Weekly Update: December 7 – January 11

The next week will be a flurry of activities with grading assessments, report card comment writing, and of course, the all important task of packing for the holiday trip or preparing your home for Christmas here in HCMC.  Please be sure to stick with the deadlines for the report cards.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the many vertical alignment groups.  This is very important work and your contributions is much appreciated.

I hope that everyone who attended the SSIS Christmas Banquet had a good time.  The photos from the Photo Booth have been uploaded to the school server if you wish to access any of them.

Have a safe and relaxing Winter Break!

Tim

Friday, December 7th
Day 5 – CDAB

Monday, December 10th
Day 6 – GHE Adv F
Advisory Schedule
IB Y2 Celebration/Announcements in the MPR at 12:20pm

Tuesday, December 11th
Day 7 DABC
Theatre 2 Drama Production “Hugo” at 6:00pm in the MS Black Box Theatre

Wednesday, December 12th
Day 8 HEFG
No HS Divisional Staff Meeting – check report card comments and grades
Theatre 2 Drama Production “Hugo” at 6:00pm in the MS Black Box Theatre

Thursday, December 13th
Day 9 ABC Adv D
Advisory Schedule

Friday, December 14th – Early Dismissal at 12:15pm
HS Assembly in Auditorium at 10:15am

December 15, 2018 – January 6, 2019 WINTER BREAK

Monday, January 7, 2019
SSIS Staff PD Day
Full Faculty: Vision 2030 (1 hr) and EC-12 Alignment (2 hr) followed by Individual/Team Planning (4 hr)

Tuesday, January 8th
Day 2 EFGH

Wednesday, January 9th
Day 3 BCDA
HS Divisional Faculty Meeting

Thursday, January 10th
Day 4 FGHE
Advisory Schedule

Friday, January 11th
Day 5 CDAB

On the Horizon

• End of Semester Assessments, November 30-December 14 (See below)
• Share comments with a colleague by Thursday, December 6
• Review comments of colleague by Tuesday, December 11
• December 13 Quarter 2 Ends (Grades & Comments due by 3pm)
• December 14 Quarter 2 Grades and Comment Verification Reports are available in your mailboxes at 7:00 am
• December 14 Quarter 2 Grades and Comment Verification Reports due to Ms. Huyen in the HS office by 8:00am
• December 14 Quarter 2 and Semester 1 Grades will be available for families by 12pm

Staff Action Needed

• Finish writing comments for semester 1

End of Semester Response to Student/Parent Emails–  As mentioned at our faculty meeting this week, we are trying to minimize students interactions about their grades in the last two weeks of school, so that you are able to focus on assessing student work and inputting them into PS in a timely fashion before winter break.   Additionally, you can review the email Jacob has sent to all HS students and parents about this issue here.  Please feel free to copy and paste the text below into any email you may receive from a student or parent in the next two weeks.

“Thank you for reaching out to me.  It is the end of the semester and an extremely busy time as I finalize grades and comments for semester one.  I will not be able to respond to any concerns about assignments or course grades in PowerSchool in person or via email until report cards are finalized and sent to parents on December 14.  Any significant issues that may warrant a change will be handled after winter break and upon my return on January 7, 2019. Rest assured that if there are any issues that warrant a change these can be done starting in January.”

Report Card Comments and Peer Review– We formalized a report card comment writing protocol last year.  The links below will remind you of these expectations and you begin to write these for semester 1.   Additionally, each teacher needs to share the draft of their S1 comments with a peer for review by December 11.  Most teachers share their comments via Google Doc with someone in their department.  Peer editing should include looking for grammatical errors, spelling, correct student names, and adherence to the HS comment writing format.  We have created a quick guide about comment writing that is more useable than the previous documents.

Staff Video– Make sure to schedule your time for the staff video with Dan Le.  This is a huge favorite of students.