Week Ahead: August 28

What a great night!  Curriculum Night really hit the right note with many parents commenting on how happy they are about their children’s teachers.  SSIS is a great place because of the faculty and families that make up our community.  It is a privilege to work with you all!  Here are a few shots from the night … don’t worry Tung took way better photos (and those will be available tomorrow).

Here is what’s up next week:
*Mark Sylte off campus until Thursday
*WaiMun Fung off campus until Weds, Sept. 6

Monday, Aug. 28
Day 6, GHEF (Adv)
12:55 (ADV) StuCo speeches and voting

• G8 – Meet in A311 – Mark’s room
• G7 – Meet in Library
• G6 – Meet in Music Room

1:30-3 Sr. Admin Mtg
3:00 ASAs start

Tuesday, Aug. 29
Day 7, DABC (DEAR)
*MS Photos Start
7:15-7:45 Grade Guidelines review for new faculty

Wednesday, Aug. 30
Day 8, HEFG (DEAR)
3:15-4:30 ES/MS Project X Mtg, Auditorium (bring laptop)

Thursday, Aug. 31
Day 9, ABCD (Adv)
8-9:00 SRT

Friday, Sept. 1
Day 10, EFGH (DEAR)
10-12:00 Admin Team Mtg

Upcoming (on the radar)

• Sept. 4 – No School
• Sept. 5 – Fire Drill (10:00)
• Sept 9 and 10 – CFG Training
• Sept 16 – Family Fun Day (all faculty should make an appearance)
• Sept. 22 – MS Dance
• Sept. 27 – PD Day: Inquiry / PBL
• Sept. 29 – HOS Reception for MS Faculty, 4:30-6:30

MS Photos:  Please make sure you review the photo schedule.  All teachers need to have their photo taken as well – these are for the yearbook.  All students will take a “normal” photo and a “fun” photo.  We’d like all teachers to do the same.  These fun photos are for the yearbook as well.

Common Instructional Strategy: Vocabulary Development:  There are 2 go-to strategies that can be used for vocabulary development.  By using the same strategy in different classes, we decrease the amount of time teaching the actual strategy and increase the amount of time focused on vocabulary acquisition.  The two models we promote focus on helping students move beyond the dictionary definition to an understanding of the word in context.

1. The Frayer Model: This is a graphic organizer based on a 4 square model for vocabulary.  Though there can be different things to put in the squares, the focus is making connections with the meaning of the word.   This video is from The Teachers Toolkit.  This from the Reading Educator (there is also a lesson plan included) –
                         This strategy stresses understanding words within the larger context of a reading selection by requiring students, first, to analyze the items (definition and characteristics) and, second, to synthesize/apply this information by thinking of examples and non-examples.
   
2. The CSI Model: The Color, Symbol, Image is a thinking routine from Visible Thinking.  It can be used to help students gain a deeper understanding of vocabulary that represent ideas or have strong overarching connotations.  In this routine, students select a color, symbol and image that represents the vocabulary word.  The sample in our folder includes sentence stems that help students really detail their thinking.