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Just Another Saturday March 21, 2007

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Even though it was a Saturday, the campus was busy. Six of our soccer teams played today. The junior varsity soccer teams started off the morning. The varsity boys won big against Concordia and the varsity girls played to a 2-2 tie. The freshmen soccer teams then started.

Girls softball team was playing on the far field. There was a middle school volleyball tournament inlcuding both the Puxi and Pudong teams occupying the gyms.

This afternoon, the cast of Little Shop of Horrors performed in front of its fourth full house. The actors were great! I also enjoyed watching the student band perform.

In addition, we have swimmers in Bangkok competing this week-end and a delegation of students in Bejing participating in a Model United Nations.

Just another Saturday at SAS…

Poetry Contest March 17, 2007

Posted by aknobloch in : For Parents , 1 comment so far

Our Language Center is sponsoring a high school poetry contest.  The poems have been posted on a blog, so you can post your comments to each individual poem.

Check them out at www.poetry.saswire.com.

Alan

Building School Spirit March 15, 2007

Posted by aknobloch in : From the Principal, For Parents , 1 comment so far

Yesterday we had our monthly spirit assembly.  The purpose of these assemblies is to celebrate what our students’ accomplishments.  The assembly started with a demonstration of a drum circle.  This will be a new after-school activity led by Mr. Greenblatt open to any student.  Prior musical experience is not required.

Next, Mr. Doleman recapped our soccer teams’ performance at the recent China Cup tournament.  The girls JV soccer team received their trophy for winning their tournament. 

The leadership of the new youth outreach program from the Shanghai Community Center introduced themselves and announced two upcoming events.

The PE III - swim instructing class was featured in a short video showing them working with middle school students.

The president of NHS described the various events they have sponsored throughout the year.  Ms. Redpath then introduced the new members who will be inducted next week. 

Mr. Jones, the Varsity Quiz Team Coach, introduced the Freshmen, Junior Varsity, and Varsity Quiz Team members.  They filled the stage!  Did you know our Freshmen Quiz Team finished first in the International School division in the recent Knowledge Masters’ Competition?  Or our Varsity team finished 9th out of over 700 schools that competed?

The audience was then treated to a fantastic performance by the cast of Little Shop of Horrors.  After two songs, the audience responded with rousing applause.  The assembly closed with a ten minute video of sports, activities, and events from the past three months.

These assemblies allow us to celebrate the many different accomplishments of our students!

Formal Observations March 9, 2007

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Joelle and I are completing formal observations of all of the high school teachers. Formal observations are a process that allows us to get a deeper understanding of how the teacher plans their lessons, conducts a class, and some of the instructional decisions they make.  The formal observation process has four parts; pre-conference, classroom observation, post-conference, and written feedback. 

The pre-conference is a short ten minute meeting where the teacher goes over what they have planned for class period.  The purpose is to give the observer an idea of what they will see and how the lesson fits into the larger unit. 

The observation generally lasts anywhere between 50 and 80 minutes depending upon what is going on in the classroom.  The observer takes literal notes, to the maximum extent possible, of what is said and done during the observation.

A significant part of the post-conference is the teacher reflecting and self-assessing the lesson. What went well?  What did the students do well?  Was there an area you would like the students to improve?  Would you change anything the next time you do the lesson?  The observer then shares their thoughts, commendations, and any recommendations they may have.

Finally, the written feedback is comprised of two parts.  In the first part, the administrator documents in writing their observations, commendations, and any recommendations.  The second part is the teacher’s self-assessment.  Both the administrator and the teacher then sign the document.

There are three purposes of formal observations.  One it provides accountability.   The administrator validates that the teacher’s is using effective planning and instructional strategies.  If the administrator had concerns over the teacher’s performance, they would schedule additional formal observations to get collect more information on the teacher’s performance.  The second purpose is the potential for professional growth for the teacher.  We try to provide suggestions or alternate strategies the teacher may want to consider.  Often these ideas come from seeing what has been effective for other teachers. The third purpose is that the observations will spur continuing conversations between the teacher and the administrator about their curriculum and classroom.

The whole process of formal observations generally takes between two and three hours.  When you have over 60 teachers, the formal observation process can take up a significant amount of time.  But, it is a necessary and important process that helps us maintain a high level of  teaching that we have at SAS.

A Day in the Life of a High School Prinicpal March 5, 2007

Posted by aknobloch in : From the Principal, For Parents , 6comments

Did you ever wonder what a typical day looks like for a high school principal? This was my schedule today.

7:15 - Check and respond to email, print two observation forms and put in teacher’s mailboxes. Check in with vice-principal, Joelle Basnight.

7:45 - Finish writing letter for parent meeting later in the day.

8:00 - Video conference with Pudong administrators and Deputy Superintendent to discuss technology plan

8:30 - Classroom observation

9:20 – Continue with video conference to finish discussing technology plan.

9:45 - Meet with teacher for pre-conference in preparation of classroom observation later in the day.

10:00 - Weekly administrative team meeting via video conference. Six of the administrators were on the Puxi Campus and five were on the Pudong Campus

11:30 – Check in with nurse to discuss student issue

11:45- Meet with teacher, the famous “Do you have a minute?”

11:55 - Read and respond to email, prepare proposal for tomorrow morning’s Leadership Team Meeting, email proposal to faculty and ask them to review before meeting

12:25 - Prepare for parent meeting

12:45 - Meet with vice-principal discuss student issue

12:55 - Brief phone call with superintendent

1:00 – Parent meeting

1:35 – Walking meeting with teacher (Talking while walking to observation)

Talk with teacher about using computer software program in their class – how did it go?

1:40 – Classroom observation

2:45 – Touch base with vice-principal, review new admissions file, sign stack of paperwork

3:00 – Meet with teacher to reschedule post-conference until tomorrow afternoon due to urgent need to meet with superintendent

3:10 – Meet with superintendent to discuss a student issue and a personnel issue

4:15 – Talk with Steve Doleman, Athletic/Activities Director, about past week-end’s events, including China Cup and APAC festivals. The meeting was unplanned. I ran into Steve walking back to office.

4:30 – Met with Joelle. Today was a busy one for both of us, so we had a variety of teacher and student issues to discuss.

5:15 – Met with teacher. The teacher had emailed me at the end of the day asking I see him before I go home.

Was this a typical day? In some ways yes and some ways no. I normally do not spend two periods a day in the classrooms. I try to spend at least an hour a day in the classrooms, but usually cannot afford to spend more than that. This is the favorite part of my job. Also, I do not meet with the superintendent every day. Generally, we meet once a week or so.

It was a typical day in the following ways. It was busy. I was able to interact with a variety of teachers, administrators and parents. There was also some urgent business to attend to that was unplanned. As usual there were numerous one minute conversations with teachers and students on my way to and from classrooms or meetings.

Things are getting busy… February 28, 2007

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The number of activities and sports we have for students become very clear on weeks like this.  Starting today and going through the week-end, we have students attending APAC Band, APAC Theatre, China Cup Soccer, Softball, and Badmitton.  By Friday, we will have students in the Manilla, Osaka, Hong Kong, and Bejing, not to mention our girls playing softball here in Shanghai this week-end.

We also have students participating in our weekly community service events, preparing for the next MUN, in rehearsal for our upcoming high school play, and there is a math competition next week.

The part that amazes me and, to be candid, worries me a bit is that we have students doing two or three or even four of these activities at the same time.  They have an exciting array of opportunities to explore their interests and passions.  However, we, the adults, need to make sure they are not trying to do too much!

Building a Schedule February 26, 2007

Posted by aknobloch in : From the Principal, For Parents , 2comments

In the three weeks before the Chinese New Year break, students in grade eight through eleven planned, discussed, and finally submitted their course requests for next year.  We use a menu approach to course scheduling, which means we offer a set of courses and then schedule the courses based on student requests.  For example, last year 45 students signed up for Advanced Placement (AP) Statistics so we offered three sections of the course.  This year only 25 students signed up for AP Statistics, so we will only offer two sections. 

As is the case every year, some courses will not be scheduled due to low student interest.  It is hard to justify offering a course for only four students, when that time in the teacher’s schedule can be used to lower the class sizes of a more popular course.  This year we offered over 160 different courses.  While the list is not finalized yet, it looks like we will not be scheduling between 10 and 12 courses.  Seven of those courses had only one or no students submit a request for it.  In some cases, we had to schedule two courses during the same period in order to have enough students to offer both courses, AP Spanish and Spanish IV for example. Counselors will be meeting individually with students who requested a course that will not be offered to choose alternative courses.

Four new courses were offered this year; IB Business, AP European History, Digital Film, and Computer System Support, and each of them had enough student requests for them to be scheduled.  We will need to offer at least two sections of IB Business and AP European History to meet the student demand.

Walking the Walk… February 26, 2007

Posted by aknobloch in : From the Principal, For Parents , 3comments

In an effort to walk the walk, meaning if I expect teachers to use blogs in their classrooms, I had better use blogs in my practice, I am starting this blog to provide the SAS community and perhaps a few outsiders a look behind the scenes of the Puxi High School.

This blog will not have announcements, reminders of upcoming events, or similar types of items commonly found in parent newsletters.  Rather I will use this space to provide an inside look at the some of the decisions we make, observations from inside the classrooms, and reflections on the latest educational news and how they may impact the Shanghai American School.

The purpose of this blog is twofold; provide information and start conversations.  I encourage any readers to provide their own thoughts or commentary to the various blog entries.  I am sure this will be a learning experience for all of us!