Tuesday Morning Faculty Meeting, November 1, 2016

Dear colleagues,

Please find the slideshow from the morning meeting here.
Teacher performance rubric can be found here.

Wednesday Learning - correction

Dear colleagues,

Please accept our apologizes for accidentally placing next Wednesday's plans to this week's updates.

So here are the correct plans:

Wednesday Professional Learning, 2 November
14:40 - 15:45 Math Learning (Trevor and Math R&D)
15:45 - 16:30 Tankyuu project (School-wide, Stephen Taylor)

Wednesday Professional Learning, 9 November
1. Student of Concern meetings - completing the round:

14:35 - 14:45 Grade 5 (Steve)
14:45 - 3:05 Grade 2 (Jerome)
15:10 - 15:35 Grade 3 (Karen & Suki)
15:30 - 16:05 Grade 4 (Jay, Karen, Jen)
Please find the spreadsheet here.
2. Committee work
14:40 - 16:30

2. Math R&D (Trevor leading, venue TBA)

3. Literacy Committee (Kim leading, venue TBA, please let Kim know if you would like to join)
These three meetings will be taking place simultaneously.

Literacy Meetings in the next three weeks

Dear colleagues,

I am writing to you to inform about a change in Kim's schedule for three weeks after the fall break.
We have identified some unexpected challenging dynamics and learning needs in Angela's grade 1 classroom. We decided that Kim and Angela will try full-time co-teaching in the mornings to ensure that all students can access learning effectively. This means that most meetings with Kim cannot take place as usual. However, for the time being, Kim will provide guidance for reflecting upon the previous Unit of Study and how to start planning the next one. Trevor and I will look into our schedules to support Literacy meetings as appropriate. After the three weeks, we will return back to normal Literacy meeting schedule.

Thank you for your understanding, flexibility, and support.

Heikki

Weekly Update, Monday, 31 October 2016

Dear colleagues,

Welcome back! The cooler days are here, and we can soon start enjoying the beautiful autumn tint of the leaves. We trust you are back with enthusiasm and energy and ready to take on another effective and rewarding seven weeks of collaboration with your colleagues and facilitation of student learning before the winter break. Please, make sure that your classroom website information about UoI, Literacy, Mathematics and specialists' foci is up-to-date to keep up the parent communication.

This week we have Tuesday morning faculty meeting, and on Wednesday during Professional Learning Time we have math and literacy committee and student of concern meetings. Let’s have a great week!

Supervision:                                          Links to: Supervision Schedule 16-17    Supervision Protocols

Time	12:15-12:40	12:25-12:55	12:25-12:55	12:15-12:40	12:25-12:55
Duty	Cafeteria Tables	Playground / Gym	Playground / Atrium	Cafeteria line	Indoor recess ELAC Gym
Oct 31	Karen H	Ellen	Kasumi	---	Maiko, Kaight

Mon	ES Student Support Meeting	Tech Talk 3:30 in the Library
Tue	Faculty meeting at 7:50	K-12 Student Support Meeting
Wed		Wednesday Professional Learning Committees Student of Concern (Multipurpose room)
Thu
Fri	School Wide Leadership Team Meeting

Tuesday morning meeting 7:50 - 8:25
7:50 - 8:15 
Tankyu Goal Setting meetings (Purpose, appointments, and schedule)
Summative year teacher evaluation (focus, appointments, and schedule)
8:15 - 8:25
Communication Guide - Rob Smailes

Professional Learning Time

Wednesday Professional Learning Schedule

Wednesday 14:35 - 16:30

1. Finishing the Student of Concern Meetings at ELAC Multipurpose room

2. Math Committee (Trevor leading, venue TBA)

3. Literacy Committee (Kim leading, venue TBA, please let Kim know if you would like to join)
These three meetings will be taking place simultaneously.

Professional Learning Opportunities

After a focus on Writing with Matt Glover, we would like to draw attention to 2 awesome opportunities for PD in Reading Workshop.

1)PD in your PJ’s: (Nov 29, Dec 5, Dec 16th 5:30-6:45 am)

Well-known authors and consultants Dan Feigelson and Ellin Keene are co-presenting three webinars on “Using Reading Conferences to Foster Student Engagement, Agency, and Critical Thinking.” https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/15806eec55963423

2)Hong Kong Literacy Conference 2016 (Jan 21st and 22nd)

The well known and recommended HKIS Literacy Institute is now open for online registration. Presenters and workshop leaders are Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, and Vicki Vinton.  http://blog.hkis.edu.hk/HKISLiteracyInstitute/

How to apply for PD

Coordinator's Meetings:                                 ES Team Planning Meeting Schedule

• UOI Collab: Meeting will focus on reflection UOI#1 and planning for UOI#2 depending on the grade level. The KB 'How we express ourselves unit' will require all specialists to meet with the KB team to plan your conceptual links if you haven't done so already.
• Literacy:  Meetings for next two weeks will focus on reflection and resource collecting for Reading and Writing Unit 1.

Future Dates:

Nov 8 ES Parent Evening: Learning Mathematics

Nov 10-11 Secondary School Conferences

Nov 12 International Food and Fun Fair

Nov 14 ES Clubs - Season 2

Nov 15 ES Principal Coffee Morning: Learning Literacy

Positive Discipline - Classroom Meetings

Dear Colleagues,

The Fall Break will provide everyone with time to rest and renew. When we return, we have an opportunity to refresh and reintroduce our classroom routines. Using classroom meetings are a great way to help our learners become responsible, respectful and resourceful members of a community.

The House of Positive Discipline visual below contains all the key components of classroom meetings. The short video shows a classroom meeting in a similar context to CA. For further information to help introduce and set up classroom meetings follow this link.

                    

Happy Fall Break!

Dear colleagues,

We would like to wish you all a wonderful fall break. Thank you all for making the first quarter a successful start of the school year 16-17. Also, it is worth recognizing the effort in using firm and kind language when working with the children, focusing on nudging rather than pushing, carefully considering how the brain works and learns, and of course creating those stack of texts and mentor kits.

It is going to be November very soon when we are back after the break. November will bring along many events including Food and Fun Fair, a parent evening on Learning Mathematics, Parent Coffee Mornings with Kim about Literacy and with Heikki about Personalizing Learning. We will have an ES assembly on the 22nd of November.

All faculty can finish the day at 1 pm today. Enjoy your break!

Conferences today and tomorrow

Dear all,

First of all,
we would like to wish you all a very successful conference time!
In order to keep you all energized and giving you a reason to leave your classroom when you have breaks there are snack stations both in the ES office and ELAC work room in the afternoon.

Student of Concern meetings - completing the round

Dear all,

First of all, thank you to all for your contribution to the first Student of Concern meeting.
We still have a number of students that weren't discussed in the meeting. Therefore, on Wednesday the 9th of November we will go through the rest of the students with the following schedule:

2:35 - 2:45 Grade 5 (Steve)
2:45 - 3:05 Grade 2 (Jerome)
3:10 - 3:35 Grade 3
3:30 - 4:05 Grade 4

Again, we are asking the specialists, LS, and ESOL teachers to join the meetings. Parallel to these meetings we will have our Math and Literacy Committees working on their agenda.

Three-way-conferences

Three-Way-Conferences

Logistics
Thursday:
School finishes at 12.
No lunch for students.
Conferences: 1 pm - 6 pm

Friday:
No school
Conferences 8 am - 1 pm

Baby-sitting:

Provided for parents with more than one children at school
During the conference times only
ELAC - B classroom

ESOL and Learning Support

ESOL and Learning Support teachers will schedule and prioritize the conferences they will participate. Usually, the ESOL and LS teachers will be listening to the conversation. Their contribution is important in terms of encouragement and support of the child and sometimes adding to the conversation when/if discussing student learning where the ESOL or LS teacher was specifically involved. ESOL/LS teachers will discuss and plan with the classroom teachers how they will be participating in the conferences. A general rule is to limit the number of adults (including the parents) attending the conference to 4.

Principles

Listening to the student

Teacher modelling invitational and positive language when describing student learning

Honouring approximation

Student present throughout the conference
Students may use mother-tongue to explain to parents

Structure of the conference

Classroom teacher facilitated in grades K -5: 25 minutes

Classroom teacher facilitated in grades Pre-K/KA: 15 minutes

Specialist teacher facilitated: 10 minutes

Discussing learning in general and student well-being

• Motivation & Confidence
• Social and emotional well-being
• Energy levels, stamina

Looking at student learning

• Sample(s) of writing
• Sample(s) of math learning
• Looking at reading (decoding and comprehension)
• Looking at UoI work

Setting Goal(s) 1-2 (next nudges)

Weekly Update, Monday, 17 October 2016

Dear colleagues,

Congratulations for making it to the last week of before the fall break! Well done with completing the fall progress reports. We are ready to open them for parents this afternoon.

The first half of the term has been quite a journey with so many things going on at the school of which all very exciting and inspiring!  Past week was a great example of our busy schedules with Sports Day, field trips, the Falcon Cup and the ACCJ Walkathon. A big thank you to all who were helping and organizing all these events and experiences for our students.

We will finish this week with positive and collaborative 3-way-conferences with students and parents. The Wednesday PD time is reserved for getting everything organized and ready for the conferences. Please, check out the blogger for a specific conference post. Let’s make the most of the interactions with the students, our colleagues, and parents and finish the week with a well-earned fall break!

Supervision:                                          Links to: Supervision Schedule 16-17    Supervision Protocols

Time	12:15-12:40	12:25-12:55	12:25-12:55	12:15-12:40	12:25-12:55
Duty	Cafeteria Tables	Playground / Gym	Playground / Atrium	Cafeteria line	Indoor recess ELAC Gym
Oct 17	Suki	Emi	Aimee	---	Maiko, Kaight

Mon 17	Progress Reports open to Parents 15:30 Math R&D Meeting in ELAC Conf.	ES Student Support Team Meeting
Tue 18
Wed 19	Conference Preparation	PTA Halloween Party
Thu 20	Three-way Conferences
Fri 21	Three-way Conferences

Professional Learning,

Wednesday Professional Learning Schedule

Coordinator's Meetings:                                 ES Team Planning Meeting Schedule

• UOI Collab: G1-5 will continue reflecting on UOI#1. Pre-K3 and KB will plan for UOI#2.
• Literacy: This week, we will continue to build and resource reading and writing units of study #2. Reflection for reading/writing unit #1 will be held after the fall break. Please ensure all resources/assessments you created or used for these units are put into your unit folders prior to our reflection meetings.

Future Dates:

Oct 20-21 Three-Way-Conferences

Oct 24 - 28 Fall Break

Nov 12 Food and Fun Fair

Field Trips Protocol

FIELD TRIPS PROTOCOL

Canadian Academy encourages experiential learning. Enriching units of inquiry and building strong learning community are effectively achieved through field trips. Please ensure that planning including scheduling, communication, and approval of transportation is done early so as to avoid conflict in calendar of events, other teachers' plans and reserving transportation. The ES Office will help you arranging the field trips. Please follow the checklist below in support of designing successful experiential learning experiences.

• Introduce new initiatives or plans regarding field trips to the ES Principal for pre-approval.
• Check the field trip calendar in the ES office for any conflicts.
• Check with the Business Office whether buses will be available.
• Place request forms like RAM, transportation, and packed lunch (if needed) from Cezar's Kitchen (For curricular, safety and emergency reasons RAM form must be approved before the field trips can take place.)
• List your field trip on the field trip calendar in the ES office after the RAM has been approved
• Communicate to all other teachers teaching the class, counselor, coordinators and ES office about the field trip as early as possible and check the Duty Schedule to swap duties or find substitutes if necessary.
• Request the ES secretary's help in making reservations with the field trip destinations if needed.
• Organize the pre-order sack lunches from Cezar’s Kitchen by reserving a lunch on their field trip permission slip you send home. (Please, note that Cezar’s kitchen must receive the request one week before the field trip using the Food Request Form.)
• Inform parents about the details of the trip in an email and on the class website, and request volunteers for supervision if necessary.
• Collect all necessary fees. 
• Pay all fees to the accounting office.  
• Include road toll and parking and admission fees for teachers and assistants. 
• Plan clear, structured and detailed information packets for parents joining the trip
• Pick up First Aid kit from the Health Office and any medications for students
• Set and communicate learning, working and behavioral expectations for students and parents

Note that all grade levels usually go ice skating in winter months. These trips are often coordinated with Buddy Classes. Due to scheduling issues, these have to be booked many weeks in advance. The ES Secretary coordinates these trips.