Dear AAS Community,

 

In this newsletter, you will find:

Health and Wellness - Pinktober and Movember 

Each Fall, AAS engages during the months of October and November in health awareness for women and men.  This past month, students and staff participated in Pinktober, the long-standing awareness campaign first started in 1985 by the American Cancer Society.  Pinktober for some means strength and survival and for others it is about advocacy and a focused effort to educate about the realities, prevention, or detection of breast cancer.  Those who wore pink, wore wrist bands, and displayed pink ribbons helped prompt the conversations about women’s health and wellness.  

 

AAS has now entered the time of Movember, which began in Australia in 2003 to raise awareness for prostate and testicular cancers.  During Movember, many men in our own communities and around the world grow mustaches, changing their appearance to create awareness and foster conversations about men’s health.  We encourage students and staff to wear blue during the month of November on Thursdays and Fridays.  In addition, the PTO and HS Inter-Club Council are collaborating on the sale of blue masks with a moustache. As of today, you can email pto.shop@aas.ru to pre-order your mask.   The masks are 500 rubles and 10% of the proceeds go to charity.

Thank you to the PTO for their ongoing partnership to support women’s and men’s health.

 

AAS will continue to provide communication when a positive Covid-19 case has been confirmed for a student or staff member who has been on our campus.  We appreciate those who shared feedback in relation to our close contact identification protocols.  We have reflected and refined our protocols to ensure better alignment with the evolving science behind determining close contacts.  We will continue to communicate via direct emails with all identified close contacts at the time of each individual case for the students and staff.  The wider AAS community will receive a weekly update via the newsletter.

 

As of today, AAS has confirmed 22 positive cases related to individuals who have been on our campus science August.  All close contacts have been notified from previous cases and the new cases this week will be notified shortly.  The AAS Health Office will continue to be the primary point of contact for close contact follow-up at health.office@aas.ru. 

 

Please open this video link to hear more about the AAS Learning model plans for after the Winter Break. 

 

Thank you for your continuing collaboration in learning.

 

 

Dear ES Families,

 

We trust that you are enjoying the cooler weather and staying healthy.

• The first is on November 10: Supporting Your Child In Learning Pathways ( Webex 5:00 - 6:00 PM). During this session we will open up an opportunity for families to share both the challenges and great ideas/learning that have worked well for their children during both the Hybrid and Distance Learning pathways.
• On November 24; ES Coaches ( Webex 10:00 - 11:00 AM). During this session, our ES Curriculum Leader and Literacy, Math and Technology Coaches will speak about their role in supporting student learning through the support of teachers.

Click here to like AAS MS on Facebook! 

November is typically the month when people in our community begin to feel the seasonal impacts of colder weather and decreased sunlight. For those new to this part of the northern hemisphere, these impacts can include feeling more run down, or even less enthusiastic than what is typical for us.

Fortunately, there are things we can do to combat the effects of the “winter blues.” Getting sufficient light (20-30 minutes per day) is beneficial, whether that light comes from the sun or from a specially-designed light source or lamp. Regular exercise, healthy eating, and regular sleep patterns can strengthen both our mental and physical states. And many medical and science professionals believe that sticking to daily routines helps us maintain our internal 24-hour clock, or circadian rhythm.

In these emotionally and mentally demanding times, building these healthy patterns into our routines has taken on crucial importance. You can read more about these ideas and strategies in this recent New York Times article. And because it’s also recent, and has a fresh take on some of the more typical suggestions for self-care, I will also share this article.

If you have additional resources related to any of the above, or if you feel your child needs support, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me.

 

Our first progress-to-date report of the year will be released to families on November 6. This progress report will include feedback specific to our Approaches to Learning, the habits and dispositions essential to building towards academic success.

 

Please use this important first check-in as a starting place for conversations with your child about their learning and progress thus far this academic year. If you have specific questions or concerns regarding a class you can always schedule a meeting with your child’s teacher to go over those in more depth.

 

We will also be hosting virtual Parent-Teacher-Student conferences November 26 and 27. A link will be shared in next week’s newsletter in order to sign-up for appointments with specific teachers. Please use these days as an opportunity to connect with your child’s teachers and participate in a three-way conference on their learning.

 

 

The HS Counselors held a Counselor Coffee last week on the topic of Maia Learning and how we use this online platform to take students on a path of self-discovery and awareness, and ultimately university research and applications.  If you missed the presentation, here are the slides we went through and here is the recording of our session.  Maia Learning has a parent access feature, so you should also have an email from Maia Learning today inviting you to join.  Please follow the steps to create your account so you can be a part of your child’s journey!

Do you have other topics you would like to discuss or learn more about from your HS Counselors?  We want the counselor coffees to be timely, pertinent and meaningful for you so your thoughts and ideas matter.  Please share your ideas by responding to this short survey.

University visits for this week – Highpoint (US) and Ryerson (Canada) – visits take place on webex and are available to all HS students. More information about each university and upcoming events are located in Maia Learning.

Here is a link to an engaging webinar given by Tulane Admissions recently for parents. It is a good chance to learn more about US admissions overall as well as Tulane.

For those of you who are interested in the university application process in the United States, you can sign up for a Webinar offered by the United States Department of Overseas Schools that will take place on November 12 at 8am Eastern Time (16:00 Moscow time).  You can sign up at this link.