Clare's Blog: Week of December 11, 2016

Upcoming at AWS...

Monday, December 12
F DAY
8:00am Morning Meeting
10:00am All Schools Chapel: Rehearsal for Lessons & Carols (students line up in hallway at 10:00am)
10:40am Snack @ the MS Office
3:30pm All Schools Faculty Meeting

Tuesday, December 13

A DAY
Lessons & Carols
Dress Uniform (Students may take ties, vests off during the school day; full Dress Uniform at 4:00pm)

10:00am Snack @ the MS Office

10:10am Tutorial Time

10:20am Flex

2:15pm Collaboration

3:15pm "A Charlie Brown Christmas" in the Lounge
4:00pm Pizza in the Dining Room
5:00pm Lessons & Carols
6:00pm Reception for adults in the Great Hall, for students in the Small Gym. MS Students will be dismissed from the Small Gym/Day School Office

Wednesday, December 14
B DAY
Civvies Dress

10:00am MS Holiday Celebration in the Lounge

2:15pm MS Faculty Meeting

Thursday, December 15

Special C DAY
Dress Uniform
8:00am-8:10am Advisory
8:15am-9:05am Period 1
9:10am-10:00am Period 2
10:00-10:15am Break & Snack @ the MS Office
10:15am-11:05am Period 3
11:10am-12:00pm Period 4
12:00pm-12:35pm Lunch
12:40pm-1:30pm Period 5
1:30pm Holiday Tea
3:10pm Dismissal

Friday, December 16

Grandparents' & Special Friends' Day Special Schedule
Dress Uniform
8:00am-8:10am Advisory
8:10am-9:00am MS Expo Set-up & Locker Cleanout
9:00am-9:30am Share
9:30am-9:45am GSFD Registration opens: Students expecting guests report to the Front Hall; students performing report to the Great Hall;
9:45-10:30am Special Performance in the Great Hall
10:30am-11:30am MS Expo
11:30am-12:00pm Cleanup
12:00pm Dismissal
2:30pm MS Faculty Meeting at the Parkway
6:00pm Faculty & Staff Holiday Party in the Great Hall

Action Items...

Crosswalk help?

The US is out on Thursday...anyone interested in covering the Tacoma Ave Crosswalk on Thursday morning? Let Bill know on Monday.

Grade Checks

If you haven't already, please be sure to reach out to Advisees' families for a Grade Check and ask for a response by Wednesday. There’s a draft example on the doc linked above.

Special Schedules

Holiday Tea

Special Schedule for 12.15.2015 Holiday Tea				C
PERIOD	Start time	End time	Min	6A	6B	7A	7B	8A	8B	8C
0	7:30 AM	8:00 AM	30
Morning Meeting	8:00 AM	8:10 AM	10	Morning Meeting/ Advisory
1	8:15 AM	9:05 AM	50	LL	M	A	A	M	M	M
2	9:10 AM	10:00 AM	50	M	LL	M	SCI	D	D	D
Break	10:00 AM	10:15 AM	15	Break
3	10:15 AM	11:05 AM	50	LA	LA	LL	M	SCI	IS	LL
4	11:10 AM	12:00 PM	50	IS	SCI	PHE	PHE	LL	SCI	IS
Lunch	12:00 PM	12:35 PM	35	Lunch
5	12:40 PM	1:30 PM	50	SCI	IS	D	D	IS	LL	SCI
Holiday Tea	1:30 PM	3:10 PM	100	Holiday Tea
After School	3:10 PM	4:00 PM
Extended Day		6:00 PM

* note swap of D and PHE for 7th Grade

Grandparents' & Special Friends' Day

Special Schedule for 12.16.2016 Grandparents' & Special Friends' Day				FRIDAY
PERIOD	Start time	End time	Min	6	7	8
0	7:30 AM	8:00 AM	30	Orchestra
Morning Meeting	8:00 AM	8:10 AM	10	Advisory
1	8:10 AM	9:00 AM	50	MS Expo Set-up & Locker Cleanout
2	9:00 AM	9:30 AM	30	Faculty Share
	9:30 AM	9:45 AM	15	Transition to Grandparents' & Special Friends' Day (Students expecting guests report to the Front Hall)
	9:45 AM	10:30 AM	45	Special Performance in the Great Hall
MS Expo	10:30 AM	11:30 AM	60	MS Expo
	11:30 AM	12:00 PM	30	Cleanup

Cross the Commons

Cross the Commons is Friday, January 6, meaning a modified schedule for 8th Grade. More details to come this week.

First Semester Finals

First Semester Final Assessments are scheduled for January 18-20. Currently, we have the following assessments lined up for these days:

6th Grade: Chinese, Language & Lit, Individuals & Societies
7th Grade: Chinese, Individuals & Societies, Science
8th Grade: Chinese, Science

Please let Bill know on Monday if any further assessments will be given on those days.

Student Recognition

The schedule for recognitions is here and linked at the bottom of this blog. There are no formal recognitions this week. We'll pick up again on January 4 with 6th Grade.
The doc has been re-sorted to gather students who have been recognized - about 1/3 of each class has been recognized so far this year. As we discussed last year, our

2017-2018 Calendar

The 2018-2018 Calendar has been finalized and can be found here. The calendar follows the pattern of the current and last years. This spring, after two years of full-week breaks in November and February, we will evaluate for 2018-2019.

Following Up...

Communications

This week, the blog for families will feature the Language Acquisition and Design. Please email your post to Bill or Alicia, or drop it in the corresponding box on this doc.

Proposed Schedule Tweak for Second Semester

Following up on an idea that was floated in last week's Faculty Meeting: As we’ve discussed, the mid-morning tutorial time has been disorganized, and the loss of Advisory time in the morning has been noticed. One idea, for Tuesday-Friday:

add 5 min to Morning Advisory;
bump Periods 1 & 2 out 5 minutes, so Period 2 ends at 10:05;
establish 10:05-10:20 as Break (including Snack) and establish Faculty Duty slots to supervise the Lounge, Small Gym, 6th G Hallway;
Maintain mid-morning activities from 10:20-10:50 and Period 3 beginning at 10:55.
Maintain the current schedule for Mondays because of the immovable AS Chapel slot at 10:00am.

If you have any concerns about making this shift, please talk to Bill or Clare this week.

Think about...

Upcoming opportunities

The Christmas Revels will be at the Rialto this month, featuring our very own Rae Wartelle! For more information, visit the Broadway Center website.
"30 Americans" is making its West Coast debut at the Tacoma Art Museum on Saturday, September 24 and running until January 15. The show features a group of prominent African American artists who are major players in contemporary art.
Amara is opening an Emergency Sanctuary Program in Tacoma and is looking for volunteers to commit to one shift per month to play games, go on field trips, help prepare meals and keep house, and to spend time with children in the program. If you're interested in learning more about volunteering with this organization, there are info meetings coming up on Thursday, October 13 and Saturday, October 15.

Upcoming Religious & Cultural Observances

Sunday, November 27 marked the beginning of the Advent season for Christians. Advent ends on December 24.
Monday, December 12 is the Catholic feast of Our Lady of Guadelupe, an important celebration for Mexican Catholics. It is also the Muslim observance Mawlid an Nabi, which celebrates the birth of the Prophet Muhammad.
Wednesday, December 21 is the Winter Solstice, which is observed as Yule by Wiccan and Christian communities.
Sunday, December 25 marks the beginning of the Jewish festival of Chanukah. It is also the beginning of the Christmas Season for Christians.
Sunday, January 1 is Gantan-sai, the Shinto observance of the new year.

Clare's Blog

Monday, December 12, 2016

Week of December 11, 2016