December 11th to 15th

TED Talk of the Week

This TED Talk explains how important sleep is and previews a new hack that may be able to make our sleep more efficient.

Thank You!

• Congratulations to Eric Rosenthal who has been accepted to present at the 2018 EARCOS Teacher's Conference in Bangkok, Thailand.
• Sara, Theresa, and Neyda for working with our PAB to create a more emotionally safe environment for our parent community.  
• Bonnie and Cynthia for organizing another successful Activity sign up for Q3!
• Allan, Eric, and Cody for organizing the ES Basketball Club. We had over 70 students sign up for this Friday! If you would like to help out, let Allan know.

Report Card Information

Here is all the information you should need as you prepare for Q2 reports.  Pay special attention to slides 4 and 21-25 as they have been changed and contain information specific to writing comments.  Also, here are the complete lists of standards and higher level standards: K 1 2 3 4 5

Gum in the ES
There have been several teachers and students asking if gum is allowed in the ES. The short answer is no. The long answer has to do with field maintenance and lack of responsibility when disposing of gum. Feel free to share the answer you wish.


Surveys

There will be three surveys sent out this week.  The WASC perception survey, which will inform the ongoing school improvement process. You will be given time during your team meetings to complete this survey.  The Principal and Associate Principal feedback surveys, will provide us with important data to inform our ongoing professional growth and development. You will receive a link to this survey on Monday December 11th please complete by Friday December 15th.

From Neil our Sub Coordinator

Just a reminder. S2 Wellness Days are open. Requests can be made on your divisional Leave Request form found on your divisional intranet page. Please remember that only one of your 2 yearly requests can be attached to a weekend. Request early to get your first choice.

Holiday Spirit Week

Holiday Spirit Week is December 11 - 15.  The money raised will be used to purchase gifts for the orphanage on Jeju.  Please share this information with your class to ensure we have maximum participation.  

Monday 12/11: Christmas colors & Christmas Character

Tuesday 12/12: Crazy hair day

Wednesday 12/13: Dress like a parent day (teachers dress like students)

Thursday 12/14: Free Dress day

Friday 12/15: Pajama day

Winter Arts Day Information

Here is the schedule, be sure to look at the different tabs.

Here is the parent letter.  It will be sent out next week.

Here is the Winter Arts day uniform reminder letter.

Here is the Winter Arts Day student/teacher activity video.

A Message from Mareena Kohtala, our AP for 2018/19

Dear KISJ Elementary School,

It is with great pleasure and enthusiasm that I write to share a little about myself. I am honored to have the opportunity to join your learning community in the next academic year as the elementary Associate Principal.

I am originally from Finland, and so I pronounce my name two different ways depending on whether I’m speaking Finnish or English. I lived in the Atlanta area of the United States for a long time and completed my B.S in Elementary Education at Auburn University. My Masters (M.Ed Early Childhood Education) and Specialist degrees (Ed. S. Instructional Technology) were completed back in the state of Georgia, where I also worked as a classroom teacher in a large public school system. In addition to my classroom role, I served in various academic leadership roles including work as a technology coach, curriculum trainer, year group leader, STEM committee leader and member of the local school council. For the last four year I have been living and work in Doha, Qatar. My roles have included leading the technology and library team, gifted program coordinator, and currently I work in a school-wide 21st Century Learning Coordinator role.

I am driven by a desire to help all students develop a love of learning and discover their individual strengths and passions. I have enjoyed the chance to learn about your school through my conversations with your administrators and colleagues. I’m also quite active on social media for professional connections, and I’ve seen the amazing things happening on your campus.

I am looking forward to learning more about each of you and your educational passions and beliefs. Feel free to reach out to me prior to my arrival in Jeju. I am available to answer any questions and welcome the chance to simply connect.

Wishing you all the best for the rest of the school year,

mareena.kohtala@gmail.com

From the ES Suggestion Box

For the Parent Survey on Family Weekend, I think column E (provide any other information) should not have been accessible to all ES staff.  Some of it included students names, teachers names, and was very specific to teachers, classrooms, and individual situations.  Perhaps this section should have only been accessed by grade level or individual teachers.  I think column c (What would you like to see/do during future classroom visits? ) was more general and provided the feedback all ES teachers needed to know about parent weekend.  

- Thank you for this feedback.  Before I sent out the results I carefully read over the comments and I feel they are fine to share.  The instances when names are used were connected to positive comments.  I shared the entire survey so our ES community could get a whole school view of parent comments.

Upcoming PD in the ES

December 15th - Peer Editing in the EAPAC

December 22nd - Teachers Teaching Teachers (1:00 to 3:00)

Other Information

• Kate Seo (yesseo@kis.ac) is our faculty assistant is also available to help with "living in Korea" related need.  Here is the faculty request form.
• Renee (shyehan@kis.ac) is now our ES Textbook Manager. Email her when you need to checkout textbooks.