October 26, 2012

Dear Parents,

On Tuesday afternoon, students, staff members and parents from over 30 nations, came together for our UN Day Assembly, the first assembly held in the school’s new auditorium. Our Grades 2 and 3 students, along with the AISC Community Choir sang songs about peace while Roots and Shoots presented a video that featured several students describing what peace meant to them. The assembly and the new auditorium received rave reviews! Click here to view pictures taken during the assembly.

On Wednesday, students participated in the Parade of Flags. This year, every child walked in the parade. The students represented their country with great pride! Soon after the parade, the gym became a cultural showcase, as pavilions were set up representing several of the countries represented at school. Thank you to the PTA Executive for organizing the pavilions and to all of the parents who set up a pavilion.

IT in the Elementary School

In grade 3, students are preparing to write a realistic fiction story.  Students have created a realistic main character, setting, problem and solution.  One of the components of the writing workshop involves rehearsing a story verbally before the writing begins.  This strategy helps students to plan out what they will include in their story. This week, while I was walking around the playground, I saw students in 3B using iPads. Mr Scott explained to me that students were, “using an iPad application called, Puppet Pals, to record ourselves telling our stories.  By listening to our recordings, students attain a much clearer sense of the ingredients of their tales. This process also helps students to sharpen their listening and speaking skills.”  

This past Monday, we rolled out the Grade 5 1:1 netbook pilot program. The students in 5D enjoyed using their netbooks in class to create a wonderful fusion of math and art. Each student has an individual netbook in class. They used these netbooks to design tessellations. These incredible pieces will be displayed outside the classroom. Great work, 5D and Ms Becky!

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Parent-Teacher Conferences will be held after-school on November 1^st and all day November 2^nd. Last spring, we launched online parent sign-ups and I am pleased to announce that parents will have the opportunity to sign-up online effective immediately. To sign-up, please follow the steps below. I have also included a You-Tube video which will walk you through the process. Please click here to access this video.

Step 1: Log on to the link below:

Logon to conference scheduler

Step 2:

Click on your child's teacher's name.

A page will open that looks like below – Fill in the details required.

Step 3:

You will receive an email to your registered email address within a few minutes which looks like the one below:

From: admin@ptcfast.com [mailto:admin@ptcfast.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2012 9:50 AM
To: bhazel@aisch.org
Subject: Select Date/Time for Teacher Conference Now

Dear Hazel, Thank you for using our automated signup system to pick a date and time for 5A Mrs. Shobhana Radhakrishnan for Rahul Bangera.  Please click on the link below to pick your conference date. The deadline for registering is end of day before first conference day .     Click here to select conference time. If for any reason you have a problem with this link, you may login at http://www.ptcfast.com/parentlogin.php, and enter code as follows:     Entry Code: U2N0305932 Thank you, on behalf of Mr. Kevin Hall, Elementary Principal

Step 4:

Please click on the line highlighted line on your email.

It will open up the conference page and you can choose the time. Once you finish selecting the time for 1 teacher a prompt will appear to ask you if you would like to schedule another conference. Follow the same procedure for all the teachers you wish to sign up for. If you need use a computer in our library, please feel free to do.

Dengue: Symptoms, Causes and Treatment

The rise in cases of dengue across cities in the country has become an increasing cause of worry. It is now more important than ever to be aware of the risk factors, and protect yourself.

What is dengue? Dengue is a disease caused by a family of viruses that are transmitted by mosquitoes. Dengue cannot be spread directly from person to person, i.e., is not contagious. A person can only become infected by the bite of a mosquito that is infected with the dengue virus. It is important to note that these mosquitoes bite during the daytime as well as night time.

Symptoms

Dengue usually begins with chills, headache, pain while moving the eyes, and backache. Persistent high fever is characteristic of dengue. Other symptoms to watch out for are exhaustion, backache, joint pains, nausea, vomiting, low blood pressure and rash.

Treatment

As Dengue is caused by a virus, there is no specific treatment for it; treatment of dengue is typically concerned only with the relief of symptoms. People who show the symptoms mentioned above should immediately consult a physician. It is important to drink plenty of fluids, stay hydrated, and get as much rest as possible.

Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF)

DHF is a more severe form of dengue and can be fatal if untreated. It tends to affect children under the age of ten, and causes abdominal pain, haemorrhage (bleeding), and circulatory collapse (shock).

Prevention

There is no vaccine to prevent dengue. Prevention of dengue requires eradication of the mosquitoes that carry this virus. This means high standards of hygiene and sanitation. Avoid areas littered with garbage. All containers of stationary water (like drums or buckets) should be covered or discarded, including flower vases and pets' feeding bowls. If your area is infested with mosquitoes, wear long sleeves, use mosquito repellents and fumigate if necessary.

Until next week,

Kevin Hall

Elementary School Principal

October 19, 2012

Dear Parents,

Please join us for UN Day which will be held next week. The elementary school is going to kick-off UN Day with a short assembly on October 23^rd at 2:45. UN Day celebrations will continue on Wednesday, October 24^th. This year, all students will participate in the Parade of Flags. Students are encouraged to wear national dress/colors of their home nation. Shortly after arriving to school, all elementary school students will assemble in the cafeteria and will be grouped according to the country each will represent. The Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten students will lead the procession, waving their home country’s flag as they make their way along the parade route.  We believe our youngest students will be more comfortable walking with their classmates, teachers and teacher assistants. While teachers are organizing students for the parade, we ask that parents make their way to the gym, where they will have the opportunity to view the parade and to take pictures. When the parade is over, students will return to their classrooms for a snack break. At this point, the PTA will be setting up country pavilions in the gym which all students will visit at various times during the day. Since we have many students from across the school to move through the pavilions, we ask that only those parents who are volunteering their time to work at a pavilion be in the gym. We do thank you for your cooperation.

Vision and Hearing Screening

From November 6^th to November 9^th, medical professionals from Chennai will be at the school to conduct vision and hearing screening of children. The school health office will inform you if your child has been identified with a hearing or vision impairment and you will be referred to intervention services in the community should you decide to follow-up. Doctors from the Madras ENT Research Foundation (P) Ltd. 1 Cross Street, 2nd Main Road, Raja Annamalaipuram, Chennai 600028 and from Dr. Agarwal's Eye Hospital, 19, Cathedral Road, Chennai 600086 will be conducting the screenings.

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Parent-Teacher Conferences will be held after-school on November 1^st and all day November 2^nd. Last spring, we launched online parent sign-ups and I am pleased to announce that parents will have the opportunity to sign-up online effective immediately. To sign-up, please follow the steps below. I have also included a You-Tube video which will walk you through the process. Please click here to access this video.

Step 1: Log on to the link below:

Conference Sign-up

Step 2:

Click on your child's teacher's name. A page will open that looks like below. Fill in the details required.

Step 3:

You will receive an email to your registered email address within a few minutes which looks like the one below:

From: admin@ptcfast.com [mailto:admin@ptcfast.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2012 9:50 AM
To: bhazel@aisch.org
Subject: Select Date/Time for Teacher Conference Now

Step 4:

Please click on the line highlighted line on your email.

It will open up the conference page and you can choose the time. Once you finish selecting the time for 1 teacher a prompt will appear to ask you if you would like to schedule another conference. Follow the same procedure for all the teachers you wish to sign up for.

If you need use a computer in our library, please feel free to do.

Reading with the Authors

Grade 5 C and 5 D began the week on Monday, October 15 with a celebration of reading. Parents were invited to read stories written by their children. There was excitement and pride as the children shared their personal narratives based on - A Small Moment.

Have a great weekend,

Kevin Hall

Elementary School Principal

October 12, 2012

Dear Elementary School Parents,

Over 50 parents came to hear four of our English as an Additional Language (EAL) Teachers present at Wednesday’s Parent Coffee with the ES Administration. Thank you to the parents who came, and of course, thank you to our EAL teachers, Ms Karen, Ms Morris, Ms Salome and Ms Dee.

During the meeting, the teachers discussed recent changes to our EAL program, shared ideas about how parents can help children at home and discussed recent research in language acquisition. Parents were also given a task to complete in collaboration with other parents sitting at their table. Parents had to decide if the questions below were true or false.  For those of you who were not at the meeting, I have in included the questions below. The answers can be found at the end of this blog.

1.     Teachers should have a different set of learning expectations and standards for language learners.

2.     Teachers of English or other subjects in English need to be native speakers of English.

3.     The use of students’ home languages will hurt their success in English.

4.     The following factors make a difference in the success of learning another language:

5.     How well one reads and writes in their home language

·         Age

·         Motivation

·         Personality

·         How comfortable one feels in the English language classroom

6.     There should be a separate program for EAL students to prepare them for mainstream classes.

7.     It may take two years to reach an academic level of language proficiency; in other words, two years for English learners to be peer-competitive with native speaking students in school.

8.     The presence of too many English language learners lower the standards of classrooms and schools since teaching them in homeroom classes slows down the learning of the other students.

The 3^rd and 5^th grade students and teachers are very excited about our co-teaching/inclusion model. Recently, students were asked to write an answer to this question: “How do you feel as a learner having the whole class together for Language Arts, with nobody pulled out?” Here are some of the responses:

 “I feel fine. I like the way that we can hear different ideas from everybody in the class. We can hear different ideas from beginners and better English speakers.”

 “I actually think that having EAL students in the class is good because I feel that being in another class is kind of, well, not so friendly because the EAL students will feel very left out and sad.”

 “I feel good about it because all of us can learn the same things together and it might make the other students feel more comfortable to work with everyone else.”

 “I feel happy because there are more people in the class and we can get more ideas about what we are working on. EAL students can learn from us, too.”

 “It is lovely being with all kids. It is also brilliant to see what EAL students think about.”

UN Day

The elementary school is going to kick-off UN Day with a short assembly the afternoon of October 23^rd (more details to follow next week).

UN Day will be celebrated on Wednesday, October 24^th. This year, all students will participate in the Parade of Flags. Shortly after arriving to school, all elementary school students will assemble in the cafeteria and will be grouped according to the country each will represent. The Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten students will lead the procession, waving their home country’s flag as they make their way along the parade route.  We believe our youngest students will be more comfortable walking with their classmates, teachers and teacher assistants. While teachers are organizing students for the parade, we ask that parents make their way to the gym, where they will have the opportunity to view the parade and to take pictures. When the parade is over, students will return to their classrooms for a snack break. At this point, the PTA will be setting up country pavilions in the gym which all students will visit at various times during the day. Since we have many students from across the school to move through the pavilions, we ask that only those parents who are volunteering their time to work at a pavilion be in the gym. We do thank you for your cooperation.

Answers to Questions: (source of information: Dr Virginia Rojas)

1.       False. It is not necessary to be a native speaker of a language, though one must be proficient. Similarly, it is not necessary for ESL teachers to speak a language other than English though it can be very helpful! The globalization of English cries out with the need to come to terms with the ‘internationalness’ of English. Exposure to and acceptance of a variety of world Englishes is critical since that is the medium that most students will end up using in their futures.

2.       False. It is not necessary to be a native speaker of a language, though one must be proficient. Similarly, it is not necessary for ESL teachers to speak a language other than English though it can be very helpful! The globalization of English cries out with the need to come to terms with the ‘internationalness’ of English. Exposure to and acceptance of a variety of world Englishes is critical since that is the medium that most students will end up using in their futures.

3.       False. A major problem facing English learners is often articulated as one of not knowing English, though in reality the real problem may be what can only be labeled as an “obsession with speaking English” since the general perception is that the more students use English, the faster they will acquire it. The way in which teachers and schools view students’ languages and language-usage patterns may have an even greater influence on their achievement. A shift in thinking is necessary to move away from such a perspective: all teachers need to understand how languages are acquired, how to develop an additive perspective concerning bilingualism, and how to consciously foster dual-language literacy. International schools need to move beyond what may be a monolingual paralysis: the goal of second language acquisition in international-school settings is the making of English-knowing balanced bilinguals – a concept inherently supported by the IB program (not English monolinguals or ambi-bilinguals who are bilinguals that are perfect in both languages). The reality is that English will most likely always be an additional of English language learners and not a ‘native language’ – just by definition.

4.       True

5.       False. A traditional approach to servicing English language learners has been one whereby they were to learn enough English to be able to enter mainstream classrooms (i.e. a sequential model of language acquisition and then academic achievement). Since research showed that this approach led to students falling behind academically, a current approach focuses on supporting English language learners to acquire language and achieve academically at the same time (i.e. a simultaneous model).

6.       False. Collier (1979) and Cummins (1984) found that when students are schooled in two languages, they usually take from 4 to 7 years to reach norms on standardized achievement tests. Younger students with no schooling in their own language may take as long as ten years to reach the norms. Calderon (2007) recently released research which found that it may take up to five to seven years when the pacing of instruction is too relaxed and not challenging enough in EAL programs.

7.       False. This statement implies a perception that linguistic and cultural diversity is a deficit rather than a resource. Schools which have a majority of English language learners and display exemplary reform efforts share the following common characteristics: a school-wide vision of excellence that incorporates English language learners and creates a community of learners engaged in active inquiry, programs which develop English proficiency and cultivate primary-language skills, and a conscious effort to recruit and hire multilingual staff who are trained to support linguistically- and culturally-diverse students. Fortunately, the criteria for providing responsive learning environments for English language learners are similar to many of those for all students, including those for the gifted. Much of the academic literature today speaks to teachers about the need to create inquiry-based and learning-centered environments. These include: the articulation of what students should know and be able to do (i.e. standards or outcomes), the determination of acceptable evidence for this knowledge and behavior (i.e. evidence-based assessment), the planning of learning experiences to develop students’ conceptual understandings, the utilization of process literacy strategies (i.e. reading and writing processes, open-ended and interpretational questioning techniques), and the use of instructional frameworks for diverse learners (i.e. backwards design of learning experiences, differentiation, cooperative learning, collaboration between classroom and learning-support teachers). Avoiding the twin sins of classrooms also contributes to an inquiry-based and learning-centered environment; namely, the use of topics and activities in elementary school not grounded in standards or outcomes and the issues of curriculum coverage and transmission of information in upper school.

Have a great weekend,

Kevin Hall

Elementary School Principal

October 5, 2012

Dear Parents,

This is a very busy and exciting weekend at AISC. This weekend, our school is hosting the South Asian Inter-Scholastic Association (SAISA) swim meet. So many people have come together to make this a great weekend for the middle and high school students participating in this meet. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the elementary school teachers and parents who have welcomed visiting students and coaches into their homes for the weekend.

Please join the Elementary EAL Coordinator Karen Sumaryono and EAL Teachers Andrea Morris, Salome Verghese and Deanna Doherty Wednesday morning, October 10, in the ES Cafeteria at 8:45 to learn more about changes going on in the English as an Additional Language (EAL) program. We will discuss some recent research about language acquisition and give tips for how parents can help their children at home. Thank you to Ms Karen, Ms Salome, Ms Andrea and Ms Dee for this collaborative commitment and contribution.

Teacher collaboration and professional learning communities are frequently mentioned in articles and reports on school improvement. In a 2006 article in The Best in Educational Leadership, Roland Barth writes, “When I visit a school and look for evidence of collegiality among teachers and administrators the indicators I seek are:

·             Educators talking with one another about practice.

·             Educators sharing their craft knowledge.

·             Educators observing one another while they are engaged in practice.

·             Educators rooting for one another's success.

I am very proud of the strong culture of collaboration in the elementary school. While I could cite many examples of this culture, one new initiative that our Literacy Committee has spearheaded for teachers is peer to peer observations in literacy classrooms. Peer observations create opportunities for teachers to observe other classroom teachers, which subsequently lead to professional discussions about instructional methodology. Peer observations are non-evaluative. Instead, the value of the observation is the collaboration it creates for teachers and the opportunity for teachers to develop a common language and understanding of what high-quality instruction looks like. Ultimately, peer observations inspire teachers to reflect on their own practice, which in turn, will have a positive impact on student learning. Thank you to our Literacy Committee members for organizing this truly authentic professional development opportunity for teachers.

Be sure to click on the After-School Activities link for an exciting announcement about a new after-school swim club!

Have a great weekend!

Kevin Hall

Elementary School Principal