Dear Students and Parents,
Hope you had a wonderful Diwali celebration!
Congratulations to Kaaviya Raghuraman – HS Principal for the day!!!!
As part of the PCA Gala, Principals offered students an opportunity to be Principal for a day. Kaaviya is the lucky winner for High School.
Vision for an AISC Learner Monthly Honor
This month we are recognizing Collaborators.
Collaborators are those
students who listen carefully to others' perspectives and confidently
articulate their personal viewpoints in the pursuit of common goals. These
students have the ability to reflect on the contributions of others and themselves
toward a goal. As a result, collaborators actively encourage others'
contributions, ask questions and make suggestions that move work forward, and
synthesize others' ideas with their own to create solutions.
Congratulations to the
winners!!!
Grade 12: Reuben
Nielsen - Reuben has a way of asking questions that encourages everyone to get
involved. His "big picture" thinking invites his classmates to
reflect on their own understanding, then share their thoughts with the whole
group. Reuben leads by example, sharing his ideas, then listening carefully to
others as they work through their own thoughts.
Grade 11: Anya
Kumar- Anya is a confident individual who consistently demonstrates high levels
of intelligence and creativity. What is impressive is that she also manages
always to work collaboratively with any and all of her peers with kindness and
an open mind. She asks her peers for their opinions and strives to incorporate
their ideas, while at the same time contributing her own point of view.
Grade 10: Chloe
Bridgeland - Not only open to working with others, Chloe goes out of her way to
enlist her classmates in problem solving, thinking, sharing and reasoning as a
group. Her never-ending supply of homemade treats are simply bait meant to lure
her peers into a collaborative approach to learning!
Grade 9: Dhivya Joseph -
Dhivya has a calm cool way of keeping the group on task to reach the goal, but
also take the time to hear others ideas. In larger groups, while quiet, she
becomes an undercover leader who helps make sure everyone's ideas gets heard or
noted. She isn't afraid of challenging the group and holding herself and the
group to a higher standard.
Mid-Semester Progress Reports - Going
Home Today
This afternoon in Discovery Crew meetings students
received paper copies of their mid-semester progress reports. Electronic
versions of the same report will be ready by mid-next week. These reports
represent a snapshot in time and all scores are subject to change in the second
half of the semester. Should you have any questions about student performance,
kindly refer to the comments written by the teachers, seek context from your
child and, then, attend student-parent-teacher conferences for more specific information
and feedback.
Please note that all courses will report strand
scores (Knowledge/Understanding, Thinking/Transfer and Communication) while
teachers have the option to report “Insufficient Evidence” (or IE) if they do
not feel they have enough data to assign an overall course score. In such cases
an updated progress report with an overall course score will be published
before conferences.
Student Parent Teacher Conferences -
November 7th
Parents can avail of two different
types of conferences: drop in and by appointment on Thursday, November 7th.
Drop in appointments are scheduled
from 8:00 until 10:00 am and will take place in the gym. Parents will find all
teachers available in the same place are ten minute check-in conferences will
be completed on a first come-first served basis. As all of the teachers are
present, parents can strategize the order in which they meet with teachers
based on availability.
By appointment conferences are
scheduled from 10:30 am until 5:00 pm and will take place in teacher’s
classrooms. These conferences are also ten minutes in length but their location
allow for a more private atmosphere. The link to sign up for by-appointment
conferences can be found here.
High School Parent
Coffee - Links
Many thanks to all who attended
our mock university admissions panel at our Parent Coffee this week. Here is a
link to the presentation -- Parent Coffee Presentation - mock
university admissions.
11th grade students are beginning
the process of considering what universities might be a good fit for
them. On Thursday, they met with the counselors to begin researching
universities. This is a great time to have a conversation with your son or daughter
about what their current thinking around the university process.
Next steps for 11th graders:
- Junior Class College Night (for all 11th grade students and
parents) - Tuesday, February 4th - Introduction to the application process
and researching universities.
- Individual College Consultations - Between Wednesday, February 5th
and Friday, March 13th - Meeting with counselor, student, and parents to
discuss individual plans for the application process.
In the meantime, here are a couple
of links with helpful dates and information:
Please reach out to your student’s
counselor with any questions. We are here to help!
HS Counselors
Discovery Day -
Friday, November 8th - CANCELLED
Our first semester Discovery Day
was scheduled to take place on Friday, November 8th. We chose this date to
coincide with CHEMUN as so many students were already involved with the
conference and had hoped to schedule all Discovery Day activities as service
opportunities off campus. Unfortunately, most of our school service partners
are in mid-term exams and, as such, are not able to accommodate a visit. This
has led us to the decision to cancel Discovery Day this semester.
We hope to turn this
disappointment into something positive by running an A3 day. The recent
additional holidays have hit A days especially hard and this gives students and
teachers some additional time to connect.
Students participating in CHEMUN
(some 110 of them) will be excused from school on this day. Teachers will plan
lessons that can be easily replicated online so CHEMUN participants have equal
access to the content and assignments completed on November 8th.
We thank everyone in advance for
their understanding and cooperation.
Student Recognition
Last week the high school held a
recognition assembly to celebrate the end of the sports from SAISA season one,
winners of the Discover India photo contest, announce the National Merit
Scholars, and recognize the Thinker award recipients. The slides from the
assembly are here.
Next Early Release
Wednesday - Repeat Announcement
The next Early Release Wednesday
will be on November 6th. Students are expected to depart campus in a timely and
organized fashion upon dismissal at 2:00 pm. For our Middle and High School
students, a hot lunch will be served. Food services in the iHub will close at
1:50 pm. Please note that the iHub will be open to provide an air-conditioned
waiting area until 2:40 pm in case drivers are delayed. We appreciate your
patience with traffic on these days as all three sections are picking up
students at the same time.
Sincerely,
Joelle Basnight
High School Principal
