Weekly Update August 23 – 30th

Tim Chute | August 23, 2018 | Weekly Update | No Comments

The 2018-19 school-year is now in full swing. Every day we have lots of great lessons being taught in classrooms, hands-on learn taking place throughout the school, WWW preparations are being made, and our sports and after-school Activities have begun. Please remember to keep yourself healthy. Be sure to send an SMS text message to the HR Hot Line (What to Do if You Will Miss School ) if you are ill and you are unable to work.

Tim

Friday, August 24th
Day 5 CDAB

Saturday, August 25th
Teachers Meeting Teachers at Saigon Outcast from 3:30pm – late

Monday, August 27th
Day 6 GHE Adv F
Advisory Calendar

Tuesday, August 28th
Day 7 DABC
HS LT Meeting 3:15pm

Wednesday, August 29th
Day 8 HEFG

Thursday, August 30th
Day 9 ABC Adv D
Advisory Calendar
Grades 9, 10 and 11 WWW / Retreat Parent Meetings at 5:00pm
Curriculum Night at 6:00pm

Friday, August 31st
Day 10 FGHE

On the Horizon

Saigon International Teacher Social: August 25, 3-6pm (Saigon Outcast, D2)
HS Curriculum Night: August 30
HS Sunshine Plastic Chair Event: Friday, September 7, 4-8pm (place TBD)
Grades 9 and 10 WWW September 16 – 22, 2018
Grade 11 Retreat September 20 – 22, 2018
HS Block Party, November 9, 4-9pm (Jacob’s House)

Staff Action Needed

Turnitin PSL Integration Review Tutorial
HS Staff Questions- please complete this form See below for more information.
RSVP to Saigon International Teacher’s Social on August 25. See more information below.
RSVP for the annual HS Sunshine Plastic Chair event
Please give your 500,000 VND for Sunshine Committee Dues to William, Evan, Cassie or Huyen
Add a kudos to a colleague(s)

HS Staff Questions for Admin/ HS LT. Please complete this Google Form . The admin team and the HSLT will review and organize these into themes to ensure questions/concerns are being answered/addressed.

Saigon International Teacher’s Social, August 25– Come out and meet your international school teaching colleagues from around HCMC. We connected D2 and D7 faculty last spring and now we are connecting you all. This takes place at Saigon Outcast in D2 on Saturday, August 25 from 3-6pm. Please RSVP here so we can get an idea for numbers and transportation.

HS Sunshine Plastic Chair Event Returns, September 7– Please save the the September 7 date for our annual and much loved Plastic Chair event. It will start after school around 4pm and end around 8pm. The location will be shared next week. Your Sunshine dues help pay for this. All you need to do is show up to have some great food, beverages and conversation with an amazing HS staff. This is an adult only event and we encourage you to bring your significant other employed or not at SSIS. Please RSVP by Friday, August 31 so we can organize food and seating.

Dragon’s Lair Kudos– We have heard from a few staff members that it would be great to include more teacher voice in the kudos section of the Dragon‘s Lair. We will send out a Kudos reminder each week and also link it in the Dragon‘s Lair to get more voice from a larger variety of people. We appreciate the suggestion from teachers in regards to this. Please complete the following form to give a quick shout out to a colleague that you would like to recognize for doing something special.

HS Reader Boards– Most of you have probably noticed the LED message boards that have been placed around campus. There are two in the HS now (at the ground floor entrance and HS Kiosk). We will be using these to publicize upcoming events (clubs, sports, service, deadlines, etc) in the HS. If you have anything that you wish to put on the message boards please email Jacob and Tim the information by Wednesday each week. We will need the name of the event, date, time and location. You can also send us a picture if you have one. This is brand new, so we are still developing the procedure for staff to best share this info with Jacob and Tim now. Something more formalized will come in the near future.

HS Curriculum Night– Our HS Curriculum Night will on Thursday, August 3oth. Our grade 9, 10 and 11 parents arrive starting at 5pm in the auditorium (9), HS gym (10), MPR (11) for information on the WWW and grade 11 retreat programs. Only grade level deans (9/10/11) and trip leaders need attend this session. Curriculum Night officially starts at 6pm in the auditorium. After a 10 minute opening, parents will start coming to your classes according to the bell schedule at 6:20pm for A block. You can see our schedule on this link. Some of you will not be able to return home after school, but stay here for the evening. We have ordered a few pizzas to be in the HS faculty room at 4:15pm. Be in your classrooms by 6pm.

You only have 10 minutes with each class, so highlight at least:

Introduction of yourself and background
Share an overview of the course curriculum
Share grading/marking guidelines
Share the sylabus
Let them know the best ways to contact you about their child’s progress

If you have any questions about your 10 minutes of fame, please talk to your department head, Jacob or Tim.

Observations are Coming: What You Need to Know– Tim and I are starting our staff evaluations this coming week. During the week of observation we will have a pre conference, a full block observation, and a post conference. Huyen has scheduled these and will invite you the week before. There are two observation tracks: returning teachers and new staff. We use the Charlotte Danielson Professional Practice Framework for all teachers.

Returning Teachers (Focused Evaluation)

Will choose 2-3 total components from domains 1-3 (Planning & Preparation, Classroom Environment, Instruction) i.e. 1b, 2d, and 3a for a focused evaluation.
Meet for a pre-conference to determine the 2-3 components together with administrator
Full block observation
Post-conference meeting

New Teachers to SSIS (Full Danielson Framework)