What do we call it? The class party?

Dear colleagues,
As an international and inclusive school, we would like to be mindful of what we call our seasonal parties with our students to avoid any misunderstandings. The interpretation of, e.g., the word Christmas varies based on how people celebrate the time of the year, and often their personal histories and backgrounds. In some cases, it has a very little religious connotation and is seen as a more of a generalized term for the season. However, in some cases, people will connect Christmas strongly with the religious time of the year and may have either a very important personal connection to it, or may experience Christmas celebration as an exclusive or mono-cultural lense to view the time of the year.

Therefore, please guide your students, parents, and colleagues to name those open and inclusive parties celebrated in your classroom or otherwise in the school contexts, either as winter party, class party, holiday party, and/or end of term/year party, etc.

Thank you for your support and understanding

Wednesday Reminder

Dear colleagues,

Just to remind you all that tomorrow the first hour is dedicated time for report cards and the second hour is reserved for Teachers Teaching Teachers. Please, sign-up for the second-hour session if you haven't done so yet.

Weekly Update, Monday 27 November 2017

Dear colleagues,

We have three weeks to go before the winter holiday and few more days before we land in the month of December! As we are running out of school weeks and days in 2017, and everyone is busy with their report card writing and reading, we hope that the Faculty Holiday Party will be a welcomed and timely opportunity to celebrate the school year so far. However, before the party, there are a few notable highlights this week, including Math Parent Coffee and Teachers teaching Teachers session on Wednesday. Also, please read the emergency manual regarding intruder/lockdown procedures as we will be practicing our preparedness on Thursday morning. We are looking forward to reading your comments on the report cards as the deadline is approaching this Friday. Below you can see who will be reading your report cards and providing feedback as needed. Thank you all in advance for the thought and effort that goes into the process. Finally, the holiday assembly will be held in the Black Box Theater on the last Friday morning (15 Dec) again this year. Kim and Trevor will be the MCs for the assembly so please contact them regarding the program.

We hope you all have an enjoyable week!

Report Card Feedback

PreK/KA: Kim

KB: Kim

Gr 1: Gr 1T, Gr 1N: Kim (Gr 1 Japanese)

Gr 1 M: Heikki

Gr 2: Heikki

Gr 3: Trevor

Gr 4: Heikki

Gr 5 Trevor

Supervision:                                          Links to: Supervision Schedule 17-18    Supervision Protocol

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 27	Jess	Hesty	Kim		Maiko, Kaight

This week's schedule:        

Day	Morning	Afternoon - After School
Mon 27th Day 2	Coffee for families new to CA
Tue 28th Day 3		13:30-14:30 Student Support Team Mtg 14:30-16:00 ES Leadership Planning Mtg
Wed 29th Day 1	8:40 Math Peek into Learning	14:40-15:40 Report Card Writing 15:45-16:30 Teachers Teaching Teachers
Thu 30 Day 2	8:40 Intruder/Lockdown Drill
Fri 1st Day 3	Reports Comments due to Kim, Heikki and Trevor on a Google Doc
Sat 2nd		CA Faculty Holiday Party in the CA Cafeteria at 6:30

Professional Learning:

How to apply for PD

Wednesday Professional Learning:

Registration open!  LINK Jan 27-28 HKIS Literacy Institute

Future Dates:

Thursday, Dec 7 ES Principal Coffee for parents: The New ES Report Card

Friday, Dec 8 Report Card: Progress Indicators Input into the system due

Tuesday, Dec 12 Report Card: Uploaded to the system

Wednesday, Dec 13 All Faculty Town Hall Meeting

Friday, Dec 15 ES Holiday Assembly

Maths Rep Meeting - Wed Nov 15th

Dear Colleagues,

The Math Reps held their first meeting last Wednesday. We brainstormed the expectations for the Math Reps in organizing the meetings and updated a few expectations for teaching maths. Shared for reference: Agenda with notes and the presentation. Thanks to Ellen for hosting and to everyone for time and ideas.

Here are the new expectations:

Math Rep Expectations

Keep a Dashboard:

Timelines six units overall current unit Speed / Pacing weekly agendas Module overview

Resources Manipulatives systems to store and organize Workstation management Spirit gauge Check in on how teachers feel about the program

Expectations for Planning, Teaching & Assessment:

Planning:

• Read the unit Overview on the Bridges Educator site.
• Overview of unit to come (concepts and skills)
• Clarifying the explanation and supplement where needed
• Key in on the modelling and strategies
• Discuss background and prior knowledge of students
• Where are you at (pacing of sessions and modules)
• Strategies to support EAL learners
• differentiation and challenging students
• Connections to the Standards (in assessment sheet)
• Prepare Math blurb for Parents and give to other teachers

Teaching:

• 45-50 minutes a day
• Follow the terminology
• Teach the first six units (Pia)
• Gauge the teaching of units
• Sharing representation of strategies between classes
• Sharing successes
• Flexibility in ordering of units? Talk to learning leaders

Expectations were noted in our August Bridges presentation and will become the basis of our essential agreement

Assessment:

Common assessments:

• Use the pre-assessment to determine learning needs and set goals
• Administer assessment - choosing when and how
• Record the results in the Bridges spreadsheet
• Moderate assessment
• Use the post-assessment to determine progress
• Record the results in the spreadsheet
• Looking at Data
• Moderate assessment
• Connect the standards to the report
• Common assessments are compulsory

Ongoing Assessments:

• Unit Check-ins (optional)

Communicating with learning leaders:

• As needed basis

N.B. These expectation for math reps and for math teaching will be reviewed at the end of the year and these will become our essential agreement for Maths Learning.
Math Reps Expectation doc

Report Card Guidelines for December 2017

Dear colleagues,

As we are getting to the point of writing our strengths and next steps, here are some final guidelines for writing those important messages:

Character limit is 600 in each section

Strength (Verb + -s or -es)
- We write strengths steps in a bullet form
- We only personalize with a name or writing in full sentences when writing general comments
- We start with a verb that describes the learning
- We write the strengths in simple present third person singular:

E.g.

• reads complex non-fiction texts independently and with confidence
• writes with a clear organizational structure  
• communicates ideas clearly while working in collaborative groups
• models thinking with many different representations

Next Step: (verb no -s or -es)
- We write next steps in a bullet form
- We only personalize with a name or writing full sentences when writing general comments
- We start with a verb that best describes the action of the new learning
- We write the next steps in simple present singular without third person indication

E.g.

• read complex non-fiction texts independently
• infer beyond the literal plot 
• articulation of digraphs “th” and “sh” when speaking
• count on as a strategy when adding

General comments:
Character limit for general comment is 600.
This is an opportunity to personalize the comment. We write in a positive tone, describing student strengths and demonstration of growth in social and self-regulating skills as well as their showing of positive attitudes and behaviors.

Process:
Both general comments and strengths and next steps should be written on google doc first and shared with Kim, Trevor, and Heikki for editing and feedback.

Link to the Guidelines shared in the Report Writing Workshop

Finally, If you have any concerns or questions about using or logging on the PowerTeacher, please contact either Kim or Trevor for support.

Weekly Updates, Monday, 20 November 2017

Dear colleagues,

Winter seems just around the corner. The Rokko Mountain ski center was open this weekend for the eager ones to hit the man-made-snow with their boards and skis. The main ski areas in the region are still waiting for the real snow to open their slopes.

This school week is partitioned into two sections by the labor day holiday of which conveniently serves also those who celebrate Thanksgiving. The first part of our week focuses on report card writing. The PowerTeacher where we write and mark the report cards looks somewhat different because of our new report card. However, the process of writing report cards is not different from previous years. Additionally, please check the additional blogger post including guidelines and character limits regarding the report card writing process. On Wednesday we will invite our grades 4-8 parents for a coffee morning to discuss the role of Juku (Japanese academic afterschool program) in our students learning and well-being. The second part of the week is about the whole school assembly starting at 10 in the main theater. On Friday, we also welcome the annual visiting 4th grade from a Japanese school. These students from Ikuno will spend a day with our 4th-grade students and teachers enjoying collaborative activities and building friendships.

Have a fun week!

Supervision:                                          Links to: Supervision Schedule 17-18    Supervision Protocol

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	Steve	Jeff		Maiko, Kaight

This week's schedule:        

Day	Morning	Afternoon - After School
Mon 20th Day 1		PowerTeacher Open
Tue 21st Day 2		12:30 - 13:15 Assembly Rehearsals 13:30-14:30 Student Support Team Mtg 14:30-16:00 ES Leadership Planning Mtg
Wed 22nd Day 3	8:40 ES & SS Principal Coffee The Role of Juku	12:30-13:15 Assembly Rehearsals 14:40-15:40 Report Card Writing 15:45-16:30 Report Writing/Operational Plan Working Groups
Thu 23rd	Holiday	Labor Day
Fri 24th Day 1	ES Assembly 10:00 (Main Theater)

Professional Learning:

How to apply for PD

Wednesday Professional Learning:

Registration open!  LINK Jan 27-28 HKIS Literacy Institute

Future Dates:

Thursday, Nov 29 Math Peek into Learning

Friday, Dec 1 Report Card: Comments due to Leadership Team and EAL Coordinator on Google docs

Saturday, Dec 2 CA Faculty Holiday Party

Thursday, Dec 7 ES Principal Coffee for parents: The New ES Report Card

Friday, Dec 8 Report Card: Progress Indicators Input into the system due

Tuesday, Dec 12 Report Card: Uploaded to the system

Wednesday, Dec 13 All Faculty Town Hall Meeting

Friday, Dec 15 ES Holiday Assembly