Week of 15 June

Good Evening,

Well, I cannot believe this is the last blog post of the school year. This year certainly went by entirely too fast! Thank you for all of your support and communications throughout the school year. I know the students are eager for a break but I will miss seeing them every day and look forward to their return in August. Speaking of which.......First day of school is 26 August 2014  :)  

Thank you to the Gr 8 teachers and students for the Reflection Night last week. It was so nice to see the students have a sense of accomplishment as they bring the school year to a close. Many adventures are ahead for them.

Gr 8 students spent time with Ms. Nash, the HS Counselor, on Thursday to talk about moving into high school. Students were also given their schedules for next year and asked to meet with her today or tomorrow if they had any requests for changes or questions. The goal is to take care of any changes, conflicts, etc now so students do not miss any instructional time at the beginning of the school year in their new classes.

At this point, all MS students should have:

1. made any requests for schedule changes. Those requests are currently being processed and Ms. Ismail is meeting individually with students as needed to work any schedule issues. The process should be completed by the end of the week. 
2. completed the check out process and be following up with any missing items to be returned or made payment for replacement costs

Yet to come:

• Yearbooks arrived today. Students will begin receiving them tomorrow. 
• Dead Sea trips will finish this week--today's group all seemed to have a great time. Those groups remaining at school have many activities to complete. Everyone seems to be ending the year on a positive note.
• Early Dismissal on Wednesday, 18 June. 
• Reports will be emailed to parents on June 18. Reports will look ahead to next year with comments offering suggestions for summertime work that can be completed in preparation for the next grade level.

Enjoy your evening. Please feel free to email me throughout the summer if you have any questions regarding next school year. In the meantime, safe travels and enjoy your time spent with family/friends.

Week of June 8

Good Evening,

Here we go....the last two weeks of school. Please help us by reinforcing how much more enjoyable it can be for everyone when students strive to end the school year on a high note. Please encourage students to maintain their level of respect and integrity these last two weeks with their teachers...it can be easy for students to get a bit too excited at this time of year.

Thank yous go to our World Language teachers--Ms. Abu Jaber, Ms. Di Paolo, Ms. Suleiman, Ms. Leidtke--for the wonderful language showcase last week. It was great to listen to the students "show off" their language skills.

Thanks also to Ms. Suleiman for organizing our Tobacco Free Jordan assembly last Thursday. The guest speakers had a good program for our students and, as usual, our students were great audience members!

Upcoming Events:

Gr 8 Reflection Night
Gr 8 parents and students are invited to celebrate and reflect on the student's middle school years at ACS. Students are planning a program of time to say good-byes, time to hang out, and time for parents to gather also. The evening will begin at 6:00 pm on Wednesday, 11 June. Please RSVP using the link below:

Gr 8 Reflection Night RSVP

Dead Sea Transition trips
During this time of transition for many students, it is important we take time to allow students an opportunity to bring closure to the school year and say good-bye to friends. MS students will spend the day at the Dead Sea Marriott on the following dates:

Gr 6 Monday, 16 June

Gr 7 Sunday, 15 June

Gr 8 Tuesday, 17 June

Student will receive an email through Moodle asking to confirm their attendance and make their meal choice by Tuesday. We suggest students bring sunscreen, dress appropriately for the trip and bring a few JD with them in case they want to purchase an extra snack or drink beyond the lunch that will be provided for them.

If you DO NOT WANT your child to attend, please inform us via email. 

End of Year Check Out
ALL students must complete a check out form at the end of the school year. Students will be given forms on 12 June. If you are departing ACS early, please notify us of your departure date so we can have all necessary documents ready for you. Quarter 4 reports will not be available until 18 June.

Please contact us if you have questions about events/activities as we approach the end of the school year. It is a hectic time of the school year so please let us know if you need any clarifications. 

Week of June 1

Good Evening,

June 1st..............where did this year go?!?! It seems as though we still have so much to do!

As we go into the last couple weeks of the school year, let's help each other. This is a stressful time of year for the students who are staying and those who are leaving, for parents who are packing out and/or trying to make summer travel plans, and teachers who are continuing to guide students towards continued learning........not an easy feat at this time of year :)

Thanks to Ms. Marinucci, Ms. Martin, Ms. Leidtke and the Gr 8 students for the great IAR presentations. Great speakers were passionate and knowledgeable about their topics....great way to wrap up the school year.

Upcoming Events:
From our French and Spanish Teachers:
The World Language Oral Skills Showcase for French and Spanish will take place on June 3 starting at 4:00. Please attend and enjoy our students performing in a world language.

Gr 8 Reflection Night
Gr 8 parents and students are invited to celebrate and reflect on the student's middle school years at ACS. Students are planning a program of time to say good-byes, time to hang out, and time for parents to gather also. The evening will begin at 6:00 pm.

Dead Sea Transition trips........we are still awaiting confirmation from the hotel, however, these trips will take place during the last week of school. As soon as the exact dates have been confirmed we will notify everyone. The purpose of these trips is to allow students time to bring closure to the school year and say good-bye to friends.

ALL students must complete a check out form at the end of the school year. Students will be given forms on 12 June. If you are departing ACS early, please notify us of your departure date so we can have all necessary documents ready for you. Quarter 4th reports will not be available until 18 June.

Regardless of if you are staying or leaving....below is a link that might be helpful to you and your family during this time of transition.

Food for Thought on Transitions

Week of May 25

Good evening,

I hope you have enjoyed the long weekend in celebration of Jordanian Independence....it was certainly a beautiful weekend!

Departing Families:
If you are leaving ACS at the end of this year, please notify our Business Office or our MS Counselor so we can begin  the process of having all of your son/daughter's documents ready for the last day.

An Invitation for Gr 8 Parents:
Dear Parents, 

We are very happy to announce the dates of your son/daughter's much-anticipated Graduation By Demonstration presentations. They will be held on May 27 and 28 from 1:30-3:00p.m. in the ACS Middle School classrooms (4th floor).

The presentations are the culmination of several months of research into the students "passion topics." Each student has prepared a speech and a multimedia presentation to demonstrate his/her knowledge of a chosen controversial issue. This work has been completed as part of the Information, Analysis, and Reporting class. We are proud of our students' efforts, and are eager for them to share their work with you. 

In order to remain flexible in accommodating changes to the presentation schedule, we ask that you confirm with your son/daughter which date he/she will be presenting, either May 27th or 28th. The times of the presentations will be the same each day. 

We look forward to seeing you!

Sincerely, 
Heidi Liedtke, Beth Marinucci and Lisa Martin
IAR Teachers

Looking ahead to next year:
At the end of this month students will have access to their schedules for next school year. We will ask students to check their schedules for accuracy and any change of schedule requests will need to be completed between June 1-June 10. Students will NOT be able to make schedule change requests when they return in August. More information will be sent towards the end of the month.

Week of 18 May

Good Evening,

A big thank you to all of the teachers who gave their time and energy to take the MS students on the various Adventure Jordan trips. There is always a lot of work leading up to the trips but the returns are phenomenal! From what I understand, the students represented ACS extremely well so a thank you to them also.

A thank you also goes out to Mr. Hathaway's advisory group. Today they provided the MS with snacks and a "free homework pass" as part of their contribution to our monthly pay it forward activities. The snacks came just at the right time and there were lots of smiles with the homework passes!

Departing Families:
If you are leaving ACS at the end of this year, please notify our Business Office or our MS Counselor so we can begin  the process of having all of your son/daughter's documents ready for the last day.

An Invitation for Gr 8 Parents:
Dear Parents, 

We are very happy to announce the dates of your son/daughter's much-anticipated Graduation By Demonstration presentations. They will be held on May 27 and 28 from 1:30-3:00p.m. in the ACS Middle School classrooms (4th floor).

The presentations are the culmination of several months of research into the students "passion topics." Each student has prepared a speech and a multimedia presentation to demonstrate his/her knowledge of a chosen controversial issue. This work has been completed as part of the Information, Analysis, and Reporting class. We are proud of our students' efforts, and are eager for them to share their work with you. 

In order to remain flexible in accommodating changes to the presentation schedule, we ask that you confirm with your son/daughter which date he/she will be presenting, either May 27th or 28th. The times of the presentations will be the same each day. 

We look forward to seeing you!

Sincerely, 
Heidi Liedtke, Beth Marinucci and Lisa Martin
IAR Teachers

Looking ahead to next year:
At the end of this month students will have access to their schedules for next school year. We will ask students to check their schedules for accuracy and any change of schedule requests will need to be completed between June 1-June 10. Students will NOT be able to make schedule change requests when they return in August. More information will be sent towards the end of the month.

Week of 11 May

Good Afternoon,

Hope everyone had a nice weekend and....to all the Mom's......Happy Mother's Day.

Thanks to the StuCo for a great dance on Thursday. It was nice to see the students dressed up. The all looked so grown up!

Reminder: Gr 7 and Gr 8 will depart for their Adventure Jordan trips this week. Please contact Ms. VanCleave or Mr. Hathaway, respectively, if you have any questions. ALL medical release forms must be turned in before a student will be allowed to participate on the trip.

We will send regular trip updates each morning and each evening as long as groups are in an area that has either cell service or wifi.  Please do not attempt to contact your son/daughter during the day as they will be involved with activities all day----we do not want to interrupt their "class" time!

Gr 7 contact number is: 079-559-3662 This number should be used in emergency only and please realize for most of the trip the group will not have a cell signal.

Gr 8 contact number is: 079-688-7012

An Invitation for Gr 8 Parents:
Dear Parents, 

We are very happy to announce the dates of your son/daughter's much-anticipated Graduation By Demonstration presentations. They will be held on May 27 and 28 from 1:30-3:00p.m. in the ACS Middle School classrooms (4th floor).

The presentations are the culmination of several months of research into the students "passion topics." Each student has prepared a speech and a multimedia presentation to demonstrate his/her knowledge of a chosen controversial issue. This work has been completed as part of the Information, Analysis, and Reporting class. We are proud of our students' efforts, and are eager for them to share their work with you. 

In order to remain flexible in accommodating changes to the presentation schedule, we ask that you confirm with your son/daughter which date he/she will be presenting, either May 27th or 28th. The times of the presentations will be the same each day. 

We look forward to seeing you!

Sincerely, 
Heidi Liedtke, Beth Marinucci and Lisa Martin
IAR Teachers

Week of May 4

Good Evening,

I hope everyone enjoyed the nice holiday weekend. I don't know why, but this weekend really seemed like a long weekend!

Thank Yous
to all of the Gr 6 teachers for their time and energy towards the Adventure Jordan trip. I hope your sons/daughters were exhausted and excited...I saw a lot of tired but happy faces going to the buses last week!

FYI's:
Grade 7 and Grade 8 girls are invited to help with the Reclaim Childhood event on May 17. This is an annual mini-sports festival event organized as a HS Community Service project for Iraqi, Palestinian, Jordanian, and Syrian girls. MS girls are encouraged to help organize and participate to begin gaining an understanding of how our time and energy can impact others. Girls who are interested can contact Mr. Tschumperlin for sign up information. Sign up will be on a first come, first serve basis.

Girls Basketball----Gr 7 and Gr 8 girls who are interested in playing basketball are invited to a basketball clinic hosted by the HS girls basketball players and Ms. Lewis. The clinics will be held on May 10, 24, and 31 from 9:00-10:30. Girls should contact Ms. Lewis if they have any questions.

Adventure Jordan medical release forms were given to students last week. (see links below if your form did not make it home) Students should return the signed forms this week to their advisory teacher. Teachers will travel with these forms so it is imperative all students return the forms in a timely manner. Unfortunately, if a student does not return their form, we will not be able to take them on the trip with us.

If you have any questions regarding your grade level trip,  please contact:
Ms. VanCleave for the Grade 7 trip      mvancleave@acsamman.edu.jo
Mr. Hathaway for the Grade 7 trip        chathaway@acsamman.edu.jo

Grade 7 Adventure Jordan Medical Release

Grade 8 Adventure Jordan Medical Release Form

A message from our Athletic Director:
Hello Everyone,

As we head into May we would like to take advantage of this beautiful spring weather in Jordan.  Over the next month there will be a wide range of sports and activities available after school and on weekends.  This will be a much different format than in the past when spring sports was geared towards preparing our athletes for their fall seasons.  This year we are focusing on community.

Students (8th-12th grade), parents and teachers are all welcome to participate in these activities.  It doesn't matter if you have played the sport your whole life or have never played before.  If you don't have the gear or equipment, no worries we'll provide it.  The goal of this month is to get outside and stay active.  

I have attached a calendar that details the schedule for the next 4 weeks.  On this schedule you'll see that the following activities are offered:

Badminton

Basketball

Cardio Core Workout

Jiu Jitsu

Ping Pong

Running

Soccer

Tennis

Ultimate Frisbee

Volleyball

Yoga

The month of May is a tough month for students and teachers with exams and the final push until summer.  The sports and activities offered this month are meant to give everyone a chance to step away for a hour or two and recharge.   

To keep the body in good health is a duty.  Otherwise, we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.

-Buddha

Spring Community Sports Calendar

And Lastly...
As we get closer to the end of the year, things will get hectic and busy. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns here at the end of the year. We are entering a stressful time of year for students...everyone will be busy....some are leaving.....some are staying. Regardless if a student is leaving or staying it is hard for students to see friends go. As the adults in their lives, it is important we stay in close communication so we can work together to keep things upbeat, positive, and in perspective for all the kids. Of all times, this is when we all need to be working together.   :)

Have a good evening,
Rhonda