Weekly Update: March 11

This week marked the last night of departmental dinners at our home.  Each of the three nights over the last weeks has brought our high school closer together as a community.  It was great to see the entire high school staff, significant others and children hanging out and enjoying each other’s company.  As the kids played upstairs or out in the street together, we had the pleasure of getting to know each other on a more personal level.  Building strong relationships and community are important to me as a principal and this was another big step forward as a division.

Building a tight-knit community is a unique aspect of international schools.  A strong community builds trust and encourages honesty which is critical for any organization.  I hope these relationships will reap huge rewards for our division as we take on future challenges together.

Have a great weekend,

Jacob

Staff Action Needed

• Complete this form to suggests names of potential mentors for next year’s 9th graders.  See Link Crew section below for more details.
• Complete the HS Principal’s Survey between March 17 and 23.
• Begin Writing 3rd Quarter Comments and Update Gradebooks for Quarter 3, March 23 (see section below)
• Mock 2016 feedback please take two minutes to fill out

Friday, March 11
Day 5- CDAB
University Visit: Upper Iowa University and University of New Brunswick, 9:25-9:35 (Library)

Saturday, March 12
Rock Out, 4:30-6:30 (Hard Rock Cafe)

Monday, March 14
Day 6- GHEF
Group Meeting Schedule
University Visit: Monash University and University of Calgary, Lunch (Library)
HSLT Meeting, 3:15-4:45 (HS Office Conference Room) Agenda Here

Tuesday, March 15
Day 7- DABC

Wednesday, March 16
Day 8- HEFG
AS Professional Development-WASC Home Groups, 3:15-4:30

Thursday, March 17
Day 1- ABCD
Principal Survey Begins
Group Meeting Schedule

Friday, March 18
Day 2- EFGH
University Visit: Arcadia University and University of Concordia, Lunch (Library)

On the Horizon
Principal Surveys End, March 21
Comments and Grades Finalized for 3rd Quarter, March 23 at 3pm
3rd Quarter Report Cards Emailed to Parents, March 24
Parent Teacher Conferences, March 24 (4-8pm) and March 25 (8am-1pm) MS Gym

Principal Survey– With the head of school survey finished, the divisional principals are next up.  Starting on March 17th and ending on March 23rd my survey (as high school principal) will be open for your feedback.  These anonymous surveys will be sent from Survey Monkey.  Ha Noi (from Human Resources) will provide the data for me to reflect upon, develop future goals, and share my big learnings with the Head of School.  Please take the time to provide me feedback and written commentary in the free response sections.  This information is not only critical for my own personal growth, but the direction of our division.  I’d like to thank you in advance for your time giving me honest feedback.  You can take the survey here.

Congratulations Bilal and Megan– They are expecting a child in the coming months.  The wonderful world of parenting is just around the corner.

Parent Teacher Conferences-  Our parent/teacher conferences take place on Thursday, March 24 (4-8pm) and Friday, March 25 (8am-1pm) in the MS gym.    This is a regular school day ending at 3pm.  I previously reported this being an early release day.  I thought this was the same as the first quarter.  Additionally, we will have food here for staff throughout the evening from 3-8pm in the MS faculty lounge.

You will need to have your fully charged laptop computers with charging cords and any other assessment documentation you feel relevant to share with parents.  Additionally, please treat this day as we did for our HS Curriculum Night with more of a professional dress.  Please let me, Ms. Thao or your department head know if you have any questions.

Faculty Meeting Followup–  Thank you for your thoughtful ideas at Wednesday’s meeting as we started to tackle some of the challenges regarding our bell schedule for next year.  I acknowledge that this work is hard and compromises have been and will be made along the way.  I just met with the Academic Leadership Team (Dan, Molly, Tina and Mark).  One of our agenda items was the length of lunch in the HS division that is being considered.  Yesterday, I wanted to collect some initial data from you about how we are currently using that time.  We also compared contact time with students in each division.  The net result of this dialogue is that we will have consistent enough contact time between divisions with the proposed changes to lunch time.  The Academic Leadership Team additionally acknowledged the need for flexibility to serve the needs of students in each division (a longer lunch being one that might fit the needs of our students best).

Personal Days at the End of the Year-  No personal days are permitted to be used during the last three weeks of the school year.  The last week personal days may be considered is during the week of May 16th.

Link Crew is Coming– Link Crew is a systematic yearlong 9th grade program that supports the successful transition of 9th graders to HS.  Erin, Jodi, Alison and I have been working to establish a program for the 2016-17 school year for the last few months.  We will be assigning each incoming 9th grader a mentor in their “House” to help guide them through their freshman year.  The mentors (Link Crew Leaders) will be 10th and 11th graders next year.  We are establishing an application process for students who are interested in this leadership opportunity.  We are looking for leaders that represent a wide range of students.  We hope to expand on our traditional leaders on campus (i.e. StuCo, NHS, etc).  We are looking for students that show leadership potential, are compassionate and support others.  Please complete this form if you could recommend the names of current 9th and 10th graders that might be a great fit in this role.

Grade Book Comments and Grades– Wednesday, March 23 is the end of the 3rd quarter.  All grades and comments are to be posted on PowerSchool by 3pm on this day even though they are still “grades in progress”.

All work is to be graded prior to March 23rd in order to be inputted to PS by this date.  There are to be summative assessments recorded by this date, as well as any formative work.

If students are missing a summative assessment then it is OK to use “I” (incomplete) as a final grade (as per assessment policy in the high school). Zero may be used as a grade only for formative work not completed.

Comments for each student will be necessary on PowerSchool reports as has been the practice.  Comments are to be personal and learning-focused and should allow for parents and students to understand areas of strength and areas in need of growth. As this is an official school report, official PowerSchool names are to be used to reference each student.

For example: If mentioned in the formal way (“Quang Liu Tuan Gip), then (“Derek”) would be fine at the beginning of the comment and subsequent mentions may be the nickname, or formal name, only. This will conserve valuable character space.

If an “I” is given (see above paragraph) then the circumstances should be referenced in the comment for that student. Comments should appear in the S1 column in PowerSchool and should not exceed 500 characters.