Dear Parents and Students,
Welcome to the 2020-21 school year! It is a pleasure to welcome returning families and new families. Classes for all students will begin online Thursday, August 6.
This welcome video will introduce you to our online program for the year.
A few highlights:
· The school day will begin at 8:30am IST for students.
· We will return to our A/B day daily schedule
· Each day, students engage in live connection points with their teachers in each class.
· Raptor Runway: Thursday August 6 and Friday August 7 we will orient all middle school students to our technology platforms and start to build connections with classmates and teachers.
New Student Orientation
Welcome to families joining AISC. We will host a virtual New Student and Parent Orientation on August 5th. On Monday, August 3rd, you will receive pre-recorded presentations from the Head of School, section Principals, Athletics and Activities Director to watch in advance of Wednesday's live events.
First Day of School
We will start the school year with an introductory assembly for all middle school students at 8:30am IST on Thursday August 6. Students will receive the link to the assembly in their AISC email account Thursday morning. Students will join their advisories after the assembly. Links for the advisory session will be sent directly to students in an email from their advisor following the assembly.
Schedule Change Requests
If you have a request to change a course in your schedule, please contact Ms. Galaty, our counselor, by email: ggretchen@aischennai.org. Please note that we try our best to accommodate students' first and second elective preferences, but in all case, that may not be possible based on the schedule. Your four elective choices have been taken into consideration when building your schedule. Ms. Galaty will also have office hours from 3:30-4:30pm on Thursday, August 6 and Friday, August 7. Links to join these office hours will be coming.
New Faculty & Roles
This year we have new faculty members joining us and others taking on new roles.
New to AISC are: Ms. Emily Cordz, Grades 7 & 8 Science; Mr. Bob Krebs, Choir; Gretchen Galaty, Counselling.
From within AISC, we welcome: Ms. Sagaya Mary, English language development; Ms. Usha Bhushan, Spanish; Mr. Renato Luna Dezonne, theatre; Ms. Gayathri Suresh, learning support; Ms. Geetha Venugopal, Electronics & Robotics; Mr. Giovanni Bello, Grade 7 Physical Education.
Within the middle school, several teachers are taking on new or additional roles:
Mr. Ryan Sager, Design Technology and CAD in addition to Grade 8 Math; Ms. Vinitha Rajkumar, English language development in Language Arts; Ms. Jessica Hesprich, Grades 7 & 8 Social Studies; Mr. Gregg Phillips, learning support in addition to English language development; Ms. Lakshmi Saravanan, yearbook in addition to Grade 7 Math.
Daily Attendance
We will take student attendance daily through a check-in form sent to students from the Middle School office. Students are expected to respond to the form daily to register their attendance. Students are expected to complete the attendance form even if they are not engaged for the day (absent). The MS office will follow up with students and parents if students do not complete the form within a 24 hour period.
School Supplies & Materials
The following is a list of suggested supplies students have at home for online and on campus learning. All instructional activities online will be adapted for students to complete with basic supplies and their personal devices. For some classes (i.e., Art, Band), students may choose to purchase or rent more specialized supplies. Information from teachers will be forthcoming.
Parent Coffees
Our first Parent Coffee of the year will take place on Friday, August 14 at 8:45am. This coffee is for sixth grade parents to further orient you the middle school. The coffee will be followed by the MS Parent PowerSchool Coffee at 10:00am, which is open to all parents. On Tuesday, August 18 at 8:45 am there will be a coffee for seventh and eighth grade parents. Links to these events will be shared in this weekly blog.
Arts, Sports & Activities Program
If you are interested in having your child(ren) of all ages engage in FREE virtual activities for Season 1, please check out the Athletics & Activities Blog for more information and the Registration Form. Next week, we will be sharing an ASA Fair document, which will provide video descriptions from our ASA Instructors about the offerings! ASA programs will begin Monday, August 10th.
Have a great weekend,
Jessica Pechhold
Middle School Principal