Middle School
November 18, 2021
From the Middle School Principal's Desk
Dear Students and Parents,
This week our Associate Principal, Mr. Mitchell, successfully defended his doctoral thesis and has received his Doctorate in education. For those of you who had a chance to attend our last Parent Advisory Forum, you would have had a chance to learn more about his topic: Digital Distractions at school. It was interesting to learn how the majority of our students do get distracted from time to time, albeit for relatively short periods of time. The most successful students (when it comes to avoiding digital distractions), tended to make use of a variety of strategies, like only using their school computer for school work and a separate device for their downtime, removing any extensions that were not work related, and had disabling notifications. Taking proactive steps to avoid digital distractions was key in staying engaged in class!
With Thanksgiving coming up, I’d like to take a moment to give thanks to our students for their tremendous efforts at working hard in school while cultivating a fun and spirited atmosphere in our halls. It’s been great to be around their enthusiasm and energy! I’d also like to give thanks to all our parents. We sincerely appreciate your feedback and support for our Middle School programs. We couldn’t do all that we do without this community support, so thank you!
Have a great week everyone!
Rob Gohr
Middle School Principal
American School of Doha
Parent Advisory Forum (PAF) Meeting
Our next monthly PAF meeting is scheduled to take place next Wednesday, November 24, from 8:00 am - 9:00 am via Zoom (link here). This is an open meeting for all MS parents interested in learning more about the Middle School. The agenda for this meeting is as follows:
· Student wellbeing and course workload
· Child-Study process: Academic Alerts and Improvement Planning
If you have a “burning question” that you would like to ask about, be sure to submit it via this online PAF form and we will do our best to answer it during our next PAF meeting. Hope to see you there!
After School: Where can students be?
We are quite excited to be able to once again host after-school clubs and activities on our campus! While we encourage our students to participate in our after-school sports and activities, we do not allow students to hang out with friends after school on campus. We also have some students that work in our library until 4:00 pm or who seek help from their teachers after school. Students who are not engaged in clubs, sports, activities, or after-school support, are asked to make their way home.
Students needing to wait after school for a sibling or who have a late pick up from school, are asked to wait is in the reception area in front of our MS/HS Offices. Students are not allowed to remain in our Dining Hall & Beanery, gymnasium/fields, or common areas. We thank you for your support in this.
DragonCards: Needed to Access Campus
All students who attend ASD have been issued a school photo ID called a DragonCard, which contains a Smart-chip that provides them access to campus, allows them to make purchases on campus, borrow library books, and use photocopiers as needed.
We need students to carry their DragonCard with them to school to help reduce these issues. In an effort to help, we will run a weekly report of students who have 3 consecutive days of missing ID cards. We will then notify parents to let them know that if their child reaches 5 consecutive days without their ID, we will automatically re-issue the student a DragonCard and deactivate their old card. The cost of the replacement card is QR50 and will be deducted from the family account. Our hope is that by the first reminder, families can help us to find ID cards and use them to access our campus. We appreciate your support with this.
Yearbook Pre-orders
Pre-orders of the 2021-22 Yearbook are starting up, only 120 QR!
How to order:
1. Ensure you have 120 QR on your DragonCard (no cash purchases)
2. Visit room the MS Office to place your order.
If you would like to order a Yearbook from last year (2020-2021), there are a few still left. These are available for a reduced price (100 QR). Please visit the MS Office if interested.
What's On MS
Fri, Nov 19
MS/HS 3X3 Basketball Tournament, Registration Required
Sat, Nov 20
BFHA Meet & Greet, MS Courtyard, 10:00 am - 11:30 am, Register HERE
Sun, Nov 21
MS/HS Day 4
Season 2 Tryouts: JV/Varsity Soccer, JV/Varsity Basketball, Cross Country, & Tennis
Booster Store open Sundays for MS/HS students, 11:00 am - 1:30 pm
Mon, Nov 22
MS/HS Day 1
Tue, Nov 23
NO PACT, dismissal at 3:00 pm
MS/HS Day 2
Wed, Nov 24
MS/HS Day 3
MS Parent Advisory Forum (PAF), 8:00 am - 9:00 am, via Zoom
Thu, Nov 25
No School, US Thanksgiving
Be sure to visit our What's On MS Teneen page, for more information on divisional ASD events. Updated every FRIDAY!
Check out our section on Teaching and Learning
ASD YouTube Consent Form: Due Wed, Dec 15
To Parents and Guardians,
Google now requires more parental permission to use its various platforms. We currently provide a Google Workspace for Education account for your child. Google Workspace for Education has been evolving over the last decade. It is identified as a set of education productivity tools from Google, including, but not limited to, Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Classroom, and more, and used by tens of millions of students and teachers worldwide.
For example, students at the American School of Doha use their Google Workspace for Education accounts to complete assignments, communicate with their teachers, and learn 21st-century digital citizenship skills.
To complement Google’s Workspace for Education subscription, Google has clarified their other services that fall outside the scope of our Google Workspace for Education subscription. One of their more highly utilized services from the “additional services list” is YouTube. ASD enhances its curriculum through many web-based media and application sites, and more arise every day. YouTube is the leading content application for many diverse and educational materials. We would be remiss if we didn’t amplify the education of our students through the use of YouTube's services. Specifically, at ASD, YouTube enhances the delivery of our curriculum through gaining access to free, high-quality lecture content, sharing and collaborating on student work, reinforcing class materials and lessons, demonstrating labs and experiments, keeping content relevant and recent, and many more ways of extending students’ learning.
Since YouTube is classified as an “additional service” and falls outside of our Google Workspace for Education subscription, Google requires parental/guardian permission for those “additional services.” ASD continues to utilize sources across the Internet to enhance and expand our curriculum delivery. By providing consent for your child to access those outstanding resources, they will continue to access those essential resources in the learning process. We ask that you please provide your permission by authorizing and submitting the form HERE.
If you have any questions, please contact Jeff Kersting, Director of Innovation and Technology.
Thank you,
Jeff Kerstings
Director of Innovation and Technology
American School of Doha
A Message from ASD Nursing
Greetings From ASD Nursing,
Just a couple of reminders for the upcoming weeks.
Students who are absent for 2 or more consecutive days require a doctor’s note of medical clearance OR a negative COVID-19 test in order to return to school when they are feeling better. We understand that students sometimes just need a mental health day and will miss one day of school and that is fine. However, 2 or more consecutive days require that the student sees a doctor. In addition, if students have any cold or flu symptoms we strongly urge that students get a COVID test done. This can be either a rapid antigen or a PCR test. This is whether or not a student is vaccinated or not. It is our recommendation that when any of the following symptoms are present that testing is done:
Fever or chills
Cough
Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
Fatigue
Muscle or body aches
Headache
New loss of taste or smell
Sore throat
Congestion or runny nose
Nausea or vomiting
Diarrhea
For students who are 12 years of age and older who are either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated please remember:
The MOEHE and MOPH are requiring weekly test results for students to attend school each week.
Tests can be PCR tests or rapid antigen.
If a student is between dose 1 and dose 2 of the vaccine students are still required to submit weekly test results until the nursing department receives either a vaccination card or vaccination certificate as documentation that vaccination is complete.
Test results may be uploaded to this form. We will also accept test results or COVID vaccination documentation to carmen.jones@asd.edu.qa or laureen.tordecillas@asd.edu.qa.
Preparing to travel for the holidays? Please keep in mind that ASD is trusting families to adhere to the quarantine guidelines that are given to students when they get back to Hamad International Airport. Depending on the country you are traveling from will determine how long quarantine will be upon arrival back to Qatar or if it is even necessary. Once you get this information it is important that you report these dates to the office of your student’s respective division here at ASD so that faculty are aware.
Little Shop of Horrors
A message from the Business Office
Parents, if your family is moving from Doha, and your child will be withdrawing from ASD, please notify Admissions immediately. According to policy, for first semester, private pay tuition will be refunded after the later of the 45 day written notice period or the last day of attendance. Full 2nd semester tuition is due and payable for any student enrolled at the start of the second semester, no refunds will be made. For any questions on the refund policy, please contact the Business Office.
Contact the Business Office at:
Tel: 4499-1144 or 4459-1520
Pret-A-Portrait order info
From our School Community
The AMA Committee would like to thank everyone who participated at our Karak & Chapati Sales Day Event this past Monday! This event could not have been successful without the help of the parents, students, teachers, who volunteered their time to make it happen. We would also like to thank the ASD committee who also participated and most especially thanks to the Director of the School, Mr. Steve Razidlo, who gave moral support and visited our booth.
The event had given us a chance to feel again the good atmosphere, with the trust of the parents, the students happily participated and allowed us to gather in this small event that proves us that everything is slowly going back to our normal life.
We hope to see you again at our next event and once again, an enormous “THANK YOU” to all of you.
Hot Dog Lunch Sign Up
A link will be sent directly to students and staff to pre-order hot dogs; hot dogs can also be ordered by scanning the barcode in the flyer.
PTA Culture: November Happenings in Qatar
Qatar is full of exciting events year round. November highlights include exhibition openings, events, programs and such in the art/culture/tourism sector. For more information on events, please click here or contact Roqueya at ptaculture@asd.edu.qa
CAST is BACK and we need YOU! Are you a parent that would like to volunteer for CAST (Creative Arts Support Team)? Do you have a love for the Arts? Costuming? Front Of House? Design? Or Hospitality? Would you like to join a fun and creative team? If so, please fill in the google form or reach out to Jennifer Bendriss jbendriss@asd.edu.qa for information. We cannot wait to work with YOU!