Superintendent's Office
Then, of course, everyone will get a glimpse of the new playground during Family Day Picnic on the 30th of September. It is with regret that I won't be able to join the community for Family Day Picnic. The rescheduled date conflicts with an annual meeting of Superintendents across the region. So, I will enviously watch the pictures emerge on social media from afar. As this meeting nears, It is an appropriate time to talk about the benefits of our networks in the international school world. While most international schools do not have any formal structural relationship with one another, there are organizations that bring them together. About a decade before ACS became a formal school, the US government started assisting some international schools that offered education patterned after that offered in the United States. By 1964, these programs were organized into an office in the US State Department called the Office of Overseas Schools. This office continues to support ACS with a modest grant each year. It also encouraged and supported the development of regional associations worldwide, such as AMISA (American International Schools in the Americas) in our region. AMISA was established in part to facilitate communication and cooperative action between and among association schools and to improve the quality of teaching and learning in association schools. As ACS embarks on a period of rapid change and improvement, it is more critical than ever for us to learn from and contribute to our peer schools around the region and around the world. That is just what I will be doing, and I hope to bring back new ideas about how we can grow and improve.Urgent Action Items
ACS Calendar
Elementary School
Welcome to Week 7 of the 2023-24 school year. Below, we have a number of important announcements for the coming weeks:
Parent/Teacher Conferences, October 4, 2023:
In past years, ACS Elementary ran two student-led conferences per year. I love student-led conferences; it's an important time for students to take some leadership and responsibility for their learning, and for parents to see their children through a slightly different lens than normal. Despite these positives, having student-led conferences in October poses several problems, namely the desire of parents to be able to sit down with their child's teacher and hear from the expert on how their child is doing socially, emotionally, and academically. I've received a number of requests recently to make the fall conference a Parent/Teacher Conference, rather than a Student-Led Conferences, and this makes good sense. So, please watch in the coming days for information on signing up for your Parent/Teacher Conference on Wednesday, October 4th. There will be no school that day and students will not be invited to the meetings. However, if you need to have your child with you, we will have adults in the library reading books and spending time with children while you attend your scheduled Parent/Teacher Conference.
Student Appreciation Day on Friday, September 22, 2023:
I am new to Student Appreciation Day, but it is a long-lived tradition here at ACS in Bolivia. We have a plan for a fun day of community building;
• 8:40-9:40 am - Locotito the Magician will present to our students in the auditorium
• Lunch- Dr. Crouse and I will be barbequing hamburgers. hot dogs and a vegetarian option
• 1:30 pm - We will have movie screenings in the auditorium and theater. Students will be able to choose between two fun, age-appropriate movies.
We are looking forward to celebrating our outstanding students next Friday!
MS Cougar Cup This Week:
Our Middle School girls' & boys' soccer and volleyball teams will be competing against local schools here on campus this week. Please see the schedule below for more information. All parents and students are welcome on campus to cheer on our Cougars!
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Parent Coffee: CFG Edition on Tuesday, September 26th from 8:15-9:15am
On Tuesday, September 26th we are so happy to host our first Parent Coffee: CFG Edition. CFG stands for Critical Friends Group and is a tool that is commonly used in schools by teachers to improve their practices in the classroom. However, the structure is easily adaptable and useful for people from all walks of life, especially parents looking to improve their parenting skills!
This first Parent Coffee: CFG Edition will be focused on developing parenting skills and practices with the goal of raising independent and resilient children. Registration is required; we hope you will complete the form linked below and join us! The hour will start off with a 15-minute presentation on this theme by the Elementary Leadership Team, and then break out into collaborative groups to generate ideas and solve problems. To learn more or to register, please see the poster below or click on this link:
Thanks for reading, and have a courageous week!
Sincerely,
Eric Crabtree
Elementary Principal