Dear Parents,
Welcome to the start of the 2021-22 school year. My name is Lynn Schneider and I am the Elementary School Principal. I would like to welcome all of the new families joining us this year as well as all of our returning families.
Dave Allen is the Elementary Associate Principal. This is Dave’s fourth year at AISC. His wife Deb is our Director of Admissions and Parent/Alumni Relations.
We have many new Elementary faculty members to welcome this year:
Allison Rabenau - Grade 5 EAL teacher
Britt Thorpe - Grade 5 homeroom teacher (Britt is a returning AISC teacher)
Forrest Aretz - Grade 5 homeroom teacher
Dan Bergthold - Grade 5 homeroom teacher
Ericka Bergthold - Grade 3 homeroom teacher
Kieara Reed - Grade 3 homeroom teacher
Lisa Krebs - Grade 2 homeroom teacher
Christine Netishen - Grades 3-5 Art
Joshua Cannon - Grades 3-5 PE
Shobana Kashyap - Grade 2 TA
Valar Jayapragasam - Grade 3 & 4 TA
Anitha P. R. - Art TA
The beginning of school is an exciting time full of anticipation and enthusiasm, while also perhaps trepidation for both you and your child. We understand those feelings especially at this time. All of our students, not just our new students, will be experiencing this as they meet their new teachers and peers. Our focus for the beginning of the year is creating connections between home and school and building the classroom community.
Updated Virtual Learning Plan
As you know, we will start the school year virtually. Here are a few key aspects of our updated virtual learning program:
emphasis on teacher/student and peer/peer relationships and building classroom community
virtual home visits August 4th-11th
more synchronous instructional sessions with teachers and fewer instructional videos for students
all students will have a weekly 1:1 session with their teacher
live specialist classes by homeroom (not grade level)
two live specialists classes on Wednesday but lighter independent work from homeroom teachers
continue to use Seesaw for homeroom and specialists classes
scheduled weekly virtual recess/social time with counselors (optional for students)
Specialist Class Update
In addition to the updated virtual learning plan, I am excited to share three updates to our specialist classes. Students in grades 1-5 will now participate in Indian Studies class. Previously, students in grades 4 and 5 did not attend Indian Studies. Students will also be taking visual art class all year. Last year, art and design classes alternated quarterly. This year, design will be integrated into the different content area units.
New Student Meet and Greet and First Few Days of School
Those students new to AISC will have a meet and greet with their classroom teacher on the morning of August 2nd. After that meet and greet, classroom teachers will schedule a first class meeting with their entire homeroom. You can expect a welcome letter from your child’s teacher on Friday, July 30th with details about how to join the meet and greet for new students and how to join the first class meeting for everyone later on August 2nd. That welcome letter will also include information about the first week’s schedule. As teachers create their meeting times, they will try to accommodate students in various time zones the best they can.
Synchronous specialist classes will start Tuesday, August 3rd. Your child’s homeroom teacher will share the specialist schedule with you.
Important Dates:
New Student Orientation
AISC will be hosting the virtual New Student and Parent Orientation on Monday, August 2nd. Any new parents and students are invited to attend the different sessions.
Student Learning Facilitator
A few of you are currently in North America. Due to the large time difference, it will be difficult for your child to connect synchronously (face to face). In order to support your child, we have an AISC teacher who is designated as the student learning facilitator. This teacher will facilitate morning meetings with similarly aged students and meet with same grade level students in small groups as well as hold 1:1 meetings. Kay Clark, our North American student learning facilitator, will get in touch directly with families who are currently in the U.S.
Class Placement
You will get an email with your child’s homeroom teacher on July 30th. As we get more information from the government on guidelines for reopening, and we see how many students are able to return to campus when we reopen, we might need to make some changes in class placement.
Seesaw and Gmail
We will use Seesaw as our main platform for communication between teachers, parents, and students. Asynchronous (not face to face) work will also be posted to Seesaw or on the teacher’s weekly slides. On July 30th, you will receive an email with information about how your child can log into Seesaw and how students in grades 3-5 can log into Gmail.
Virtual Home Visits, August 4th - 11th
A virtual home visit is a live meeting between you and your child’s teacher. This is a time for your teacher to get to know you and ask you some questions about your child. Information about signing up will be in the welcome letter from your child’s teacher on July 30th.
Arts, Sports & Activities Program
If you are interested in having your child(ren) engage in FREE virtual activities for Arts, Sports & Activities (ASA) Season 1, please check out the weekly Principal blog or Athletics & Activities blog to get more information. Next week, we will share an ASA Fair web page, which will provide video descriptions from our ASA instructors about the offerings and the registration form. The ASA Fair is on August 3rd from 4:00-5:00 p.m., allowing the students/parents to meet up with the instructors at a live session. ASA programs will begin Monday, August 9th.
Here is the 2021-22 ASA calendar.
We have put together a small feedback video from the 2020-21 school year. Please check out the video at this link.
Looking forward to seeing many of you at the ASA Fair!
Current Student Location
If you did not fill out the location survey that was sent from the school over the summer or if your child’s location has since changed, please email the ES Office (esoffice@aischennai.org) and let us know where your child is starting school. This is very important information for teachers as they create their class schedules.
Communication
Each week we will update the Principal’s Notes. The Head of School, Andrew Hoover, also publishes notes weekly. Please read these notes weekly so that you are as informed as possible.
Your child’s teacher is the first person to contact if you have any questions. However, you may also contact our school counselors and elementary leadership team members.
Lynn Schneider - Elementary Principal (slynn@aischennai.org)
Dave Allen - Associate Principal (adavid@aischennai.org)
Linda Gerberich - ES Counselor grades EY - grade 4 (glinda@aischennai.org)
Michele Ness - ES Counselor Grade 5 (nmichele@aischennai.org)
We are looking forward to a fantastic year!