Message From the Head of School – May 8, 2020

At BIS we are spoiled each year by our fabulous PTA who put on a wonderful lunch, November 25 of this past year, for the faculty and staff. This year messages were included too! We do receive appreciation and our efforts are recognized at BIS. 

I figure, if there was ever a year to celebrate our faculty twice, this is the year to do it. This week is Teacher Appreciation Week globally so I figured – yeah – let’s celebrate our teachers! The transition from face to face to virtual has been nothing short of fantastic and I want to celebrate the BIS Faculty for their strong efforts. In order for me to do this authentically, I asked our students and parents to share their thanks for the care, positive spirit, and academic rigor that are the attributes of the BIS Distance Learning Program. Here are a few highlights:

I also want to highlight some of the efforts that are going on which you may not be aware of:

• Mr. Ferris has chatted with every individual secondary student to check-up on their progress and wellbeing. He is also checking in with individual teachers and providing feedback on their lessons. Mr. Ferris has requested that teachers increase the opportunity for students to visually interact with their teachers and peers
• Mr. Eldred is ‘dropping into’ class Zoom lessons, is reading weekly with to our Preschool to Grade 2 students and is feeding back on students’ SeeSaw efforts
• Parent responses to our Distance Learning survey have been responded to by the corresponding principal. Parent feedback has been passed onto teachers to reflect upon for improvement
• Parent and student feedback to individual teachers continues to help us adjust our learning program
• Increased face to face time has been requested so teachers are upping the time in their weekly schedules
• Student support teams continue to meet to discuss students who are engaging at different levels or achieving less virtually, parents are contacted to support from home 
• Grade 12 students continue to attend a specialized program designed to prepare them for life after BIS. This week’s schedule included Fitness by Pak Sam, interview practice and skills, yoga/mindfulness with Ibu Rachael, and Graduation planning. There have also been cooking, language, and university preparation sessions. Thank you to Aine Quinn, Rachael Gerbic, Matt Wood, Klaus Weber, NoahJon Marshall, and Sam Watson for designing and facilitating this program – great work!
• A middle school student was feeling stressed so met with a teacher via Google Meets to find some balance, they talked about their favorite music and then brainstormed some solutions to the anxiety
• Mr. Field has personally assisted 30 students in Secondary School this week. He is using Google chats with deadline reminders, quick questions all the way through to Zoom meetings to work through assessment tasks, creating day plans, breaking down the various deadlines, and creating work plans. An example is the creation of a personal EE video to break down a specific concept that a student was struggling with. 
• Ms. Gerbic has supported individual students to maintain their healthy mental wellbeing. 
• Ms. Taylor continues to support Secondary EAL students to access the curriculum and to complete tasks. She is working with class teachers to differentiate tasks.
• Students in Italy, Netherlands, and Bali read a story out loud together, receiving feedback about their reading and comprehension
• Language classes are using flipgrid so students can speak the language and receive feedback
• Students set SMART fitness goals and are working towards accomplishing those goals over the next few weeks.
• Students receive specific and timely feedback about their math IA
• Primary students are meeting with teachers for whole class and small group reading, math, and unit of inquiry lessons. Teachers are hosting meetings so that students can ask questions about their work, spend time socializing with their classmates, and celebrate birthdays.
• Preschool teachers have been hosting parent information sessions about teaching phonics and reading at home and sharing resources with parents. They’ve also marked each Wednesday as ‘Outside Day’ where all student activities for the day take place outside.
• Kindergarten & Grade 1 classes are meeting in small groups for guided reading lessons (as are Grades 2, 3 & 4)
• Grade 2 has completed some learning about electricity and circuits
• Ibu Heather sent clay home in packets so students could create and model.
• Grade 4 students are currently inquiring into global currencies and will combine that learning to start converting currencies.
• Grade 5 have been using the flipped classroom method whereby students watch required videos at home and then meet with Ibu Alison to discuss the videos and work together to further build on their learning.
• Mr Marshall is hosting weekly Library lessons for the Primary classes so the students can enjoy books together and continue to develop research skills
• Numerous birthday parties and celebrations have taken place for our Primary students and teachers on Zoom
• Primary teachers are hosting additional Zoom meetings to allow students in different time zones even more opportunities to meet with them.
• Sharing activities on SeeSaw to make students smile every Friday. Thankful Tuesdays. Dance offs/ stare off competitions pictionary and scavenger hunts on Zoom. Themed Zooms. Individual zooms when students need extra support. Regular check ins with parents to support as needed. 
• We have had several zoom challenges including show-n-tell (for big kids) and everyone sharing their favorite jokes.  I have helped multiple classes compose notes to teachers when they are feeling overwhelmed/stressed to ask for extensions or just let the teachers know that there are many assessments due that day/week.  I check in with all my students about workloads, anxieties, sleep deprivation, and strategies to help all of those. 
• Sharing fun music activities for students and family to join in (using anything they can find at home to make noise like kitchen stuff etc). Sharing funny videos related to music for them to watch. Less stress music activities. 🙂
• I’ve sent students links to museums they can visit virtually- the aquarium is a big hit! (I have regular meetings with individual students and help them with their work, we also chat about normal life things.)
• Morning greetings, scavenger hunt to get moving. Share a story – 1-1 to get some work finished. Sharing student achievements like videos that make pictures, fun adventures. 
• I spoke with a student this morning who said she is doing “great!” after she reached out to a Teacher and received kind words in return.

A nice collection of evidence of support, care and rigor. To everyone who shared a video of thanks, I have collated for teachers and they will get to see those this afternoon. Thank you!

Please join me for our weekly Podcast Discussion on Thursday, May 14 at 8:45 a.m.
Tip o’ the hat to Louise Key, mother of Sophia (Grade 6) and Harry (Grade 2) for suggesting the following podcast to me. It’s a topic we all need help with these days. Great recommendation and content – please enjoy!

Screentime, Scribble Time, Space-Out Time – Parent Trapped

Ever since schools closed due to social-distancing requirements, a lot of kids have been spending most of their time online. Is all that screen time harmful?

BIS Parent Podcast Discussion

Thursday, May 14,  8:45 – 9:45 am

Join Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 932 5640 9447 – Password: 087850