ISY Elementary School Faculty Blog

Student Review Meetings

Mike Simpson

May 13, 2022

We have Student Review Meetings coming up at the end of the month.

It has been two months since our last set of these meetings and we will now have a clearer understanding of where students are at after two years online. 

It is inevitable that, after two years online, some students are not where we would like them to be as they move into the next grade. This is not for lack of skill or effort on our part. Imagine the position our students would be in after two years online if it wasn’t for that skill and effort! 

Next year will be the first year in two years that we will be able to really understand what our students are capable of in our classrooms. That makes next year a very important year for our students and potentially a very rewarding year for us. Rewarding in the sense that there is tremendous potential for student growth – academically and socially – and more so in those students who did not fare as well online. 

As we think about where our students are at the moment, it is exciting to think about the difference our skill and effort could make next year with our students in our classrooms from the beginning.

We all know we are doing our best…. even when we are not at our best!

Check in. How am I? What do I need? How are they? What do they need from me?

Ask for help and be helpful.

Be present and patient. Take time to fully understand others and allow time for others to understand you. Pausing, Paraphrasing and Posing Questions promotes our common understanding.

Share your ideas and be open to the ideas of others. Once shared, they become our ideas and anything could happen!

Wellness in Action – Friday, May 20

Next Friday will be our last Wellness in Action afternoon. It will follow the same schedule from 1pm to 1:40pm. Online students will also be participating as they have done previously.

ISY iPads and Chromebooks Collected on Friday, May 20

This message went out in the parent blog. You will have a cart your classroom on the 20th to plug the Chromebooks into.

Many of our students borrowed ISY iPads or Chromebooks to help with online learning at home. Now that we have returned to in-person learning, we will collect these devices to be used in classes next year.

On Friday, May 20, students will leave their borrowed ISY iPad or Chromebook at school. They will be able to keep using their iPad or Chromebook at school but they will no longer take it home.

Indoor Lunch/Recess

Poor Air Quality & Rainy Days

An air quality reading will be taken at 9:50am so you can be confident that an A Q sign in the window of the B Building at 9:55 means that the air quality is not good enough for outdoor recess. Hopefully this doesn’t happen very often.

Rainy days will be more common soon so this will also require a plan for indoor recess – lunch is now inside in the cafeteria.

It sounds like the rain has set in now. Here is a plan for Grades 1-5 to avoid confusion if it is raining during a recess. 

If it is raining at lunch recess:

  • Albert will be on the Covered Court to supervise students. There will be an overlap with Middle School lunch from 12:35 but we think there is enough room.
  • All Grade 1 students will play on the Covered Court.
  • Those Grade 2/3 & 4/5 students who would rather not play on the Covered Court will go to their classrooms and will be supervised by the other scheduled duty faculty members. 
  • Grade 2/3 & 4/5 Homeroom teachers, please tell your students to choose the Covered Court or the classroom and not to switch between the two.

If it is raining at morning recess:

Morning recess will be in classrooms. Scheduled duty faculty members will supervise students.

To avoid confusion on rainy days, an email from the Elementary Office will be sent to all Elementary Teachers and Assistants 5 minutes before a lunch/recess to confirm it will be indoors because it is wet. If there is no email, lunch/recess is outside as usual.

SUPERVISION SCHEDULE

Here is the Q4 Supervision Schedule that we will use for Quarter 4.

This week:

10:00 – 10:20 Grade 2-5 Recess Locations

  • Front Steps End of Field / Front Steps Playground: Grades 4/5
  • SAS Building End of Field / A Building Playground: Grades 2/3

8:00 – 8:20 Before School Play Duty

Update: Students are allowed on campus before 8am but before school duty will still begin at 8am.

Here is the Before School Play Duty Schedule that we will use for Semester 2.

People on duty this week:

  • Monday: NO SCHOOL
  • Tuesday: Rosita
  • Wednesday: May Khine
  • Thursday: Ian
  • Friday: Isabel

Hats & Heat

Starting next week, students will only be allowed to play in the sun if they are wearing a hat. If a child forgets their hat, they must play in the shade. 

Parents have also been told to make sure that their chidren bring a water bottle to school. Please remind students to drink some water before and after recess and take their water bottles to P.E.

Semester 2 Reports

Here is a link to the Semester 2 Report Writing Instructions and Timeline.

Timeline:

By 12pm on Monday, May 23: Subject Blurbs to be completed.

By 12pm on Thursday, June 2: Individual Student Comments to be completed. Please share your Google Document directly with Mike as soon as you have completed your comments. For individual student comments, you take the blurb and adapt it to fit the student.

By 12pm on Monday, June 6: Individual Student Comments and Grades to be entered into Powerschool.

Reports go out on Wednesday, June 8

QUARTER 4 SCHEDULE

Here is the link to the ES Quarter 4 Schedule which is also available on the Elementary School Faculty Pages.

ZOOM LINKS (Semester 2)

Here is a link to the Zoom Links that we will use for Semester 2.

ISY Learner Attributes

Thank you again for all you did to promote our ISY Learner Attributes during Spirit Week. Please keep the focus on these attributes as we finish out the school year. If you have any ideas on how to promote any of the attributes, please add them to this ISY Learner Attributes Activity Menu.

Q4 Interdisciplinary Units

Scope and Sequences

We now have confirmed Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions for our Quarter 4 units. Please refer to the Q4 Scope and Sequence and update it as necessary.

Specialist teachers, please strive to connect to the Enduring Understanding and/or Essential Questions.

Everyone, please strive to integrate our Mission and Vision, Attributes and the SDGs (which inevitably hit our strategic themes) into this last quarter.

Consider how what was covered in our Compassion Conference might help us integrate Service and Action.

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Here is where you can find our Q4 Scope and Sequence 2021-2022 Scope & Sequence. 

To fill out this year’s Q4 Scope and Sequence, you might want to refer to the skills you focused on this time last year in this Q4 Scope and Sequence 2020-2021.

Please link your planning to the Scope and Sequence as you did for our Q2 Scope and Sequence. We want to give you some autonomy as to how you organize your planning and resources but your planning needs to be in an ISY Shared Drive. 

Please also check off the standards that you intend to cover in your subject in Quarter 4. Please make sure there is an ‘x’ in the second column of any standard you will cover in these Grade Level Standards Checklists.

Previous Elementary School Posts

Elementary School Faculty Blog – October 23, 2020

Elementary School Faculty Blog – October 23, 2020

Oct 23, 2020 |

In case you are wondering why you are tired, we went online 219 days ago. This is the first chance we have had to rest for a very long time. Your work up until this point has set us up for the rest of the year and the rest of the year can wait for week!