Weekly Update: October 16

Friday, October 16
Day 4- FGHE
International Day (Special Schedule Here)
Parade of Flags (8:15-8:45)
University Visit:Richmond The American International University in London and James Madison University (Lunch)
International Day Festivities, 2:30-5:00 (ES Field)

Monday, October 19-Friday, October 23
Fall Break

Monday, October 26
Day 5- CDAB
Group Meeting Schedule
High School Leadership Team Meeting, 3:15-4:45 (Agenda Here)
David Zarowin: MIT Admissions – Sloan School, 3-4 (MPR)

Tuesday, October 27
Day 6- GHEF
Jacob Gone to EARCOS
University Visit: Benedictine College, Ripon College, St. Joseph’s University and St. Leo University, Lunch (Library)

Wednesday, October 28
Day 7- DABC
Jacob Gone to EARCOS
AS: Rubicon Atlas, 3:15-4:30

Thursday, October 29
Day 8- HEFG
Jacob Gone to EARCOS
University Visit: Yale NUS, 3-4pm (HS Guidance)

Friday, October 30
Day 1- ABCD
Jacob Gone to EARCOS

Saturday, October 31
PTA Halloween Event 4-6pm

On the Horizon
IB Oral Assessments, November 2-6
HS Drama Production, November 12-13
Jacob Gone: TAS Visit November 16-18
PTA Teacher Appreciation Luncheon, November 20 (Lunch)
HS Winter Concert: November 26, 7-9pm (Auditorium)

Staff Action Needed

• Take a needed week off from October 19-23
• The “Pulse”- Feedback about our most recent faculty meeting (Oct 14) Exit Ticket Here
• Complete the health curriculum survey if you did not finish this at the faculty meeting.

International Day– This year’s International Activities take place on a single day for the high school this year.  The high school will participate in the Parade of Flags from 8:15-8:45.  HS teachers (F block) will take roll then lead their students to the back ES playground at 8:05, so you can arrive by 8:10.  Students should leave their bags in the classroom.  We will organize by country there and will march together to the quad field by the HS for a whole school photo then return to class.  After the photo, students return to F block class for instruction.

No Dragon’s Lair Next Week– This edition of the Dragon’s Lair will serve for the next two weeks.  If there are any important additions needed next week I will send an update.

Exit Ticket for our Last Faculty Meeting– We would like to know how you think our faculty meetings are going, what types of PD you are interested in seeing and what lingering questions you might have about Learning Walks.  This exit ticket is also listed in the “Staff Action Needed” section.

Faculty Meeting Clarification– I wanted to clarify a statement I made during our faculty meeting on Wednesday.  As I was starting the meeting, I said that I found out about a health survey that needed to be administered at the last minute.  After the fact, I realized that I was informed about this earlier in the week.  I’m sorry Alison and Tina for forgetting this item on our faculty meeting agenda and suggesting that it was a last minute entry.

WWW Learning Plan Opportunity– The chaperons and trip leaders of our WWW program recently met to debrief the planning and implementation of the trip.  A staff member suggested that a group of teachers could start planning next year’s WWW program using a Learning Plan.  I check with the admin team and they agreed.  Please complete this form to express interest in joining this group this year and the time set aside for Learning Plans on scheduled Wednesday afternoons could be used for this.

Curriculum Framework Advisory Group– Tina sent an email about this important committee.  The text is included here:  As part of the continued development of the Curriculum Framework, phase 2, we are looking for members for the Framework Advisory Team.  This team has discussions around work done by the Development Team (Dan, Molly, Jacob and Tina).  If you are interested in being considered for this team, please fill out the Google Form.

Learning Walks– I will be starting Learning Walks in classes after fall break.  This 10-15 minute formative and targeted feedback protocol was explained at our last faculty meeting.  You can review how the process works and how this was developed and implemented as a HSLT here.

IB and CAS Reports– A few of you have asked about the status of the IB and CAS reports, as this is our 5 year reevaluation time.  Charmaine will be sharing the highlights of what this means to our school at our next faculty meeting, but here is the CAS Report and the IB Diploma Evaluation Report.

Leadership Team Meeting– We discussed a lot of important issues at our last HS Leadership Meeting.  Topics included sharing the vision or graduation requirements from each department, as the school board will be reviewing them this year and finalizing our plan for final exams in December.  You can see the notes here (thanks Alison).  We did decide that our final exams would be subject based.  For example, all social studies exams would take place on Monday from 8-10am in the gym.  We will assess this method of testing and survey staff and students afterwards to see if this is the best option to use in the future.