Week Ahead: Jan. 30-Feb. 3

Welcome back!  It’s been a long break, hopefully, filled with the things that fill your cup and filled the cup of those around you.  We are ready for the 2nd half of this school year, and I am looking forward to all that will bring.

Many of you have probably read in Catriona’s email that my father passed away during the break.  That, along with a few other things, created opportunities for me to connect with family and friends in different ways than expected.  So that’s what I’m focusing on as I start the second half of this year – the unexpected ways we can connect and create meaning.   When I found this photo of my dad and my oldest daughter (taken just days before my youngest daughter was born) I was struck by what it represents – a view of the current moment and a glimpse of the vastness of what is to come.

Monday, Jan. 30

• 7:30 – 8:00 Breakfast Snacks
• 8:00 – 8:45 HOS Welcome and Message
• 11:00-11:45 MS Divisional Meeting (Library)
• 1:00-3:00 New Student Orientation
• 1:30-3:00 Admin Mtg (Molly and Phil attend)

Tuesday, Jan. 31

• Day 1: ABCD (start in advisory for 10 min)
• 8-8:10 Advisory – review new semester class schedules, move to block A at 8:10 (no break between, just go straight to 1st block)

Wednesday, Feb. 1

• Day 2: EFGH
• 1:05-1:40 MS Welcome Back Assembly (auditorium, bring advisory right at 1:05)
• 3:15-4:30 MS Divisional Meeting (library)

Thursday, Feb. 2

• Day 3: BCDA
• 1:30-3:00 Admin Mtg (Molly and Phil attend)

Friday, Feb. 3

• Day 4: FGHE

Upcoming (on the radar)

• Feb. 7 – Rising Grade 9 activities start
• Feb. 14-16 – Adaptive Schools Training Cohort 2
• Feb. 15-18 – MRISA soccer teams away
• Feb. 18-19 – Vietnam Tech Conference @ SSIS
• Feb. 20 – Season 3 sports begin
• Feb. 27-Mar. 3 (Feb. 27 is early dismissal day) Jan Chappuis on campus; assessment work continues
• Mar. 4 – 25th Anniversary Gala

New Students starting S2:  

We have quite a few new students starting with us for S2.  Having this many is a bit unusual, and we will all need to work together to orient them to SSIS and the MS.  Meghan, Phil and Daniel M are running an orientation for them that includes a review of the calendar, individual schedules, a tech orientation, meeting their student buddies, a tour, and a parent meeting.  Here is the list of the 10 new students:

For the curious, ES is welcoming 13 new students, and HS will have 2 new students.

Dragon Days Reboost (From Cintia):

Welcome Back Advisors,

During the first week of school, we will host another round of Dragon Days. The goal is to help students reconnect with their peers, advisors and school. Attached you can find the Slide presentation with the activities for each day of the week. Note that on Wednesday there will be an assembly.

Dragon Days Reboost Slides

The teacher slides for Dragon Days and the materials for the upcoming advisory unit: Service Learning are available on Schoology > Groups > (your grade level Advisory) > Resources

Your PDL will give you more details about the upcoming unit but feel free to take a look at the upcoming unit  materials including teacher slides and unit planner.

Planning Calendar S2:

As we enter S2, I want to remind everyone about the planning calendar.  You’ll be able to see what could impact your lesson planning.  Please take careful note of the use of Dragon Time.  As a reminder, Dragon Time is the blanket title for the 1:05-1:40 time period on Tuesday and Friday.  Dragon Time’s use is varied and was created to reduce the amount of time we need to pull from “regular” class periods for school business as well as to give opportunities for tutorial, House Leagues and assemblies.  As we head into course requests and registration, transition activities, CTP preparation, and Student Led Conference (SLC) preparation, you will notice that Dragon Time is when we do those things.  *You can see the full description of Dragon Time in the Faculty Handbook (I also posted it below for your convenience).

Tripod Survey Results:

The Tripod Survey results are back and will be shared with you in the coming days.  Phil and I have scheduled a 15 minute reflection meeting with each of you to review and talk about the results.  Duong and Thao helped make those appointments.  If the timing doesn’t work for you, please check with them to find a new time.  We expect that you will reflect on your results prior to the meeting.  Please use one of the reflection tools below.

Here are a few things that will be useful to you for when you review your feedback.

• Tripod Reflection Protocol: This is created by Tripod and will be especially helpful for those who have never done a Tripod survey before.  The information is valuable, and there is a reflection worksheet you could use.
• Here is a shorter reflection form that has also been used (you’ll need to make a copy).  If you want to use this one, I recommend using it in conjunction with the information in the Tripod Reflection Protocol.
• There is also a Teacher Tool Kit created by Tripod.  This kit goes into depth into the different areas of the survey.  You could use this to assist with reflection and/or setting goals.
• Here is the Longitudinal Tripod Divisional Overview which has divisional averages from all years we have given the Tripod.  Sometimes this is data that teachers find useful in their reflection.

Birthdays We Missed Over Break:

We hope it was festive and happy!

Chúc mừng sinh nhật to …

• Dec. 25 – Happy Birthday Cintia Bastos!
• Dec. 31 – Happy Birthday Danial Hogg!
• Jan. 3 – Happy Birthday Stephen Ada!
• Jan. 5 – Happy Birthday Lili DuBois!
• Jan. 9 – Happy Birthday Jacob Humes!
• Jan. 10 – Happy Birthday WaiMun Fong!
• Jan. 14 – Happy Birthday Phil Wendel!
• January 20 – Kian Bastos Fagundes, our newest little Dragon!  Congratulations Cintia, Jone, and Emerson!
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• Jan. 21 – Happy Birthday Thomas Lupton!