 

Here’s a major takeaway from the article: 

“...decades of cognitive science research show that skilled reading requires an ability to decode, matching the sounds in words with the letters used to spell them.” 

In a statement, “Calkins’ group now says that beginning readers should focus on sounding out words and recommends that all children have access to “decodable” books that contain words with spelling patterns students have been taught in phonics lessons.”

What does this mean for our use of Lucy’s strategies that include cueing? Do we continue to teach our younger readers to use pictures and context cues to figure out words? Is it time to stop this practice entirely and focus primarily on phonics instruction and making sure children only focus on sounding out words?  

From the Counselors

Parenting in COVID-19 Times

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Your School Counselors recognize the challenges that you may be facing in your homes as you work to support your children in virtual school and manage the stressors of daily life. Ms. Linda and Ms. Michele talk to many families who have shared their struggles in COVID-19 times.

These challenges and worries include: 

• Developing and managing healthy daily routines for children

• Managing healthy technology habits for self and your children

• Managing sleep routines, bedtimes and wake up times

• Encouraging children to get enough exercise

• Work completion on Seesaw and engagement with virtual learning

• Missing friends and social connections with same age peers

• Feeling responsible for ensuring your students work is done well on Seesaw

• Mood changes in yourself as well as your children

• Being separated from family members who may be across the world

• Single parenting or single parenting while the other parent is in a different location 

• Trying to manage working at home and supporting your child at school. 

• Worry about contracting COVID-19 and not wanting to leave the house or see other people. 

It is so very important to know that you are NOT ALONE in these struggles, and many other parents at AISC are having similar experiences. We are here for you. Please email Ms. Linda (glinda@aischennai.org) if you are an EY-Grade 3 parent or Ms. Michele (nmichele@aischennai.org) if you are a Grade 4 or Grade 5 parent, if you would like to schedule an appointment to talk with us. We are here to listen!  We might have some ideas or strategies to make your day a little bit easier.

 

Have fun celebrating Halloween with your class next Friday. 

 

 

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Lynn, Dave, and Elliot