Weekly Update: May 29 – June 2

Our seniors learned a lot this week.  Our school introduced it’s first Senior Transition Program.  Our kids learned about challenges and how to overcome them in the areas of closure and goodbyes, being a third culture or cross culture kid, and learned about the class of 2016’s first year in university through an alumni panel Q and A.  They also learned about how influential they are with younger students.  On Wednesday, after the walk-through of campus, they attended their second grade buddy assembly.  Many of our seniors were in tears when they saw how much of an impact they had over the course of the year building relationships with their second grader.  In a sense they were humbled by those around them.  Additionally, your role in their growth as students and well-rounded young adults has been tremendous.  Join me in celebrating the next stage of their lives on Saturday.

Have a great weekend,

Jacob

Friday, May 26
Day 10- EFGH
IB Theater Production, 6pm (Blackbox Theater)

Saturday, May 27
Graduation Day
Bus from SSIS to GEM Center, 2:15pm (SSIS)
HS Faculty to GEM Center, No Later than 3pm
HS Commencement Begins, 4:00pm (GEM Center)
Return Bus to SSIS, 6:00pm

Monday, May 29
Day 1- ABCD
Advisory Schedule (Last one with your advisees)
IOC’s Taking Place

Tuesday, May 30
Day 2- EFGH
IOC’s Taking Place

Wednesday, May 31
Day 3- BCDA
Last Day of Quarter 4
IOC’s Taking Place
HS Faculty Meeting, 3:15-4:30 (MPR)

Thursday, June 1
Day 4- FGHE
Special Election Schedule
May and June Birthday Celebrations, 1st Break (HS Faculty Rm)

Friday, June 2
Exam Schedule Day 1

On the Horizon:   
Saturday, June 3- Ben Tre HS Staff House Build
Wednesday, June 7 at 3pm, All Q4 grades/comments and S2 exams entered
Thursday, June 8 Review Verification Reports by 2pm (signed and returned to Huyen)
Thursday, June 8 report cards emailed home to parents and students

Graduation Information– Commencement is just around the corner.  A few pieces of info in preparation of the event.  The staff bus leaves from SSIS promptly at 2:15pm.  If you are taking your own transportation you need to be at the GEM Center by 3pm.  When you arrive, you can connect in a private area with the graduates right before the event.  By tradition, you will process as a SSIS faculty into the GEM Center before the students at 4pm by years of service at SSIS.  This is a formal event, so dress appropriately.  Most men will wear ties and jackets.  If you have questions about attire see you department head or Tim/Jacob.  The ceremony will end around 5:15.  A bus taking staff back to SSIS will leave around 6pm.

IOC’s– Our grade 11 students will be completing their Individual Oral Commentaries next week from Monday to Wednesday in the HS Office Conference and Counseling Conference rooms and the library.  Here is the schedule.  Special thanks to Bilal, Jodi, and Anne for their work with students next week.

HS Faculty Meeting This Week– Our May 31st meeting will cover a large array of topics as we close out the year.  We will review the IB calendar to determine if there are any pinch points during the year that are difficult for students/staff, will do an overview of activities for the last week of school, review our finalized 2017-18 HS Assessment Guidelines, and have time as a department to plan our last day of school house leagues event.

May & June Birthday Celebration– Come to the HS faculty room on Thursday, June 1 during 1st break to celebrate our faculty birthdays.

StuCo Assembly Part Duex–  We will be hitting the Crtl+Alt+Del button regarding the StuCo elections.  We recognize that the timing allowed for students, omission of grade 8 students, and tenor of some of the speeches were significant issues that need correction.  We will be doing the elections over again on Thursday.  We will be using a special schedule to ensure we have more that the regular amount of advisory time, so students have ample time to give their remarks.  Having multiple candidates for each position is an excellent problem to have.  Additionally, we will be recording the speeches for the grade 8 students to watch on Thursday, June 8.  They will be watching the speeches then voting immediately afterwards.  We plan on announcing the winners at our end of year assembly.  Here is the special schedule for the day.

Project X Clarifications– After the May 19th early release PD on Inquiry Based Education and Project X, the department heads, Tim and I have received a number of questions.  Some staff got the impression that teachers would lose all of their prep time during this week.  While we do not have a schedule set yet, this is an inaccurate perception.  We believe there might be one prep lost during the week at most.  More specifics will come when we return from summer break.  Additionally, some staff expressed worry about being able to coach students effectively during this week.  There was some concern about necessary PD in this regard.  All staff will be trained to effectively coach our students during this process.  Much more specific info will come during our August in-service, but I wanted to clarify a few issues.