Weeks of November 19 & 26, 2017

Upcoming at AWS...

Monday, November 20-Friday, November 25
THANKSGIVING BREAK

Monday, November 27

D DAY

8:00am Morning Meeting in the MS Lounge

10:00am All Schools Chapel 
3:15pm JV1 Soccer v. Life Christian

3:30pm CaP Topic Group Meetings

Tuesday, November 28
E DAY

8:00am Advisory

10:05am Snack in the MS Office
10:20am Flex & MS Chorus

2:45pm MS Faculty Meeting
3:15pm Varsity Soccer v. Seattle Christian

Wednesday, November 29
F DAY

8:00am Advisory
10:05am Snack in the MS Office
10:20am MS Chapel led by the McConnell Advisory & Thinker Recognitions (all students - add recognitions to the All Grades (Monthly) tab on the doc); Calcote Advisory as Acolytes

Thursday, November 30
A DAY
7:30am Math Meeting
8:00am Advisory
10:05am Snack in the MS Office
10:20am Long Advisory; Grade 7 Meeting in the Chapel
2:15pm Design Meeting

Friday, December 1
B DAY 
8:00am Advisory
10:05am Snack in the MS Office
10:20am Clubs
3:15pm Grade 6 Team Meeting

Saturday, December 2 & Sunday, December 3
Winter Music Recitals

Gradebooks

Please remember to keep your gradebooks up to date - in the past, we've had the practice of updating by Thursday, so that students and families can have an accurate sense of standing before the weekend. I have not sent reminders about this, but it is a pattern that emerged from Conferences.

Grade 8

In October, 8th Grade families received this message regarding the high school transition process. As we now have a high school for boys as well as one for girls, our language around the high school transition process has changed. Students in Grade 8 are automatically accepted into our Upper School programs, and they do not need to complete the full application process. Events like After Hours and Cross the Commons are designed with our students in mind, to help them think about their next steps. If students are considering other options for high school, we do have a few expectations regarding that process, including: students should ask teachers for recommendations directly before providing relevant materials; students and families should provide materials directly to or notify Alicia; and students should limit their visit days to 2. If you receive any requests for recommendations, please notify Alicia, and return any completed materials directly to her. 

Admissions Season

Admissions season has begun (does it ever really end?)! For students interested in enrolling at Annie Wright in Middle School, the process has a few clear steps: 
Preview: Attend the MS Preview (November 11) or acquire initial information about the school via a private tour with Joy Phelps.
Apply: Prospective students and families complete an online admissions form and submit required materials, including transcripts and teachers' recommendations.
Visit & Interview: Students attend school for a day. Students applying for Grade 6 will spend the morning with our current 6th Grade to get a sense of the MS experience and the afternoon with 5th Grade to meet potential classmates. Students applying for Grades 7 and 8 will spend the day with their current grade-level peers. The visit ends with a family interview. 
Ticket to Thrive: Our major admissions event was originally designed as a recruiting event, but as our enrollment strengthened it has morphed into a culminating event designed for prospective students and families who have completed other steps in the Admissions process. The day includes a series of activities designed to give us a clearer sense of each prospective student and to to answer families' questions and "seal the deal." The day also includes the administration of MI and RI tests. While TtT will continue to welcome students who are perhaps looking at us for the first time or who have not completed all other aspects of the process, it will provide us a clearer sense of applicants and enable us to make Admissions decisions soon after the event.

As we head into Admissions season, a few things to think about: 

• Typically, interviews on Shadow Days are conducted by Joy and Bill or Clare, but as we anticipate growth in the Middle School and are already experiencing increased interest in the Middle School, we will need to rely on more Faculty participating in these interviews. For each interview, we use the same set of questions that give us a more holistic glimpse into each student and her/his family. If you would like to take part in these interviews, please let Bill know by Wednesday of this week. Interviews occur from 2:15 until about 3:00, and we can schedule around team or subject area meetings that are scheduled during that time. 
• 6th and 7th Grade Advisors: We rely on our students to be hosts for prospective students. This week, please ask your Advisees whether they would be willing to host a prospective student for a shadow day. If they would not be willing to do that for any reason, please let Alicia know by the end of this week.
• The program for Ticket to Thrive is an innovative and creative way to introduce our program and to get to know prospective students. Last year's schedule and details are here. If you have any ideas about activities or aspects of the event, please send them on to Bill! In December and January, we'll spend some time tweaking the schedule and preparing for the event. 
• As part of the Admissions process, we rely on the RI and MI to assess student's readiness around Reading and Math, and these tests give us an apples-to-apples comparison to current students. These assessments don't catch everything, and sometimes families are reluctant to provide information about learning differences, IAPs, or other challenges that students face - of course, these come to the surface pretty quickly once the school year starts. If you are aware of an instrument or a process that effectively identifies these aspects of a learner's profile, please don't hesitate to share with Bill or Joy. 
• Thinking way ahead to August, I'm starting to imagine ways to transition students into our program, especially students entering after the start of Grade 6. This might take the form of summer work designed specifically for these students, or something more interactive (Annie Wright boot camp?). If you have any ideas along these lines or would like to brainstorm some ideas a little later in the year, please let Bill know!

The Holiday Season

Well, the song tells us that it's the most wonderful time of the year. It's an exciting time at school, chock full of traditions linked to the observance of Christmas. When you return to campus tomorrow, you'll see holiday decorations up throughout the school, including a huge tree in the Great Hall and trees and a creche in the Chapel. We know that the Board is discerning our identity as an Episcopal school, and certainly this is something to engage and celebrate, but I doubt that we have many students who have come to us because of that aspect of our program. As we move through the next few weeks, please be sensitive to our students and colleagues who may or may not observe winter holidays - this is a potent way to make students who are or feel that they are in the minority feel marginalized. 

One practice that communities engage is identifying the common denominator to build dialogue across cultural or religious boundaries. One can identify numerous commonalities when it comes to seasonal and religious holidays - winter observances often reflect on the natural seasonal cycle and ascribe meaning to related phenomena. Many refer to winter as the Season of Light - acknowledging both the common experience of seasonal darkness and the variety of ways groups have given meaning to it, including the Hindu and South Asian Diwali festival, the Jewish observance of Chanukah, the Christian observance of Advent and Christmas, the Buddhist celebration of Bodhi Day, and the African American observance of Kwanzaa. Likewise, the most important month of the Muslim calendar is Ramadan, which is also laden with symbolism of light and darkness (but the Muslim calendar is lunar and does not reset itself like the Jewish calendar, so Ramadan doesn't always occur in wintertime), and the Lunar New Year, an important observance throughout eastern Asia, includes symbolism around light. 

Grandparents' & Special Friends' Day

Lower & Middle Schools Grandparents' & Special Friends' Day is Friday, December 15 (which is also a noon dismissal for students). The plan is to follow a schedule and program similar to the last couple of years. Last year's schedule is below. The program will include a welcome and performance by MS students and ensembles and the MS Expo to feature a variety of projects and experiences from throughout our program. In an upcoming Faculty Meeting, we'll identify the projects that will be highlighted. 

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

First Semester Finals Schedule

A draft iteration for First Semester Finals is here and on the MS Schedule Doc (tab: S1 Finals). The week is built around 1 or 2 finals blocks each day, Arts, Design and PHE classes, special activities, and sports. Please take a look and reach out with any questions or concerns. 

Upcoming religious & cultural observances

• Wednesday, November 1 marked the beginning of National Adoption Awareness Month and Native American Heritage Month.
• Monday, November 20 was the Transgender Day of Remembrance. 
• Thursday, November 23 is Thanksgiving in the USA. 
• Friday, December 1 is the Muslim observance of Mawlid al-Nabi (MAW-lid ul-NAH-bee), which commemorates the birth of the Prophet Muhammad. December 1 is also World AIDS Day, which raises awareness about the worldwide epidemic of HIV and AIDS.