Subject: Various and sundry items

04 Oct 2003 03:37

Greetings, everyone. Here is the latest laundry list of items requiring your attention. The list is long, but please do read it all through carefully (I gave up trying to prioritize the items at around 4 this morning).

1. PTO meeting: Given that several interested parties are already coming in this coming Tuesday morning to help with the on-going book-covering project, and given that I am fond of the idea of multi-tasking, I would like to hold a brief “let’s organize” meeting in the RATS/STARS room in the CDI (aka library) at 9h00. Please come if you’d like to actively participate in PTO (and please stay to help finish the book-covering project if you can!). The PTO is the social activities arm of L2M and in times past has really gone a long way to bringing our far-flung families together.

2. Please remind your child that if s/he is in collège and has a class that starts at 8 a.m., s/he needs to wait for the class teacher to come down to the lobby or courtyard to fetch the class. I believe this policy’s purpose is to ensure that kids aren’t wandering all over the school before classes actually start. Anyway, please let your child know that it isn’t a matter of him/her not knowing where the class is, but rather a school policy that we need to respect. If the teacher does not show up, your child needs to go to Perm and wait there, rather than hanging out in the hallway in front of the classroom. Thanks for your help with this!

3. Please be sure to use the “carnet de correspondance” to deal with tardiness, leaving school early, and absences. Don’t worry about writing anything in French (although knowing the word “malade”—”sick”—is useful!). Your child should bring the carnet to the vie scolaire office for Mr Dourequin (college) or Mr Pruneau (lycee) or the monitors to deal with. If your child is absent, please also call the monitors’ office (I believe the number is 04.38.12.25.77) before 9h30. There are at least two people in that office who speak adequate English. You need to tell them your child’s name and class (6eme2, 5eme1, etc.).

4. This coming week features several “Rencontres Parents-Professeurs”—teaching team information nights. Please note that parking will be, as ever, practically non-existent near the school; your best bet is to park in the underground lot at the train station, so add about 10-15 minutes to your timing. The schedule is attached; please take particular note that the part between 17 and 17h30 will cover what L2M teachers are doing. (Some but not all L2M teachers will be there on any given night, but I will have asked those not in attendance to provide me with course summaries to share with you.) The part between 17h30 and 19h00 will give you a chance to meet the French-side teachers and learn what your child will be covering this year. Translation will be provided.

5. For parents of girls: If your daughter is caught without certain supplies at a particular time of the month, she should see the nurse. In the event that the nurse is not there or does not have the necessary supplies on hand, or if your daughter does not yet have the capacity to ask for something for “les règles,” (or is too embarrassed to try to deal with it), AND if her friends cannot help her out, I have a small supply here in the L2M office.

6. “Stage d’observation”: 9th-grade students will have the chance to participate in a week-long “observing internship” the week before the Christmas break. The catch is that the students have to set up the internships themselves. Generally, they need to find a company or enterprise that is willing to have them come in for the week, watch things being done, ask questions, and then afterwards write up a report. Usually the kids go to wherever their parents work, but they can also ask, say, a local tradesperson (baker, butcher, hairdresser, etc.) if their French is good enough (and virtually all of our 9th-graders have sufficient French so as not to confine themselves to English-only enterprises). I will send you the details as soon as Madame Laverte (the collège principal) sends them on to me (sometime next week), but I wanted to give you a heads-up so your child can be thinking about participating.

7. Sometime early next week we will have a new student who will likely be in our 2nde2 class. A warm welcome to N’quobile (nickname “Niki”—and thank goodness, because that apostrophe is an unpronounceable—at least for me—click sound!) Siyabonga from Tanzania, coming most recently from a boarding school in South Africa.

8. Mrs. Lindt will be on sick leave for the next week. I have arranged for Mrs Leclerc and Mrs McDougal to cover some of the classes, and I will cover some others. We will not be able to cover everything, however, so her 2nde and Terminale classes will likely be getting 3 out of 4 hours (4eme will get its usual allotment of 3 hours/week). The SAT prep class will be on as usual, but comparative literature will have to wait for Mrs Lindt’s return. The ESL class will meet only on Monday.

NOTE to 4eme CLASS: For this week only, Thursday English will be held at 8 am rather than 9 am. Sorry about the earlier time, but it’s the only way that it fits into the substituting teacher’s schedule for that morning.

9. *Reminder*: PSAT signups end on Oct. 10 for the test on Saturday, Oct. 18. Pretty much everyone in 2nde should sign up, and anyone in 1ere who hasn’t taken it should do so as well. American kids from the British section have been invited to participate. Please don’t wait until the last minute to let me know your child will be taking this test.

10. Some of you have inquired about the school choirs. I will try to get you the specifics of when which group is meeting where (yes, I wrote that sentence, said the English teacher). I do know that there will be three concerts during this school year. More details to follow.

Bon weekend tout le monde,

Olivia Kallner