Letter from the MC Principal
Hello MC families,
Field trips are back! We have been given the ok from Atlanta Public Schools (APS) to begin taking students on field trips again, and yesterday our 7th graders went to the Atlanta History Center (AHC) for the AHC’s Georgia Farm Life school tour. The students were extremely excited to go on their first field trip in years. They were bouncing off the walls the morning of the trip, but they were extremely well behaved and engaged on the trip. Kudos to those students and hats off to the teachers that chaperoned them.
The 7th grade’s trip yesterday was an APS Cultural Experience Project (CEP) trip. The CEP is an initiative designed to give APS students exposure to various cultural experiences like museums and performances in the Atlanta metro area. We take school buses to go on these trips and there is no cost to parents. We will be taking CEP trips with the 6th grade on Monday, October 24th to see the ZUZU Acrobats at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center (6th grade parents look for those permission slips as soon as this week!), and with the 8th grade to the Center for Civil and Human Rights on Tuesday, November 1st.
Teachers will be planning additional trips over the course of the year as we bring back outside educational opportunities. Pre-COVID each year we also did overnight trips with our 7th and 8th grade students and a day trip with our 6th graders. We hope to bring these things back as well. We are still in the planning stages with these items, but I will come back to you with details and costs as soon as possible. For our 8th grade trip, one thing I can tell you for certain is that we will NOT be going back to Washington, D.C. at this time. I shared this information with our students recently. The D.C. trip requires a lot of planning. Overnight trips are another item that needs some time to get off the ground post-COVID as we start from scratch after being shut down for multiple years. We have some other options in mind and we will share that information as soon as we can.
Switching gears, celebrating other cultures is one way that we fulfill ANCS’s mission. Two elements of the ANCS mission include 1) building an empowered and inclusive community, and 2) “[challenging] each student to take an active role as an informed citizen in a global society. We are currently celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with presentations during Morning Meeting, educational posters in the hallways, focus on Hispanic Heritage Month in Spanish classes, and highlighting famous Hispanic Americans in other content areas. On Monday, October 3rd we will be modifying our schedule to have an extended Morning Meeting that will include further education and celebration of Hispanic culture, student presentations, and a performance from Danceando Promotions. As an IB/MYP school we seek to expand our student’s internationalmindedness and celebrating other cultures allows us to do this.
On Monday during Morning Meeting students learned about Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. They learned that Rosh Hashanah, which means “head of the year” in Hebrew, is a time of family gatherings and religious celebrations. Students shared in the tradition of eating apples with honey as they wished for each other to have a year as sweet as this treat. Students wrapped up advisory by making cards for seniors at The William Breman Jewish Home, a senior home in Atlanta.
Finally, Fall Student-Led Conferences are coming up soon (the week of October 24th). Advisors will be reaching out to schedule these conferences with you starting today. These conferences will be virtual, not in-person. Students will present to their parents about their Commitment to Guiding Principles grades and how their behaviors impact their academic achievement. Students are beginning some reflection on these topics this week during Advisory in preparation for these conferences. I will write more about this process and these conferences in my next Courier. If you have any questions feel free to reach out.
Kind regards,
Mark
Mark Sanders
Mark Sanders began teaching at ANCS in 2011. Before coming to the school, Mr. Sanders worked in New York City. He spent three years teaching 7th and 8th grade mathematics at Middle School 50 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and two years at Harlem Village Academies teaching Geometry and Algebra 2/Trigonometry. He taught 8th grade Math/Science/Technology at ANCS for five years.
