Week of September 17, 2017

Upcoming at AWS...

Monday, September 18
D DAY

8:00am Morning Meeting in the MS Lounge

10:00am All Schools Chapel: Guest Performer Swathi Subramanian

10:30am Snack in the MS Office & Break

2:15pm Language Acquisition and Individuals & Societies Meetings

3:30pm MS/US Department Meetings

Tuesday, September 19
E DAY

7:30am 8th Grade Departs for the Waterhouse Center
8:00am Advisory

10:05am Snack in the MS Office

10:20am Flex & MS Chorus

2:45pm MS Faculty Meeting: Tour of the USG - meet in the Front Hall

5:30pm 8th Grade Returns from the Waterhouse Center

Wednesday, September 20
F DAY

8:00am Advisory

10:05am Snack in the MS Office

10:20am MS Chapel: Leenstra Advisory as Acolytes

Thursday, September 21
A DAY
7:45am 6th Grade Parents Coffee in the Dining Room
8:00am Advisory
10:05am Snack in the MS Office
10:20am Long Advisory: Grade Level Meetings for Student Council Elections
2:15pm Design Meeting

Friday, September 22
B DAY
8:00am Advisory
10:05am Snack in the MS Office
10:15am MS Meeting in the Lounge
10:20am Clubs, MS Orchestra & Band
2:15pm Math Meeting
3:15m 6th Grade Team Meeting in the Design Lab

MYP

On Friday, the Board of Trustees met for their September meeting. I was able to announce MYP authorization, which was met with applause and great celebration. The Board sends its congratulations to the MS Faculty!

BTSN

Again, thanks for a wonderful Back to School Night! If you haven't already, please capture any observations and feedback here. 

Topic Groups & Monday's Department Meeting

If you haven't signed up for a Topic Group yet (see Kyle's email), sign up here. Locations for Monday's meetings: 

• English/Lang & Lit: Shelli's room
• Science: Niki's room
• Math: emily Weston's room 
• Arts: US Art Studio
• Language Acquisition: Emily Stokes' room
• Social Studies/Ind&Soc: Kyle's room
• Design/Tech/Computer Science: Angela Heath's lab

Experience Days

It's time to start planning for Experience Days 2017! The folders for this and the last two years of Experience Days planning is here. 

Last year, we framed Experiences in the Arts, thinking this would contribute to meeting the required number of hours for Arts (it doesn't), so this year, we're back to a broader field of opportunities. To register an idea, please note the following details on Experience Days 2017 Ideas: 

• Your name
• Title or general idea for the Experience
• Other relevant Details (cost, min/max numbers, etc.).

Once ideas are posted, we will review and finalize a list and short descriptions for students to sign up. Please generate initial ideas by the end of this week.

Professional Growth: Goal Articulation, Meetings, and Observations

If you haven't already, please schedule a meeting with Bill to talk about professional goals for the year. 

Observations begin the week of September 25. See the list below - Bill & Clare will divide observations as listed below. For observations, please schedule three things:

• Pre-Observation Meeting (10 minutes, the day before the observation). Complete the pre-observation template before this meeting. Thinking about what you'd like feedback on, consider the elements in the Danielson framework, listed in the pre-observation template. 
• Observation (one full class period). 
• Post-Observation Meeting (30 minutes, at least 2 days after the observation). Complete the post-observation template.

How to prepare? Don't. Well...don't do anything differently for an observation than you would for any other class meeting. Think about what you want feedback on - a particular strategy or technique, engaging a particular student or group of students, a new lesson or mechanism. Use the observation docs in your folder to guide

Observations: Bill/Clare

Fall Observation Bayard, Drown, Lovejoy Calcote, Flores, Paco Hunt, McConnell Price, Strate Dicks, Finch, Rockne Hartmann, Taylor, Wagstaff Gettel, Hake, Leenstra

Week of… Sep 25 Oct 2 Oct 9 Oct 16 Oct 23 Oct 30 Nov 6

Tours of US

Last year, we talked about wanting to learn more about the programs in the Upper School for Girls, both for general familiarity and to be able to talk to students about the high school transition with students. We are working with Alyssa Harvey, who has trained US Student Ambassadors, and we'll arrange tours soon. The first tour might be on Tuesday during Faculty Meeting time. This blog will be updated when that's confirmed. 

Elections

Elections of Class Representatives will happen during Long Advisory this week. In addition to leadership of MS activities and class business, MS Student Council officers and reps will also have a hand in planning some of this year's House Pride activities. Questions about Elections? Contact Clare. 

Quick-tip: Hyperlinking

Google has clearly mixed something up - sharing documents used to automatically send emails indicate a document share. If you want to make sure a doc is shared, or if you want to embed a link into an email or other electronic document, here's a quick tip:

1. Copy the web address of the doc/site you want to share (Command-C).
2. Highlight the text that will be hyperlinked.
3. If you're within Google Drive, hit Command-K. If you're in Outlook, look for the hyperlink icon -  - and click that. A small window pops up. 
4. Paste the web address where indicated. 

Once the hyperlink is added to text, it can also be copied and pasted to new docs or emails. 

Student Recognitions

We haven't abandoned Student Recognitions! We will resume student recognitions in October.

Communications

Last year, we delivered brief glimpses into the academic program based that took the form of summaries or overviews of what was happening in class. This year, I'd like to mix it up a bit, both to go a little deeper into the curriculum and for our families to get to know the faculty a little better. For the first round of these, which will take us into Second Semester, I ask each teacher to write a brief synopsis of a unit s/he is teaching indicating what s/he is excited about or energized by teaching the unit. The schedule for these is below.

1. September 22: Clare
2. Septemner 29: Shelli
3. October 6: Kyle
4. October 13: Jen
5. October 20: Jessica
6. October 27: Shannon
7. November 3: Emma
8. November 10: Liz
9. November 17: Mike
10. December 1: Ann 
11. December 8: Sedia
12. December 15: Angelica
13. January 5: Holly
14. January 12: Alice
15. January 19: Stuart
16. January 26: John H
17. February 2: Vicky
18. February 9: Jessica
19. February 16: John R
20. February 23: Niki

Each will be accompanied by a little "get to know you" profile of the author, guided by your responses to this short form. Please complete at least three of these questions.

Upcoming Religious & Cultural Observances

• National Hispanic Heritage Month began on September 15. 
• Sunset on Wednesday, September 20, marks the beginning of Rosh Hashanah (RUSH ha-SHA-nah), the Jewish New Year, the beginning of the High Holy Days on the Jewish calendar. 
• Thursday, September 21 marks the beginning of the Hindu festival of Navaratri (NAH-va-RAH-tree), which celebrates the triumph of good over evil and the beginning of fall. Sunset on Thursday also marks the beginning of Hijra (HEJ-rah), the beginning of the Muslim new year. 
• Friday, September 22, is the Autumnal Equinox, marking the beginning of Fall. It is also observed as the Wiccan (WICK-en) holiday Mabon (MAY-bun).