A Week Ahead filled with Dragon Spirit

Dear Faculty & Staff,
Welcome to another week of great school-wide learning, HS Dragon Spirit, the first SEASAC hosting, and professional growth.

It’s great to be back at school after a very worthwhile EARCOS conference. It was an excellent conference and a befitting celebration for the 50^th anniversary of EARCOS and the final conference for EARCOS Director Dick Krajczar. We were honored to be addressed by Phan Thi Kim Phuc famous for the Pulitzer prize-winning photograph taken in 1972 after she was severely injured in the napalm attack in Trang Bang and author of Fire Road. She noted that if her photo was going to follow her all of her life, she was going to use the opportunity to make a difference in this world. And she certainly is making a difference in her work as a good will ambassador around the world. She is a model for all of resilience, forgiveness and of a purposeful life.

Congratulations to Katie Rigney-Zimmermann who, along with Aimee Gruber of The Enrollment Management Association, presented on International School Admissions. Feedback from their session was extremely positive.

Alongside our students, the adults in the building will continue their learning journey this week. On Monday and Tuesday, we welcome my former colleague, Virginia Blais, to SSIS. Virginia will collaborate with our EAL faculty schoolwide on WIDA standards and assessments. In addition, on Saturday and Sunday, Jim Hulbert of The Jane Group with work with administrators from SSIS and other schools on crisis preparation and management. An outcome of the work will include an updated crisis manual for the school and a collective understanding of how we can best protect our community in the event of a crisis.

Congratulations to the Athletics Department and coaches for  the extraordinary opportunities provided to students across the whole school during this first City Championship tournaments (SISAC) this week.

Last but not least this week, we host our first SEASAC tournament, thanks to the effort of Shelley Wowchuk, her team  and all of our coaches. It’s a great opportunity for our young students to experience Dragon Spirit and to be inspired to engage in sports and other team efforts in the future. Come out and cheer on our Dragons!

Look out for the Senior Leadership Team on Halloween. You can’t miss us!

Have a great week!
Catriona Moran
Head of School