Office of Teaching and Learning Updates

All,

Collaboration is the key to creativity!  I hope this is be true for you, it certainly is for me. Recently I had the great opportunity to accompany Justin Carlson and Rebekka Lopata to NESA's Winter Training Institute in Bahrain to see NGSS expert, Paul Andersen (see photo below).  Full disclosure, Bill was scheduled to go and chose to stay back to coach the rescheduled ASIAC Soccer.

To hear more about NESA WTI, below is a brief description by the newly appointed NESA Math Collaborative CORE Facilitator, Calley Connelly,

Ten AISC faculty members made the journey to Bahrain to participate in a weekend full of learning and collaboration with the NESA Winter Training Institute.  Enjoying the beautiful campus at Riffa Views International School, our teachers focused on best practices in Math, Science, Social Studies, and Early Childhood.  Fer LaTorre, John Merletti, Kristie Nguyen, and Calley Connelly developed rich math tasks from closed problems in the Common Core Math Sessions.  Rebekah Lopata and Justin Carlson, with guest scientist Dan Love, unlocked the power of the NGSS science sessions by completing engineering challenges.  Rob Martin represented AISC as he did a deep dive into the C3 Social Studies standards.  And to work towards our big goals in early childhood education, Zahida Begum and Geetha Jacob went "Full STEAM Ahead" in a workshop on Learning by Doing.  

Did you know that NESA workshop offerings are designed by teachers, for teachers?  NESA supports the Collaborative CORE groups, which are subject-specific work groups made up of teachers from around the NESA region with a special interest in professional learning.  

For example, Calley Connelly represents AISC as a member of the NESA Math Collaborative.  The aim of these collaboratives is to provide a thoughtful progression of increasingly pointed professional learning opportunities over the course of a few years in each subject area.  Consider how NESA's progression in offerings might match your own professional learning goals, not only for a single session, but over the long haul.

2017 Social Buddies 

Did you have a good transition to AISC? If so, this is your chance to pay it forward!  We are looking for social buddies for the incoming new teaching class arriving in August of 2017. 

What does being a social buddy entail?

Buddy duty would begin on Saturday, July 29th

Duties include:

• Corresponding with their assigned new teacher once assigned (before the end of the school year).
• Offering to Skype/email over the summer to answer last minute questions and give packing tips.
• Attend parts of the last few days of New Teacher Orientation specifically:
• Lunch and local shopping trip followed by dinner at Andrew’s (Sat, 7/29)
• Coordinating individual shopping trips to Phoenix Mall and/or other places  (Sun, 7/29)
• Coordinating dinner and/or delivery with company if the new person so desires on days when group dinners are not provided (Mon/Tues, 7/31 & 8/1)
• Act as the new teacher’s “go-to” person for non-academic matters throughout the year.

While there is no compensation for coming forward to be a buddy, you will receive the unending thanks of the new person (or people) you befriend and our eternal gratitude!  Of course it goes without saying that your meals are covered on the four days of New Teacher Orientation.  We are also cooking up some other sort of recognition and thank you as yet to be determined.

Interested? If so, please email Dan Love by Monday, Feb 15th.  Dan will then pair up existing teachers with new teachers based on neighborhood, similarity of family configuration and possible shared interests.

Upcoming Consultants and Wednesday Early Releases Days February 8, 2017

Tom Schimmer

In order to continue to review sound assessment practices and the further develop our standards based assessment/reporting, Tom Schimmer will be on campus in February.  He will work with select groups, academic departments to discuss topics that include: self-assessment, repacking standards, understanding the standards based mindset, managing retakes, instructional agility, grade determinations and effective feedback.  Tom will also offer advice on developing processes for analyzing and interpreting student data. During this visit, Tom's schedule will mostly be focused on MS and HS academic departments and data teams. All faculty opportunities are outlined below and drop-in meeting with Tom are pre-established on his schedule. See Tom’s Schedule HERE. 

Wednesday February 8 Early Release

Effective Feedback and Increasing Instructional Agility

Tom will work with the full faculty during Wednesday's February 8 Early Release Professional Learning.  His interactive presentation will address Effective Feedback, specifically illustrating how students can self-assess, instead of only looking to the teacher for feedback.  Additionally Tom will provide strategies for all teachers to increase their instructional agility and adapt to the learners in their classrooms.  Seating in the FAC Cafeteria will be at tables and will be determined by Academic Departments and Grade Levels.  

Optional Tuesday and Thursday Early Release

Writing an Assessment Plan

This session will include some learning activities around the Big Ideas in unit assessment planning and unpacking a unit progression.  Then, teachers will engage in supported work time with Tom. This is a great opportunity to bring forward a unit plan set in the future and develop it ahead of time.  

Tom Schimmer is an independent education author, speaker, and consultant from Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada). He is recognized as a leader and expert in the areas of assessment for learning, sound grading practices, educational leadership, and student data analysis.  Tom will be at AISC from February 6 - 10.

Wellness at AISC

WELLNESS COORDINATOR POSITION POSTED--Thank you Lauren for your remarkable work with the creation and leadership in this new position!---If you are interested in 2017-2018 Wellness Coordinator, please take a look at the job description HERE.  Email me by January 31 with your statement of interest, intended vision for wellness at AISC, and qualifications for the position.  Final selection will be completed by the end of February.

Are you interested in seeing what is happening with wellness at AISC and in Chennai? If so, click here to stay updated. We have lots of exciting events planned so be sure to check in! 

Upcoming Conferences

Cairo American College Professional Learning Network

Cairo American College (CAC) teachers would like to share their insights and teaching models with other international school teachers in the region in order to better support teacher understanding and student learning.

We are hosting a professional learning weekend from March 25 - 27, 2017. Teachers have an opportunity to participate in a Lab Site process to learn about one of these three teaching models used at CAC:

1.    Reading and Writing:  Reading and Writing Workshops in the Elementary School

2.    Mathematics:  Challenge by Choice curriculum in the Middle School

3.    Multiple subjects:  Harkness-style student-centered discussions in the High School

Alternatively, administrators may attend the MAP Testing Workshop, in which participants learn how best to generate annual reports, graphs, and conduct international comparisons of their testing data. Be sure to bring your own data to the workshop!

Please find attached a document that includes the full weekend schedule, information about lodging and activities in Cairo, and detailed descriptions of the professional learning sessions. Please also note the following:

· Eligibility: Educators from regional international schools outside of Egypt.

· Cost: $250 payable by US or Egypt bank check or bank transfer. Payment must be made by March 1, 2017.

Interested? Send an email to Dan and we can discuss this exciting learning experience.

NESA Spring Educators Conference - March 31 - April 2, 2017

https://www.nesacenter.org/events/spring-educators-conference/speakers

Worth Reading

Suzie Boss, Author of Bringing Innovation to School and Reinventing Project-Based Learning, I'm an advocate for engaged, real-world learning.  Here is her blog and Twitter @suzieboss

Established by age groups, here is a great article on, What do teens need most from parents for intellectual, social and emotional development? http://www.wsj.com/articles/what-teens-need-most-from-their-parents-1470765906 … via the Wall Street Journal

Have a great week!