Dear Students and Parents,
Hope you have a restful weekend without too much cleanup! Stay dry and safe!
Congratulations to our Vision for an AISC Learner honorees for November! November celebrates Explorers.
Explorers are those students who investigate new interests with curiosity, inquire with purpose and seek deeper understanding and fulfillment through their ground-breaking pursuits. Explorers ask probing, extending and open-ended questions, contribute their new ideas to discussion, and investigate and attempt new ways of extending their learning opportunities and sharing their findings.
Grade 12: Anand Nicolai - Anand is constantly exploring the world, ideas and opportunities presented to him. He has engaged in interesting CAS activities, and pursued internships, led explorations of different projects and dialogues in SAF. He doesn't seem to choose to engage in things that he already knows he will like, rather he wonders what he might find out or learn by engaging in something unknown. He is genuinely curious and open. He is artful in his thinking and questioning.
Grader 11: Tejas Narayan - Tejas embraces his passions and interests by creating his own path for investigation. He enjoys engaging in dialogue with others and is working to create ways for students to come together and explore what is meaningful to them. As an independent learner he explores not only content but approach, medium and audience in order to grow in all aspects of academic achievement.
Grade 10: Byeongchan Kang - Byeongchan is endlessly curious. He loves to explore new ides and theories, ask probing questions and dig deeper into ideas. He looks for connections between topics and explores how what we're learning in class applies in everyday life. He is eager to learn new topics that are beyond the realm and scope of his current classes and he consistently takes steps to explore concepts and connections independently.
Grade 9: Amrita Giridhar - Amrita consistently pushes herself to explore, think and listen deeply and assimilate new learning to expand her understanding. You can see the curiosity on her face during discussions. What's more, Amrita engages others in dialogue to share her passion for exploring new ideas. Her approach and attitude fuels her passion for learning!
In addition, HS Students Hera, Anjali, Kavya, Erin & Yejin are taking time after school on Tuesdays to learn from and work with fashion journalist, designer and Tamil clothing historian Purushu Arie to develop costume designs for the HS 25th Anniversary Spring Production; So We Can Flourish. Purushu is a Chennai fashion designer (https://purushu.com/) who specialises in Tamil fashion history as well as designing blended, casteless, genderfluid clothing. The students are learning about the fashion design process, history about Tamil fashion and how to make informed choices about clothing and how we represent ourselves through clothing.
Progress Update Available
Faculty members were asked to ensure their marking was as up to date as possible and reflected in PowerSchool by 4:00 pm today (November 26). Should you have any questions about your son or daughter’s performance, please first ask your child to walk you through their recent assessments. Should you have additional questions, please contact the relevant teachers.
November Parent Coffee - Presentation
Many thanks to all who attended the November parent coffee. The mock university admissions activity was great fun. If you would like to watch a recording of the coffee, please click here. About ⅔ of the way through the presentation you will see a screen suggesting you pause and review the admissions materials being discussed in the break-out rooms off camera. Those materials can be found here. After you have had a look for yourself, we suggest you continue watching the video to hear what those at the coffee thought the admissions decisions should have been.
Final School Monitored Study Sessions Approaching
As you know, Mr. Malone and I host school monitored study sessions every Friday (or Saturday) to support students in completing assessments and completing missed deadlines. The final two sessions of the semester are Friday, December 4th (4:00 - 6:00 pm) and Saturday, December 12th (9:00 - 11:00 am). Teachers have been asked to assign students these sessions if they have any work outstanding and/or have not met submission deadlines for alternative final assessments. Teachers who assigned students to these sessions will inform parents.
As per our handbook, students must complete all summative assessments to be eligible for credit in their courses. The last two sessions represent the final opportunity for students to meet this benchmark as assessments submitted after the 12th will not be accepted.
Module 9 and Exams - Repeat Announcement
The week of December 7-11 will be used for review for traditional 2-hour paper/pen assessments or for the presentation/submission of alternative cumulative assessments. This week will be called Module 9 and last for only one week. On Friday, December 11th, we will have a special schedule where all courses can avail of a 45 minute last class of the semester.
December 14-18 will be traditional final exam week. Students need only attend when their final exam is scheduled. Like last semester, the final exams will be by subject, with a proctor supervising each class. Instructions for virtual examinations can be found here. There will be no module posted for students this exam week.
Report Cards and Documentation Availability - Repeat Announcement
Please note that while the semester comes to a close on December 18th, teachers have the winter vacation to complete their exam marking and prepare report cards.
While any changes to PowerSchool can be viewed live as teacher work, we do suggest that families ignore any changes to scores and comments in PowerSchool between December 14 and January 11. Teachers will need time to make final adjustments before sharing results with students in January.
As such, we ask that students hold their questions about exam performance and/or final semester schools until school resumes on January 11th. Final scores are not due for teachers until January 18th to allow time for students to reflect on their performance and self-assess and for teachers to consider student input on academic achievement.
Report cards will be available at 4:00 pm on January 22nd and will be emailed home as a pdf that day. Students who would like a paper copy can contact the office on or after that date to make arrangements.
Families who may need report cards, transcripts, or other documentation may also contact the office on January 22nd to make arrangements.
Sincerely,
Joelle Basnight
High School Principal
