18 March

Dear Middle School Parents,

Thank you to all the parents who came to see our  Middle School Green STEM Fest yesterday. The students and teachers have put a lot of time and effort in learning how to build something from scratch while using recycled materials. All the events were created within the context of India and the recent flooding. You might have noticed that not everything worked, but the end product was not our goal, rather it was the process of learning how to problem solve as they face difficulties in their construction. The trial and error process is an important method of learning. Here is a short video that talks about success through failures. Students did an amazing job with all the different types of projects that came out from their different ideas.

Here are the pictures of the day: https://aiscgallery.smugmug.com/STEM-Festival-March/.

Password: raptors16.

Below is the data from the United States Census Bureau about where do college graduates work, in particular in STEM fields. You can see the complete article and further break down of the fields in this link.

The Spring Break has come at the perfect time as we head into the final trimester of the school year. Upon return, we have a busy April coming our way. We have two events that will take place as soon as we come back. Please come and cheer on our students as they show off the brains and brawn.

• Local Track Meet: Hosted here on Campus. March 31 and April 1, starting at 4:00pm.
• World Scholar’s Cup: April 2-3

Please also make a note of the dates of the MS Parent Coffee and Conferences.

• MS Movie Night: April 8
• MUN Trip to Malaysia: April 13-18
• MS Parent Coffee: April 19
• E-Portfolio Presentation and Student-Parent-Teacher Conferences: April 21-22
• SAISA Track and Field: April 21-24
• MAP Testing: April 25-29

Food Service Update

Beginning April 4th, the iHub and Elementary Cafeteria will be featuring new items for sale afterschool.  Monday through Friday, the Taj Madras Flight Kitchen will be offering a variety of veg and non-veg kebabs and these choices will change daily.  Also, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, veg and non-veg  steamed or fried wontons will be served. The decision to serve these items came out of feedback from the parent food tasting session. We will be expanding these offerings over time to include an even wider variety of selections.

Food services at AISC are always looking for ways to improve. Should you have questions, suggestions or concerns, please contact Food Service Manager Prakash Shanmugam (sprakash@aisch.org), Elementary Associate Principal Lori Newman (nlori@aisch.org) or Secondary Associate Principal Jason Hicks (hjason@aisch.org). If you have not had the chance to have a meal in the IHub or Main Cafeteria, please join us. We would love to hear your feedback about the food at AISC.

Whether you are traveling overseas, somewhere else in India or having a staycation. Have a safe and restful break.

Sincerely,

Alan Phan

Middle School Principal

11 March

Dear Middle School Parents,

We are finishing another season of ASIAC this weekend and now ASIAC Swimming on Monday and ASIAC Girls Basketball will be start on Wednesday and Boys Basketball will start after the break.

ASIAC Girls' Basketball

Ladies in 6th-8th grade- here are all the reasons why you should come out for Basketball:

10) Basketball is a super fun sport!

9) Your coaches are awesome and we already love you!

8) Get in shape

7) Meet some new people

6) Try something new

5) Build some confidence

4) Take a break from your usual friends and spend time with some new ones!

3) Boost your brain power! (A healthy body is a healthy mind)

2) We have a 3 day slumber party in Delhi!

1) Your own reason for joining the team!

Next week is voluntary. We will have two skill days on Wednesday and Friday morning from 6:30 - 7:45.

See you there! Coach Grace

From the Athletic Director - Ron Thompson

In just 6 weeks from now, we will be hosting the 2016 SAISA Track & Field Meet. We need your help in finding homes for our visiting athletes from ASB, AISD, LS, TAISM and OSC. We have 75 boys and 75  girls to house from Wednesday April 20 through Sunday April 24. Please reply to our housing director Ms. Sally Victor at vsally@aisch.org if you can help us out. Full details are available from Ms. Sally in the Activities & Athletics office. Thanks in advance for your hospitality.

From the Counseling Office: Ms. Jen Gold

We had a good response to our Parent Book Group survey and the results were very close! There was an equal interest in two of the books and so I’ve decided to go ahead and hold meetings for both books before the end of the year. We’ll try out two different meeting formats and the details are listed below. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions.

I’m really looking forward to seeing many of you there!

Our first book will be The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist's Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults by Frances E. Jensen. It is available on kindle or on Amazon.in if you would like to purchase a hard copy for yourself.

Meeting Format:

We will meet for four weeks and discuss a section of the book each week. Location TBD.

• Friday, April 1st at 8:45 (chapters 1-4)
• Friday, April 8th at 8:45 (chapters 5-8)
• Friday, April 15th at 8:45 (chapters 9-12)
• Friday, April 22nd at 8:45 (chapters 13-17)

    

Our second book will be Mindful Parenting: Simple and Powerful Solutions for Raising Creative, Engaged, Happy Kids in Today's Hectic World by Kristen Race. It is available on kindle or on Amazon.in if you would like to purchase a hard copy for yourself.

Meeting format:

We will meet for one longer meeting on Friday, May 20th. Time and location TBD.

                                                      

The Combined Choirs of AISC are very pleased to invite the school community to our annual vertical concert nextTuesday, March 15 at 4:30pm in the FAC Theatre. Featuring our vocal ensembles from Elementary School all the way up to the Community Choir, our program will centre around a theme we hold dear to our hearts, especially in today's world - Peace. We look forward to sharing our music with you!

Yearbook Photo Orders

Your child's individual and class yearbook pictures from the August 2015 and January 2016 photo sessions may be purchased using this form. Instructions are on the order form.

To order photos, please log on to All School Moodle page, (guest password: raptors16) you will find a folder - Yearbook photos 2015-16. If your child joined school after September 4th, the photo can be found in the folder labelled "SESSION 2 YEARBOOK PHOTOS." Parents who missed ordering photos last semester may also place the orders now.

Please complete the form, make payment at the cash counter and submit the form at the respective section office. Last day for orders is 30th March. Prints will be ready for pick up after 15 April.

If you have any questions about the ordering process, please contact the HS / MS  office

Lifestyle Survey

Currently, we have many programs in place in our counseling department. As we continue to develop and enhance our counseling program, we need more data to help us build it. Therefore, Middle School students will be taking a survey for us to gather data to make informed decisions of how to build a program that will meet their needs. This will be the second year that students will be doing this. We hope to collect them for three years in a row to look for a trend. The survey will contain questions such as, but not limited to tobacco and alcohol, eating and sleeping habits, body image, screen time, homework and stress. Grade 6 and 7 took it last week and Grade 8 will be taking it this Monday, 14 March.

Green STEM Fest

This event is only one weeks away. Please make a note of the date and time. We hope to see you there! Here is an article about the process of learning that supports the STEM project that students do. With STEM it is about the learning that takes place during the process and we’re not focus on the outcome of the product.

Have a good weekend.

Alan Phan

Middle School Principal

4 March

Dear Middle School Parents,

The second trimester ended last week and the trimester report will be ready by next Tuesday. When the reports are ready on Tuesday, Ms. Aziz will send an email out to all parents with instructions on how to access the reports on Skyward. Please note that students who have enrolled recently, such as February, will not get a Trimester Report because teachers will not have enough information to provide a report for them. Should you need information about their progress, please contact the teachers directly.

ASIAC Trips

We have several groups of students going to other schools for some ASIAC activities from 10-13 March. The Volleyball and Tennis teams will be going to the American Embassy School in Delhi and Drama will be going to the American School of Bombay. Congratulations to all the students!

Girls Volleyball	Boys Volleyball	Tennis	Drama
Weronika Strzelczyk Celia Malone Vanessa Mauri Rin Kamio Bhavni Joshi Yeji Han Miyu Ii Soo Youn Hwang Fatima Shaikh Miu Kubota Sooji Lim Diya Kumar Kennedy Porter Ye Won Lee Elaina Brendel Mai Tanaka	Masataka Hayashi Max Jacobson Ahmad Zulfazli Prannoy Thakore Vinay Rao Kazu Toyonoga Mekhi Quarshie Conner Brown Enzo Sicaire Yuki izumi Daehyeon Song Arunveer Kahlon Pranav Unni Miles Gold ChanJoo Park Anant Bajaj	Rahul Giridhar Tejas Sridhar Aditya Thota Siddharth Vijay Rina Kita Natsumi Shindo Lekhana Gogineni Nithya Gogineni	Sriya Venepally Alice Drexler ChanWoo Park Sangmin Han Sai Dheeraj Reddy

ULead Conference Open to Grade 8 Students

AISC's Operation Smile club is hosting its annual ULead conference on March 12th and 13th. The conference is built on the four pillars of Operation Smile: Leadership, Awareness, Education and Service and will be a collection of activities such as workshops, service projects and lectures run by members of the Operation Smile organization. This is a great opportunity to get involved with a wonderful service organization and is also an introduction into service learning in High School. We have speakers flying from all over India to conduct workshops, team games and service projects that will help you improve your collaboration and communication skills and prepare you for a purposeful high school experience. If you are interested or have any questions please email me with your name and preferred T-shirt size (small, medium, large or XL) at snivedita16@aisch.org by 7:00 pm on Friday.

Lifestyle Survey

Currently, we have many programs in place in our counseling department. As we continue to develop and enhance our counseling program, we need more data to help us build it. Therefore, Middle School students will be taking a survey for us to gather data to make informed decisions of how to build a program that will meet their needs. This will be the second year that students will be doing this. We hope to collect them for three years in a row to look for a trend. The survey will contain questions such as, but not limited to tobacco and alcohol, eating and sleeping habits, body image, screen time, homework and stress. Grade 6 and 7 will be taking it on Monday, 7 March and Grade 8 will be taking it on Monday, 14 March.

Green STEM Fest

Dear parents, teachers, families, and community members,

Our Middle School STEM festival will take place on, Thursday, March 17!  All are welcome to attend to come and see our creative design solutions. Our focus this year is on creating solutions to solve problems using "green" technology and resources. Students chose between a variety of problems to solve, each one having some connection to environmental awareness or the impacts of climate change. We also have a particular focus this year on finding solutions to problems related to the recent flooding in Chennai. Most of our designs are made of recycled materials that were donated by the school community.

Attendees can come to observe the events, watch presentations, and ask questions to learn more about the projects of our Middle School Engineers.

Locations: Main courtyard, soccer field, covered gym, FAC Atrium

Guests will be provided with a map, a list of participants, a schedule of events, and a set of possible interview questions when they arrive.

Hope to see you all there!

MS Science Department

Have a good weekend.

Alan Phan

Middle School Principal