Sunday, November 8, 2015

Week of November 8, 2015

Learner Profile: Risk-Taker

At the MYP conference I attended over the summer, the facilitator for my session reviewed the LP and introduced that the MYP would add a little nuance to two of the attributes. "Risk-Taker," he suggested, could be interchanged with "Courageous," and "Balanced" could be interchanged with "Spiritual." Shifting from "risk-taker" to "courageous" brought me to a different layer of understanding what the attribute desired from students. This brought me back to a book that a friend gave me many years ago, Teaching with Fire: Poetry that Sustains the Courage to Teach. It's an anthology of poems, each accompanied by a brief reflection on the text's impact on or inspiration to a teacher. Thinking of the attribute, though, I offer two selections from this anthology from two very different authors. 
It is I Who Must Begin

It is I who must begin. 
once I begin, once I try - 
here and now, 
right where I am, 
not excusing myself 
by saying that things
would be easier elsewhere, 
without grand speeches and
ostentatious gestures, 
but all the more persistently
- to live in harmony
with the "voice of Being," as I 
understand it within myself
- as soon as I begin that, 
I suddenly discover, 
to my surprise, that
I am neither the only one, 
nor the first, 
nor the most important one
to have set out
upon that road.
Whether all is really lost
or not depends enturely on
where or not I am lost
-Vaclav Havel 

the drum

daddy says the world
is a drum tight
and hard
and i told him
i'm gonna beat out
my own rhythm
-nikki giovanni

Items of note...

Advisory this week...

Admissions

  • On Monday, November 9, we will welcome Kate Piasecki; she will spend the majority of the day with her guide, Ekaterina Kontos-Cohen. 
  • On Tuesday, November 10, we will welcome Jack Nguyen; he will spend the majority of the day with his guide, Josh Piatok. 
  • Wednesday, November 11 is an All-School Admissions Visit Day. The schedule for the day can be found here. 
    • At this point, we have 11 students registered to visit 6th Grade. They will spend the morning with the 6th Grade, will meet their 6th Grade Guides at lunch, and join the 6th Grade for 5th & 6th Periods. 
    • We also have one student registered to visit 9th Grade who will spend the morning with the 8th Grade (Sitara McMillin will be her Guide for the morning) and then join the Upper School Admissions Visit after 11:00am. 
    • There is a brief reception to meet parents of visitors from 2:10-2:40pm in the Great Hall. Please plan to stop by to meet some prospective parents.

Observations

If you have not scheduled an observation for before Winter Break, please do so this week.

MS Space: Short term...

As I mentioned at the Friday Share, I am going to incentivize care of our common spaces, with special attention to the Lounge and the 6th Grade Hallway. The 7th & 8th Grades are responsible for the Lounge, and the 6th Grade for the Hallway. The spaces should be maintained consistently - furniture not in total disarray, bags on top of the lockers or in neat piles, no wrappers or garbage on the floor, and no food. I will do two daily checks (at 12:40pm and 4:00pm); if we can sustain this for a solid week, the MS will have a special snack next Monday. If we can sustain this for a solid month, we'll look at some bigger prizes. 

...and long term. 

December, which is quickly approaching, is budget-setting season. I'd like to start a list of ideas for the the kinds of capital and furniture improvements or modifications that we see in the MS space. If you have noticed something that requires attention, from furniture and paint to damage, renovations, and equipment needs, please plug it in to the doc linked below. This is just an idea generator, not an official request list; things might not happen in the next year either, so if you have an idea for a bigger project as well, plug it in. 

In-Service on 11/14

The draft schedule for our in-service on Saturday, November 14 is below. I'll get a finalized one to you by the end of the week. If you require childcare on Saturday, please email Katelyn Hoffman a.s.a.p. The majori

 9:00am Meeting on MYP Progress
10:00am Individual/Collaborative Work Time
11:30am Lunch
12:00pm Meeting on MYP Assessment
1:00pm Individual/Collaborative Work Time
2:00pm End of Day

 Conferences
Conferences continue this week! If you feel that I should be on call for any particular meeting, for whatever reason, please let me know!

Progress Reports

Final instructions regarding progress reports are forthcoming. This week, I may request that you do a quick cut-and-paste from final letters and course summaries into your myAW portal. Will get details to you a.s.a.p.

For a full plan for Progress Reports, click here.

Lessons & Carols

On Tuesday, December 15, the Middle and Upper Schools will celebrate Lessons & Carols. The schedule is still being finalized, but it will be something like this:
  • 3:10pm End of the School Day
  • 4:00pm Light Dinner for Students in the Dining Room
  • 5:00pm Lessons & Carols
  • 6:00pm Reception in the Great Hall for Families; Checkout for Students from the 10th Street Entrance/Library
  • 7:00pm End of the event
This will require some extra hands for supervision for the end of the school day, dinner, and checkout at the end of the night - maybe 4 or 5 people. If you're particularly eager to help out, please let me know! (Yes, this is a repeat from last week's blog. No volunteers yet.)

Annual Fund Update

FY16 to date
Cash & Pledges: $210,427.73
Number of Donors: 223

FY15 to date
Cash & Pledges: $122,586.80

Number of Donors: 207

Clare's Corner...

A few weeks ago, John Hunt, Kyle, Joe, Angela, and I were lucky enough to go to San Francisco for the Nueva School Innovative Learning conference. In addition, we also got to visit a local K-8 school, the d-School at Stanford, the design firm MKThink, and finally the Exploratorium interactive museum. These opportunities gave us a very clear and deep insight into the whole design process, collaboration, and design thinking.

During the Saturday work day later this month, my hope is that the group and I can debrief to you all a little more about our experiences and how these might impact AWS as we move forward with MYP and incorporate the powerful ideas of design thinking.

To get started, the following Ted Talk How to Build Your Creative Confidence by David Kelley who is one of the founders of the d-School, is a great way to get tiny exposure to what we encountered. It’s short and a real primer to the conversation that will follow. So if you do have ten minutes to watch, it is well worth the time! 

MYP...

Communications...

Flash

This week's Flash (11/13) will include: 
  • MYP: Focus on the LP attributes Communicators and Balanced
  • Academic Highlights on Science and Music

Blogs

Don't miss the latest installments of The Dish from Mrs. Dicks or Joe Romano's AWSLibrary blog! 

Religious & Cultural Observances coming up...

Upcoming at AWS...

Monday, November 9
Visitors in the 6th and 8th Grades
10:00am Flex (No All-School Chapel)
3:45pm All-School Faculty & Staff Meeting in the Great Hall

 Tuesday, November 10
No Team Meeting scheduled because of Conferences

 Wednesday, November 11
Admissions Visit Day: Regular uniform for students; smart/formal dress for faculty & staff

Thursday, November 12
6:00pm Journeys Parents Meeting (only Journeys coordinators need to attend; all others are welcome)

 Friday, November 13
10:00am 7th Grade Share and Student Recognition
7:00pm "A Little Princess" in the Kemper Theater

Saturday, November 14
9:00am Faculty In-Service 
7:00pm "A Little Princess" in the Kemper Theater

 Monday, November 16
2:10pm Internet Safety Speaker in the Kemper Center
2:30pm Ingrid Ricks, author of Hippie Boy, in the Great Hall

Other Team Meetings Agendas:
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