AIAN will be a widely respected school providing a model US based educational program with an internationally minded community. September 2 nd 2011 Dear Community, The third week of the school year is coming to an end. The students continue to settle in to the routines and the academic pattern is starting to solidify. The Calendar of Events has been place on the Website. You may access this by clicking on the horizontal menu bar ˇ°News and Calendarˇ± and then ˇ°Calendar of Events (2011-2012)ˇ±. Naturally, we hope to maintain the calendars integrity. We will only make changes if absolutely necessary. Should a change be necessary we will inform you through the Eagle Eyes Newsflash. Other items for you attention are, AFTER SCHOOL ACTIVITIES (ASA) Mr. Carpinisan and Mr. Carroll have worked with the faculty to complete the ASA choices for the first quarter. The options and descriptions are attached for your review. On Monday we will send home a hard copy of the choice permission slip for you and the students to complete. Please return the choice slips that are required to the homeroom teacher. Kindly take time to select the activities carefully. Students will be expected to remain in the activities they chose for the full block. Students will not be allowed to make changes. During the first semester new teachers will not be participating in the Tuesday and Thursday ASA's. They are engaged in a Professional Development course regarding English Language Learners in mainstream classrooms. This is being led by Mr. John Tucker who received specialized training in this area over the summer. The school will run late buses for activities that finish at 5.00 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The late bus will make drop offs in Beilun (drop off area to be confirmed) and Ningbo at Metro. Only Middle and High School Students will be allowed to ride this bus. Elementary School students will not be involved in activities that finish at 5.00 p.m. There will not be late buses on Thursday or Friday. Thus, the buses will run as follows GRAPHIC.
The first quarter block of activities will start on Tuesday, September 13 (after the September 12 holiday) and finish on Thursday, October 27. This gives a 6 week block. The second quarter activities will start on Monday, October 31 and conclude on Friday, January 20. The week of December 12 to 16 we can suspend the activities as we move in to the Christmas period and performances. This gives a 8 week block. The third quarter block starts on Monday January 30 and ends Thursday, March 30. This gives a 9 week block. The fourth quarter activities start on Monday, April 9 and conclude on Friday. May 25. This gives a 7 week block. SCHOOL WEBSITE AND INTERNET PUBLISHING OF STUDENT PHOTOS AND WORK We would like to continue including photos of children working and playing on our school website. With this in mind and as part of the school moving towards having a ˇ°model US based educational programˇ± , for security reasons, we wish to confirm with you that we can use photo's that include your child. Please know that we will not post photos of a student with their name or photos of groups of students with their names. Should we need to use full names we will specifically contact the parents concerned for your permission. Of course, we would like to publish the best works of our students too. When we do this we will only use the first name of a student. Thus, single photos, group photos, videos and student work may be included on teacher blogs, on the school home page, and other links on our web page. We wish to have your permission to post your child's photo and work. We have attached a waiver form in this regard. We will also send home a hard copy of the waiver form on Monday (along with the ASA choice from). Please complete this and return it to the homeroom teacher. COUNSELORS CORNER
Planning for college and university does not happen in a few months. Preparation for college and university starts as soon as the student begins high school. With this in mind, stronger structures are now in place this school year to help our students have a competitive edge when applying to the college or university of their choice. We begin with students gaining a deeper understanding of themselves as persons and as students. With that information, we assist students in selecting a course and consequently possibly a career that is a good fit for their interests, values and skills. Work started on this in the first two weeks of school with the 11 th and 12 th graders answering questionnaires that give the student and myself as their College Counselor, an insight on their own values, skills, and interests. A lot of time also needs to be spent researching targeted colleges. Students are guided through the research process to identify information that is vital in making their choice and pursuing their applications. The 11 th and 12 th grade students have had computer lab time for research regarding their selected colleges, and we will continue to do this for the rest of the first semester. The whole process of college preparation needs the involvement of the parents. Structures for dialogue with parents and their child, facilitated by the College Counselor, are built in over the year to discuss progress in terms of applications. We intend to have the first meetings with parents at the end of the first quarter. Close coordination with Matt Buckmaster, who is teaching the 9 th and 10 th grade Business English, helps to ensure these grades are working on similar goals early in their high school life. AP and SAT Coordinating AIAN offers both AP and SAT testing to our students, to ensure that they will be able to be competitive and have an edge in their college applications. Setting up AP and SAT procedures for the students is underway now. I will make announcements and provide more information about this as necessary. Guidance Counseling It is not easy to be in a new school, and for some of our students, it is not just a new school, but a new culture and country. With this in mind I have already had several group sessions with new students from the elementary, middle and high school. The goal was to get them together to understand that they are not alone in feeling the transition issues. We covered strategies that help ease them into the new school and environment. It was also a way for them to reach out and make new friends. Grade 1 to Grade 5 will visit the guidance office for an introduction to the guidance services. Some grades have already dropped in for quick group dynamics sessions so that I could get to know the students. At the same time, it was a way for them to get to know who the Counselor is, what the Counselor does, and how the Counselor is available to help them. The objective was also to build an initial rapport so that students at all levels are comfortable seeking help if the time comes that they need it. Middle and High school Guidance orientations will be held in the coming week. I look forward to getting to know each and every student in our school to be able to best meet their individual needs. INTERNATIONAL COASTAL CLEAN UP On Saturday, September 17th, 2011 millions of people will flood the beaches for an International Coastal Cleanup (ICC). The Middle and High School students will be taking an optional field trip at a nearby beach to participate in this International event! Parents and families of middle and high school students are welcome to attend. The purpose of ICC, which was initiated by Ocean Conservancy (OC), engages people to remove trash and debris from the world's beaches and waterways, identify the sources of debris, and change behavioral patterns that contribute to pollution. There will be a pick-up at Metro at 8 a.m. on September 17th and we will depart for the beach at 9 a.m. from the school. We will participate in a beach clean-up do some activities and then have a picnic before departing back to AIAN. We will return to AIAN at 12 p.m. and a bus will arrive to Metro at 1pm. Permission slips will go out on Monday and will be due back to Ms. Higley (Middle School) or Ms. Ross (High School) on Wednesday (Sept. 7, 2011). Please pack a lunch because we will have a picnic at the beach after the event. We hope that you will come out and join us to help our beaches and bring awareness to this environmental issue! For more information: http://www.oceanconservancy.org/our-work/marine-debris/international-coastal-cleanup-11.html LANGUAGE POLICIES International Schools are language rich communities. Often times the common language of inclusion, socialization and instruction is not the first language of many of the community. At AIAN the common language is English. To help foster a community sense of developing English as the common language the following philosophy will be promoted • All teachers are considered Language Arts teachers and hold responsibility to help promote quality English language literacy skills for all members of the community, especially students. • Community members are expected where possible to use English as the medium of inclusion and communication. • Use and maintenance of the mother tong of all students is actively encouraged and supported by AIAN in the appropriate circumstances. The school will be producing a common vocabulary list of core words students need to be familiar with in each grade level. We hope to have these lists translated in to a number of languages, certainly Mandarin. This is to help parents be involved in expanding their children's English literacy skills. Chinese Language is the second language formally taught in AIAN and all students participate in this program. MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOLSPECIAL SUBJECTS AND ELECTIVES This year we have expanded the special subject offerings and electives for the Middle and High School. In the Middle School, Health and Core Values have been added to the special subjects list. In High School we have added more electives such as Psychology, Information Technology and History of Art. Additional compulsory courses are Business English and College and Careers Counseling. If you have a child in Middle or High School please check with your child regarding their course selections and groupings. By doing this you can have a useful conversation about their choices and educational program for the first semester. Thank you. Regards, Mark Bretherton , Head of School. |
