Week of 3 November

Good Evening,

Hope you had a "spooky" weekend! It was great to see so many at our annual Spooktacular...thanks to the PTG for the coordination of the event. Truly "the talk of the town" type of event!

Updates:
School Photos:
Student photos will be available for pick up from the school on Tuesday, November 5 from 8:00-2:00. A representative from Nabeel Studios will be on campus with the photos. Photos must be paid for in cash.

Additional After School Activities
Next week will begin additional after school activities of Rooftop Floor Hockey and Ping Pong. Hockey will take place on Mondays and Wednesdays. Ping Pong will take place on Thursdays. Moodle sign ups will take place throughout this week.

Drama Production
The evening performance of Robin Hood will take place Thursday @ 6:00. We look forward to seeing you there.

Learning Progress Reports
A change of date to the sending of reports---we have been experimenting with different reporting methods. As a result, we will need one more day before we send Learning Progress reports. Reports will be send via email on Tuesday afternoon and NOT Monday afternoon. Thank you for your patience.

Follow up to Family Connection Chat
Thanks to all those who attended our repeat session on Balancing Screen Time. Below is the link to the blog that includes helpful resources for parents in supporting students learn how to manage their screen time and use technology responsibly.

acstechieparents.blogspot.com

Our next Family Connection Chat will be Nov 18--Brain Research and Your Middle Schooler.

Handbook Highlight

Academic Concern

Letters of Academic Concern will be given to students if at the end of an official quarter, or semester, the student has:

1.     an incomplete, is failing a class, and/or there is an indication  of 2 or more classes reporting in the 60% range

2.     at the start of a school year, the final report from the previous year would have resulted in Academic Probation

Placement on Academic Concern will require:

1.     parents to sign and return the Academic Concern letter

2.     students to meet with the middle school counselor to develop a learning plan for improvement

Letters of Academic Concern will be placed into a student’s academic file and will be removed after one year free of Academic Concern or Academic Probation placement.

Academic Probation

A students will be placed on Academic Probation after previously been on Academic Concern for one quarter if at an official quarter, or semester reporting period, the student:

1.     has an incomplete in any class and/or is failing two or more classes

2.     has 3 or more classes reporting in the 60% range

Placement on Academic Probation will require:

1.     parents to sign and return the Academic Probation letter and attend an Academic Probation meeting involving the administration and counselor

2.     a student to be ineligible to take part in student activities that require missing regular classes during the school day

Academic Probation Letters will be placed into a student’s academic file. A prolonged placement on Academic Probation may result in a student being asked to withdraw from ACS.

The policies for Academic Concern and Academic Probation in the Middle School reflect the

philosophy of middle level education. Students are expected to work hard, stay organized, and seek assistance when it is necessary.

Recognition for student learning progress will take place at the end of the semester.

A Glimpse into a Day at ACS

ACS students are active in their own learning and teachers use technology to support instruction:

ACS students are guided while they develop their analytical thinking:

Week of 27 October

Good Evening,

Greetings from Kathmandu, Nepal. I have been away the past few days attending the NESA Leadership Conference with the rest of our administrative team. We are traveling tonight so this will be brief as I do not have much time before my internet runs out!

We are aware of the possible change in the upcoming Islamic Holiday. Once we have more confirmed information I will follow up with you about our plan regarding the MS play. 

 

Reminders:

Family Connection Chats:
Thanks to all of those who were able to attend our first Family Connection Chat on balancing screen time and using laptops. We had a good conversation and Mr. Berg shared with us some helpful/useful ideas on how to help our young adults manage their screen time.

We will REPEAT the presentation on Oct 29 @ 8:15 in the MPR for those of you who were unable to attend. We realize it was a busy time right before the break and those who were present encouraged us to repeat the presentation since it is such an important topic for all of us.

Our next chat will be on Nov 18 @ 8:15 in the MPR. Topic:  Decision Making with Social Networking and the Teenage Brain

Our Learning Progress Conferences will be coming up Nov 13-14. Conferences will be held in the gym. Upon my return to school I will send out more detailed information. 

Looking forward to seeing the students again tomorrow. 

 

Week of 20 October

Good Evening,

Welcome Back.....I hope everyone had an enjoyable break spent with family and friends. It was certainly a quick week but all the students seemed happy to be back. That is a good sign I suppose!

Family Connection Chats:
Thanks to all of those who were able to attend our first Family Connection Chat on balancing screen time and using laptops. We had a good conversation and Mr. Berg shared with us some helpful/useful ideas on how to help our young adults manage their screen time.

We will REPEAT the presentation on Oct 29 @ 8:15 in the MPR for those of you who were unable to attend. We realize it was a busy time right before the break and those who were present encouraged us to repeat the presentation since it is such an important topic for all of us.

Our next chat will be on Nov 18 @ 8:15 in the MPR. Topic:  Decision Making with Social Networking and the Teenage Brain

Handbook Highlight:
Approximately every 3 weeks ACS teachers update Power School. The update dates are guidelines to help keep everyone informed as it is really not necessary for students to check Power School every day. Please be aware:

• if an assignment/project is turned on the day of the update then that assignment may or may not be reflected on that update
• if a student turns in an assignment late, the assignment may not be reflected in Power School until the next update

Request Your Support:

One of the traits outlined in our Student Profile is guiding the students towards becoming good communicators. With this in mind, please help us by encouraging your son/daughter to write polite, respectful emails when writing to their teachers and encourage them to ask all of their questions in one email rather than sending multiple emails in one day. Of course, we encourage face to face communication as it helps develop student verbal communication skills. 

Update:
Model UN After School Activity Starts Next Week

The MUN ASA will begin on Monday, October 28th, and will continue for seven weeks, concluding December 8th. This activity is primarily geared for students new to Model UN and will teach several of the key skills necessary for a successful MUN debate. Experienced MUN delegates may also sign up and act as assistants. The activity will culminate in a debate.

Please email Ms Martin (lmartin@acsamman.edy.jo) for more information or to reserve your spot.

As many of you are aware, Ms. Rihani will be on an extended medical leave. We wish her well as she attends to personal matters. In the interim, for continuity purposes, there will be another teacher taking her place for the duration of her absence.

Mark your calendars now....Learning Progress Conferences (formerly known as Parent/Teacher Conferences) will take place Nov 13-14. As we get closer to the date more details about the conferences will be published. This is a great opportunity for student, parent and teacher to take some time to reflect on the learning progress that students are demonstrating as we progress through the school year.

Week of 6 October

Good Evening,

Welcome to the evening chills---I guess this means we are officially into Fall!

Updates:

• We have added the Student/Parent/Teacher Profile links above. Please take a few minutes to review the Parent Profile. We believe documents such as these help us all work together within our community.
•  Special reminder--we will have a Parent Information Session(Family Connection Chat) from our Technology Integrator on Wednesday at 8:15 to share in a dialogue about how to balance laptops and screen time with students. Please join us.
• Please remind your son/daughter to use their lock their lockers during the day. This helps ensure the security of their personal items and ensure items do not get damaged. 

Welcome:

• As you may know, Wafa Khoury retired from ACS after many years of service. In addition, some of you are also aware we recently opened another section of Digital Media in the middle school.Therefore, we would like to welcome Samya Bouari to our staff as our new AFL teacher and Saba Kawas as our new Digital Media teacher. Both Samya and Saba bring a wealth of experience to us and are familiar faces to our ACS community. We look forward to working with them and are glad they have joined us.

Handbook Highlight:
Pg 25 in the Handbook outlines possible ways to communicate. As a general note, if you send your son/daughter's teacher an email, please allow a minimum of 24 hr response time. Our teachers are expected to spend the majority of their day working directly with students and colleagues. With this in mind, teachers may or may not be at their computers to see emails throughout the day.

We hope to work with as many parents as possible thru our team meeting times, parent/teacher conferences, and/or emails.

"...Communication with and within the school is important for you and your son/daughter. We want to keep you informed of your child’s progress and what is going on at the school and we believe in open communication. When a student, or parent, has a concern the best communication path is as follows:  
Student communication with teacher 
Student communication with counselor
Student communication with administration
Parent communication with teacher
Parent communication with counselor 
Parent communication with team of teachers
Parent communication with administration

We believe it is important for students to play an active role in the communication process in order for them to gain authentic experiences in how to communicate effectively.

Teachers are always willing to discuss your son/daughter’s progress with you. Honest, open communication will enhance your son/daughter’s learning experience. If you need help to facilitate a meeting with your son/daughter’s teacher, please contact the MS office."

Week of 29 September

Good Evening,

Thank you to the MS StuCo for planning and organizing the "Peace in the Middle East" event last Thursday. There were a lot of students in attendance and everyone had a great time.  This was their first event of the year and they did a great job! Thanks also to the teachers who volunteered to chaperon.

We are spending these last three weeks before Eid to focus on instruction and routines in the MS so only a few tidbits tonight:

• Students are working on their SMART goals in advisory...please ask your son/daughter about their goals and what they are working on (you can also see the format in the Moodle All MS)

• The next Power School update is Oct 10. These updates are scheduled a few weeks apart to help the students to understand the importance of the learning that is taking place and not, solely, on "what their grade is." Learning is a reflective process that takes time and our goal is to help students understand learning is a lifelong process.

• IF your son/daughter says they are "bored" encourage them to practice their keyboarding skills. There are plenty of keyboarding sites on the internet.......a suggestion from the L. Arts teachers follows:

http://www.freetypinggame.net/free-typing-test.asp

Enjoy your evening and thank you for all of your support...it is greatly appreciated.

Rhonda Isley

MS Principal

risley@acsamman.edu.jo

Week of 22 September

Good Evening,

Hope everyone had a good weekend. Today we recognized Peace One Day, a worldwide day of recognition for peace around the world,  during advisory...students wore white, decorated lockers, listened to music....we did our best to "...imagine all the people..."

A few reminders and tidbits of information:
Handbook Highlights:

• if your son/daughter is going to be absent from school, the person to contact is Ms. Rima Fanik, MS Assistant. ( rfanik@acsamman.edu.jo )
• it is best if you can schedule appointments after school hours. Students attend classes every other day...if your son/daughter misses a class on Sunday, for example, they will not have that class again until Tuesday. It is often difficult for students to find the time during the course of a day to make up a quiz or class activity. 

Family Connection Chats:

Next month we will begin monthly parent information sessions on topics related to middle school students and issues related to being a parent of a middle school student. Our first chat will take place Oct 9 in the MPR beginning at 8:00 a.m. The topic will be "Balancing Screen Time" --we will share ideas and discuss ways to manage the amount of time students spend in front of their computer screens. We look forward to seeing you there.

Reminders:

• Middle School Student Council (StuCo) will host their first event of the school year this Thursday. Their theme is "Peace in the Middle East" to extend our celebration of Peace One Day, a worldwide day of recognition.  StuCo reps ask your help in encouraging your son/daughter to attend. 

In an effort to continuously strive for good communication and keep parents informed of events, we are asking for your assistance in helping us develop a system for parents to acknowledge events taking place at ACS.  

We are striving  to utilize our online capacities, reduce our use of paper, and streamline the cumbersome task of collecting forms from students so we ask you to take a few moments to complete the  "acknowledgement of event" form listed below. 

StuCo Peace in the Middle East Parent Response Form 

Thank you for your help as we pilot ways of improving our communication systems. 

Request from Transportation:

Bus Pick-Up: Please have your children outside and ready to catch the bus no less than 5 minutes before their designated pick-up time.Buses will wait no more than 2 minutes from their designated pick-up time in order to keep to their schedule. If buses arrive early, they will wait until their designated pick-up times if your child is not ready.

This helps us keep the buses running on time. If each student is late even 2 minutes it is a total of 40 extra minutes. 

Thank you for your support.

Enjoy your evening, 

Rhonda Isley

MS Principal 

risley@acsamman.edu.jo

Week of 15 September

Good Evening, 

Thanks to all those who attended the MS Back to School night last week. I hope everyone enjoyed the different format for the evening this year. It was nice to see everyone a bit more relaxed. 

Today wrapped up our last field trip for team building week. Team building week is designed to help us bring two attributes of our Student Profile to life....that of effective communicators and collaborators. I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunities I had to spend so much time with the students at each grade level.

Now that we have introduced those concepts to students, we will continue to create opportunities for those skills to be reinforced and developed. Thanks to all of the teachers who went on all the field trips to support students as they learn these skills. Below are a couple of photos from today's trip with Grade 6 students at the Noor Stables.

We had an incredible turnout for auditions of our MS production of Robin Hood last week. Rehearsals begin this week in preparation for the November performance. 

After School Activities begin 17 September. If your son/daughter has not yet signed up, they must do so by tomorrow. 

The first Power School update of the year is scheduled for 19 September. Please contact your son/daughter's teacher directly, after 19 Sept., if you have questions about the update. 

If your daughter is interested in participating in Girl Scouts, there is a link below for contact information.

Girl Scout Information

Please continue to remind your son/daughter to charge up their laptop each night before coming to school and please ensure their laptop remains in good working order.

Enjoy your evening,

Rhonda Isley
MS Principal
risley@acsamman.edu.jo