Week of December 17th - December 21st

Important Dates:

Monday Dec. 17th: MS Team Breakfast @ 8am, S1 Narratives due @ 12noon click here

Tuesday Dec. 18th: MS Faculty stand-up meeting @ 8am, MS Library, final grades & DRAGONS scores in PS by 4pm, Farewell Kristine & Amos @ 4pm onward in HS mini PAC

Friday December 21st: FINAL DAY of S1! MS teachers individual time @ 8am, Holiday treats in MS Office all morning, ALL data must be entered into PowerSchool by 12noon.

All teachers meet in the MS Cafeteria @12:20 to sing holiday songs with the MS students!

Sunshine:

Please bookmark this Sunshine Weekly link to stay informed of information and events going on in our community. To subscribe to the blog for automatic updates, scroll to the very bottom and enter your email address.

Faculty Council:

The Faculty Council met this past week for the month of December. Please see our Public Minutes of the meeting. As a friendly reminder, if you have any concerns you’d like to bring forward, please complete this MS Faculty Council form or see Brian or Stacy. Our next meeting is January 28. Thank you, FC Reps: Brian and Stacy

Athletics:

You can read the latest News on Athletics Website which is updated every Friday.

Lists of absent students can be found here and also on our Arts, Athletics and Activities Calendar.

Activities / Clubs:

Volunteers Needed: Volunteers Needed! KISJ is hosting our first VEX Robotics Tournament. The High School and Middle School robotics clubs will be welcoming teams from across Korea to compete on our campus Saturday January 26th. However, we need your help!

Tournaments cannot function without the help of volunteers! We need people to fill various volunteer roles throughout the day. No experience or knowledge of robotics is necessary but is always a plus. A training session will be offered for the role you signup for. If you are interested, please contact Ed Lehamann, Tina Wang or Bo Shaw for more information. See the attached sheet below form more information.

Roles we need:

Head Referee - 1 Person

Referee/Score Keeper - 2 to 4 People (people in this role will double as Inspectors)

Emcee - 1 Person

Field Reset Crew - 3 to 4 People

Judges - 3 to 4 People

Queue Crew - 2 to 4 People

Team Check In - 1 to 2 People

Club requisitions are being reviewed and submitted. Club rosters will be sent out at the end of next week. The students will find out their club after we get back from break.

SLL:

Thanks to teacher teams from grade 7 for your attention and consideration during this week’s Monday meeting. I’m looking forward to continuing our collaborative work that will enhance the “S” of DRAGONS. Major takeaways from our discussion include:

• We’ll need to work cooperatively to take the Service Learning and Leading initiatives at KISJ to the next level
• Meaningful SLL opportunities take a coordinated, coherent approach that incorporates learning across the curriculum so that students readily understand how activities are relevant to their lives before, during, and after their experiences
• As we consider planning for semester 2, we can enrich social responsibility, environmental stewardship, global awareness, and civic duty by strategically forging natural connections to SLL through upcoming units via: standards, Essential Questions, and BIG Ideas, as they correlate with grade-wide project themes:
  • Grade 6: Environmental conservation & consciousness (Guam / Jeju)
  • Grade 7: Negotiating differences with compassion (Taiwan / Jeju)
  • Grade 8: Oppression, social justice & human rights (Cambodia / Jeju)
• We continue to receive and explore ideas for local service projects and partnerships that correlate with the above themes. Have some interesting ideas? Please share them here!

Please take a moment to consider whether you would prefer to support international or local projects during SLL week in March. Kindly communicate details via this form so that we can take these details into consideration in our planning. You can reach out to kwilke@kis.ac to clarify curiosities or doubts.

Thank you and have a great weekend!

Dorms:

If you are a sponsoring any MS activity that requires students to leave or return to the dorms outside of their usual dorm student schedule, please contact the Deans (cwampler@kis.ac and bfisk@kis.ac) in advance so we can support you and the students.

To check out all the exciting learning happening in the KISJ MS Dorms follow us on Twitter @KISJ_Dorms.

Instructional Coach:

• Following a recent Dragon Dialogue with our parent community, the following questions were found as trends in their collective feedback, that will drive some of our work around assessment and reporting in Q3:
  • How are the standards of learning decided?
  • How are teachers ensuring consistency in their grading practices?
  • How are students taught to use and understand rubrics within each content area?

• We’ve plenty of great reads to enjoy over the winter break in the MS PD Collection, found in the Community Center. In fact, several titles have been moved from the MS Library to the Community Center, to join the newer titles that have been order. Come and sign some out!

Counseling:

S2 New Students. Upon our return from the Winter Break we will be welcoming at least 7 new students (G6-3, G7-1, G8-3) to the Middle School. New student enrollment will be finalized next Friday, December 21st and counselors will share the final count upon reception.

Upon arrival, on Monday January 14th, our new dragons will participate in a Middle School Orientation led by the counseling team. Please anticipate their arrival into your classrooms during Advisory on Tuesday, January 15th.

Child Protection & Safeguarding. New Teachers as well as Alumni Staff who completed the Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide online training before or in the 2015-2016 academic year will need to complete the training by January 14, 2019.

Detailed instructions are provided below for reference and support. Don’t hesitate to reach out to your grade level counselor with questions or concerns. Upon completion please download your certificate and add it to the MS Suicide Prevention Training Folder.

1. Click on the following link http://sptsuniversity.org/
2. Create an account and open the link provided via email to continue (Disable pop-ups if necessary).
3. Complete the 2018-2019 National Version - Making Educators Partners in Youth Suicide Prevention: Act on Facts
   • Click ‘Enroll Me’ and complete the Pre-Evaluation
   • View the Introduction and Modules 1-6
   • Complete the Post-Evaluation
   • Provide Course Feedback
   • Receive a Certificate of Completion
   • Download Certificate of Completion & add it to the MS Suicide Prevention Training Folder

Associate Principal:

-S2 morning and lunchtime supervision sign-ups will take place at the end of Tuesday’s stand up meeting. Please look over this doc between now and then and determine which duty you want to do. I will allow editing access at 8:15am on Tuesday December 18th. You will be able to add your name to the doc then.

-Please view the G6 and G7/8 special schedules for December 21st and plan accordingly.

-Please view the G6 and G7/8 special schedules for January 14th and plan accordingly.

Principal:

Communicating Learning: Teachers, continue to refer S1 Report Guidelines throughout the upcoming week. Please note the deadlines, dates and times. PowerSchool will be ‘off-line’ to students and parents as of 8am on Monday December 17th, the portal will remain closed until December 21st at 5pm. The following message will be visible to students and parents during this time:

"Dear MS students and parents, PowerSchool is currently offline while reports are being processed. The portal will reopen on Friday December 21st at 5pm. Please contact your advisor or subject matter teacher directly with quarries related to your learning progress."

The first page of the semester report will be printed and mailed to parents, narrative comments on page 2 onward are available via the online parent portal only.

Saying farewell to our founding leaders: Come and bid farewell to our outgoing Academic Head and Director of HR Services. On Tuesday December 18th all faculty are welcome to join Kristine and Amos for an informal gather in the HS mini PAC from 4:00 to 4:45pm. Snacks will be served.

Student Enrollment: Please be aware there may be several students unenrolled over the December/January holiday. Be sensitive to the idea that some students might be aware of their enrollment status while others are not. Advisors, as you become aware of departing students this next week please approach conversations appropriately knowing that some students have not been made aware of their enrollment status. Grade level teams and advisors will be informed via Neyda and Eric re: student enrollment and new student placement in January. As mentioned in the counseling notes all new students will begin with New Student Orientation on January 14th.

Accounting: Please be sure to submit all reimbursement requests before leaving campus on December 21st. Please refer to Mia’s email for specific information on this matter.

Human Resources: In our efforts to constantly improve our systems of emergency response at KISJ we would like ask all faculty to complete the following emergency contact form by Friday, December 21st.

Week of December 10th - December 14th

Important Dates:

Tuesday Dec. 11th: MS Faculty stand-up meeting @ 8am, MS Library

Thursday Dec. 13th: MS choir and orchestra performance @2:15 in HSPAC

Friday Dec. 14th: MS Departments meet @ 8am, MS Musical ONCE ON THIS ISLAND JR @MSPAC 2:15-3:30ish

Dec. 13th & 14th: MS Musical ONCE ON THIS ISLAND JR. @MSPAC 6:30-7:30

Sunshine:

Please bookmark this Sunshine Weekly link to stay informed of information and events going on in our community. To subscribe to the blog for automatic updates, scroll to the very bottom and enter your email address.

Athletics:

Please read the latest News on Athletics Website which is updated every Friday.

Lists of absent students can be found here and also on our Arts, Athletics and Activities Calendar.

SLL:

Thanks to teacher teams from grades 6 and 8 for your attention and consideration during this week’s Monday meeting. I’m looking forward to visiting with grades 7 and 9 next Monday to continue working collaboratively to enhance the “S” of DRAGONS. Major takeaways from our discussion include:

• We’ll need to work cooperatively to take the service learning and leading initiatives at KISJ to the next level
• Meaningful SLL opportunities take a coordinated, coherent approach that incorporates learning across the curriculum so that students can make connections before, during, and after their experiences
• As we consider planning for semester 2, we can enrich social responsibility, environmental stewardship, global awareness, and civil duty by strategically forging natural connections to SLL through our standards, Essential Questions, and BIG Ideas, as they correlate with grade-wide project themes:
  • Grade 6: Environmental conservation & consciousness (Guam / Jeju)
  • Grade 7: Negotiating differences with compassion (Taiwan / Jeju)
  • Grade 8: Oppression, social justice & human rights (Cambodia / Jeju)
  • Grade 9: Building healthy, sustainable communities (Nepal / Laos / Jeju)
• We are in the process of receiving and exploring ideas for local service experiences and partnerships that correlate with the above themes. Have some interesting ideas? Please see this form!

Lastly, we’re in the process of gauging teacher interest to support international and local projects during SLL week in March. If you have strong preference to guide either experience for your students, please see this form to let us know to take these details into consideration as we plan.

Thank you and have a great weekend!

Technology:

In preparation for S1 reporting, please refer to the following slide show to help in crafting your comments and inputting grades into Powerschool.

Tech Bytes: With the increasing use of technology in presentations and assessments, we need to make sure students know and are following copyright laws. There are numerous sites available that have images licensed under public domain (works can be used freely for any purpose) or Creative Commons Zero CC0 (a Creative Commons license that allows copyright owners to release their works with no usage restrictions).

Counseling:

Dear Colleagues, Thank you for the valuable feedback shared in regards to your level of safety and comfort with Child Protection & Safeguarding. We’ll share valuable insights gained at our follow-up CPS session on Friday January 18, 2019.

In the interim, New Teachers as well as Alumni Staff who completed the Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide online training before or in the 2015-2016 academic year will need to complete the training by January 14, 2019.

Detailed instructions are provided below for reference and support. Don’t hesitate to reach out to your grade level counselor with questions or concerns. Upon completion please download your certificate and add it to the MS Suicide Prevention Training Folder.

1. Click on the following link http://sptsuniversity.org/
2. Create an account and open the link provided via email to continue (Disable pop-ups if necessary).
3. Complete the 2018-2019 National Version - Making Educators Partners in Youth Suicide Prevention: Act on Facts
   • Click ‘Enroll Me’ and complete the Pre-Evaluation
   • View the Introduction and Modules 1-6
   • Complete the Post-Evaluation
   • Provide Course Feedback
   • Receive a Certificate of Completion
   • Download Certificate of Completion & add it to the MS Suicide Prevention Training Folder

Associate Principal:

Please be mindful of the special schedules on Dec 13, and Dec 14. On both days there will be groups of students who will need to miss some class time to prepare for their concert/production. The roster lists are linked in the schedules.

Please view the G6 and G7/8 special schedules for December 21st.

Principal:

Communicating Learning: Teachers, as you continue to prepare for the end of the semester please click here to view the revised S1 reporting guidelines. Please note the deadlines, dates and times in your calendar. Given the deadlines stated, you’ll likely want students to complete all summative assessments no later than Friday December 14th.

Student to teacher feedback: In the spirit of continuous improvement and engaging in best practices each semester, students will complete a survey with respect to their learning experience in your class. Teachers are to consider student feedback when reflecting upon professional practice and future plans for learning and assessment. The survey will be completed during class time and you will be provided with the responses, school leaders also have access to this data.

Later today you will receive student feedback survey links from Stacy in the middle school office. Students are to complete one survey per class, surveys links will remain active Monday December 10th - Friday December 14th. All faculty input and feedback was incorporated into the revisions made to the middle school student feedback survey.

Capital Requests and Annual Ordering: This week I received an update from our Executive Director with respect to the status of Capital Requests for SY’19/20. At this time the budget is still undetermined therefore capital requests cannot yet be grated. As soon as I receive more information I will communicate with MS Department Leads and faculty. The annual order process will begin in January, MS Department Leads will guide their respective departments through the process. Please be aware that annual order funds are your operations funds for SY’19/20. Please go to the KISJ Drive and click here to access all information available to date.

Aside from launching Capital Requests and suggesting items for the Annual Order teachers are welcome to submit operational requests to their MS Department Lead throughout the academic year. Operations budgets are quite modest so please plan with your department according to ensure departmental funds are allocated appropriately. All requests are subject to approval from our Administrative Director or Executive Director.

Glossary of terms:

Capital Request: Items requested are deemed foundational resources to a program, examples include text resources, furniture, additional humans etc. Capital requests are typically launched in September / October for the following academic year.

Annual Order: Items are consumable, or non-foundational to the program, examples include manipulatives, specific stationary etc. Annual order requests typically take place in January/February. Note, all items ordered during the ‘annual order’ period will be deducted from the follow academic year operations budget.

Operations Budget: This budget represents the remaining funds available for an academic year. When resources are needed teachers may complete a purchase order and submit it to their department lead. Department leads review the request, assigning an appropriate budget code before submitting to the Principal for academic approval. All requests are subject to final approval from our Administrative Director or Executive Director.

Week of December 3rd - December 7th

Important Dates:

Tuesday December 4th: MS Orchestra and Choir Performance @ 7pm in the HS PAC

Friday December 7th: Department meetings @ 8am ½ day for students, and S1 narrative comment writing from 1-4pm (various locations)

Thursday December 13th: Special Schedule

Friday December 14th: Special Schedule

Sunshine:

Please bookmark this Sunshine Weekly link to stay informed of information and events going on in our community. To subscribe to the blog for automatic updates, scroll to the very bottom and enter your email address.

Athletics:

You can read the latest News on Athletics Website which is updated every Friday.

Lists of absent students can be found here and also on our Arts, Athletics and Activities Calendar.

Activities / Clubs:

The promised club requisition form is still under construction, but it will be sent out soon!

SLL:

We are happy to share details about this year’s International Service Learning and Leading trips, which will all proceed with the next stages of planning:

Grade 6: 17 students (accompanied by 2 chaperones) will engage with environmental conservation work in Guam. Even though we weren’t able to meet our target Student registration number, World Youth Adventures has agreed to facilitate the trip for a smaller, committed group, at no extra cost, and with only minor changes made to activities on the itinerary. This was arranged as a courtesy to honor our long-standing partnership with their organization and host communities.

Grade 7: 34 students will travel to Taiwan to work with an opportunity center for children and adults with special needs. Students will be accompanied by up to 4 chaperones!

Grade 8: 43 students will travel to Cambodia to build houses for low-income families accompanied by up to 5 chaperones!

A sincere thanks to our DRAGONS, who actively listened and carefully considered opportunities to practice leadership and apply learning to resolve real-world community issues in a global context. We appreciate how you were able to respectfully and responsibly communicate interest, curiosity, and doubt about trip details to teachers and parents so that we could work together to clear confusion.

A warm thank you to trip leaders and teachers who provided space to host informed discussions that would support inquiry, clarity, and timely student enrollment. Continuing this dialogue will surely help our international service learning leaders better able to engage with meaningful experiences in March.

A reminder: students who have opted not to engage with international service learning and leading experiences will serve, learn, and lead projects on Jeju during SLL week (March 11-15). Details regarding local activities are in early stages of planning, and we need your help! Have an idea for something interesting and impactful that KIS students can/should do as a service to improve Jeju? Share it here.

It requires patience, cooperation, perseverance, strategic planning, and clear, open communication to effectively serve, learn, and lead in local and global contexts. Next week teacher teams will begin exploring possibilities to connect classroom learning with personal reflection that will enhance outcomes from upcoming service experiences. We hope to orchestrate local and international service learning and leading experiences that are the best (yet) for our students, staff, and partnering communities. In order to make this a reality, we need your positive intention and purposeful action: leading up to, during, and following SLL week.

You have the power (and the responsibility) make this world--and our community--a better place; and we’re here to help. So let’s get it done...together!

Technology:

• Next week is Computer Science Education week. If you are interested in participating in An Hour of Code (a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify "code", to show that anybody can learn the basics, and to broaden participation in the field of computer science) here are some resources or email me and we can find a time to work together.

Counseling:

Dear Colleagues, We survived the month of November and the joys of the holiday season are upon us. Thank you all for welcoming counselors into your classrooms and taking time in Advisory to reinforce the importance of Teen Safety. Counselors will continue to provide opportunities to educate and empower all stakeholders in Child Protection and Safeguarding, to ensure the safety and well-being of our students.

One of our focuses for 2nd Semester will be on Suicide Awareness and Prevention. All KISJ staff are required to complete a 2 hour online training through the Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide. New teachers, as well as alumni staff whose certificates have lapsed, must complete the training by January 14, 2019. Upon completion please download your certificate and add it to the following folder. Detailed instructions are provided below for reference and support. Don’t hesitate to reach out to your grade level counselor with questions or concerns.

1. Click on the following link http://sptsuniversity.org/
2. Create an account and open the link provided via email to continue (Disable pop-ups if necessary).
3. Complete the 2018-2019 National Version - Making Educators Partners in Youth Suicide Prevention: Act on Facts
   • Click ‘Enroll Me’ and complete the Pre-Evaluation
   • View the Introduction and Modules 1-6
   • Complete the Post-Evaluation
   • Provide Course Feedback
   • Receive a Certificate of Completion
   • Download Certificate of Completion & add it to the MS Suicide Prevention Training Folder

Associate Principal:

Hello MS staff! Thank you for your record breaking team effort during our fire drill on Friday!

All teachers and students were evacuated from the building within 3 minutes and 40 seconds.

All teachers and students were accounted for within 4 minutes and 10 seconds.

The Special Schedules for Dec 7 are G6 and G7/8. Please note students will have a ½ day and teachers will have the afternoon to work on narratives. Please be aware of these special schedules and plan accordingly.

Principal:

Communicating Learning: Teachers, as you continue to prepare for the end of the semester please click here to view the revised S1 reporting guidelines. Please note the deadlines, dates and times in your calendar. Given the deadlines stated, you’ll likely want students to complete all summative assessments no later than Friday December 17th.

In related news, yesterday, about 35 parents participated in a Dragons Dialogue on the topic of Standards-Referenced Grading & Reporting in the middle school. This session was curated and led by our instructional coach Julia Snider. Based upon feedback we will begin crafting another session for parents in the new year. Similarly faculty can look forward to further PD on the topic January 14th.

Seeking your feedback: Please take a moment and provide feedback on Assessing Standards of Learning in Middle School. We will look for departmental patterns and trends to inform decisions around assessment expectations in the future. So far 15 faculty members have responded.

Planning with the end in mind: On December 21st, faculty may depart campus from 1:30pm onward. Note, all S1 grades and comments must be complete prior to your departure from campus. Teachers are invited to gather together on the main floor of the MS building for pizza and light refreshments from 12:30pm (ish) onwards.

MS Appreciation: Thank you for indicating your location preference for our upcoming faculty appreciation event which will be held on January 25th or 26th 2019. A majority of 21 survey respondents (57%) indicated Devil’s Door to be the venue of choice. The MS Office will now endeavor to secure this venue and confirm event details - more information to come shortly.