Kids are happy and showing up at our doorstep with a record number of smiles on this first day of the 2012-2013 school year. It’s a pleasure to greet and encourage everyone as they arrive and it was fun to hear about snippets of summer vacations. We then proceeded to the PTO meeting and greeted […]
Dr. Jamie McKenzie inspired us recently with a short visit and spent time with teachers, parents, and administration. He reinforced the notion that our hopes and dreams for students are not always about preparing them for a technologically challenging century, but that we must always remind ourselves that the primary goal is nothing less or more […]
You may have seen the notice in the recent Dispatch that I’m launching a new annual tradition that I would like to call“The Director’s Challenge.” From the Dispatch: AAS has always been quick to take on community service projects at all levels and divisions in support of good causes or to reach out to groups […]
Two events this past week reminded me of the often-raw nature of student expression. Emotions bottled up seemed to often find their way to the surface and spill into the hallways and various events that are part of the AAS smorgasbord. On Monday last, our IB Drama students took to a small stage to put […]
It’s 11:00 a.m. and it almost seems too quiet. I can almost feel the learning begin in the classrooms throughout the building. After speaking to PTO about our sense of community, we are all taking a short breath before we gear up for the many activities ahead, starting with our opening this afternoon. As each […]
Tomorrow we begin the final moments to the start of school with the New Family Orientation. This week has been inspiring, talking with teachers and preparing rooms and minds for the journey ahead. This video captures just a bit of the process initiated toward alignment and clarity in both our vision and mission. What do […]
Our media department here at AAS captured the moment yesterday when we welcomed new staff the AAS campus for the first time. Mixed into this memory album is pictures of our greetings at the airport and the traditional bread and salt greeting on the front steps of the school. We finished with a dance around […]
Any teacher will tell you that the biggest difficulty they face as educators is helping parents to understand the complex nature of the interactions that take place in a classroom to achieve learning for any individual student. Test scores give us the impression that education is an assembly line of facts being fed into a […]
As the days of summer dwindle, teachers and administrators are busy reflecting on growing their professional skills. Many are involved in advanced coursework, while others are reading books that are stacked ready for summer consumption. While reading one piece of online professional literature, I could not help but wonder how summer was going for our […]