Week Ahead: September 9

| September 3, 2015 | Week Updates | No Comments

2 weeks in a row posting on Friday!  Sweet!  Here is what’s up:

Monday, Sept. 7
No Students, PD Day (see below)
*Sharon Hennessy (Head of School, Taipei American School) visiting Monday and Tuesday

Tuesday, Sept. 8
Day 1 ABCD
*Tech Session in Science Classes

Wednesday, Sept. 9
Day 2 EFGH
*Tech Session in Science Classes
*Gr 8 Advisory Planning in Team Mtg
3:15-4:30 All Faculty Meeting; Learning Plans (Auditorium)

Thursday, Sept. 10
Day 3 BCDA (DEAR Schedule)
*Ray Sparks from Search Associates on campus
9:30-11 Academic Leadership Team
11-11:45 Gr 7 EAL/LS Check In (lunch provided, MS conference room)

Friday, Sept. 11
Day 4 FGHE (HL Advisory Schedule)  HL sponsored by Swagalicious Oranges
*Friday Breakfast Club (sponsored by Gr 7)
*Mid-Quarter:  emails to parents of students earning C- or below, significant negative academic change, other concerns, + positive emails are always welcome too
9:35-10:35 Gr 8 EAL/LS Check In (Amy’s Room)
1:05-2:05 Gr 6 EAL/LS Check In (Pam’s Room)

Saturday, Sept. 12
9-1 PTA Family Fun Day

Upcoming (on the radar)

  • Sept. 15, 16, 18; MAP testing (special schedule)
  • Sept. 22-24; Author visit (special schedule on Sept 23)
  • Sept. 25; MS Dance, 5-8pm
  • Sept. 29; Early Dismissal; PD 1-4:30 Teacher Teaching Teachers
  • Oct. 7; Grades/Comments due by 3:00; verification reports ready by 3:30
  • Oct. 8; Verification Rpts due by 12:15, End of the Quarter, and Parent/Teacher Conferences from 4-8pm
  • Oct. 9; Parent/Teacher Conferences, 8-1:00

Monday’s PD:   From Tina’s Email:  Monday’s PD sessions are meant to link the work we have been doing around assessment and the technology expectation this year.

One lesson or assessment must be at the transformative level of the SAMR model within one unit each semester for classes with 1:1 program for grades 3-12.  (iPad or laptop).
The day will begin promptly at 8 am in the MS Gym with an all school team building activity, followed by a whole faculty session with Kim Cofino.  There is no assigned seating for  this session, but please bring your laptop.  After this session, there are break out sessions with Kim or the TLFs.
The schedule for the day outlines the sessions, audience (required participants), location and materials.  Sessions aren’t exclusive, so feel free to join even if not required.  If you aren’t required at a session during a time block, it is an opportunity to work on your technology expectation or work on curriculum with your team / department.

BuyNoRhino in HCMC: Sent to us:  We are two German-South African sisters from Cape Town, Vicky (35) and Vanessa (30). On April 20th 2015 we started our “Buy No Rhino” Cycle Tour through South East Asia from Hong Kong to Singapore with the aim of raising awareness about the rhino poaching crisis.  Vietnam, China and Thailand are the main consumer markets driving the demand for rhino horn. Especially in these countries we want to reach the people. For our journey we are planning to take approximately 7 months covering 6.000km by bicycle.

We would love to visit your school with the “Rhino Art Project”. For more information see attached pdf. From September 1st -11th we are in HCMC to visit schools. We´re looking forward to hearing from you and would be excited to finalise a date.  If you are interested in having them visit your class, please contact the directly at: ness@buynorhino.co.za  or vicky@buynorhino.co.za

Reminder about Student Announcements: Please read the morning Moodle announcements to your students during the first couple of minutes of your first block class each day.  This is essential to getting out information to our students.  Thank you for your attention to this duty. One strategy to help remember this is to assign one student to be the Announcement Queen/King.  That student’s job would be to connect to the airplay when they are in your class and display the announcements for students.  Need to put something in the announcements?  Just email them to Sang by 3:00, and it will be added for the following day (if received after 3:00 it will be added but won’t appear until 2 days later)

And they keep coming … New Students:  We have had a number of students that have enrolled later in the school year than is typical.  This has happened for a variety of family reasons.  We know this has an impact on their entry to classes.  When students arrive a couple of weeks late in the school year, it is important to carefully consider the work missed – and what is essential for them to work through in order to learn important material.  You might need to require them to makeup all of the work (please give them ample time to do this), you might excuse a few assignments, or even just have them take an assessment to ensure they met the standards missed.  In the end, it’s up to your professional judgement.  If you need ideas how to best integrate a student arriving late please see Bonnie, Molly, your department colleagues or your Team Lead for ideas.

Teachers Teaching Teachers:  Coming soon … TTT: The PD day featuring our very own faculty members.  Usually middle school steps right up to the plate offering most of the workshops.  I hope that this year is no different as I see so many awesome things that you all can offer your colleagues.

 

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