Week Ahead: Sept. 12

Here is what’s up this week:

Friday, Sept. 9
Day 5, CDAB (DEAR)
*Happy Birthday Dawne Kaba!
7:30-8 Breakfast Club – Sponsored by Grade 7

Saturday and Sunday, Sept 10 and 11 
CFG Institute

Monday, Sept. 12
Day 6, GHEF (Adv)
8:30-2:00 CFG Training Continues for Admin
3:15-4:30 MS Leadership Team (Agenda)

Tuesday, Sept. 13
Day 7, DABC (MAP testing schedule)
10:45 SRT

Wednesday, Sept. 14
Day 8, HEFG (DEAR)
3-4:30 Vietnamese Classes begin for Decree 73 students
3:15-4:30 Divisional Mtg, Library, Assessment Focus

Thursday, Sept. 15
Day 9, ABCD (Adv)
*Moon Festival
10-11:30 Academic Leadership Team

Friday, Sept. 16
Day 10, EFGH (MAP testing schedule)

Upcoming (on the radar)

• September 17 – PTA Family Day, 9-12
• September 23 – MS Dance, 5-8pm
• September 30 – HOS / MS Faculty Reception, 4-5:30pm
• October 5 – End of Quarter 1
• October 6-9 – Learning 2 Conference
• October 7 – No Students, PD Day
• October 13 and 14 – Parent Teacher Conferences (Oct. 13 early release, conferences 4-8pm; Oct. 14 no students, conferences 8-1)
• October 17-21 – Fall Break

Q1 Grades/Comments: Just to get this on your radar – Quarter 1 ends Oct. 5.  Grades and Comment due dates fall after the quarter this time because of the timing of Parent Teacher Conferences.  Please see the MS Faculty Handbook for information regarding our agreements on comment writing (Report Card Comments is the topic).  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)

Grade Reporting Guidelines:   After doing a mid-quarter review of student progress, I noticed a few areas for improvement.  Please look through your classes and check for the following things:

• Students should receive feedback in the form of a PS mark approximately every 2 weeks.  That would result in at least 2 pieces of feedback/marks in PS at this point.
• Test/project grades should be entered into PS within 3 class meeting after the test/project was given/due (as well as shared with students in class).
• Homework/quiz/”smaller work” grades should be entered into PS with 2 class meetings after the item was completed/due (as well as shared with students in class).

Addressing Tech Issues: The quick survey I had you do asking how your Apple TV was working revealed that 47% of you experience connectivity issues several times every block.  Video playback issues were reported as were student connectivity issues.  In order to better diagnose the issue, please use HelpDesk emails to document the issues we are facing.  I know that many of you don’t want to bother IT with these issues – but without the data it is hard to track the actual extent of the problem, to notice trends, and to figure out solutions.  So, please report each time you are disconnected from or have other issues with your Apple TV via HelpDesk (and cc’d to Robert).  Include what you were doing at the time.  You can either report immediately each time, or collect the information and submit once a day.  I would also like you to email in student connectivity issues.  Again, you can submit by block or at the end of the day.  With student connectivity issues, please include how many students at a time (if it is a group), the spacing of the connectivity issues (if some dropped at the beginning of the class, things worked, then kids got dropped later), and total numbers.

Making Sunshine Even Sunnier!   The Sunshine Committee is the committee who works to build morale and fun for middle school faculty.  They also make sure big events get recognized and supported – even the small things like when someone is having a rough patch of events.  In order to make the sunshine brighter, we’d like to collect a one time donation to support the things the Committee does rather than ask for contributions throughout the year.  We’d like each MS faculty member to consider contributing 500,000 VND to the Sunshine Fund.  Bonnie has agreed to collect the donations and manage the funds.  We also would love to have a few more members of the Committee.  So if you love to plan socials, take care of your colleagues when we need to celebrate or commiserate, just let me know!