Week Ahead: October 20

Welcome back!  I hope you had a fabulous Fall Break and are returning with renewed energy and enthusiasm.  It’s International Week at SSIS – the relevant activities are noted in the scheduled below.  Should be a great week!  At the end are Parent-Teacher Conferences – again relevant schedules are noted below.

While we were gone, we had a birthday …
October 17 – Hsiao-Ling Chung

Monday, Oct. 20
Day 1 ABCD
(please note:  all WWW meetings are being rescheduled)
Advisory: Finish door decorations and story preparation
1:30-3 Admin Team Mtg
4-6 GIN Movie Night

Tuesday, Oct. 21
Day 2 EFGH
Advisory: Reading with EC class for grades 7 and 8
9:30-10:30 HOS / MS Principal Mtg
4:15 Swim Meet at SSIS w/AIS
5-7 PM International Pot Luck

Wednesday, Oct. 22
Day 3 BDCA
Advisory: Reading with EC class for grade 6
3:15-4:30  Divisional Mtg (see below)

Thursday, Oct. 23
Day 4 FGHE, Early Release; International Dress Up Day

• 8:00-8:15 Advisory
• 8:15-8:45 International Day Parade (see below)
• 8:55-9:40 F block
• 9:45-10:30 G block
• 10:35-11:25 H block
• 11:30-12:15 E block

9:30-11 Admin Acad. Leadership Team Mtg
11:30  SRT Mtg
12:15-3:30 Open Time (pizza and salad provided in faculty lounge)
4-8 PM Parent-Teacher Conferences

Friday, Oct. 24
No Students
8-12:00 Parent-Teacher Conf.
12:00-12:30 Lunch (on your own)
12:30-2 Parent-Teacher Conf. (can depart directly after 2:00)

Divisional Mtg on Wednesday
We will be meeting as a division on Wednesday.  The first part of the meeting will be focused on 7th grade EAL and Learning Support (LS) students.  If for some reason you do not teach any of the EAL or LS 7th grade students, you do not need to come to the library until 4:00.  From 4-4:30 we will meet as an entire faculty to follow up on divisional issues.

We will hold EAL / LS meetings for Grade 6 and 8 during DEAR next week (this makes it possible for Stacy and Amy to attend 🙂 – they have class during Team prep for Grade 6 and 8).  I’ll work with each grade to set the day.  I’m hoping that Team 6 and Team 8 can swap kids for those days during DEAR time (maybe by color team).

International Day Parade
We will be participating in the all school International Parade on Thursday morning.  We will start the day in Advisory.  Please review the following plan with your students prior to coming to the parade.  You must be out in the atrium and parade route by 8:15.  Those students who  are dressed in national dress will walk in the parade.  They will meet in the atrium with the other students in ECES and HS from their country (HS students will carry the flag; if no HS student is dressed, a MS student will carry the flag).  Those that are not dressed will be along the parade route.  Students in the parade will form a dragon shape on the field for a photo.  All others will join for the photo in a circle around the dragon shape to form the school logo.

Parent Teacher Conferences
This Thursday and Friday!  Be sure to encourage students to attend with their parents.  I’ll be sending out another email reminder on Tuesday this week (focused on asking them to have read the comments in PowerSchool as well as to bring their child).  We will be set up in the gym with the high school.  If you have questions that can’t wait until Wednesday, be sure to ask!

High School Principal Search Update
The Search Committee has invited 3 candidates to visit SSIS.  Daniel Smith, will be on campus Wednesday, 22 October and Thursday, 23 October.  Candidate Jacob Hendrickson will be here the week of October 27.  As soon as the rest of the visitation plans are finalized, I’m sure we will receive an email from Tina Fossgreen.  A short bio of each candidate can be found on eNews.

Cool Instruction/Assessment Tip of the Week:
Successful instruction and assessment is well planned.  It doesn’t just happen.  SSIS uses the UbD model.  There is an excellent PD opportunity in Singapore in January 2015 being taught by Jay McTighe himself.

ASCD global institutes in Singapore 
Join ASCD author and co-developer of the Understanding by Design® framework, Jay McTighe, from 20 to 22 Jan., 2015, to enhance the design of your curriculum, assessment, and instruction to increase students’ understanding. Designed for educators at all levels, these one- or two-day institutes can help you create more authentic and engaging curricula for your students. Learn more.

Repeat Postings: Just to make sure you saw this …

Repeat: Going to be Absent?  Include Duty in your Lesson Plans
With PD requests coming in; and illnesses going around, I wanted to give a friendly reminder to include duty responsibilities in your lesson plans / day descriptions when you are going to be absent.  For the most part, substitutes are expected to attend to these duties just the same as you.  Also, if you know you have a leave coming (even a few months in advance), turn in those leave requests ASAP.  There is a short list of great subs … and if we can book them for the MS, we want a jump start

Repeat: New Practice for Tardies
Hopefully your Leadership Team rep has had an opportunity to review changes we’ve made to how we handle regular class tardies.  (If not, grace is certainly extended as we have all been “meeting out” due to new student parent meetings)

• Change:  Only mark tardies to class (other than 1st block) in PowerSchool.  Please do not send them to the office to sign the log book.
• Remains Same:  If a student is tardy to 1st block, please send the student to sign the log book.  (Although please note that we are attempting to find a way to simplify this process as well and to minimize the amount of class missed for a student tardy to school)  Consequences for tardy behaviour also remain the same – as a Level 1 offence, the first step is to talk with the student and to contact the parents to alert them to the problem.  If that doesn’t correct the behaviour, you are welcome to assign alternative consequences such as minutes at break or lunch (beware of minutes after class as that impacts their ability to be on time for the next class).  You also may refer the student with a log entry in PowerSchool if you would like administrator attention to the issue.
• Rationale:  This practice creates an even longer delay for the student to return to class.  Tracking tardies in PS is efficient and can be reviewed by teachers and administration to detect patterns.  The goal is to minimize the amount of time out of class and missing instruction.

Questions and feedback should be given to your Leadership Team representative as we work on this practice.