What can you do for the December Assembly?

Does your class or club have a message or talent to share? Would students like to share something about their learning? Do you have a group of students willing to show initiative in taking some sort of action?

We are looking for student and/or teacher representation for our December assembly!!

Please announce this to your class, and send an email directly to Kim to reserve your spot of the stage!

When: December 16th, 9am
Where: Black Box Theatre

Weekly Update, Monday, 28 November 2016

Dear colleagues,

The last three weeks of learning before the winter holiday are here. We will be busy with the current unit and to ensure that our planning is happening collaboratively and appropriately documented and communicated to colleagues and parents. Please, make sure that your parents have access to the updated information about the foci of your units, literacy, math and specialists' subjects on the class websites. Please check-out the future dates below, reaching as far as February 2017. Have a wonderful 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
Nov 28	Kaho	Satsuki	Kim	---	Maiko, Kaight

Day	Morning	Afternoon - After School
Mon		2:30 Lockdown drill
Tue	Ikuno Elementary School visit G4
Wed	8:40 - 10:00 ES Principal Coffee - Learning Mathematics & Peek into Learning in the Classroom	14:40-15:45 Well-being (MPR), Literacy (Book Room), Math Committee (ELAC Conference room) 15:45-16:30 Practicing Cognitive Coaching, Team Collaboration
Thu
Fri		18:00 HS Music Concert
Sat	Faculty Holiday Party Ocean Room Sheraton Hotel on Rokko Island at 18:30

Professional Learning Opportunities    

Still few spaces available in this extremely rare opportunity to build your professional capital in inquiry, thinking and developing successful classroom habits for effective learning. 

Registration will be open this week.
Link for details: http://www.canacad.ac.jp/ronritchhart

CA sign-up form: https://goo.gl/forms/X4t8Y8XLdCS7c3I63

Literacy:

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

http://blog.hkis.edu.hk/HKISLiteracyInstitute/

Mathematics:

1. Foundations in Math: Developing Mathematical Thinking and Conceptual Understanding in Grades K-5 Sara Garrett Jan 28&29 Bangkok Thailand
2. Concept-Based Mathematics: Teaching for Deep Understanding, By Jennifer Wathall, 16th - 17th March 2017, Hong Kong

How to apply for PD

Coordinator's Meetings:                                 ES Team Planning Meeting Schedule

• UOI Collab: Meetings will focus on planning for UOI#3 and unit links with specialists.
• Literacy:  This week the focus is reflection and adding resources to folders for Reading/Writing Unit of study #2.  Please be prepared to share photos or documentation (including student work) you would like to add to folders.

Future Dates:

6 Dec Tuesday Morning Faculty Meeting @ 7:50: Recap of the year so far and looking ahead to spring 2017

14 Dec Town Hall Meeting with whole faculty in the BBT

16 Dec Winter Holiday Assembly @ 9:00-10:00 in the BBT

16 Dec Last day before Winter Holiday finishes @ 12:00 for all

9 Jan  First Day of School in 2017

14 Jan Shinnenkai Party

20 Jan End of Semester 1

23 January Report Cards to Heikki, Kim and Trevor

3 Feb Semester 1 Report Cards open to parents

Assembly on Tuesday, 22 November at 11:00

Elementary School Assembly

Main Theatre

At 11:00

Welcome - Principal

Middle School Eco Club Announcement

Grade 4-5 Dancers Perform

Messages to the Elementary School Students -  Principal

Canadian Academy Celebrates Visual Arts - Mrs. Miller

Grade 1 celebrates Culture of Kindness

Who are the Track Rats? - Ms. Forgi
Birthday video - Ms. Brown

Closing words - Principal

Grades 3, 4, and 5 are asked to stay at the theater after the assembly for few minutes.

Mr. Elliot and Mrs. Miller will tell the students about the Elementary School Play

Thinking ahead - A questionnaire for classroom teachers regarding grade level preferences and grade level teams in school year 17-18

Dear classroom teachers,

Please, take a moment to fill in the short questionnaire regarding teaching teams in school year 17-18.
The data and feedback will help Heikki to consider grade levels and teaching teams as we recruit new teachers and respond to the possible changes in the number of sections in each grade level.

The deadline for completing the questionnaire is Friday 2 December, 2016.

If you are a specialist teacher, coordinator, or an assistant, please come and see Heikki about your grade level or role preferences after the winter holiday.

Thank you!

Assembly, Tuesday 22 November @ 11:00 in the Theatre

Dear colleagues,

For Tuesday Assembly we don't seem to have many performers or MCs as of today, so the session will be a short one.

Currently, we have received the following plans:
- Announcement from Visual Arts?
- Video from Grade 1?
- Dance from grade 4-5?
- Birthday video

Please provide the following for the assembly by the end of Monday 21 November:
- Videos to be presented in the assembly
- Any announcements
- Music

Weekly Update, Monday 21 November, 2016

Dear colleagues,

A short but a busy and hopefully exciting week ahead of us. Tuesday morning we will have an assembly with few performances, announcements, and the birthday videos. Ron Ritchhart’s Cultures of Thinking workshop registration for April 2017 will open this week. To reserve a spot, please take action right away. We are now ready to move forward with piloting a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) lab in the ELAC D classroom. This idea is Ellen’s Tankyuu goal and has inspired a number of Elementary School teachers as well as Secondary School teachers to build a place for exploration, scientific inquiry and design and building for our students. This will complement the wonderful Maker Space that Kae-san has developed on the 3rd floor already. If you are interested in joining the innovation and think tank, please connect with Ellen.

Enjoy the 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
Nov 20	Karen T	Toyoko	Steve	---	Maiko, Kaight

Day	Morning	Afternoon - After School
Mon 21	8:45 - 9:45 ES Student Support Meeting G5 Team out on Field Trip
Tue 22	ES Assembly at 11:00 in the main theatre	15:40-16:20 G5 and Specialist Collab for HWEO Media Unit
Wed 23	Holiday Labour Thanksgiving
Thu 24
Fri 25	9:00 - 11:00 School Wide Leadership Team Meeting

Professional Learning Opportunities     

Registration for Cultures of Thinking will be open this week. Check your email for an email from Stephen Taylor.

How to apply for PD

Literacy

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

http://blog.hkis.edu.hk/HKISLiteracyInstitute/

Mathematics:

1. Foundations in Math: Developing Mathematical Thinking and Conceptual Understanding in Grades K-5 Sara Garrett Jan 28&29 Bangkok Thailand
2. Concept-Based Mathematics: Teaching for Deep Understanding, By Jennifer Wathall, 16th - 17th March 2017, Hong Kong

Coordinator's Meetings:                                 ES Team Planning Meeting Schedule

• UOI Collab: Meetings will focus on planning for UOI#3 and unit links with specialists.
• Literacy:  This week’s focus will be on planning Writing Unit of Study #3. Kim will resume attending meetings this week. Please become familiar with the next unit before attending the meeting.  All documents are found in Literacy folder, here.

Direct links:  Unit order

Future Dates:

Nov 30 ES Principal Coffee Morning: Learning Maths

Dec 16 ES Assembly

Math and Mindset PD Session #1

Thank you everyone for your participation in the Math Mindsets Session! (Presentation slides) Our next session in January will focus on maths practices such as Number Talks.

Help our learners develop a Growth Mindset:

• Praise with Growth Mindset messages in mind
• Focus on improvement, effort and strategies

• Identify the Fixed Mindset to help students break up the mistaken beliefs. Let them know:
• Brains and talents are starting points
• Effort and practice grow our brains
• Actively dispel harmful stereotypes and myths

What to look for:

Four Key Messages from Jo Boaler

1. Anyone can learn maths to high levels (there is no such thing as a maths brain)
2. Believe in yourself (growth mindset)
3. Speed is not important (problem solving is)
4. Struggle and mistakes are really important (to help your brain grow and learn)

Specialists Teacher Check-in

Dear specialists teachers,

Heikki would like to meet with you as a group today from 14:40 to 15:20 in the ELAC teacher workroom.

On the agenda:

1. Student of Concern feedback
2. Conferences feedback
3. Matters arising

Gentle Reminder - How to Take Attendance

Dear colleagues,

For the ES office to be able to respond and take appropriate actions regarding student absences please follow this protocol.

Thank you for you support!

Weekly Update, Monday 14 November 2016

Dear colleagues,

The beautiful fall weather and International Food & Fun Fair made the weekend memorable. Thank you to all who helped in the Fair to bring our families, faculty, staff, and visitors together and celebrate the cultural richness and diversity at CA and in Kobe at large. This week we will hear the latest from the Mathematics committee, have a specialists’ check in in the ELAC workroom and meet with the whole well-being and experiential learning committees on Wednesday. Last week we had a very successful Mathematics Parent Workshop and this week we will invite the parents in to continue to learn about how we teach reading and writing as guided and trained by Matt Glover. Finally, the US election raised many comments, questions, and reactions from both adults and students last week. It is important that in addition to thinking critically about the whole media hyped campaign and its results, we need to help the students to feel safe, calm and united as well as learn how to respond respectfully and wisely to the differences in opinions. Let’s have another learning filled 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
Nov 14	Jennifer W	Kaight	Kae	---	Maiko, Kaight

Day	Morning	Afternoon - After School
Mon 14	8:45 - 9:45 ES Student Support Meeting	Clubs Start
Tue 15	8:00-10:00 Parent Coffee: Literacy	14:30-15:30 K-12 Student Support Meeting
Wed 16	APAC	14:35 - 16:30 Professional Learning - See schedule below
Thu 17	APAC
Fri 18	APAC 9:00 - 11:00 School Wide Leadership Team Meeting

Professional Learning Wednesday Professional Learning Schedule

Nov 16	Elementary School
14.40 - 15.00	Math #2 Resources and Practices	Specialists Check-in 14:40 -15:30
15.00 - 15.45	Math #2 Resources and Practices	Practicing Cognitive Coaching
15.45 - 16.30	Collaborative Planning KB & Specialists	Well-being committee & experiential learning committees

Professional Learning Opportunities     

How to apply for PD

Literacy

1. PD in your PJ’s: reading conferences https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/15806eec55963423
2. Hong Kong Literacy Conference 2016 (Jan 21st and 22nd)

http://blog.hkis.edu.hk/HKISLiteracyInstitute/

Mathematics:

1. Foundations in Math: Developing Mathematical Thinking and Conceptual Understanding in Grades K-5 Sara Garrett Jan 28&29 Bangkok Thailand
2. Concept-Based Mathematics: Teaching for Deep Understanding, By Jennifer Wathall, 16th - 17th March 2017, Hong Kong

Coordinator's Meetings:                                 ES Team Planning Meeting Schedule

• UOI Collab: Meetings will focus on planning for UOI#3 and unit links with specialists.
• Literacy:  This week’s focus will be on planning Reading Unit of Study #3.  Please confirm with your group that all reflections for Reading and Writing Unit 1 are completed on the document. Another reminder that data (running record/spelling assessment) should be recorded.  All documents are found in Literacy folder, here.

Direct links :  Unit Reflection ,  Resources you used ,  Data (running record/spelling)

Future Dates:

Nov 14 ES Clubs - Season 2 starts

Nov 15 ES Principal Coffee Morning: Learning Literacy

Nov 16-19 APAC Dance

Nov 22 ES Assembly

Nov 23 Holiday

Nov 30 ES Principal Coffee Morning: Learning Maths

Dec 16 ES Assembly