Friday March 27

March 27

Dear Parents and Students,

Thank you for your support and patience this week to help us implement our first week of virtual learning. Thank you for your communication, directly to teachers or the MS office, as we work to ensure our students are engaged and our new procedures run smoothly. One of the highlights of this week has been seeing the range of ways students have been able to engage with their learning and share from home!

 

Enhancements to Continuity of Instruction

This week as we implemented our continuity of instruction plan, our “school days” maintained connections with our timetable and block schedule rotation. Starting next week, we will introduce a more flexible model of engagement. Here’s what you can expect:

Monday & Tuesday

·      Lessons for all eight classes (A+B day) will be posted Monday by 8:00am. Each class will post a lesson to engage students for 45 minutes. Students will work through  the 8 lessons Monday-Tuesday on their own time.

·      Teachers will post times when they are available to connect through GoogleHangouts with students on their PowerSchool class page. 

·      Advisory will continue to be a time for connection daily at 10:00am.

·      Students will receive a link to a GoogleForm to log their engagement each day.

Wednesday-Friday

·      Lessons for all eight classes will be posted Wednesday by 8:00am. Each class will post a lesson to engage students for 60-75 minutes. 

·      Students can work through the 8 lessons at their own pace over 3 days. 

·       Teacher availability, advisory and engagement logs will continue as stated above.

We will be providing a planner for students to map out when and how they work through their lessons independently.

I will be sharing with you a video on Sunday to welcome you to our second week of virtual learning.

Caring for the Social-Emotional Wellbeing of our Students

 Jennifer Gold, the MS counselor, is here and ready to support your middle school child(ren) and you during this uncertain time. The counselors at AISC are working to make sure that families receive quality school counseling services in this online environment. We want to stay connected to you in much the same way we would if we were on campus, so if you have concerns, please reach out via email: gjennifer@aischennai.org. 

Please feel free to reach out to Jennifer during the school day and your questions and concerns will be responded to as soon as possible. If you have urgent concerns about your child's social-emotional wellbeing outside of school hours, please contact Jennifer, though understand that there may a delay in response as she will be checking emails less frequently during those times. 

Our thoughts and hearts are with all of our community members right now. We encourage you to reach out to our counselors and teachers, as needed, as we all work to take care of our wellbeing and stay connected. 

Parent Wellbeing Resource

Our Activities & Athletics Office has developed a document to support families’ wellbeingduring virtual learning. Take a look- great ideas for the weekend and next week. 

Parent Guidelines for Continuity of Instruction

Our counselling team has developed these guidelines to help families structure days and establish routines for learning at home. We hope that you will find this information useful so that students are productive during their study hours. 

Course Scheduling 

Today current sixth and seventh grade students received information via email to choose electives for next year. Linked here you will find a document that lists all of the elective choices and a description for each. Students will need to make FOUR choices for electives. While we make every effort for students to get their first and second choice electives, it is helpful to know other preferred classes should the first and second choice classes not be available. 

To select courses, students should complete the Elective Choice Survey. This should be submitted by Wednesday, April 1^st. Greater detail can be found in the email to students. 

Feedback Survey for Virtual Learning

We would like your perspective on our first week of virtual learning. Please take a few minutes to complete this survey:

Parent Feedback - Week 1

COI Student Feedback Week 1

EAL Programs - Sarah Sahr, EAL Program Director
Greetings, AISC! As many of you might be wondering, what does English language development look like in an online classroom environment? For our fourth EAL Coffee, we will dive deep into what you can do at home to support our learners. From creating an academic schedule to taking breaks, there will be something for everyone and plenty of time participants to ask questions and seek clarification.

So, pour yourself a cup of coffee or tea and join me in this Virtual EAL Coffee, Thursday, 2 April, 8:45-9:45am, for a closer look at language development in a virtual classroom. If you can't make the coffee but have a question, feel free to email me at any time.

WrAP Testing

In order to better support the Virtual Learning environment and prioritize future academic time, the Middle School WRAP Test will not be administered for Spring 2020.  The Writing Assessment Program (WRAP) tests were originally scheduled for April 6 - 14, 2020. Thank you in advance for your understanding, Dan Love, Director of Teaching and Learning. 

Wishing you and your families a safe and healthy weekend,

Jessica Pechhold 
Middle School Principal                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                                                 

Friday March 13

Dear Parents,

Thank you for your support this week as we have instituted temperature checks and have made changes to some of our events on campus. Your understanding and patience has been helpful as we navigate the dynamic situation together. As you will have read in yesterday’s message from Joelle Basnight, acting head of school, we have shared general suggestions for preparing for virtual learning if we are not able to resume classes after spring break. 

Below I am sharing some additional suggestions for preparedness specific to Grades 6-8. 

·      Educational resources: In addition to laptops, headphones, and device chargers, revisit the student supply list for middle school. Most of these you may have on hand at home. We do not expect students to have special materials for art or digital technology or other classes/projects. 

·      With your child, identify spaces in your home that work well for learning over extended periods of time. For example, you may want to identify an area of your home that is a work space where you can monitor your child’s screen. You may want to designate a different area for quiet reading.

·      If you are not already familiar with PowerSchool, log into the program. Our helpdesk will be on call should we close (044 22549000 ext. 2129). On the AISC website, visit Learning> Technology> Applications and Systems if you need to access PowerSchool. 

Should we need to move to virtual learning, you and your child will receive instructions via email.

Calendar Change

March 23 is a school day and will be B6.

SAISA Sports Update

Please note that the SAISA Season Three tournaments have been canceled. We will work with coaches after Spring Break to determine if practices will resume. 

Tip to Prepare For Virtual Learning

-From our counselling department

·      Establish routines and expectations (wake up and work times, a designated place to work, schedules for sharing devices, if needed, etc).

·      Remain mindful of your and your child’s emotions and concerns. 

·      Think about how you and your child might stay connected to family and friends. 

·      Consider a variety of activities that may interest your child and could be done at home (hobbies, reading, experiments, cooking, etc.) and plan as needed. 

Digital Library Resources

·      Digital library resources are always available to our community members. On the ASIC website, visit Learning> CICLibrary. In the ES/MS section, you will find a section for digital resources in the sidebar. 

·      Students may also be familiar with Sora, a web and app based digital library, featuring mostly fiction e-books, audiobooks, and read alongs for students in grade 3 - adult. They can login using full gmail address + password. This resource has current and popular fiction books. 

Mid-Semester Progress Reports                                                                 We will distribute MS Reports on Tuesday March 24. This is a change in date from the community calendar. 

Conferences                                                                                             Earlier this week you will have received an email with directions to sign up for Student Parent Teacher Conferences. Please check email for link to schedule conferences and details. Conferences are on Thursday, March 26 from 4:00-7:00pm and Friday, March 27 from 8:00am-4:00pm. There are no MS classes on Friday. Please bring with you your child’s mid-semester progress report as it is the basis of the conversation. In order to ensure our conference days run smoothly for everyone, please remember:

·      Conferences are 10 minutes in length. Should you require more time with a teacher, please schedule a time to follow up.

·      Conferences are by appointment only.

·      Teachers have scheduled break times and lunch times on Friday, March 27. Please respect these times. 

Course Selection for 2020-21 School Year                                          Current grade 6 & 7 students will receive their course selection forms for the next school year on Tuesday, March 24. For World Languages and EAP, students will see their current World Language or EAP teacher for a recommendation for their next course level. For all other courses, students will select their preferences. Please review the form with your child so that you are aware of their elective course selections. Students will select four elective courses. Every effort will be made for them to be placed in their two top choices. Students should bring the completed for to their Advisory on April 1. 

World Language Levels for 2020-21

This year the AISC World Language Department has been working on refining the curriculum and the course pathways offered to our middle school students. As such, you will notice that the names of our World Language courses have changed. The changes to the names reflect a clearer pathway of progression for our students and allow for more clearly defined targets for each individual course. As we move toward adopting new standards, the new courses will allow us to cultivate more confident, proficient communicators. Some of the changes you will notice will include a move away from numbered courses 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B toward the new system of A, B, C, D. Each of the new courses will have clearly defined units and proficiency targets and skill acquisition appropriate to the targeted proficiencies. Teachers will be explaining the changes to students and recommending them to the new levels accordingly when students receive their scheduling forms March 24.            

Music Course Selections 2020-21

-From the Performing Arts Head of Department, Mr. Kennedy:

There are many compelling and promising reasons why studying and practicing music is extremely beneficial to the human brain regardless of age: increased comprehension and math skills, better coordination, increased capacity for memory, multitasking, and building qualities of character such as resilience, patience, creative problem solving and critical listening skills. In essence, music helps learning any subject easier as it involves both sides of the human brain in the process of learning. We encourage you to speak with your child about the benefits of music education and consider joining our newly revamped structure that will streamline more students into bigger and more powerful ensembles. 

For the 2020-21 school year, we will be offering the following courses for middle school students:

Beginning Woodwinds and Brasswinds (formerly Beginner Band)

Concert Band (formerly Intermediate and Advanced Bands)

Guitar

Choir (Beginning, Experienced and Boys)

STEAM Fest                                                                                                    In keeping our community’s health in mind, we are re-evaluating our plans for STEAM Fest, scheduled for March 25. We will update you when we have a revised plan in place. 

Have a great weekend,

Jessica Pechhold                                                                                       Middle School Principal