23 November

Dear Middle School Parents,

If you missed the MS Parent Coffee this week, we watched this video about the education system and why we, at AISC, teach differently and how we are intentionally teaching to combat some of the problems identified by the experts.

Trimester 1 Reports

In case you did not receive the email about the Trimester 1 Report, we are informing you that the first trimester reports will not be ready today. Due to a technical change in PowerSchool, it is now causing errors within the reporting process.

The PowerSchool office is based out of the United States. Unfortunately, we cannot rectify the situation today due to the Thanksgiving Holiday in the US and everyone is out of the office for this long holiday weekend. They will be back in the office on Monday morning in the US, our Monday evening, which will be the earliest we will be able to work with PowerSchool on this matter.

Once this has been rectified, we will get the reports out to you immediately. We apologize for the inconvenience and we hope to get his resolved by mid-week of next week.

Thank you for your understanding.

Parent Book Group Information from the MS Counselor

Based on the parent survey, our Parent Book Group book for this school year will be Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain by Daniel Siegel. It is available to purchase on amazon.in or on kindle if you have an amazon.com account.

Our chosen meeting format, also based on the parent survey, will be to meet for four sessions. All English language levels are welcome! The book is divided into four parts so we will read one part for each week. I look forward to seeing many of you there! Happy Reading!

• Wednesday Jan 31st at 8:45 (Part I)
• Wednesday, Feb 7th at 8:45 (Part II)
• Wednesday, Feb 14th at 8:45 (Part III)
• Wednesday, Feb 21st at 8:45 (Part IV)

PCA Giving Tree

The PCA Giving Tree is a chance for the AISC community to participate in giving gifts to local organizations in need. The Middle School tree has a theme for the Blue Cross animal shelter. This tree would gather supplies and items as needed to help Blue Cross. It is located in the iHub.

Early Release Day

Just a reminder that next Wednesday, 29 November will be another early release day. These are all marked in the community calendar. Please take advantage of these days for doctor check-ups, dental visits or plan an activity with your children. 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.

MS Choir & Strings Concert and Band Concert

We have two wonderful concerts coming up: MS Choir and Strings Concert will be on Friday, 1 December at 2:30 and the Band Concert will take place the following week on Wednesday, 6 December at 2:30 in the Theater. Please come and join us.

Come And Be Part Of

One Of The Largest Coding Event In History!

The Hour of Code started as a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify "code", to show that anybody can learn the basics, and to broaden participation in the field of computer science. It has since become a worldwide effort to celebrate computer science, starting with 1-hour coding activities but expanding to all sorts of community efforts.

Our Hour of Code is making a statement that American International School Chennai is ready to teach these foundational 21st-century skills. To continue bringing programming activities to your students, we want to make our Hour of Code event huge.

WHAT:   AISC Hour of Code week

WHEN:  12:00 noon- 1.00 pm, 27th November

   12:00 noon- 1.00 pm, 28th November

   2.00 pm - 3.00 pm,    29th November  

   3:45 pm - 4:45 pm     30th November  -  Code with your parents

   

HOW:     Students - Sign up using this form.  

                 Students with Parents -   Sign up using this form

WHERE: MS CIC

World Scholar’s Cup Finals

Congratulations to AISC Middle School students (Adesh Roberson, Rohan Roberson and Tejas Narayan who competed in the Finals of the World Scholar’s Cup at Yale University. Here are the awards they received:

The team scored 68th out of 400 teams (juniors). Rohan (left)- gold medal in science Adesh (right) - silver in history Team quiz bowl- gold medal 40 out 400 teams Team debate - silver medal Team challenge - silver medal	Tejas (middle) and his team placed third overall out of 400 teams (juniors) and first in South Asia. They also placed first in the scholar's challenge, which is one of the four components in the competition. Individually, Tejas placed 20th in the scholar’s challenge out of 1200 students.

Have a great long weekend.

Sincerely,

Alan Phan & Andrew Ranson

Middle School Administration

17 November

Principal’s Note

Week 14: 17 November

Dear Middle School Parents,

On Thursday of next week, you will receive an email with the instructions to access the first trimester report. Please take the time to thoroughly look through the trimester report and read the student reflection from your child and feedback from the teachers. It should provide you with more information of what your child is doing well and what s/he needs to work on for the next trimester. Should you have any questions about any of the classes, please feel free to contact the subject teacher.

Middle School Coffee

Join us next week for the MS Parent Coffee on Tuesday, 21 November at 8:45 in the Hall of Light, where we will talk about the skills that companies are looking for when they recruit. The skills come from the book, “The Global Achievement Gap” by Tony Wagner. We will cross reference these skills to how we begin to teach some of these skills in the Middle School.

MUN From Ms. Mac and Ms. Lucy

Your delegate did an amazing job at CHEMUN last weekend. No matter their level of experience, they participated in all aspects of the conference. More importantly is the level of diplomacy they exhibited. Ms. Lucy and I are so proud of them. Thank you for all your support!

Some reminders and new information:

• Here is the folder to check out pictures.
• Parent Mini MUN Guide
• We begin the research portion of the spring tryouts next week in order to decide the traveling delegates by early February.

TRIMESTER 2 After School Activities (ASAs)

All activities begin on November 20, 2017, and will run until March 2nd, 2018. MS Students need to go to the ASA venues listed below.  Please note that ASAs will continue after we come from winter break.

MIDDLE SCHOOL ASAs
MONDAY
Keyboard	Vasanth Peter	3146 - SH	3.45 - 4.45 pm
Table Tennis	Rajesh R	Outdoor Gym	3.45 - 4.45 pm
Soccer	Shajahan A	Main Soccer Field	3.45 - 4.45 pm
TUESDAY
Basketball	Sukavaneshwar D	Gym	3.45 - 4.45 pm
Raptor’s Swim Club	Donna Fava	Swimming Pool	3.45 - 4.45 pm
Acoustic & Rock Guitar	Finny Albert	3146 - SH	3.45 - 4.45 pm
THURSDAY
Robotics & Coding	Robotix Learning Solutions	2417 - RB (Design Lab - FAC )- Students need to carry their own laptop.	3.45 - 4.45 pm
Tennis	Gowthaman V	Lower Tennis Courts - Please carry your own racquet.	3.45 - 4.45 pm
Raptor’s Swim Club	Donna Fava	Swimming Pool	3.45 - 4.45 pm
Violin	Finny Albert	3146 - SH - Please carry your own instrument	3.45 - 4.45 pm

Stanley Haas/Luke Hansen Award Reminder

Each year the Near East South Asia Council of Overseas Schools (NESA) provides an opportunity for Middle School students to apply for an award that recognizes students who model the character traits NESA values most in students: consistency, persistence, a willingness to take risks, acceptance of other cultures/points of view and a genuine interest in and commitment to the welfare of others. A direct email was sent to students with the application or see Ms. Jen Gold for more information.

If you feel that your child models these traits and they are interested in applying, please look at the application packet and return all the materials to Ms. Gold in the Counseling Office by Monday, November 20th.

Have a great weekend.

Sincerely,

Alan Phan & Andrew Ranson

Middle School Administration

10 November

Principal’s Note

Week 13: 10 November

Dear Middle School Parents,

Congratulations to three Middle School students who made it to the finals at World Scholar’s Cup tournament at Yale University this weekend: Adesh Roberson, Rohan Roberson, and Tejas Narayan.

Middle School Coffee

Join us at the next MS Parent Coffee on Tuesday, 21 November at 8:45 in the Hall of Light, where we will talk about the skills that companies are looking for when they recruit. The skills come from the book, “The Global Achievement Gap” by Tony Wagner. We will cross reference these skills to how we begin to teach some of these skills in the Middle School.

Book Club from MS Counselor, Jen Gold

In preparation for our upcoming MS parent book group, I'd like to get feedback from you on book choice and meeting format/time. Please take a moment to complete this short survey if you think you might be interested in participating. All levels of English speaking are welcome to attend! I will collect feedback until Wednesday, November 15 and will notify you of our first book choice in the MS Principal's Notes on Friday, Nov 17th.

Each book is available on amazon.in and a link has been provided on the form for you to get more information on the book before making your choice. We have three books to choose from:

• The Strength Switch: How The New Science of Strength-Based Parenting Can Help Your Child and Your Teen to Flourish by Lea Waters, PhD
• Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain by Daniel Siegal, MD  
• Teenagers Translated: How to Raise Happy Teens by Downshire and Grew  

Thank you and happy reading!

Tuesday, 24 October - MS Parent Coffee

Ms. Gold presented about some of the Essential Life Skills that we can be cultivating in our adolescents. Click on the link to see the slides.

We would like to recognize the Middle School MUN delegates who will be participating in the CHEMUN XI 2017 Conference. The conference begins on Friday and will take place through the weekend. Below are the countries and committees they will be representing this year. Here is the link to the folder that we will put all pictures in.

Also, if you would like to check out what MUN is all about, feel free to pop into the committee rooms for a little bit.  Please make sure that only a few of you go to each committee at a time, limit your time to half an hour, and don't talk to the delegates.

Country	Committee	Student Name	Grade
Cambodia	GA	Byunggeon Park	7
	GA-Legal	Gautham Narendar	7
	ECOSOC	Amelie Dowling	7
	HRC	Nahyun Kwon (Hannah)	8
	Environment	Aryan Nandagopal	8
	DISEC	Yejune Chang (Ted)	8
Norway	GA	Diya Reddy	8
	GA-Legal	Lya Ravon	8
	ECOSOC	Dhivya Vijay	7
	HRC	Yewon Nam	8
	Environment	Gregor Stalkamp	8
	SPC	Lekhana Gogineni	8
	DISEC	Keshav Kumar	8
South Africa	GA	Nahyeon Jeong	8
	DISEC	Hanut Sengar	8
	ECOSOC	Suman Krishna	7
	HRC	Seoyoung Youn	8
	SPC	Sanjeev Naiek	7
	GA Legal	Sungho Kim	8
	Environment	Junhyuk Choi	8
UNDP	APQ	Arjan Charavarthy	8
Ethiopia	SC	Vihaan Saharia	8

Have a great weekend.

Sincerely,

Alan Phan & Andrew Ranson

Middle School Administration