Dear Students and Parents,
I hope you had a good second week of virtual learning. We are, once again, asking for you to give us some quick feedback. Please take a moment to complete the relevant survey to help the technology office gather important data (students and parents).
During this lockdown, everyone is working from home. Take a minute to skim through these self-care tips to help!
MUN continues its work online interviewing and appointing chairs for the fall CHEMUN conference!
MUN continues its work online interviewing and appointing chairs for the fall CHEMUN conference!
Intervention Plan for Virtual Learning
Below you will see an image of our intervention plan for virtual learning. The plan is in place to support students and their learning, not to be punitive. We fully expect that some students will test limits by either leaving their learning until the last minute or attempting to quickly rush through their work at the start of the week. This plan helps us to monitor student progress and communicate with families if students grow disengaged.
Non-Academic Social Meet-Up Schedule
Starting yesterday high school faculty, staff and student clubs started populating our meet-up schedule with fun activities and live links. We hope students will support their own wellbeing by staying connected with peers either through these meet-ups or in their own preferred way.
Please do not share any of these links with people outside of our school community. All school rules apply to participation and meet-ups are reserved for AISC students and faculty only.
High School Parent Coffee - Presentation
Many thanks to everyone who attended our virtual parent coffee. The presentation can be found here and is full of great links to helpful resources!
Linguistics Lab and Help Desk
The Linguistics Lab is staffed by Mr. Ben, Mr. Nick, Ms. Amy, and Ms. Marion and each is happy to help and support. Feel free to contact them throughout the week for any and all writing, research and language support needs.
Ms. Mary, Ms. Neeraja and Ms. Vini are hosting office hours for one-on-one help throughout the week. If you want to book an appointment, please email them to reserve a time.
Well Week: April 6-9
Next week we will put a spotlight on Wellbeing with Well Week at AISC. We have been planning for this week for some time and, in light of the current circumstances we all find ourselves in, we felt it would be important to continue with Well Week - highlighting ways to care for ourselves and others - although some changes to our activities were obviously needed.
The intention of the week is to bring attention to our wellbeing and share our experiences. Students will get daily instructions from their section communications on how to engage in Well Week activities. We encourage parents to join in as well. Please see the focus of each day below:
Monday: Positive Relationships: Gratitude and Kindness Challenges
Tuesday: Self Awareness: How are you feeling? Get creative.
Wednesday: Self Management: Share your tips: #AISCWellbeing
Thursday: Healthy Habits: Try something new.
From the Counselors - University and SAT Update
In light of the current situation, the high school counselors are closely monitoring information from university representatives and the College Board. Please see this link for more detailed information.
From the School Psychologist
The Counseling Team is working to ensure that the wellbeing and social-emotional needs of our students and families are well supported. We will be putting out resources to support families as they adjust to their changes in circumstances and routines, manage uncertainty and worry, and try to stay connected and look after their collective wellbeing.
This article from the National Association of School Psychologists in the US discusses some important points to consider in guiding your children through the COVID-19 pandemic. Please read through the article and contact your child's counselor if you have anything you'd like to discuss in more detail. Our thoughts and hearts are with all of our community members right now. We encourage you to reach out to our counselors and teachers, as needed, as we all work to take care of our wellbeing and stay connected.
Student Protection and Virtual Learning - From the School Psychologist
As part of our approach to maximize the support and learning of our students in the virtual environment we feel it is important for our faculty to connect with students in one to one conversations as they do in the regular school setting. This may be done via one to one video calls or chats using the school's email platform. If you would like to opt-out of this type of support please indicate that on this form.
At home, we ask that you support us in keeping students safe by ensuring that students are dressed appropriately for the school day and are situated in a study space that is always interruptible and observable by you. For your reference, we have also recently created these guidelines to support faculty in keeping students safe in the virtual classroom.
School Holidays in April - Repeat Announcement
A reminder that there will be no virtual school on April 10th or 14th as we observe Good Friday and Tamil New Year.
Summer Programs
The counseling office maintains a list of summer offerings that may be of interest. This link will remain in my notes throughout the semester and the list will be added to as opportunities arise.
Sincerely,
Joelle Basnight
High School Principal
