Dear CAISL Parents,
Traditionally, there have been 4 "open forum" meetings for the parents of the CAISL community, 2 held by the Board of Trustees in the evenings and 2 held by me (called Coffee Mornings). All of these sessions had the goal of meeting informally with any parents who wished to attend, to hear concerns, engage in productive dialog and problem-solving, and respond as far as possible to questions.
The 1st Coffee Morning was held on 26 October and at that meeting it was decided that instead of twice a year, the Coffee Mornings would occur monthly.
So the next Coffee Morning is Wednesday, November 30, from 08h45 until 10h00.
What is different from the past is that there will be an agenda, generated via this blog, based on what is on your minds, what you would like to talk about, what questions you would like answers to.
As always, however, there are some parameters within which we will operate. If you have a question or concern which directly relates to your own child, other children, a specific teacher or other CAISL employee, you will need to address that privately with the person most able to respond--the teacher or other employee first, then the Principal (or Business Manager or other direct supervisor if the employee is not a teacher). Individuals will not be discussed.
To put an item on the agenda for 30 November, please add a comment below. Please sign your name as anonymous posts will be deleted and not considered. Posts which have negative comments about individuals will also be deleted. If you wish to bring something to my attention but hesitate to put it in a public posting, please email me.
This blog will be "open" for suggestions for the 30 November agenda until 25 November at which point no further suggestion for the November Coffee Morning will be accepted and the agenda will be posted.
At the 30 November Coffee Morning, we will set the date for the next Coffee Morning and a blog will be opened for suggested agenda items for that meeting.
I look forward to meeting with you monthly and to your comments and suggested agenda items.
I would like to talk about Moodle, Edline, and teachers'websites. Right now, the varied software/pages that teachers use to put out info and post grades is a bit confusing since they use some, all, or none of these methods and I - maybe other parents have mastered this already - have to go searching through different places to get info on my child's assignments and grades.
ReplyDeleteI will not be able to attend but there are 2 issues that I would like to share.
ReplyDeleteThe school is the place most kids have the second most important meal of the day: Lunch. So it is naturally the best place to learn some traits such as eating healthier or to have proper manners at the table.
Kids in general at some International Schools, and Caisl in particular, have in general defficiencies in their behaviour/manners at the table. It would be important to have a teacher that could share with them some etiquette manners: how to eat with the fork and knife correctly, to clean their lips before drinking from a glass, to not rest the elbows on the table, to never point the kife or display the utensils in a vertical form, to only start eating when all the people at the table have been served.
Home should not have the complete burden to teach all these things as then arguments arise every evening on the table, when we should have sometime for a nice end of the day family dialog.
So in fact, I suggest for the school to have, at least, once week, a Table Etiquette Lesson pointing out some mistakes children make, while everyday supervision of these lessons should be offered by a teacher at the cafeteria.
The Second issue, is just a suggestion. The Pasta bar should have daily only whole wheat pasta. There could be a transition period with both types, whole wheat and non-whole wheat pasta, supported with some information why kids should make the change both given orally and in a visble sign near the pasta bar. There is an extraordinary difference in the richness of a meal when this type os pasta is offered.
Thank you for the help of the parents that can bring these issues to the attention of the next meeting.
I would be interested to know if there is any way to streamline or facilitate more kids getting through the lunch lines and actually having more of their lunch time to eat their food. I have heard good comments about the new lunch menu and caterer, however mixed with the frustration that the line is often too long and that a student would often spend more time in line than to eat; this also seems to hold true to trying to use a microwave, of which there are too few. I caveat that my comment relates strictly to my experience only with high school students. Also on pricing - why does food in the snack bar cost more than if one goes down the street for the same or similar item at the local cafe or the most classic of Portuguese prato do dia fare cost significantly less down the street than the school lunch menu?
ReplyDeleteLastly: Kudos! The blog to open dialog for the agenda is a great idea along with your willingness to meet monthly. Thank you!
I would like to ask, if possible, to define some rules for the information shown in medmood. In some (few) cases, it is written what is supposed to do and when it is due but in others, I'm not able to check if my children are doing what they are supposed to because there's a lot of information but nothing is mentioned about what to do or when it is due.
ReplyDeleteWith no relation but at least for curiosity, I would like to know why we (parents and / or students) have never seen any summer photo challenge results or, more important, photos. I found it very interesting because it was a way to put students interested in visiting monuments, museums, landmarks, often places that they are not very keen about. I thought that their photos would be posted in the corridors for them to see each other’s' photos and put questions among them to better understand some places visited. But I've never seen anything about it. Is there a reason ?
Thank you.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSeeing as the parent/teacher conferences have just finished and we are now almost half way through the school year, I would like to know more about the new grading system CAISL is using – “summative” grading. I am a bit confused because from what I understand, children are assigned homework, but they are not given any credit for completing it therefore homework is now not a requirement or part of the overall class grade.
ReplyDeleteI am guessing that I do not understand this correctly so would like to get the official information on how our children’s education/learning is now being graded/evaluated.
Have a great Thanksgiving and see you on the 30th.
I am sure that CAISL has developed an emergency action plan in the unlikely event of an earthquake or a security situation. As a parent, I would appreciate knowing what I should expect to do, who I should call, or who I might expect to hear from in the event of such an event.
ReplyDeleteLet me first say that after reading the comments above and nowing this page is here I would be happy to hear/read the results of the meeting. I am not able to attend this coming event, but would like to add my comments. My son is new to the school and so am I. The lunch meals in primary school have been very well received by my son and I would like to thank Caisl for the very healthy lunch meals he has enjoyed. As for table manners I would only like to note that my son at 7yrs old has improved on his table manners and will improve on this through proper parenting and I don't believe this to be something the school needs to take on board. Family meals (2/day at home) are where these manners need to be learned and taught and the school are already doing such a great job at so many other areas that manners at the table is a bit far to go. If Caisl was a prepatory school the case may be different, but as it is a school for learning about subject matter table manners should not be the schools area of focus.
ReplyDeleteThe emergency plan for a natural disaster is useful and I hope that youa re able to share this.
Unfortunately, I too, will not be able to attend the meeting, but I would love to see th responses to the excellent points brought forth by this blog (GREAT idea, by the way!!)
ReplyDeleteWhile I do not share an interest in ALL of the topics raised so far, I would like to hear the responses to the following - Moodle/edline issues, length of time spent on line at lunch (my son has TWICE not been able to even GET lunch due to this problem),prices of the snack bar food, emergency plan for natural disaster (should I try to meet up with my son at school, call the school, wait at home, etc.?). Will the minutes from your meeting be posted anywhere that we can keep up with it?
Have a very Happy Thanksgiving, and thanks for all you're doing for our kids!
Thank you for the opportunity for these meetings. There are a few issues I would like to see discussed.
ReplyDelete1. Classes 90 minutes long.
Although for certain subjects this might be a good idea (PE and Art), for most subjects this is anti-pedagogical. Most children (if not all) are unable to concentrate for that long without a break.
I know that in certain subjects students spend some time developing projects and are allowed to move around. Despite this, I am still sceptical about the idea.
I would like to hear from the school examples where this approach has been tested with positive results.
2. Breaks
I hear that breaks are too short to allow students to move between classes (especially if they need to use the toilet).
Also, with two consecutive classes of 90 minutes each, students need a break for a snack. Please remember that many students have their breakfast very early in the morning.
3. Lunch & afternoon snack
I also hear that lines for lunch are sometimes long and that there is not enough time for lunch.
Also, I would like to understand why the afternoon snack has been removed from middle school. Please remember that some students live far from school and take over one hour to get home. They get home starving, sometimes even feeling nausea.
4. Half days and “bridges”
I would like to suggest that the school finds an alternative solution for the teachers’ meetings. Although I understand those are necessary, this system is very disruptive and not all parents can miss work to be at home at lunchtime to receive the children. Also, in these days, students do not have time for lunch, what means they can be from 7 am to 13.30pm without eating!
Another issue is that of “pontes”. The school closed, for example, last Monday October 31st.
I am sure the school calendar starts early enough to discount for these. However, for many parents, it would be easier to have children on holidays an extra week or two in September than having all this interruptions during the school year.
4. Summative grading
I also would like to understand this better.
5. Medmood
My son is in 6th grade. I was informed that Medmood is not mandatory, but the fact is that the teachers are using it regularly. So that this can be used as a help to the student, rather than a distraction, I suggest that the school looks for the best way to structure the pages and maintain them all similarly organized.
I have seen a documentary on TV showing that studying from documents with links (like what happens in many documents on the web) damages learnability, unless one is organized enough to read the whole document in several iterations, where in the first all the links are ignored.
How can school teach students leaning techniques for children to use on the web? How can an 11 years student ignore the web of links available in many of the electronic documents they need to access so that they use their time productively?
Is it wise to allow such young students study for a subject simply through the internet?
6. Flip teaching
I would like to see this subject explored in this meeting. How does this work with 6 graders?
Many thanks.
Reading this blog I can see there are many different opinions about proficiency in table manners and what healthy food is all about. Some might think that SUMOL and French Fries are good for the kids and that just taking out COKE is enough for giving a sign of healthy food. Here is what makes CAISL such a rich environment of experiences and culture for the kids.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
I would like to know more about the wifi offered at the school. I have heard that many of the kids who are using laptops DURING class are actually on social networks sites. Are any cites blocked- particularly adult content sites? I work VERY hard at home to keep my kids on age appropriate sites and would be quite upset to know that if desired, they could access these inappropriate sites at school.
ReplyDeleteGood morning all,
ReplyDeleteThank you Ms. Curtis for all your responses.
Unfortunately I'll not be able to attend our meeting on Wednesday, being the content chosen the most relevant one for me. I would like then to make a suggestion - is is possible or actionable to change the schedule os these meetings to the end of the day, like 6:30 pm or 7 pm ? I'm sure much more people would be able to attend with the benefits that we all could have from that. It could also take place only once per each two months.
Still about the summer photo challenge, there were many students that didn't know about the challenge .. my daughter was an example, she didn't considerer herself elegible for the challenge .. so I thought it should be only for high school...
Have a great week. Thank you,
Vanda
Blannie's Response to comment by Jean Lopez
ReplyDeleteDear Ms. Lopez,
Thank you for your comment and I am going to go ahead and response by posting rather than wait to see if there is other dialog on this issue.
CAISL has a system in place which blocks sites with the following content: Criminal Activities, Gambling, Games, Hate/Discrimination, Illegal Drugs, Obscene, Phishing, Pornography, Spyware, Violence.
We also filter use of our system so that, if needed, we can access any user’s internet history and see what sites they have been on. We do this only rarely and only when there is need determined by a member of senior management team (Director, Elementary or Secondary Principals or Business Manager).
So far, we have chosen not to block social networking sites (like Facebook) although this is an on-going discussion and if use of Facebook or similar sites at inappropriate times or places becomes a widespread problem, we will do so.
At this point, however, the problems encountered have been minimal and we prefer to respond to inappropriate use as an individual disciplinary issue and an opportunity to teach about appropriate time and place rather than overreacting and shutting down access for everyone.
Blannie's response to Vanda Guerra's latest comment:
ReplyDeleteThe issue of whether to hold morning, after school, or evening meetings has been discussed and discussed and there is no one solution which works for everyone. Traditionally the Board of Trustees holds its Open Forums in the evening and I hold my "Coffee Hours" in the morning.
However, if there is a desire from the community that some of my "Coffee Hours" be in the evening, I can certainly accommodate that. Let's see what responses come from this posting on that topic!