Letter from the MC Principal

Hello MC Families,

One thing that I forgot to mention in my Courier letter last week was the work that we did around our summer reading during Advisory last week. Students split off into groups based on the summer reading books that they chose to read this summer (either House of the Scorpion, Outcasts United, The Prettiest, or Swim Team). After discussing the book in their groups, the students selected representatives from each of their groups to engage in debates related to their books. Students came up with great arguments and there were some fierce debates. It was a great way for students to be further engaged in the books they read this summer. I’m looking forward to what we decide to do with summer reading next year, so please encourage your students to complete their summer reading when the time comes next year.

This morning we concluded our first set of IB parent information sessions. During the sessions parents were able to get an introduction to IB and the Middle Years Programme, an introduction to ManageBac (our summative grade and unit information platform), and our grading practices; and they were able to get their questions answered. We will have additional sessions throughout the year (the next session will be later this fall once summative grades start being posted in ManageBac), so look for information about those sessions in my upcoming Courier letters.

As a reminder, we took our all-school photo on Tuesday (I’m looking forward to the final photo) and we will have people in the building tomorrow shooting marketing photos for our marketing material as well as for our website.

Another set of club sponsors shared information in Morning Meeting about their clubs so I want to make sure that parents have that information:

• Pickleball will meet on Wednesdays (NOT Thursdays) starting next week from 2-3:30pm.
• Farm Club will meet on Thursdays from 3:15 – 4:30pm starting on Thursday the 24th.
• Yearbook Club will have an interest meeting on Thursday the 24th and then they’ll decide their regular meeting day after that.
• Gavel Club (this club focuses on expressing yourself and public speaking) had their first meeting on Tuesday and they will be meeting on Tuesdays moving forward.

On Tuesday, September 5th students will have an asynchronous day of school, in which they will stay home while they do school work (the building will be closed to students) on the day after Labor Day. This will be a teacher work day during which teachers will be spending the day planning, grading, meeting with teaching partners, generally catching up on work, and working to improve their practice. The asynchronous day will be an A day and teachers will be posting work for your students’ A day classes. There will also be an Advisory assignment, and a Power 30 assignment. Teachers will be providing work for students to do that is meaningful, but also work that students can do on their own without teacher or parent assistance. In Advisory that week students will come up with a work plan for the day and they will be instructed to share this plan with their parents/caregivers. Look for that work plan to come home before the Labor Day weekend.

Finally, on Thursday, September 7th we will have Meet the School Family Night. A few years ago we moved away from doing a standard curriculum night, because it was going to be difficult to pull off parents moving through a student’s schedule and spending time with all of their teachers since students have eight classes. We moved to a structure that we call Meet the School Family Night in which we all meet up in The Backyard, and parents have an opportunity to spend some time meeting their students’ various teachers. This year Meet the School Family Night will take place on Thursday, September 7th from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm.

Prior to the event I will send out a link with a collection of videos from each teacher (the videos will be no more than about 4 minutes in length) that parents can look at to learn more about their students’ teachers, what they are learning (and will learn) in class, and some video of what the classroom space looks like. All told you should be able to gain familiarity with your child’s classes within about 30 minutes of watching these videos. Then during Meet the School Family Night you can put faces to names, get to know the teachers a little more, and ask clarifying questions. That said, you will be one of many families wanting to spend time with each of the teachers that night. We ask that everyone recognize that this night is not for individual conferences, but rather to learn more about your child’s teachers and other school family members at the Middle Campus.

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.