April 27,2015

Dear Parents,

Spring has arrived! We had all of our spring sports teams out on the fields, diamonds, courts, and links this past weekend for various "friendly" events. Our Blazer student athletes have been training for the last month and this weekend represented the first time many of our teams had a match versus an outside team, providing them with a chance to test their skills, experience team work, and make the committment to play hard! All of our teams did well, with some of our teams going undefeated (Girls Volleyball A-team!) in their matches. A huge thank you to the coaches and sponsors of each team.

In addition, we had two clubs participate in CEESA events. The Knowledge Bowl Team traveled to Albania to compete. Click here to view pictures and updates. In addition, the MS MUN team traveled to Bratislavia. Click here to view pictures and updates from the MUN trip on a site created by one of the coaches, Dr. Vas. 

There are many students and teams to celebrate after this weekend. For now, I'll recognize one: Nadav Shavit (Grade 7) won "Best Disarmament delegate" during the MUN event! We will highlight other students and team accomplishments as coaches report more results and summaries during the week.

Parent-Teacher-Student Conference Data

Thank you for coming to the recent conferences. Over 80% of MS parents attended, plus additional parents have since come in to meet with teachers because they were unable to come on the day. Home-to-school communication is vital to the ongoing success of your child at school. The face to face conversations that the conferences provide are an essential element of this communication. Click here to view the results from parents who submitted feedack.

This feedback is valuable for us; we will look at what changes can be made for next fall's conferences to improve the process.

Quarter 3 Report Cards: Student Reflections

At the end of quarter 3, we asked students to reflect on their learning from the last nine weeks, focusing on their Habits of Learning. The reflections were impressive to read; they displayed mature, thoughtful, and truly reflective thinking by students about their learning. It is clear that students are feeling and seeing the connection between Habits of Learning (Creativity, Reflection, Perserverance, Collaboration, Responsibility) and their overall success in learning.

The reflection process is an essential ingredient in the learning process because it requires each student to review where s/he is in relation to AISB's learning outcomes (Academic Standards). The Academic Standards are also the focus point for teachers to anchor the feedback about student learning whether on individual assingments or summarizing learning on report cards.

In closing, if you did not get an opportunity to speak with a particular teacher, please contact the MSO and we will arrange a meeting. We all want to have a strong finish to match the strong start that our students had in August of this school year.

MAP Update: All related Information and Links on School Website

Students in the Middle School will be taking the Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) on May 6th, 12th and 13th (One assessment each day). Students will be taking the MAP using their own laptops in their regular classrooms. These two changes will improve the level of comfort and familarity for our students during the three days of assessement. The MAP will assess student growth in Math, Language Usage, and Reading. Results are shared with the end of year report card in June.

If you would like further information, Mrs. Fleming has put all the essential links on the Parent Portal under the MAP tab (see below). Note: you need to log-in to see the parent portal.

Grade 8 Career TedTalks

Our grade 8 students participated in AISB's Career "TED"-style Talks organized by Ms. Seibel, our MS Counselor. She arranged for three of our parents (Noah Steinberg, Anna Jankovich, Ferenc Szilagy) to take part. Each of the speakers talked about their career paths, their journeys along the way, and the key expereinces (educational and life) that impacted their development. The afternoon was outstanding and we greatly appreciate the time that Mr. Steinberg, Ms. Jankovich, and Mr. Szilagy took to prepare and speak so openly with our students.

Next up for 8th Grade: In late May, students will participate in a Job Shadowing experience. Once again, parents have volunteered their time and places of business so our students can visit and ask questions about their respective fields.

Upcoming Dates: (Click here for more Upcoming Dates)

April 30: MS Arts Day (would you like to help? Contact Ms.Chilla Tamas)

May 5: MS Boys & Girls Softball / 4th Quarter Mid Point / MS Golf Event

May 5-11: MS MAP Testing ( Specific time/Day Schedule TBA)

May 14: MS Volleyball Weekend (Moscow)

May 21: 6th Grade Special Olympics Event AISB

April 18, 2015

Dear Middle School Parents,

It was great to see so many of you at Thursday's Parent-Student-Teacher Conference Day.  We had over 80% of our parents come on this day to meet with teachers. The face to face conversations are a critical portion in the home to school line of communication. It is important that we have open and frequent communication between home and school to ensure we are supporting one another so that every student is successful at AISB.

If you were present at the conferences, please be sure to give us feedback by clicking on this link. We will share the results from the survey next week in the blog. If you were not able to attend the conferences, please contact us to schedule an appointment to meet with your child's teacher(s) to ensure a smooth transition into the end of the school year.

Please enjoy these photos from the day, taken by Mr. Savic.



Partially-Sighted Students Visit AISB

The 8th Grade hosted their service learning partners on campus Wednesday, April 16, 2015. Our students have been preparing for this visit for some time and organized a spectacular day. The events included a Welcome Assembly where our AISB students recited poetry and sang songs (solo and duet) and a variety of engaging activities. Our AISB students led and directed much of the day under the guidance of our Grade 8 teachers and Mr. Lavoie.

This is a day that the Partially-Sighted students look forward to for the whole school year with excitement and anticipation. Our AISB students prepared and delivered an amazing day of group activities, computer interactions, kickball and the creation of a blog. The blog serves a double purpose as it is also a place where the Partially-Sighted and AISB students can return to be reminded of the activities, events and friends they connected with on this day. Well done!

Photos by Mr. Savic


MAP Testing 

This spring the NWEA MAP assessment for MS students will take place within our regular classrooms instead of the computer labs as in the past. Students will use their own laptops to complete the assessment. The NWEA MAP Testing will take place during the week of May 5th and May 11th for MS students.   

We will start preparing the student laptops for the MAP assessment next week. In order to do this, students will be assisted in school to install a "Lock Down Browser".  This browser prevents any student from leaving the MAP assessment accidentally during the assessment period.

If you have questions, please let me know. We will send out the exact testing days and times next week.

International Fair

This is one our biggest weekends of the school year with the International Fair happening on Sunday. We hope to see you all there, taking part in the fun activities that will be on hand for kids and adults of all ages.  Many thanks to the vast number of people who have contributed to this event. Over 30 Middle School students are volunteering on Sunday!

The biggest round of applause and thanks goes to the PSA for sponsoring the event and the time they have put into making this happen. We also want to thank this year's IF coordinator, Jean Relou, for a job well done!

MS PSA Meeting

We held a MS PSA meeting on Friday, April 17th from 9:00-11:00 in the Curriculum room. If you would like to see the presentations that were part of this meeting, please click on this link.

During this meeting we had presentations from the MS/HS Librarian (Sarah Ducharme) about accessing e-books on OverDrive (sign up for your summer reading!), from Mr. Murray (Health and Wellness Course Update), Mr. Farren (Attention and Technology Use) and the MS Counselor (Nancy Sibel).


Counselor's Corner

GRADE 8 CAREER DAYS!

On Wednesday, April 22, all eighth graders will participate in a TED TALK focussed on career planning decisions.  Three AISB parents will describe their journey through career preparation, decision making and the many turns in the road to career fulfillment.  Pizza lunch will break up the event, followed by questions and answers from the speakers.  Promising to be thought provoking!

On Thursday, May 28, all eighth graders will participate in a full day Job Shadowing Program.  Our school vans will transport groups of 8-10 students to the many job sites that have volunteered to host our students (from banking to fashion design to hotel management and beyond!).  Students will see first hand the daily workings of a particular career that they may be interested in pursuing.  Please let me know if you would like to host students at your job site for this important day!

Book Club:

RAISING GLOBAL NOMADS: Parenting Abroad in an On-Demand World

Discussion dates for this poignant book will happen on:

Dates: April 23, 30, May 7, 14 (All Thursdays)

Time: 2:15pm - 3:15pm

Location: MS Counseling Office

Please come to share your thoughts, experiences and ideas, and to hear how others are managing their global family life!

Departing Students and Families

Departing student lunch groups (with friends) will start the first week in May and run for four weeks.  The theme of these groups will be based on THIRD CULTURE KID ideas of building a "RAFT" to help move to the next destination.  With the help of the MS PSA leadership, I will also be offering a time for Mom's/Dad's to meet about departing family issues.

Looking forward to seeing you at the International Fair!

Best regards,

Nancy Seibel

MS Counselor

Upcoming Dates:

April 30: MS Arts Day (would you like to help? Contact Ms.Chilla Tamas)

May 5: MS Boys & Girls Softball / 4th Quarter Mid Point / MS Golf Event

May 5-11: MS MAP Testing ( Specific time/Day Schedule TBA)

May 14: MS Volleyball Weekend (Moscow)

May 21: 6th Grade Special Olympics Event AISB

April 12, 2015

Dear Middle School Parents and Students,

We hope you all have had a restful and relaxing vacation. There are a number of events in the Middle School to update you about and some coming up that you'll want to put on your calendar. We feel strongly that it is important to celebrate and recognize the achievements of our students in order to foster their reflection and growth. As a community, we collectively take responsibility for ensuring their academic, social, emotional well-being. Thank you for the the trust you have given us; we take it seriously and depend on your cooperation and participation to achieve success for each and every student in the Middle School.

Teacher Appreciation Week

Thank you to the PSA and to all of the parents for an amazing Teacher Appreciation Week!  Here are some photos from the week. Thank you for making us all feel so special about what we do every day! 





Pi Day- Wednesday, April 1st

Although we celebrated our AISB Pi Day on a different day that their widely accepted date, our celebration was fantastic nonetheless.  The MS Math department, led by Mr.Matlock, designed an array of activities for students highlighting Pi! Thank you, Nancy Perzel (6th Grade), Charlie Robinson (8th Grade), and John Matlock (7th Grade).

We had all students in the multi purpose room and grouped by advisory while "competing" with one another to answer questions about Pi.  In addition we had one team from each grade squaring off to see who could recall the most consecutive numbers of Pi.  The students did a wonderful job preparing for this event. There was a great deal of energy in the room due to prizes being awarded to advisories and grade levels for the various competitions. Some of the awards included getting to throw a pie in the face of any teacher!  Many thanks to the teachers who were "selected" for pie throwing for their willingness (Mr.Scanga, Mr. Gibson, Mr.Ducharme).

The event ended with students and teacher sampling Pie!  These pies were baked by the parents of our MS students. There were so many wonderful pies; many thanks to the parents of the students who sent pies in. Also a big thanks to the PSA who oversaw the pie contributions and came on the day to help slice and distribute over 200 slices of pies for teachers, students and parents!

Parent-Student-Teacher Conferences: April 16, 2015 at 8:30-3:30

We look forward to welcoming you to the PST Conferences in April. Please put this date on your schedule so you and your child are able to come and talk with our teachers. 

End of the Quarter-Report Cards

Third Quarter Report Cards will be available on Wednesday, April 15th on VeraCross and the Parent Teacher Conferences are on Thursday, April 16th.

At the Parent-Student-Teacher Day on April 16th, hard copies of the Report Cards will be available for all students. The Report Card includes, feedback on the student's Habits of Learning, a grade for each class, and the student's own reflective comment. 

In the reflective comment, students focus on what obstacles they overcame, what they are proud of, where they have shown growth and/or what are they still struggling with. In addition to the student-written comment, teachers will write a comment for some of their students.  Please be sure to bring your child with you to the conference day to get the most out of the conversation.

Transitions: 5th Grade -> 6th Grade and 8th Grade -> 9th Grade

We have started having transition discussions with staff and students in 8th grade in oder to get ready for next school year! The 8th graders have made a draft course schedule for next year at this point. In addition, there will be a number of events for 5th graders and 8th graders that will help them prepare for the movement to another division next year.  

Each division principal works closely with their respective staff to ensure a smooth transition for students and parents alike. As we start this process, I want to highlight the many ways our divisions are similar. For example, in ES, MS/HS we eat in the same cafeteria and use the same World Language rooms and teachers. The students also might have some of the same teachers in other subject areas (Health and Wellness).  In the MS and HS, students share World Language teachers, classrooms, Fine Arts classrooms and teachers, and the same library and librarian. In addition we are all on the same class period bell schedule. We will be here to support you and your child in this transition period.

Our Transition Night for parents of 5th Graders and 8th Graders is on May 20th, at 6:00pm for 5 Grade parents and 7:00pm for 8th Grade parents. This event is designed for parents, not for the children.

For students there will be a number of events that take place to prepare for the move next August. The counselors from each division will visit the incoming students. In addition, there will be informational surveys sent to the students and parents to find out what their questions and concerns.

School Wide Food Frenzy Drive 

Many thanks to all the families who participated in a successful school-wide food drive this year. We are very proud of our whole community for their commitment and efforts to make this drive a success.

Counselor's Update:

Due to an overlap with MS Conferences, the next MS Parent Book Club will start on April 23rd.  We will be reading and discussing Robin Pascoe's RAISING GLOBAL NOMADS: Parenting Abroad in an On-Demand World.  Please join us in the MS Counseling office for some lively discussion!  

Book Meeting Dates:  April 23, 30, May 7, 14.

VISION 2019 Conference:  Grade 8 Career Days

Job Shadowing Day  (May 28th from 8:30 to 3:30)

If you are interested in participating but not sure exactly what to do with 8 grade eight students for a day, please consider this:

*Start with an introduction to the product you sell or work you do.

*What is unique about your business?

*Tour students through your facility.

*Simulate with the students a particular client interaction.

*Introduce different company departments and their functions.

*Plan mock interviews, skill reviews, role play client/specialist exchanges.

*Talk about company growth and innovation.

*What is sustainable and non-sustainable about your workplace.

So far there are several job sites scheduled, though more would be welcome.  Some students are interested in Fashion Design or Hotel Management, or green industries.  Please let me know what you do and if you would like to share a glimpse of your work with our Grade 8 students.

Departing Students and Families

Please contact AISB Admissions Office, MS Office and your child's teacher if your family is planning to move after this semester.

I will be planning Departing Student activities to start the end of April.

Happy Spring Break!