Week of February 11, 2018

Upcoming at AWS...

Monday, February 12
D DAY
7:45am Val-o-grams on sale 
8:00am Morning Meeting
8:20am-9:55am Visual Arts 6 Field Trip to McKinley Neighborhood (Leenstra, Hulseman)
10:00am All Schools Chapel: USG BSU Presentation on African American History Month
10:30am Break and Snack in the MS Office
12:05pm Val-o-grams on sale
12:30pm Candidate for Long Term Humanities Sub Interviewing on campus
3:30pm All Schools Meeting

Tuesday, February 13
E DAY
7:45am Val-o-grams on sale 
8:00am Advisory
9:00am-1:30pm MS Student Council field trip to Leadership Conference at Stewart Middle School (Wagstaff)
10:05 Break and Snack in the MS Office
10:20am Flex & MS Chorus
2:15pm Grade 7 Team 
2:45pm Grade 6 Team
3:15pm Grade 8 Team

Wednesday, February 14
F DAY
7:45am Val-o-grams on sale 
7:30am Math Team Meeting in Rockne's Room
8:00am Advisory
10:05 Break and Snack in the MS Office
10:20am MS Chapel led by the Hunt Advisory and 7th and 6th Grade Recognitions; Wagstaff Advisory as Acolytes 

12:05pm Val-o-grams on sale

Thursday, February 15
A DAY
8:00am Advisory
10:05 Break and Snack in the MS Office
10:20am MS Share in the Great Hall
2:15pm MS Faculty Meeting in the Design Lab

Friday, February 16

B DAY - Lunar New Year

8:00am Advisory
10:05 Break and Snack in the MS Office
10:20am Clubs
7:00pm "Guys and Dolls" in the Kemper Theater

Saturday, February 17
7:00pm "Guys and Dolls" in the Kemper Theater

Ticket to Thrive

• Ticket to Thrive 2018 Schedule & Details  
• Dress for the day? Dressy. 
• We'll begin with a brief check-in meeting at 8:30 in the Sutton Room.
• All Faculty should be in the Library at 9:45. After introductions, all are welcome to stay for the quick overview by Bill & Clare and Student Panel, head to get Activity Rotations set up, or resume teamwork. 
• At lunch, please mix in with our prospective families. This is a great way for them to get to know us, and for us to observe kids and family dynamics. 
• The last piece of the schedule is Math Inventory testing, starting at 12:45. We will ask parents to remain in the Dining Room, and their students will be brought to them. Please feel free to stay and mingle or to use the remainder of the time to capture your thoughts about prospective students that you interacted with or observed and their families on this form: Feedback on Prospective Students Ticket to Thrive 2018, or to resume independent work. 

Faculty Meetings...

Updated All Schools Meetings for the remainder of the year...

• Monday, February 12: All Schools Meeting
• Monday, February 26: Topic Group Meeting
• Monday, March 5: CaP Facilitators Meeting
• Monday, March 12: Topic Group Meeting
• Monday, March 19: Topic Group Meeting
• Monday, April 9: Emergency Training #4

Slime

We've hit that point: slime has invaded the Middle School and is starting to get messy. Starting Monday, we will be banning slime from the Middle School.

Conferences

Conference Day for Lower and Middle Schools is Thursday, March 22. Neil will be setting up our schedules on Pick-A-Time next week. There is no expectation that Advisors must schedule conferences outside of Thursday 3/22, but if you'd like to provide your Advisees and their families more flexibility to schedule a conference on a day earlier that week, please indicate that on this spreadsheet. 

• On the spreadsheet, there is a tab for each Advisory. 
• Please type N/A in any block for which you are not available. 
• Please complete this before Wednesday, 2/13 so Neil can build out the signups. Neil will be sure to provide a lunch block on Thursday for everyone. 
• Please do not schedule conferences with families directly - please direct them to Pick-A-Time, so we can track who has signed up and who hasn't - unless you need to schedule a conference before the week of 3/19 or after spring break. If you do so, please notify Neil of when that conference will happen.

Attendance procedures...

From Anelisa: To be certain which students are physically on campus we need to record attendance specifically. This will prevent confusion during an emergency. Please mark the students Absent even if parents have communicated they will be tardy. Once they are on campus, I will then note they are HERE and change their status to Tardy.

Accessing the OCC

If you haven't already, please be sure to log onto the replacement for the OCC. Below is the video John showed us. Please follow the directions to make a new account for IBO.org. Once you have done this, John will be notified by email that you have set up a new account (old ones for the OCC won’t work and you need to register as new). John and Clare are happy to help in any way we can, please reach out if you need help with this process. It would be great to have all MS teachers registered before Feb break. 

https://vimeo.com/232957815/1ac6739414

Ordering & Supplies

Just a reminder - please direct all requests for supplies and special orders through the form the Neil created. The form is also linked in the Important Links list on this blog.

Getting to Know You

Next week will mark the end of the first round of faculty profiles! Thanks for sharing about your backgrounds, your interests, your interesting trivia, and your reflections on teaching! Niki, you're up for this one. The Get to Know You form is here. 

A little further down the road...

• Monday, February 12: Re-enrollment Contracts released
• Friday, February 16: All School Civvies Day
• Monday, February 19-Friday, February 23: February Break for Lower and Middle Schools
• Monday, February 26: Re-enrollment Contracts due
• Thursday, March 1 7:45am: Grade 6 Parents’ Coffee 
• Friday, March 2 1:00pm: Living Voices "Through the Eyes of a Friend" (Special Schedule)
• Tuesday, March 6 7:45am: Grade 7 Parents’ Coffee (note date change!)
• Wednesday, March 7 1:20-2:00pm: Master Class for MS Orchestra with Sarah Ionides (Orchestra students only: Ava Salam, Amelia Wynne; Lauren Cook, Kiran Hutchinston, Sofia La Rosa, Elodie Soustelle, Rae Wartelle, Sasha Zhang; Kate Collie, Mia Escobar, Gwynnie Hayes, Dana Hicks, Anna Parrott, Samantha Salamone)
• Saturday, March 10: Auction 2018
• Tuesday, March 13 7:45am: Grade 8 Parents’ Coffee (note date change!)
• Thursday, March 15 10:00am-11:45am: Guest Speaker George Elbaum for Grades 7 & 8
• Friday, March 16 2:15pm: SRS Irish Dance Performance 
• Wednesday, March 21 2:15pm: Winter II Athletics Assembly
• Thursday, March 22: Spring Advisory Conferences
• Friday, March 22: Faculty In-Service
• Monday, March 26-Friday, March 30: Spring Break
• Wednesday, April 4 6:00pm: MS Journeys Information Night (at least one parent of every student must attend!)
• Friday, April 20: UW Engineering Discovery Days field trip for Grade 8
• Wednesday, April 25: Regional orchestra festival at Stadium High School
• Thursday, April 26-Friday, April 27: MS Play in the Kemper 

Upcoming religious and cultural observances

• Thursday, February 1 marked the beginning of African American History Month, American Heart Month, and International Friendship Month. 
• Tuesday, February 13 is the Christian observance of Mardi Gras. It is also the Hindu festival Maha Shivaratri. 
• Wednesday, February 14 marks the beginning of the Christian season of Lent and the Christian Feast of Saint Valentine. 
• Friday, February 16 marks the Lunar New Year, an important observance for East Asian  cultures.