Dear Students and Parents,
Happy travels to everyone in the high school as we head off for Discover India this weekend. Please note that the next Parent Newsletter will be published on Friday, October 17th.
Last week was filled with school spirit. Three cheers for student council for inspiring us to dress up, participate and show our love of our school and our community! We hope everyone enjoyed the lunchtime activities and the homecoming dance!
Here are a few pictures from the week…
Discover India - Last Minute Reminders
All Discover India trips depart on Sunday or Monday from the AISC school campus and conclude the following Friday. Students have been given complete itineraries for their particular trips.
While students are able to travel with their mobile phones and cameras, it is important that they take care of their belonging as neither AISC nor the travel company arranging the trip will assume responsibility for lost or stolen items.
As was communicated last week, it is our expectation that all students participate in Discover India. Attendance will be taken on all trips.
As stated in our student handbook, all absences, whether excused or unexcused, count toward the total allowable absences per semester. The limit for absences is 15%, or seven blocks, per course. If this maximum is exceeded the student will receive no credit for the course and a failing mark on his or her transcript. Discover India corresponds to an ABABA week and attendance will be recorded as per those courses. You can see that missing Discover India will amass 2 or 3 absences per course. We caution students not to view this week as optional as choosing not to participate comes with potentially serious consequences.
Should anyone fall sick right before departure, please contact both Sunita Suchith (ssunita@aisch.org) and one of the chaperones on the trip directly. They will be able to advise you of the next necessary steps.
All trips will do their best (pending cell signal) to check in with Sunita each evening via text message. Some of our trips travel to locations where communication is impossible for a day or two at a time. In such instances there is no need to panic. As soon as the trip leader is able to text Sunita, he/she will do so. Should you have any concerns about the progress of a trip, please contact the office.
Help Needed!
Mr. Ron Thomson, our Athletics and Activities Director, needs your help. In one month AISC will host SAISA swimming (October 29 - November 2). We will have approximately 150 visiting students and, to date, we still need hosting for 90 of them! We are asking our AISC parent community to help us make this happen. If you can host 2 or more students please let Mr. Thomson know as soon as possible (tronald@aisch.org). We will provide transportation for those willing to host 4 or more students. Thanks in advance for your help and support!
Food Service Update
We have been trying different menu options for both ES and MS/HS students.
This month, we would like to highlight the following offerings:
- Our FAC Cafeteria will continue to have Dosa and Wrap counters. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are Dosa Days and Tuesdays and Thursdays are Wrap days. We also have a sandwich bar in the I-Hub and FAC and ES cafeterias every day.
- TMFK has a soup counter daily in both the ES and FAC cafeterias.
- Thursday, 9 October, the FAC cafeteria will have a live pasta counter.
- TMFK will serve Korean food on Mondays and Thursdays and Thai on Wednesdays. There will be a chicken and a beef option every day.
- The Parent MC Café is now open from 8 to 9:30 a.m. and from 2:30 to 4 p.m.
Should you have any questions with regard to food service, please email Josephine Ronald – directorpersonnel@aisch.org.
Student Parent Teacher Conferences - Repeat Announcement
Mid-semester progress reports will be issued on Friday, October 17th. This will be followed shortly by Student-Parent-Teacher conferences on November 6th and 7th.
We are experimenting with a few new things in regard to conferences this year and, so, we want to give you plenty of advanced notice. We welcome any feedback you may have to share after the conclusion of the conferences.
First, we will offer “arena style” drop in conferences in the gym on Thursday, November 6th, from 3:45 - 7:00 pm. There is no need to make an appointment to attend these conferences. Teachers will be available for quick 5 - 10 meetings on a first come, first served basis. By stationing teachers in the gym families can quickly scan for teacher availability and speak to teachers in whatever order works best for the family. There will be additional seating for families to wait for a teacher to become free and the administration will circulate to make sure that conferences are kept to a ten minute maximum so no one has to wait too terribly long. This style of conferencing is appropriate for non-confidential informal check-ins. For example, if you just have one or two quick questions about a student’s academic progress or you just want to take a few moments to get to know a teacher.
Second, we will offer “by appointment” conferences in classrooms on Friday, November 7th, from 8:00 am - 4:00 pm. These are for confidential conferences and are ten minutes in length.
As a High School we are interested in moving toward authentic student led conferences in the future. To that end, we have asked teachers to choose from three styles of conferences for their Friday appointments. First, some will choose a more traditional teacher driven conference. This is what you have been used to at the high school level. Second, some will choose to have students begin the conversation by having them consider in advanced actions they should “start, stop and continue” doing in order to meet with greater success in the classroom. Finally, some will choose to have students reflect in advance on the learning outcomes of the course as well as collect some artifacts or evidence to share with the teacher and parents. Regardless of the style chosen, conferences on Friday should be selected if parents require specific feedback on academic progress and/or if a student is struggling academically.
Parents will be able to make appointments electronically from Friday, October 13th until Monday, November 3rd. The link will be sent home via email and published in the weekly notes.
Sincerely,
Joelle Basnight
High School Principal
Jason Hicks
Secondary Associate Principal