Middle School Report

from The Pride - January / February 2022

by ISK Lions

Director’s Note

Alexa Schmid, EdD

Middle School Principal

Drew Gregor

Middle School Assistant Principal

Welcome New Students

In January, we had over 15 new students join our Middle School Community. Thank you to our counselors, student ambassadors, and all in our community who have helped to extend a very big, warm, ISK welcome to our new students & families!

Parent Workshop: SLCs, PTBMD, PLPs

We have been working to expand opportunities to invite parents onto the ISK campus for the last few months. On February 23rd, we had another great parent workshop, with many parents in attendance. This event included an overview of our philosophy related to upcoming Student-Led Conferences (SLCs), an overview of Proud To Be Me Day (PTBMD), and a synopsis of the Personal Learning Profiles (PLPs) students are creating through our advisory program. Goodness, we love our acronyms at ISK! Missed it? You can see the presentation slides here: SLCs, PTBM, PLPs Presentation

International Week

International Day at ISK is one of the highlights of the year for students, parents, faculty, and staff. It is a day for us to celebrate our wonderful cultural diversity, our individuality, and our commonalities. Each day of International Week, we unveiled awesome submissions shared by students, staff and parents on the ISK Community Portal. (Click here to watch a quick video tutorial about how to access the portal.) Tuesday, February 15: Identity Wednesday, February 16: Community Thursday, February 17: Equity, Justice and Inclusion Friday, February 18: Celebrate

To access the ISK Community Portal- kindly see below instructions for parents and students:

ISK Parents:

Your username is the email address the school has on file for you. To create a first time login OR if you have forgotten your password o Click the link "forgot username or password" o Enter the email address the school has on file for you o Check your email and follow the instructions to set a new password (be sure to check your spam folder if you do not see the email in your inbox) o Return to the portal login page o Enter your username, click Next o Enter your password o Save your password in a secure place. You will manage this password. If you have forgotten your username: o Contact the school to confirm the email address they have on file o Return to login and enter your username / password combination *Note: If you are an ISK Parent and Employee, follow the instructions in the Employees section for login.

ISK Students:

If your username / password combination is not working please contact the ISK helpdesk. We ended the week with a Parade of Nations on Friday afternoon. This year, we had a variation of a parade, where homerooms and advisories walked together, dressed in a way that represents their cultural or national identity. You can enjoy the parade recording here.

Proud To Be Me Day

On Friday February 18th, we suspended our normal schedule in the Middle School to celebrate our 4th Annual Proud To Be Me Day in the Middle School. What an incredible opportunity of leaning into our values related to community, equity, justice and inclusion at ISK. We saw students leading workshops they had planned collaboratively with a committed group of teachers, and engaging our community in important conversations related to gender identity, sexual identity, religion/culture, neurodiversity and racial identity/racism. Our goal: how to use our privilege to be an ally, to open our hearts and increase acceptance, and to consider our social responsibility to bring about change. Congratulations and thank you to: o Student planners: Daniya, Girish, Zaara,

Joanna, Maya, Kaylee, Emily H, Alizeh,

Nadia, Mariam, Krishi, Madi, Greyson,

Emma G, Kirin, Hafsa, Peter, Sammara, Lisa

G o Teacher supporters: Mr. Hart, Ms. Hughes,

Ms. Khalil, Mr. Hussain, Ms. Sally, Ms. Liv, Mr.

Murphy, Ms. Krista, Ms. D, Ms. Heather, Ms.

Jenny, Mr. Rose, Ms. Willis, Mr. Gregor, Ms.

Laws

The purpose of this day is: o To raise awareness about different aspects of identity and how it contributes to our community’s diversity o To nurture an open mind and heart to expand our inclusive community o To increase awareness, acceptance, and a sense of belonging o To increase sensitivity about the impact of our actions and words

We laid the foundation for these important conversations in advisory, discussing privilege and oppression (check out this great, short video that makes those concepts super accessible), how to be an active listener, and the importance of being an ally. On Friday, all MS students rotated through 5 sessions related to identity with the goal to deepen our understanding, expand our acceptance and inclusion, and learn to become allies to those who might be more marginalized in our community.

o Racial Identity/Racism: The group started with this foundation video - The Science of Racism, and created a shared definition and criteria to understand racism. Students then interacted with various scenarios to discuss whether or not they were racist.

The scenarios included touching black hair, using the ‘N’ word, teasing East Asian names, etc. Students ended with tips on how to be anti-racist, and this video - What kind of Asian are you? o Sexual Identity: The group started with this video - What is sexual orientation? - from Amaze (a great resource for puberty, relationships, our changing bodies and sex education). Students engaged in a fun

Kahoot, and then interacted with various scenarios (being bullied for ‘coming out’, using homophobic slurs and more) and discussed how to be an ally. o Religion & Culture: In this session, students started by surfacing their prior knowledge about religion, and interacting in a word association activity. Students watched a video created by our student planners, and explored assumptions, commonalities, and discrimination related to religion. Students engaged with various scenarios to consider how we recognize, respect, and celebrate the different cultures and religions in our ISK community. o Gender Identity: Students started with an ‘Agree or Disagree’ activity, and then watched this Bill Nye Gender video.

Students then discussed the definitions of gender, sexism, toxic masculinity, and the fact that gender is a social construct.

Students explored gender stereotypes, pronouns, and learned about the gender spectrum through a Gender Unicorn activity and this video - Range of Gender

Identities from Amaze. This session ended with tips about how to be an ally, and where to get support. o Neurodiversity: In this session, students started by being split into 3 groups, where 1 was asked to wait in the hallway while the other 2 groups learned a dance. The third group then entered the room and tried to learn it without any verbal support. The exercise was intended to develop empathy for how learners feel when we exclude them. They watched this video - Human

Neurodiversity Should Be Celebrated, and further learned about Autism, Dyslexia,

Downs Syndrome, and ADHD, including strategies to be more inclusive of people with these diagnoses. The ultimate goal: to create an environment that is inclusive, accepting, and nonjudgmental.

We hope these conversations can continue at home!