Middle School weekly

Hello from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and happy Friday, middle school community!

Half Day Change and E-Learning Day

A reminder that our professional development half-day is now Tuesday, March 3rd. As well as a half day, March 3rd will also be an e-learning day. Each year, AISL hosts two e-learning days. The purpose of e-learning days is to practice the skills of online communication, collaboration and productivity through remote education. Schools throughout the world practice e-learning days regularly, much like fire drills. It is important for schools to be prepared in the event of any type of situation that may make coming to school a challenge or a safety issue.

AISL middle school and high school will be participating in a half day e-learning day Tuesday, March 3^rd (this was originally scheduled to be a regular half day, for middle school it will be a Day 2 D,E,F) and Wednesday, April 1. On these days, students will be engaged in meaningful and dynamic learning activities prepared by their subject teachers. These lessons may look different for various classes, as the technology used will best fit the standards and content. It is preferable that students do not come on campus that day to experience the nature of e-learning, however students without adult supervision or struggle with reliable internet use are welcome to come to school these days and report to their classroom teachers. If students do come to school Tuesday, March 3rd, they should be picked up at 11:10 for middle school and 11:20 for high school.

Elementary school students will report to school as usual, where they will be working on e-learning directly with their teachers in the classroom. As always, we thank you for your continued support.

I am currently attending a three-day conference in Addis Ababa on implementing professional learning communities into AISL. PLC’s are small teacher teams that use a formalized approach to answer four questions:

1. What do we expect students to know?
2. How will we know when they’ve learned it?
3. How do we respond when a student has not learned it?
4. How do we respond when a student has learned it already?

These essential four questions asked by professional educators as a collaborative, calibrated group, has been proven to increase student achievement. Fortunately, our middle school teachers have been doing much of this work already in grade- and content-level teams. Standards-based learning also aligns beautifully with the PLC procedures (what we expect students to know are our standards and global competencies). This has been fantastic professional development with experts in the field, and I look forward to bringing our learning back to AISL.

After School Procedures

This is just a reminder to students and parents concerning procedures at 3:00. Students after school should be picked up directly, move to their buses, or go to their after school activity, teacher assistance, or sport. Students who need to wait for a sibling or for a ride should be waiting at the front gate. Students should not be playing/hanging out on campus after school.

And that’s the week! Please see below for a summary of upcoming events. Thank you for choosing AISL and allowing us to spend quality time with your children. Have a great weekend and see you next Monday!

Sincerely,

John Powell

Middle School Principal

jpowell@aislagos.org