Dear High School Community,

It was a week that reminded us how busy and thriving the High School is. Accompanying the usual array of learning activities, we played host to the Freedom from Chemical Dependency (FCD) group, held our annual Curriculum Evening and provided a highly informative Senior College Night. We thank all of you who attended these events and hope you found them valuable. Don’t forget we will hold our first Parent/Advisory Forum of the year on Thursday, October 7 - more details to be found in next week’s Sahifa.

COVID-19 Updates

Thankfully we report that there were no cases in the High School this week. However, we remind parents to keep your child at home if they are sick. We have a high vaccination rate in our division but we remain vigilant and determined to sustain a safe learning environment for all our students and staff. Thank you.

We reiterate our plea to parents not to send their children to school if they exhibit symptoms related to COVID-19. Please err on the side of caution and take them to be tested.

Curriculum Night

We thank all of you who attended our Curriculum Night event yesterday evening. Please find the recording of the event here.

Here’s the passcode: 5J!e?w72

National Merit Scholarship

Huge congratulations to Senior Leah Mathew who qualified as a semifinalist for the National Merit Scholarship. This is a wonderful accolade and we are immensely proud of Leah’s academic achievements!

AP Updates

AP students are beginning to take their first Summative assessments in their courses, which are an important tool to gauge learning to this point and will ultimately form much of the basis for the Semester grade. However, it is equally--if not more--important that AP students complete all assigned Formative assessment tasks. This foundational component of learning is vital to access the large amount of content knowledge that is required for success in AP courses, and also provides important feedback to the AP teachers about whether, and to what degree, learning is taking place. Students are reminded to adhere to ASD’s academic honesty policy and to give credit to any sources or collaboration that takes place in the completion of homework assignments. If you have any questions about our AP Courses or the AP Capstone Diploma program, please contact our AP Coordinator at: joshua.giddens@asd.edu.qa

IBDP Diploma Updates

This week our students are undergoing training in how to reference, cite and use databases for research. The International Baccalaureate Organisation(IBO) and ASD take academic integrity quite seriously and as such it is important that our students are aptly prepared for the research components of the course. Please find the IBO documentation on Effective Citation and Referencing. Our DP course students will also be accessing these skill sets via targeted Zoom sessions in the coming weeks. Students will be supported if they are underperforming to ensure we offer early intervention in semester 1. If you have any questions or you would like additional information please do not hesitate to contact the IBDP Coordinator, Ms. Katrina Charles at katrina.charles@asd.edu.qa

Freedom from Chemical Dependency (FCD)

As you know, representatives from FCD spent the last week getting to know our students, imparting upon them the perils and devastation that come from dependency on drugs, alcohol and other addictive agents. Grade 9 and 10 students had the opportunity to learn with the FCD representatives during their Health and PE classes, while Grade 12 and 11 students had opportunities to meet with them during their study blocks. Many of you also took the opportunity to listen and learn alongside each other during the parents-only session on Tuesday evening as well. After we have had the opportunity to debrief fully with the FCD representatives, we will gladly share their takeaways from our student body with you in a future Sahifa.

The Booster Club Store

Our magnificent Booster Club Store reopens each Wednesday, 8:30 am - 1:00 pm. We will be taking all the necessary safety precautions and promise you all some wonderful opportunities to buy merchandise that celebrates and supports our school. See you there!

Key Upcoming Dates

Thursday, October 7: Parent Advisory Forum (more info in next weeks Sahifa)

Weekly/Monthly Calendar

Our day rotation schedule can be found here. Please note it will be updated as per directions from the Ministry of Health when necessary.

Teaching and Learning Moment

Over the past week the Middle East Studies (MES) students have completed their introductory unit on 'What is the Middle East?' Unfortunately, the students could not agree on the answer to the question. Fortunately, they are able to explain why the question has so many different responses and why people disagree about where and what the region is. The students completed a summative assessment explaining the complexities of the Middle East. In this introductory unit to the course, the students have explored the challenges of defining the region through different lenses such as physical geography, culture and shared historical connections.

The unit also provided the opportunity for the students to welcome some visitors to their infographic display based around the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the hazards of generalizing about the Middle East. Students were able to explain why people have a hard time agreeing on what is (and isn't) the Middle East, why progress towards attaining the SDGs is so varied across the region, and how their selected infographic country fitted the profile of 'the Middle East'.

Service Updates

In our desire to ensure our parent community has more access to Learning Service information, we have provided access for parents on the “Learning Service” tab on the HS Office Teneen page. The same information is available on the HS Student Teneen Page for students. Supplementary information can also be accessed on our Learning Service Libguide. This page is now updated and live.

Firstly, a reminder that if you are the parent of a Grade 9 or 10 student, please ensure students have had a chance to look through our virtual service job fair and that they have signed up for at least one informational session before the end of the day today (Thursday). Our service clubs will begin holding their informational meetings in the upcoming week so that students can decide if the club they have chosen is right for them. If students do not hear back from a club via email or similar, please encourage them to reach out to the club’s leadership as indicated on the slide in the virtual service job fair. Hundreds of signups are being coordinated so it is imperative that students be proactive if they do not hear from a group they are trying to reach.

If you are the parent of a student new to ASD who is joining Grade 11 or 12, please ensure you or your child has contacted Mr. Shang (cshang@asd.edu.qa) so that they are up to speed with either the process to transfer service hours from their previous school, or that they are familiar with the ASD requirements they need to meet if they do not have anything to transfer. Students arriving in Grade 11 and 12 who do not have service hours to transfer from a previous school need to undertake one service commitment to meet the graduation requirements. Those requirements are once again here in this video.

All of this information is also available on the Learning Service Libguide and we encourage you again to have a look at it.

One of the very big milestones in the Service Calendar is our annual Service Symposium which will take place this upcoming Sunday. This is quite exciting as this event officially kicks off Service Club operations in terms of ASD life.

Evan Wesley from the Thirst Project will again be facilitating the strategic planning protocol that we require all of our HS Service Groups to participate in to refine and focus their goals for the year. This is what happens on the back end of Service Planning to ensure that all of our groups are aligned to the goals of the ASD Learning Service Policy and that we provide meaningful learning experiences for our students. This year, this is taking place on Zoom. More on this next week!

For questions about service or IB CAS at ASD, please contact Mr. Shang at cshang@asd.edu.qa.

Counseling

Safeguarding Assembly

This week and next week we are having a safeguarding assembly during advisory. This is to inform students about what safeguarding is as well as the safeguarding policy at ASD. You can watch a recording of the assembly here.

Senior College Night

Thank you to everyone that attended our Senior College Night on Monday! It was great to see so many parents and students on our Zoom call! Please fill out this survey if you attended. If you missed it--or just want to watch it again, you can find each of the videos here:

USA Room

UK Room

Canada Room

Qatar Room

Netherlands/Europe Room

Counselor Coffee

Thank you to all of the parents that attended the Counselor Coffee. If you missed it, you can find it here. We are also looking at the Counselor Coffee as a whole, so please fill out this survey so we can make sure we are meeting your needs

Senior Counselor Course

We started our Senior Counselor Course this week! Students looked over their transcripts, working on the counselor letter of recommendation questionnaire, setting up accounts for different application platforms and more! It was a great session with the students and giving them a full 90 minutes to work hard on their university applications while asking questions and getting support!

The Senior Counselor Course will consist of the following:

Week 1: Housekeeping - Transcript Review, Application Platform creation, Maia Learning Uses & Common App sync, Letter of Recommendation Requests

Week 2: Crystallization - Finalizing university choices, Adding them to Maia, Requesting Documents for submission, a reminder to schedule a meeting with Counselor

Week 3: Essay Writing Workshop (Essay, Personal Statement, Motivational Letter)

Week 4: What to expect after you've applied

Week 5: Misc - Interviews, Scholarships, Etc.

Week 6: Working Time

University Visits

Save the date for the virtual International University Fair Qatar on September 28-29 from 4:00 - 7:00 pm!

Resources

We encourage students and parents to check out the HS Counseling Teneen page within the Main HS Office as it has lots of resources available for students and parents.

Have a great weekend.

Michael Roberts,

High School Principal

American School of Doha

Booster Club Online Store

Our ASD Booster Store Online Catalog includes the store's most popular items so be ready to show your dragon spirit. The Booster Club provides positive support and assistance to the American School of Doha Athletics and Activities Program for all school divisions.

Shop Online by clicking on the link below; pick up your purchased items at school! The orders will be delivered on a weekly basis to each student and ASD staff.

Please fill out THIS form to purchase your items after you have explored the Catalog below!

Click HERE for the Booster Club catalog.