Weekly Update: September 5 – 9

Welcome to September!  
Hang onto your hats as this will be a busy month with Grade 9 and 10 Week Without Walls trips, Group 4 Projects, CAS Retreat, ASAs, sports teams, and Quarter 1 marks and IB predicted grades due on October 5th.

Thursday, September 1
Day 1 – ABCD
Advisory Bell Schedule (Calendar Here)
Birthday Celebration with cake during the first break (9:20am)

Friday, September 2
No School: Vietnamese National Day

Monday, September 5
Day 1 – ABCD
Fire Drill – Unannounced to students
Advisory Bell Schedule (Calendar Here)
Nagoya University – Japan 9:20am
Rollins College – 1:00pm

Tuesday, September 6
Day 2- EFGH
HS Junior College Night

Wednesday, September 7
Day 3 – BCDA
Early Dismissal Schedule:
8:00 – 8:55am         B Block
9:00 – 9:55am         C Block
9:55 – 10:15am       Break
10:20 11:15am        D Block
11:20 – 12:15pm     A Block
WASC Full Staff PD 1:00 – 4:30pm

Thursday, September 8
Day 4 – FGHE
Advisory Bell Schedule (Calendar Here)

Friday, September 2
Day 5 – CDAB
Study in the UK Presentation 12:45pm Room C307
StuCo – Dance/ Social

Please keep your PowerSchool GradeBooks up to date. Within the last seven days, 69% of HS parents access their PowerSchool portal looking for their child’s grades (97% of HS students accessed their PowerSchool account last week).  Please contact parents is you feel a student is under performing and may need some parental involvement.

Week Without Walls – more info here

Revise areas for HS Faculty Supervision:

During lunchtime we have 6 teacher supervisors covering the following areas:

1. HS Gym (fixed duty)
2. Cafeteria (MS Building) (fixed duty)
3. HS Kiosk (fixed duty)
4. Library (fixed duty)
5. Basement Fitness Room, Plaza / Fields (roaming)
6. HS Kiosk, library, Field, Gym (roaming)

Please be sure to do your duty each week. Ask a colleague to cover your duty if you have a meeting or another commitment.

On the Horizon
Grade 9 MAP Testing, September 5-16 (In Study Hall)
StuCo Dance/Social, September 9 (6:00-9:00pm)
Sunshine Plastic Chair Dinner, September 16 (4:30-6:30) More info to follow
PTA Family Fun Day, September 17 (9:00am-1:00pm)
WWW, September 18-24

Staff Action Needed

• 2016-17 Professional Goals (see below).  Complete by September 9
• Peer walk-through interest form (see intro for more details)

Learning Walks Started– Tim and Jacob started Learning Walks this week.  You will receive an email with feedback from Jacob after the visit (no way to fix this with the Google Form we are using).  If Tim visits your classroom you can “forward” your response to him instead of replying to me.  Remember it is up to you how to respond to the feedback.  You can respond to the email, talk to us in the hallways, schedule a meeting, or do nothing at all.

Evaluations Starting in September– Tim and I will be starting the formal observation process with the HS staff at the beginning of September.  Our observation this fall will include a scheduled pre-conference (discuss the learning objectives & delivery of lesson and review your professional goals for the year), full period observation, and post-conference (staff self reflection and discussion with administrator).  We use the Danielson professional practice framework at SSIS like many other schools around for world.  Your designated administrator will share Google Docs with you along the way.  At our pre-conference, we will be discussing your professional goals for the 2016-17 school year.  You will need to complete this Google Form by September 9th.  Directions are on the form.

What is Vietnamese National Day?– We all get to enjoy a well needed day off on Friday, September 1.  The actual holiday is September 2nd and it commemorates the declaration of independence from the French that had occupied Vietnam from 1887 to 1954 (minus Japanese occupation during WWII).