Welcome to the 2015-2016 school year! Now that you have had a week to get to know your students and settle into your classroom, I would like to share several ways for you to be involved in the important teams and committees we have lined up for this year. Early next week, you will receive a link to a Google Form. It will include an abbreviated version of the following team and committee explanations, along with the opportunity for you to priority rank those that are of greatest interest to you. I hope this "preview" will provide you some time to think about how you want to be most involved this year. Have a fantastic weekend.
Innovation Teams: Led by TLC members, innovation teams pursue questions or ideas where the domain or path are not well defined and explores innovative options. This includes, but is not limited to, strategic planning and initial curriculum development and review cycle. The teams will go through the design thinking process, including the development of a philosophy/belief statement regarding the topic, researching best practices and engaging in action research to create an action plan that will be presented to the Leadership Team for consideration of future implementation.
Social Studies Innovation Team - Led by Walter Basnight
This team will carry out the charge of Phase 1 of the curriculum development and review cycle. In this phase, the Innovation Team has four main objectives:
- Review any existing AISC philosophy statement regarding the teaching and learning of the designated content area and then 1) reaffirms this statement OR 2) creates a new philosophy statement that is best aligned to our mission, student learning objectives, core values and beliefs regarding international-mindedness.
- Review the current content standards to ensure agreement with the aforementioned guiding statement, as well as current methodologies, resources and best practices in the field. If necessary, new standards are researched and reviewed, and a recommendation to adopt those standards is made to the Leadership Team.
- Develop a PK-12 content plan that details both the content and skills that will be taught at each grade level and is aligned vertically.
- Develop an implementation plan that includes 1) a detailed timeline for any necessary resource adoption, 2) required unit development per section level and 3) necessary professional learning and development for teachers.
Inquiry Innovation Team - Led by Clayton Filter
Inquiry means many things to many people. At AISC we seek to illustrate and apply our own meaning of inquiry in the context of our Mission and student learning objectives. The Inquiry Innovation Team will continue the work of the TLC to build a common understanding of inquiry at AISC and develop and action plan to help faculty apply inquiry-based strategies in their teaching and learning. (Strategic Plan - Inquiry End Result)
Design Thinking Innovation Team - Led by Ryan McFarland
Design thinking is a human-centered process that fosters action, allowing us to apply academic learning in a real-world context. The Design Thinking Innovation Team will continue the foundation work of last year's team by prototyping and evaluating programs, practices, and integrated learning opportunities for making and designing in a variety of contexts.
Personalized Learning Innovation Team - Led by Shari Abbott
The Information Age offers unprecedented opportunities to design learning environments and experiences that help all learners live our Mission and achieve at their fullest potential. The Personalized Learning Innovation Team will further pursue the work of last year’s innovation team to re-think and re-shape our systems to meet the needs of all learners.
Online Learning Innovation Team - Led by Mike Malone
The Online Learning Innovation Team will further explore models and opportunities for online learning across all school sections that fit with recommendations made by the previous years team.
Action Teams: Action teams implement school-wide projects that have well-defined goals and actions plans.
The Peer-to-Peer Professional Development team -"3PD" team will take on the challenge of personalizing professional learning at AISC. The team will ask teachers how they’re interested in growing professionally, then look among our talented colleagues for experts who would be willing to share their strengths for the common good.
R.I.S.E (Resilience, Innovation, Service, Entertainment) will bring bring innovative thinkers and performers to enrich the discourse and exposure around big ideas and global issues related to our mission, core values, and student learning objectives.
SLO Data Teams (Student Learning Objectives) Carrying forward the work of the Measurement Team, members of this team will collect, analyze and report data from the student learning objectives.
Section Committees
Section-specific committees will work on researching, designing, and implementing section-level projects.
HS = High School , MS = Middle School, ES = Elementary School
HS Divisional Assessment Guidelines (6 people) - This team will draft HS assessment guidelines for divisional adoption building off of the AISC Assessment Philosophy statement.
HS Writing Across the Curriculum Implementation Team (6 people) - This team will implement the recommendations of last year's team. This includes planning for and leading the faculty through unpacking the CC literacy standards and defining/adopting common language.
HS Student Advisory Forum Representatives (4 people) - Representatives will rotate through attending SAF meetings as a teacher representative.
HS Interdisciplinary Study Team (6 people) - This team will continue the exploration of how to increase interdisciplinary study at the HS.
MS Divisional Assessment Guidelines (6 people) - This team will draft MS assessment guidelines for divisional adoption building off of the AISC Assessment Philosophy statement.
MS Advisory Committee (Needs one teacher from Grade 6) - The Middle School Advisory Committee works to support the emotional needs of students by working collaboratively with teachers and counselors. The committee creates and refines our advisory "curriculum" by working with teachers to build familiarity with the advisory program. A major focus of advisory is strengthening the ties between teachers and students in a non-academic setting, and supporting the ideas within the AISC Mission, Core Values and Student Learning Objectives.
MS SEVAI Team - This team will work with Balajee to develop curricular connections to service learning opportunities.
MS Student Ambassador Sponsor (needs one teacher from grade 7 or grade 8)
The role of the Student Ambassador advisor is to work with the committee to develop workshops that foster leadership and communication in our student ambassadors. We meet every two weeks during lunch time. Other commitments include attending the full day Student Ambassador Retreat on September 4, training students for New Student Orientation, Back to School Night and other school events.
ES Homework Committee - Parents, students and educators have long debated the homework issue, and that debate has included discussions on determining the right amount of homework and if homework has any actual benefits on student performance. This committee will look at both arguments and make recommendations for future policy. Ideally, this committee will have two representatives from upper and lower elementary.
ES Standard-Based Assessing and Reporting Committee -This year, we will continue to gather feedback from stakeholders about the report card. We will also continue to review, revise, and refine rubrics and assessments to align with CCSS, NGSS and AERO. Where appropriate, old standards will be replaced. This committee is well-established, but we would like one more teacher representative from Kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2, plus a specials teacher.
ES LADDER - The Elementary LADDER team is looking for two additional members, one lower elementary EAL teacher and one upper elementary HR teacher. The ES LADDER team is one of three teams at AISC and three teams at the American School of Bombay (ASB) all collaborating toward making informed decisions about English Language Learners based on data. This data includes school-wide assessments such as the WIDA MODEL and MAP scores as well as classroom data such as writing samples and instructional interventions. The overarching goal of the initiative is to use data to drive all our decisions schoolwide.
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