Artist-in-Residence Program Begins!

Last week we kicked off our new Artist-In-Residence program in the middle school, led by expert Mary Shannon Heinzelmann. Ms. Heinzelmann will link student art projects to the curricular themes in the social studies program.

Art instruction takes place every other week in the middle school (we share Ms. H with AE elementary school).

Stay tuned for many colorful photos to come...

8th Grade English-Literature Groups

I spent some time in Ms. Kieffer's 8th grade English class this morning. The students were working on their literature groups, and I was very impressed by the high levels of academic language being used. Students were grouped in clusters of four, and in keeping with the tenets of successful cooperative learning activities, each student had a specific task: word finder, passage reader, discussion facilitator, etc. As the teacher circulated around the room engaging students in questions, students discussed their interpretations of quotations, the author's use of imagery, and how they would have modified the ending. Still others worked on creating Powerpoint presentations related to their books. I am looking forward to seeing the presentations that grow out of this invaluable collaborative work. This activity in Ms. Kieffer's class is a stellar example of the high-quality instruction taking place at AEACMS. I invite everyone to come visit our campus and our classrooms.

Professional Development Day

As a staff we are very fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in a Professional Development Day today. With no students on campus, the AEACMS faculty is focusing on standards-based instruction, prioritizing standards according to Bloom's Taxonomy, and creating interdisciplinary units of study to be used throughout the year. We are being assisted by Alex from Insight Education Group, Inc. from Los Angeles, CA.



Some of our morning work revolved around Marzano and Pickering's seminal book, "Classroom Instruction that Works." In groups, the faculty profiled the following research-validated instructional strategies and discussed their pros and cons within the classroom context:

• Cooperative Learning/Grouping
• Summarizing and Note-taking
• Identifying Similarities and Differences
• Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition
• Cues, Questions, Advanced Organizers
• Setting Objectives/Providing Feedback
• Non-linguistic Representation
• Generating and Testing Hypotheses
• Homework and Practice
  

Today's work will lead into the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program trainings that the faculty will participate in this school year.

Oktoberfest at Einstein

Today I had the distinct pleasure of sharing in the Oktoberfest celebration in our advanced German class, taught by Frau Ronke. The middle schoolers helped prepare a feast of German food, and organized traditional German games that they then shared with visiting classes from the Einstein Elementary school. It was fantastic to watch everyone have such a good time while learning about German history and culture. The class was conducted almost entirely in German.

811 API Score

We recently received our base API score of 811. Congrats to everyone for your hard work during the 2006-07 school year to establish this significant baseline for our first year of existence. To learn more about how API is calculated and how other schools in the district, county, and state performed, go to www.cde.ca.gov, and click on APR.



Our API score in balloons, flying above the 'old' middle school office

Parent University--Uniforms and Web Safety

Don't miss our next offering of the AEACMS Parent University scheduled for Tuesday, October 9 from 6-7:30 PM in the MPR. Various teachers will lead discussions on our school uniforms as well as discuss internet safety (with specific focus on MySpace accounts). This session is part of an ongoing monthly offering that we have initiated this current school year.

Boarding School Opportunity

If you would like to learn more about the prestigious east coast boarding school Phillips Exeter (located in Massachusetts), the director of admissions will be visiting our campus:

October 22, 2:00-2:50 PM in the MPR

All 8th graders will be in attendance; parents are welcome as well. Come here about a world-class option for high school and beyond.

Exciting High School Option!

If you have an AEACMS 8th grader, you can't afford to miss the following parent information session:

October 10, 6:00 PM at San Diego High School of International Studies
1405 Park Blvd
San Diego, CA, 92101

This meeting will detail the steps for admission into the SIS


AEACMS and SIS have just announced a collaboration that will allow all AEACMS 8th grade grads who 1) read at or above grade level and, 2) apply, to attend the prestigious SIS program, featuring its nationally-recognized International Baccalaureate Diploma Program.

Outdoor Adventure Club

As part of the PEP grant, 12 AEACMS students have embarked on a great journey--they are participating in the Outdoor Adventure Club. This week their first outing took them to Mission Bay where they learned about water safety and then discovered the wonders of the undersea world through snorkeling. Several teachers accompanied the students, along with expert guides through the program.

Upcoming outdoor events include kayaking, surfing, and hiking. Thanks to everyone who is involved with this wonderful program.

Back to School Night Success

Thanks to everyone who attended our second annual AEACMS Back to School Night on Sept. 27. We had a strong showing from all three grades. Parents had a chance to follow the middle school A/B academic schedule. Teachers provided important syllabus information, reviewed the process for checking student grades, and answered questions. It is a sign of our thriving school and our commitment to excellence that the participation in this event was so vibrant. Thanks to Friends of AEA for participating by selling popcorn and our very popular new Einstein t-shirt.