Upper School Families,
Even though our schedule has not been consistent we have had a really wonderful start back to school. We have been working hard to start a shift in culture to make things feel more positive and promote kindness. We utilize a system called Liveschool to give students points for positive behaviors and they get to spend the points. Thanks to Mrs. Mitchell we were able to have hot chocolate last week for points and it was a big hit! It made lunch inside a little more fun.
We have been announcing College Acceptances on Wednesdays and it has been lovely to hear those names on the announcements and the cheers in the halls from other students. We are also celebrating these students on social media. Additionally, we are encouraging all students to wear their favorite college wear on Wednesdays. This week we hosted an information session for AB-Tech and Western Carolina University. For more information about college and career, make sure you are reading the College and Career Newsletters. We also have lots of information on our website: https://www.icimagine.org/page/college-and-career-planning.
We are midway through the Kingfisher basketball season and are having a great time celebrating wins in the stands and being cheered on by the IC Imagine Cheer team. We will be having a Pep Rally next Friday which should be another fun event. The Imagineers, our student leaders, play a big role in getting ready for a pep rally. They do all the planning which can be a big task!
Our visual arts students are creating artwork for the walls of Upper School and we look forward to sharing their creations in the coming weeks. We have a Jazz band concert next week and several students participated in the NC All-District Band auditions yesterday. Many of our Theater students are preparing to audition for the Spring Musical, Mama Mia. We are grateful to our Fine Arts Department for all of these invaluable opportunities for students to be creative.
Mr. Zimmers's advisory is off to the Humane Society next week and will receive four community service hours for this trip. Mrs. Mitchell’s Advisory worked for four hours at Manna Food Bank just last week. Mrs.Turner was able to join those students and was impressed with how hard they worked! These trips are an excellent opportunity to build relationships with peers, and positively contribute to the greater local community.
For sophomore families, we have Pre-ACT scores back and we will be distributing these to those students next week. Juniors are set to take the ACT on Wednesday, February 28th. The rest of the Upper School students will have a remote learning day on Wednesday the 28th to maintain a quiet testing environment for our Juniors.
For today’s (1/19) Remote Learning Day, all work is due Friday (1/26) for students to be counted present. Guidelines for Remote Learning Days can be found on our website. The upcoming teacher work day on Friday, February 2nd will also be a Remote Learning Day.
January's IPO and Parent University have been rescheduled to Monday, February 19th at 5:30 pm. For those of you who weren’t able to come to the recent “Coffee with Leadership” to talk with us, we would love to see you there. The Parent University portion will focus on "How to Support Emotional Well-Being," with our Mental Health team presenting valuable information about Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). We will cover what SEL is and isn't, along with how we are implementing systemic SEL at all school levels. Additionally, we will share insights on what parents can do at home to support their children's social and emotional growth.
Lastly, January is National Human Trafficking Prevention Month, which raises awareness about human trafficking and serves to educate the public about how to identify and prevent it. The Center for Safer Schools is doing its part by hosting eight simultaneous screenings of the film “Choices” across each of its eight educational regions. The screenings will be held at several locations across the state on Thursday, Jan. 25 from 6:00-7:30 p.m. The Western location is Minitorium, 175 Bingham Road, Asheville. Following the screenings, Center for Safer Schools staff will facilitate a discussion about the film and how it relates to human trafficking. RSVP at https://forms.gle/gzmgVUiZAFWkiaRK7. If you have questions, send an email to cfss@dpi.nc.gov.
We are having a great time with your students! Thank you for letting us spend our days with them,
Jenn Townley & Meg Turner
