Issue #23: February 13, 2025

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From the Principal

Ms. Michelle Alzamora

Dear Families,

Believe it or not, we are already beginning to think about classroom placement for next school year. Creating class lists is a complex process that requires great thought and time involving many perspectives. We will consider each individual child’s needs as well as the make-up of the class as a whole. Our overall goal is to create balanced classrooms where each child has adults and peers that support them as a learner.

We invest a great deal of effort in the development of homeroom class rosters to create the best learning situations for all our students and classes. In order to do this well, we do appreciate your input about your child. Please note that we will not consider requests for specific teachers or other children in the class.

When considering class rosters we place more of an importance on placing students who will be good learning partners together than we do on placing children with friends. The biggest concern that we hear from parents at the beginning of the school year is that their child is not placed in a class with their closest friends. While we understand that when this happens children feel sad and worried, in nearly every situation like this, the child feels significantly better about their class within a week or two and by the end of the first month, they do not even remember that they were worried or sad about their class placement.

Please complete this form to let us know about factors unique to your child’s needs. The survey is available for 6 weeks. Please fill out the above linked form before Thursday, March 27th, when the survey will close. All information from this survey is confidential and will only be seen by the teachers at your child’s current grade level, our counselors, and our administrators.

Yours,

Michelle

Parent Teacher Conferences

Dear ACS Families,

We invite you to participate in the Spring 2025 Parent-Teacher Conferences on February 27. There are no classes for students on this date.

** Please understand that the PowerSchool sign-up process applies only to Elementary homeroom, Learning Support, and Counselor conferences.

ES Information

Our Spring Conferences are student-led conferences. Families will spend an extended time in the classroom looking at student growth and learning. Each family will have time to meet with the classroom teacher during the scheduled time.
ES Students are expected to attend conferences with their parents, as they are student-led conferences. Students will be sharing their learning with you and you will have the opportunity to speak with teachers.
For Conference Manager support please contact Ms. Farhan
For PowerSchool support please contact Ms. Khuloud
Conferences with elementary classroom teachers, elementary counselors, and elementary Learning Support teachers are by appointment only; parents/guardians must book through the Conference Manager which opens for sign-ups on Saturday, February 8th at 12:00 pm and closes on Sunday, February 23rd at 12:00 pm. Click here for instructions.
The Arabic, Art, Music, and PE teachers look forward to meeting with you. They will be available to speak with children and their parents in their classrooms for walk-in conferences.
The Arabic, PE, Music, and Art teachers have scheduled lunch breaks. The specialist teachers’ breaks are when classroom teachers are meeting with families. To help you plan your time effectively, please note the following break times:

Morning Break:

Arabic and PE Teachers 10:15 - 10:30
LS Teachers and Counselors 10:20 - 10:40
Art and Music Teachers 10:00 - 10:15

Lunch Break:

Arabic and PE Teachers 1:30 - 2:15
HR Teachers 12:30 - 1:30
LS Teachers and Counselors First Break 1:20 - 2:00
Art and Music Teachers 1:00 - 1:45

Afternoon Break:

Arabic and PE Teachers 3:30 - 3:45
LS Teachers and Counselors 3:20 - 3:40
Art and Music Teachers 3:15 - 3:30

After School Activites

ASA's end this week (Feb. 13) and session three will begin March 10-May 8th.

Session 3 ASA’s

Registration opens on PowerSchool Thursday, Feb. 13 @ 4 pm and will close on Feb. 23rd at 9 am.
- Please note this also includes the G4/G5 ES Jamboree offerings (Soccer, Track and Field, Basketball)
- Please make sure to register on time as we will not be able to to accommodate late additions

Parent Talks

Please mark your calendars for the following parent talks. More information will be coming soon about the time and location.

Feb 23 6:00 pm (NOTE CHANGE OF DATE) Rigour - What does rigour look like in the ES at ACS?
April 28 - Generative Artificial Intelligence - How are we handling GAI at school?

From the ES Counselors

Updated Resource Webpage - Discussion ideas and coping strategies when approaching unfairness, violence, crime and war with your child.

Talking about topics like unfairness, violence, crime and war can be hard. You might not know what to say in the moment. Being ready for these talks can help. Please check out the resources on this page and let us know how we can support you!

Tim Steadman and Hayley Jeanes

From the ES Learning Commons

We had a great time this week celebrating our love of reading. Students dressed up as different characters every day forging relationships as they tried to guess who the character was.

We also hosted our annual Book Trivia Challenge this week. We would like to congratulate the boys of the Habibi Squad on a well-played game. We’d also like to thank all participants for their hard work. We are very proud of them.