Week Ahead: March 20-March 24

A huge thank you to Sunshine for putting on a fantastic Music Trivia Happy Hour!  It was great fun, filled with laughs, highly competitive colleagues, and even some friends from other divisions who joined in.  Great job Danial and Bryce for leading the event, and to the entire Sunshine Committee for putting it together.

Huge kudos to Adele Van De Venter, Leif Larson, and Meghan Ricker – part of the creative team which also includes Director Jeff Redman, Jenni Redman, and Amy Coquillard) – for their work with the HS musical.  It was a glorious spectacle of student talent.  Congratulations!

And it’s an exciting week ahead!  Bringing back International Week has been a big goal of the PTA.  Thank you to all who are supporting your country’s booth at the Saturday event.  There is a quick video to share with students during Advisory on Monday (55 seconds) that shows all that is going on for International Week.

Here is the rest of what’s up this week:

Sunday, Mar. 19

• *Happy Birthday Bev Giacobbe-Larson

Monday, Mar. 20

• Day 1: ABCD
• 1:05 International Week video link to share during advisory (55 seconds)
• 1:30-3:00 Admin Mtg (Molly and Phil attend)
• 3:15-4:00 Belonging Committee Mtg

Tuesday, Mar. 21

• Day 2: EFGH
• 3:15-4:30 MS Leadership Team Mtg (agenda)

Wednesday, Mar. 22

• Day 3: BCDA
• 3:15-4:30 Divisional Mtg: Dedicated time for Comment Writing

Thursday, Mar. 23

• Day 4: FGHE
• *Start of Teachers’ EARCOS Conference
• 1:30-3:00 Admin Mtg (Molly and Phil attend)

Friday, Mar. 24

• Day 5: CDAB
• *SLC Due: Students have written talking points for all artifacts
• *International Day Dress
• *Start of Teachers’ EARCOS Conference
• 1:05-1:40 All School International Day Activity

Saturday, Mar. 25

• 2:00-5:00 PTA International Day

Upcoming (on the radar)

• March 26-April 1 – Molly visiting new school in S. Korea
• March 27 – comments completed and peer reviewed (in Q3 bin) and grades completed by 3:00; verification reports printed at 3:45
• March 28 – verification report reviewed, signed (can be digital) and returned to office by 3:00
• March 29 – G7 PE Dance Performance at 1:05; End of Q3; comment only reports printed for Student Led Conferences
• March 30 – Special Schedule (see below); SLCs from 4-8pm; special schedule see below
• March 31 – SLCs from 8am-1pm; report cards emailed to parents (after 3pm)
• April 10 – Author Visit, Minh Lê; grade level assemblies planned (see below)

SLCs This Week:

This week students are to create bulleted talking points for each artifact from each of their classes.  This is due by Friday.  SLC Teacher/Advisor Guide

Role of Teacher:  In all your classes, you will provide time and guidance for completing the written talking points for their artifact (bullet point format only).  The SLC guides contain suggestions for students to consider when writing their bullet points – this helps guide them away from just describing the activity.

Role of Advisor:  On Thursday (please note Friday is now an international day activity during Dragon Time and there will be no time to check on SLCs that day), you will check your advisee docs to see that they have indeed written their talking points.

March 30 Special Schedule:

After consulting with grade level team, here is the schedule we have created for Mar. 30.  It helps us keep classes on the same pacing as well as gives time for important tasks and SLC practice.  Thank you to all who made location adjustments to make this possible.  We will have the CTP browser installation details to you as soon as possible.

Repeat from 3/13 post and email from Phil 3/15: The introduction session is a slide show including a video explanation of why we do CTP.  The introduction session concludes with each advisor leading their students through the practice test for both ELA and Math.  Please review this prior to the CTP training session that is scheduled for Wednesday, March 29.  

S2 Planning Calendar:

Keeping up with all the happenings is really difficult.  We are attempting to get information to all of you as quickly as we become aware of things that will impact your planning.  We have had 2 recently that were unknown until very close to the time of the actual event (the SEASAC Athletes parade last Friday and the all school international day event coming this Friday).  We apologize for any difficulties this is causing.  One thing that helps us all is if we all over share information.  So if you hear of something coming that will impact MS student and/or teachers, please share it with Thao, Duong, Molly, Phil or Meghan.   We are doing our best to keep the MS Planning Calendar up to date for you.  Here are some dates coming up soon for you to make sure you are aware of:

• Mar. 22 (this Weds): Service Learning Fair (see above for slightly altered schedule)
• Mar. 29 (Weds): G7 PE Dance Performance, 1:05-1:40ish, all grades attending
• Mar. 30 (Thurs): Special Schedule (see above)
• Apr. 5: Service Learning Fair – slightly altered schedule (see below)
• Apr. 10 (Monday): Author visit; grade level assemblies
  • 1st block (G) Grade 7
  • 2nd block (H) Grade 6
  • 3rd block (E) Grade 8
• Apr. 11, 12, 19, 20: CTP testing schedule (we are still finalizing rotational order and room locations but time schedule for testing is set)

International Week Activities:

Service Learning Fair, April 5, Wednesday Schedule:  

On April 5  we will have a slightly altered schedule to support the Service Learning Fair.

Tech Tips and Information From Daniel M:

From Grounds Staff:

Dear Faculty and Staff:  We have many plants in classrooms. A few of them were planted in water and have adapted well to their life in this environment. However, DOET(Deparment of Education and Training) inspected SSIS a couple week ago and they has given feedback that all plants in class and corridor must be planted in pots with soil, do not use water (avoid mosquitos).  So, we have to inform that Grounds staff will collect all water plants in classrooms next week and return them by plant pots  later. This progress take two weeks.  Thank you for understanding.