What a busy week!  100 Day, wearing red to fundraise, using number cards to count, skip count, and review our number sense, making chocolate covered strawberries for Valentine’s Day, making heart crafts, playing train games (adding blocks,) and reading back to back and improving our reading “stamina…”  WHEW!!  I have to say it again!  What a week!

I would like to invite all parents to complete the SAS parent survey online to provide me with your feedback and insights. Below you will find information and instructions from the Deputy Superintendent. Thank you for participating!

Dear SAS Parent Community Members:

I am happy to announce the beginning of the annual teacher performance evaluation parent survey for the 2009-2010 school year.

The survey will be open to all community members through the entire month of February.

The survey can be accessed through the SAS Community Portal at http://powerschool.saschina.org.

Translations for the survey can be found at the following links:

For Chinese click here http://gallery.mailchimp.com/1e2c001e7323bba58b5fbf241/files/SurveyinfoChinese.pdf
For Korean click here http://gallery.mailchimp.com/1e2c001e7323bba58b5fbf241/files/SurveyinfoKorean.pdf

Once you log in using your parent ID and password, click the link at the top that is labeled “Teacher Performance Survey”.

As has been done in the past two years, the teachers at SAS are seeking feedback from the parents of their children about their performance in areas in which they would have direct involvement. The results and comments from the survey go directly to the teachers who then include the survey information as part of their professional portfolio, and the survey content is discussed with their supervisor.

I would urge you to provide specific and professional feedback to the teachers at SAS. Consider carefully not only addressing suggestions, but also providing teachers feedback on what you feel is going well in the classroom programs at SAS.

The feedback you provide is important and it will be part of the professional reflection process as all of our teachers have a vested interest in ways to improve the programs at Shanghai American School.

Below you will find a list of a few frequently asked questions.

Sincerely,

Andrew Torris

Deputy Superintendent

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Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: Is the survey multi-lingual?

A: You can leave answers to the open ended questions in other languages and they will be interpreted later.  The advancement office has also provided access to translations of the surveys at these web addresses.  Either click the link or copy and paste the link into your web browser.

For Chinese click here  http://gallery.mailchimp.com/1e2c001e7323bba58b5fbf241/files/SurveyinfoChinese.pdf
For Korean click here http://gallery.mailchimp.com/1e2c001e7323bba58b5fbf241/files/SurveyinfoKorean.pdf

Q: Is the survey anonymous?

A: Yes. Completely.  In fact it is so anonymous that technical staff supporting the independent website only has access to the data as it comes from survey input.

Q: Do I have to do all the surveys at the same time, or can I come back to the website again and again?

A: You can return the website several times, and you can revise your survey through the month of February.

Can you believe that your cutie has been in kindergarten for 100 days?!!  This year is going by so fast!  Your little ones are learning and growing and doing amazing things each and every day, and today, we had a chance to celebrate that!  We started with a parade around the elementary school (to show off our wonderful posters and shirts,) participated in 100 day activities (thank you to all of the parents who helped out!!!) and used our number chart to count to 100.  What a day!  Happy 100 Day!

Who could pass on putting this one last cute picture up!?

Yesterday morning we went to the APAC boys basketball opening ceremonies that our SAS Pudong Campus is hosting.  We walked the long walk over the the high school gymnasium and sat on the bleachers with a lot of big high schoolers!!  We waited because one of the buses were late, so we listened to the great HS band, did and wave, and cheered!  Each grade level sponsors one team so they feel welcome in our school.  Our team is the American International School of Guangzhou (AISG.)  Abby and Paulina were chosen to bring in the team with the banner we made (along with Demir and Sean from KLC.)

Later in the day we watched one of the games (it was so cool!!) and then this morning the whole team came to our project area so we could ask them questions.  We also had a chance to have some fun outside with some of the players!!  I am not sure who had more fun…our cuties or the Guangzhou team!!!!!  What a great experience!

Click on the picture as many times as you need to make it big enough to read

Can you believe it?  100 Day is on MONDAY!!!!!  How have we already arrived at 100 days of school!!???  We are busy getting reading for this big day–we will be doing a parade and some very fun 100 day activities.  The cuties have already been bringing in their special posters, and we have been making 100 link chains in groups of 10 and we made the big 100 that will stand in front of the school.  100 day also gives us the opportunity to do some very fun things in math–ask your child all about it!

The entire elementary school had an assembly on Monday with the author Alan Katz.

Alan Katz couldn’t visit our school in person, so we Skyped him as a whole elementary school!  The Skype wasn’t working very well, but we were still able to see him, his sons, and sing and read a lot of our favorite Alan Katz poems and stories.

Cooperation is the key!  We have done a lot of cooperating in the last month, and KLH is getting very good at it!  This week Ms. Merrill had the class build something together with their table team out of straws and clay.  There were some pretty amazing things under construction!  And the best part was, each and every cutie in our class was helping the others, and I didn’t hear one disagreement!  I am proud of our class of cooperating cuties!

This week we made yummy cereal ball snacks and had the chance to share them with our reading buddies! YUM!!  Thanks to all the parents who help us with the cooking center every week!  You are amazing!