Dear Parents and Students,
As we reflect on our time together from August through May, it is amazing to think about the individual growth each of our students has demonstrated in and out of the classroom. We were reminded of this in our end of year assemblies and Eighth Grade Promotion Ceremony as our students articulated their growth in connection to the Vision for a Learner. Congratulations to all of our students for a successful end of the school year in extraordinary times! Through our move to online learning, our students have grown in even greater ways. These past 10 weeks in online learning have re-emphasized the importance of the student-teacher-parent relationship to support our students in their education. Thank you for your support and commitment to our students, program, and AISC this year!
Congratulations Eighth Graders!
Congratulations to all of our eighth grade students on your successful end of your middle school years. The link to the ceremony video has been shared with all middle school parents and students via email. Lastly, we are pleased to share with you one final student performance for the year, the Grade 8 play, a series of monologues by our eighth grade theatre students. Thank you to our theater class led by Ms. Rachel McCallum for this impressive end of year performance!
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 virtual learning. The Semester Two Report Card covers learning from January 13-May 29.
Report Cards in Power School
Withdrawing Students
All withdrawing students will receive their report cards and requested transfer certificates by June 15 provided that all school materials and fees are accounted for.
Returning School Materials
All middle school students returning/non-returning will receive an individual email outlining the items/money owed to school or any refund from the school this week.
Students can choose to return items through any of the options given below.
- If presently in Chennai:
- You can drop the items with a returning AISC family, in a bag labeled with the student’s name and grade.
- You can drop the items at the AISC gate when the lockdown is lifted and the movement around the city eases, in a bag labeled with your name and grade.
- If not presently in Chennai:
- Please check with your employer if they can help you return the items to the School when possible.
- Please pay the cost of the non-returned items.
- Return the items when campus reopens for the 2020-21 school year (only for Returning Students).
Please communicate the option that you will be choosing with the picture of the items to be returned to msoffice@aischennai.org.
Year Book
The yearbook is here! Jostens, the publisher, has created an online version of our annual so that we do not have to wait any longer to see it. (Physical copies will be sent to AISC; however, a timeline for when it will arrive has not been provided to us). The link to view the yearbook is here:
· Login: raptors2020@aisc
Second, a typical end-of-year activity for students is to sign others' yearbooks. Jostens has created a digital signing option this spring (this is a very new option from the publisher).
Jostens says, "The Yearbook Digital Signing Pages solution provides students with a fun, free and interactive web-based experience that results in a printable permanent keepsake. It is now live and available to all students. As with many websites, the signing website requires users to be 13 years of age or older. This requirement is included in the terms and conditions when a new user registers. As such, for middle or junior high and elementary schools the marketing materials encourage a parent to set up and administer the site for their students."
Please note that it is your decision as a parent if you would like to allow your child to sign into the website if they are under 13 years of age. Please look through the materials in the video and the Jostens website below for more information. Here is a tutorial video for signing up. If you have questions about signing up, please email Ms. Marion Whisnant, AISC HS Librarian directly. To create your account, go to: yearbook signing.jostens.com.
Procedure for Returning Items to School
All middle school students returning and non-returning received an individual email outlining the items/money owed to school or any refund from the school on Wednesday May 27.
Students can choose to return items through any of the options given below.
· If presently in Chennai:
o You can drop the items with a returning AISC family, in a bag labeled with the student’s name and grade.
o You can drop the items at the AISC gate when the lockdown is lifted and the movement around the city eases, in a bag labeled with your name and grade.
· If not presently in Chennai:
o Please check with your employer if they can help you return the items to the School when possible.
o Please pay the cost of the non-returned items.
o Return the items when campus reopens for the 2020-21 school year (only for Returning Students).
Please communicate the option that you will be choosing with the picture of the items to be returned to msoffice@aischennai.org.
Transfer Certificate and reports will be issued for withdrawing students by June 15 provided all dues are cleared and school property is returned.
Looking Ahead to the Summer Holiday
From the School-Wide Counseling Team
Your children have just finished the 2019-20 school year! This year has had many high points and, more recently, its share of challenges. One thing to appreciate is that we all found ways to tap into some important strengths during this final quarter of the year - strengths such as determination, patience, gratitude, caring, self-management, creativity, kindness, humor and flexibility, just to name a few. While some of these came more easily to each of us than others, through this experience we have surely grown in ways that we might not yet realize. Through our hardship, our worry and our ability to develop a “new normal” for ourselves and our families, we have sown the seeds of perseverance, personal growth and optimism that will benefit us in the future.
And as we look back and reflect on the year, we may also find ourselves looking ahead to the summer holiday. Long stretches of time will unfold before us. For some, both adults and children, this will be a welcome prospect and for others a daunting thing to consider. With that in mind, we have put together some suggestions for you and your children to consider as you go about making your summer plans.
Try to find a family rhythm for the days. Some may prefer to have structured times of day for certain activities posted in a common space; others may prefer looser and more general blocks of time for the day. This will likely depend on the ages, temperaments and work-from-home constraints of each of your family members. Some things to consider fitting in to your days: family time, alone time, help around the house time, outdoor time (if possible), physical activity time, meal times, bed times.
Work with your child ahead of time to create a list of wide-ranging options for family time and/or alone time. It can be challenging to try to think up ideas in the moment but if you’ve brainstormed some ideas ahead of time and have them ready to go, everyone is more likely to happily join in. Click HERE to hear more about this idea, see some examples and even purchase a set of family connection cards, if you aren’t feeling very creative right now. Click HERE for a list of 101 strength-based actions that might give you some additional ideas. And for even more suggestions, take a look at these:
Investigate alternatives to summer camps. If you had planned for your child to attend a summer camp this summer and it seems like those plans may not happen now, below are some ideas for you and your child to consider. Most of these options serve a wide range of age groups so investigate the sights well.
· Camp Wonderopolis is the free online summer-learning destination that's full of fun, interactive STEM and literacy-building topics boosted by Maker experiments!
· Keep your hands active and your mind engaged with Creativebug. Experience the joy of making with thousands of video classes taught by designers and artists.
· DIY. org : Huge library of hands-on projects and how-to videos. Creative projects and courses ranging from “Build Your Own Machine” and “Drawing Bootcamp” to “Strange Science” and “Host a Minecraft Video Show.”
· Check out Outschool - live, online summer camp options for kids. Fill their break with fun learning experiences from home.
· Wide Open School: A vast collection of online learning resources curated by the editors of Common Sense Media. A proposed daily schedule might give shape to the hours.
· If you have an older child who had made plans for an academic enrichment course or summer job that have now been cancelled, consider the ideas here, here and here.
Help your child find options for getting physical activity that appeal to them. Keeping up physical activity is vital to our overall health and research shows that exercise boosts the immune system, reduces stress and anxiety, supports better sleep and focus. If you have access to the outdoors, that will give you and your child a wide variety of options for physical activity. However, if you find yourself inside more than not, you can try some of these options:
Encourage your child to stay connected to friends and extended family. We know how vital maintaining positive relationships is for our wellbeing and it will be important for your child to have other connections beyond just the family they are living with over the summer months. While, these days, this may involve some extra screen time, consider the different options suggested for ES kids and for MS/HS kids in THIS article. In addition, apps like Houseparty, Gather and Netflix Party might be a fun change from skype/zoom/what’sapp. For those of you who like to connect by playing games, here are some ideas for classic board games with a touch of tech, online games to play with friendsand games (younger) kids can play virtually with friends. Remember that Commonsensemedia.org is always a great place to check out whether a game, app or movie might be appropriate for your child’s age.
And with that, the Counseling Team would like to wish you and your family a lovely summer holiday full of moments to savor. We have some members of our team moving on this year and those of us departing from AISC would like to express our sincere gratitude to all of you. We have enjoyed working with your children and our work with them would not have been possible without your support. Thank you for entrusting us with your children and for partnering with us to support them as they navigate through different opportunities, changes, and challenges as students at AISC. We have also loved partaking in and celebrating your children's growth and success and our time here at AISC has been more meaningful because we got a chance to be a small part of their student journey.
Virtual Jump Off Summer Camp
Link to Athletics & Activities Blog for more information.
Link to the Registration Form to register now!
First Day of School
The first day of school for all students is August 6. Below are a few details for the start of the school year.
Important Information About Student Medical Forms
Student health and safety is of utmost importance to AISC. In order for us to ensure that students are able to participate in activities and for our Health Office to give proper care, we need up-to-date and accurate medical information for all students. Please be sure to return to school next year with the proper forms completed and turned in to the Health Office.
School Supply List
Here is a list of supplies students are expected to bring to school. These items will be used during the school day on a regular basis.
Grade 6 Parent Coffee & PowerSchool Orientation
We will have a coffee welcoming all grade six parents to the middle school on Friday August 14. This coffee will be a brief introduction to the middle school and an overview of our program. A parent PowerSchool orientation will immediately follow. PowerSchool is our information and communication system for posting course resources, homework and online gradebooks. We look forward to welcoming you to the middle school!
Jessica Pechhold
Middle School Principal