PSA GENERAL MEETING
March 18, 2005
- Pat Haviland thanked all parents who helped with SAISA events.
The High School students had raised R13,000 at the Flea market which would be given to the Tsunami fund.
Pat also asked for volunteers to serve on next year’s PSA board. She also noted that the school needs volunteers to serve on various Board Committees such as curriculum and strategic planning.
The PSA needs volunteers to help with the Teacher Appreciation Lunch to be held on April 22nd.
- The Student Handbooks are now online. The PSA is also working on a Community Resource Handbook which will contain information especially useful to newcomers e.g. names of tutors, dance and music teachers.
- Introduction to the Board Candidates: Prospective board members addressed the meeting – Carolyn Sauvage-Mar, Don Greenberg, Richard Sherman, Troy Greisen, Ranjit Khosla and Sumana Brahman and Rebekah Cessna (on behalf of Mac Cessna.) There will be another opportunity to meet the Candidates on April 20th at 6:30 p.m.
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The topic of the PSA coffee morning was “Is My Child Challenged?” Dr. Hetzel and the three school Principals as well as faculty from Curriculum Planning presented a very informative program on learning at AES.
“Learning our way into the future – schools were created to represent society’s highest aspiration for the future.” We need to ask: What are we challenging the children to do? We are challenging them to think. We need to provide teachers with the conditions to be successful. In order to do this, the curriculum sets learning expectations and procedures for evaluation. This is done by using rubrics, anchor papers, check lists, learning contracts and by enabling students to perform at a proficient or exceptional level. We always need to encourage students to strive for higher standards. In Middle School writing, for example, this could include “putting a voice” into a paper to express an opinion. Students are often tasked with special projects, thereby giving them the opportunity of understanding by doing.
School projects, by their flexibility of choice, open doors for students to perform at their level of proficiency from adequate to exceptional. Projects are the cornerstone of American education because students work independently to gather information, produce and analyze. A student’s ability to work independently becomes a yardstick for measuring their proficiency. The Middle School highlighted the accelerated reader program, while the High School talked about the inquiry-based method used in Spanish.
Dr. Hetzel highlighted a quote by Dr. W. Edward Deming: “Experience by itself teaches nothing. You must have a theory and you must take action.” The essence of learning is to challenge kids to do better, not just to do more work.
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During question and answer sessions, parents asked about how to deal with a child who still doesn’t perform to ability, despite all the opportunities. There was also interest in evaluating the need for a gifted program at AES, especially at the elementary level.
Dr. Hetzel has initiated a task force to research the pros and cons of a gifted program. The results will be presented to the Board on special needs children – “both those that struggle and those that need to be stretched.”
- Meeting adjourned at 10:30
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