Letter from the MC Principal
Hello MC families,
On Monday during Morning Meeting we honored Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day by learning more about Dr. King; it can feel like we already know all the facts about him, but there is always more to learn. Our Celebrations Committee put together a presentation that started with students sharing what they already know about Dr. King. Students shared about his impact on the Civil Rights Movement including the March on Washington and his work on the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Next students learned additional information that they were not aware of (at the end of the meeting students were asked to reiterate the facts that were new to them) including that he lived in Chicago with his family at one point and worked on a campaign called the Chicago Freedom Movement. “A big part of the focus of the movement was on institutionalized discrimination in the city’s school district and housing policies.” [quoted from the slides] Another fact that students were not aware of was that Dr. King’s “children attended a theatre school owned and run by the parents of the actress Julia Roberts. When Julia was born, the Kings helped pay her medical bill when Julia’s parents were unable to.” During Advisory this week students also shared about the ways in which they observed the MLK Day of Service. We will continue to honor the legacy of Dr. King through the various ways that we involve ourselves in service and volunteering at and through school.
Hopefully you saw my email last week letting you know that end of Semester reports have been uploaded to ManageBac (https://atlncs.managebac.com/login) and are ready for your review. To find your student’s end of semester report, login to ManageBac, look at the bar on the left of your screen and click on “Academic Profile,” then scroll down to the report link – it will be titled “2022-23_Mid_Year_Report . . . ‘Student Name.’”
Context for this Report
Hopefully, the summative achievement levels that you see on your student’s report are not new to you. Teachers post them after the summatives are graded, so much of this information, including teacher feedback on the summatives, has already been in ManageBac for a while. If you are seeing summative achievement levels that are not to your liking, this report lets you know where your student is right now, but there is no need to panic. Students have at least one other opportunity to be assessed on each criterion in the second semester, so they will have opportunities to grow and improve. Our focus is on growth so students should be paying attention to what their teachers write in their semester narratives to get advice for how to show growth next semester.
Talking to your student about their Semester Report
Your student spent some time this past Friday reflecting on their semester report. We encourage you to talk to your student about their report as they should be able to talk to you about their summative performance, what the achievement levels mean, and how their commitment to the Guiding Principles is impacting their success in the classroom. As you speak to your student here are some questions that you may want to ask:
- In what classes did you feel like you were successful?
- In what classes do you wish you could have performed better?
- Explain in general what Commitment to Guiding Principles achievement levels are and why both the Guiding Principles and these achievement levels are important to us at ANCS.
- How did your Commitment to the Guiding Principles impact your academic performance?
- What feedback are you most proud of from the teacher narratives?
- What feedback from the teacher narratives will help you grow academically? Moving forward?
- What are your takeaways from your report? (Students should feel free to comment on CGP achievement levels, summative achievement levels, teacher narratives, areas of growth and plans for moving forward here.)
That’s all for now, as always 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.
