Weekly Update: October 10 – 28

We have now started Quarter 2 of the 2016-17 school-year.  Please be sure to keep your Quarter 2 Grade Books up-to-date as students and parents will be monitoring the grades closely for our students who did not perform well in Quarter 1.

Friday, October 7
Learning 2.0 Conference

Saturday, October 8
Learning 2.0 Conference

Monday, October 10
Day 6 – GHEF
Advisory Day Schedule
UC and Cal State evening presentation for families 6:00 – 7:30pm

Tuesday, October 11
Day 7 – DABC
Solbridge University – Korea 12:30 – 1:30pm
University of Alberta – Katherine Melnyk 12:30 – 1:30pm
HSLT Meeting, 3:15-4:45 (Counseling Conference Room) Agenda Here

Wednesday, October 12
Day 8- HEFG
Advisory Day Schedule
New Staff Transition Lunch 1:05 – 1:35pm MPR
HS Faculty Meeting –  3:15 – 4:30pm MPR

Thursday, October 13
1/2 Day of Classes / Parent Teacher Interviews
Day 9- ABCD
WWW chaperones meet ( lunch provided)

Friday, October 14
No Classes for students
Parent Teacher Interviews until 1:00pm

October Break
October 15 – 23, 2016

Monday, October 24
Day 1- ABCD
Advisory Schedule
MUN Trip to Cambodia – Parent Meeting – MPR 3:30 – 4:30pm

Tuesday, October 25
Day 2- EFGH

Wednesday, October 26
Day 3- BCDA
International College of Hotel Management – Australia 12:30 – 1:15pm
College Visit : Saint Anselm 12:30 – 1:00pm

Thursday, October 27
Day 4- FGHE
Unitalk: “Show Me the Money- Financial Considerations for University” 8:15 – 9:15am
HS Music Recital 3:30 – 4:30pm

Friday, October 28
Day 5 – CDAB

Staff Action Needed:

Please be sure to wear your SSIS ID.  It needs to be visible at all times for parents and students to see.  

See Ms Thao if you need a lanyard.

STUDENT SUPPORT SERVICES SPREADSHEET:   Attached is the spreadsheet  that we discussed yesterday during our student support meeting of all of our students who are receiving services from one or more of our programs.  Learning Support (LS), EAL, and Student of  concern (SC).  We hope this will help streamline the process.

TEACHER REFERRAL PROCESS FOR STUDENTS OF CONCERN

Questions have been coming up about the student referral process that we reviewed at our last faculty meeting.    Here is a link to that process, Teacher Referral Process for Students of Concern, Learning Support , EAL Please see the counselors if you should have any further questions. We welcome discussions on students anytime, our door is always open!

HS Faculty Meeting this Week– We meet as a division this coming Wednesday afternoon on October 12.  We will be continuing our conversations that have started in each department in regards to common assessment practices.  We will be working towards building consensus toward what we feel are the best assessment practices that support our student’s academic growth as an entire division.  Part of the meeting will be used in sharing each department’s common assessment practices in mixed groups, so make sure that you are able to share these on your own.  Here is the document with the notes from each of the curriculum meetings with Tina and Jacob or Tim.

End of Quarter Grading Information– Thursday, October 5 is the end of the 1st quarter.  All grades and comments are to be posted on PowerSchool by Monday, October 10 at 8:00am, as the grade books will be closed.  Grade verifications will be in your mailboxes by the first break.  Please review and return to Thao by the end of lunch.  Report cards will be sent electronically on Monday afternoon to all parents and students.

If you are grading over the weekend for the first quarter make sure you are using dates on or before October 5th, so they will be counted in the quarter 1 grade.

If you have any assignments marked as Incomplete for a student, that assignment will count as a 0 if it’s not changed. If you don’t want it to count as a 0, be sure to change any incomplete grade to a score if the work has been submitted.

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 Q1 column in PowerSchool and should not exceed 500 characters.

Parent/Teacher Conferences– Our PTC’s are just around the corner.  We will be in the MS gym along with the MS staff for the ease of our parents.  Each HS teacher will have a table on the outside perimeter of the gym.  The MS teachers will form an inside circle in the middle of the gym.  October 13th is an early release day and conferences take place from 4-8pm.  You are free to run home and freshen up and return by 3:30pm.  There will be some snacks and drinks in the MS faculty room (next to the gym) on Thursday and Friday.  For those of you staying on campus on Thursday and not returning home between school and conferences, sandwiches will be provided in the MS faculty room as well.  Conferences continue on Friday from 8am-1pm.  Conference times are usually busy.  You should only spend about 5 minutes maximum with each parent.  If you feel they need more time please schedule another meeting on another day.  If you have any questions please see your department head for more details.

Observations Starting in October– Jacob and Tim will be starting our formal observations during the month of October.  You will get a calendar invite from Thao for a pre-conference, observation and post-conference.  If there are any conflicts with the selected dates/times please contact Thao to reschedule to another time during the week.  During the pre-conference, you will be sharing your goals for the year (submitted via Google Form) and discussing the objectives and instructional approaches used in the upcoming lesson.  We plan to observe the entire block to get a complete picture of your instruction.  After the observation, we will share a post-conference self evaluation form for you to complete before our conference.

Bell Schedule– We have heard you and student concerns about the lack of time between blocks 2 and 3 for passing between the MS and HS, but also for use of the bathrooms.  We were able to make some changes on our regular schedule on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Friday to add some additional passing time.  On these days we have shortened lunch by 5 minutes and have created a 10 minute passing period.  You can see the new and improved bell schedule here.  We were unable to make an adjustment to our advisory day schedule without losing instructional time.  Both the MS and HS staff feel strongly that 40 minutes for advisory is essential to the success of our programs.  The change to the bell schedule will take place on Monday, October 10th.

HW Policy During Breaks and Holidays– As we approach our fall break, we just wanted to remind you about our HW policy concerning holidays and longer breaks from school.  These days are designed to give both staff and students a chance to decompress and re-energize. Generally speaking, additional HW should not be assigned because students have additional time due to time away from school.  Additionally, students are not expected to submit assignments or take assessments immediately following an extended weekend or break.  That being said, some assignments may be assigned to students in AP or IB Higher Level classes in moderation to keep pace with the demands of the course requirements.