Weekly Update: March 4 – 8

This week’s Dragon’s Lair is full of extremely important and valuable information.  You may want to read it in smaller chunks over the next few days.  Please see Jacob, Tim or your department head if you have further questions.

Have a great weekend!

Jacob

Friday, March 1
Day 5- CDAB
Sunshine Breakfast, Hosted by Arts/PE/Library, 7:30am (HS Faculty Room)
University of Waterloo – Math presentation for all students 12:40pm
University of Waterloo – Math presentation for AP Calc AB & BC  1:35pm
IBDP Geography Y1 Field Trip to Hoi An

Monday, March 4
Day 6- GHEF
Advisory Schedule

Tuesday, March 5
Day 7- DABC
HSLT Meeting, 3:15-4:45 (HS Conference Room)  Agenda Here

Wednesday, March 6
Day 8- HEFG
IB Mock Exams
HS Faculty Meeting, 3:15-4:30 (MPR)

Thursday, March 7
Day 9- ABCD
Advisory Schedule
IB Mock Exams

Friday, March 8
Day 10- FGHE
IB Mock Exams
Sunshine Happy Hour, 3:30-4:30 (HS Faculty Room)

On the Horizon

• Comment Writing Time, March 13 3:15-4:30
• International Day, Friday, March 15 (Special Schedule Here)
• Exchange Quarter 3 Comments with a colleague by Friday, March 15 for review
• Finalized Quarter 3 grades & comments due, March 19 by 3pm
• Quarter 3 Report Cards sent out on March 20
• Parent-Teacher Conferences, March 21 (4-8pm) and 22 (8am-1pm)
• Project X Teacher Support, March 25-28
• Spring Break, March 30-April 7
• AP Mock Exams, April 9-25
• AP Exam Student Registration, 2:30pm April 18.  All AP students released from classes early.

Staff Action Needed

• Send at least 5 emails to different families that you would like to attend PTC’s.  Use email template here.
• Choose your T-shirt Size for Project X to support the school and initiative
• Please be sure to read the IBDP Blog for information Mock Exam Invigilation and Procedures.
• Nominate a colleague for great work via Kudos
• Meet the new HS staff for 2019-20

Faculty Meeting– Next week’s faculty meeting (March 6) will be devoted to sharing information about an 8-Day bell schedule option and comparison with our current 10-Day model.  Teachers will have the opportunity to provide initial feedback as we consider a change to the bell schedule in the future.   If you have questions about this please ask your head of department, Jacob or Tim.  The remainder of the time will be devoted to grade level teams and preparation of upcoming advisory lessons.

Special Parent Invitations to PTC’s– Below are the directions to send these on Friday, March 1.

• Pick a total of at least 5 students from ALL of your classes that are struggling academically and send them an email on Friday, March 1 personally inviting them to book time with you for conferences.
  • Here is the link to the email for you to copy and paste.
  • You can get parent email addresses and languages from PowerSchool.  Please copy and paste the English portion,  as the first portion of the email then copy the secondary language afterwards.  i.e English first then Vietnamese second for a Vietnamese speaking parent.
  • For each email, make sure to input the parent’s name, name of the course and your name in the appropriate sections of the email in BOTH English and secondary language.

Project X Schedule– As David Rynne mentioned at this week’s all faculty meeting a specific schedule for HS teachers would be available sometime next week.  In summary, your role as part time facilitator will take place during the week of March 25.  You will be assigned a classroom to support students in the MS building for one block over two days of the week.  For example, you may be assigned to a classroom during your A block prep period on Monday and Wednesday or E block on Tuesday and Thursday.

International Day Activities– HS students have been trying to find ways to meaningfully engage in International Week since I arrived at SSIS 4 years ago.  The National Honor Society has taken the lead this year in the creation of HS focused activities that will take place the afternoon of Friday, March 15.  Classes will be 55 minutes in length on this day (schedule here).  Lunch will end at 12:50 and an international day assembly will take place from 1-2:15 pm in the auditorium.  After a brief break an international day fashion show will take place in the Plaza from 2:30-3pm.

IB Mock and AP Mock Exam Clarifications– Please make sure you follow the guidelines below in regards to how we report scores in PowerSchool for Mock Exams.  The HSLT has agreed to the guidelines below.  Additionally, it has already begun to evaluate possible changes to these for the 2019-20 school year.

• AP Mock Exams- These will be designated in PowerSchool as summative marks with a total weight of 10-20% of the semester total.
• IB Mock Exams-  These will be designated in PowerSchool as formative marks that do not impact the overall percentage of a student.

Cassie Moving Offices after Mock Exams– Most of you know that we have finalized our hiring for next year with the 4th counselor.  Julia Bui will join us as the 2nd social/emotional counselor in the 2019-20 school year.  The plan was to move Cassie’s office next to the Admin side of the building next year.  She needs a larger office and one with closer access to the conference room for the large amounts of exam materials in May.  As a result, we have determined that the move will happen right after IB Mock Exams.

March 13 HS Faculty Meeting– The March 13 HS Faculty meeting is designated a time for comment writing for quarter 3.