Middle School Principal’s Notes: October 2016

Thursday, 20 October 2016

21 October

Dear Middle School Parents,

Despite what’s going on in the current election, family doctor and parenting expert Deborah Gilboa says, “It takes very little effort for a child to learn to hate. It’s the status quo, after all, according to the often-repeated phrases “girls can be mean” or “boys will be boys,” usually accompanied by a shrug implying “that’s just how it is.” Teaching kids to not hate is much harder. From her article, Teach Your Kids not to Hate, one suggestion is that “We have to teach our kids to avoid sweeping generalizations about people — by gender, by religion, by culture, by race.” She ends the article with a great reminder, “Our kids may not seem like they are always listening, but they are definitely watching.”

Middle School will be going off to explore India on our Week Without Walls next week. Please note that there will be no Middle School Principal’s Notes next Friday.

End of Trimester 1

As soon as we come back from our WWW, the end of the first trimester will be on Friday, 4 November. Should your child have any assignments that need to be turned in, please remind them to turn everything in by this date.

Middle School Coffee

The next middle school coffee will take place on Tuesday, 15 November at 8:45 in the Hall of Light. Please come to the session where we will talk to you about how teachers communicate student progress with parents, go through the Skyward gradebook and go over the report card.

SAISA Swimming

Congratulations to all of our middle school swimmers who represent AISC.

Age 10-12 Swimmers	Age 13-14 Swimmers
Christian Horchler Seongwon Kim Yejune (Ted) Chang Finn Wohltmann Gregor Stallkamp Amy Jacob Hayden Zuzulock Seojin Kim Amelie Dowling	Rin Miura Ben Jacob Hanna Sano Max Jacobson Kennedy Porter Meghana Rachamadugu Hinako Masuda

SAISA Volleyball

The tournament has already begun. Please come and support our athletes. If you cannot make, please follow the game via livestream: http://aiscathletics.weebly.com/saisa-boys-volleyball-2016.html

ASIAC Band and Choir Festival

Here is the YouTube link for the final concert of the festival. There is some fun music that the students played. I hope you enjoy it. The official concert starts shortly after the 5.30 mark so you can skip to it. Our Choir Teacher, Ms. Deb Lee will be the first one up to conduct the choir of students from all three schools: American Embassy School in Delhi, American School of Bombay and AISC. The band portion begins at minute 24.00.

Heads Up: Early Release Wednesday

Next Wednesday, 2 November, 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.

Yearbook Photos Ready for Review and Order

Parents and students can now review the recent yearbook photos by clicking on "Yearbook Photos 2016-17" from the All School Page in Moodle. You may access Moodle using User ID -guest and the password - raptors16.

Families interested in ordering photos should complete and return this Order Form by November 6th. Payment may be done at the cashier's office. Please submit the completed form to the HS office.

Prints will be ready for pick up after December 5th.

Have a great weekend.

Sincerely,

Alan Phan & Andrew Ranson

Middle School Administration

Friday, 14 October 2016

14 October

Dear Middle School Parents,

Ms. Jen Gold, our counselor shared with me an article written by another counselor in the US that talks about “Top 10 Skills Middle School Students Need to Thrive and How Parents Can Help” from the Washington Post. Again it is not something new, but a good reminder on how to work with your children, allowing them some independence while they are in Middle School and step in as needed to support them.

As part of our initiative to keep parents informed of what students are studying in the Middle School, please find the link below with a brief description of what students are currently studying in each subject area:

Monthly Middle School Curriculum Update

Skyward Gradebook: Skyward will be open for parents to see the assignments of their child. In Skyward, parent will see 2 to max of 5 assignments, plus a unit final assessment for each unit.

If the assignment is listed in skyward, students have access to a more detailed assignment sheet and feedback. Please ask your child.
Students will reflect on how they did on their final unit assessment and they will also email parents with a link to their blog so parents can read their reflection.
Download the Skyward app for your phone. When searching for the school, type in CHENNAI and the school will show up.

Parent Coffee

At the Middle School Coffee on Tuesday, 18 October at 8:45 in the Hall of Light, we will explore ways to support students as they transition from elementary school, learn to navigate the middle years, and prepare for the independence of high school. Discussions will center around supporting academic, social and emotional growth.

Early Release Wednesday

Next Wednesday, 19 October, 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.

Halloween Party

As we are going away for Week Without Walls, the Halloween Party will be early this year on Friday of next week. Tickets for the party will be on sale next week. It is always one of the favorite parties of the year. Please encourage your children to come in their favorite costumes.

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

Main Gallery: http://photos.aischennai.org/2016-2017

ASIAC Badminton, Table Tennis and Music Fest

Students are currently away at the ASIAC Badminton and Table Tennis Tournament in New Delhi and ASIAC Music Fest to Mumbai. You can see watch the livestreaming at AES here in this link:

https://sites.google.com/a/aes.ac.in/mesac/home