Dear Middle School Parents,
In honor of Celebrating India Month, Diwali and Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday earlier in the month. Here is a great article: Gandhi's 10 Rules for Changing the World, where it emphasizes change starting with oneself, the need for persistence and that we’re all human. “The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems.” --Mahatma Gandhi
After School Activities
Please note that there are no Saturday ASAs this weekend. The following Saturday ASAs will resume after the Fall break.
- MathCounts and Saturday Soccer classes will resume from November 1, 2014.
- Saturday Swim lessons will resume from November 8, 2014.
- Raptors swim club starts on November 3rd and ends December 19, 2014.
Middle School Coffee
We encourage to you attend the next Middle School Coffee on Wednesday, 29 October in the BBT, we will help parents navigate through the ePortfolios, what to look for in each of the student blogs and how to look at Moodle pages as well. These are two very important aspect of the Middle School where parents should learn to be proficient in.
Vision and Hearing Screening
Upon return from the break, we will be conducting a vision and hearing screening test for students in our Health Office. Middle School students will do this on 27-28 October.
The hearing screening will be conducted by the Madras ENT Research Foundation (P) Ltd., First Cross Street, II Main Road, R.A. Puram, Chennai. Dr. Sudha Maheswari and her team will conduct this screening. The vision screening will be done by “Dr. Agarwal’s Eye Hospital”, 19 Cathedral Road, Chennai. The team will be led by Dr. Sudha.
The Health Office will notify you if a doctor recommends any further assessment.
ASIAC Choir & Band Festival (from Mr. William, Ms. Lee and Mr. Cary)
The first ever ASIAC Band and Choir Festival was held last weekend at the American Embassy School, New Delhi. The festival started with reflecting on what aspect of their life brought them together in such a wonderful group. Obviously, it was a passion for music that brought these young musicians from various parts of the world to share a common platform. They did realize this and made use of every opportunity to cross cultural barriers and make new friends through music.
There were two days of intensive rehearsals that involved learning new techniques, playing and singing together, and adjusting to the requirements of different conductors. The Gala Concert on Saturday started at 6.00 p.m. in the AES gymnasium with the choir singing ‘Amani,’ a song in Swahili about peace. Then followed ‘Primordium,’ played by the band and five more pieces alternating between the ensembles. The final song, ‘Homeward Bound,’ was a combined piece, bringing the concert based on the theme ‘places’ to a poignant close. An interesting aspect was the inclusion of string players in the band, resulting in a complete symphony orchestra with voices. What a musical spectacle it was!
Good job ASIAC Choir & Band participants!
Heads Up
The Student Activities Club is preparing a frightfully fun Middle School HalloweenParty on Friday, October 31st from 6 pm – 8 pm. Tell your children to dress up and come for a fun night.
Frequently Asked Questions about the Middle School Social Events for Students:
Who runs these events? At the Middle School, students who have joined the Student Activities Club work with three advisors (Ms. Jaya, Ms. Lakshmi, and Mrs. Hall) on a weekly basis to plan various social events throughout the year.
What are the events this year? Typically there is a Pool Party, a Halloween party, a Winter Party, a Friendship Party, a School Spirit Week, a Movie Night, and an End of Year party.
What do the students do at these parties? A disc jockey plays middle school appropriate music and students socialize together. There is pizza, popcorn, chips, and drinks. Students are supervised by middle school teacher volunteers.
What can parents do to help? For the parties we ask parents to supply some baked goods such as cupcakes, cookies, or easily served sweet or savory snacks. We kindly request that these are finger foods that are easily served and are in small portions. Please do not include nuts in any of the food items and clearly label any item that is non-veg. The grade-level reps usually send out a request for these and follow up reminders. (No baked goods are needed for the Pool Party)
Is there a cost for these events? Students in the Club sell tickets the week of the event. The tickets are usually 200Rs in advance, 250Rs at the door. Student must pay with cash- students cannot use the school's smart cards for this. The money is spent on the refreshments, the disc jockey, the decorations, and any additional costs related to the events (movie rental, lighting, etc)
Can my child leave at any time? We are responsible for supervising your child during the event, therefore, please communicate in writing to the Principal before the event if your child needs to leave early for any reason.
Where can I pick up my child after the party? Students are dismissed from the party and are required to leave by the main gate. Please pick up your child there promptly. The timings for the events are published in the Community calendar. (The Pool Party timings are from 4:00 to 6:00)
Can my child bring a friend who is not a student at AISC or a younger/older sibling? As this is a middle school event and because we need to have a complete list of all students attending the event for security/safety reasons, these events are only open to middle school students enrolled at AISC.
Thank you for your understanding.
The Collaboration and Inquiry Center (CIC)'s New Saturday Hours are a Huge Success!
Our new hours have seen a great turnout of students, parents, and staff coming through the CIC's doors on Saturdays! Since September 6th, when Saturday hours first began, the CIC has received 63 visitors on average each Saturday for the last six weeks. During that time visitors have been able to come in and use the CIC for projects, reading, Internet, and book checkout (over 350 books on Saturdays so far). Our new hours are part of AISC's continued commitment to literacy and learning, and is a great way for students, staff, and parents to utilize our print and digital resources even more. This is a space open to all students in grades preschool to twelve, so come on in and enjoy the CIC!
As a reminder, please note that we will be closed on student 3-day weekends and during school breaks (this includes closing the CIC on Saturday, October 18 and October 25 of Diwali break). We look forward to welcoming back to on Saturdays beginning November 1st.
Here are a few CIC Saturday Reminders:
- We are open 8:30-12:30.
- Please sign-in on clipboards when coming to the CIC on Saturdays. This will help us with supervision as well as collecting data on Saturday usage.
- Please enjoy food and drink outside the CIC.
- ES students must be accompanied by a parent on campus during non-school hours (ES school policy). ES students should come to the CIC on Saturdays with a parent.
- MS and HS students should only be on campus during non-school hours when they are part of a school-organized activity or sport. Saturdays in the CIC counts as a school-organized activity. If students leave the CIC, but are not taking part in another school activity or sport, they should leave the AISC campus.
Food Service Update
We are happy to share that we have had the highest sales ever last week, both in the ES and the MS/HS cafeterias. We had 210 pre-orders in the ES and around 200 in the MS/HS. Thank you to all those who participated in this success!
We continue to work with TMFK to provide healthier food options for our community. Consistent with our effort to provide the right nutrition, we are now serving vegetables and fruit each day with all food options for our elementary students, thus encouraging them to have a balanced meal.
We are delighted that the recent introduction of beef, Korean and Thai dishes has been highly appreciated by our students. We are happy to introduce Japanese cuisine in our menu next month. In addition to what we currently offer in our Korean selection, we will be including more options like beef/chicken bulgogi. In the near future, we hope to strengthen this initiative further and extend our ethnic options to other cuisines as well.
Should you have any questions with regard to food service, please email Josephine Ronald – directorpersonnel@aisch.org.
Have a fun and relaxing fall break and safe travels. Happy Diwali!
Alan Phan
Middle School Principal