Dear Middle School Parents,
As a middle school principal, I like to tell people that I have about 200 kids, which is true in many ways. I think I spend as much time reading about parenting as most parents do. A couple of weekends ago, I read this an article from National Public Radio (NPR) from the US about “How to Raise Brilliant Children According to Science,” which is based on a book, Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells Us About Raising Successful Children. The authors of the book talk about what we should be reporting on: collaboration, communication, content, critical thinking, creative innovation and confidence. While we do not exactly match our report card, our learning habits and reporting standards do hit on these areas and more. Click on the link to read more about it. How do you complement what children are learning in school?
The article is timely as we welcome parents to the first mid-trimester Learning Habits Update. You should have received an email from your child with a link to their eportolio. If you have not received it yet, please ask your child to share it with you immediately. For the Learning Habits Update:
- Students individually conferenced with teachers to go over their Learning Habits.
- In Advisory, students individually conferenced with their advisor and look at the overall pattern of their Learning Habits
- Then they wrote a reflection on how their Learning Habits affect their academic performance.
What you see on their Learning Habits Update is an honest reflection of what your child has thought of his or her attitudes and attributes to learning thus far. We invite you to log on to your child's eportolio to look at their Learning Habits Update and have a conversation with them as well. We encourage you to peruse the blog posts on their eportfolio as well.
Should you have any specific questions about it, please email their teachers and advisors directly.
What are Learning Habits?
One of the aspects of moving to a Standards-Based Grading and Reporting system is to separate the behavior from the academic achievement. Therefore, we will be giving feedback on student’s behavior using the four words, with its description below to indicate how frequently they display these attributes. In addition to the feedback that students are getting from the assignments, students will receive their first update about how these attributes contribute to their learning.
Preparation
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Student actively plans for learning activities, displays effective organization and manages their time well.
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Engagement
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Student actively participates in learning activities and is communicative about their thinking and learning.
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Collaboration
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Student works with all peers by showing respect and compassion in a diverse classroom environment.
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A Growth Mindset
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Student can thoughtfully self-asses and strives for continual improvement.
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Early Release Wednesday
Next Wednesday, 21 September, we will have another Early Release Day. Students are expected to depart campus in a timely and organized fashion. We appreciate your patience with traffic on these days. In preparation, please plan on allowing longer time for entry and exit to the school at release time. For our Middle School students, hot lunch will be served.
Annual Big Bad Blue
Friday, Sept. 23 - 3pm-6pm
Saturday, Sept. 24 - 8am-6pm
We will host 6 local schools and teams and the Stonehill School from Bangalore.
Come support the SAISA Swim Team and join in the fun!
Week Without Walls Parent Meetings
Grade 6
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The Grade 6 teachers would like to invite you to the 6th grade Week Without Walls Parent Information Meeting that will be held on Monday, September 26 from 2:45 to 3.30 pm in the CIC. We will provide you with all the necessary information for our upcoming trip and we will be happy to answer your questions. Thank you!
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Grade 7
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Parents of 7th grade students are asked to attend the 7th grade Week Without Wall Parent Information Meeting to be held on Wednesday, September 21 from 1:15 - 2:00 pm in the CIC. We will share details about the trip and answer questions you may have! We look forward to seeing you there!
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Grade 8
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The Grade 8 Teaching Team would like to invite parents of grade 8 students to an informational meeting about our Week Without Walls(WWoW) trip on Wednesday, September 28 from 2:45-3:30 in the Black Box Theater (BBT). We will share details of the WWoW Trip and answer any questions.
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Save the Date - Upcoming HS Parent Coffee
The next High School Parent Coffee will be on Tuesday, September 27th in the BBT. The presentation will be about “life as an upperclassman: considering course load for college readiness.” This coffee is most appropriate for grade 8, 9 and 10 parents who want to learn how to navigate our curriculum guide and academic programs to create an academic plan that will support their student in being ready for university! Our AP/IB Coordinator, counselors and I will present and leave plenty of time for questions.
Introducing Celebration of Learning
As part of our commitment to continue to educate parents about the learning that takes place in the school. Middle School students will be presenting some of their assignments during the Student-Parent-Teacher conferences on Friday, 30 September in the Hall of Light from 10:00 - 12:00pm.
AISC Photo Gallery
After all the different events in the school, you can find the photos in our SmugMug AISC Photo Gallery. About a week or so after each event, we will upload the photos into the gallery. Access it with the password: raptors16
Have a great weekend.
Sincerely,
Alan Phan & Andrew Ranson
Middle School Administration