Reopening campus to all students
On Monday, we reopen campus fully to all grades at the same time. As you will have seen from our published reopening plan, we have many safety measures in place, many of which remain in place from our 50% cohort opening and some of which are new to meet the new circumstances.
Please support our safety measures at home by:
- Ensuring the completion of ATK tests and forms on Sundays and Wednesdays, 4-8 pm.
- Providing your child(ren) with surgical or cloth masks (not foam) that they must wear at all times while on campus (other than in cafeteria while eating)
- Helping your child(ren) remember their ID card each day
- Reminding your child(ren) about distancing measures for their own safety and their friends’
Students will be provided a welcome video in the Good Morning MS news, ahead of their arrival on campus on Monday. All students will view it together in their Advisory on Monday morning. This video will go over some of the safety precautions specific to middle school.
After School and Buses
Starting on Monday, students will be able to stay after school to engage in activities or receive additional school help from their teachers. Students are not permitted to just hang around school at this time, since we cannot supervise the mask wearing or distancing. If a child is waiting for an activity to start later in the afternoon, they can ‘hang out’ in the library Lit Lounge, reserved for MS students.
Please note that late buses will now include mixed grades of students who stay after school. While we will do our best to keep cohorts of Grade 6, separate from the cohort of Grades 7 & 8, they may share buses after school. If your child is a bus rider and this is of concern to you, you may wish to make alternative arrangements for transportation.
We are excited to be fully back at school again!
Schedule for Next Week
As we reopen campus fully to all students, our schedule will revert to all students being able to come to campus for on campus learning and an end to the Virtual School schedule we have been using.
A visual representation of next week’s schedule is below. Worth noting are:
- Monday, November 8th is Day 3
- Advisory at the start of every day
- After school activities start at 2:35 pm
- Teachers will be in communication with students who remain off-campus
For parent’s reference, here is a copy of the full 8 day rotation for MS in 2021-22.
Parent-Student-Teacher Conferences on Nov 18 and 19
This year’s semester 1 Parent-Student-Teacher Conferences will be hosted online using Zoom on November 18 & 19. Parents will sign up for short timed conference slots (5 mins typically) per child, with each teacher they want to meet. We will use a service called “Pick-a-Time” to coordinate this sign-up process, which blocks off time slots for appointments once they’ve been booked.
An email will be sent to our parent community on Tuesday, November 9th at 8:00 AM to open the sign-up application. It will remain open until Monday, November 15th, 3:00 PM.
The sign-up process is a new one since we have not had to set this up for online appointments before. Once the sign up is completed, you will can receive an email with your schedule and the zoom links for each meeting.
Here are some instructions that you may want to look at, before Tuesday’s sign-ups.
On the day of conferences, it will be essential that your child logs in with their Zoom account so that the teacher can recognize which family is in the “waiting room” and they can stick on schedule. If you can sit with your child during conferences, then you can sit together in front of their computer. If you need to log in from a different location as your child, then your child will still log in and join and parents can join so that students can inform us to let you in from the waiting room. In many cases, we can’t recognize who is in the waiting room (names like “iPhone or iPad”).
Hosted this past week – Mathematics Learning for the 21st Century
This past week, ISB hosted a parent workshop on current thinking and practice around mathematics learning, led by Jennifer Chang Wathall. We’ve summarized some of her key points below. With consultants we are not able to record meetings, but we will be brining Dr. Chang Wathall back for some future engagements.
Twitter: @JenniferWathall
website: jenniferchangwathall.com
“The essence of mathematics is not to make simple things complicated but complicated things simpler”
Professor Stan Gudder
Three guiding questions:
- Why do we need to teach for deep conceptual understanding?
- What is concept based mathematics?
- What are some of the myths about effective mathematics learning?
Three myths about mathematics learning:
- Practice makes perfect- purposeful, dynamic practice makes perfect
- Learning mathematics is about getting the right answers are not making mistakes-making mistakes grow your brain and productive struggle is part of the learning process
- Mathematics learning is about speed and completing questions as fast as you can- mathematics is about deep slow thinking and problem-solving
PANTHER ACTIVITIES ARE BACK!!!
Registration will be open from 3:00pm November 10th through 3;00pm on November 12th for the return of Panther Activities. While some programs like the Panther Native Language Academy, ES Music Ensembles, and Cub, Boy, and Girl Scouts run throughout the year, look for new sessions in art, baseball & softball, dance, golf, gymnastics, music, soccer, swimming, tennis, and volleyball November 15th through December 16th. With COVID safety protocols in place, we hope that the return of these programs provides a number of pathways for students to stay active and engaged with the activities that capture their passion and interest. Please also check out the Season 2 ISB Athletics opportunities HERE.
How to register on CHQ: Step by step instructions for navigating CHQ can be found HERE. Simply log into PowerSchool, then press the CHQ button on the left side of your screen. Once in CHQ you will find an account for each of your children in which you will only be able to see the activities for that child’s age group and grade level. Where available, you may click the blue “i” to the right of each activity title for a description of that activity. Please contact Lucas or Anthony at pantheractivities@isb.ac.th for general questions, or any of the Panther Activities Coordinators at the email address listed below.
PantherArts@isb.ac.th, PantherBoyScouts@isb.ac.th, PantherBaseballandSoftball@isb.ac.th, panthercubscouts@isb.ac.th, PantherDance@isb.ac.th, PantherGirlScouts@isb.ac.th, PantherGolf@isb.ac.th, PantherGymnastics@isb.ac.th, PantherMusic@isb.ac.th, PantherNativeLanguageAcademy@isb.ac.th, PantherSoccer@isb.ac.th, PantherSwim@isb.ac.th, PantherTennis@isb.ac.th, and PantherVoleyball@isb.ac.th.
Distribution of ATKs
Additional ATK supplies were distributed to students on Wednesday 3rd and Thursday 4th November. In the event that a student was not at school to receive the ATKs, please email your division, ES – Naiyana (Ann) naiyanar@isb.ac.th, MS – Phremjit phremjiz@isb.ac.th, HS – Vijit (Hui) vijitl@isb.ac.th to arrange pick up.
ATK Testing – Important
A reminder that ATK testing now takes place on Sundays and Wednesdays between 4:00pm and 8:00pm – with results uploaded on the ATK Form within that same timeframe. If you need assistance with the ATK Form, please write to help@isb.ac.th
ISB Athletics Season 2 registration (Volleyball, Softball/Baseball)
Tryouts for U12-U14 Season 2 are starting on Monday 15th November. This is open to all students in grade 6, 7 and 8. Practices will be on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 2:30-3:30. Registration is open until Wednesday 10th November on the ISB Athletics website: https://inside.isb.ac.th/isbathletics/
Repeat Announcement: Strengths Difficulties Questionnaire for G7 & 8 students
Dear Parent/Guardian,
At ISB we care deeply about the well-being of our students. To help us meet our mission to support them in leading healthy, active and balanced lives, all Grade 7 & 8 students will complete the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) each school year during Advisory. Grade 6 will be offered this questionnaire in semester 2.
- December 2 – Grade 7
- December 7 – Grade 8
Why is the questionnaire being administered?
The purpose of this questionnaire is to:
- Identify students who require immediate support
- Identify students who are struggling with social/emotional/behavioral issues in order to provide appropriate early intervention/prevention support
- Obtain an overview of the social/emotional/behavioral needs at our school to ensure that we are providing optimal support for our students
How and when will the questionnaire be administered?
The online questionnaire will be administered during your child’s Advisory and will take approximately 10 minutes to complete. The survey items are available for you to review here.
How will the results be used?
- The data collected will be managed, analyzed, and reported by a team including the school counselors, school psychologists and the Director of Student Services in accordance with the ISB Confidentiality Policy.
- Individual student responses to the questionnaire are confidential. Any concerns raised through the survey administration process will be shared only with school personnel involved in supporting that student.
- The questionnaire administration process has been designed to identify specific students who need additional support. The survey will be conducted electronically and students’ names will be captured along with their responses. ISB counselors will meet with any student whose responses indicate a need for follow up and parents will be notified.
- School counselors, school psychologists, and administrators will analyze overall trends to help improve student support at ISB.
- In completing this questionnaire your child will have an opportunity to privately reflect on his/her current social emotional health and wellness. Some parents may choose to use the questionnaire as an opportunity to create dialogue related to social emotional wellbeing topics with their child following completion of the survey.
Does my child have to complete the questionnaire?
No. As a parent or guardian, you can opt out of having your child complete this questionnaire. Students will be informed that they may choose to skip any questions that they do not feel comfortable answering.
Parents/Guardians who do not want their child to take the survey should let their child’s school counselor know by phone or in writing prior to the administration of the SDQ. ISB will assume parent/guardian consent to their child participating unless the school counselor has been notified. Parents do not have to do anything unless they do not want their child to participate.
Thank you so much for your support with this important project.
The ISB Counseling Team
Middle School Counselors:
Kevin Nelson (kevinn@isb.ac.th)
Colleen Coady (colleenc@isb.ac.th)
MS and HS School Psychologist:
Ryan Ruhl (ryanr@isb.ac.th)
Director of Student Services:
Keith Collins (keithc@isb.ac.th)
Middle School Principal:
Dennis Harter (dennish@isb.ac.th)