IACS Hawk Distance Edition
Week ending May 22, 2020
Dear IACS Community,
I hope you have been able to enjoy some of the sunshine this week and am personally looking forward to more great weather this weekend. It's exciting to think that this tumultuous school year will be coming to a close three weeks from today. We've got this!
As we head down the home stretch, I'd asked that every family take time to complete the 2020 IACS Family Survey. In addition to asking questions about our school program during "normal conditions" (can you even remember that far back?), I've added a separate section about our Distance Learning program. The survey is mostly multiple choice questions and also has some some open-ended questions. It should take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete and can be also completed on mobile devices. As an incentive to complete this survey, you can learn how to enter a raffle to win a new Chromebook.
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE 2020 FAMILY SURVEY
Here's wishing you all good health and many thanks for the many ways in which you support IACS!
In partnership,
Greg Orpen
Head of School
.
All School News
Zoom Play - “10 Ways to Survive Life in a Quarantine.”
Need a laugh? Getting bored? Miss your IACS teachers? Here they are with some "helpful" suggestions in "10 Ways to Survive Life in a Quarantine." The IACS Faculty and Staff would like to dedicate this performance to our outstanding Class of 2020! Congratulations, Seniors! We are incredibly proud of you!*
Additional opportunities for families to pick up personal items still in our buildings. The dates are designed to meet different family schedules and are as follows:
Saturday, June 6: 10 am - 11 am
Friday, June 12: 9 am - 10 am (Final Date)
All of these dates have been added to our website calendar with the following reminders:
These visits must be brief and should not be viewed as social "meet ups".
In order to plan appropriate staff supervision, please email the main office (mainoffice@innovationcharter.org) 24 hours in advance if you would like to enter the building.
All personal belongings must be picked up by Friday, June 12th. Personal items left in school after that day will be discarded or donated so that the normal summer cleaning can occur.
We are trying to reach out and find all of our alumni. You can help us find them by sharing our link on Facebook. Alumni, like our page and join your year of graduation Facebook group to reconnect with former classmates! You can also follow us on instagram or on Twitter. Sending along your updated email address to smorocco@innovationcharter.org will ensure you receive our Alumni Hawk newsletter and other important updates.
Hope to hear from you soon,
Shannon Morocco - Director of Community Development
Middle School News
Save the Date- 8th grade Moving Up Ceremony
Our virtual Moving Up Ceremony will be held on Thursday, June 11th, at 7 PM. We are working to recreate the traditions of this joyful ceremony virtually and will share how to access the ceremony soon.
In the meantime, please encourage your 8th grader to fill out the 8th Grade Student Memories survey, due June 1st: https://forms.gle/cNLUXxgn3jzV5oir9
Student responses to this survey are kept anonymous, and are used to create a script that is read by student representatives from each advisory during the ceremony. This is your student's chance to contribute to the celebration and to make their voice heard. In past ceremonies, these shared memories are one of the most meaningful parts of the ceremony for students.
Please let them know that they should feel free to answer only those questions that are meaningful to them-- they can skip questions, if they like.
Again, surveys must be submitted by June 1st to be considered for inclusion in the Memories portion of the Moving Up Ceremony.
Tips for Distance Learning
If you are finding that your child is losing motivation around distance learning, here is a good read geared for families to help with the final weeks!
Progress Reports
The second progress report of the semester was released to our student and family portal on Monday. Teachers wrote comments on how to improve for any student in danger of not passing a class. Final grades will be reported as Pass/Warning.
Please reach out to the main office (mainoffice@innovationcharter.org or MS Admin Assistant Katie Hoyer (khoyer@innovationcharter.org) if you have difficulty accessing this document or need another copy of your Aspen password.
To monitor current averages, students and families should log on to Aspen. This semester, Novice grades or higher are passing.
Middle School Yearbook
The Middle School Yearbook Committee is giving all the Middle Schoolers the opportunity to contribute to the IACS 2019-2020 Year in Quarantine Middle School Yearbook.
Submit pictures, short narratives, poems, articles, that reflect what life has been like for you during the Quarantine of Covid-19.
The Deadline for submissions is May 25th.
Submit photos and writing to MSYEARBOOK@innovationcharter.org
If you have questions, write to MSYEARBOOK@innovationcharter.org
Middle School yearbooks can be ordered here for the regular price of $27.
High School News
Junior & Senior Awards Night
This week we held our annual Junior & Senior Awards Night...except that we had to do a virtual one. Thank you to all of the teachers for recording their speeches and especially to Crystal McKiel for learning all about iMovie in order to put it all together. The winners are listed below, but you can click HERE if you would like to view the speeches. Congratulations to all of the award recipients!
Important Dates for Seniors
We are doing a Rolling Rally for seniors only in order to celebrate their last day of classes, Friday, May 29th at 3:15 PM Tyngsboro Sports Center, 500 Potash Hill Road. Students should check their email for all of the details.
Also, don't forget to mark your calendars for these other senior events:
June 5th, 2020 12-2 PM Caps, Gown & Yearbook pickup (details to follow)
June 10th, 2020 12-2 PM Formal Cap & Gown pictures with professional photographer (details to follow)
August 1, 2020 2 PM Graduation Ceremony (details to follow)
Senior Project Application of Learning Samples:
Seniors have been giving virtual presentations all week to discuss their Senior Project applied pieces. Here are just a couple of examples of their work:
Owen Sparks - “The Breaking Point” - A Documentary on Solar Power & Electric Cars
Lauren Donald - Social Media & Mental Health: Part I, Part II
Community Scholarships
We are proud to hear that our students have received the following community scholarships:
- Billerica Pop Warner/Edward F. Hayes, Sr. & Edward Stuart Sr. Memorial Scholarship was awarded to Derik Linton.
- The American Legion Auxiliary Unit #247 Scholarship was awarded to Riley Lennon and Cassandra McKiel.
IACS Virtual Gallery Grand Opening!
Come visit the IACS VIrtual Gallery and see the creative and expressive work from your fellow students. The Virtual Gallery is a place for students from Innovation Academy to show the art and music that they are proud of. New work will continue to be posted every week so make sure to check back for future updates. If you have work that you would like to show, email your images, music files, and video links to Mr. Barry, Mr. Pelham, or Mr. Sciolla. Remember all art forms are welcome!
https://sites.google.com/innovationcharter.org/iacsvirtualgallery/home
Student Art Slideshow
Mr. Pelham and Mr. Barry are proud to present the first Student Art Slideshow featuring photos by our talented IACS students!
Photo of the Week:
Theatre News
Just in case you missed this in the All School News
Need a laugh? Getting bored? Miss your IACS teachers? Here they are with some "helpful" suggestions in "10 Ways to Survive Life in a Quarantine." Enjoy!
*The IACS Faculty and Staff would like to dedicate this performance to our outstanding Class of 2020! Congratulations, Seniors! We are incredibly proud of you!*
Athletics News
MS Winter Athletic Awards Video
Join us in congratulating our middle school winter athletes by checking out the awards video:
IACA News
We'd like to meet you!
Join us for a meeting on Wednesday May 27th at 7:00pm
We are holding a "Meet the Community Association leaders" Zoom meeting. This is an opportunity to check out the IACA (Innovation Academy Community Association) to learn about ways you can get involved and make a difference at IACS in a NO pressure environment. We'll be talking about how we can get ready for next year and discussing board elections and nominations.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88662346897?pwd=dFZmaGhSZ1hEaTlTTXozaVFiRDJ1UT09
Meeting ID: 886 6234 6897
Password: 647827
Nominations and Elections for our IACA group will be held next month, if you'd like to find out more click here:
Innovation Academy Charter School
Email: mainoffice@innovationcharter.org
Website: www.innovationhcharter.org
Location: 72 Tyng Road, Tyngsborough, MA, United States
Phone: 978-649-0432
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IACStyngsborough/
Twitter: @iacharterschool