Letter from the MC Principal
Hello MC families,
This past Friday we had over 160 students attend the Snow Ball. Students really enjoyed spending time with friends and dancing throughout the evening. Now we are halfway through Spirit Week. On Monday students dressed as multiples (twins, triplets, etc.), on Tuesday students represented their favorite sports teams, today was pajama day, tomorrow is throwback Thursday (dress according to a throwback decade), and Friday students will wear school spirit wear. Finally, on Friday we are also closing with “Gratitude Friday” in Advisory. Students will give back to the community by doing service projects around the building (cleaning, organizing, thank you cards, etc.).
From celebrations to giving back, these events contribute to us building community within the building and putting smiles on the faces of our students. On Friday we dismiss at noon and there will be no after care. Lunch will not be served in the building, but sack lunches will be available for any students that need them. Please make sure that you’ve made your plans for dismissal on Friday.
Friday also marks the end of the first semester. In my last Courier letter I shared some reminders about the difference between formative and summative assessment, as well as what you should expect to see on ManageBac. Final achievement levels, Commitment to Guiding Principles grades, and end of semester narratives from each of your students’ teachers explaining how the Guiding Principles have impacted their performance in class, will be posted to ManageBac in one report at the end of the second week in January. Look for reminders about this in my January Courier letters as well as information about our next IB MYP Parent Information Session on grading. We have one of these sessions every year in January after first semester achievement levels and grades are released to help parents contextualize their student’s end of semester report.
As discussed in previous Courier letters, last Thursday was our parent session about the dress code. In the session I discussed some of the history of our dress code and the rationale for making some changes before hearing from some of the parents on the call. We asked parents to share about the impact (positive or negative) that the Middle Campus loosening our enforcement of the dress code has had on their families. Next we reviewed feedback that teachers and students had given on our relaxed enforcement of the dress code before closing by taking a look at a couple of modernized dress codes. Our closing moves also included hearing final thoughts from parents, including a desire for us to be thoughtful about how we discuss the dress code with our students, a desire for students to be able to express themselves (within reason), an expression of trust in the professional opinions of the educators on the call, and an appreciation for the amount of work that we’ve put into this process. It was a quality discussion and I’m glad that we were able to have it. The next step will be for us to take all of this feedback and put together a draft of a new ANCS dress code policy. I will continue to keep you all posted on this process via the Courier.
Did you know that each week our students have a day in Advisory that is dedicated to service learning? Sixth and seventh grade students are learning about service and beginning to plan to do some service learning with their Advisory in January. Eighth graders have time that is dedicated to working on Community Project every week. There will be more on this in subsequent Couriers as well.
As always if you have any questions please 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.
