**Please check the Meeting Schedules (in the sidebar) and the calendar at the bottom for information regarding this week's meetings and events. Laptops are not required unless requested. Thank you for leaving them in your classrooms.
***Please bookmark the Mindset link so you can access it easily.
~from the ES BBE
The Elementary Office, in collaboration with the Elementary PSA, invites you to a week of relaxation. This is a small token of appreciation for all the wonderful things you do. Come sit by the fire, and enjoy some holiday treats, holiday movies, and festive music in a relaxing atmosphere.
Date and Times: December 5-11 from 8:00-4:00 pm.
Where: Sweet Treat Cafe (ES Community Room)
November
28 - 29 American Thanksgiving (holiday)
December
2- Hosted Club Ballet Nutcracker Performance 15:30 - 17:30 MPR
3- Faculty Conversation- Please bring your notebook, laptop, and any PIC resources you need to work
4- PSA Breakfast and Conversation (all school) 8:45 MPR
2-6- All School Charity Drive
6- First 10 Yearbook Photos due
6_EC Big Sing
6- ES ASA Session 1 Ends
6- ES ASA Session 2: Parent Registrations Open
6- Mikulás
6- Winter Wonderland
7-AISB Holiday Party
12- Budget Orders Due to Office
14- ALL Learning Identity Comments and Overviews Due on Veracross (See Reporting Guidelines for further information)
~from the yearbook team (Vlad and Paul)
This is a reminder that your first 10 photos for your class page are due next Friday, December 6th. We really appreciate receiving these on time and we thank you as we know it’s a busy time of the year.
~from the ES Office
The PSA sponsored Holiday Market (formerly known as Winter Wonderland) is Friday, December 6th. Set up begins the evening of Thursday, December 5 after 5:30 pm. To support the event our ES/MS/HS PE Departments have been extremely flexible with their classroom space. We are very grateful for their support. All schedule changes are listed below.
The Holiday Market opens at 12:00 pm. Elementary students who visit the event after 3:30 pm must be accompanied by a parent. Please do not release students after school on Friday, December 6th, unless they have been picked up by a parent. Please escort them to the buses or to their after school activity if they are not picked up.
PE schedule and location changes:
Multiage and Kindergarten PE lessons scheduled on December 7th will take place at the regular time in the MPR. All other PE lessons (grades 1-5) scheduled on December 6th will take place in the Building B gyms. ATs or teachers are asked to accompany their children to the Building B gym.
- 9:35 - 10:15 - Grade 5 Classes (co-taught)- Building B Gym
- 11:05 - 11:45 - Grade 1 & 2 (co-taught) 1/2 of the Building B Gym
- 11:50 - 12:30 - Grade 5 Classes (co-taught) Building B Gym
- 1:20 - 2:00 - Grade 3 Classes (co-taught)- Building B Gym
- 2:05 - 2:45 - Grade 4 class Building B Gym
~from the Principal
It is time to input your resource requests for the 2020-2021 school year. Click on this link to access the updated directions. If you have questions or require clarification, please send the questions with your Instructional Lead to the IL Conversation next Tuesday. Instructional Leads and Curriculum Leads oversee the ordering process but may request team member support.
If you notice items on any of last year's lists that have not yet been received, please follow up with Istvan ([email protected]) and Cc Krista & Barbara.
Please see Krista if you have questions, need support, or require clarification.
~From Molly and Conway
Dear wonderful, talented, supportive understanding and above all FLEXIBLE Core and Encore teachers,
- MA and K will be from 9:00 to 9:30
- 1st and 2nd will be from 10:00 to 10:40
Below is the rehearsal schedule. We tried to mix it up to interfere (or not interfere) with both class and specialist teaching time. We are sorry for any inconvenience. We would really appreciate teachers and or assistants accompanying their classes to help with discipline during these times.
Friday, 6th –
9:35 – 10:15 – 2nd
11:10 – 11:40 - MA
11:50 - 12:30 – 1st
1:20-2:00 - K
Monday, 9th –
11:05-11:45 – MA and K
2:50 – 3:30 – 1st and 2nd
Tuesday, 10th –
9:35 – 10:15 - dress rehearsal MA/K (1st and 2nd are invited to watch)
11:05-11:45 – dress rehearsal 1st/2nd (MA/K are invited to watch)
We strongly encourage and would love for 1st and 2nd grade classes to come watch MA/K dress rehearsals and vice versa, but it is not required if you feel it interferes with what you need to do. Please e-mail us to say whether your class will watch the dress rehearsal.
Please tell us if there are any MAJOR conflicts (field trips, etc.) with any of these times. We will send more detailed info as we get closer to the rehearsal times. Please ask or e-mail about any questions, comments (nice ones) or conflicts.
Thanks for your patience and understanding,
~from the DTL
Thank you to Nate and Gabor for building our 2019-2020 PIC Database. Take a peek at your own and others' questions in preparation for our next PIC focus conversation on Tuesday, Dec. 3. We will begin by sharing our reflections from our learning walks with our focus lens group from last time. We will then spend the remainder of our time together researching and collaborating with one another as we continue in the investigation phase of our professional inquiries. Please bring your laptop and notebook.
~from Climate: The New York Times
Use your AISB account to sign in and read about what cities around the world are doing to reimagine their relationship with cars to curb transport emissions.
~From Piroska (Service Learning)
The Annual All School Charity Drive will be taking place from December 2 to December 6. Collection bins will be placed in the lobby of both Building A and Building B all week. You can bring:
gently used clothes and shoes (adult and child)
gently used toys
books, games
household items that are in working condition.
We also need help in sorting the items that have been collected. Sorting will take place on Saturday, December 7, in the MPR, from 9:00 AM to about 12:00 noon. Please let me know if you can come and help sort.
~from Chilla Tamás
You're Invited!
Please join us for the MS Performance of Harispray. Please add your class to the Hairspray Sign-Up sheet. Please complete this by Tuesday, December 3rd, so that I know how many seats we will have for guest schools. I am also including a Hairspray Synopsis which will give you an understanding of the story and that you might like to use with their classes to explain the story before they come to watch the performance. There is no age restriction. The thematic content might be something that families are more concerned about. The show should run at around 1hour 15-ish and the thematic content will inform your decision as to whether or not it is appropriate to bring your children. Thank you for supporting us! |
Stories of Growth and Learning: Reflections by You
What are you learning about? What is your team learning about? How are your students growing as a result? Each week one of our teams will share their story or learning with the rest of us. Learning experience may be about a book you/your team read, a TedTalk, a conference attended, an online course, PIC progress, or reflections on a recent learning experience students engaged in. As part of our Culture of Learning, it is important we share our stories of growth and learning with one another. Reflections can take any form you choose (i.e., video, written, image, Sketchnote, etc). Talk to your team lead to find out more and learn when your team will be sharing their story of learning with others.
~from the DTL
Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend the "Powering Up Learning through Inquiry" summit in Luxembourg. Some of my educational superheroes were there (Yong Zhao, Kath Murdoch, Guy Claxton, Trevor Mackenzie, and Kimberley Mitchell) so I had to go! A theme running through the conference was the importance of focusing on the uniquely human dispositions for learning (our Learning Identities) as we design learning for the future. I have collected a few of my most favorite quotes on the slides below. If you see something intriguing, just ask, I'm happy to share more of the context.
In addition, Kath Murdoch pushed us to consider how we might "design" for and through inquiry, rather than just "plan" for inquiry. She has recently composed this helpful chart for self reflection on our own learning journey (hot off the press - 2019!). I think we have made many of these shifts already, but there are still more to consider as we constantly elevate our practice. Take a look with your teams and perhaps set a goal to try something new during your next "design" meeting. If you have questions, Bogi and I are happy to share more of our learning from the conference with you.
**Kath's new book, Getting Personal with Inquiry, is scheduled to be published in 2020. I feel a book club brewing ....
~from the Innovation Team (Nate, Paul, and Vlad)
We are continuing to build our little library to provide a curated collection of books related to Learning Innovation that cover a broad range of topics. From cardboard prototyping, to autobiographies, to crafting, any book that promotes creative passion, agency, empowers action, or helps us understand our cognitive power as a species, and the philosophy behind innovation would fit our collection.
We recently acquired a copy of Neyromyths: Debunking False Ideas about the Brain by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa. In her book, Tokuhama-Espinosa untangles scientific fact from pedagogical fiction, debunking dozens of widely held beliefs about the brain that have made their way into the education literature. In ten central chapters on topics ranging from brain structure to classroom environments, the text traces the origins of common neuromyths―from categorizing individuals as "right-brained" or "left-brained" to prevailing beliefs about multitasking or the effects of video games―and corrects the record with the most current state of knowledge.
Feel free to borrow our (one and only) copy! Act quick!
~from the ES Librarian
Happy 3-day week (and 4-day weekend) everyone and Happy Thanksgiving to my American colleagues. I receive a lot of questions from parents asking about the value of graphic novels. As you all know, they are a VERY popular format for our elementary students. They were originally intended for reluctant readers; however, there is a growing body of research focusing on how the brain processes the combination of images and text and how graphic novels are excellent resources for advanced learners. The key, for me, is to make sure that students learn to read graphic novels with an analytical eye to achieve depth and complexity to their reading.
Graphic novels are not comic books. They are stand-alone stories, often with complex plots, using the comic book format. Each page contains many elements - panels, gutters, dialog and thought bubbles, captions, and sound effects. It’s the gutters, the space between the panels, where students are making inferences, predictions, and conclusions. The reader must go from image to image, panel to panel, bubble to bubble which requires a lot of interaction - sometimes more than simply reading words.
I do place a limit on the number of graphic novels that a student can check out - first, because it is important that they are reading many genres and formats, and second, because the collection is small compared to other sections of the library. I am always on the lookout for new releases and will continue to grow our graphic novel collection with titles that our students will love.
FUN FACT - Nick Sousanis was the first person to write his doctoral dissertation, Unflattening, in graphic novel format at Columbia University’s Teachers College in 2014.