Week Ahead: Oct. 10

Well, that was quite a week!  Whether you were directly involved, indirectly involved, or just watched it happen, the L2 Conference certainly ramped things up on campus this past week.  The conference was a huge success – and many thanks go to all who were involved and supported the conference, our colleagues who presented/worked/lead, and our student as well.

After one busy week, comes another 🙂   This week is Parent Teacher Conferences on Thursday and Friday.  It is always great to be able to speak directly with parents, hear from them their questions, concerns, and input.  Please encourage your students to come with their parents on Thursday or Friday!

Here is what’s up this week:

Monday, Oct. 10
Day 6, GHEF (Adv)
1:30-3 Admin Team Mtg
3:15-4:30 MS Leadership Team (Agenda)

Tuesday, Oct. 11
Day 7, DABC (DEAR)
8:15 SRT Mtg

Wednesday, Oct. 12
Day 8, HEFG (DEAR)
*3:00 Grades and Comments Due / Verification reports printed at 3:00
3:15-4:30 Divisional Mtg, library (Assessment focus)

Thursday, Oct. 13
Day 9, ABCD (Early Release Schedule)
8:15-9:15 Principal’s Coffee featuring Gr 7 ELA students
10-11:30 Admin Team Mtg
4-8pm Parent Teacher Conferences

Friday, Oct. 14
No Students
8-1pm Parent Teacher Conferences

Upcoming (on the radar)

• October 17-21 – Fall Break
• October 17 – Hsiao-Ling’s Birthday
• October 25-29 – Molly at EARCOS Leadership Conference
• October 29 – PTA Halloween Event, 4-6pm (estimated time)
• October 31, November 1, 3, 4, 5, 8 – Sports events that will pull kids
• November 11 – Early Dismissal for TTT
• November 14-16 – Author Visit, special schedule on Nov. 15
• November 19 – PTA Charity Bazaar
• November 26 – SSIS Thanksgiving, 5-7pm
• November 28-Dec. 2 – WWW

Parent Teacher Conferences:  Conferences run from 4-8pm on Thursday and 8am-1pm on Friday.  Please be prompt and ready to go right at 4:00 on Thursday and 8am on Friday.  You will have a sign on your table you can turn when you have to step way for a few minutes.  The experience can be long and energy draining – so please make sure to take a few breaks along the way.  Please track attendance numbers using this Google Sheet in the following time allotments:  4-8pm on Thursday; 8-10 on Friday, and 10-1 on Friday  (how many students were represented by parents in those time frames).  We track this information from year to year.

From Fall 2014 to Fall 2015, we increased the number of students conferenced on to 67% (up 18% from the previous year).  Our goal this year is 75% of students represented.  Let’s do all we can to get to this number.  One thing you can do to help is to email the parents of your advisory students and personally ask parents to attend.  This will remove duplicate emails (same parents getting multiple emails from different teachers) and will still add that personal touch.

We will have food for teachers on Thursday starting at 3:15 in the faculty lounge.  By popular vote we will have both pizza and Indian food.  On Friday, we will have a sandwich bar in place starting in the morning and running through conferences.

Grades/Comments (one more time):   Here are the dates/deadlines for Q1 reporting:

     October 13, 2016: Quarter 1 Report Completed

• October 12 – comments completed and peer reviewed (in Q1 bin) and grades completed by 3:00; verification reports printed at 3:00
• October 13 – verification report reviewed, signed (can be completed digitally in PS) and returned to office by 12:15
• October 13 and 14 – Parent Teacher Conferences;  Oct. 13 from 4-8pm and Oct. 14 from 8-1) (note: faculty can depart when their conferences are over on Friday)

Random Logistics Issues:

• Plates:  We have tried to keep plates, bowls, cups, and silverware in the faculty lounge rather than have plastic disposable things.  However, over the past 2 weeks much of that has disappeared (well, the silverware disappeared even longer ago).  If you have any of the plastic oval shaped plate (with MMS fingernail polished on the bottoms), please return them to the faculty lounge.  Thanks!
• Duties:  When on duty at lunch, please remind students that they cannot have drinks and food outside of the cafeteria.  This includes smoothies and small snacks.  If you see kids with these things anywhere other than the cafe, the patio outside the cafe and the table in the atrium, please send them back to the cafe to finish.  Thanks!
• Planning Ahead:  After we return from break, we have 5 weeks until WWW.  After WWW, we have 9 school days before Winter Break.  Think about those 9 days and what would make the best use of the time for you and your students.

Research Notecards:  Thanks to Brian Benck, we have this video tutorial for students using research notecards. If you are doing research with your classes, you may find it of use.  Students in Grades 6 & 8 have been introduced to this method, so feel free to make the connection with ELA explicit.