Friday, April 17, 2020

VLD end of week 4

Hi everyone,

Great week, and even better ‘seeing’ many of you at the faculty meeting on Wednesday. Keep up the wonderful work, keep supporting each other, and keep checking in with us if you need support with anything.

We had about 40 children complete the enrichment ‘masterchef’ challenge! Look at the parents blog to see their pics!

We only had a couple of questions from our faculty meeting- one of which we feel many of you may be facing; how to respond/report out on children who are not engaging? See below!

Children Not Engaging

If you notice children are not engaging at all or with a particular subject area, please direct email the parents. It is important they realise this will be reflected on the report cards. The following steps are outlined to support you with this.

Step	Details
Step 1 Direct email parent	‘Dear Parent, We understand virtual learning can be challenging for families at home, and we appreciate your support with this. However, X has shown very little engagement in math and science throughout our virtual learning. It is important that you are aware that unless they begin to engage with the learning we are sharing that this will be reflected on their report card. If there is a reason for why X has been unable to engage, please let me know as soon as possible so that I can help solve this problem with you. Sign off, Teacher
Step 2: Admin follow up	Still no engagement? Reach out to inform Dave Dave follow up with parent
Step 3:   Report card	Still no engagement? Report card to have following statement  ‘X has shown very little/no engagement in the area of X during virtual learning.   Therefore there is insufficient data to assess their growth at this time.

Consolidating Office Hours by Grade Level

Posted here are the office hours - we thank you all for sticking to these and not overlapping to avoid any clashes for children. You will notice a new column of ‘open specialist hours’. Many specialist teams will begin offering live sessions soon too e.g a PE session, an Art class, a language conversation or a Music sing along for different grade levels. This offers another opportunity for children to connect, and will be recorded for those unable to participate during IST.

	Morning Meeting	Morning Office Hours	Specialist Hours	Open Specialist Sessions	Afternoon Office Hours
EY	8:00 - 8:45 a.m.	10:00 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.	1:00 - 2:00 p.m.	N/A	2:00 - 2:45 p.m.
KG	8.15 - 9.15 a.m.	9:30 a.m. - 10:40 a.m. (Zoom in small groups)	1:00 - 2:00 p.m.	11:30 - 12:30 a.m	2.00 - 2.45 p.m.
G1	9:00 - 9:30 a.m.	9:30 - 10:30 a.m.	1:00 - 2:00 p.m.	10:00 - 11:00 a.m	2:00 - 2:45 p.m.
G2	8:30 - 9:15 a.m.	9:15 - 10:00 a.m.	1:00 - 2:00 p.m.	10:00 - 11:00 a.m	2:00 - 2:45 p.m.
G3	8:30 - 9:15 a.m.	9:45 - 10:30 a.m.	11:00 a.m.  - 12:00 p.m.	1:00 - 2:00 p.m.	2:00 - 2:45 p.m.
G4	8:30 - 9:15 a.m.	11:00 - 11:45 a.m.	10:00  - 11:00 a.m.	1:00 - 2:00 p.m.	2:45 - 3:30 p.m.
G5	8:30 - 9:00 a.m.	11:40 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.	10:00  - 11:00 a.m.	1:00 - 2:00 p.m.	2:50 - 3:30 p.m.

Upcoming Faculty Meeting

Dan has two scheduled MSA meetings as the upcoming faculty meetings on the 22 and 29 April.

All those in an MSA team, they will meet to complete that work.

Anyone not in a MSA team, then we ask you to please work together in your teams on the curriculum map/pacing guides for 2020-21.  

• Find each grade levels curriculum map in this folder
• Copy over units from this year
• Update any modifications to all units that have occurred over the year.
• Determine the order of the units of study (Sci/SS/Math/LA)
• *Please know that units need to alternate between Sci/SS in case we are faced with virtual school at any point next year and so children have balanced experience with both subject areas.
• Reach out to coaches if you need any support with completing curriculum maps.  
• Each map needs to have all units outlined; specialist and homeroom core subjects.
• Due date for all curriculum maps is Friday 15 May.   

ES Social - Trivia Night

Put your thinking caps on because it’s Trivia Night! Linda, Vanessa, and Dave are hosting our next ES Social on Friday, April 24th from 5-6 p.m. Get ready to have some fun and test your knowledge about the world around you. Also, grab a snack and a favorite drink. Here is the link  for the get together. We will also be sending out an invite next week.

Resources and Ideas to Support Live Sessions!

Need more resources or ideas for your morning meetings and office hours? Check out this list of Virtual Authors and Live Story Times by some of our favorite authors. Feel free to add to this list as you find other authors offering recorded sessions. 

Math Learning Resources K-6

Here is a link to a Padlet that Calley created which has different math resources and sites to support student learning and teachers’ planning of math lessons and small group sessions.

From the EAL Department: EAL Strategy Talk, #6!

EAL Strategy Talks are still happening! Our next Talk focuses on Translanguaging at AISC, specifically: What parts of translanguaging do we do well? What parts may not be a good fit for us and our students? How are students possibly using translanguaging in a virtual environment? These questions and many more will be answered next Tuesday!

When: Tuesday, 21 April 2020, 7:30-8:15am

Where: ZOOM, meeting ID: 726 5828 1453

Password: 9jUcED

End of Year Report Cards (repeat announcement)

These will look different to previous years end of year report cards, and will reflect the learning we have been able to observe and assess as submitted in a virtual learning environment.

• Report cards will have reduced commenting for all core subject and specialist subjects
• No individual standard assessments.  
• Templates will be shared asap. 
• Homeroom/EAL teachers will write one overall PSE comment and assess learning habits as meeting/working towards as observed in a virtual learning environment. Specialists can contribute to this
• All subjects will have a 2-3 sentence narrative comment -  teams/teachers can begin working to determine how they will need to structure tasks to obtain any assessment evidence to be able to write this.
• We went over this further at our faculty meeting on Wednesday at 3:45 p.m. 

Virtual Report Card Timeline

Wednesday 06 May	Familiarise yourself again with a refresher read of the style guide
Thursday 14 May 8:00 a.m.	Report comments due to faculty proof readers by 5:00 p.m.
Monday 18 May 8:00 a.m	Colleague proofers finished proofing, tag admin proofreader
Wednesday 20 May	Comments returned to teacher by admin.  Accept changes as indicated.
Friday 22 May, 8:30 a.m	Comments entered into powerschool
Friday 22 May 8:30 a.m	IT team run reports, final checking Sherriden and IT team begin printing from 2:00 p.m (hard deadline)
Thursday 28 May	All printing/editing complete, final corrections made
Monday 1 June	Reports given to homeroom teachers, final check (if printed if back on campus, place in envelopes)
Tuesday 2 June	Reports go home to parents

Have an enjoyable and relaxing weekend!.

Keryn, Dave, and Calley

Thursday, April 9, 2020

VLD end of week 3

Dear Faculty, 

Great job with week three everyone! The ‘where are you’ survey data has shown that over 83% of our student body is here in Chennai. We will therefore be continuing with our office times etc in IST. If you are noticing children in your class are in different time zones, please accommodate them as best you can, and also remember to record class meetings so the missing students can watch at a later time.

Next Tuesday is Tamil New year - so no school for that day.

There will not be any surveys this week as it was a short week, and we also recognise the need for breathing space for us all to begin to implement some of the new tweaks and enhancements. Thank you all for your attention to these. The enhanced expectations are confirmed below: 

• All classes to host a live daily class meeting
• One live class session or a video of the teacher teaching/demonstrating per day
• One office hours for small group conferences with the aim that each child participates in a small group 2-3 times per week (these conferences shared between EAL/homeroom teachers)
• Enrichment tasks will be added to the planning template; next week there will be wellness and principals office challenges added daily. All teachers are welcome to add to these enrichment boxes for the following weeks.  

Breakout Rooms on Zoom

Interested in using the Breakout Room option on Zoom? Check out this quick and easy introductory video to get started. For written instructions, check here. Feel free to reach out to Alex if you have any specific questions.

End of Year Report Cards

These will look different to previous years end of year report cards, and will reflect the learning we have been able to observe and assess as submitted in a virtual learning environment.

• Report cards will have reduced commenting for all core subject and specialist subjects
• No individual standard assessments.  
• Templates will be shared asap. 
• Homeroom/EAL teachers will write one overall PSE comment and assess learning habits as meeting/working towards as observed in a virtual learning environment. Specialists can contribute to this
• All subjects will have a 2-3 sentence narrative comment -  teams/teachers can begin working to determine how they will need to structure tasks to obtain any assessment evidence to be able to write this.
• We will go over this further at our faculty meeting on Wednesday at 3:45 p.m. 

Virtual Report Card Timeline

Wednesday 06 May	Familiarise yourself again with a refresher read of the style guide
Thursday 14 May 8:00 a.m.	Report comments due to faculty proof readers by 5:00 p.m.
Monday 18 May 8:00 a.m	Colleague proofers finished proofing, tag admin proofreader
Wednesday 20 May	Comments returned to teacher by admin.  Accept changes as indicated.
Friday 22 May, 8:30 a.m	Comments entered into powerschool
Friday 22 May 8:30 a.m	IT team run reports, final checking Sherriden and IT team begin printing from 2:00 p.m (hard deadline)
Thursday 28 May	All printing/editing complete, final corrections made
Monday 1 June	Reports given to homeroom teachers, final check (if printed if back on campus, place in envelopes)
Tuesday 2 June	Reports go home to parents

New Challenges in Time for the Long Weekend! 

Collaborators work together to get things done! AISC students in elementary school have a lot of experience with teamwork and collaboration. Even apart, we can work together virtually in many ways. Choose one of the collaborator challenges and don’t forget to share photos of your work by emailing aiscesdesign@aischennai.org or post on Twitter with the hashtags #AISCESDesign. We would love to see what you do!

We are sharing the below tips with parents this week too:

Parenting Tips for Learning at Home

Across the world millions of families are engaging in learning at home. This is a new chapter for parents as they figure out how to manage their own responsibilities and their children’s learning. When setting expectations with your children about their learning, it’s critical that you have already developed clear daily routines as a family and have established clear spaces for your own work and where your child will be engaging in school activities. Below are some other strategies to consider as you support your child’s learning. 

• Create a Schedule - Think about creating a schedule for yourself and your children so your children know what they need to accomplish that day and when you are available to help them. 
• Prioritize Needs - Prioritizing needs is important. Knowing that each family has their own unique demands, so it may not be possible for your child to accomplish all of their activities for that day or week. That’s okay. If an activity is not completed then it could be completed the next day when you have more time to help your child. Communicating with your child about your own responsibilities is important so they don’t feel frustrated in not being able to get all of their schoolwork done. 
• Family Meetings - Have a family meeting at least a couple of times a week where everyone can share their thoughts, their big priorities for the week, their concerns, anything at all!  Everyone should speak their own thoughts and be able to share openly.
• Set Goals - Encourage your child to set a daily goal for what they want to accomplish with their schoolwork. Setting goals is a great way for children to own their learning and have a concrete target to achieve. 
• Reinforce Children’s Engagement - While all children take pride in their work, some children are more motivated when they are working towards something. Whether your child sets and achieves their goal or still completes their schoolwork without setting a goal, consider rewarding them for their hard work. Examples of rewards include playing a family game, being read to by a parent, having a five-minute dance party, doing a puzzle together, etc.
• Stay Active - An important way to keep our brains engaged is to stay active. Schedule breaks for yourself and your children to do some movement, yoga, stretching, GoNoodle, and so on. This will ensure that when you and your children are ready to get back to work that you can remain focused on the task ahead. 
• Communicate - share your needs or your concerns directly with us. Teachers are experts at this and can easily share tips or strategies for you to try at home. Also talk to your children about this unique situation; share that this is new for you too!
• Practice Patience and Flexibility - Be patient with your children and meet them where they are developmentally. Although we want to challenge our children, we also don’t foster a sense of frustration and helplessness when we ask them to do things that they are not ready to do.

Knowing that we are all in this together, it’s important to reach out to others for support. Extending your parent network can help you gather more ideas to support your family but also hear from others that are experiencing the same struggles. Self-care is also vital for each family member and the family as a whole. This is an unprecedented time in our history and it’s important to check in with each other and do positive things for ourselves. 

Lastly, remember this is a work progress. We are all taking this one day at a time and each day is different. Making our routines and our family work habits sustainable will keep us healthy and happy. We are also all learning and growing and improving at what we do each day. 

Have a relaxing and restful weekend.

Keryn, Dave, and Calley

Friday, April 3, 2020

Dear all,

We cannot stress enough how grateful we are seeing all the virtual learning plans offered to our students. You are true professionals and we take our hats off to you! 
Great to see many of you during ES office hours this week - these will continue  next week and we look forward to you joining us! We also look forward to seeing you at our ES happy hour tonight at 5pm.  Join us if you can!

Remember next Friday 10 April (Good Friday) and Tuesday 14th April (Tamil New Year) are both non-school days and so both the next two weeks are 4 day weeks! Whatever specialist class is scheduled for Friday will not be rescheduled, just like a regular holiday! All classes cancelled..

Reflecting on Week 2

As week two of virtual learning draws to a close, take some time to reflect on how you are doing and how your colleagues are doing. This great graphic below helps us go through this process. 

Please find here the link to the faculty survey feedback, a chance for you to give input on how this week was for you.

COI Faculty Feedback - Week 2

Sharing Activities on Seesaw

All the activities that teachers create are stored in the school folder. This video explains how to access those activities.

Heading into Week Three

Many things remain the same for this coming week with A few important things to consider:

• All plans being made available to students and families Monday at 8:00 a.m.
• Specialist teachers remaining on the one day per grade level schedule.
• Continuing to build relationships through live connections through Zoom and Google hangouts.  Thank you all for your commitment to this!
• Attendance will still be taken daily and entered into powerschool by 4:00 p.m

A reminder that should something come up that prevents you from being with your students when you are scheduled to be, please reach out to your co-teacher, a coach, a counselor, or Jen C, Calley, Dave or myself to cover for you! We are all here to help. :)

Google Calendars & Upcoming Important Dates

A reminder to please update google calendars for next week; ensure your office hours and meetings are correctly blocked. This helps all of us with scheduling appointments.  

Consolidating Office Hours by Grade Level

We have compiled all daily office hours from the grade level templates below. We are asking for everyone to please stick to these to honor everyone's time. 

	Morning Meeting	Morning Office Hours	Specialist Hours	Afternoon Office Hours
EY	8:00 - 8:45 a.m.	10:00 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.	1:00 - 2:00 p.m.	2:00 - 2:45 p.m.
KG	8.15 - 9.15 a.m.	Zoom in small groups	1:00 - 2:00 p.m.	2.00 - 2.45 p.m.
G1	9:00 - 9:30 a.m.	9:30 - 10:30 a.m.	1:00 - 2:00 p.m.	2:00 - 2:45 p.m.
G2	8:30 - 9:15 a.m.	9:15 - 10:00 a.m.	1:00 - 2:00 p.m.	2:00 - 2:45 p.m.
G3	8:30 - 9:15 a.m.	9:45 - 10:30 a.m.	11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.	2:00 - 2:45 p.m.
G4	8:30 - 9:15 a.m.	11:00 - 11:45 a.m.	10:00  - 11:00 a.m.	2:45 - 3:30 p.m.
G5	8:30 - 9:00 a.m.	11:40 a.m.- 12:30 p.m.	10:00  - 11:00 a.m.	2:50 - 3:30 p.m.

Vision Projects 2020-2021 Update!

We are excited to share the following with you:

• We will have 2 weeks dedicated to vision projects for grades 3-5! Tentative dates are in November and April
• Please start to think about your preferences for next year - continuing with the same project, joining an existing project, or developing/implementing a new one. If now seems like an okay time to take a break and indicate your interests for next year please  complete this survey. This will help us in developing project teams for next year. Please note that teams will be finalized depending on student sign-ups.
• Student survey for grades 3 and 4. If you think it will be possible, please have your students complete the survey during a morning meeting next week. It would be great to get their feedback!

3 Virtual Learning Resources for Literacy

Here is a quick 2-minute video of 3 Virtual Learning Resources you may find useful in your literacy planning. Here are the google slides I used in making the video if you want to explore the resources further. Feel free to let Alex know if he can help in any way.

FYI - Well Week: April 6-9 (from our Counseling & Wellbeing team)

Next week we will put a spotlight on Wellbeing with Well Week at AISC. The intention of the week is to bring attention to our wellbeing and share our experiences. Students will receive instructions on how to engage in Well Week activities. We encourage parents to join in as well. Please see the focus of each day below:

Monday: Positive Relationships: Gratitude and Kindness Challenges

Tuesday: Self Awareness: How are you feeling? Get creative.

Wednesday: Self Management: Share your tips: #AISCWellbeing

Thursday: Healthy Habits: Try something new.

Have a relaxing and restful weekend.

Keryn, Dave, and Calley