Weekly + Spring Break Overview: 3/12/2012 – 3/25/2012

Welcome to the last week of school before Spring Break begins!

Tuesday 3/13: From 5 – 6 pm, the PYP Parent Committee will meet. The PYP Parent Committee meetings will help parents to get more familiar with the PYP curriculum and its impact on our children and school. The next meeting will be April 3, 2012 at 9 am. For more information contact PYP Coordinator Sara Schmittgens at sara2@sllis.org

TFS’ School Advisory Committee (SAC) will meet at 6 pm. For more information, contact Sonia at sonia@sllis.org

Wednesday 3/14: Happy Pi Day!

Today is the Staff Appreciation Lunch. Bring in your donations before 11:30 am, and thanks a bunch!

The HR Happy Hour will occur from 5:30-7:30 at Urban Eats Cafe. This is an excellent opportunity for SLLIS applicants to learn more about our school culture and expectations.

Thursday 3/15: Join Madame Louise on Thursdays from 5 – 6 pm for French classes. Please bring a pen or pencil and paper.

Friday 3/16: Re-enrollment forms for current students are due today. Please remember to submit two recent proofs of residence with your form.

3rd Quarter ends

Monday 3/19: First day of Spring Break

Tuesday 3/20: First day of Spring!

Friday 3/23: Another Ram’s Game fundraiser will occur. Contact Dale Greenbury at sllisPAfundraising@gmail.com or 314-435-6422 for more information.

Sunday 3/25: School starts up again tomorrow.

From 1 pm – 3 pm, join us at the South City YMCA for the second annual Parents vs. Teachers basketball game. Contact Brandon Moore Sr. at 314-683-0229 for more information.

Today is another Ram’s Game fundraiser. Contact Dale Greenbury at sllisPAfundraising@gmail.com or 314-435-6422 for more information.

Have a safe, fun and relaxing break everyone!

PYP Parent Committee Meetings

The PYP Parent Committee meetings will help parents to get more familiar with the PYP curriculum and its impact on our children and schools.

The PYP Parent Committee will meet on the following dates in the SLLIS Parents’ Lounge:
March 13, 2012 at 5 pm
April 3, 2012 at 9 am
April 24, 2012 at 5 pm
May 15, 2012 at 9 am
June 15, 2012 TBD

For more information, contact PYP Coordinator Sara Schmittgens at sara2@sllis.org.

PYP Workshop – Sunday, May 8, 2011

Sunday, May 8th 2:30pm-4:30pm (Mother’s Day): PYP Workshop

Join one of our national consultants on implementing the Primary Years Programme of the International Baccalaureate in an immersion setting.  Simone Becker from Atlanta International School will present an overview of the IB, sample articulations from the PYP and a glimpse into the total PYP academic experience.

Current and future parents, staff and board members are invited to attend. See you there!

We are official candidate schools for the PYP

It’s official!  The International Baccalaureate of the Americas office has granted both The French School and The Spanish School official candidate school status for the Primary Years Programme .  During the years of our candidacy our instructional team will plan and deliver a Programme of Inquiry and units of inquiry at every grade level.

The French School and The Spanish School are candidate schools* for the Primary Years Programme. These schools are pursuing authorization as IB World Schools. These are schools that share a common philosophy—a commitment to high quality, challenging, international education that The French School and The Spanish School believe is important for our students.

During the candidate phase the schools develop a Programme of Inquiry which articulates the 6 transdisciplinary units to be taught at each grade level from kindergarten through grade 5.  Each year each grade level will have one unit following each of the key themes: who we are, where we are in place and time, how we organize ourselves, how we express ourselves, how the world works, sharing the planet.

Each year teacher teams design, implement and revise 1-3 units of inquiry.  In addition to their classroom instruction for each units, the schools create schoolwide explorations of the IB Learner Profile.  These are the two aspects of the candidate phase that will be most visible to students and their families.  Behind the scenes, teacher committees are developing the articulation of our assessment policy, language policy and IB communication policy.  Parents are invited to join us on the communications committee to explore and decide how, when and in which formats our parents are receiving information about and contributing to our units of inquiry.

*Only schools authorized by the IB organization can offer any of its three academic programmes: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP), or the Diploma Programme. Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorization will be granted.

What is IB? What is PYP? Parent Workshop

What is IB? What is PYP?
Parent Workshop
Sunday, March 21st 2:30pm-4:30pm

Join SLLIS staff and faculty for an informational workshop on the International Baccalaureate’s Primary Years Programme.  PYP and immersion educator Simone Becker from Atlanta International School will present the key concepts, vocabulary and work of the elementary program with examples from an immersion setting.  This will be an excellent time to ask your burning questions about the academic articulation and inquiry based learning.  SLLIS is in the first year of a four year process to become an IBO world authorized school.

Space is limited.  Please RSVP here.

Missouri’s first IB PYP school is authorized!

And it isn’t SLLIS!  One of our candidates for the Operations Manager position shared with me yesterday that Eugene Field Elementary in Springfield, MO has recently been authorized as an IBO world school.  Conrgatulations!!!!  We’ll have to schedule a visit to their campus and create a cross-state partnership.

National Immersion Education Conference

This week I’m in St. Paul, MN for the National Immersion Education Conference and site visits. Today I visited L’Etoile du Nord, French Immersion School in the St. Paul Public School District. Un grand merci à M. Béni who gave us the tour and school overview. We even accompanied the 6th graders on a field trip to a Ronald K. Brown/Evidence dance performance! (FYI, Ron Brown is my favorite choreographer of all time and I hadn’t seen him or his work since we left New York. Quel grand plaisir!) LNFI has translated the constructivist math series Everyday Math and we’ve inquired into purchasing their translation for The French School.

Tomorrow I will be at Lakes International Language Academy, a Spanish immersion public charter school in Forest Lake, MN. LILA is implementing the IB PYP and I will sit in on a kindergarten grade team meeting and hear about the end of their first unit of inquiry.

More to come…