Weekly Update: October 3-7

On the Horizon
Parent-Teacher Conferences, October 13-14
Early Release Day, October 13
Non-student Day, October 14
Post PTC Social, October 14
HS HoS Reception, November 4 (Mark’s House)
Author Assembly (Marc Tyler Nobleman), November 15: Special Schedule
HS Block Party, November 25

Staff Action Needed

• Meet all end of quarter grading deadlines

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.

Learning 2 Pre-conference Classroom Use– We will be using HS classrooms for most of the Learning 2 sessions on campus.  The pre-conference takes place on Thursday, October 6.  The attendees will be using many of the 4th floor classrooms on this day.  Tina will communicate these changes with the teachers directly.  Thank you for your understanding.

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 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.

PD Day Info– October 7th is a professional development day for all staff at SSIS.  If you are attending Learning 2 this will be your focus for the day.  All other staff (not attending L2) are required to be on campus and will be work on other curricular tasks.  You can see the plan for all of those not attending L2 here.  More information to come in the next few days.

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.