Dear Students and Parents,
Please join me in congratulating the students being recognized as Leaders as part of our Vision for an AISC Learner recognition system!
Leaders take action and inspire others to serve and contribute positively to our interconnected world. Leaders develop a vision, plan for and act appropriately and work positively to achieve their goals. Leaders accept challenges, demonstrate courage, generate and provide motivation, include others in efforts to reach a goal.
Congratulations to:
Sohee Park - Sohee is a leader by example. She regularly takes risks, asks the difficult questions and challenges herself and those around her to be their best. She works hard towards her own progress but with an awareness of supporting others as she goes. Sohee leads with grace; demonstrating a mature sense of responsibility in all that she does and a deep understanding of the gravity of her role as a leader.
Kaviyan D. - Kaviyan is a leader in class, consistently and productively. Kaviyan is prepared, proposes ideas and solution paths, leads collaboration effectively and makes sure to attend to both results and process. He is always at the productive center of whole class and small group work.
Hee Won Hwang - Hee Won not only successfully sets and achieves goals for himself, he helps his fellow students achieve similar goals. This can be seen in class on a regular basis and was evident during Feb Fling. He does not demand to be a leader or force his way into a leadership role – students want to work with him because allows them to participate and share their ideas.
Adam Ludwig - Adam has demonstrated continuous qualities of leadership throughout this year. In Freshmen Seminar, he consistently pushed discussions of self further, encouraging and challenging his peers to dig deeper within themselves. His presentation at RISE challenged the student body and the AISC community to reflect on our practices of inclusion (or exclusion) and authentic celebrations of individuality. For Discovery Day he independently planned and led a session on Japanese Anime to launch into a discussion of the treatment, perception, and representation of the LGBT+ community in society. Adam is a trailblazing leader!
Many thanks and congratulations as well to Uday, Nate and Vishnu for presenting about their World Scholars Cup experience at this week's board meeting! They did us proud!
Summer Travel Planning - Exam Schedule Out Soon - Repeat Announcement
Mr. Malone is hard at work solidifying the exam schedule for this semester. Please make note of the following when making summer travel plans.
IB and AP courses do not have internal exams. Thus, once the student has sat the external AP or IB exam in May the class is officially complete.
Seniors will have all of their exam completed and final obligations finished by graduation on Saturday, May 27th.
Internal examinations (non AP/IB) for students in grade 9 - 11 will take place on Friday, May 26th as well as Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (May 29 to 31st). Conflict exams will run on Thursday, June 1st. While most students will complete their exams by the 31st, it is important to delay purchasing plane tickets departing any earlier than June 1st until the exam schedule is published. Mr. Malone hopes that everyone will have this in hand right after spring break.
Please note that we will host our farewell assembly on Friday, May 26th so that all departing students will be present.
Department Spotlight - Physical Education/Health - A Message from Mr. McFarland
The PE/Health Department is in our second year of offering only semester-long classes. This semester they are Health, Recreational Activities, Personal Fitness and Adventure Activities. With our shift away from what we think of as "traditional" PE we have been able to offer classes that cater much more to student interests. Last semester we offered classes on Endurance Training, Yoga and Flow Arts, and one class that focused on Basketball, Soccer and Volleyball. This is also the second year of having some of our classes separated by gender. For instance, this semester, the Personal Fitness classes are offered for male and female students separately. As a result, female students have given us some great feedback about how they feel more comfortable in being more involved in things like strength training. Overall, as teachers, we're very pleased with the opportunities we are able to give the high school students. That might be partially because the weather has been great while we've had some of our classes in the pool doing things like this balance activity (called slackline)!
Freedom from Chemical Dependency Week - From the Counseling Office -
Repeat Announcement
As part of our health education program and ongoing commitment to prevention and wellness, each year we invite a trained prevention specialist from FCD Prevention Works to join our community. FCD is a non-profit organization that provides substance abuse prevention education for schools. Their mission is to:
Encourage and support the non-use of alcohol and other illegal or illicit drugs during the growing years
Empower young people to make healthy, responsible choices regarding alcohol and other drug use
Teach students and adults how to recognize the early warning signs of substance abuse and to intervene appropriately
Educate students, parents, teachers and administrators on the physiological and psychological effects of alcohol and other drugs
The prevention specialist will be meeting with students in Grades 6-12 during the week of March 21-28. Their aim is to provide students with the knowledge, understanding, and skills they need to make intelligent, healthy choices about alcohol and other drug use. During that time, they will meet with students as follows:
Grade 6: 3 meetings during health class
Grade 7: 3 meetings during health class
Grade 8: 2 meetings during health class
Grade 9: 2 meetings during elective classes
Grade 10: 1 meeting during lunch (lunch provided)
Grade 11: 2 meetings during lunch (lunch provided)
Grade 12: Senior session on Saturday, March 25
The FCD prevention specialist will also present a parent workshop on Tuesday, March 21st at 8:45am in the BBT. Please note that this is the day students return to school after Spring Break and it is a change from what is currently on our school calendar (it will no longer be on March 28). We wanted to give parents a chance, at the start of the FCD visit, to listen to the facilitator so that they can more easily engage their children in conversations about the topic while it is also being discussed at school. Some of the topics the facilitator will discuss with parents include:
Effective ways to communicate with your child about alcohol/drug use
Up-to-date facts about current alcohol/drug use and trends
What to say about your own experiences with alcohol and/or drug experimentation
How to spot early warning signs of trouble and effective ways to respond
The importance of communication among community members
This program presents a perfect opportunity for discussing alcohol and other drug-related issues with your children. Parent involvement is crucial to efforts to reduce the risks that teenagers face and in the commitment to keeping children safe. We hope to see you on March 21st. If you would like further information, go to www.fcd.org.
Sincerely,
Joelle Basnight
High School Principal