Happy Holidays!

Assembly program, tomorrow Friday, 25 March

1. Welcome and introducing MCs
2. Mrs Kaoru White about Summer School
3. Grades 1 & 2 music
4. Principal's holiday message
5. Grade 5 dance
6. Xavier Mito
7. Sports news - Karin P
8. Grade 2 Dance

Time: 11:20 - 12:00
Venue: Black Box Theatre

Summer repairs, upgrade of facilities and moves

Dear colleagues,

Please fill in the facilities maintenance form regarding your requests for summer repairs, upgrades or moves. Due to the Master Facility Plan, all the requests will be considered carefully in the light of the incoming proposal from Fielding Nair and the possible consequent changes in our facilities. Hence, the maintenance team is asking you to prioritize the requests as follows:

1 - Safety - must be done

2 - Regular Maintenance - should be done

3 - Support current program and facilities - prefer not to wait

4 - Enhance programs and facilites - would be nice

Please, ensure that your requests are in by Friday, April 15. 

Weekly Update, Monday, 21 March 2016

Dear colleagues,

The last week before the Spring Break looks again busy and has few interesting and important features to be highlighted. First of all, the Tech Audit that was planned to happen this week has been postponed. Secondly, the annual student survey in grades 3-5 will take place this week. The questions in the survey were edited from last year by the Principals and the relevant members in the EAC committee. Further information about managing the survey will follow in Tuesday morning meeting.  Also, this week we are offering the first version of the more consistent communication pilot to parents. We will seek feedback from parents on communication later in the spring. Also, Principal Coffee morning will be addressing the ESOL program at CA on Monday. We are helping the parents to understand the purpose and practice of our program and so that they can best support their children’s language development. Finally, we will finish our week with an assembly in the Black Box Theatre. We are still accepting more performers, please!

Supervision:                                                                                           Link to Master Schedule

Time	12:15-12:40	12:25-12:55	12:25-12:55	12:15-12:40
Week	Cafeteria Tables	Playground	Playground	Healthy lunch guide in the cafeteria line
3/21/2016	Lynette	Joy	Keesha	Not applicable at the moment

Tuesday Morning Meeting

On Tuesday at 8:00-8:20

Venue: Book room

Agenda: Student Survey

Who: Grade 3, 4 and 5 classroom teachers

Assembly:

On: Friday 25th March at 11:20-12:00

Venue: Black Box Theatre

Practice time: Thursday 25th March at 12:40

Exhibition Update:

Students have been collecting information based on their key questions and most have had their first mentor meeting. The students are now in their third week of the research phase. After the break, they will begin the making senses phase. Thanks for everyone's contribution thus far.

Lunch, Recess and Play Protocol Group

The team has completed the first version of the protocol.
Teachers will be asked to provide comments and suggestions to the draft plan digitally.

Building Professional Capital:

New York Summer Reading and Writing Institutes (NOW open for registration)

https://drive.google.com/a/canacad.ac.jp/file/d/0B404rJALRaGwSVY3U0dsWUR1MUk/view

SENIA Conference, 30 April at Canadian Academy

Books, Articles, Chapters, Videos

1. Exciting news! Tania's book should arrive early this week. A copy will be distributed to everyone.

2. Connecting to Tania's Inquiry PD, this is an interesting article about posing questions in math but applicable to all areas of learning. #Student centred learning #COTLanguage of the classroom

Coordinator's Meetings

Link to ES Team Planning Meeting Schedule

• Literacy Meetings as scheduled
• UOI meetings: PK3-KA Thurs. 3:30-4:30, G1 as scheduled, G3 on Tues. 2:05-3:25, G5 TBA

Wednesday Professional Learning and Faculty meeting time 14:35-16:30

• Planning Overseas Orders for school year 16-17, Starting with a meeting in the Multi-Purpose Room at 14:35
• Collaborative Planning

Link to Wednesday Professional Learning Schedule

This Week 21-25 March 2016

Monday: Tech Talk, Principal Coffee Morning: ESOL Program,

Tuesday: Tuesday Morning Meeting on Student Surveys, ES Student Support Meeting

Wednesday: Overseas orders and Collaborative Planning - Math R&D Committee Meeting

Thursday:

Friday: ES Assembly

Future Dates:

6 April, Deadline for overseas orders

13 April. Pre-K/KA and KB concert

30 April, SENIA Conference at CA

Taster from the Math article about using questions noted above.

(Source: Minds in Bloom)

Deadline for the Pilot Classwebsite Communication is this Friday, 18 March

The deadline is here...

Communication blog post

Spring Break Assembly, Friday 25 March

Friday, 25 March
At: 11:20-12:00

Venue: Black Box Theatre

Program:
- Grade 1 & 2 students tasters from their concert last week
-
- Principal's Message
- More needed

Practice time: Thursday 25th March at 12:40

Invitations: Talent Show participants, MCs, Exhibition tasters, Sharing Learning, Performing Teachers, etc.

Please let Heikki or Yuko-san know of any assembly presentations

Weekly Newsletter, Monday, 14 March 2016

Dear colleagues,

The last two weeks before the Spring Break are at hand and the school year is trotting along keeping us all busy with many things taking place simultaneously. We are piloting the new communication pattern and the deadline for the class website posts is this Friday; also, we are looking into the Word Study again to take the next steps and look for resources. Additionally, the Math R&D and Playground groups are both making good progress with their projects; and the deadline for overseas orders is getting close. Finally, there will be a call for teachers joining the scheduling committee to have a look at our timetable, Wednesday meeting schedule and annual Elementary School events.

Despite the head spinning busyness let’s keep calm and keep the focus on student learning.

Supervision:                                                                                           Link to Master Schedule

Time	12:15-12:40	12:25-12:55	12:25-12:55	12:15-12:40
Week	Cafeteria Tables	Playground	Playground	Healthy lunch guide in the cafeteria line
3/7/2016	Jerome	Saiko	Karen	Not applicable at the moment

Next Assembly:

Friday 25th March

At: 11:20-12:00

Venue: Black Box Theatre

Program: TBA

Practice time: Thursday 25th March at 12:40

Invitations: KB performers, Talent Show participants, MCs, Sharing Learning, Performing Teachers, etc.

Exhibition Update:

Mentor Meetings begin this week. Students will send an email to set up the first appointment today or tomorrow. An email will be sent to mentors from the grade five team to update the progress on the timeline and focus for this week's meeting. Thank you to everyone who has taken on a mentee to support throughout the Exhibition.

Building Professional Capital:

New York Summer Reading and Writing Institutes (NOW open for registration)

https://drive.google.com/a/canacad.ac.jp/file/d/0B404rJALRaGwSVY3U0dsWUR1MUk/view

SENIA Conference, 30 April at Canadian Academy - The first ever to be held in Japan!

Coordinator's Meetings

Link to ES Team Planning Meeting Schedule

• Literacy Meetings as scheduled
• UOI following a new biweekly schedule for some teams.

- Mon. G4 8:40-10:00, Tues. KB 10:00-11:00, G2 14:05-15:30 extended sessions

             - Tues. G3 next Tuesday, PK3-KA Next Thursday

Wednesday Professional Learning and Faculty meeting time 14:35-16:30                 

Word Study - Moving forward

Collaborative Planning Time, Math R&D Committee Meeting

Link to Wednesday Professional Learning Schedule

This Week 14-18 March 2016

Monday: Tech Talk, Tea Ceremony - every day this week, ESOL Meeting - Virginia Rojas Workshop Feedback

Tuesday: ES Student Support Meeting

Wednesday: Word Work, Collaborative Planning, Math R&D Committee meets

Thursday:

Friday: Deadline for class website posts for all

Future Dates:

21 March, ES Principal Coffee Morning - ESOL Program at CA

21-23 March, Tech Audit, visitors from American School of Bombay

6 April, Deadline for overseas orders

13 April. Pre-K/KA and KB concert

30 April, SENIA Conference at CA

Sample communication of the next unit - classroom teachers

Dear all,

Heikki worked with Grade 3 team to design their communication regarding the next unit. Please have a look at the samples below together with the guidelines, and pay attention to the formatting of the text. Again, try to avoid writing in paragraphs as much as possible and provide only the appropriate curriculum information from the Standards and Benchmarks and write it in a parent-friendly language. It is important that grade level posts are identical.

Summative assessment is not required, but may be something you want the parents to be aware of or support.

Factual and dry, please.

Classroom Website Communication Pilot

Dear colleagues,
Thank you to those who joined the early morning meeting around communication on Tuesday. Please find the Slides from the morning here.
To address the community concern about inconsistency and frequency in our communication. Please communicate on the class website about the last two units, at least, the following(approximately six weeks apart):
Group Space Overview:
- Image or a short welcome message.
Units of inquiry:
- Name of the Theme
- Central Idea
- Lines of Inquiry (parent-friendly language)
- Events or tasks that may be an interest to parents
Balanced Literacy:
- Essential Questions for both reading and writing
- Relevant Curriculum Benchmarks from the Units of Study
- Word Study focus if applicable
Mathematics
- Relevant Curriculum standards and benchmarks for each six weeks in a parent-friendly language
- Possible online resources
PE:
- Relevant curriculum foci for each six weeks/grade
- Required student equipment
Japanese:
- Relevant curriculum foci for each six weeks/ grade
- Resources or books that parents can use
Music and Art:
- Relevant curriculum foci in a parent-friendly language for each six weeks/grade
- Any resources students may use to extend learning at home for each six weeks/grade
Sample
We will post a sample classroom post from grade 3 by Friday for everyone's perusal.
Timing:
Although, we know that units don't start or end at the same time we are aiming to communicate to parents when to check the portals.
All class website posts ready by Friday, March 18th, e-Notify goes home on Monday, March 21st
All class website posts ready by Friday, May 6th, e-Notify goes home on Monday, May 9th of

Draft Budget for 2016-2017

Dear colleagues,

Please find the draft budget for the school year 2016-2017. This is based on the use of funds in the past two years. There are two separate categories that should cover all the costs of the specific grade level and subject area. In order to help teachers to plan the year, we are trying to provide regular updates to the teams/responsible teachers how the budget has been used throughout the school year 2016-2017.  Should you or your team have any questions or suggestions please do not hesitate to come and see Heikki.

	Material, books	Field Trips
512.01 PreK3/KA	575,000	60,000
512.03  KB	575,000	120,000
512.04  Grade 1	575,000	150,000
512.05  Grade 2	575,000	150,000
512.06  Grade 3	575,000	150,000
512.07 Grade 4	575,000	200,000
512.08  Grade 5	575,000	200,000
512.09 Art	400,000
512.10 Music	400,000
512.11 PE	400,000
512.12 Japanese	550,000	90,000
512.13 ESOL	360,000
512.14 Learning Support	400,000
512.15 Counselor	150,000

Please note:

Bus services for field trips are not included in the field trip costs. However, there are limited funds for the bus services across the school. Therefore, whenever possible, please make sure you plan and book your field trips well in advance to ensure that there are sufficient funds for transportation.