Weeks Ahead: Jan. 13-21

What a great start to the semester!  Thank you all for your ability to engage our students and ensure that they are excited about the learning before them.

Second semester tends to be even busier than 1st semester.  Remember to check the planning calendar (this is always linked on the side column) and blog to keep up to date on things that might impact your planning.

Here is what’s up between now and Tet Holiday:

Saturday, Jan. 11 and Sunday, Jan. 12:
Mekong Honor Band

Monday, Jan. 13
Day 5, CDAB (Special Sched.)
*Scoliosis screening for girls in G7, boys in G8 (happens during PE)
8:15-9:15 Author Visit Assembly
1:30-3 Admin Mtg (Molly attends)

Tuesday, Jan. 14
Day 6, GHEF (DEAR)

Wednesday, Jan. 15
Day 7, DABC (DEAR)
*Architects on Campus
1:15-1:45 Gr 8 Registration / Transition presentation (Auditorium)
3:15-4:30 EC-12 Professional Growth Teams

Thursday, Jan. 16
Day 8, HEFG (Adv)
7:15-7:45  New Hires (ES and MS) meeting: Intro to Project X
*Architects on Campus

Friday, Jan. 17
Day 1, ABCD (DEAR)
*Architects on Campus
*SSIS Support Staff Tet Party

Saturday, Jan. 18
Vietnam’s First VEX Robotics Competition, 9:00am-3:00pm (HS Gym)

Monday, Jan. 20
Day 2, EFGH (Adv)
1:30-3:00 Admin Mtg (Molly attends)
3:15-4:30  MS Leadership Team Mtg (Agenda)

Tuesday, Jan. 21
Day 3, BCDA (Special Schedule)
1:45-3 Tet Celebration – Dragon and Lion Dance

Upcoming (on the radar)

• Jan. 22-28 Tet Holiday (Tet New Yr Eve is Jan. 24; Tet New Year Day is Jan. 25)
• Jan. 30-31  Opportunity to schedule assessment discussions with Michelle Kuhns (email David Chadwell)
• Feb. 4  Early Release: In House Institute
• Feb. 7  Breakfast Club sponsored by Team 7
• Feb. 10  SISAC Tournament for Badminton and B Boys Soccer
• Feb. 14  SISAC Tournaments for Soccer: A Girls and Boys, B Girls, C Girls and Boys (basically about 25% of the student population)
• Feb. 15-16 VTC in Hanoi
• Feb. 19-23  MRISA at ISE
• Feb. 21  International Day (new date for this event)
• Feb. 22  Faculty Follies
• Feb. 26  Early Dismissal: Positive Education PD
• Feb. 27-29 Positive Education Institute
• Mar. 5-7  Strategic Planning Retreat

Author Visit Schedule for Monday:  We are so excited to have Mike Leech with us next week.  Here is the assembly schedule for Monday. Please note that I shortened classes by 5 minutes to ensure an 3o min advisory time on Monday.

• 8-8:10             Advisory (attendance and morning announcements)
• 8:15-9:15       Assembly
• 9:15-9:25       Break
• 9:30-10:30     Block C (60 min)
• 10:35-11:35   Block D (60 min)
• 11:40-12:10   ADV (30 min)
• 12:10-12:50   Lunch (40 min)
• 12:55-1:55     Block A (60 min)
• 2:00-3:00       Block B (60 min)

Architect Visit:  Flansburgh is back!  Wednesday through Friday they will be meeting with different groups of teachers from the middle school (and some of our high school colleagues too).  Invitations should have been sent out from the business office.  You can see the full schedule here.

Professional Growth Afternoon:  Wednesday is the first Professional Growth Team meeting.  The purpose of this PD series is to provide space and time for faculty and teaching assistants to pursue topics of professional interest without prescribed requirements, arrangements or formats. Please remember to sign up:  Professional Growth Wednesday Sign-Up

Tet Celebration Plans:  We are working on finalizing the Tet Celebration plans.  Here is the working document: MS Detailed Tet Plans 2020.  In general, each day next week there will be morning announcements sharing information about Tet with students and teachers.  This will culminate in a Tet Amazing Race on Monday, Jan. 20th.  It is very important that all students get that information – so if you are one who often forgets to share morning announcements, make yourself notes … many if needed … to ensure that you remember each day.

Traditionally, our division has provided Lì xì (Lucky Money) to our 9 person building cleaning staff during Tet.   In the past, teachers contributed money (50-200 vnd) and the Sunshine Committee helps organize the envelops and presentation of the gifts. Participating in the Tet collection is entirely voluntary, but if you wish to participate please pass along your cash donation to Ms. Hang or any member of the Sunshine Committee (Emily, Rebecca, Alis, or Geneva) BEFORE Friday, January 17th. Any donation is appreciated and all money collected will be evenly divided among all the cleaners in the MS building.  As a staff, we’ll meet in the faculty lounge Tuesday, Jan 21 around 9:10 to give our cleaners the lucky money and offer our thanks and best wishes.  Chúc mừng năm mới!

Upcoming Tet Assembly Schedule, Tuesday. Jan. 21:  We will be having our annual Tet Lion and Dragon dance on January 21.  Here is the schedule for that day:

• 8:00 – 9:05am         Block B (65 min)
• 9:05 – 9:20am          Break (15 min)
• 9:25 – 10:30am       Block C (65 min)
• 10:40 – 11:45am     Block D (65 min)
• 11:45 – 12:30pm     Lunch (45 min)
• 12:35 – 1:40pm       Block A (65 min)
• 1:45 – 3:00pm         Dragon Dance

Prepping for 20-21 (already):  We will begin preparations for the 20-21 school year in the coming month – starting with Gr 8.  We will follow with G6 and 7 (these dates to be determined soon).  You can review the Gr 8 transition schedule here.

Tripod Survey Results:  Thank you to John, Brian, Ryan B, Ryan P, Geneva, Abby and Matthew for scheduling / holding your Tripod reflection meetings already!  For those that haven’t scheduled yet, please do so right away.  I’d like to get all the meetings into my schedule as soon as possible (even if you want to meet after Tet).  One thing to remember as you do your reflection is to review all parts to the report.  One the left hand column, there is a link to “Item Respose Detail.”  This is a break down for each question in each category.  There is also a link to “Peer Support” – another interesting piece of feedback from students.  Here is a summary of the information that has been posted in the blog:

Documents to help with reflection:
Tripod Reflection Protocol
Shorter reflection form 
Teacher Tool Kit 
Longitudinal Tripod Divisional Overview
Please schedule a 15-20 minute meeting (using Find a Time) with me to talk about your analysis and reflection on the data I am hoping to conduct all of those meetings in January and February.