September 28, 2012

Dear Elementary School Parents,

Gandhi Jayanthi

Gandhi Jayanthi is a national holiday celebrated in India to commemorate the birthday of “the father of the nation,” Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who was born on October 2, 1869.

Each year at this time, the elementary school children perform in an assembly where they pay tribute to the teachings and principles that Gandhi promoted. During our assembly this morning, the Kindergarten and Grade 1 students sang songs about Gandhi and peace, Grade 4 performed skits that depicted scenes from Gandhi’s life and Grade 5 played music on their recorders. If you were at the assembly this morning, you would have noticed the beautiful artwork that was displayed in the cafeteria. Thank you to the students in grades 2 and 3!

Whenever we host an assembly, so many people come together to make it all possible. I would like to extend a warm thank you to Ms Anu and to Ms Bindu for organizing today’s assembly, and for guiding the Kindergarten and Grade 4 students. Thank you to Ms Shireen and Mr Vasanth for guiding the Grade 1 and 5 students.  Thank you to Mr Joseph and Mr Ken for incorporating this day into your art lessons. Thank you, students, for being not only great performers, but a great audience as well. And of course, we thank the teachers and parents for supporting the children. Last, but certainly not least, thank you to Mr Netaji for organizing the sound system and to our maintenance team for your work in the cafeteria before and after the assembly.

Learn as if you were to live forever (Gandhi)

Laptop Initiative

The 5th and 6th grade teams are excited to announce a new development in student access to technology and information resources.  These teams have been chosen to participate in a 1:1 laptop pilot using existing computers from our IT department.  To learn more about this exciting opportunity, please plan to attend our informational meeting on Thursday October 4th from 8:45 to 9:45 am in the Hall of Light, located on the 3^rd floor in the Middle/High School section.  If you cannot attend we will also send home an informational pamphlet explaining how your child's learning and daily life at the school will evolve with the program.    

Accessing Additional Information

Be sure to click on the tabs above to read news from the Head of School’s Office, the Middle and High School, and from other sections within the Elementary School.

Have a fantastic long weekend,

Kevin Hall

Elementary School Principal

September 21, 2012

Dear Parents,

International Day of Peace

Today is International Day of Peace. International Day of Peace, also known as “Peace Day”, was established by the United Nations in 1981 and first celebrated in September 1982. In 2002, the UN General Assembly officially declared September 21 as the permanent date for the International Day of Peace. We would like to use today as a conversation starter with classes and families. In honour of Peace Day, I ask you to contemplate what peace means to you.  Check out our blog entry here and leave a comment in celebration of Peace Day. This year we are encouraging families, as well as student groups and homerooms, to design a peace flag. Peace Day flags made at home can be dropped off in the Elementary School Reception or the Elementary School Principal’s Office anytime up to October 15^th.  Flags will be on display for UN Day and we will also incorporate Peace Day into UN Day celebrations.

Peace is one of humanity’s most precious need. It is also the United Nations’ highest calling.

Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary General

UN Day Flag Procession

United Nations Day is Wednesday, October 24^th. AISC marks this day with a number of celebrations of Peace and Diversity – a Flag Procession, assemblies, and a parent organized International Pavilion. There will be more communication regarding these celebrations in the weeks to come.

This year for the first time, the flag procession will include all students with flags from the nations represented by AISC’s student body.  We are in the process of making sure that we have all the flags we need for our procession. We have records of the nationalities of all AISC families. Sometimes students see their cultural background as more significant than their nationality. For example, in the past we had a parent who was Lithuanian, but her children held U.S. passports.  Thus we added the flag of Lithuania to the procession.  If your child might want to march with a flag other than their national group, or if you are unsure about whether we have accurate information on your family’s nationality (for dual passport holders, for example), please contact the ES Assistants (either Ms Cheryl -fcheryl@aisch.org or Ms Hazel  bhazel@aisch.org), no later than Friday, October 5. Thank you so much for your cooperation.

Dr. Richard Villa

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, we had the pleasure of hosting Dr Richard Villa. Dr Villa has worked with educators all over the world on topics such as co-teaching, inclusive education and differentiated instruction.  Dr Villa led two parent sessions on, “Restructuring for Caring and Effective Education or the What, Why, and How of Inclusive Education.” Dr Villa led a session on co-teaching for all Kindergarten through 5^th grade teachers.

World Craft Council

Here is an exciting opportunity to learn more about children's books related to India! The World Crafts Council presents: "The 'Craft' of Reading: Introducing Young India to our Folk Art Traditions." 

The triennial summit of the World Craft Council is being held for the first time in India, and it is in Chennai!  As part of this summit, there is an exhibition and seminar at the Prakrit Art Gallery (on Greenways Road Extension) about children's books illustrated with Indian folk art styles.  This is being curated by Young India Books, a site that reviews India-related books for children. 

Dates: October 5th-10th, 2012, 10 am - 7 pm

Location: Prakrit Art Gallery

102, Greenways Road Extension,

R.A. Puram, Chennai 600028

Phone: 044-42188989 or 044-24953969    

Have a great weekend,

Kevin Hall

Elementary School Principal  

Friday, September 14, 2012

Dear Parents,

There will be a Scholastic Book Fair from Monday, September 17 to Wednesday, September 19!  This year, our book fairs will take place in the courtyard next to the elementary library.  Come find lots of great books for all your reading needs!  Contact Mr. Jet (eslibrarian@aisch.org) if you have any questions.

Next week, we welcome Dr Richard Villa to our school. Dr Villa will be conducting a series of workshops with teachers on co-teaching. Co-teaching is two (or more) teachers teaching together, sharing responsibility for meeting the learning needs of students, and at the same time, learning from each other. Currently, this model is in place during the 90 minute literacy block in every grade 3 and 5 classroom. Dr Villa will be leading a parent presentation on co-teaching on September 18^th from 8:45 to 9:45 and 2:15 to 3:15 in the Hall of Lights, located on the 3^rd floor above the Black Box Theater.

The lunch menu for the period October 3^rd to October 26^th  can be found by clicking on the "Lunch Menu" tab above. Please submit your order by September  26^th . I  have heard that some children have received the wrong lunch option, and sometimes more than once. I do apologize for this mistake and the inconvenience this has caused. We are working to fix this glitch. We have noticed that an error sometimes results when a user clicks the "submit" button more than once. Also, on the order form, it is very important to use your child’s “official” name and not a nickname. As we move forward developing our systems and procedures, I ask that all orders be submitted online which will eliminate human data entry errors on our part. If you do not have internet access at home, please know that you are more than welcome to use a computer in our school library. 

Have a great weekend,

Kevin Hall

Elementary School Principal

September 7, 2012

Dear Parents,

There will be a Scholastic Book Fair from Monday, September 17 to Wednesday, September 19!  This year, our book fairs will take place in the courtyard next to the elementary library.  Come find lots of great books for all your reading needs!  Contact Mr. Jet (eslibrarian@aisch.org) if you have any questions.

On Monday, September 3^rd, teachers and administrators engaged in a series of professional development activities.  Mr Hoover and Ms Bane kicked off the morning with a welcome address, an overview of the day and shared the professional development plan for this school year. Faculty then spent the next 90 minutes working with their CIS (Council of International Schools) Self-Study Team, reviewing reports and recommendations written by the team this past spring. The Self-Study Process is a very important part of the accreditation cycle. While identifying and celebrating the school’s strengths, this process also involves the identification of areas for improvement and initiates actions to address them.  Self-Study committee work is divided into the following sections: Guiding Statements, Teaching & Learning, Governance & Leadership, Faculty & Support Staff, Access to Teaching & Learning, School Culture & Partnerships for Learning and Operational Systems.

During the second half of the morning, faculty met with their Vertical Curriculum Teams. In Vertical Teams, teachers from different grade levels work together to develop a continuum of knowledge and skills in one subject area that builds from one grade level to the next. Vertical articulation is important because communication leads to a greater understanding of what is taught each year, which helps teachers organize strategies, plan the introduction of concepts, and reduce repetition of content. As a result, student achievement and success is enhanced.

The focus of the afternoon shifted to small-group sessions led by teachers for teachers. Teachers chose to attend two of the following sessions:

 1.       Teaching and Learning in the 21^st Century Classroom With Moodle
2.       Organizing Your Life With Google Calendars
3.       Unit Development and Design
4.       Designing Assessment Using Depth of Knowledge
5.       Developing Strong Mini-Lessons
6.       Language Strategies for Content Learning
7.       The Hyperlink Treasure  Trove: Exploring Strategies for Working With EAL Students
8.       Digging Deeper in our Goldmine of On-line Library Resources
 

Several elementary school teachers led/co-led these sessions so I would like to acknowledge and thank Ms Priya, Ms Megan, Ms Karen, Ms Morris, Mrs Robertson and Mr Jet!

This week AISC welcomed back Erma Anderson. Erma is no stranger to AISC and many parents met her last October and February. Erma is a former high school physics and mathematics teacher and Albert Einstein Distinguished Fellow in the United States Senate. Currently she is a science/mathematics consultant with the Office of Overseas Schools. Erma met with all grade-level teams, Pre-Kindergarten through 5, to provide guidance as they begin their work planning a math scope and sequence.  Scope refers to the breadth and depth of content to be covered in a curriculum at any one time (e.g. week, quarter, etc.). Sequence refers to the order in which content is presented to learners over time. As teachers engage in this process, they will have important conversations about critical content and skills. Shared understandings and commitments evolve from these conversations.

At AISC, our teachers are committed to life-long learning, and our students cannot help but be positively impacted.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Kevin Hall

Elementary School Principal