Pudong ES Announcements

The SAS Pudong Book Fair is here!

Venue     :  Orange Couch Room, between the Secondary Library and the Food Court
Dates      :  November 4th to November 7th, 2008
Time       :  8:00 am to 3:00 pm

We are open  during Parent-Teacher Conferences too.
We have a fantastic selection of books available, new titles and even books for High School students. Books make great presents for birthdays and Christmas, and this year, we even have some cute plush toys for the younger students!

Visiting Authors’ books will also be on sale. You can get these books now and have them autographed in Spring, when these authors visit our school. But,don’t wait till Spring to buy them! Get these books now….limited copies available!

There’s also a small section of used books, only for parents and High School. These used books will be at 5 rmb each. There’s something for everyone!

All purchases must be in RMB, cash only.
3rd-5th grade-bring about 100 rmb..should get about 2-3 books.

Prek-2 will make a bag and bring the list home for parents to send money in the next day.  The book bags will be held until 3 p.m. on Wedneday and then books will be put back out

Elementary Class schedule is on the library blog.

Author books will be on sale as well.

WASC, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, finished their week long visitation at SAS. During their time here sixteen members of the WASC team met with a wide range of educators to gather their input on the progress SAS has made and reflected through our Self Study.

A formal presentation was presented to the entire SAS faculty on Friday, October 16 through special video conferencing on both campuses. The WASC findings gave validation to all the great things we have done, and their recommendations to move forward on other fronts provided us with a guide on what we still need to do. The visitation and report was an appropriate ending of the work and dedication and leadership of all our staff and leadership team.

Pudong Elementary School, in coordination with our sister schools, celebrated a day of fun and friendly competition through their annual soccer day. The day was filled with potential Olympic champions and dedicated coaches. The contests were tight to the very end. One thing that all athletics and coaches agreed upon was: Let’s Do It Again!

Over the coming weeks, we are encouraging everyone to become connected using several neat programs that are free to all. You may have noticed your teacher either continuing the connectivity or experimenting with ways of developing their connectedness to you and our community. By following the links in this sidebar you are able to navigate directly to your teacher’s blog. Here you will find photos, information and celebrations of the student work. Using the blog platform, the connectedness between teacher, student, family both here and overseas, and classes around the world are allowing for relationships to be built that can only benefit all of us! Special projects taking place include Grade 2 teachers filming interviews with each other, posting to the blog for their “blog buddies” (another school in the US) to see. This allows for authentic learning to take place with an authentic audience.

So instead of you going to the site, by using a free simple tool let the information come to you!

Netvibes gathers all the rss feeds you want and sends them straight to one page.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. In the example here I have every teacher’s blog and administrators. I am able to see any updates that are made immediately, on one page. No longer do we have to fish for information going to a site to see if there is any new information as it can all come to you on one page. To learn more on setting up your own page, Amanda Decardy our Middle School tech Specialist has created a short screencast demonstrating how easy it is!

October is a busy month for the Elementary School. Listed below are
dates you can refer to. Check with your teachers for additional
information on these and other areas. Additionally, check out our
Communication Tab on the Blog for specific information on contacting
individuals and activities.

October 1st - 3rd: Chinese Holiday, no school
October 9th: ES PTSA meeting from 8:30-10:00. Topics include:
* Chinese Presentation
* Library Presentation
* Announcement of Cinderella Musical
October 9th: PTSA General Meeting from 10:00-10:30
October 11th: PTSA BBQ @ Pudong from 11:00-4:00
October 12-16th: WASC Self Study Visitation Team
October 16th: ES Library Session for Parents 9:00-10:00
October 16th: Santa’s Workshop planning meeting 10:00
October 16th: PTSA EXCO meeting 1:00
October 18th: ES Cinderella Musical (check with PTSA President for tickets)
October 20th-25th: ITBS testing for 3rd through 5th grades
October 24th: End of 1st Quarter
October 24th: United Nations Day 8:30-3:00
October 31st: ES Report Cards go home
October 31st: ES Halloween

Pudong Elementary School hosted its Open House on September 25th. By all accounts from parents and teachers it was a huge success. This years format seemed to be just right. We had three different stages. The first stage was designed for PK through 1st grade; second stage was for 2nd and 3rd grades; and, the third stage was for 4th and 5th grades.

Over the span of the evening three separate parent sessions were presented with over-views of the grade level program, philosophy, class work, and objectives. Specialists were introduced and gave a brief summary of what they do in their programs.

Probably the best summary of the evening came from one of our parents who took time to tell me that this was by far the best Open House she had ever attended in any school. It was A nice way to finish up a great day and evening.

Thanks to all our teachers, staff, parents, and to Charles in Eurest for providing parent and teacher food and refreshments.

Human beings are designed for learning. Whether it’s a young infant coming into the world and learning how to walk or talk, a student exploring their creativity, new teachers tying to make sense out of things, or doctors trying to find a cure for disease. We are hard wired to learn and perform to the best of our capacity.

In school organizations, we are good at measuring activities related to learning.  In fact that is primarily what we do. Too often however, there is a fuzzy and never satisfying end to this, never an end point where we finally know everything about every part of the system.  Why does change itself, that very event we’re all supposed to be managing, keep drowning us relentlessly?  How do we create organizational coherence, where activities correspond to purpose and meaning? And, what is it that we are really learning?  While we don’t often allow these questions to surface in organizations, they contain powerful metaphors that demand understanding beyond our traditional framework.

Leadership, an acknowledged phenomenon within organizations, must be examined for its relational aspects. Most often it is connected to qualities of stewardship, management, mission, and various other aphorisms.  In recent years however, a new way of thinking about organizational leadership has been emerging. It is connected to design.

Nothing has a more sweeping influence in how an organization functions than the design of the organization.  Like a large ship, an organization will perform only to the degree to which it is designed. Poor design typically results in limited capacity and function.  The gears of organizational functions are rarely invisible; they are found in decision-making, configuration of positions, roles and responsibilities, values, policies, use of time, connections with each other, and a myriad other ingredients. Without the proper design however, these gears never function properly.  As a result, the organization rarely, if ever performs up to its potential.

I believe we are in a time and place in education where traditional organizational designs may no longer stand up to the close scrutiny of performance. The issue is not what titles or positions will take care of the problems, but what energy, know-how, influence, insight, courage, and wisdom are available to help us see the proper design for solutions and effectiveness.

While human beings are hard wired for learning, successful leadership will not be found in the pages of organizational theory, titles, or positions. The most influential and effective leaders will be those who have the ability to design school organizations that are responsive to their purpose. Schools that wish to reach optimal performance year after year will need an eye on organizational design.

We have many dates in which parents should be aware of. For the month of September, we have a busy schedule. Don’t forget that we have Open House this month on the 25th:

• Sept 8th-12th: Teacher Assistant Training will include one hour sessions in the following:

• Sept 10th: EveryDay Math Training: All teachers will received this training.

• Sept 19-21st: Learning 2008 Technology Conference

• Sept 22nd: Elementary School Spirit Walk. 8:15-9:00

• Sept 25th: ELEMENTARY SCHOOL OPEN HOUSE (see schedule sent home)
• Sept 29-30th: Teacher Work Days…no school for students

Early childhood programs got a nice surprise this week. They received their very own and exciting playground equipment. Included in this was the added value of two swing sets for young children.

The new playground and equipment was a result of trying to meet the needs of our very young children in a safe and protective environment. Dennis Bissmeyer, Pudong ES principal officially opened the playground with a large contingent of young children and their teachers waiting excitedly for the official ribbon cutting.