21-25 - February Break (School Closed)
28- Spring ASA/HC begins (ends on June 10)
28-March 4 -Kindness Week Pasta and Rice Drive
March
1-4 - AISB Kindness Week
Thank you to Ms. Ed, our EAL team, Ms. Monika, and our Assistants for helping to bring some fun into our lives this past week. Our students have thoroughly enjoyed the Cupid hunt, engaging with Mother Tongues, and celebrating Farsang. Today's festivities were a great way to end the day as we head off on Ski Break.
Update on Hiring
We are excited to welcome Mary Dolesch to our team. Mary will join join the EAL and Early childhood team as the EC EAL teacher. Mary was born in Colorado, USA but moved with her family to a few different states before graduating high school in Wyoming. She then moved to Washington State for university and obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in Education from Western Washington University. Her first teaching job was on a Native American Reservation teaching Grade 4. After four successful years, she left the USA in 1998 to pursue an international teaching career in Venezuela and has been happily teaching abroad ever since. She obtained her Master’s Degree and Certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language from The College of New Jersey in 2001.
Throughout her 26 years of teaching, she has taught various grade levels from Nursery - Grade 7 in both classroom and EAL teaching roles while working at international schools in Venezuela, Hungary, UAE, Singapore, Russia, and Switzerland. Her husband, George, is the incoming Elementary Principal and they are thrilled to be returning to AISB along with their son and daughter who will be joining the Middle School in Grades 6 and 8 next school year.
In her free time she enjoys reading, hiking, skiing, running, traveling, and hanging out with her family.
We have one final position to fill in the Elementary School. The grade one position will be posted today or early next week. Interviews will take place in the weeks following the break.
Moving On and Rejoining
On Tuesday, we said our farewell Sandra who will head by to to Iceland this coming week. She will continue working in education and is looking forward to furthering her own learning at university where she wants to obtain a teaching degree, An alumni, Sandra will always have a special place in our hearts. Even in high school, she was working with our students supporting their learning through theatre. The past two years she has been a welcome addition to the third grade team and 3C. Sandra will be greatly missed in our Blazer community. We welcome Maila back to our third grade team. Maila worked in 3A until Ida's return last fall. The team is excited to have her rejoin and continue her good work in 3C.
As mentioned in last week's Mindset, today will be Beth's last day covering Heather's grade one maternity leave. Beth has been working alongside the grade one team since August. We thank Beth, Vi, and the first grade team for their support student learning through the first semester and transitioning Heather back to campus this week. We wish Beth all the best over the coming months and she and Nate prepare for their upcoming move.
Tim Gerrish will offer two options for the Safeguarding training. All staff need to attend one of them:
- Tuesday, March 22, 2022, 3:45-5:15, or
- Wednesday, March 23, 2022, 3:45-5:15
Off-Campus: March 1-3
Diane will be out of school March 1-3, attending a Child Safeguarding Training. Please see Krista in her absence.
This year's theme is: It's all about the little things
Let's spend some time looking at the small things and finding those small moments of kindness to be grateful for. The goal of the week is to be low stress and user friendly.
Chill Town is back, so look for the link to sign your class up. You might also want to make sure your blue jeans are washed and ready for a few days in the AISB sun. Please check out this link for more details and know that more and more will be added as the days go by. With gratitude for you.
~ Your AISB Counseling Team
The soup kitchen, located in the 8th district, is roughly the size of the AISB kitchens and serves several hundred people daily. They mostly serve rice and pasta dishes, and are hoping we can help them with the following:
- Bags of plain rice
- Bags of plain pasta
- Tarhonya - a Hungarian type of pasta
In Building A, students and parents can drop off donations in the tent set up before the Building A entrance
Thank you to all teachers who submitted responses for our survey about the PIC process so far. In our question about what teachers would like most in terms of support during the “Apply” stage, we found that more than half of you feel confident in applying your learning in your classroom on your own, and have agreed to reach out if you need any additional support. Thirty percent of responders said they wanted to reach out for a conversation with an LFC to share ideas. We have contacted those people to assist with hearing out colleagues and supporting via brainstorming and asking questions that may lead us in the right direction.
Please do not hesitate to reach out to an LFC team member at any point during the “Apply” stage if you feel collaboration on our part would benefit you with your PIC focus. You may also want to try using our APPLY STAGE Checklist here.