Weekly Update: March 21-25

One of the most exciting aspects of working in a high school setting is looking to the future.  This is the primary focus of our time with students while they are in our division.  It is fantastic supporting students as they prepare for university and career life.  There are a number of other exciting things that happen in the spring semester that are focused on the future.  In addition to planning our commencement ceremony, we spend a lot of time building the master schedule and planning Week Without Walls trips for the 2016-17 school year just to mention a few.

The difficult task we have as educators is to help keep our students focused on the present with the excitement of graduation and summer break looming around the corner, as we hit the home stretch of the 4th quarter.  While many of our students will successfully balance their present and future aspirations, others will struggle and need our assistance.  One of our jobs in the coming weeks is to monitor our students to ensure that they do not take an academic nose dive in the eleventh hour.  Thank you in advance for your support.

Have an amazing weekend,

Jacob

Staff Action Needed

• Complete the HS Principal’s Survey between March 17 and 25.  Link for Survey Here
• 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 18
Day 2- EFGH
University Visit: Arcadia University and University of Concordia, Lunch (Library)

Monday, March 21
Day 3- BCDA
Group Meeting Schedule
University Visit: Queen Mary University of London, Lunch (Library)

Tuesday, March 22
Day 4- FGHE
University Visit: SUNY Plattsburgh, Lunch (Library)

Wednesday, March 23
Day 5- CDAB
University Visit: City University of Hong Kong, Lunch (Library)
Grades and Comments Finalized by teachers by 3pm
HS Faculty Meeting, 3:15-4:30pm (MPR) Agenda Here

Thursday, March 24
Day 6- GHEF
3rd Quarter Report Cards Emailed to Parents in the Morning
Parent/Teacher Conferences, 4-8pm (MS Gym)

Friday, March 25
Non Student Day
Last Day to Complete the Principal’s Survey
Parent/Teacher Conferences, 8am-1pm (MS Gym)
GIN Conference Opening Ceremony (GIN Conference Sat & Sunday at SSIS)

On the Horizon
High School Charity Concert, March 31 (7-8:30pm)
Family Fun Day, April 2 (2:30-5pm)
IB/AP Art Exhibit, April 6 (7-8:30pm)
HS Theater Production, April 7 & 8 (6:30pm)
Spring Break, April 9-17

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.  The link to my survey is here.  I’d like to thank you in advance for your time giving me honest feedback.

Family Fun Day– Family Fun Day (hosted by our PTA) takes place on Saturday, April 2 from 2:30-5pm.  There will be a lot of great activities available for all age groups.  Please stop by and support our awesome parents for a bit on Saturday.

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.

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.

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 S2 column in PowerSchool and should not exceed 500 characters.