Week Beginning May 6, 2024

 

To all those who are chaperoning one of the Journey trips - Welcome (almost) Home and THANK YOU! The time and effort you have dedicated to ensuring our kids are safe, happy, and entertained, is remarkable and those of us that did not go are grateful for all you have done and are still doing. We hope you all can unwind this weekend, truly rest, and enjoy time with your loved ones. You all deserve a medal, a vacation, and a week-long nap!

ACTION ITEMS

• COURSE REFLECTION DATES: Please plan ahead that you will have two weeks to administer your course reflections, starting this Monday and until Friday, May 17. Please follow the directions on the Course Reflection Semester 2 Dates doc with the dates you will assign the reflections. The links have now been updated for you to send to your classes. We have also modified Q5 to fit more with the US. We hope the feedback is more helpful. 

• BLUE BOARDS UP: We did our best to relocate the work you had on your boards in your spaces to the new ones. Please only use push pins (Ruth has lots!) to attach anything to them. 

• EARLY DISMISSALS FROM OFFICE HOURS: Please only dismiss students early from Office Hours if they are on a team that needs an early dismissal (rosters on the AM slides) OR if they are on a bus. Grade 6 Athletics teams DO NOT need early dismissals for practices. Thanks for making sure they no longer are dismissed early.

FYI

• VISITORS FROM CHINA: Rex has organized for some visitors from China to come and experience an AWS day! This will occur on Wednesday of this coming week and impact the morning classes for Grade 6 and 7. The group will be paired with a Gator Guide and shadow for the morning. Please see the Special Schedule doc for the breakdown of who will be in which classes and with which Gator Guide.

• TODDLE: We have epic news - we have been given permission to use Toddle and all elements of this for the 24-25 school year! That means we can replace Google Classroom and the grade book in myAW! For the rest of this year, Ruth and a small team will be playing with this and we will use the end-of-year reporting. More to come on this in the next few weeks.  

• HABIT SCORES: Based on feedback received, we will be asking the folks to enter the final habit scores of the year by the classes/subjects they teach, rather than by person.  This is so that we can more specifically see patterns in certain subjects and also allow for heavier weight if you teach the same student for two or more subjects. This is a trial effort to see if it makes things easier and creates a more accurate representation of the student. 

• ADVISORY CURRICULUM REVIEW: This summer, we will relook at the advisory curriculum. Our plan is not to purchase CharacterStrong and to also not rely on the Social Institute. Jake has also tasked us with also combining the Thirviability questions and case studies more authentically into the advisory program. In addition, our DEI team has been working on some key topics to possibly focus on too. If you have ideas or you are interested in exploring this more, please reach out to me. More to come on this as we head into the end of the year. 

• SPECIAL EVENTS: There are a lot coming our way in the next 6 weeks. Please review the Q4 calendar and then see the Special Schedule doc for more specific information and plan accordingly. 

 USEFUL LINKS

• MS Morning Slides (show during period 1)
• MS Schedule 23-24
• MS Sections 23-24
• FRIDAY CLUBS ROSTERS
• Transcript Progress Tracker and HS Transcript and Recommendation Sharepoint instructions
• Sunshine Tracker document
• Ordering Link
• Student Classroom Issue Form 23-24 (response sheet)
• Committee Review Directions- New Student Applicants
• IAP Snapshot 23-24
• MS Cell Phone Numbers
• Middle School Norms: What AWS MS Faculty Should Know! 
• Testing Accommodation Support Request Google Form 

WEEK AHEAD

Monday, May 6

• A Day 
• Visitors: None
• Faculty out: None
• MS Gathering - in the Great Hall

• Announce SC Elections, Character & Cit awards; Robbie and Aiden CP; Spirit Week Updates (Advisory Theme and Extra points) + standings; Mr. Fire - Math survey coming out this week; AAPI Month Presentation

• All School Chapel  
• All MS present

Tuesday, May 7

• B Day
• Visitors: None 
• Faculty out: None
• Grade 6 GLTM 7:45-8:15 am (room 2432) 
• Journey Reflections
• Advisory:
• Nominations for C&C Award (survey to be sent) + quick Math survey for an Intro to IM Summative (Dave to talk more about this in MS Gathering)
• MS Track and Field has an early release at 2:15 for their meet @ Charles Wright
• DEI Meeting 3:30-4:00 pm 

Wednesday, May 8

• A Day
• Visitors: Visitors from China in classes Grade 6 and 7. Schedule and guides here.
• Faculty out: Strate out - Henry in 
• Grade 7 GLTM 7:45-8:15 am (room 2432) 
• Journey Reflections 
• Advisory: 
• Mental Health Wellbeing & Physical Wellbeing Student Thrivability questions (survey to be sent)
• Common Ground

• MS Leadership Team Meeting 2:30-3:30 pm
• MS Faculty Meeting 3:30 - 4:30 pm (room 2432) 

•   Review end of year, Review achievement levels

Thursday, May 9

• B Day
• Visitors: None
• Faculty out: None
• Grade 8 GLTM 7:45-8:15 am (room 2432) 
• Journey Reflections 
• Advisory: 
• Voting on C&C award (survey to be sent)

Friday, May 10 

• A Day
• Visitors: Meara Flaherty (6th)
• Faculty out: Heidi out - Henry subbing 
• Advisory: 
• Grade 8 - meet in the MS Lounge - End of year survey for Gathering and Closing. Wagstaff to lead. 
• Clubs: (attendance here!)