Week of 27 January

Good Evening,

I hope you enjoyed your long weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend, but I will confess...I spent a lot of time sleeping! I find I need a few extra hours of sleep on the weekends so I can keep up with your kids through the week! I love it!

Although it is difficult for me...I will require myself to write in bullet points as I know you receive lots of information in the course of a day so it is best to just get to the point...

• Teachers are working on report cards this week so Power School will be down for the week. 
• Students were sent their second semester schedule on Wednesday and they received an email over the weekend explaining the change of schedule request process. I know this may be frustrating for you as a parent, but our goal is to create opportunity for the students to be active participants in their own learning activities...this is why information of this type is sent directly to students. I understand, as a parent, students do not always share such information with us...I will do my best to supply you with the right questions to ask! Sometimes we parents need to stick together....so, ask your child about their schedule for second semester and ask them about the schedule change process. 
• Encourage your child to bring lots of books to read on Thursday as the NJHS will be sponsoring a full afternoon of reading and reading activities on Thursday. One can never do enough reading nor have enough time for reading!
• Session 3 After School Activity information will be sent to students this weekend. Sign ups will be Feb 3-7 and session dates are as follows: Feb 10, 19, 24, Mar 3, 10, Apr 7, 24
• Thank you again for your support regarding our changes to lunch time expectations. It is great to see so many students outside running around now instead of sitting in front of a computer!

On a personal/professional note...I want to encourage you to communicate with me when you have a concern about your child's learning. I worry about parents feeling like they cannot express a concern, I get it,  but please know I welcome communication about your concerns. We are in this together...we, as parents and educators, both want the same thing..what is best for your child...so I truly hope you feel comfortable communicating when you have a concern. We may not always agree, but I do believe in assuming goodness...we, parents and school, are striving for what is good for your student.

And, if I may be selfish for a moment...today I had the privilege of witnessing a shy student speak up for herself for the first time, a student who took initiative with his own learning, a student who took a risk and asked a question, and a whole bunch of students who smiled at me and said, "hello"--a big deal when we are dealing with teenagers on a Sunday morning!  I don't mind saying, I have the greatest job!

Have a good evening,
Rhonda Isley
MS Principal

risley@acsamman.edu.jo

Week of 20 January

Good Evening,

Well, believe it or not, this is the last week of the semester! Encourage your sons/daughters to talk with their teachers this week to make sure they are caught up on all assignments and class work.

Next week will be the first week of the new semester. If students would like to request a schedule change, they may do so beginning on Sunday, 27 January. This weekend I will email the Schedule Change Request Form to students. Students will need to get a parent signature before we process the request.

And, believe it or not, it is that time of year----IF you know you will not be returning to ACS next school year, please notify us. It is never too early to communicate your status to us...especially as we plan for next year.

Below is a link to an article published through Mercy Corps highlighting ACS students and their involvement in service in our host country. Among other things, the article refers to the soccer ball campaign organized by our grade 8 students earlier in the year. We are proud of our students and their valued contributions to their local community.

http://acsamman.edu.jo/FileManager/Uploads/ACS  Mercy Corps.pdf

Have a good week and thank you for all of your support.

Rhonda Isley
MS Principal
risley@acsamman.edu.jo

Week of 13 January

Good Evening,

I feel like I should be welcoming you back from another holiday! I do hope everyone enjoyed the snow. From what I understand, it is early in the year for us to be experiencing snow...I am going to tell myself that we've had our snow, winter is now over, everything will now get warm again! Let me live in my happy place!

1. With the missed days of school last week, we've had a few schedule interruptions. As a result,

• school photos will be rescheduled to a date in February. We are currently working with the school photographer to identify a new date
• we will be adjusting our Advisory schedule so it might take us until next week to be back on track with assemblies, ZAP days, etc. on their regular days
• unfortunately, our scheduled staff PD meeting about Standards Based Reporting with Tom Guskey had to be canceled due to a family matter. Our sympathies were expressed to Mr. Guskey and his family.

 2. Reminder, After School Activities started up again this week. This continues the  session 2 activities that were taking place prior to the holiday. Session 2 activities will end 31 January. Session 3 activity sign ups will take place the week of 3 February through Moodle. Activity choices will be posted prior to 3 February.

3. I would like to ask for your support...........

After observing traffic patterns and student habits throughout the first semester, I would like to ask for your support in reinforcing 2 policy changes at ACS. Students will be informed of these changes this week during advisory and these changes will come into effect this week also.

• For safety reasons, ACS will no longer allow backpacks into the cafeteria, our outside eating area, during lunch time. We realize this will inconvenience some students, but this change is to ensure we will be able to evacuate the cafeteria in a safe and timely manner if there was an emergency and to ensure personal items are secured during times when students often leave bags, etc. unattended for extended periods. Students will be required to leave backpacks in their lockers during the lunch break. 
• For social development reasons, ACS will no longer allow laptops to be used during the lunch time for gaming purposes. A key part of middle school is students interacting with each other and developing their social skills. It has been our observation that  an increasing number of students not only "skip lunch" for the sake of gaming but also spend the entire break time never having a social interaction with their peers. This will also help keep laptops secure and safe during the lunch time (away from food and drink items that could spill onto the laptops)

 It is our goal to support our students in becoming young people who can interact socially in positive ways and take advantage of opportunities to engage in healthy, stress releasing activities during the day. We hope you, as parents, understand our motivation for these changes. Please contact me if you have concerns about these two policy changes. I will be more than happy to discuss these concerns with you.

Enjoy your evening,

Rhonda Isley

MS Principal

risley@acsamman.edu.jo

Week of 6 January

Welcome Back and Happy New Year.

I do hope everyone had a nice holiday with family and  enjoyed your time with each other.

It is great having everyone back and great to see all the kids again. There were indeed many bleary-eyed children in the hallways today....I have a feeling this morning was an early morning for many!

A few reminders:

• Yearbook photos take place this week
• Jan 23 will be the end of the semester, therefore, second semester elective courses will begin the week of 27 January.

Next week our teachers will spend some time with Thomas Guskey, a well known educator and researcher in the area of Standards Based Reporting. This is a great professional development opportunity for our teachers as we continue reflecting on best practices and ways to communicate student learning progress.

Below is a re-posting of a previous email from Mr. McIlvain with regards to inclement weather procedures. This is  "just in case" information as we begin to see colder weather approaching.

Once again, it is good to have everyone back and we are looking forward to working with your children in the New Year. There is something about "starting a new year" that just makes everyone feel energetic and enthusiastic about the future!

Enjoy your evening,

Rhonda Isley
MS Principal
risley@acsamman.edu.jo

Re-posted email:
Dear Parents, 

It looks like poor weather is coming our way though it is not forecast to get extremely cold and/or below freezing. In an effort to be proactive I wanted to update you on procedures in place in the event we need to make adjustments to the school day primarily related to the bus transport. Any changes in the school schedule it will be communicated via SMS, sent via email, posted on the web site, and hopefully using our new phone system.

The internal process for decision-making is:

I monitor the weather throughout the evening and into the morning. I also try to communicate with the head of school at ICS, IAA, and ABS-not that we collectively decide but we do consult with each other.  

If it looks like the road conditions are poor the following decisions can be taken:

1.  Delayed start to 9:00 or 10:00 am
2. Cancel school

If you do not hear from ACS you should assume that school will operate as normal.   

 If ACS decides to have school or decides to have a late start each family will then need to decide if they want to send their children to school.  

If it is a delayed start or cancel of school we will send an SMS to all families, send them an email, and post an announcement on the web site BEFORE 6:00 am. If it is a delayed start, all bus routes will be pushed back one hour from the time school will start.  

We also have a procedure for cancellation during the school day. This also involves SMS, emails and announcements on the web. 

I hope we do not need to use any of this but wanted to let you know in the event it is necessary this week or in the future. 

Sincerely,

Larry McIlvain

Week of 16 December-Week 15

Good Evening,

First, I must say thank you to the parent community. I have never seen so much food during last week's Teacher Appreciation Day. This was greatly appreciated and really provided a time for staff to take a few moments to come together. This created such a feeling of celebration...thank you.

I want to extend a "hats off" to Jill Hire, our Drama teacher. The Peter Pan production was a huge success and it was great to see so many students on stage participating with big smiles on their faces.

Last week we had many assemblies and interruptions to our usual schedule. As a result, students did not have their usual ZAP Advisory in order to communicate with you about missed assignments. We will have one ZAP day this week to get everyone pointed in the right direction prior to the break.

Lastly, I want to extend a sincere thank you to all of you for your patience and kindness to me as I have settled in this semester. Not to sound too much like a cliche..but I truly love being at ACS and love each day working with the students. You have wonderful kids and I feel quite fortunate in having the opportunity to work with your children. I learn from them each day, feel privileged to share in their joys, and stress with them over their sorrows. Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of the lives of your children.

Enjoy time with family and friends during this holiday season. And, safe travels. We will miss the students while they are away and will look forward to their return.

Rhonda Isley
MS Principal
risley@acsamman.edu.jo

Week of 9 December Week #14

Good Afternoon,

I will make this posting brief as I am sitting at the airport in Bahrain and the connection is quite spotty at best.

1.     Please make note of the dates to the left as it will be a busy next couple of weeks.

2.     This week, during the school day, we will also have for students:

·      a matinee performance of Peter Pan

·      a presentation from Carl Wilken  http://worldoutsidemyshoes.org/

·      a presentation on personal security and safety

3.     If you are not returning for the second semester and have not notified us, please contact us as soon as possible. This allows us enough time to have transcripts and other necessary records ready for you by the time of your departure.

4.     A few reminders:

·      As we get closer to the holiday, please make note of our policy on student visitors. We require a minimum of a 24 hour advance notice for any student visitors to our campus. This allows time for teachers to be notified so as not to interrupt instruction and allows us to ensure a secure campus.

·      We publish our school calendar in advance so families may make travel arrangements accordingly. As a school, we place a high value on student attendance and participation within classes. Travel arrangements that require students to depart early or return late are discouraged. As with all absences, it is the student’s responsibility to make an effort to communicate with teachers during any absences.

5.     ES FYI: ES StuCo is sponsoring the Angel Tree Project again this year. Please contact the ES Office for details if you wish to participate.

Have a good evening,

Rhonda Isley

MS Principal

risley@acsamman.edu.jo 

Week of 2 December Week # 13

Good Evening,

Thank you for visiting the weekly MS Missives on a regular basis. We appreciate your efforts to keep up to date with what is going on in the Middle School.

A big thank you to those of you who were able to attend our first Family Connection Chat last Thursday. Our topic was "Hey What Happened To My GPA." This was an introductory conversation to begin a dialogue about what we...parents, teachers, students... want to see on student report cards.

To begin the discussion we viewed the first 8 mins. of the video clip below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKRZuSbACBw

We will continue to have discussions on this topic and will plan more evening Family Connection Chats in the future so all parents have a chance to participate in the discussion. 

I appreciated the honest, straightforward communication we were able to have regarding this topic. 

• Power School is now open to all students and parents with information relating to quarter 2.
• Tomorrow we will celebrate our MS students and their contributions to our MS hallways. All students are invited to share in a donut treat as we recognize  students and their contributions to our MS environment thus far this year--whether it be through academic achievement, participation in activities, random acts of kindness-we are all contributors!!
• Last week ACS MS students were fortunate to hear about an inspirational speaker, Nick Vujicic,  who will be in Amman next week.....see the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc4HGQHgeFE

We encourage our students to attend this event at Prince Hamza Basketball Arena, Sports city on  Dec 13 @ 5:00. Ticket prices range from 10 JD-40 JD and can be purchased through karasi.com

Addition(s) to the following pages have been made. Please check out the postings and the added links.

Activities/Service/Athletics--

1. information about a hats/mittens/socks drive if you would like to donate
2. information about the ACS Food Drive for Jordanian and Syrian refugees
3. information about JV Girls and Boys Basketball Tryouts

1:1 Learning--

1. information designed for parents  from Common Sense Media relating to social media use and cyberbullying that is currently being discussed in Advisory sessions. 

Have a good evening,

Rhonda Isley
MS Principal
risley@acsamman.edu.jo