Dear Students and Parents,
Happy India Month! Many thanks to Dhayalini and Lina for kicking off our assembly and introducing the visiting dancers. All students and faculty are invited to dress in Indian clothing throughout next week to mark the occasion.
Speaking of celebrating India. Please join me in congratulating Deepika Vadlamani for completing her first official bharatanatya dance performance this Tuesday evening - those of us in attendance enjoyed seeing her following her passions on stage!
Finally, many thanks to SAGE for starting their compassion challenge by putting positive messages up around campus.
First Round of Student to Teacher Feedback Starts Monday
On Monday and Tuesday (October 17th and 18th) students will complete feedback surveys for each of their teachers. We administer the survey such that students are not in the presence of the teacher they are evaluating. All survey results are shared with teachers approximately one week after the administration and, in turn, teachers share the broad stroke results with their students.
I would like to commend the students in advance for their thoughtful feedback. If years’ past are any indication, our students approach these surveys with care. It is important to note that hurtful and/or non-specific criticism and praise is less helpful to teachers. We encourage students to share honest feedback that is specific and actionable.
SAISA is Coming - Support our Teams
Next week marks our first SAISA tournament of the school year. We will send off our teams in style with a Pep Rally on Tuesday starting at 3:00 pm. Girls volleyball and all swimmers head to their tournaments on Wednesday and, then, we welcome the boys volleyball tournament teams on Thursday morning. Please feel free to join us for our opening ceremony at 8:40 am on the Raptor Field. Game schedules will be displayed around school so please come and support the boy’s volleyball team in person throughout the weekend (or watch it on our live stream here). A link to the live stream of swimming and girl’s volleyball will be available from the Athletics website here.
Introducing Calley Connelly
Calley Connelly serves as a math teacher and instructional coach at AISC and originally hails from Montana. Ms. Connelly not only holds two degrees in mathematics but she is incredibly passionate about making math accessible to all students. As such, she is most proud when a student says to her “thanks, I used to hate math, but not anymore!” Ms. Connelly didn’t originally plan to become a teacher but fell in love with the profession during her time in the Peace Corps. In her spare time, Ms. Connelly can be found running, gardening and reading sci-fi. She is especially passionate about unicorn and Drake memes and would love to trade lives with Merriwether Lewis for just 24 hours in order to experience the landscape and culture of the US before it was changed by colonization. Ms. Connelly is in Chennai with her husband Ross, who teaches in Middle School, and her two children Juni and Rowan.
Naviance: Family Connection
Naviance is a comprehensive website that you and your student can use to help explore careers and colleges. Family Connection allows students to build a resume, complete on-line surveys and inventories, manage decisions about careers and colleges, compare colleges, conduct college research, see what colleges are coming to visit AISC as well as a variety of other tools.
We introduce Naviance to students with a basic overview and set up accounts in Freshman Seminar. We spend time with grade 10 students to begin exploring career and college interests. Juniors will use Naviance much more often as they begin building college lists and managing timelines. Ultimately, Naviance is the tool we use to send information (transcripts, recommendation letters, etc.) to universities. We encourage you to explore Family Connection with your student to become familiar with all it has to offer.
Next Early Release Wednesday Coming - Final Reminder
On October 19th, we will have our next Early Release Wednesday. Students are expected to depart campus in a timely and organized fashion. We appreciate your patience with traffic on these days. In preparation, please plan on allowing longer time for entry and exit to the school at release time. For our Middle and High School students, hot lunch will be served.
Sincerely,
Joelle Basnight
High School Principal