Weekly Junior High Update
September 14, 2018
At the heart of everything we do...
The Middle Years International Baccalaureate program at The Odyssey Institute for Advanced and International Studies aims to create a better and more peaceful community through intercultural awareness, understanding, and respect. Our scholars will grow as part of a challenging environment that facilitates creativity and fun. Our scholars will be empowered to use their unique talents to become active, compassionate, and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, contribute to solutions.
This is our school’s mission statement. This statement is at the heart of all we do. It drives every decision we make, how our teachers teach, how we interact with our scholars, and is our driving hope for every member of our junior high family.
It is important that our families, scholars, and staff all know, understand and support this mission. This is what our families chose, when they chose to enroll their scholars in our school. By choosing Odyssey, you are saying, “Yes! I want my child to experience everything at the heart of this statement.” It is important that our classes and staff members embody this statement in everything that they do, every lesson they teach.
At heart, we want our scholars to celebrate, learn from, and respect people and beliefs from all cultures. We want our scholars to hunger to be challenged. We want classes to be hard, so teachers and families can guide and encourage their scholars to approach challenges with excitement, not run from them in tears. We want our scholars to earn a variety of grades so they see what they do well and in what areas they can improve. We want our classes to be fun and unique...we want our parents saying, “They didn’t teach it like that when I was in school.” That is exactly the point!
We want our scholars to be empowered to solve their own problems, not to feel like they have to have their parents or teachers swoop in and save them from uncomfortable or tough situations. We want our scholars to be actively involved in school, compassionate, and we want them to care about others before themselves.
Most importantly, we want our scholars to see that the world is big. It is waiting to be discovered. Your scholars are not at the center of that world, but they can make a HUGE impact on the world and the people in it, but to do so takes hard work, perseverance in the face of challenge, and grit.
Are you ready to take this journey with us?
If so, celebrate when your child comes home and says something is hard…”Yes! That’s awesome! How are we going to tackle this new challenge?” Ask them what new perspective they learned that day that differs from their own…”What do you think about that?” Ask them to tell you about a kindness they did for someone else…”How are you actively making the environment around you a better place?” Push your scholar outside that comfortable box. “You have to learn from a teacher that isn’t your favorite or work with a scholar that you don’t like, awesome!” Don’t ask to switch classes to avoid the challenge, face it head on, learn from it, grow...that is the entire purpose of school.
Junior high is an amazing time! Your scholars are able to try out and learn more about how to deal with those everyday struggles we all face, but the great part is they get to do it with a safety net and a HUGE OI family to support them along the way. We all love and care about your scholars deeply, and because we care, we will push them, challenge them, and empower them.
If you chose this school, you chose it because you believed in our mission. How are you going to show that to your scholars today?
Art
Language & Literature
Patriot Day
8th Grade Math: Your mission...
Determine the number of each type of candy in your bag WITHOUT COUNTING. If you are successful in your mission, you will earn the candy in your bag. When you are confident you have the right answer, raise your hand for permission to open the bag and verify you’ve solved correctly.
Should you choose to accept it...
Challenge accepted!
Parent/Teacher Conferences: Friday, 9/28/18
Questions about grading
Also, to ensure you are seeing your scholar's grades correctly and to make sure you are seeing all of the resources available to you and your scholar through ParentVue/StudentVue, please watch the short informational video by clicking the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnUlykD2aEU&t=13s
I will be including more information about grading in upcoming newsletters.
Washington DC Trip Parent Meeting
We will be having an informational meeting about our Washington DC field trip. This field trip is available to attend as a 7th or 8th grader. You can also start paying for the trip while your scholar is in 6th grade. Please attend this meeting to find out more information about either attending or starting payments.
Monday, Sep 17, 2018, 06:00 PM
Junior High Gym
OIAIS Junior High
Email: attendancejrhigh@topamail.com
Website: odyprep.com
Location: 1495 South Verrado Way, Buckeye, AZ, USA
Phone: 623-777-1740
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OIAISJuniorHighCampus/