The Owl Weekly Parent Newsletter 10/01/19
ISP Spirit Day this Friday!
This Friday, October 4 is our first monthly ISP Spirit Day! We invite all community members to show off our school spirit. Wear your ISP field trip shirt or other gear!
Want to stock up? Check out the ISP Spirit Store!
No School Oct 11th or 18th
As a reminder, there is NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS next Friday, October 11th (Statewide Teacher Inservice Day) or Friday, October 18th (Parent Teacher Conferences). Global Kids is available for sign ups on those days, pending availability.
Friday, October 11 is also the first Community Service Day of the Year. Sign up Here to participate at the Children’s Book Bank. For ages 6 and up, with adult chaperone(s).
NEW! Notes from The Education Leadership Team
Dear ISP Community,
This year, the members of the Educational Leadership Team (ELT) will be authoring a series of weekly articles for The Owl from the different perspectives represented by the team. These articles will include information on new initiatives, teaching methodology, social-emotional support for students and more.
In this first installment, I want to take a moment to introduce the members of the ELT. The team consists of Maria Abad, Head of Early Childhood; Bodo Heiliger, Head of Elementary; Kelly Rogers, Primary Years Programme Coordinator; TimiSue Abbott, Student Support Services Coordinator; and me, the Head of School. The ELT meets weekly to discuss all aspects of the academic program including upcoming events, professional development opportunities, support for grade levels for teachers, as well as individual student needs.
Each ELT member will take turns writing about a topic within an area of their expertise or responsibility. To give you a few examples:
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Bodo will provide updates on progress in the area of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.
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Maria will offer insight into play-based learning.
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Kelly will give updates in regards to the program and all things PYP.
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TimiSue will tell us about the social emotional supports that are available for student support and how they work.
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For my part, I will provide a look at the operating framework from an administrative point of view, such as how ELT interacts with the Senior Management Team (SMT) to promote continued progress throughout the school.
We hope these articles provide you with a better understanding of all the exciting things that are happening at ISP with the singular focus of creating the best inquiry immersion learning experience possible.
– Robert Woods, Head of School
ISP Directories!
The new 2019-20 ISP Directories are coming this week! Your child’s homeroom teacher will give them to you at dismissal or put them in your child’s backpack to bring home this week.
Parent-Teacher Conference Sign Ups
Parent-Teacher Conferences will be held on October 18 and the afternoon of Oct 22nd. As with last year, we are having conferences BEFORE report cards are released.
1. Go to http://ptcfast.com/schools/The_International_School
2. Check off the names of all the teachers that you want conferences with for all your ISP students.
3. Tell the system that these conferences are for different students – next screen will ask which conference is for which child.
4. The system will send a link to your e-mail. Check your email, click on the link.
5. The system will give you side-by-side availability for all the teachers you selected – just click the conferences that you want!
6. Then it will send you a confirmation for all the conferences you signed up for.
These conferences are for Homeroom and English. Art, Music, and PE Fall conferences are invite-only at first, but will be opened up to public sign ups in a week or so.
Please contact Candy Trujillo at candyt@intlschool.org if you have any questions or problems.
1st – 5th Grades Collaborative Coffee
The Oct 9 Head of Elementary Coffee is now a Collaborative Coffee! Come chat and collaborate with Bodos AND our English Department teachers! They will discuss pertinent issues, as well as answer questions.
Want to help guide the discussion? Please provide your feedback here!
Photo Retake Day
Picture Retake day will be Wednesday, October 16th
- If you want to retake school pictures, please email Candy Trujillo at candyt@intlschool.org. She will schedule a time for your child that day.
- If your child was absent on picture day, please contact Candy so that your child’s name will be placed on the retake list. This is so that all kids will have their picture with their class in the composite.
- Parents may drop by Candy’s (at Hilltop) or Nurys’s desk (at Stearns) and look at their child’s photo by Friday, October 11 before deciding on retakes.
- If you need a picture retake form, please see Candy at Hilltop.
- Class composite photos will be available after retake day and then given to families.
Volunteer at ISP!
Hello ! A warm welcome to new families and a welcome back to returning families!
If you are interested in learning about the many volunteer opportunities both on and off-campus, please start by submitting a volunteer application in the “How to Volunteer” section here: www.intlschool.org/volunteer. You can absolutely use the same password for the ISP parent Portal- we want to make this as easy for you as possible! I will be in touch with you to go over opportunities, and if you’ve already submitted the application, THANK YOU and know that you’ll be hearing from me soon!
Any time you can give is appreciated; we’d like to make sure your matched with opportunities that work for you! Time you’ve spent at meetings (ie Curriculum night, Parent Network) can be counted, please log those hours in!
TIP: Hours can be logged in “groups”, and don’t need to be logged in after every volunteer activity. For example, if you volunteered at the library for 4 -1 hour increments in September, you can log the 4 hours in under one date.
WHY LOG YOUR HOURS?
Logging in once a month to input your hours won’t take much time and is immensely helpful for us to do two things:
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recognize individuals as well
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Assists with possible grant funding
If any help is needed to walk through steps or to answer questions, I’m happy to help!
Hope to see you at the Parent Network Monthly Meeting this Thursday Thursday, October 4 at 8:15am in the Arthur Administration Building (up the street from the Main Campus). You can also email me at: Janice.c.chow@gmail.com I look forward to connecting with you.
– Janice Chow Ng, Parent Network Volunteer Coordinator
Parent Volunteers assist with the ISP craft table at the Lan Su Garden Autumn Moon Festival, September 2019
Immunization Rates
As part of the immunization reporting process we are mandated to publicly share our school rates. International School of Portland’s average vaccination rates remain very high, at approximately 98%. This is significantly higher than the county average of 92%.
SCHOOL REPORT 2019-20
PRESCHOOL REPORT 2019-20
Upcoming Events
THURSDAY, OCT 3
ISP Parent Network Monthly Meeting. All parents are invited to attend the monthly meeting of the ISP Parent Network Steering Committee.Arthur Administration Building (up the street from the Main Campus), 8:15-9:30am
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FRIDAY, OCT 4
ISP Spirit Day. We invite all community members to show off our school spirit. Wear your ISP field trip shirt or other gear!
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TUESDAY, OCT 8
Keepin’ it Clean Campus Walk – 4th and 5th Grades. Join fellow ISP parents as we walk the perimeter of the school picking up trash, removing graffiti, cutting back invasive plants. Trash bags, pickers, gloves, graffiti removal supplies provided. Optional, Adults only. Meet at 8:15 am near the front gates at the Hilltop Building. Be sure to record your volunteer hours!
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WEDNESDAY, OCT 9
Elementary Collaborative Coffee, Grades 1-5 Come chat with Head of Elementary Bodo Heiliger and our English Teachers! They will discuss pertinent issues, as well as answer questions. 8:10-9:00am, Learners’ Hall.
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FRIDAY, OCT 11
Statewide Inservice Day – NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS. Global Kids is might have availability.
ISP Community Service Day. You are invited to join us for our first 2019-2020 ISP Community Service Day! We will be working at the Children’s Book Bank, whose mission is to fill children’s homes and lives with beautiful, engaging books. Please RSVP here to confirm your attendance. Students must be at least 6 years of age and chaperones must stay with their student(s). This is not a drop off activity. 9:30-11:30 AM
PSU Center for Japanese Studies
The PSU Center for Japanese Studies presents Professor Haruo Shirane of Columbia University:
“Portland State of Mind: Demons and Vengeful Ghosts in Japanese Culture”
Thursday, October 10, 2019 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Smith Memorial Student Union (SMSU), room 296/8, 1825 SW Broadway
Free and open to the public with registration. Register here.
Contact: Melinda Glover, melindag@pdx.edu, 503-725-8577
Please join us for a lecture that explores the prominent role that demons and ghosts have had in Japanese literature, theater, and visual culture. Particular attention is paid to the different social functions and causes for their appearance, depending on period, genre, and community. Ghosts and demons were a means of manifesting issues of social injustice, especially for women and downtrodden groups.