Dear
Students and Parents,
Many
thanks to the parents who attended Student Parent Teacher Conferences on
Wednesday!
Congratulations Vishnu
Sriram for earning the considerable honor of being named a National Merit
Scholarship Finalist! He is one of 15,000 US Citizens worldwide with this honor
for 2018. From this group 7500 students will receive a Merit Scholarship and I know
all of you will join me in wishing Vishnu the best of luck in the next portion
of the selection process!
This past weekend a number
of students who were qualified to compete at the regional National History Day
competition in Singapore met with great success! Our congratulations go
to:
First Place:
- Oscar Harrison (Individual
Documentary)
- Trevor Bridgeland, Manav
Chakravathy, Prahalad Giridhar, Gyanendra Sengar, Vinay Sriram (Group
Performance)
Second Place:
- Max Jacobson (Individual
Performance)
- Hee Sun Hwang and Yu-Jin Jeung
(Group Exhibit)
- Celia Malone and E-Shane Chew
(Group Documentary)
Third Place:
- Anand Nicolai (Individual Exhibit)
Students can now choose whether or not they will
continue on in the competition for the final round in Washington, DC, this
summer.
Please also mark your
calendars for the upcoming art exhibition!
Upcoming Parent Coffee - Save the Date
The final Standards Based
Assessment and Reporting presentation in the series will take place on Tuesday,
March 27th from 8:45 - 9:45 am in the BBT.
The first half of this
coffee will be dedicated to unpacking a SBAR unit so that parents can get a
sense of what to expect next year.
The second half of this
coffee will be an open question and answer period. We will begin by generating
a list of questions and will answer as many as possible as time permits. Any
remaining questions will be answered in the Principal’s Notes.
Questions that have
surfaced/resurfaced that are already on the list include:
- How might SBAR affect college
admission? How do I make sure my student stays competitive?
- How will the school train/support
teachers during this transition to ensure that students get the best
possible classroom experience?
- How will the school monitor
subjectivity
Celebration of Learning - Save the Date
Come one, come all to our
second semester Celebration of Learning! This learning fair highlights the fine
academic work done in our classrooms. Students volunteer to talk parents
through the instruction and assessment of a particular course and are on hand
to answer questions. Please join us!
Meet Flor Martin
Flor Martin is one of our
Spanish teachers and is a native of Mexico. Flor started her career as an
elementary teacher before earning a Fulbright Scholarship to pursue her
graduate degree in the US. Since completing her graduate degree Flor has taught
Spanish at all levels, from elementary to university, in a variety of contexts
including the US, the UK and Kuwait. What she loves most about her job is how
versatile it is. She feels she plays many roles from singing to acting to
dancing all to help her students understand the language. She gets to current
events, environmental issues or whatever other topic may be of interest as a
vehicle for teaching. Ms. Martin is most proud when she hears her students
speaking Spanish and when she hears from past students how much the study of
Spanish has enriched their lives. When not in the classroom, Flor likes to
garden, cook and read. She has even been a part of community theater over the
years. After six exciting years in India Flor, her husband Rob and her daughter
Maya will be moving to Zambia for a new adventure.
From Art Sustains - by Ji Eun Park and Ed Dohorty
Art Sustains moved one step
closer in its new project on March 6th, a project called ‘Collaborative Clay
Fish Mural Project’. Members of Art Sustains invited elementary students from
Advent Primary School, Pallavakkam, to AISC and created clay fish that will be
used in an ongoing, large scale, installation project at the school. Through
this collaborative project, Art Sustains members provided art instruction like
as planning on paper, how to work with clay and how to think creatively. Kids
and club members ended the first workshop full of joy, having cookies and juice
at the end.
We believe that this
project will help raise awareness of the importance of fostering creativity in
schools. We are excited to continue working on this inspiring project and hope
to successfully install the fish by the end of April.
Art Sustains has also been
supporting local artists and the sustainability of traditional arts of Tamil
Nadu, India, for the past 3 years. We are proud of our most recent initiative,
to bring short term, artist residencies to the local schools of Chennai. Currently
we are funding a large terracotta, Ayyanar horse that is being built at the
Advent Primary School in Pallavakkam, where it will be installed permanently.
On Thursday, members of Art
Sustains visited the school and worked with students constructing small
terracotta animal figures that will be fired with the large horse after spring
break.
From the HS Counseling Department:
Please join us for an
interactive session with admissions counselors from Johns Hopkins University
and University of Chicago! They will conduct a 2-part session, taking a deep
dive into how they review applications and college essay writing. This event is
open to ALL students in the high school and to HS parents. See you there!
Second Semester Exams
Second semester exams for
grade 12 students will take place on May 17th and 18th. The schedule can be found here.
Second
semester exams for grades 9 - 11 will take place from May 29th until June 1st.
The exam schedule can be found here and below. Please note that we do
not give exams early for any reason and we also cannot allow students to take
or make-up exams after Saturday, June 2nd.
Yearbook Pictures Ready - A Note from Ms. Sunita - Repeat
Announcement
Yearbook photos are ready
for purchase. You may view all pictures via this link. Pictures taken in January 2018 are in a folder named Session 2.
Password for the gallery is raptors18.
Please use this Yearbook Order Form to order pictures. Instructions are on the form. Please complete
the form, make your payment at the cash counter and submit the form at the high
school office.
The last day for orders is
28 March 2018. Prints will be ready for pick up after 16 April 2018. If you
have any questions about the ordering process, please contact the HS office.
Next Early Release Wednesday - Repeat Announcement
A quick reminder that
Wednesday, April 4th, will be our next Early Release Wednesday. Students are
expected to depart campus in a timely and organized fashion upon dismissal at
2:00 pm. We appreciate your patience with traffic on these days as all three
sections are picking up students at the same time. 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.
At the request of the student
advisory forum, the iHub will remain open until 2:30 pm as an air conditioned
place for high school students to wait for drivers. Please note that food
service will continue to close at 2:10 pm.
Counselor's Corner
Summer program
information for 2018 is now available. Counselors will add to this list as more
information is shared with them. Check out the listing here: Summer Programs 2018
Joelle
Basnight
High
School Principal
