Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• Tuesday meeting - Last week's meeting was optional in case anyone had any last minute questions about reports or anything else. There aren't any meetings scheduled for next week.

• Schedule next week - I sent an email yesterday but here it is again. Normally, the last days of school are an exciting time of goodbyes and anticipation for the summer. Things are obviously different this year but we do want to create opportunities for closure and to say goodbye to those people who are leaving the community. Here is the schedule for the last two days.

  • • Monday, June 29 - Normal Monday schedule. Register for attendance and go to all classes. A suggested activity in Long Homeroom: organize digital goodbye cards for community members leaving the school.

    • Tuesday, June 30

      • 8:00 to 8:30 Register for attendance as normal.

      • 8:30 Meet in homeroom chat.

      • 8:45 An assembly link will be shared, go to assembly. Homeroom chat can remain open during the assembly. Following the assembly, meet in homerooms again, say final goodbyes to departing students, Zoom parties, etc. It is up to the homeroom how to use the time. School officially continues until 11:25 but I don't expect you to fill all the time, you can dismiss early.

      • 11:26 Summer officially begins

• Departing students - The following students have turned in their withdrawal forms, there might be a few other students who've mentioned they are leaving but we can't count them as departing until they do the withdrawal form. Please be sure you've filled in the Checkout form that Michelle sent out for each student.

• • Grade 7 - Riko Hayashi

  • Grade 8 - Hyunwoo Yi (Lucas)

  • Grade 9 - Miu Watase, Lois-Ann Loafman, Miyabi Sugimoto

  • Grade 10 - Stefano Von Saalfeld, Trinity Sala

• Report Writing - Thank you for all of your efforts and flexibility. For many students, this trimester was a struggle and I appreciate all the support teachers have given to ensure that students meet their requirements. Please let Stephen and I know via email when you have finished and also if you need more time.

• End of year awards - Please vote on this form for the end of year awards. Grade 10 teachers, a few nominees have been added for Values, so please go in and vote again even if you already have. Please vote by Monday morning.

• Staying in contact and starting next year - If there was ever a summer to disconnect from school and shut down all electronic contact, it would be this one. However, there are good reasons to keep an eye on school communication. I won't be inundating you with email but next week, Stephen and I will need you to check it just in case we find a problem with something in your reports. A problem with one student can hold up the printing for two grades.

• Assuming that COVID-19 numbers remain similar to what they are now, we expect to be on campus in August with a regular school schedule but taking precautions in terms of classroom layout, cleanliness, masks, etc. However, if there is a spike or a national emergency declared, we may have to move to one of our other plans. As we monitor events over the summer, and if there are changes, we may send out updates to the faculty on our planning. It will be particularly important to look at these as we get closer to the teacher reporting date on August 19.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• Tuesday meeting - Last week's meeting was mostly information sharing (graduation, awards, final reports, etc.) and also included a discussion on Black Lives Matter and how school's should respond. More on that below. Next week, with report writing and wrapping up the year, the meeting will be optional. Stephen and I will be there to answer any questions but attendance isn't required.

• Report Writing - There have been several reminders in previous updates and the guidelines for reports can be found in the Academic Affairs shared drive (it is always linked at the top of this page). The calendar to the right also lists expectations. If you aren't sure about something, just ask.

• End of year awards - Please vote on this form for the end of year awards. Several awards only had one nominee but please read through the form anyway.

• End of year meeting - I've had some good conversations this week with people. I know things are busy but if you could find a few moments to chat, I would appreciate it.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• Tuesday meeting - It was an optional, low key meeting this past Tuesday. Most of it revolved around questions people had about reports (please see notes below). Next week will mostly be about wrapping things up, awards, locker clean out, etc.

• Report Writing - Please review the guidelines for reports found in the Academic Affairs shared drive (it is always linked at the top of this page). There are also some notes about reports, comments and such in the May 22 and 29 updates. The calendar to the right also lists expectations. These reports include things that only happen once a year so don't be afraid to ask any questions even if you feel like you "should" know the answer.

• Best fit in the pandemic - Many schools and districts have eliminated grades during distance learning or said that students grades can't go below where they were prior to campuses closing. Some of these policies wouldn't work with MYP grading which operates with a different philosophy and doesn't rely on percentages. However, under normal circumstances at the end of the year, when figuring "best fit", it can be informed by work in earlier trimesters. Looking at the big picture of how a student's learning has progressed and what they have demonstrated over time is more important than focusing on one recent grade that may be lower than expected. Keeping the long view in mind especially when completing the final overview, while appropriate in normal times, is even more important now.

• End of year meeting - I've had some good conversations this week with people but I would still like to meet with everyone. I'm taking my foot off of the gas, too and am making this more of a casual conversation compared to what is written in the documentation. Please contact me with times you are available.

• Job alikes - The regional network is organizing a number of online job alikes either later this month or early next school year. For ones that have definite dates, I've talked directly to the teachers involved. If you are interested in a job alike for your discipline and

• PYPX - Next week the grade 5s have their Exhibition which is the PYP equivalent of the Personal Project and Extended Essay. The 6th and 7th graders will attend but if you want to bring another class or sign up yourself, that is also possible. You can sign up to meet the next year's 6th graders in this Google Sheet.

• Awards - We are still using this nominating form and we will discuss nominees at the meeting next week.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• Tuesday meeting - The notes from the meeting can be found here. Besides the discussion on grade 8 (see below) we also talked about students coming in to clean their lockers and return items to school and a basic outline of reopening strategies. Links are in the notes. This may change but for the moment nothing is on the agenda for Tuesday but I will be available to discuss any issues or concerns.

• Finishing the year and well-being - In the meeting we discussed grade 8, there was general agreement that many of the students have high expectations for themselves which builds up stress and this is exasperated by the distance learning. As Michelle pointed out in the email she sent, many are caught up in an anxiety loop. While this information was backed by the results of a survey Michelle conducted with grade 8, the same could probably be said about many other classes, too. The survey indicates that many aren’t responding to stress well and that they feel the workload has increased.

• I've never been a big fan of coasting into the end of the school year. I've always encouraged engaging learning up until the last day of regular classes. But, if there were ever a year to take the foot off the gas, this would be it. After the last student survey, I discussed making structural changes to the overall schedule this year. After conversations with faculty and SIS we continued as we are and tried to work within the schedule to find other ways to ease up the pressure whether it is cutting back on assessments, building in asynchronous time or just giving students catch up periods. Some teachers have worked amongst themselves to move classes around to link up study periods. PE and grade 10 math have been mostly asynchronous this trimester which works well for some students but has proven a challenge for others. Several teachers have told me they've cut assessments they normally would do in the spring. Others have also been doing asynchronous tasks or other strategies to decrease screen time. I appreciate all the efforts people have made as I think it has made a difference. However, it is clear from the number of self referrals Michelle is getting that more students than normal are struggling.

• Since the Tuesday meeting, I have had numerous conversations with people about this and there are a variety of views. We are considering revisiting the schedule for the last few weeks of school. For the moment, I want to reemphasize the strategies we've tried and look for other ways to alleviate the end of year stress that is really weighing on many students. Rather than racing to the finish line, we should be taking the scenic route, particularly in the MYP. Please look at what you have planned for the rest of the year and see if there are ways to cut back. It is okay if we do not have as many criterion levels or get through all the content we would in normal times. These aren't normal times. I would argue that the students have learned a lot more about their study skills, independence, and strengths and weaknesses as learners than they would have under normal circumstances. We can't argue that learning hasn't taken place. Taking time to consolidate some of those skills and work on others might be helpful. Mindfulness activities, well-being activities like the video Michelle shared on breaking the anxiety loop, working on organizational skills, doing something for fun or just giving them some time off are all acceptable. With advance planning Michelle or Mel and others can be available to help work on some of these things. I realize many people have already planned the year out and have things to do and please be sure any remaining assessments are on the ManageBac calendar. I'm not necessarily asking you to throw those out but really think hard about what needs to be done between now and finishing reports.

• End of year meeting - With the current situation, I don't plan on following the normal structure. However, I would like to meet with each of you over the next week or so to discuss what I've written above and how you are doing. Please send me an appointment request.

• Graduation and grade 11 - Graduation will take place on Saturday, June 20. Rehearsal and set up will take place on the afternoon of June 19. A list of grade 11 students who will be involved will come out soon but please plan for several of them not being in periods 5, 6, and 7 that afternoon.

• Awards - Last week there were a few problems with the nominating form but it should be working now. Please use it to give me your nominations.

• Press release - Receiving a press release about a colleague is a first for me but I received this one about Peter not too long ago. He is now an officially certified athletic administrator. Congratulations Peter!

• Growing with Gratitude Event - I received this via the IB and it might be of interest to you or your students. If someone wants to take the lead on getting our students involved, let me know.

  • I'm Ash a PYP teacher in Adelaide, Australia - now Director of Growing With Gratitude. I wanted to let you know about the free BIG Classroom Event on Wednesday June 17-It's for K - 12. The idea of the The Big Live Classroom Event is to bring 100,000 young people together from around the world to practice gratitude and promote wellbeing. Given COVID-19, there's no better time to do this. Schools from 22 countries have registered. Further info:..info@growingwithgratitude.com.au

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• Tuesday meeting - There were some good discussions and notes from the meeting can be found here. A few specific questions were brought up in the meeting which are addressed below. Next week we will be looking at planning for the rest of June.

• Reopening - I have a parent meeting tonight in which our plan for June will be the main topic. I really don't have a great sense of how it will go but I do know there are some parents who can't understand why things aren't operating normally with the national emergency ended while there are others who are not ready to let their kids out yet. Here are a few things I'm working on with regards to reopening.

  • Campus visits - a number of students have started asking if they can come to campus to retrieve belongings, clean lockers, etc. Rather than do this on an individual basis, I want to set this up in a systematic way. So it is likely that each student will be allowed one visit to campus. SIS is also exploring this with the idea of bringing each of their homerooms to campus once. In most cases, I have some time to figure this out and observe the issues that arise from elementary. However, several grade 11 students have told me they need things from their locker to prepare for mocks so it is likely that I will prioritize that group sooner rather than later.

  • Cleaning - A few people asked questions about this in the faculty meeting with regards to supplies and the number of cleaning staff we will have. I don't have all the answers yet, but here is the latest update. From the 28th to the 31st, so currently underway, there is a special cleaning and disinfecting of the building taking place. This will include, but not limited to, doorknobs, handrails, faucets, switches, desks and chairs in each room. Floors will be wiped and swept, carpets cleaned and spray disinfected. Office spaces will also be cleaned within these parameters. The daily routine cleaning schedule for after re-opening of classes is still being finalized to fit in with the evolving schedule of students coming into the building. An update on this will be provided as soon as we have it.

  • August - A lot of my planning has shifted towards looking at how we will open in August. I've been reading a lot about what other schools are doing, watched a webinar, and have been reading many guidelines documents. The only thing that is clear is that the future is unclear. I'll be working on several contingencies for how we might open and what the conditions will be to use each scenario.

• Report cards - Remember you can find all of the documents regarding reporting expectations and deadlines in the Academic Affairs shared folder which is always linked at the top of this page. Last week's reminders are below. Here are responses to a few issues that came up in the faculty meeting.

  • Comments - It was suggested that given the circumstances, it might be a good idea to include a comment on the third trimester report. Normally, we only include a comment if there are circumstances that need explaining, such as a big change in grades from a previous trimester. With my parent hat on, I agree that this could be quite useful but I'm also wary of creating work. After thinking about it and a few conversations, my idea is that we do a homeroom comment and a generic comment for each class. The generic comment could be a description of how the course was adapted to distance learning and how the students managed to complete the curriculum under these circumstances. As is normal, teachers could follow this with an individual comment if it is needed. The advisors would write an individual comment about how the student approached distance learning, their well being, etc. The grade level teacher chats would be quite useful for this because a lot of information has already been shared there and more could be added to help the homeroom teacher if needed.

  • Attendance - There was some discussion about this being included on the report card. While there was some concern about the accuracy of the attendance record given that some students will have checked in and then disappeared. However, several teachers have told me they really emphasized the attendance being on the report so they would be disappointed if it weren't there. I will write a qualifying comment when I introduce attendance in the cover letter. If you do have students for whom you feel the attendance isn't accurate because of ghosting, then include that in your comment.

• Awards - It is time to start thinking about student awards. You can find the nominating form here. The whole awards system is something I'd like to revisit but for now, please use the form to give me your nominations.

• PD - I'll keep this reminder from last week. The next PD committee meeting will be soon. If there is PD you'd like to apply for, you can use this link. We are building another cohort for Project Zero. Many of the elementary teachers and a few MS/HS teachers including Brodie and Espie have participated in the past. If you would like to join next year's group, let me know.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• Tuesday meeting - Thank you for giving me your feedback on reopening. It was useful in our admin discussions about the next steps. Notes can be found here. You can see the summary results of the survey here. Next week I would like to follow up on the discussion now that plans are coming out.

• Report cards - Remember you can find all of the documents regarding reporting expectations and deadlines in the Academic Affairs shared folder which is always linked at the top of this page. Here are a few reminders and other things to consider as we start getting closer to the deadlines.

  • For students who are new and it isn't possible to assess all four criteria, you can leave them as NA on the spring trimester report and make a comment. They should get a mark for criteria that have at least one assessment but still give a comment. However, they do need a 1 to 7 grade for the final overview summary of achievement, as that is how they will get credit for the third of the year they attended. Since you don't have all the criteria you'll have to do a best fit based on the grade descriptors and the work you have seen. Here is a link to the grade descriptors. It has some formatting issues but you can read it.

  • Remember that any incomplete coursework cannot be carried over the summer and a revised report produced in the Fall when the work is received. The way ManageBac works these days, it’s almost impossible to go back and make a report from a previous academic year.

  • A reminder that the Spring trimester reports will include attendance summaries, so make sure the attendance on ManageBac is up to date and complete.

• PD - The PD committee had a preliminary meeting this week and will have a follow up meeting soon. If there is PD you'd like to apply for, you can use this link. We are building another cohort for Project Zero. Many of the elementary teachers and a few MS/HS teachers including Brodie and Espie have participated in the past. If you would like to join next year's group, let me know.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• School Festival/Film Festival - Thank you again to the student council students and their advisors Stephanie and Toshi for organizing a community event in lieu of School Festival. It is clear that from the surveys and other conversations that some students would really appreciate the social interaction that this provides while others might find it overwhelming and an addition to the stress they are already feeling. No one is required to participate and no one should be forced or coerced into doing so. Classes are canceled Friday period 6 & 7 so that students can meet in homeroom to plan and actually finish it if they wish. I believe that there are students who will enjoy this and are looking for opportunities to connect so setting up an environment that recognizes that while also giving others an out would be appreciated. The official attendance from the office will be open Saturday morning so that students can sign in as it is still officially a school day on the calendar. If students are working on the activity, they should sign in. However, attendance on report cards will come from ManageBac which will not be registering attendance on Saturday and I will not be chasing up anyone who is absent.

• Tuesday meeting - Last week we had a good conversation about steps for opening, awards and issues related to the DP. Notes can be found here. I'm keeping Tuesday's agenda open because recent discussions at the national and prefectural level may make us want to continue the conversation from this past meeting. We'll know a lot more about that by Monday or Tuesday. It could be that there is nothing more to discuss.

• Publishing student photos - Everything is online now so it may be worth reminding people that the school has a general policy of not publishing student names and pictures together in newsletters or other public forums that aren't restricted to internal servers or people within the SOISMail domain. You can publish one or the other but not the two together. Upon entrance into the school, families can also opt not to have their children's pictures included in publications but no current student in middle and high has asked for this.

• Summer orders - I haven't received many requests for summer orders. There is still time to forward any items to me and please don't wait for department budgets to come out. With the three shift rotation in the office, they are still working on that.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• Rainbow Week - Next week is our annual Rainbow Week. This is a KG wide event that OIS has been participating in over the last few years. This year, it is more fully integrated with the two schools. The week is meant to raise awareness about the LGBTQ+ community and promote tolerance for people with differences. More information including a schedule of events can be found on these slides. Monday's long homeroom will feature a guest speaker so be sure to have your students join the Zoom meeting.

• Rainbow Week activity Friday morning - The Rainbow Week committee has made a Kahoot that would have been done during Friday Flex in normal times. We haven't been running FF in the same way during distance learning so we had thought we would do it at the end of period 4 but with some scheduling issues, this is also proving complicated. So, we will do it in short homeroom Friday, instead. This will cut into first period a little bit but shouldn't take too much time. If you have any concerns you can contact me but I hope we can support the students on the committee.

• Tuesday meeting - We will meet Tuesday. The agenda includes an opportunity to share opinions about reopening campus when the time comes, awards nominees, and, for DP teachers, the grade 11 exams.

• Summer orders - You should receive an email on department budgets soon but you can expect that there will be a bit more money budgeted than your department had last year. If there are things you need to arrive by August, please start looking now. For general supplies, please look to source things in Japan first. The uncertainty of the current situation makes whether things will arrive on time unclear. If you have any questions, please contact me.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• Personal Project Marks - Thank you to those teachers who managed to upload their personal project feedback. If you haven't had a chance yet, please do it so Brodie and I can moderate them and upload. Look for Brodie's email for more information.

• Surveys - The student survey results were shared in the faculty meeting and links are in the notetaker. I'm planning on doing a follow up survey with the parents, too.

• Events Calendar - Obviously, nothing this trimester is going like it was originally planned when the calendar was published and people planned activities for the spring. We asked you to put your activities on a spreadsheet. That has since been updated with the decision about what will happen to the activity. You can see that here.

• Homework/screen time - We have had some good discussions about this and it is difficult to find the right balance. A grade 8 parent wrote to Mel as homeroom teacher asking that homework not be assigned over the long weekend. I agree and asked MYP teachers especially to avoid giving work over the weekend. The parent also mentioned that her child is spending at least 4 hours each night and on the weekend doing homework. I don't think the parent is wrong but at the same time if I asked the grade 8 teachers how much homework they are assigning and tallied it up, it wouldn't reach over 4 hours a night.

So what is happening? I think a recent request to Allana provides some clues. In science, the grade 8 students had a fishbowl activity today. Yesterday, shortly after I asked teachers not to assign homework over the weekend, several students wrote to Allana asking her to postpone the fishbowl until after Golden Week. This was a well-designed assessment that was meant to be researched over two and a half class periods leading up to the discussion today. She didn't tell the students to do it as homework. Yet, many students in the class will have invested much more time than this in preparing and this in turn encourages other students to spend more time. Thus, now it feels like they have a big homework assignment when Allana never intended it to be that way. Then yesterday, students were even asking to continue that "homework" over Golden Week. In essence, they were asking to do more work! I'm not saying it is all the students' fault. We can't blame the students for wanting to do well on that type of assignment and if they feel like everyone else is putting in the extra effort than they think they have to, also. You combine this with 3 or 4 other classes and suddenly the 8th graders are spending 4 to 5 hours on homework every evening and weekend. Thankfully, Allana toed the line and maintained the timeframe she intended and didn't let it spill over into Golden Week.

While this issue exists to an extent during normal times, the current situation probably exacerbates it. None of us probably want the students to follow six or seven hours of on-screen school time with 4 or 5 hours of on-screen homework. So the big questions is, how do we change this? How do we ensure that they aren't putting in more than expected and ramping up the anxiety in the class? We can't very well penalize students for putting in extra effort but at the same time how do we manage expectations for tasks so they can maintain balance? This is particularly a problem in grade 8 but also probably exists to an extent in other grades. Working as a team to manage expectations is one answer but I don't necessarily have the answers to this. I'm interested in hearing your thoughts, whether you agree and what ideas you have or are using for managing the workload.

• Tuesday meeting - Here is the agenda/notetaker for last Tuesday's meeting some of what we were discussing is related to the above and then the grade 7 teachers met afterwards. The grade 6 and 7 teachers have since met to trade a few periods so the students can meet in blocks. Organization in online learning has been a particular concern for those groups. Thank you to Stephanie, Brodie, Michelle, Nick and the others for exploring some options and finding a way to adjust the timing while maintaining the integrity of the schedule.

• Summer orders - You should receive an email on department budgets soon but you can expect that there will be a bit more money budgeted than your department had last year. If there are things you need to arrive by August, please start looking now. For general supplies, please look to source things in Japan first. The uncertainty of the current situation makes whether things will arrive on time unclear. If you have any questions, please contact me.

• Progress Reports, Updating ManageBac - I mentioned this last week (below) but please continue to upload assessment feedback to parents.

• Online overviews - Thank you for keeping these up to date. They are quite useful.

• Award - See previous announcements for more information on the external awards. Look for discussions regarding the nominees in the DP and other chat rooms soon.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• Surveys - A majority of students have responded in each class but I would still like to hear from a few more before I go too far in analyzing the results. For the moment I'll share the graphs from the first question, "How would you describe your general mood over the course of distance learning?" In just about every class almost 2/3 or more responded positively. However, the exception is grade 7 where less than half had a positive response. It is nice to see that there is more positive than negative but the grade 7 and the third or so in the other classes who responded negatively are a concern. Michelle and I have talked about some of the students who chose the most negative answer, "I mostly feel lonely, isolated and bored" but more of us may need to reach out to some students. Also, because we don't have a full response, these results could be a bit different if everyone answered. In LHR, please encourage anyone who hasn't completed it to do so.

• Student well-being - There is still good evidence that students want face to face interaction. I would still encourage you to build this in at least once a week, even if not all students want to show their face. Also, many of us are encouraging well-being by asking the students to go outside and do an activity. This is a good idea but there are some students whose parents will not let them go outside for a variety of reasons so be sure to include an in-house option.

• Grade level chat rooms - These have proved quite useful for tracking students and sharing concerns. It has helped us target which students may need extra support and Margot and Michelle have been quite busy conferencing with students. I've been following up with those who are having particular concerns with attendance and engagement. It is important to remember that all of our students are responding to this situation differently. Many of you will have reached out to those students who you are concerned about, including how they responded (or didn't) can be helpful for follow up. Also, it would be great to celebrate some accomplishments in the rooms whether it is an individual student or a particular lesson or activity that went well.

• Tuesday meeting - Here is the agenda/notetaker for last Tuesday's meeting although the meeting was mostly focused on personal project standardization with Brodie. Remember to complete your marking by next Friday. Next week will be mostly focused on the survey although I have been thinking that a full secondary teacher chat room might be a way to accomplish some of the goals of a regularly scheduled meeting.

• Schedule - There were a couple of questions regarding the schedule in the surveys and there has also been a lot of discussion amongst the teachers both in OIS and SIS. I think it is fair to say that there are a lot of strong feelings about this. It was this type of discussion that I was thinking might work in a secondary teacher chat room. At the moment, the surveys indicate that most students are positive about following the schedule and checking in with each class. On the next question of whether they would like to see changes to the schedule the top answer was "shorten the day to give more time to work on assignments outside of class" followed by "don't change anything." Again, these are preliminary results. Fran and I met about possibilities for making some changes and as you would expect, it's complicated. We are open to making some adjustments but parameters exist. For example, any change to the actual timetable would have to include both middle and high school. It might be easier to explore possibilities within the existing timetable, particularly in the younger grades. This discussion will continue next week with SIS and can be part of our meeting.

• Progress Reports, Updating ManageBac - Just a reminder that we do not give progress reports this trimester. We used to do one but it stopped after a recommendation when we were reaccredited 7 or 8 years ago and was based on the idea that we would be keeping parents informed of student progress through ManageBac. With all that is going on, it might be easy to lose track of it but please keep your gradebook up to date and notify parents when a summative is posted. There probably isn't a parent who has a better idea of what is happening in the school than me and I still find it quite useful to receive that notification about an assessment that was posted. The parents will appreciate it.

• Summer orders - More information will come out next week but it is time to think about summer orders. These are items you need for your teaching that are not available in Japan. The cost will be deducted from your department budget (available soon) so if something is available in Japan, it will usually save money. International delivery may also be more complicated this summer. However, it isn't too soon to think about what you might need and whether it can be sourced in Japan.

• Online overviews - Thank you for keeping these up to date. They are quite useful.

• Award - In addition to the EARCOS Global Citizenship Award for grade 11 we also now need to think about the Osaka Governor's Award for grade 12. Please send me your nominations and I'll set up the voting process. Last year Pansy won it and it goes to a student who

  • • has bridged cultures successfully, in positive ways;

    • has good grades;

    • has shown responsibility (Eg. student council representative, etc.); and

    • has been a model of what we expect an OIS student to be.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• Balance - It is clear from individual conversations and from following the class teacher chats that there is a wide variation in how students respond to distance learning. Some students are responding well to it while others are struggling. While often the ones struggling were having troubles when we were in the building, that isn't always the case. There are a number of strategies that teachers have found useful when working through this.

  • Including a variety of teaching strategies through the week. Just as they do in classroom teaching, students like variety. Planning your week with a balance of off screen, on screen, group work, independent work, teacher centered instruction, etc. helps keep the interest up.

  • Catch up periods. Stephanie and Brodie have been giving the 6th and 7th graders a period to just get caught up on their assignments. They began it this week but so far at least they have found it useful. They've included a way for the students to indicate how they used the period.

  • Face to face time. Many students have told me they appreciate the times where they have met online through Zoom or Meet. They like seeing their teacher and classmates even if they don't want to show their face the whole time. I would encourage you to include at least one Zoom or Meet session a week, if only for a short time.

  • Flexibility. An internet hiccup will bump kids out of a class chat, microphones will fail and our lessons and units have had to be adjusted to fit with the new reality. Most of the teachers have come to terms with this and acceptance makes things easier. Encouraging the students to see this and allowing them the room to navigate these situations makes things easier and decreases stress.

• Student anecdotes - Michelle V. has been meeting one on one with the older students and lot of what she is hearing echoes the suggestions above. For example, a grade 10 students said, "just writing out everything doesn’t help me...some interaction would help for explanations and questions." A classmate said, "it isn't necessarily the number of assignments but the amount of content that we are learning, and the amount of effort it requires..." Or this, from a junior, "being online is fatiguing and does not feel as efficient; having more of a balance would be helpful (as in recorded videos, chats and zoom)." As she works through the grade levels meeting each student online, Michelle is getting a lot of similar comments. Obviously, individual comments don't apply to every student or all courses in the grade but I encourage you to have similar conversations with your students about your class.

• Student survey - Anecdotes are useful but getting a clearer cross section from across the student body will help with the bigger picture. Now that two weeks have gone by, I'm updating the survey from prior to spring break. I am going to separate them out by grade level. If you have a particular question you'd like for an individual class or across the board, let me know.

• Earth Week - Next week is Earth Week and while we won't be having any big assemblies there will still be opportunities to reflect on our global impact. Jennifer had a meeting today and here are some of the ideas they came up with: Monday Rena MS/HS and Kaylee ES intro, Tuesday hug a tree- take a photo, Wednesday ‘farmer’ Henbest and Nikolic, Thursday upload a beautiful photo of the earth #icherishtheearth for ms/HS and seesaw for ES, Friday sew a recycled bag with Mr. Nelson. Allana will also post a video on making your vegetable scraps productive and if there is enough interest will go live with a cooking demonstration.

• Tuesday meeting - Here is the agenda/notetaker for last Tuesday's meeting. It includes a list of basic skills that students should have which you can add to. The goal would be to create some quick videos to help train them. We haven't started that because tech support has mostly been dealing with issues that have come up with Zoom amongst other things but hopefully, soon. This Tuesday we will check in with all teachers and then PP supervisors will work on personal project standardization with Brodie.

• Google Classroom, etc. - Please be sure to add me and Margot to any classrooms you have set up. It makes it easier for us to monitor what is happening and reach out to students who need intervention. Her email address is mgoto@soismail.jp.

• Class teacher chats and online overviews - These have allowed me to keep track of what is happening and I really appreciate your using them. Thank you for keeping them up to date.

• EARCOS Award - I've received a few nominees for the EARCOS Global Citizenship Award. The award goes to an 11th grade student and details are on the criteria are in the link. You can email me any further nominees and we'll discuss them in an upcoming meeting after which, the awards committee will be convened.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• Tuesday meeting - Here is the agenda/notetaker for last Tuesday's meeting and here are the summary notes with actions I sent out. This Tuesday we will discuss how classes are going and what is working. I'm particularly interested in workload for teachers and students. We will then work on personal project standardization with Brodie.

• Student Support - Because there is less need for her in elementary right now, Margot is currently able to spend more time with MS/HS students. It is proving to be quite helpful. You can support her by adding her to your MYP class Chat rooms and Google Classrooms. Currently, she is spending a lot of her time with the student trying to establish what the assignment is, adding her so she can look when she is talking to them will save time. Her email address is mgoto@soismail.jp.

• Levels of support - One thing that is difficult to replicate online is that look you can give someone who isn't participating or the quiet conversation with a student who you can see is struggling but isn't asking for help. With blatant issues like skipping class or ignoring repeated requests for work, we can use the Student Behavior Record Sheets. But other issues may not rise to that level but still require a team approach. In conversations with the student support team and some teachers, we've discussed ways to share information and follow up. Rather than create another form, one suggestion was to create grade level chat groups. We're all on Google Chat all day so we will notice when a conversation has started and we can share information in the chat group and keep the conversation in one place rather than fill our inbox. It can help homeroom teachers follow up or help teachers recognize a student who needs to be referred to Oscar, Margot, or me. They might even replace the hallway conversation. I'll create them over the weekend and if they prove useful, they'll be used. Let's try them and see if they work.

• Weekly planning document - This is one thing that seems to be working well, especially in the younger grades. I've converted them to Sheets and put tabs at the bottom to move through the week. The links at the top of this page now go to the Sheets version. Thank you for keeping them up to date.

• E-Learning, What's working? - Please share your ideas for what is working in Distance Learning. Please use this document.

• EARCOS Award - I still haven't received any nominees for the EARCOS Global Citizenship Award. The award goes to an 11th grade student and details are on the criteria are in the link. Please send me your nominees.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• Distance Learning Website - Oscar created a one stop shop for distance learning plans, announcements, links, and other information. Let us know if you have any suggestions.

• Meeting this past Friday - Thank you for your time in the meeting. The agenda with the minutes at the bottom is here. Thank you to Tim and the others who kept up with the conversation and took notes.

  • Central agreements from the meeting to start the trimester

    • We will stick to the schedule. We will revisit this for MYP.

    • We will share weekly planning documents.

    • There is no expectation that every lesson has to be "on screen" time.

    • Attendance will be taken at the beginning of each class and entered in Managebac.

    • The grade 12 plan is here.

  • Questions to consider as we move forward

    • How do we structure distance classes so there is a balance of activities?

    • How do we monitor and maintain the social and emotional well-being of our students? And us?

    • How do we ensure physical well-being? (Beyond missing normal PE instruction, students aren't walking between classes, going up and down the stairs, walking to bus stops, riding to school, etc.)

    • How do we incorporate social contact and interaction from afar?

• Email about the start of school - So you are in the loop, here is the email I sent to students about the start of school.

• The Great Debate - Or, is the discussion about asynchronous vs. synchronous a non-starter as this post Stephanie shared suggests? Obviously, we will keep communicating with our students and families but the early surveys and conversations indicate stakeholders are torn between the structure that following the schedule gives students and the need for more flexibility. Following the schedule does make it easy to prove we're meeting the time requirements of the IB programs (and MEXT for SIS) and counters the argument that we should be scheduling make up time during the holidays.

• I've been thinking a lot about how to build asynchronous time in while still following the schedule and have discussed some strategies with different teachers. Brodie and Stephanie have been working on their schedules for grade 6 next week (see below) and they are building in time away from the computer. Many teachers also have longer term projects that they normally do in the spring. Those could be set up asynchronously while still having the structure of the schedule. For example we could set up a project by:

  • Sharing the materials and resources

  • Creating a few screencasts or videos with the instructions

  • Setting a final due date

  • Setting some preliminary due dates/or check ins. Students wouldn't necessarily have to check in or ask questions during the actual class on the preliminary due date, they could do it, say, within 18 hours prior to the class but they wouldn't expect answers to any questions until the actual class. If they met the check in requirements, we could mark them present since they met the expectation for the class.

  • Notifying parents of students who don't check in

  • Being available during the actual classes for questions or discussions but students wouldn't necessarily have to be there at the set time if they've checked in and are on track. They could look at the chat history or live discussions could be recorded.

• This is my line of thinking at the moment and I'm sure others will have different ideas. This is a conversation I would like to continue.

• Weekly planning document - In the meeting we agreed to try to do this in the younger grades. Brodie had suggested that we follow what SIS was doing but when that wasn't going to work, he and Stephanie came up with a document for grade 6 here. As you can see, there isn't a huge amount of detail here but parents can see with a quick glance whether their child should be on screen or not. From my own experience and from the conversations in the meetings with them last week, this is valuable information for parents. I really like their format but we can make some tweaks or incorporate other ideas. They made one for grade 7, too and I copied those to make them for grade 8, grade 9 and grade 10. Feel free to correct any issues you notice with the classes listed and start filling them in. Oscar has already put a place for them on the Distance Learning Website although we won't upload them until they are ready.

• E-Learning, What's working? - Please share your ideas for what is working in Distance Learning. Please share your ideas in this document.

• EARCOS Award - It is time to start thinking of nominees for the EARCOS Global Citizenship Award. The award goes to an 11th grade student and details are on the criteria are in the link. Please send me your nominees.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• E-Learning, What's working? - Please share your ideas for what is working in the electronic classroom. Do you have a particularly good strategy for one of the tech tools? A new tech tool? Or maybe, you've found an activity that gets the students away from their screens for a bit or even outside. Please share your ideas in this document.

• Reporting Deadlines - The deadline is Monday morning. Please let Stephen and I know in an email if you are going to have difficulty meeting this. Also, please continue to check your email throughout the week in case we find issues with your reports and need you to correct something. More information on reports and the expectations can be found in the Academic Affairs shared Drive and here is the list of proofreaders.

• Spring Break - With camps cancelled, spring break officially starts on Tuesday after school. So no classes or expectations for the rest of the week beyond checking in with email to be sure there aren't problems with your reports. Teachers are scheduled to return on April 3 but please keep an eye on email and the news in case there are any changes to the schedule. The in-service that was scheduled for our return is already postponed until the fall. Look for more information soon. For MYP students in particular, please try to avoid assigning homework or big projects over the break.

• ManageBac for attendance - Thank you for trialing this over the last few weeks. I realize it was made more complicated by the online schooling. We will be officially starting it in April whether we are online or in person. Here is the FAQ Stephen shared in the meeting last week and you can find the guide he created a guide here. If you have any questions about attendance, write them in the FAQ so everyone can benefit from the answer.

• Mid year meetings - I managed to still complete some of these over the past week but with recent events I am now a bit behind. I still have the sign up form here in case you have some time next week.

• EARCOS Award - It is time to start thinking of nominees for the EARCOS Global Citizenship Award. The award goes to an 11th grade student and details are on the criteria are in the link. Please send me your nominees.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• Reporting Deadlines - The deadline for this trimester as noted in the Academic Affairs shared Drive is the morning of Monday, March 9. Getting them in sooner would of course be helpful. This trimester there are grades, ATL skills, class comments, and adviser comments. You should also include comments for Personal Project and Extended Essay. Please have your proofreader review your comments and make corrections before the final upload on March 9.

• Camps - Obviously camps are off and there will be no attempt to complete in house camps and as much as I like the camps, I'm not going to try and run something online.

• MS/HS Faculty Meeting - Thank you to Mel for presenting the library resources and for also helping us develop our expectations for the ATL Skill of research. You can see the slides here.

• ManageBac for attendance - Thank you for continuing to trial this over the next week. Here is the FAQ Stephen shared in the meeting and you can find the guide he created a guide here. If you have any questions about attendance, write them in the FAQ so everyone can benefit from the answer.

• Mid year meetings - I'm still planning on continuing with the appointments scheduled for this week as long as teachers are allowed on campus. If you haven't had a chance to sign up, please do so here. Be prepared to discuss how you are addressing ATL skills in your planning and teaching.

• EARCOS Award - It is time to start thinking of nominees for the EARCOS Global Citizenship Award. The award goes to an 11th grade student and details are on the criteria are in the link. Please send me your nominees.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• Reporting Deadlines - The deadline for this trimester as noted in the Academic Affairs shared Drive is the morning of Monday, March 9. Getting them in sooner would of course be helpful. This trimester there are grades, ATL skills, class comments, and adviser comments. Please have your proofreader review your comments and make corrections before the final upload on March 9.

• Camps - The recent decision means no camps. We are still working through what that means for the three days that we were scheduled to be away. Many people have already shared some ideas but if you have thoughts, feel free to let me know.

• MS/HS Faculty Meeting - On Wednesday, we will be working on the ATL skill of research and Mel has put together some resources and activities to help us move forward. Please let me know in advance if you have a coaching commitment or some other conflict as it will help her organization.

• Mid year meetings - These are going well. If you haven't had a chance to sign up, please do so here. Be prepared to discuss how you are addressing ATL skills in your planning and teaching.

• EARCOS Award - It is time to start thinking of nominees for the EARCOS Global Citizenship Award. The award goes to an 11th grade student and details are on the criteria are in the link. Please send me your nominees.

• ManageBac for attendance - We are still working out some of the details but hope to have this going soon. We will have Stephen has created a guide here.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• Common planning time - I put some reminders about this in last week's update. Please remember that Mel is trying to meet with each department in preparation for our next faculty meeting on February 26. Please invite her to your common planning time to help with this.

• MS/HS Faculty Meeting - Related to the above, our goal in the February faculty meeting is to end with a document that identifies when and how we're teaching ATL skills related to research and what skills and digital tools are part of that.

• Mid year meetings - Just a reminder on this, please sign up here. Be prepared to discuss how you are addressing ATL skills in your planning and teaching.

• JUMP! Students - The JUMP! participants have been invited to run workshops for the Elementary International Mindedness Week. To accommodate this, each of the students will miss one class next week. They should be communicating with you in advance about this. If there is a problem with a particular student, let me know.

• ManageBac for attendance - We are still working out some of the details but hope to have this going soon. Stephen has created a guide here.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• Mid year meetings - It is time to sign up for your mid-year meeting with me. The main purpose of this meeting is to share how the year has progressed, yours and your students’ accomplishments, and how the school can help you and the students improve. Since our plan for ATL skills is a focus this year, I would also like to see how they are being addressed in your planning. So be prepared to share some of your units. Please sign up here.

• Class visits - Our former colleague and DP coordinator, Miyuki Endo, who was poached by KG to set up an IB teacher training program will be visiting campus with members of her first cohort of students. She will be here on February 26 with about 10 to 15 students and would like to drop in on classes of all levels but particularly a ToK class if it is available. I am hoping most people won't mind some visitors so I am just planning on giving them a schedule of classes for the day. However, if you are planning something that would be disrupted by a few visitors, please let me know and I'll take your class off the schedule.

• Attendance - Particularly in grades 10 and 12 but also with a few others, we've had some students who are chronically late to school. In grade 10, with Kevin as homeroom teacher helping, we are experimenting with a new system to hold them accountable. Students will be making up missed time after school and this will take precedence over practices or other after school activities. I've had mixed results with this kind of thing in other schools but we will see if it can have an impact here.

• ManageBac for attendance - Related to the above, we are going to start using ManageBac for attendance. We were able to get a much better deal on the module than we thought and it could make a difference by making it much easier to inform parents of missed time and hold students accountable for missed classes. With the current system, informing parents and tracking which classes were actually missed due to arriving late was a complicated process of exporting from Access, cross referencing with schedules, importing to Sheets, etc. with lots of opportunity for mistakes along the way. This will streamline the process and make informing parents quick and easy. You will have to take attendance electronically in each class but based on my experience in other schools this becomes second nature quite quickly. The attendance module is already on so you can have a look in ManageBac and Stephen has created a guide here. We still need to set up the classes but will let you know when it is ready to roll. For the rest of this trimester at least, we will continue to use the attendance books but we hope to move to full electronic attendance from the spring trimester.

• Common planning time - Just a reminder that departments should be meeting on a regular basis to address the IB standard of "collaborative planning". This trimester in particular we are looking at Practice C1.5. Collaborative planning and reflection is based on agreed expectations for student learning and Practice C1.3. Collaborative planning and reflection addresses vertical...articulation. Note that the following goals are the expectations for department meetings this trimester to meet these practices:

  • • Unit sharing and reflection on those already taught

    • Continue vertical articulation review if necessary

    • moderation of student work.

In addition, Mel is setting up appointments with departments to discuss the ATL skill of research to help develop a plan to ensure that all students are given the opportunity to learn this important skill. Please accommodate her request to come to your common planning time. This plan will help form a template for updating our expectations and plans for other ATL skills. I am also available to come to your common planning time to help with any of the above.

• Behavior records - There was an uptick in the use of these after my message last week. I hope that has more to do with my reminder rather than more disruptive behavior. Remember, when you do have incidents like academic dishonesty, class disruptions, disrespect, etc. you should record them so other teachers can cross reference behavior in their classes. You can find links on this page.

• Friday Flex Rotations - Thank you for your support again today. This is a student driven activity so thank you for supporting it. If you have any feedback, please share it with Michelle.

• Student Concerns Meeting - We will have one this week for 7th grade teachers to discuss one student who will be starting a behavior record sheet. Seventh grade teachers please be in the admissions room off of the teachers' lounge at 8:00.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• Mid year meetings - It is time to sign up for your mid-year meeting with me. The main purpose of this meeting is to share how the year has progressed, yours and your students’ accomplishments, and how the school can help you and the students improve. This is an opportunity to ensure that you and your students are being supported by the school. Please sign up here.

• Camps - I've spoken to most people about their camps. If you and somebody else want to switch camps, let me know.

• Behavior records - There have not been a lot of entries in these documents. I hope that this means nothing negative is happening in class but please don't forget to use them. We set up this system because teachers couldn't cross-reference incidents that were recorded in ManageBac, only administrators could. Teachers can cross reference them here but it only works if we're filling them in. Things to record include, academic dishonesty, class disruptions, disrespect, etc. You can find links on this page.

• Friday Flex Rotations - Thank you for your support again today. This is a student driven activity so thank you for supporting it. If you have any feedback, please share it with Michelle.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• Mock exam schedule - Stephen shared the mock exam schedule this week. Please have a look and inform him of any conflicts. Also, please take a moment now to add your proctoring times to your calendar. Set your alert with a little extra time to get there as the person you are replacing may need to get to class.

• Osaka Prefecture Visit - On Tuesday we will be visited by representatives of the education department. We are visited every year to get evaluated for a grant the the prefecture gives to private schools. The are scheduled to visit Mike's and Brodie's classes but we may end up dropping in on another class or two. Humanities teachers, as in year's past, I will be collecting samples of books that we use on Monday.

• National Geographic Classes - National Geographic has some great PD opportunities for teachers that Allana shared with me. Have a look at their offerings on this site.

• MSHS Faculty meeting - The slides with links from the meeting can be found here. We worked on linking SDGs to curriculum to help create service links to what we are doing in class. The service coordinators will be following up so if you weren't there, please add to the document. We didn't spend much time on this, but there is a possible template that was shared for meeting the planning expectation for ATL skills in "each year of the program." Please look and share your thoughts with Kurt.

• SDG Committee - I've had a few volunteers from people who would like to work with SIS and elementary on this. More details should be out soon. There is more room for others who might be interested in continuing this conversation.

• Behavior records - Just a reminder that this is where you should be recording discipline issues now. You can find links on this page. Please use them for any issues that come up in class. This will allow to connect issues happening in multiple classes that we may have missed otherwise.

• Friday Flex Rotations - Thank you for your support today. The rotations today were completely student driven. If you have any feedback, please share it with Michelle.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• SDG Committee - In APM this week, we were discussing ways to continue the conversation that occurred last Saturday. One idea is to make sure posters with the Sustainable Development Goals are around campus so they can be referred to when teaching or during other activities. To look at this and other ideas there was a suggestion that a representative from OIS elementary, OIS secondary, and SIS meet to look at how to bring this forward. If you are interested in being our representative, please let me know.

• Behavior records - Please be sure you are using these documents to keep track of student concerns. You can find links on this page. Please use them for any issues that come up in class. This will allow to connect issues happening in multiple classes that we may have missed otherwise.

• MS/HS Faculty Meet - This is scheduled for Wednesday, after school. On the agenda is continuing our discussion about ATL skills and also looking at moving forward with our service programs.

• Personal Project Exhibition - Please take some time to stop by, even without a class, to support the student presenters. The schedule is here.

• Student concerns meeting - Look for more information prior to Wednesday about the next meeting.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• Wednesday is Monday - Just a reminder that Wednesday is a virtual Monday and we will be following a Monday schedule until 3:30. Any after school meetings or clubs will occur as they normally do on a Wednesday. We have the virtual Mondays to ensure that there is some equity between the number of days of the week over the course of a trimester.

• Winter trimester progress reports - We do not have official mid-term progress reports in the winter trimester. However, that doesn't mean we can't stay in touch with families and we should give parents a heads up if a student is doing poorly or if there has been a considerable change to their performance. This could be done through an email, phone call, or even through the new behavior records sheets. Keeping those lines of communication open will ensure there are no surprises and alleviate difficult conversations before they start.

• Reporting Deadlines - Speaking of reporting, the deadline for this trimester as noted in the Academic Affairs shared Drive is the morning of Monday, March 9. Getting them in sooner would of course be helpful. This trimester there are grades, ATL skills, class comments, and advisor comments.

• Behavior records - I sent out the links in the notes I shared last week. You can find links on this page. Please use them for any issues that come up in class. This will allow to connect issues happening in multiple classes that we may have missed otherwise.

• ATL Skills - We will be continuing our conversation on improving our implementation of these at the next meeting. Mel came up with these ATL icon sheets which might get you thinking about the different skills prior to the meeting.

• Student concerns meeting - Michelle, Margot, and I were meeting about a certain 7th grader but I'm not sure we'll be ready to have a meeting this Wednesday morning. However, we will start having these meetings again soon.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• Vacation Homework - In the last few weeks, I've had several conversations with different people about the stress level of our students, not to mention teachers. It is clear that everyone needs a break. For MYP students in particular and if possible for DP, please avoid giving homework or having big projects due upon our return. Many students will be traveling which makes completing work difficult and it can add stress to what should be a time to decompress.

• MS/HS Faculty Meeting - Here are the slides from the faculty meeting. We are still fine tuning the ATL skills plan and your feedback on the linked documents would be appreciated.

• JUMP! - Here is the official list of the JUMP! participants. All of the students had at least one teacher recommend them. Please note that the students involved will miss most of their classes during the first week back and that we will have a special schedule on Friday, January 10 so that all the students can participate in some international mindedness training. I should have the schedule published next week.

• Behavior records - We didn't get too much feedback on the G7 Behavior Record Sheet that Oscar created so he has started making it for the other grades. They should be ready to start using after the holiday. Until then, continue to use ManageBac for issues in other classes.

• Student concerns meeting - This week we won't have a meeting.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• MS/HS Faculty Meeting - The faculty meetings disappeared from the shared calendar so you might have forgotten but we have a meeting scheduled for Tuesday after school. On the agenda is prep for the JUMP! and following up on the ATL discussion we started last week.

• JUMP! - Thank you to those who nominated participants for the this opportunity. The students were chosen based on your feedback and their interest. The spots are now full and Michelle Nicholl is sending home permission slips today. Once they are confirmed, a list will be published. Please note that the students involved will miss most of their classes during the first week back and that we will have a special schedule on Friday, January 10 so that all the students can participate in some international mindedness training.

• Behavior records - Please have a look at the G7 Behavior Record Sheet that Oscar created and give us both any feedback you have. If it is ready, we would like to expand it to the other grades.

• Parent meetings - Over the course of the year it is common for us to have individual meetings with parents about students. These could be disciplinary or about academic or social emotional concerns. It would be helpful if we had a record of these meetings of if similar issues come up in the future we know that they were discussed previously. If you have a parent meeting please make a note of it in one of two places. If the meeting was discipline related, record it in the Behavior Log. If it is related more to academics or social emotional issues, please record it in the Student Support at a Glance record.

• Student concerns meeting - When I left today, we were still discussing how to use the Wednesday morning meeting. Please keep an eye on your appointments for more information.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• MYP Coordinators Meeting - While I debated cancelling at the last minute, I am glad I went. There were a lot of good ideas shared around IDUs, ATL, Personal Projects, etc. A few things to note are that there is a lot of frustration with the PP moderation process as we were the only school this year who didn't have their grades changed. Part of the frustration stems from the fact that poor writers with good projects don't seem to be recognized for all of the work they put in while good writer with shoddy projects end up with better grades than they deserve. We are communicating with the IB about that.

• Another long discussion revolved around pastoral care, health, either in PHE or outside of it, and general well-being of students. A lot of good ideas were shared which we can explore here but I guess I can take some solace in the fact that nobody thinks they have it all figured out. It is a work in progress for everyone.

• Behavior records - Oscar has come up with a new spreadsheet to keep track of student behavior. Right now there is a sample for grade 7 we'd like you to look at and give us feedback on. Here are his notes.

  • Please follow the link to the G7 Behavior Record Sheet that we will be testing for the next period of time. Everyone should have access but if not please contact Oscar.

  • The intent of this G7 Behavior Record Sheet is to provide a tool for collaborative recording and viewing of behavior incidents for the OIS G7 students. Here are few pieces of information about how the G7 Behavior Record Sheet works:

    • Many fields are to be populated by choosing from a dropdown menu of choices. Please do not type an entry into these fields. If you feel that a needed choice is missing, please contact Kurt.

    • “Date” and “Follow-up Date” fields: double click in the cell to choose your date from a calendar.

    • “Observations” and “Details of Intervention” fields: type your entries in as normal.

    • Every entry into the sheet will automatically generate an email record that will be sent to the Homeroom teachers and the section Principal.

    • If you would like an email to the student’s parents to be automatically generated, please select “YES” from the dropdown menu in the “Email to Parents?” column.

    • The “Family SOIS Email” column will be automatically populated according to the name selected from the dropdown in the “Student Name” column.

  • Please test this G7 Behavior Record Sheet and provide any feedback and suggestions for it’s improvement to Kurt and Oscar.

• Maple Hall Concerts - These take place on Tuesday and are always worth the effort to see. Not only are you supporting the students and the music department, the performances are always of high quality. I hope to see you there.

• Camps - I've had a few people contact me about camps but no new ideas have come up. I'll start planning the camps based on what we did last year.

• Student concerns meeting - Lisa and I haven't had a chance to talk this week but we will probably have a meeting in the admissions meeting room inside the faculty lounge Wednesday morning. Keep an eye on your email.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• Nurse passes - Natsuko has updated the nurse pass. She is trying to get a better system in place so that she knows the teachers are aware that the student is missing class. There are copies of the pass in the drawer cabinet under the TV in the staff room or you can print your own on yellow paper with this template.

• MSHS Faculty Meeting - Thank you for your work in the faculty meeting. There were some good discussions happening about the ATL skills related to research. The slides can be found on the Notes from Faculty Meetings page. While there was a good conversation happening, there are still some blank spots on the form and we would like to capture that information so we can plan the next steps. Please take some time to fill in the second columns under each level indicating the units in which these skills are explicitly taught.

• Reports - Thank you for all of your work on the reports. Please remember to keep Stephen and me informed if there are some issues with your classes. Reports will be published by Tuesday in time for parent teachers conferences.

• Thanksgiving - I hope you can make it on the 25th. Here is the form again in case you didn't have a chance to fill it out.

• Parent Teacher Conferences - These are scheduled from 1:00 to 6:00 on Wednesday in the library. Here is a copy of the letter that was sent to the parents. Having a computer to access ManageBac and samples of student work will help facilitate the discussion. Please try to keep your conversation to about 5 minutes or so, especially if you have a lot of parents waiting to see you. I will be walking around periodically, if you are "trapped" by a parent signal me or call me over so I can help out.

• Camps - I've had a few people contact me about camps but no new ideas have come up. I'll start planning the camps based on what we did last year.

• Student concerns meeting - This Wednesday morning grade 9 teachers will be meeting to discuss a particular student. Lisa will send out more info. Note that all the meetings from now on will take place in the admissions meeting room inside the faculty lounge.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• ManageBac - At the PTA meeting one parent brought up the inconsistent use of ManageBac. Her comment was that some teachers do it really well while others don't put anything up. She asked if I could remind teachers that as a parent it is really useful to be able to see what deadlines are coming up.

• Reports - Please have your grades in ManageBac this Friday evening. If you can't meet the deadline, please contact both Stephen and me. More details are in the Guide to Writing Reports but remember, you do not need a comment unless there is an anomaly that needs to be explained. For example, there is a big difference between what you wrote in the progress report and what they are receiving on this report or if they do not have a grade due to missing work. Note that students who have missing work, will not have this report updated when they make up the work as this report is meant to be a snapshot of how they are doing at this point in time. That doesn't mean they shouldn't make up the work as that could still lead to an incomplete on the next report. The reason we do not give comments as we are encouraging the parents to come in and talk to us during the parent teacher conferences on November 20. Please note, however, that as stated in the handbook, there are advisory comments.

• Parent Teacher Conferences - These are on the afternoon of November 20. We will follow the same format as previous years (first come first serve in the library). Over the next week, you may want to collect some work samples for your students as parents like to see concrete examples to illustrate their child's progress.

• Observations - At the last admin meeting, we were talking about class observations and how we have mostly been focused on drop in visits. We will be making an effort to come in for longer periods of time or even do some full class observations. Please invite Myles or me in if you have something you would like us to see. We can also be a second pair of eyes if you want some specific feedback on something. For example, I've been asked to watch a class specifically to give feedback on how often a teacher was calling on the same students. If we do come in, please don't adjust anything, just continue as you would normally.

• Peer Observations - I have been recommending this for some teachers, especially when someone is having difficulty with a particular student. Seeing how another teacher works with that student can help you deal with them. It has been a while since we have done this more formally, but watching your colleague teach can be helpful for both the observer and the observed. If there is a class you would like to see but you are also teaching at the same time, we should be able to work out a sub or other coverage to make it happen. Just come talk to me about it.

• Camps - I know we haven't even had the fall break yet but it won't be that long until spring arrives so we need to start planning for camp. If you have an idea for a new camp or a request to chaperone a particular camp, please let me know. Remember, all full time teachers are expected to participate in some way.

• Keeping track of behavior - Thank you for your patience. We're still working on the new Google sheet for behavior and it should be shared soon. Until then, please keep using ManageBac.

• MSHS Faculty Meeting - We are scheduled to meet this Tuesday after school. As I've said, the main focus will be ATL skills. Please review the documentation we are currently using and be ready to describe how and when you are using ATL skills in your planning and teaching. We will focus primarily on the Research Skills.

• Student concerns meeting - This Wednesday morning grade 9 teachers will be meeting to discuss a particular student. Lisa will send out more info. Note that all the meetings from now on will take place in the admissions meeting room inside the faculty lounge.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• Keeping track of behavior - At the admin meeting last week, we discussed the best way to do this across all grades since ManageBac isn't as versatile as we would have liked. We've decided to use a version of the Google Sheets similar to what Stephanie started last year and what Lisa has been experimenting with. This week we'll refine the sheets and share them out. Until then, please keep using ManageBac.

• ATL Skills - Just a reminder that this is a focus in the next meeting. I was able to discuss this a bit at EARCOS and got some ideas for how to move forward at some of the workshops. I may send out some more information during the week but please review the documentation we are currently using and be ready to describe how and when you are using ATL skills in your planning and teaching.

• Student concerns meeting - We will have another one this Wednesday morning but look for more details to come out Monday.

• Beginning of the year meetings - These are going well but if you haven't set your appointment please do so by letting me know your available times here.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school..

• Book Week - Next week is book week. The librarians have been putting a lot of time and effort into it so thank you to them and for your support. Here is a note from Mel:

• Sabaria Books (aka your library) is all set up for a Genre Cafe this week for Book Week. Feel free to email me for a time for your class to come and enjoy the cafe. The menu features a range of genres for students to explore. Also, in the library there's a number of contest like Book Face, shredded books, bookmarks and more! There will be a visiting author; Satoshi Kitamura, a well known illustrator and author, will speak to the middle school at 10:30am on Tuesday in the theatre. Friday will be Book Character day for the whole school, and there will be a Fashion Show of Characters during Friday Flex. Please encourage your students to participate and come and strut their stuff! If you have time please watch the elementary parade which begins at 8:45 from classrooms will finish in the courtyard.

• Keeping track of behavior - Last week I asked that we continue to use ManageBac to keep track of behavior. In the student concerns meeting Wednesday, some other ideas were discussed. I want to make sure that whatever we do it is used consistently across the school so I will discuss it at our admin team meeting next week. For the time being, please continue to use ManageBac.

• ATL Skills - At the next faculty meeting, among other things, we will be looking at how we've organized our ATL skills expectations and what we can do to move forward. Much of our documentation is almost 5 years old now and this is an area that was highlighted for work when we submitted our units for evaluation prior to our evaluation visit. In preparation for the meeting, please review the documentation we are currently using and be ready to describe how and when you are using ATL skills in your planning and teaching.

• MAP - These finish this week. Please have a look at the schedule. Thank you for all of your support in administering them. Once they are finished, Yumemi and other staff members will post the students' score reports to their portfolio on ManageBac. We will also make the scores available to those who can't readily see them on the NWEA website.

• Student concerns meeting - We will have another one this Wednesday morning but look for more details to come out Monday.

• Beginning of the year meetings - These are going well but if you haven't set your appointment please do so by letting me know your available times here.

Here are some things to think about as we move into the next week of school...

• Behavior Tab in ManageBac- Please be sure you keep track of issues that come up in class in the Behavior tab in ManageBac. This tab is used to keep track of incidents that occur, either positive or negative so we have a running record of a students behavior and can track whether something is isolated or a regular occurrence. I can edit the incident choices so if you have something you want to add, please let me know.

• Student concerns meeting - At the beginning of the year, Lisa mentioned that we would use time Wednesday morning prior to the regular meeting to discuss particular student concerns. Obviously, this is a very short time so the focus of the meeting isn't on sharing issues, this will be done in advance. Instead, the point is to agree on some concrete steps that can be taken over the next few weeks to address issues that have already been raised. Lisa will send out info or requests for info in advance, reading those emails before the morning will help us have a concise meeting in which we can focus on actions to take through the weeks ahead. This coming week grade 6 teachers will be requested to meet.

• Beginning of the year meetings - I'm just leaving this as a reminder. Thank you to those people who've set theirs. If you haven't had the chance yet, you can sign up for appointment times here. For more info, see the announcements in previous weeks.

• MAP - Lisa has sent out a schedule and has done some editing. I realize the schedule isn't ideal for everyone but unfortunately, we can't accommodate every request. However, please make sure you check to make sure there aren't conflicts.

Surfing this week...