Thursday April 30

 Dear Parents and Students,

As we head into our final month of school and look back on this semester, we thank you for your support in our transition to online learning and the support you provide daily to ensure students are engaged. Another thank you for your participation in Portfolio Conferences! We are preparing your selfies to share out. It is wonderful to see pictures of students and parents sharing this experience together! 

As we enter May, we are planning for our final Celebration of Learning, SEVAI Showcase, which is schedule to go live on May 13. Our Performing Arts and Arts departments will be preparing their own culminating events around sharing student learning in these final weeks of the school. Lastly, we plan to continue with a May middle school assembly, our end of year grade level assemblies, and our Eighth Grade Promotion Ceremony. The details of these events will be shared with you in the coming weeks. 

MS MUN Virtual Debates 

Calendar Update

The MS/HS coffee will not be taking place on May 5 as originally scheduled. Information will be published in next week’s blog with the details of what this event will look like in virtual form. The middle and high school counselling offices are working together to ensure that a virtual event provides students and parents the information needed for a smooth transition to high school.

Withdrawal Forms

If you are certain of your withdrawal from AISC at the conclusion of this school year, please complete the Request to Issue Transfer Certificate/Past Records document linked in the “Quick Links” section of the blog. This will help the middle school office prepare your withdrawal documents in a timely manner. 

Student Voices Forum Optional Lunch 

End of Year Reports

All students will receive a Semester 2 Report during the first week of June. While we have been in virtual learning, teachers have been collecting evidence of student achievement towards our reporting standards as appropriate in our online environment. Students will be reflecting on their Learning Habits (Preparation, Collaboration, Engagement & Initiative) and teachers will assess them on these as well, with consideration to our current situation. The Semester Two Report covers learning from January 13-May 29. 

Parenting Teens in a Pandemic

-From the School-wide Counseling Team 

In this week's note from the counselling team our school psychologist Nigel Holdworth talks us through some strategies to support teenagers at home during the pandemic. Check out the video here.

ASA Parent Feedback Survey

We would love to learn more about your perspectives on our Arts, Sports and Activities (ASA) programs.  If your child(ren) participated in any ASA programs during the 2019-20 school year, please fill out the ASA Parent Feedback Survey and let us know if you have any questions.  You can find the survey link on the Athletics & Activities Blog.   

Have a safe and healthy weekend,

Jessica Pechhold

Middle School Principal 

Friday April 24

Dear Parents and Students,

As we move through our mid-way point of virtual learning this year, we are committed to maintaining our celebrations of student learning and events that bring us together as a middle school. Today, we had a successful virtual assembly. Thank you to our assembly crew for capturing our middle school spirit and creating another opportunity for us to connect! More below about our student-led portfolio conferences coming up next week!

Modules for the coming week will be 90 minutes in length. Friday, May 1 is a holiday and there will be no virtual learning.

Portfolio Conferences

Portfolio conferences are student led and are an opportunity for students to present artifacts and reflections of their learning to parents. These conferences are students’ own evaluation of their learning and a time to celebrate successes and identify challenges.

This coming week, Wednesday or Thursday, we invite you to participate in your child’s portfolio conference at home at a time that is convenient for you. Students have received instructions on how to conduct conferences through advisory. Here are complete instructions for students and parents. Parent instructions have been translated into French, Korean and Japanese for your convenience.

There is no formal follow up on the conference required; however, we would love to see students sharing their portfolios with parents. Send a selfie during your at-home portfolio conference to msoffice@aischennai.org. 

We are listening…feedback!

We continue listen to feedback and respond to the needs of our students. Teachers are continually collecting data on student engagement and wellbeing through their courses to make decisions related to student learning and support. Your direct emails help us to understand your perspective and experience. We also collect data daily from students on our Middle School Check-Out form, our attendance form. This week, here is a snapshot of what we are hearing from students about their experience in online learning this week:

What went well for you today with your school work or your process for getting it done?	What challenges did you have today with your school work or your process for getting it done?
Organized; planners	Distractions; staying focused
Working with friends or partners	Amount of work in some classes
Taking a lunch break	Internet issues
Exercising in the morning	Doing all of your “hard” classes on one day
Finding materials on PowerSchool	Not getting enough sleep/waking up late
Working hard	Unexpected activities
Taking breaks and not putting too much pressure on yourself	Staying motivated
Completing the tasks you set for yourself	Finishing missing work

Home project submitted by Kyoungrim

Virtual Arts, Sports & Activities

The Athletics & Activities Department will be offering a free Virtual Arts, Sports, & Activities Program with the following ASA’s available:

Please go to the Athletics & Activities Blog to find more information and to fill out the Registration Form which includes further descriptions for these ASA’s.

Story of the Solar System 

Here is a sample of some of the learning happening online. Thank you to Ms. Rebekah and her sixth grade student classes for sharing their learning about the solar system. Here's the padlet for your viewing! 

Looking for the Good: Practicing Gratitude in Hard Times

- From the School-wide Counseling Team

There’s no way around it, we are all experiencing hard times right now. COVID-19 has swept our world with uncertainty, leaving us all to navigate a host of difficult emotions including grief, fear, anxiety and anger. In times of crisis, it is important to acknowledge these challenging feelings. If we deny them, they just expand and find their way out of each of us in unhealthy ways. 

A healthy habit to try in hard times is the practice of gratitude (check out this article that shares research about the benefits.). Looking for the good in our daily lives may enable a welcome shift in perspective or mood without denying that our experience is challenging.

How can we intentionally look for the silver linings in the clouds? The Greater Good Science Center at University of California, Berkeley shares a simple written practice here. This is an exercise where one focuses on gratitude individually. Research tells us that gratitude can be even more powerful if it is shared. Make looking for the good a part of a daily family meal. A simple, “What are you grateful for?” at breakfast each morning might enable you and your children to start the day with positive mindsets. We can learn a lot about each other by hearing what is important to each of us. Additionally, if our gratitude is for another person, we can take that one step further and let that person know! 

Practicing gratitude is not about denying that life is hard. It is about recognizing that even when life is hard, there is still so much good if we take the time to notice it. 

Library Support at Home

Middle school students have access to a wide variety of digital resources via the ES/MS Library. If your child needs any extra support in navigating these resources, requesting book recommendations, clarifying passwords, etc, please ask them to drop into the library's office hours with Ms. Babs. You'll find days and times for each grade level below, but please know that emails will also be answered as quickly as possible.

Grade 6: Mondays 9:30-10:00 

meet.google.com/ycf-dxay-pud

 Grade 7: Tuesdays 9:30-10:00

meet.google.com/rwk-oszt-gjr

Grade 8: Wednesdays 9:30-10:00

meet.google.com/phf-vpyy-zvt

Ms. Babs will also begin offering book talks to all middle school students, beginning Monday, April 13th. Students will receive a zoom link to attend on their scheduled day and time:

Grade 6: Mondays 1:00-1:30

Grade 7: Tuesdays 1:00-1:30

Grade 8: Wednesdays 1:00-1:30

Please encourage your child to attend if they are looking for a great book to read! 

American Red Cross Free Water Safety Course for Parents

-From Mr. Giovanni Bello, Aquatics Director

The Water Safety for Parents and Caregivers online course focuses on developing an awareness of the risks of drowning and how to minimize those risks, especially for young children. This online course teaches parents and caregivers about the concepts of the circle of drowning prevention, water competency, and the chain of drowning survival. It also provides guidance for applying water safety to common environments and situations where children are most at risk for drowning. Here is the link. Water Safety for Parents and Caregivers

Free Online Mental Health First Aid Course

We are close to two months into the COVID-19 pandemic, and while we cannot control much in this crisis, we can take action to help manage the challenges of day-to-day life. That’s why the American Red Cross has developed a free Mental Health First Aid for COVID-19 course that can be taken online in less than one hour.The course is designed to help anyone impacted by COVID-19 to build resilience and lend support to others during and after this time. Topics, developed with the expertise of the Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council and the Canadian Red Cross, include recognizing stress as well as caring for yourself while supporting your family and coworkers. We encourage you to take advantage of this free course – and share it with others. Take the Course HERE. 

Have a safe and healthy weekend,

Jessica Pechhold

Middle School Principal 

Friday, April 17

Dear Students and Parents,

Today we end our fourth week of virtual learning with a celebration of learning, our annual STEAM Fest. We are pleased to be able to move this event online to honor and celebrate the learning of our students. Students have done a fantastic job adapting their face to face presentations to new formats for to share their projects virtually. Sadly, we do not have physical projects to display, but the spirit of inquiry and creativity lives on in their screencasts, videos and websites. 

STEAM is a significant part of our program as it represents a programmatic commitment to innovation and inquiry in our system. Our instructional model for STEAM is culmination of a year of planning by the middle school faculty and months of learning for our students. You can use this link to access our STEAM Fest: AISC Virtual STEAM Fest 2020. Enjoy! 

Weekly Communication

This week there will be no weekly video or welcome email. I will reconnect with you again Monday morning in the daily virtual learning day message.

Modules for April 20-24

Modules for the coming week will be posted Monday at 8:00am. Modules for each class will be 120 minutes in length for student engagement. Due dates throughout the week are recommendations to help students organize their weekly schedule. Teachers will continue to post their office hours. Each module includes an extension activity. Some courses also include suggestions for daily practice in addition to their weekly modules. We recommend students explore the full range of activities and opportunities to connect with their teachers each week to enhance their virtual learning experience.

Attendance Tracking

Thank you for your attention to our MS Daily Check Out form which registers student daily attendance. We are getting higher response rates from students. We will continue to send the form to students daily at 8:30am. We will follow up after 24 hours with students and parents when students do not complete the form. 

Jasim Project Prototype from Mr. Bodary's class

Helping Children Deal with Grief from COVID-19

From the School-wide Counseling Team

COVID-19 has changed all of our lives.  And with these changes come many losses. Sherry Cormier, PhD, a psychologist who specializes in grief,  says we are all experiencing grief as we watch everything change...our work, businesses, schools, healthcare, and economic systems. We share the loss of daily routines and structure, access to some of the things that help us stay well, a sense of stability and security, face-to-face connections with friends and loved ones, and may also find ourselves weighed down by worries and fears about what the future will hold. 

Knowing this, it is important that we recognize and address signs of grief when we see them in ourselves or our children. Here are some tips for how to help families, teens, and children as we think about these losses:

1.    Know that it’s ok to feel grief right now. Grief feelings may include shock, worry, sadness, anger, and even feelings of acceptance (it’s going to be ok). One day your child might be shocked that they can't go back to school and maybe later they are angry. This is normal. When we accept and understand that we are grieving, we are also adapting to change so that we can move forward and find strength.

2.             It’s helpful for us to name the things we are losing - time with friends, a chance to say goodbye, independence and much more. Naming our losses allows us to process them and the feelings that may be associated with them. Encourage your child to recognize and name what they may be feeling a sense of loss about. 

  

3.             If you and your family members are “leavers” or “stayers” in the cycle of transition that is common at international schools, you may want to be alert to feelings around that. For students and families who are not returning to AISC next school year, they are losing plans and dreams for their last months here and the chance to say goodbye in person. For the “stayers,” there may be sadness around losing the time they could have spent with their friends who are leaving, and with whom they may not see in the future. Work with your child to find alternate ways to say a proper goodbye or acknowledge a friendship that has been important to them. 

4.             It is important for adults to take care of themselves. Check in with yourself - how are you feeling? Are you having trouble sleeping or focusing? Be patient with yourself. Take a deep breath. Practice self-care. You can't help your children if you aren't ok. 

5.             If your children are acting out, keep in mind that fear, frustration, and anxiety are likely at the root of these behaviors.  Take another deep breath and keep in mind the developmental levels of students.  Here is a link to a document that may help you recognize some typical grief responses and offers ideas for how to support children of different ages. While on the surface, it is talking about grief related to death, it is important to remember that what many of us are feeling right now is a form of grief. This helps us understand what children and teens are going through. 

6.             The AISC counselors are here for you.  

ES: Vanessa Kim kvanessa@aischennai.org, Linda Gerberich glinda@aischennai.org

MS: Jennifer Gold gjennifer@aischennai.org 

HS: Josiah Laposky ljosiah@aischennai.org  and Susanah McGlamery msusannah@aischennai.org 

School psychologist: Nigel Holdsworth hnigel@aischennai.org

Artwork by Ire

Online Coding Event

Shout out to future inventors of the world, learn to code using Arduino. Hour of Code using Arduino: (Online event)

https://allevents.in/online/hour-of-code-using-arduino/80003815332952   

Limited seats available!!! Book your slot at the earliest.

Families Out of Country

If your family is planning to leave Chennai, please inform the MS Office (msoffice@aischennai.org) so that we can track the number of students out of time zone. If you family is out of the country, students can continue to access PowerSchool to continue their learning as long as they are enrolled as students at AISC. 

Have a safe and healthy weekend,

Jessica Pechhold

Middle School Principal

Thursday April 9

 Dear Students and Parents,

Thank you for your support and feedback this week. These past few weeks have been a transition into our online learning program. Now, that we have had some practice implementing with our model, we will be looking closely at what’s working and what may need adjustment based. Thank you for your patience as we develop a system that best supports our students. Sunday you can expect a video and email message for week 4. Thank you to Brune, Jiwon, Yuya, Seojun and Ritika for this week's art work. 

Calendar Updates

There will be no virtual learning Tuesday April 14 (Tamil New Year). Because of the holidays, our modules for the next weeks will offer 90 minutes of engagement/per class for students. Optional extension activities will be offered as well. 

STEAM Fest Save the Date & Message

We will host a virtual STEAM Fest Friday, April 17 & Monday April 20. STEAM Fest will take place on Padlet. This week and next, teachers are working with students in all grade levels to polish their STEAM presentations for a virtual environment. Students will receive instructions from their teachers to submit their final STEAM presentation so that we can compile all of the projects in one shared space. Next week, students and parents will receive instructions on how to view and participate in STEAM Fest. We look forward to connecting through this virtual event to celebrate the innovation of our students! 

Attendance Tracking

We are now taking attendance through a google form emailed to students each day at 12:00pm IST. Students can complete the form anytime after they receive it. We will follow up with students and parents when students do not complete the form. 

 

From the school-wide Counseling Team

This week, our counseling team is sharing an article that pertains to helping students—across age—manage fear and anxiety. While this article might not be directly relevant to the COVID-19 situation that we are currently facing, the writer provides a comprehensive picture of what to expect age-by-age around anxiety and offers parents/educators strategies to support kids and adolescents manage their anxiety. If you are interested in learning just about these suggestions, scroll down to the bottom of the article. If you might not have time to read the entire article, we have recapped below the strategies shared in the article:

-       Give them plenty of information.

-       Meet them where they are.

-       Play.

-       Be careful not to overreact.

-       Don’t avoid.

-       Let them explore their fear safely.

-       Don’t give excessive reassurance.

-       Understand the physical signs of fear.

-       Something soft and familiar makes the world feel lovelier.

-       Be alive to what they are watching on TV or reading in books.

-       Remember they’re watching.

-       Validate their fears and let them put word to their fears.

-       Acknowledge any brave behavior.

For parents who would like additional resources to tap into in the upcoming long weekend, here is a suggested podcast. In this podcast, grief expert David Kessler and a renowned writer and professor Brené Brown walk the listeners through individual and collective grief, what meaning is, and what finding meaning isn’t. In light of COVID-19, their conversation might be relevant. In fact, it is suggested in this article that the discomforting emotion we might all be experiencing right now is grief. Grief is a challenging subject to talk about and we hope that the podcast and the article shared here would be of a helpful starting point for parents who would like to learn more about grief, processing grief, and finding meaning in grief.  

Library Support at Home

Middle school students have access to a wide variety of digital resources via the ES/MS Library. If your child needs any extra support in navigating these resources, requesting book recommendations, clarifying passwords, etc, please ask them to drop into the library's office hours with Ms. Babs. You'll find days and times for each grade level below, but please know that emails will also be answered as quickly as possible.

Grade 6: Mondays 9:30-10:00 

meet.google.com/ycf-dxay-pud

Grade 7: Tuesdays 9:30-10:00
meet.google.com/rwk-oszt-gjr

Grade 8: Wednesdays 9:30-10:00
meet.google.com/phf-vpyy-zvt

Ms. Babs will also begin offering book talks to all middle school students, beginning Monday, April 13th. Students will receive a zoom link to attend on their scheduled day and time:

Grade 6: Mondays 1:00-1:30

Grade 7: Tuesdays 1:00-1:30

Grade 8: Wednesdays 1:00-1:30

Please encourage your child to attend if they are looking for a great book to read! 

Athletics and Activities Office Challenge

Starting on Monday the 13th, the Athletics and Activities office is challenging families to participate in a game that you can do from your home.  Called the GYFT (Get Your Family Together) Challenge, there are 15 different activities that you can earn points doing.  Most are mainly offline and intended for you to spend intentional time together.  If you're interested, read about the GYFT Challenge here.  We'll run it from Monday morning through Sunday night - the 13th through the 19th.  Complete this form with your team or family name and be sure to make a copy of this sheet or write down the points that will be earned for each activity.  If you want to share your progress on social media, just use the hashtags #GYFTchallenge and #AISCwellbeing. 

Families Out of Country

If your family is planning to leave Chennai, please inform the MS Office (msoffice@aischennai.org) so that we can track the number of students out of time zone. If you family is out of the country, students can continue to access PowerSchool to continue their learning as long as they are enrolled as students at AISC. 

Have a safe and healthy weekend,

Jessica Pechhold

Middle School Principal