Dear Parents,
It is so hard to believe that there are only a few weeks left in this academic year. Tomorrow, we will turn our calendar page to the month of May. For the children and adults in our community who are moving on, it is a reminder that there is one more full month of being together before saying, “so-long, and see you later.”
This can be very difficult experience, not only those children and adults who are leaving, but for those who are staying, too. This is what researchers Ruth Van Reken and David Pollock call, “the leaving stage of the transition” experience in their book, Third Culture Kids: Growing up Among Worlds. Characteristics of the leaving stage of transition may become more evident during the final weeks of school. So what might we expect to observe in people during this stage?
It is not uncommon for both children and adults to pull back from relationships. This can be confusing for friends, teachers and the person who is leaving, and will likely lead to anger and frustration in relationships that have been close. It is important to understand that to detach is an unconscious way to try to make leaving as painless as possible. The individual is in denial of feelings of sadness or grief. It is not uncommon for the person who is leaving to say, “I will be glad when I am out of here,” and to focus on all of the positives about living in the next location. There is nothing wrong with being positive about an upcoming move, so long as one acknowledges the losses in leaving. The layers of loss run deep: friends, community, pets, toys, and home and school- all sources of comfort and stability. Transition always involves loss, no matter how good the next place will be. I should add that it is not uncommon for an individual who is not moving on to pull back from friends who are.
How can you help? Comfort is simply acknowledging the loss, validating its reality, and giving the person space to grieve properly before pushing him or her to move on or past it.
We also have to be mindful that people who are leaving often feel rejection as friends and colleagues begin to make plans for future events, often excluding their friend who leaving. On one hand, these individuals know that the plans do not affect them, so they wonder why get involved. Yet on the other hand, they can still feel resentment and rejection when not included. It is very easy for the individual and those around him/her to dismiss these feelings as immature. However, if we deny these feelings, and push them aside as immature, then the underlying sense of rejection and resentment can easily lead to anger and conflicts. Include everyone until the very end.
How will AISC help children during this stage?
Our counselors, Ms. Geetha and Mr. George, will be working with students, and even adults in the weeks ahead. They will be meeting twice with each child who is leaving to help them understand and normalize the transition they will have to their new destination or their home country. Further, Mr. George and Ms. Geetha will be visiting all Grade 1-5 classrooms to facilitate a discussion about honoring friends who leave and talking about ways to stay connected. While there are no specific lessons for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students, all teachers are aware of the need for children to finish the year well and to give them confidence to begin their next grade well wherever they might be.
Lunch Menu and Order Link for the period May 4-Jun 4, 2015
Here is the lunch menu for May and June
You may order and pay online by accessing this website.
You may also order by completing this googleform and making a cash payment at the counter before May 8th.
Coffee with the ES Administration
Class Placement for 2015-16
Used Construction Sets
Lego Mega Mayz
Magformers K-nex
Meccano Meccanix
Marble Run Marbleworks
WIDA Model Testing for English Language Learners (ELLs)
The best preparation for success on the MODEL test is plenty of rest and good nutrition.
Preschool Parent Presentation – Friday, May 8th, 8:30-9:30 a.m. in the Preschool 3 A Classroom (Room 1615)
High School Basketball Players Visit 2C!
Operation Smile Fundraiser
Have a great long weekend!
Kevin Hall
Elementary School Principal
It is so hard to believe that there are only a few weeks left in this academic year. Tomorrow, we will turn our calendar page to the month of May. For the children and adults in our community who are moving on, it is a reminder that there is one more full month of being together before saying, “so-long, and see you later.”
This can be very difficult experience, not only those children and adults who are leaving, but for those who are staying, too. This is what researchers Ruth Van Reken and David Pollock call, “the leaving stage of the transition” experience in their book, Third Culture Kids: Growing up Among Worlds. Characteristics of the leaving stage of transition may become more evident during the final weeks of school. So what might we expect to observe in people during this stage?
It is not uncommon for both children and adults to pull back from relationships. This can be confusing for friends, teachers and the person who is leaving, and will likely lead to anger and frustration in relationships that have been close. It is important to understand that to detach is an unconscious way to try to make leaving as painless as possible. The individual is in denial of feelings of sadness or grief. It is not uncommon for the person who is leaving to say, “I will be glad when I am out of here,” and to focus on all of the positives about living in the next location. There is nothing wrong with being positive about an upcoming move, so long as one acknowledges the losses in leaving. The layers of loss run deep: friends, community, pets, toys, and home and school- all sources of comfort and stability. Transition always involves loss, no matter how good the next place will be. I should add that it is not uncommon for an individual who is not moving on to pull back from friends who are.
How can you help? Comfort is simply acknowledging the loss, validating its reality, and giving the person space to grieve properly before pushing him or her to move on or past it.
We also have to be mindful that people who are leaving often feel rejection as friends and colleagues begin to make plans for future events, often excluding their friend who leaving. On one hand, these individuals know that the plans do not affect them, so they wonder why get involved. Yet on the other hand, they can still feel resentment and rejection when not included. It is very easy for the individual and those around him/her to dismiss these feelings as immature. However, if we deny these feelings, and push them aside as immature, then the underlying sense of rejection and resentment can easily lead to anger and conflicts. Include everyone until the very end.
How will AISC help children during this stage?
Our counselors, Ms. Geetha and Mr. George, will be working with students, and even adults in the weeks ahead. They will be meeting twice with each child who is leaving to help them understand and normalize the transition they will have to their new destination or their home country. Further, Mr. George and Ms. Geetha will be visiting all Grade 1-5 classrooms to facilitate a discussion about honoring friends who leave and talking about ways to stay connected. While there are no specific lessons for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students, all teachers are aware of the need for children to finish the year well and to give them confidence to begin their next grade well wherever they might be.
Here is the lunch menu for May and June
You may order and pay online by accessing this website.
You may also order by completing this googleform and making a cash payment at the counter before May 8th.
Coffee with the ES Administration
Please join us for our final parent coffee of the year on Monday, May 11 (please note that this session is printed in the Community Calendar). Mr. Kevin Crouch, Director of Information and Communication Technology, will share parent survey results from our March Virtual Learning Day and he will also talk about Edmodo. This part of the presentation will be specific to parents of students in grades PK to 4. We will soon be connecting all students and parents to virtual classrooms in Edmodo, which is a tool we are adopting to continue to improve school-home communication by making it more consistent, accessible, streamlined, and child-friendly. Edmodo is easy to use and can also help us build important digital citizenship and communication skills for our young learners.
This will be an informative question and answer session about Edmodo, including how you sign up and what to expect from your teacher. We will meet in the Elementary School Cafeteria from 8:45 to 9:45.
BYOT Device Purchase Fair Follow -Up
We hope you were able to have your questions answered by our vendor partners at the purchase fair. To help parents select and purchase technology for their children as part of our Bring-Your-Own-Technology program, we will also be hosting this fair on Wednesday August 5th when we return for the new school year. Special discounted prices for the AISC community will be available at this fair.
BYOT Device Purchase Fair Follow -Up
We hope you were able to have your questions answered by our vendor partners at the purchase fair. To help parents select and purchase technology for their children as part of our Bring-Your-Own-Technology program, we will also be hosting this fair on Wednesday August 5th when we return for the new school year. Special discounted prices for the AISC community will be available at this fair.
Grades 2-5 Swimming Gala
The ES PE team and the Aquatics Department are excited to announce the return of AISC's Swim Gala. The Swim Gala is a short event where students can demonstrate what they have learned during their swim classes in PE. Parents, you are invited to join us on deck to watch during your child's class time, learn about the swim program and have a great time.
The Swim Gala will take place during regular PE classes the week of May 4th to May 7th. You can view the schedule here.
We realize that some parents will wonder if we will have a gala from pre-kindergarten to grade 1 students. We will not be this year. We decided that we want to experiment with Upper ES first and we will add the Lower ES Gala next year. Also, Lower ES only has a 3 week unit, but they meet 3 times per week. We feel that time on lessons is more important with this age. Lastly, the last week of school includes swim parties, so we thought that a Gala and then parties would be too much.
Class Placement for 2015-16
We will soon begin the process of creating class placements for the upcoming school year. Our aim is always to create the optimal learning community for each student. In doing so, we consider the following factors in creating balanced groups: gender, nationality, English language proficiency, academic achievement, social skills, special needs, and a blend of returning and new students.
If you have specific information regarding your child’s placement that needs to be considered as part of the process, I invite you to email Ms. Geetha for preschool to Grade 2 placements and Mr. George for grades 3 to 5 placements. Please send this information by May 8th. To help us help you, in your email please:
1. List any insights you may have about your child’s learning style.
2. Describe the type of learning environment in which your child may experience the most success.
3. Describe any thoughts you have about your child’s school experience.
4. Add any other important information that you wish to share.
Examples of comments that everyone agrees upon are: “We want a warm, nurturing, caring classroom environment for our child,” or “We want our child to be challenged.” We take these comments as a given; our teachers provide a nurturing, challenging and safe environment for every student. Sorry, but given the complexities of placing students, we cannot take requests for friends to be placed together.
Since we will continue to enroll children up to the first day of school, class lists will only be ready for distribution the afternoon of Monday, August 3rd. Your child’s class placement will be sent to you by email.
Used Construction Sets
Sadly, many of our families are working with shipping companies in preparation for their upcoming departure from Chennai. Are you taking old toys, in particular, construction sets, with you? If not, and you are looking to give them away, then look no further! We are looking to add the following to our much-awaited science and innovation studios:
Lego Mega Mayz
Magformers K-nex
Meccano Meccanix
Marble Run Marbleworks
All types and kits of any of these building toys would be very much appreciated. You may drop them off in the Elementary School Principal’s Office. On behalf of our students, I thank you!
Students in grade K-5 who speak a language other than English at home and are not yet proficient in academic English will take the annual Measure of Developing English Language (MODEL) test May 4-15. The results of the test will be posted to Skyward in early June.
Students who have scored 5.5-6.0 and who have been academically successful this year will not take the MODEL again this year. Instead they will be monitored for the next two school years. At the end of that time, if they continue to be academically successful, they will be considered proficient non-native English speakers.
The best preparation for success on the MODEL test is plenty of rest and good nutrition.
Preschool Parent Presentation – Friday, May 8th, 8:30-9:30 a.m. in the Preschool 3 A Classroom (Room 1615)
Students’ preschool years are one of the most crucial periods for development of speech and language skills in children. During this period, children go through a stage where there is a burst in language skills. These skills are very important for the development of later literacy skills and are tied to success in academics, social and emotional development. It is important for parents to know what skills develop during these ages and how they can encourage speech and language skills. It is also important that parents are able to recognize some of the concerns that point towards a delay in language development. Come join Ms. Thomas and Ms. Chithra, Speech Language Pathologists, as we elaborate of the developmental process and strategies to encourage speech and language skills at home.
High School Basketball Players Visit 2C!
Students in Ms. Jenna’s 2C class recently had the opportunity to watch our high school boys play basketball. After the game, the students sent fan mail to the players. Bryce and Calder were so touched by the letters that they asked to come say hi and thanks to the students, and to also answer a few questions about "how to become muscle men.” Thank you, gentlemen, for visiting the students!
This year, Operation Smile is conducting a yard sale on Friday 15th, May to raise money for cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries. Please donate items in good condition that you no longer use at home for other AISC families/maintenance staff to purchase. You can simply place the items in bins marked Operation Smile Yard Sale placed at the high school office and reception, the middle school office and the elementary reception. Operation Smile volunteers will sell these items and the profits will go to the organization. Or, you can purchase a table for Rs. 1500 and sell your own items and keep the proceeds of the sale. If you wish to buy a table or if you have any questions please email grade 11 student Nivi Sriram at snivedita@aisch.org.
Have a great long weekend!
Kevin Hall
Elementary School Principal