Call for Elementary School Student Council Leaders

 Dear colleagues,

We are looking for Student Council facilitators in the Elementary School.

ES Student Council Leaders (2)
An elementary school teacher who is interested in leading the review of structures and opportunities for increasing ES students' voice in the school. This position includes regular meetings with a group of student leaders, planning events, possible fundraisers, seeking opportunities for presenting student voice and ideas, contributing to assemblies, and collaboration with the ES counselor and Principal. Stipend 100, 000 JPY/teacher. The ES student council leadership requires two teacher-leaders.

Please, contact Heikki at your earliest convenience, if this is your calling.

Lunch and Playground Supervision - Draft Duty List

Dear colleagues,

You can find the Draft Duty list for September-December 2019 here. Please, study it carefully for possible overlaps and wonderings. As you are making observations and you have some great suggestions, please do not hesitate to put them forward either on the document or in our meeting next week.

Heikki

Faculty Morning Meeting 7 May 2019

Dear colleagues,



Please find the slides from the meeting here.

Class websites and hats/caps indoors

Dear colleagues,

We conducted the new parent - how to navigate through the CA websites and class pages.
This means that they are expecting to see the class websites up and running soon.
Many of you are already communicating effectively through the class websites, and we would like to have them set up by Friday.

Students wearing hats/caps indoors

We would like to remind everybody that at CA we don't wear hats/caps indoors. Can you please, help some of the students to remove their hats in class and during lunch times?

Lunch and snacks during the hot season

Dear colleagues,

I would like to request that we ask the students to bring their snack and lunch boxes into the classroom as it is getting very hot in the corridors.

Today, that is not an issue, but on a hot day like yesterday, some students' lunches looked a bit overdue due to the heat. Well, I hope that was the reason for it... 

This would be something that you may also want to communicate with the parents through your class websites.

Heikki

Student of Concern Meetings

Dear colleagues,

As we have just finished our 3-way-conferences, we anticipate that you may have some thoughts and concerns regarding some students. Hence, we would like to invite you to indicate any those students who are not currently under the Student Support Services (Learning Support, EAL or Counseling) and have a brief discussion about them in our next Wednesday session on the 21st of February.

Purpose

The purpose of the student of concern meetings is to identify and discuss briefly students who we notice struggling with learning, socially or emotionally. These are students who are not yet serviced by Learning Support, ESOL or counselor for this particular concern. Hence, students who already have an IEP, Action Plan or are in the Pre-referral process are not part of these conversations. These are students who we have just started to worry about and/or direct their learning, behavior or social skill development regularly. The idea is not to provide quick fixes or solutions at the meeting but to share and collect data collaboratively. Additionally, having many teachers hearing those concerns usually lowers the level of stress related to these students and gives a reason for teachers to connect and work together to find solutions. Follow-up will be done by Learning Support, ESOL and/or the Counselor.

Purpose in bullets:

• Sharing, caring, informing, connecting with colleagues, with some existing solutions with the same student 
• Opportunity to share concerns about students who are NOT currently on IEP, Action plan and serviced by LS, ESOL or the  Counsellor
•  Opportunity to share additional concerns of students who may be already serviced by ESOL or the Counselor (E.g. ESOL student  with emotional/ behavioral challenges, Emotional student with new learning related challenge, etc.)
•  Not brainstorming new solutions/strategies at this point yet
•  Listing students for further conversations and follow-up (even if time runs out to discuss all the students in the meeting)

How:

1. Open the Google spreadsheet.

2. Click on the LOGISTICS tab (bottom of the page) to note your meeting time in the MPR (even if you have no concerns, presently).

3. Click on the appropriate grade level tab.

4. Fill in the information in the appropriate section (Specialists at top of each page; Classroom Teachers, scroll down).

5. Be prepared that afternoon to share your information in way that will allow for everyone to have time to speak.

The meetings are facilitated by two members of the Learning Support, EAL, and the counselor. One keeps the conversation flowing and the other one focuses on taking notes and keeping time. Each meeting takes 30 minutes.

Specialist teachers (PE, Visual Art, Music, Japanese, Tech, Library) teaching all students are sitting in all meetings. They will also have the opportunity to share their concerns first at every meeting. 

The meeting will follow the students who have been listed on the Student-of-Concern sheet. Therefore, it is important that all teachers will list their student(s) of concern to the list by Wednesday Meeting time 2:35 pm. Even if we don't have enough time to discuss all the students, the Student Support Team will be able to follow up if the students and the relevant concern is listed.

When and Where

Wednesday 14:35 - 16:35

ELAC Multipurpose Room

14:35-15:05 Grade 5

15:05 - 15:35 Pre-K/KA and KB

15:35 - 16:05 Grades 1 and 2

16:05 - 16:35 Grades 3 and 4

Flow of Conversation

The facilitator will go through the students from the list in the following order:

1. Order of listing

2. Listed by a specialist teacher

3. Listed by a classroom teacher

4. Not serviced by Student Support Team for the concern yet, however

- The student may be serviced by the EAL team, but not because of the concern like emotional, behavioral or specific learning related issue

It is important that we are prepared to contribute and listen to each other in the 30-minute meetings.

Sample talking points

- I have noticed .... often seeking connection, avoiding contact, looking for escape etc.

- I have noticed ... often fidgeting, finding the need to move, holding something in their hands

- .... seems to get stuck with their learning, not able to start their task, asking so many questions

- ... stamina for reading/writing is still ... or has diminished

- ... makes often inappropriate comments about their classmates

- ... is often very quiet and withdrawn

- ... is regularly having a hard time to control his/her excitement

Please, contact Rose, Derrick Saiko, Yoshiko or Heikki for further questions.

Thank you!

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

Student Council information

ES Student Council Update

(Ava and Jen are main contacts)

Timeline (November)

Monday 13th (email G3-5)

- Share video “What is a student council?” with your class

-discuss with class “What could Student Council be?”  

-feel free to record ideas in any way, or not at all

Monday 20th (email G3-5)

-discuss  “How to make CA a better place?”

-feel free to record ideas in any way, or not at all.

Friday 24th (ES Assembly)

- Middle School Student Council will present

- Mr. Rampling’s G5 class will demonstrate what quality leadership might look like

- Ava and Jen introduce a few parameters (Wed. lunch meetings, year-long commitment, one per grade, one week to nominate/present/and vote)

Monday the 27th (email G3-5)

- discussion what quality leadership might look like with your class

- start process of nomination and select by Friday Dec 1st. (any process is fine)

Ex: Make a list of any interested candidates

Offer them time to present their ideas about why they should be the class rep

Vote by paper or silent ballot

Report to Ava or Jen

Friday Dec 15 (ES holiday assembly)

-Introduce all new ES Student Council members

Listening Conferences

Dear colleagues,

As we continue to have new families arriving at school, please remember to organize a brief listening conference with those parents too. Also, please share your notes from listening conferences with the EAL teacher, Learning Support Teacher, Learning Support Assistant and Teaching Assistant who works with you in the class.

Notes from Listening Conferences

Let's be on time and prepared today

Dear colleagues,

Let's respect everyone's time and effort by being punctual, efficient and prepared for today's class list meetings.

Schedule for Wednesday meetings:

Time: 14:40 - 15:20 
Who is sharing          With                 Where
PreKA teachers           KB                    Kaoru's classroom
Grade 1 teachers       Grade 2             Joy's classroom
Grade 3 teachers       Grade 4             Karen Terry's classroom

Time 15:20 - 16:00
Who is sharing             With                 Where
KB teachers                 Grade 1              Jen Cardon's classroom
Grade 2 teachers          Grade 3             Jerome's classroom
Grade 4 teachers          Grade 5             Jay's classroom

Heikki

Class list meeting - Wednesday 7 May, 2017

Dear colleagues,

On Wednesday this week, we will be looking at the initial class lists created by the current classroom teachers and discussing some of the learners and their preferences and needs.

Please, keep in mind the following:

• New students may/will have an impact on the class lists. 
• Your suggestions and input are vital so that Heikki can make informed final decisions about the class lists and the teacher assignment to each class
• Before the lists are confirmed in August, Heikki will go through the lists with the counselor, Learning Support Teachers, and the EAL coordinator to make sure that our support services can be organized effectively.
• We will not accommodate requests from parents or colleagues regarding class lists, friendships or the classroom teacher.
• Teachers will be assigned to each class in August.

Specialist teachers: Please join the meetings as you see important to provide input for creating an effective learning environment for the students in your particular subject.

EAL and Learning Support teachers: Please join the meetings from the point of view of who you have been supporting this school year so that we can continue to support the children effectively given our preferred model of co-teaching.

Heikki, Kim, and Trevor will be joining the meetings to observe the process and to hear about the reasons for placements

Schedule for Wednesday meetings:

Time: 14:40 - 15:20 
Who is sharing          With                 Where
PreKA teachers           KB                  Kaoru's classroom
Grade 1 teachers       Grade 2             Joy's classroom
Grade 3 teachers       Grade 4             Karen Terry's classroom

Time 15:20 - 16:00
Who is sharing             With                 Where
KB teachers                 Grade 1             Jen Cardon's classroom
Grade 2 teachers          Grade 3             Jerome's classroom
Grade 4 teachers          Grade 5             Jay's classroom

Criteria for creating a balanced class list in the order of priority
1. Learning Support needs (with an IEP or Action Plan)
2. EAL needs
3. Social and emotional needs
4. Linguistic balance
5. Gender balance

Discussion points:
1. Looking at the initial class lists for 17-18 and asking the question: How do we know that these initial class lists are balanced?
2. Discussing some specifically chosen students and their learning, social and emotional needs

Classroom teachers in 17-18
PreK/KA    Kaoru White and Karen Hesterman
KB              Jennifer Cardon and Ellen Lowery
Grade 1      Joy Thomas, Angela Ngan, Colleen McAleavey
Grade 2      Kris Schickler and Riana Jobe
Grade 3      Karen Terry and Suki Mito
Grade 4      Jay Sprague, Karen Shih and Jen White
Grade 5      Jeff Booth, Steve Rampling and Jessica O'Hanley

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

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.

Student of Concern Meetings Explained

Dear colleagues,

As we missed the last week's Wednesday meeting the Student-of-Concern meetings and preparations come to us with a very short notice. We apologize for not sending this information out to you all earlier. However, given that you have spent the time to think and write about your students in preparation for the reports and conferences, we assume you have gathered notes and observations about students that will be extremely valuable for the Wednesday meeting.

Purpose

The purpose of the student of concern meetings is to identify and discuss briefly students who we notice struggling with learning, socially or emotionally. These are students who are not yet serviced by Learning Support, ESOL or counselor for this particular concern. Hence, students who already have an IEP, Action Plan or are in the Pre-referral process are not part of these conversations. These are students who we have just started to worry about and/or direct their learning, behavior or social skill development regularly. The idea is not to provide quick fixes or solutions at the meeting but to share and collect data collaboratively. Additionally, having many teachers hearing those concerns usually lowers the level of stress related to these students and gives a reason for teachers to connect and work together to find solutions. Follow-up will be done by Learning Support, ESOL and/or the Counselor.

Purpose in bullets:

• Sharing, caring, informing, connecting with colleagues, with some existing solutions with the same student 
• Opportunity to share concerns about students who are NOT currently on IEP, Action plan and serviced by LS, ESOL or the  Counsellor
•  Opportunity to share additional concerns of students who may be already serviced by ESOL or the Counselor (E.g. ESOL student  with emotional/ behavioral challenges, Emotional student with new learning related challenge, etc.)
•  Not brainstorming new solutions/strategies at this point yet
•  Listing students for further conversations and follow-up (even if time runs out to discuss all the students in the meeting)

How:

1. Open the Google spreadsheet.

2. Click on the LOGISTICS tab (bottom of the page) to note your meeting time in the MPR (even if you have no concerns, presently).

3. Click on the appropriate grade level tab.

4. Fill in the information in the appropriate section (Specialists at top of each page; Classroom Teachers, scroll down).

5. Be prepared that afternoon to share your information in way that will allow for everyone to have time to speak.

The meetings are facilitated by two members from the Learning Support, ESOL, and the counselor. One keeps the conversation flowing and the other one focuses on taking notes and keeping time. Each meeting takes 30 minutes.

Specialist teachers (PE, Visual Art, Music, Japanese, Tech, Library) teaching all students are sitting in all meetings. They will also have the opportunity to share their concerns first at every meeting. 

The meeting will follow the students who have been listed on the Student-of-Concern sheet. Therefore, it is important that all teachers will list their student(s) of concern to the list by Wednesday Lunch Time. Even if we don't have enough time to discuss all the students, the Student Support Team will be able to follow up if the students and the relevant concern is listed.

When and Where

Wednesday 14:35 - 16:35

ELAC Multipurpose Room

14:35-15:05 Grade 5

15:05 - 15:35 Pre-K/KA and KB

15:35 - 16:05 Grades 1 and 2

16:05 - 16:35 Grades 3 and 4

Flow of Conversation

The facilitator will go through the students from the list in the following order:

1. Order of listing

2. Listed by a specialist teacher

3. Listed by a classroom teacher

4. Not serviced by Student Support Team for the concern yet, however

- The student may be serviced by the ESOL team, but not because of the concern like emotional, behavioral or specific learning related issue

It is important that we are prepared to contribute and listen to each other in the 30-minute meetings.

Possible talking points/Notes on the spread sheet

- I have noticed .... often seeking connection, avoiding contact, looking for escape etc.

- I have noticed ... often fidgeting, finding the need to move, holding something in their hands

- .... seems to get stuck with their learning, not able to start their task, asking so many questions

- ... stamina for reading/writing is still ... or has diminished

- ... makes often inappropriate comments about their classmates

- ... is often very quiet and withdrawn

- ... is regularly having a hard time to control his/her excitement

Please, contact Aimee, Rose, Saiko, Yoshiko or Heikki for further questions.

Thank you!

Responsive Classroom

Responsive Classroom

Playground Life

Dear colleagues,

As the summer has arrived and the children are actively exploring the playground, please be aware of the following:

1. Please provide guidance for students about a sensitive use of water resources or have a professional conversation with your colleagues and perhaps with the children about the use of clean water in the playground. (This is culturally and geographically a challenging or even sensitive issue. I am not sure if we want to stop children playing with water. However, we tend to educate that water is a limited resource in the world. Children enjoy tremendously playing with the water and do scientific experiments etc. or e.g. just pour a lot of clean water on the ground of which would be seen as a huge waste in some other contexts.)

2. Trees and their branches are getting very close and somewhat aggressive attention by some young and energetic students. Let's be vigilant, prevent and intervene.

3. Some students have played with and removed the grates that cover the ditches in the playground. Yesterday, we had an accident where a student was hurt after stepping into a ditch while running in the playground.

Class list and transition meetings

Dear colleagues,

Today we have a wonderful opportunity to focus on our students and their learning environment next school year. We will be looking at the initial class lists created by the current classroom teachers and discussing some of the learners and their preferences and needs.

Please, keep in mind the following:

• New students may have an impact on the class lists. (If available, Heikki will bring already confirmed new student information to the meeting)
• Your suggestions and input are vital so that Heikki can make informed final decisions about the class lists and the teacher assignment to each class
• Before the lists are confirmed in August, Heikki will go through the lists with the counselor, Learning Support Teachers, and the EAL coordinator to make sure that our support services can be organized effectively.

What makes this process perhaps different this year is that there are many teachers currently in the receiving grade levels who are not going to be teaching those children next year. However, the expertise and recent experiences are very important as those currently teaching in the grade levels will have a good sense of the ideal combination of learners in the class.

Specialist teachers: Please join the meetings as you see important to provide input for creating an effective learning environment for the students in your particular subject.

EAL and Learning Support teachers: Please join the meetings from the point of view of who you have been supporting this school year so that we can continue to support the children effectively given our preferred model of co-teaching.

Heikki will be joining some of the meetings to learn more about the students and class list creation process.

Schedule for today's meetings:

Time: 14:40 - 15:20 
Who is sharing          With                 Where
PreKA teachers           KB                  Jenny's classroom
Grade 1 teachers       Grade 2             Lynette's classroom
Grade 3 teachers       Grade 4             Karen's classroom (please consider the  two scenarios: 2 or 3 classes)

Time 15:20 - 16:00
Who is sharing             With                 Where
KB teachers                 Grade 1             Joy's classroom
Grade 2 teachers          Grade 3             Saiko's classroom
Grade 4 teachers          Grade 5             Jay's classroom

Criteria for creating a balanced class list in the order of priority
1. Learning Support needs (with an IEP or Action Plan)
2. EAL needs
3. Social and emotional needs
4. Linguistic balance
5. Gender balance

Discussion points:
1. Looking at the initial class lists for 16-17 and asking the question: How do we know that these initial class lists are balanced?
2. Discussing some specifically chosen students and their learning, social and emotional needs (not all students)
3. Discussing and making a suggestion of the teacher for each class.

Classroom teachers in 16-17
PreK/KA    Kaoru White and Page Born
KB              Jennifer Cardon and Ellen Lowery
Grade 1      Joy Thomas and Angela Ngan
Grade 2      Jerome Fugami and Lynette Yodgee
Grade 3      Karen Terry and Suki Mito
Grade 4      Jay Sprague and Karen Shih (and ?)
Grade 5      Jeff Booth and Steve Rampling

Eco Club

Thank you for all your cooperation this past year sorting and placing all your recyclables in the correct bins. Your efforts are greatly appreciated by myself and the responsible students.  

Throughout the year approximately 20 dedicated fourth-grade students made the commitment to be active citizens by helping manage the ES school's recycling. Working 'nearly' silently and mostly anonymously, the ECO Club students gave their time and effort for the benefit of all of us. Please take a moment in the next few weeks, as you pass them in the halls removing our unwanted paper, plastic, and metals, to say thanks for their work! 

As we near the year end, it's time for the club to wrap up. Please be aware that Wednesday, June 1st will be the last day for recycling for this year. After this day, the paper blue bins will be removed from the floors until the next school year. 

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Brent Baumgartner & the ECO Club

Report Card Comment Writing Guidance

Dear colleagues,

Please find below further guidelines and suggestions for writing effective report cards.

1. Grade Level Checking

PreK3-KA: Kim

KB: Heikki

G1: Kim

G2: Trevor

G3: Heikki

G4: Trevor

G5: Heikki/Kim

ESOL: Trevor
Learning Support Students: Aimee and Rose before sharing with Kim, Heikki or Trevor

We recommend that you will write your report card comments on Google document, share them with Kim, Heikki, and Trevor for proofreading and feedback.

2. General guidance for structure, tone and language choices
1. Follow the same structure with all your comments:
E.g.
a) General statement of achievement (e.g. little, some, good or significant progress overall)
b) Specific achievement of the most important and pertinent (please try not to comment on everything) conceptual understandings, development of skills and dispositions within the subject/unit.
c) The specific area student struggles with or has not learned yet
d) Next steps

2. Maintain a positive image of the learner no matter what the learning challenges may be. We want to communicate that we care about the success and well-being of all students. The report card should be not used as a consequence or punishment.

3. No surprises to parents. If there are going to be negative surprises on the report card, please arrange parent meeting to explain the comment or grade before the report card is shared with the parents.

4. Avoid commenting on child's personality traits or general moods per se, or as an obstacle to his/her learning. E.g. "He/she is shy/outgoing", or "he or she is quiet/loud", or "he or she is lonely/sad/happy.

5. Ask your colleague or use online tools for checking basic grammar (e.g. articles, prepositions, and punctuation) of your comments.

3. Other
1. The student has been with CA less than a unit: A general comment on settling in and, if already known, a perception of their academic level in different subject areas. Also, a comment to parents saying that due to the recent arrival no full report card available at this point.

2. The student has been with CA one whole unit: Unit comments, general comments and reporting on student progress in the areas they have participated. Additionally, a note to parents and receiving schools upon the areas that were not assessed due to their late start of the year.

3. The student has been with CA two full units or more: A normal report card.

4. Character count for comments

ES Report Comments
Homeroom Teachers	Character Count
General Narrative - Teacher Comment	1000
Literacy	1200
Numeracy	800
Student Goal	300
Student Goal Reflection	200
UOI	800
Specialists	Character Count
ESOL	1500
Learning Support
Japanese	800
Music-Art-PE	600