18 December

Dear Middle School Parents,

Happy Holidays! Whether you are traveling or having a stay-cation, we wish you a safe and restful school holiday break.

Please encourage your children to read for pleasure. If you go by a bookstore, stop by and let them pick up a book, graphic novel or magazine. Allow them to read what they want, creating good reading habits is more important than what they are reading. Research says that it takes about 21 days (three weeks) to do something for it to become a habit, this winter break is the perfect time to form new habits.

Early Release Wednesday - January 20th

In order to support continuous professional learning and development for AISC faculty members, there are seven Early Release Wednesdays on the calendar this year. On January 20th, we will have our fifth Early Release Wednesday. As a reminder, students will be released at 1:30 p.m. and are expected to depart campus in a timely and organized fashion. We appreciate your patience. In preparation, please plan on allowing longer time for entry and exit to the school at release time. Lunch will be a quick "grab and go" sandwich on this day for our Middle and High School students. If students want a hot lunch, please remember to pack one from home.

After School Activities​ (ASA)

Semester 2: ​January 25 - May 27, 2016. (16-week program)

Information regarding Pay Online & In Person registrations

We will open online registrations on January 14​th​ ​(am) ​and end on January 17​th​ (pm)​, 2016.

Please go to (https://payonline.aisch.org/), login and register. We encourage Parents to register through Pay online. Kindly note that payments made through credit card will carry service charges.  This is charged by the Bank and not the School or ASA department.

IN-PERSON REGISTRATIONS: If you have missed registering online, then in-person registrations can be done on January 18 and 19 at the Elementary Cafeteria from 8.00 am – 9.30 am.

​

Please find the list of after school activities including swim programs planned for Semester 2. ​

MIDDLE SCHOOL ASA
ASA Name	Instructor	Grade	Day
Basketball	Sukavaneshwar D	6 - 8	Tuesday
Tennis	Gowthaman V	6 - 8	Thursday
Soccer	Sebastian Francis	6 - 8	Thursday
Ping Pong	Rajesh R	6 - 8	Monday
Advanced Taekwondo (Blue - Black belt)	Yang Young Geun	6	Tuesday
Acoustic & Rock Guitar	Shiney Justin	6 - 7	Tuesday
Yoga	Widi Sumaryano	6 - 8	Thursday
Lego Mindstorms	Ryan Sager	6 - 8	Monday
Raptor’s Swim Club	Donna Fava	6 - 8	Tuesday & Thursday
Flippa Ball	Velin Prabhu	6 - 8	Friday

Middle School Lego Mindstorms (Robotics) ASA

Start Date: Mondays, Starting 25 January

Location: ES Discovery Lab

Design thinking and engineering principles will be used to solve a student created problem using Lego Mindstorms EV3 robotic kits. Students will first learn how to identify and define a problem which can be solved using robotics. This includes setting the criteria which determines how well the student-made robots solved the problem.  Next, they will use the prototyping cycle to iterate and refine their Lego robots. This cycle of trial and error is critical to the design thinking process.  Their solutions will be shared with the community at the celebration near the end of the semester.

Have a safe and relaxing holiday break.

Alan Phan

Middle School Principal

11 December

Dear Middle School Parents,

It has been great to see all the students and parents back on campus this week. Getting back to school and feeling a sense of normality has been the highlight for many of us.

With a high attendance rate of over 95% of students in school, we will move to normal in-class instructions for all students. Students who are absent due to illness or will be away will need to contact their teachers regarding assignments for next week. We appreciate your patience and support throughout this week.

A big thank you goes out to our music directors: Mr. Cary Stewart, Ms. Deborah Lee and Mr. William Kumar, our accompanist, Mr. Edwin, and parent volunteer, Ms. Laurinda Porter for putting on an amazing Band,  Choir and Strings Concert today. Even without a proper rehearsal schedule and many missing musicians due to the Soccer Tournament in Mumbai, they sounded great!

Grade 6 WWW Parent Meeting

Grade 6 will be traveling on their week without walls trip to Yelagiri February 2-5, 2016. We will be having an informational meeting on Tuesday, December 15 from 2:45-3:30 in the Hall of Light. If there are any questions that you may have, we can answer them for you at that time.

Robotics Competition Results

Congratulations to our students who placed first and third in the Robotics Competition. The competition was very well attended by our students and a local school and our students fared very well.

Winners:  1st Place

Karthik Narayan - Grade 8

Harish Srinivasan - Grade 8

Arjun Sherwal -  Grade 8

Winners:  3rd Place

Efflam Joseph Rol - Grade 6

Cyril Drexler  -  Grade 6

Middle School Coffee

Please mark your calendar for the next parent coffee on 19 January at 8:45 in the HOL. More details will come out after the winter break.

​After School Activities​ (ASA)

Semester 2: ​January 25 - May 27, 2016. (16-week program)

Information regarding Pay Online & In Person registrations

We will open online registrations on January 14​th​ ​(am) ​and end on January 17​th​ (pm)​, 2016.

Please go to (https://payonline.aisch.org/), login and register. We encourage Parents to register through Pay online. Kindly note that payments made through credit card will carry service charges.  This is charged by the Bank and not the School or ASA department.

IN-PERSON REGISTRATIONS: If you have missed registering online, then in-person registrations can be done on January 18 and 19 at the Elementary Cafeteria from 8.00 am – 9.30 am.

​

Please find the list of after school activities including swim programs planned for Semester 2. ​

MIDDLE SCHOOL ASA
ASA Name	Instructor	Grade	Day
Basketball	Sukavaneshwar D	6 - 8	Tuesday
Tennis	Gowthaman V	6 - 8	Thursday
Soccer	Sebastian Francis	6 - 8	Thursday
Ping Pong	Rajesh R	6 - 8	Monday
Advanced Taekwondo (Blue - Black belt)	Yang YoungGeun	6	Tuesday
Acoustic & Rock Guitar	Shiney Justin	6 - 7	Tuesday
Yoga	Widi Sumaryano	6 - 8	Thursday
Lego Mindstorms	Ryan Sager	6 - 8	Monday
Raptor’s Swim Club	Donna Fava	6 - 8	Tuesday & Thursday
Flippa Ball	Velin Prabhu	6 - 8	Friday

Middle School Lego Mindstorms (Robotics) ASA

Start Date: Mondays, Starting 25 January

Location: ES Discovery Lab

Design thinking and engineering principles will be used to solve a student created problem using Lego Mindstorms EV3 robotic kits. Students will first learn how to identify and define a problem which can be solved using robotics. This includes setting the criteria which determines how well the student-made robots solved the problem.  Next, they will use the prototyping cycle to iterate and refine their Lego robots. This cycle of trial and error is critical to the design thinking process.  Their solutions will be shared with the community at the celebration near the end of the semester.

AISC Chennai Flood Relief 2015 Fund

South India’s monsoon season has been particularly severe this year, with Tamil Nadu and Chennai seeing the worst of the flooding. It is estimated that during this monsoon season, almost 600 people have died and over 1.8 million people were displaced. The unofficial total damage and loss is expected to exceed $15 billion USD. The American International School Chennai appreciates your offer to help with the recovery and relief efforts from these recent devastating floods. We have three ways your school can contribute:

In-Kind Donations - Relief Efforts

Your in-kind donation of the following items will be distributed by our student organizations to the NGOs listed below.

Monetary Contributions

We have established two accounts to accept monetary contributions.  These donations must be made in INR and can be given in cash, check or wire transfer.

AISC Chennai Flood Relief 2015 Fund

AISC has committed to providing support for several NGOs in the area.  Any cash donations to the AISC Chennai Flood Relief 2015 Fund will be given to one or more of those organizations. If you would like to make a donation (in INRs) directly to the school to support the NGOs, please make a donation at the Cashier’s Window. You can also donate funds directly online to the NGOs providing relief support.

Bhoomika Trust

AID INDIA

Bhumi

Chennai Microfund

Helping Hands

AISC Staff Relief Fund - Helping Those Who Help Us

To provide support for our AISC staff who have experienced significant loss or damage during the floods, we have established an AISC Staff Relief Fund. Contributions to this fund will go directly to supporting our staff members who have been most seriously affected by the floods. If you wish to donate to this fund, you may do so at the Cashier’s Window. Please be sure you state that the donation is for the AISC Staff Relief Fund.

Have a nice and dry weekend.

Alan Phan

Middle School Principal

4 December

Dear Parents and Students

I hope this message finds you safe, sound and dry.  Today the Leadership Team is meeting at school, assessing the situation and making plans for the future.  Mr. Hoover will communicate next steps something this weekend. 

There will be many events that will be postponed or moved. One important change is moving the ASIAC Soccer Tournament to the American School of Bombay (ASB). We are planning for students to depart on Thursday, 10 December and return on Sunday, 13 December.

Please see the following changes for Middle School:

• December 11: Combined Winter Band Concert with Choir and Strings @2:00pm.
• December 11: MS Winter Party 4:30-6:00pm
• We will refocus the Winter Party to a fundraiser for those in need.

Please refer to the Head of School Notes for other calendar changes.

After School Activities will not run on Monday even if school resumes.  We will determine what ASAs will look like for the remainder of the term once school reopens.