Great Learning Is Happening At AISC

Welcome back to AISC, Mark Church!

A coffee reception will be held on Monday in the Main Courtyard Area from 7:45 - 8:20. Stop by and say hi to Mark. The rest of the week is full of visits to classrooms, work with small groups of teachers and the MTV Book Club groups, and a two hour session with all of us at our Early Release Wednesday. Mark's calendar has been shared with all of you and there are still a couple of peer observation protocol spots open. If you are interested, you can sign up here.

4th Grade Students - Using the Headline Routine to capture the core of the work they experienced in a recent visit to Speed Trust.

6th Grade Students - Making Thinking Visible

 



Upcoming Professional Learning Opportunities - Literacy

You are invited to join Andrea in the SHED for the following after-school literacy options. Each session will start at 3:45:

Tuesday 16th February- Guided Reading

Tuesday 8th March- Writing Strategy Groups
Tuesday 29th March- Effective Feedback in Literacy (Conferring)

Our Continued Work on RTI

Jodi O'Meara will be joining us again from February 23rd - February 26th.  A schedule of her work for the week will be available in the next week or so.

Dr. Gini Rojas' Visit

In May 2012, International EAL Consultant, Dr. Gini Rojas conducted an EAL program review at AISC. We are very excited to welcome Dr. Rojas back to our campus. She will be joining us from March 2nd - 4th to review (and celebrate) our progress since her first visit. As you look ahead to March, do know that she will be visiting as many classrooms as she can to see the teaching and learning that is happening at AISC.

SUMMER PROFESSIONAL LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES SPONSORED BY THE OFFICE OF OVERSEAS SCHOOLS

There are a number of fantastic opportunities this summer for professional learning.  Check out these and these!

NESA Spring Educators Conference

The Spring Educators Conference is full of professional learning opportunities that are very relevant to our school priorities.  If you still have PLD funding for this year, you should take a look at the options!

SEVAI Update:

Grade 2 Service Learning Project underway

Grade 2 AISC students went on a Service Learning field visit to Seva Samajam, a local orphanage that AISC supports. Our students interacted with Grade 2 and 3 students from Seva Samajam to learn more about their culture and traditions. AISC students taught a game they knew in exchange for learning an Indian game from them. They made portraits of each other, shared some snacks, and sang a song together before waving goodbye to each other. This service learning project was directly related to the 2nd Grade Social Studies standards and helped them better understand the essential question: What are some traditions from my family or culture and how are they the same or different from my classmates?

 

The Kindergarten Team would like to express great appreciation and gratitude for the experience to partake in a workshop on Inquiry and Assessment in a Pre K-2 Classroom.  We found that the workshop afforded a time for team building skills, a growth in our pedagogy pertaining to inquiry, and the chance to interact with other international educators.  

Seldom, do we have the opportunity to relax for extended periods of time outside the school setting.  While waiting for flights and traveling between cities, we found this afforded many chances to talk personally and professionally.  This helped solidify our team’s cohesive mindset as we work together towards creating the best learning environment for our students.  

Our goal in taking this workshop was to further our understanding of the inquiry process and how we can apply this philosophy in the Kindergarten setting.  Holly Reardon, the facilitator, is a dynamic consultant who presented information in a very inspiring way.  Her teaching included TedTalks, links to authors, books and blogs, and opportunities for us to experience the process of using inquiry to design a unit.  

A great deal of learning can take place casually while having exchanges with international educators from a variety of settings.  We enjoyed touring Shekou International School’s Early Childhood Center and had riveting discussions about leading philosophies like Reggio Emilia, play based learning, and project based learning.  There was a plethora of authors mentioned and discussed like Ben Mardell, Loris Malaguzzi, Kath Murdoch, Kathy Short, Rachel Carson and Matt Glover.  

We all left the workshop feeling energized and inspired to continue our path to inquiry learning and application, in the classroom.  

The Kindergarten Team,

Dina, Lily and Jana