AS    ES    MS    HS   

Weekly Update: September 16 – 30

| September 15, 2016 | Weekly Update | No Comments

plane

It’s Time for Week Without Walls
On Sunday, 92 Grade 10 students will be leaving for their WWW Service Learning Trip to northern Thailand.  On Monday, 83 Grade 9 students will be making their way to northern Vietnam to begin their WWW Service Learning trip.  On Thursday and Friday, our Grade 11 student will be participating in Service Learning activities.  these trips help foster lifelong friendships.  The trips also help students develop our Core Values of Respect for All and Dedicated Service.  We wish them all great adventure and safe journeys.

 

Friday, September 16
Day 10 – EFGH
Merrimack College Paulina Bula 11:00 – 11:45am
Sunshine Committee’s Plastic Chair Extravaganza 4-?

Sunday, September 18
6:30am  Grade 10 Students and Teacher Depart for Thailand

 

Monday, September 19
Day 1 – ABCD
Grade 9 Students and Teachers Depart for Mai Chau: 6:30am
Advisory Day Schedule
University Visit: AEO Tour and Southville Foreign University ;University of Vermont 11:00 – 11:30am
University of Minnesota University of Oregon Miami University (in Ohio) 11:00 – 11:30am

Tuesday, September 20
Day 2 – EFGH
SMU (Southern Methodist University in Texas) 9:25 – 9:55am
Tulane, Northeastern, Villanova and Conn visiting SSIS 12:35 – 1:05pm
IBPD Parent Night 6:00 – 7:00pm

Wednesday, September 21
Day 3 – BCDA
Southern Methodist University 9:25 – 9:55am
Full Faculty Meeting – Atlas Rubicon 3:15 – 4:45pm

Thursday, September 22
Day 4 – FGHE
Yale-NUS visit  9:20 – 9:35am
Massachusetts of Pharmacy and Health Sciences-Kirby Hunter 1:00 – 2:00pm
Lafayette College-Eugene Gabay 1:00 – 1:35pm

Friday, September 23
Day 5 – CDAB

Sunday, September 25
Pest Control (Closed Campus)  8am – 3pm

Monday, September 26
Day 6 – GHEF
Advisory Day Schedule
Furman 9:25 – 9:55am
Western New England University – Michelle Kowalsky 9:25 – 9:55am
St. Johns University 9:25 – 9:55am
Lewis & Clark College-Bridget Flaherty and University of British Columbia 1:05 – 2:00pm

Tuesday, September 27
Day 7 – DABC

Wednesday, September 28
Day 8- HEFG
Full Faculty Meeting – Curriculum Framework 3:15 – 4:45pm

Thursday, September 29
Day 9- ABCD
Advisory Day ScheduleConcordia MN, Colgate College, Gettysburg College, University Puget Sound,
Quinnipiac University, Wheaton College (MA), Longwood University, Maryville University,
Missouri Western State, St. Louis University (MO) 12:25pm – 1:25pm
Standards Based Grading Workshop, 3:
HS Music Recital 3:30 – 4:30pm

Friday, September 30
Day 10- EFGH

Saturday, October 1
HS SAT Test 7:00 am – 2:00pm

Standards Based Grading Workshop– Evan Weinberg is giving a warm-up session for his L2 presentation.  If you are interested in the topic below please come to Evan’s room (C315) on Thursday, September 29 from 3:30-4:30.
Suppose you have a student that has earned a 75 in your class. How do you describe that student’s progress? What has that student learned in your class? Obviously a student with an 85 has done better than the student with a 75, but what exactly has the 85 student achieved that the other student has not? Is it ten percent more understanding? Two more homework assignments during the quarter? Perhaps most importantly, what can the 75 student do to become an 85 student?
Grades are part of our school culture and likely aren’t going anywhere soon. We can work to tweak how we generate and communicate the meaning of those grades in a way that helps students and parents understand them, and helps you as teachers do your job more efficiently. One approach for doing this is called Standards Based Grading, or SBG for short.
In a one hour workshop, you will learn what SBG is and how it can be implemented effectively within a traditional reporting system. You will also learn how a SBG mindset encourages productive changes to the process of planning units, activities, and assessments.
 
This workshop will be presented at Learning 2.0 the following week, so I’ll be seeking feedback on the content. All are welcome! 
 
If you are interested in attending, please submit some information through this form: https://goo.gl/forms/OBsFS9WRbsyKH8Wj1

On the Horizon
WWW, September 18-24
Quarter 1 Ends, October 5 at 3pm
Quarter 1 Grade Verification Returned to Thao, October 6 by end of Lunch
Quarter 1 Grades Emailed to Parents, October 6
No School: Learning 2 Conference, October 7
Parent-Teacher Conferences, October 13-14
Post PTC Social, October 14
HS Block Party, November 25 (Save the Date)

Staff Action Needed

  • 2016-17 Professional Goals (see below).  Complete As Soon As Possible
  • Start writing comments for ALL students for quarter 1 (See department head for examples)

Sunshine Committee’s Plastic Chair Extravaganza– The Sunshine Committee invites you to some authentic Vietnamese cuisine served on metal tables, cold beverages (with ice) and plastic chairs on September 16 starting at 4:30pm.  Please RSVP here so the group can prepare to have enough food for everyone.

Schedule for Grade 11/12 During WWW– The Admin and counseling teams working in conjunction with the HSLT has been working to finalize the program for 11th and 12th graders during WWW.  Here is the program for the week.  If you have any questions please check with Jacob, Tim, Robert or Erin.

High School Block Party– The masses have spoken and November 25th will be the date for our block party.  Anh’s band will be playing, food, drinks and frolicking.  More info to follow, but mark your calendars.

First Quarter Grades/Comments Around the Corner– We are officially half way through the first quarter.  While many of you are trying to add some additional data points for our students/parents don’t forget that we also write comments for ALL students at each grading period.  General directions for comments are below.  Most teachers start their comments in a Google or Word doc, so they can easily copy, paste and edit before moving them to PowerTeacher.

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.

More information about how and where to add this comments in Power Teacher later.  For now, make sure to keep to the grading deadlines here and in the “On the Horizon” section above.

House League Update– Thanks for your involvement on Monday’s aerial photo activities, there were some brilliant results. We have asked Jeff Nesmith to judge the winner and we will add points based on teamwork and originality too! See Hydra’s photo below for an example of how they turned out.

Points – we would love students to earn more points (now worth 5 points each) – can you think of any ways to award points in your classes? I have recently awarded points for leadership in an activity (sense of self), a brilliant and articulate vocal contribution (academic excellence) and telling me a way to improve something with technology (respect for all). These points are a brilliant way to praise our students and engage them in our house system so we would love them to get lots more!
Ideas: if you have any ideas for house activities or events let Chris Sylvester or Alison Leathwood know! We would love your input.  You can also add house points here.  This is a great place to recognize individual students for their work.
Group Meeting Day Wednesday This Week– Our normally scheduled advisory schedule will be switched from Thursday, September 15 to Wednesday, September 14, so our seniors can participate in the Linden Fair.  All other advisory lessons for grades 9-11 are also on Wednesday as well.

 

Related Posts

About The Author

Tim Chute

Add a Comment

Your email address will not be published.