Weekly Update: May 2-6

It’s been a busy week away from SSIS.  I have been working on a WASC accreditation team in Bangkok that started Sunday morning.  I joined four other colleagues on the team from schools in the US, Thailand and Vietnam, as we met with students and parents at an international school in Bangkok.  We observed classrooms, read documents/evidence, dug through reams of data, wrote reports and presented our findings to the school community.

The purpose of an accreditation self study is to reflect on the vision, direction, teaching and learning and resource management of a school.  If done well, it guides the school towards improvement.  Over the course of the week, we reviewed and refined their findings and surfaced further issues that could improve student learning.  This was some of the best professional development that I have experienced in my career.  Not only did I learn a lot about the process that we have begun to undertake for our WASC visit in March of 2017, but also learned some great practices from an emerging school, and garnered an even stronger appreciation of what we have at SSIS.

It’s great to be home.

Have a great extended weekend,

Jacob

Friday, April 29
Day 2- EFGH
Staff Breakfast (hosted by office and counseling): 7:30am (Faculty Room)
Alternative Schedule (Pep Assembly)
Last Day for Full Diploma Seniors, April 29

Monday, May 2
No School
IB Exam AM: IB English
IB Exam PM: Economics

Tuesday, May 3
No School
IB Exam AM: IB English
IB Exam PM: Economics

Wednesday, May 4
Day 3- BCDA
Review Draft Schedule for Final Exam (see Thao if problems)
AP Exam AM: English Lit and Comp
IB Exam AM: Biology
IB Exam PM: Language A & B

Thursday, May 5
Day 4- FGHE
Group Meeting Schedule
AP Exam AM: AP Calculus AB
IB Exam AM: Biology
IB Exam PM: Language A & B

Friday, May 6
Day 5- CDAB
AP Exam AM: Art
IB Exam AM: Physics

On the Horizon
Food Drive for Anh Linh School, May 9-13
Last Day of Classes for non-IB Diploma Seniors, May 12
Senior Final Exams, May 16-18
HS Prom, May 21

Staff Action Needed

• Review the draft final exam schedule before Wednesday, May 4th and see Thao if there are problems.

Pep Assembly on Friday– Our last pep assembly of the year takes place on Friday, April 29th.  After the conclusion of G block at 1:05 walk with your students to the gymnasium with their bags.  They will go to lunch immediately following the assembly. Thanks to Marsha and the Spirit Club for their assemblies and their support of MRISA and SISAC events over the course of the year.

All School Food Drive– The message below will be shared in the student Moodle page for the next couple of weeks.  Please promote this with your students and advisories.  The message from the coordinators (Natalie and Brian) is below.

SSIS is preparing for its annual food drive to benefit Anh Linh School in Ho Chi Minh City. Anh Linh is a free school for children of underprivileged families who could not otherwise afford the fees to attend public school. For a number of years, SSIS has collected food for the students of Anh Linh School to take home to their families for over the summer months when they are away from school.

You can do your part this year to help our friends at Anh Linh School by bringing in non-perishable food items (such as rice, oil, instant noodles, powdered milk, canned fruits and vegetables, etc.) during the week of May 9 through 13. Collection locations for the food with be in the elementary school office, the high school office, and room A205 in the middle school building.

For more information or if you have any questions, please contact Brian Benck (bbenck@ssis.edu.vn) or Natalie Beals (nbeals@ssis.edu.vn) in the middle school. Please help support our neighbors at Anh Linh School by making sure that they have enough to eat this summer!

High School Principal Survey Reflection– I sent out my reflection with the Dragon’s Lair email this week.  You can also review my reflection here via Google Doc.  Thanks again for the time you dedicated to my feedback, it is greatly appreciated.

Graduation: Save the Date– Graduation is only five weeks away on May 28th at 4pm at the GEM Center.  This is a great opportunity to celebrate with our students and families.  Attendance is required for all high school staff.  Dress is formal, but no gowns are necessary.  There will be a bus from SSIS to the GEM Center at 2:30 pm.  Arrival will be about 3:15.  At that point you will be able to interact with our graduates in a private area designated for students and staff before commencement.  There is a reception immediately following which we encourage you to attend as well.  Additionally, there is a beautiful restaurant called The Log on the top floor that might be an excellent after ceremony dinner option for you.  The bus back to school will depart at 6pm.  More information to follow, but wanted to get you an early preview.

Final Exams–  The HSLT began to discuss the final exam testing schedule for the spring semester.  We will be using arena style testing again in our HS gym.  The dates of the exams are June 2, 3, 5 & 6.  The HSLT (with Thao’s support) has made its best effort to balance testing windows for students and for teachers and grading.  The draft of the schedule is here.  If there is a significant issue that we may have missed please see Ms. Thao by Wednesday, May 4.  We would like to publish this to students by the beginning of May.  Please remember, for those of you that are new (like me), we do not give final exams to students taking AP or IB exams, most world language classes, PE, and the arts in semester two.