Fall Term Comments & Grades, Advisory Conferences, Techno-formatting Code(?)

Friday, 12 November 2010

Greetings Upper School Parents:

I am not sure why yesterday’s e.mail began with a paragraph of techno- formatting code; the “normal text format” can be read on Wagner’s MVS Blog at: http://wagnersmvsblog.blogspot.com/ .

Amazing to see that we have completed the Fall Trimester of the 2010-11 school year! We are now in an exciting transitional period, balancing the reflection upon first term accomplishments while establishing a solid foundation for second term goals. This e.mail serves as official notification that the comments, work habit/effort marks, and grades illustrating your daughter or son’s Fall Trimester academic performance are now available via My Backpack.

My Backpack also allows you to check and up-date your personal contact information for accuracy, so if you have revised contact information (including phone number, e.mail, or mailing address), please do so via My Backpack.

In composing narrative comments, teachers have been attentive to commend the highlights, make pertinent suggestions in areas needing additional attention, as well as providing a reflective overview of the course content covered during the first term. In reviewing the end-of-term teacher comments and grade reports, please carefully read through the written comments (with your daughter or son), praising accomplishments while strategizing towards areas that would benefit from additional support and improvement. In considering the “larger picture” of all of your child’s comments and grades, search for emerging patterns and themes, specially in preparing for the fall conference with your child’s Academic Advisor, which occurs on Monday (afternoon/early evening) and Tuesday (morning) 22 & 23 November.

Since for many of us there has not been a direct contact between Academic Advisor and parents since Upper School Parent Information Night back in September, we look forward to having the opportunity to meet again and discuss your child’s first term accomplishments (academic, extra-curricular, and others). As I mentioned previously, scheduling for conferences is now accomplished via an on-line scheduling program, which is accessible from the Upper School homepage .

The fall advisory conference is an opportune time to discuss matters of academic performance, extracurricular involvement, as well as monitoring the status of various graduation requirements (including service learning/community service hours, physical education credits, and others). Should you need to discuss a matter regarding a specific course, please schedule a meeting with that teacher after the Thanksgiving break, seeing as all upper school advisors are also classroom teachers.

That’s all for now. I hope you enjoy the amazing weather this weekend; I look forward to seeing you at an up-coming winter athletic match.

With sincere regards,


Sam Wagner
Head of Upper School