SAS Educational Programs

Friday, March 14, 2008

If Jeanie Merrill’s reaction is any indication, Self Study work is helping us gain a greater understanding of the SAS organization and transforming the way we work.  “To see a staff that craves to work together like this one does indicates an impressive level of professionalism” says Jeanie, grade four teacher at Pudong and member of the Curriculum and Instruction Self Study Focus Group. She refers to a common plea found in the areas for follow-up submitted by teachers across the school.

Last Thursday, twelve members of the Curriculum and Instruction Focus Group met to read and analyze the considerable work of the faculty on subject area self study. Through the year, all of you from every grade level and in every subject area have looked at how you deliver curriculum and at how you assess students. You have gathered student work and teacher work to analyze what is actually happening in classrooms. Through judging yourselves against WASC and NSSE (National Study of School Evaluation) criteria on a continuum of progress, you have analyzed what you do well and where you need follow-up work.

What have we learned from all this?  Here is a sampling of what Curriculum and Instruction Focus Group members had to say:

• I have learned about what the elementary schools are doing now to link into Shanghai and the China experience, and it sounds great! - Christine Doleman, Puxi HS English
• The diversity of students as well as the diversity of staff is greater than I expected - Mike Williams, Pudong HS Science
• Staff numbers and the growth in student numbers that we are experiencing is very significant, particularly in light of what we are trying to accomplish and the extent to which we are succeeding - Allison Bryant, Pudong ES Kindergarten
• This subject area evidence reflects a lot of hard work and great things happening at SAS - Nicoline Smits, Puxi Parent
• These details show a clear picture of what goes on in other departments. Nice to know what is happening around the school - Ellen Xu, Pudong ES Chinese
• There are a lot of people moving forward with common assessments and the discussions around them. This makes me hopeful for the collaboration we’ll need to accomplish the articulation needs that these reports highlight - Julie Lindsay, Puxi ES Grade 2
• ES and MS reports show that people feel good about the technology and the richness with which the curriculum is delivered - Mary Lane, Puxi ES Principal

Try these links this week!

1. Have a look at Fay Leung’s wiki-under-construction: http://philos.wikispaces.com  Look at the Cities as Classrooms section for some interesting resources for social studies and language arts.

2. The Pudong High School Theory of Knowledge students have a blog that is well worth visiting and responding to. Log on for interesting reads on a variety of subjects. http://blogs.saschina.org/pudongtok/

Cheers from the Ed Programs Office,

Lynne Coleman
Curriculum Coordinator
Shanghai American School
lynne.coleman@saschina.org

At 6:30 pm there will be a presentation on the pilot teacher evaluation program with Q&A.

The board meeting will begin at 7:15 pm.

Location: Vizcaya Clubhouse, 1988 Yunshan Road, Pudong.

The agenda for the board meeting is posted on the school website

Author Michael Thompson, Ph.D., to hold workshops at SAS

The New York Times best-selling author and psychologist, Michael Thompson, will be conducting workshops on a variety of topics, and information on raising children and school issues, throughout the week. He will be on both campuses for two days, SAS Curriculum and Professional Development Department has ordered the Michael Thompson books, Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Lives of Boys, The Pressured Child, and Best Friends/Worst Enemies: Understanding the Social Lives of Children and they are available for purchase in Puxi at SAS Mall or through Maddie Leung, and in Pudong in the Central Office through Jill Du. Each book is only 118 RMB.

Look for Michael Thompson’s schedule next week in ParentTalk. He will be in Puxi on Monday and Wednesday and on the Pudong campus Tuesday and Thursday. You may attend any or al lectures.
Shanghai Student Film Festival S2F2) debuts this spring

This spring will see the beginning of what we hope will become a long standing tradition for international schools in Shanghai. We are proud to announce the first annual Shanghai Student Film Festival, which will showcase the best student video work that Shanghai has to offer. The festival will also be an opportunity for student filmmakers from around the region to connect and help create a forum for sharing the multitude of ways that video is used in the classroom.
Today’s students are using video to create art, collaborate on projects, explain concepts, and promote ideas. The Shanghai Student Film Festival was created out of a desire to give these amazing projects the attention that they deserve.
Our mission is to create a space that is cross-cultural in scope and global in reach where students can share their video projects. We encourage students to participate by watching and responding to the work of their peers, and especially submitting their own work.

The festival will be held on April 18, 2008, at the Shanghai American School’s Performing Arts Center on the Puxi campus. To learn more, including information about categories, rules, prizes, and more, please visit our web site at http://www.shanghaifilmfest.org.

The festival is open to any student in grade 3-12 within the vicinity of Shanghai. All entries must be received by March 21, 2008.