American School | Independent International School in Casablanca | GWA

Time 2020-06-22 18:03:40

Web Name: American School | Independent International School in Casablanca | GWA

WebSite: http://www.gwa.ac.ma

ID:8051

Keywords:

Independent,School,American,

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Discover GWAEquipping Minds Building CharacterWe serve the metropolitan area of Casablanca, Morocco by offering an innovative, affordable, American preschool through high school education, built around a multilingual program.Welcome from the Head of School VisionSchool ProfileAccreditationOur CampusGovernanceAlumniEmploymentContactDirectionsAdmissionsJoin the GWA Community GWA is proud of our American PK-12 curriculum, offering Advanced Placement course in a variety of disciplines, French and Arabic programs, small classroom sizes, and well equipped facilities.Apply NowWhy Choose GWA?Re-enrollment 2020/21Online Admissions ProcessAcademicsEducation at GWAGWA educates the whole person by equipping minds and building character: empowering students to serve Morocco and the global community with wisdom and compassion.Lower SchoolIB Diploma Upper SchoolLibrary Media Tech Center Student LifeOutside of the Classroom GWA students have a large range of opportunities and activities to participate in, from drama and sport teams, to after school activities and Model United Nations.AthleticsThe ArtsAfter School ActivitiesStudent Clubs Community ServiceSchool ServicesServices for GWA Families Find information about the Nurse's Office, Counseling Services, transportation, uniforms, and GWA food program.Nurse's Office Counseling Services School BusCafeteriaSchool StoreGWA CommunityStay Informed about GWAInformation about events, weekly cafeteria menus, news, and much more.Parent/Student LoginStaff Login School Calendars Parent ClubThe WeeklyHandbook and FormsGWA Online SchoolVirtual Graduation GWA Welcomes Online Admissions Testing GWA offers an admissions process entirely online - from first inquiry through admissions testing! Pour la version fran aise, cliquez ici !GWA Welcomes Online Admissions TestingThis week focuses on one of the challenges posed by GWA s online operations this spring that has not caught the attention of most people in GWA s community but yet remains critically important to the success of GWA: online admissions testing.To gain admission to GWA, candidates not only submit academic reports and other pertinent documents; they also get assessed by the Early Childhood, Elementary, and Upper School admissions testing teams to provide the Enrollment Management Committee with important data that guide its enrollment decisions. The quarantine-enforced move into Online School operations in mid-March came at a traditional high point of GWA s admissions season that typically runs from January through August. Since then, the fancy banners inviting families to on-campus admissions testing sessions scheduled monthly have gone unseen on the empty campus. However, that has not stopped GWA s admissions efforts from continuing the important work of recruiting, assessing, admitting, and enrolling new students for the 2020-2021 school year that starts next fall. With the adoption of new admissions software a few years ago, our admissions process has been mostly online for a while, said Admissions Manager Fatima Zohra El Alaoui. But testing was one element we found difficult to move online, she said. Relying on the same 21st century skills practiced by teachers, students, and parents during Online School, the admissions staff used creativity, flexibility, and grit to modify testing procedures in ways that allow the Enrollment Management Committee to continue consideration of applications for admission without compromising the ability to make decisions ensuring student quality and alignment with GWA s Visions Statement. We are so excited to be able to continue our admissions work even amid the unique circumstances this spring, and have been pleased with the positive response we have received from the families of applicants doing admissions testing online. From the youngest applicants for our Nursery program through applicants for high school grades, our process welcomes families to the prospect of joining the GWA community next year even when the campus itself remains closed, said Mme El Alaoui.Details of the testing vary somewhat for applicants to Nursery through Kindergarten programs, Elementary grades 1-5, or Upper School grades 6-12 in order to measure well what matters most in their respective assessments. The general process is the same for all, though, in that admissions staff help guide families through submitting key documents providing important information about their children, then set up testing appointments for student candidates with members of the testing teams to assess language and other important skills, with the interviews recorded to include things of note in applicants files. Following the online tests, the testers share test results with the Enrollment Management Committee, which makes the ultimate decisions on which candidates to offer admission for the upcoming school year. Even though our testers will enjoy their summer holidays, testing online allows us to continue testing through the summer by setting virtual meetings with them wherever they may happen to be in the world, said Mme El Alaoui. For so many schools, existing in a purely online setting creates a huge obstacle to moving forward with admissions activity. But at GWA, online admissions testing is just one more way for us to model 21st century education for our students and families, and for all of Casablanca, she said.GWA Introduit les Tests d Admission en LigneL article de cette semaine est consacr l une des difficult s rencontr e par le fonctionnement en ligne de GWA, insoup onnable pour la plupart des membres de notre communaut , mais dont le succ s de GWA d pend malgr tout largement : les tests d admission en ligne.Pour tre admis GWA, les candidats doivent non seulement constituer un dossier avec leurs r sultats scolaires et autres documents pertinents, mais doivent galement tre valu s par les quipes d admissions de la Maternelle, de l cole Primaire ou Secondaire, pour fournir au Comit de Gestion des Inscriptions des donn es importantes guidant leurs d cisions. Le confinement, obligeant le campus fonctionner en ligne la mi-mars a co ncid avec le traditionnel pic d activit de la saison des admissions GWA, qui s tend de janvier ao t. Depuis lors, les banderoles color es invitant les familles venir sur le campus pour les sessions d admissions organis es chaque mois sont rest es invisibles sur notre campus d sert . Cela n a cependant pas entrav le dynamisme et les efforts de l quipe des admissions de GWA, qui a poursuivi son vaste travail de recrutement, valuation, admission et inscription des nouveaux l ves pour l ann e scolaire 2020-2021 d marrant l automne prochain. Suite l installation quelques ann es plus t t d un nouveau logiciel de gestion des admissions, le processus des admissions se faisait d j en grande partie en ligne , nous indique Fatima Zohra El Alaoui, la Responsables des Admissions. Mais les tests furent un l ment difficile mettre en place en ligne, poursuit-elle. En s appuyant sur les m mes comp tences du 21 me si cle qu enseignants, l ves et parents ont appliqu es pendant l cole en Ligne, l quipe des admissions a d ploy des talents de cr ativit , flexibilit et t nacit pour modifier les proc dures d valuation. De ce fait, le Comit de Gestion des Inscriptions fut m me d tudier les demandes d admission, sans compromettre l int grit de leurs d cisions, pr servant la qualit des l ves et les valeurs de l nonc de Vision GWA. Nous sommes particuli rement ravis de pouvoir continuer notre travail au service des admissions malgr les circonstances exceptionnelles que nous avons v cues ce printemps. Nous sommes satisfaits du taux de r ponses positives des familles candidates effectuant les tests d admissions en ligne. Qu il s agisse des plus jeunes candidats postulant pour notre programme de Nursery, jusqu aux candidats pour les classes du lyc e, notre proc dure accueille les familles en vue de rejoindre la communaut GWA l ann e prochaine, m me si le campus reste physiquement ferm indique Mme El Alaoui.Les modalit s des valuations diff rent quelque peu si les enfants sont candidats aux programmes de Nursery-Kindergarten, aux classes du Primaire (grade 1-5), ou aux classes du Secondaire (grade 6-12), afin d appr cier au mieux les crit res les plus importants dans leurs valuations respectives. La proc dure g n rale reste cependant identique pour chacun : le service des admissions accompagne les familles dans la constitution du dossier qui contient des renseignements importants sur leur enfant, puis fixent les rendez-vous en vue des tests. Des membres de l quipe des admissions valuent le niveau de langue et d autres comp tences importantes des l ves candidats, lors d un entretien enregistr , afin d inclure ces l ments dans leur dossier de candidature. Suite aux tests en ligne, les examinateurs partagent leurs conclusions avec le Comit de Gestion des Inscriptions, qui revient la d cision finale du choix des candidats re us pour l ann e scolaire venir. Bien que nos examinateurs partent en vacances cet t , cette formule nous permet de poursuivre les tests en ligne durant tout l t , en leur fixant des rendez-vous virtuels, o qu ils se trouvent dans le monde explique Mme El Alaoui. Pour de nombreuses coles, le fait d exister dans un environnement purement en ligne est une entrave aux activit s li es aux admissions. Mais GWA, les tests d admissions en ligne constituent simplement une mani re de plus d expliciter la p dagogie du 21 me si cle nos l ves et nos familles, ainsi qu tout Casablanca, conclut-elle. Continue Reading about GWA Welcomes Online Admissions Testing Capstone Gallery Walk Goes Online The Capstone research project is a graduation requirement that GWA students complete across their senior year. This year, the Capstone Gallery Walk has gone online. Pour la version fran aise, cliquez ici !The Capstone research project is a graduation requirement that GWA students complete across their senior year. This year, GWA introduced multidisciplinary world studies projects, and multilingual projects that allow students to complete a project entirely in French or in Arabic. These new measures more closely aligned GWA s Capstone Project with the Extended Essay that the school s International Baccalaureate Diploma Program students will be completing as part of their IB diploma requirements.Ideally, Capstone bridges the Seniors high school and undergraduate years because it is a culminating project, prompted by the intellectual curiosity they have built across their academic lives, and yet it s components mirror an undergraduate dissertation. To this end students must complete a research report that includes a literature review, their assessment of the research of others, and their findings, conclusions, and recommendations that best answer the research question they developed at the start of Senior year. Students then defend their findings orally in a panel presentation moderated by faculty.In order to disseminate their findings further afield, among GWA staff and students in both the Upper School and the Lower School, the Seniors create an academic poster like those one would ordinarily see at a university or college research conference: the posters condense the project and make it more accessible to an non-specialist audience without specialized knowledge of the subject who are then welcome to follow the research journey from start to finish.With the move to virtual school, the Gallery Walk had to turn virtual as well. Thus, instead of creating a physical poster to hang on the wall of the MPR, they were invited to use programs such as Canva, Google Slides, Keynote, PowerPoint, or Adobe Spark. For those who prefer hands on , they were permitted to draw or assemble a physical poster and then submit a photograph of it for a virtual Gallery. More examples of our Senior s gallery work are displayed in this Facebook Gallery.Article written by Dr. Susan Martin La Visite de la Galerie Capstone Se Fait En Ligne Le projet de recherche Capstone est une exigence en vue de l obtention du dipl me que les l ves GWA doivent effectuer au cours de leur derni re ann e de lyc e. Cette ann e, GWA a introduit des projets multi-disciplinaires tudes du monde contemporain , et des projets multilingues, permettant aux l ves de rendre la totalit de leur Projet Capstone en anglais, en fran ais ou en arabe. Avec ces nouvelles mesures, le Projet Capstone GWA s aligne plus troitement avec le M moire, l une des composantes du Programme du Dipl me du Baccalaur at International de l cole que les l ves effectueront, dans le cadre des exigences li es au dipl me IB.Id alement, le projet Capstone est une passerelle entre les ann es lyc e des l ves Seniors et leurs premi res ann es universitaires, car ce projet repr sente l aboutissement de l ouverture intellectuelle que les l ves ont d velopp e tout au long de leur scolarit , mais ses composantes sont galement le miroir d une dissertation de niveau universitaire. Dans cette optique, les l ves doivent r diger un projet de recherche qui inclut une analyse documentaire, une remise en question des recherches effectu es par d autres personnes, leurs r sultats, leurs conclusions et les recommandations qui r pondent au mieux la question de recherche qu ils ont d finie au d but de leur derni re ann e au Lyc e. Les l ves d fendent ensuite leurs r sultats lors d une pr sentation orale devant un jury d enseignants. Les enseignants invitent les l ves discuter de leur travail, puis le notent.Afin de promouvoir plus largement ce travail de recherches aupr s du personnel et des l ves du Secondaire et du Primaire, les Seniors cr ent un poster acad mique, comme ceux que l on voit habituellement aux soutenances universitaires : les posters r sument le projet et le rendent plus accessible un public non-sp cialis n ayant pas de connaissances pr alables sur le sujet. Tout un chacun est alors le bienvenu pour suivre le d roulement du projet de recherche de A Z.En raison du passage l cole en ligne, l affichage des posters, ou Gallery Walk, a d se faire en ligne galement. Ainsi, au lieu de cr er un poster papier que l on aurait accroch aux murs du MPR, les l ves ont t invit s utiliser diff rents programmes informatiques, tels que Canva, Google Slides, Keynote, PowerPoint, ou Adobe Spark. Pour les l ves plus manuels, ces derniers ont t autoris s dessiner ou assembler concr tement un poster, puis ont soumis une photo de leur poster pour la Galerie virtuelle. Davantage d exemples des posters de nos Seniors sont expos s sur la Galerie Photo sur Facebook.Dr. Susan Martin Continue Reading about Capstone Gallery Walk Goes Online Understanding 21st Century Skills: Planning Amid Comfort with Ambiguity Becoming more and more comfortable ambiguity, GWA s administration this week shared a timeline for closing out the 2019-2020 school year despite the uncertainty in these changing times. Pour la version fran aise, cliquez ici !Several weeks ago The Weekly introduced the Understanding 21st Century Skills series of articles on with a focus on Comfort with Ambiguity because so many unknowns existed as the COVID-19 quarantine began and GWA launched online school. With the Moroccan government having extended the quarantine to at least June 10, GWA continues to grapple with ambiguity regarding many issues involving variables that cannot yet be known while needing to move forward with planning to close out the upcoming school year and to prepare for the upcoming year.In this context GWA s administration this week shared a timeline for closing out the 2019-2020 school year. Because currently we cannot know if the quarantine actually will end on June 10 or what social distancing restrictions will follow the quarantine whenever it ends, and because closing out the school year without returning to on-campus operations will take longer than it would in the unlikely event that everyone could return to campus without restrictions and without social distancing beginning June 11, this timeline adjusts the end-of-the-year schedule to accommodate the range of activities schools conduct at the end of every academic year: things like students turning in final assignments; preparing and conducting grade-level promotions and graduation; students turning in school property; teachers turning in grades and packing up classrooms; and staff doing a final check-out before leaving for the summer. These adjustments will let the GWA community complete the necessary logistical tasks that require attention each year in ways that fit the unique circumstances that confront us this year.This ambiguous time also sets a context in which the administration and faculty have begun planning for the 2020-2021 school year. In ordinary years, schools move from spring to fall with the end of one year serving as the starting point for starting the next year. New initiatives and priorities introduced typically do not bring radical change. However, with so many variables unknowable at present, and more so without even knowing when we might know them, schools around the globe have turned to scenario planning that considers a very broad range of possibilities for which to prepare. Doing so gives institutions the flexibility to remain agile and conform to whatever particular circumstances develop over time. GWA s administration has been engaged in such scenario planning for 2020-2021 for weeks. Through the end of this school year the Upper School, Lower School, and operational divisions will focus on gaming out the different scenarios GWA might encounter in the fall. That way, staff and students alike can be ready to start next year well regardless of whether we are on campus without restrictions, on campus with social distancing, online, or in a blended learning environment that combines elements of these possibilities. What families can count on is GWA s commitment to providing an educational experience aligned with the Vision Statement in whatever manifestation circumstances bring.Planning amid comfort with ambiguity carries its share of challenges. It also provides great opportunities to explore and create things of value we could not begin to imagine without being tossed now and then from the routines that keep us following narrower and more predictable paths.Comprendre les Comp tences du 21 me Si cle :Planifier tout en naviguant entre Confort et IncertitudeIl y a de cela quelques semaines, le Weekly introduisait une s rie d articles avec pour th matique Comprendre les Comp tences du 21 me Si cle et mettait l accent sur le Confort malgr l Incertitude , car il existait tout un ensemble d inconnues lorsque le confinement li au COVID-19 a commenc et lorsque GWA a lanc le syst me d cole en ligne. Le gouvernement marocain ayant pour l instant prolong le confinement jusqu au 10 juin, GWA n en finit pas d tre confront e l incertitude en ce qui concerne de nombreuses questions impliquant des variables encore inconnues malgr la n cessit d aller de l avant avec notamment l organisation de la fin de l ann e scolaire toute proche et la pr paration de la rentr e scolaire suivante.C est dans ce contexte que l administration de GWA a partag cette semaine un calendrier pour la fin de l ann e scolaire 2019-2020. A l heure actuelle nous ne savons pas si le confinement prendra r ellement fin le 10 juin, ni quelles seront les mesures de distanciation sociale qui suivront lorsque le confinement sera lev . Clore l ann e scolaire sans pour autant revenir un tat de fonctionnement normal du campus prendra plus longtemps que cela ne devrait, dans l ventualit improbable o chacun pourrait revenir sur le campus sans tenir compte de mesures de distanciations sociales partir du 11 juin. C est pour ces raisons que le calendrier propos adapte l organisation de la fin de l ann e pour satisfaire toute une s rie d activit s qui se d roulent habituellement la fin de chaque ann e scolaire : cela va de la n cessit pour les l ves de rendre leurs valuations finales ; la pr paration et au d roulement des c r monies de passage en classe sup rieure et c r monie de remise des dipl me ; en passant par la n cessit pour les l ves de restituer le mat riel appartement l cole ; la n cessit pour les enseignants de rendre les notes et nettoyer leurs classes ; ou encore la paperasserie administrative li e aux d parts en cong d t du personnel. Ces modifications permettront la communaut GWA d accomplir ces t ches logistiques qui doivent tre men es bien chaque ann e de mani re s adapter aux circonstances uniques auxquelles nous sommes confront s cette ann e.C est aussi dans ce contexte ambigu que l administration et les enseignants ont commenc pr parer l ann e scolaire 2020-2021. En temps ordinaires, les coles progressent du printemps vers l automne, la fin d une ann e servant de point de d part l ann e suivante. Les nouvelles initiatives et priorit s introduites habituellement n apportent pas de changement radical. Cependant, avec tant de variables inconnues l heure actuelle, sans m me savoir quel moment nous serons en mesure d en avoir connaissance, les coles du monde entier se sont mises planifier diff rents sc narios envisageant une multitude de possibilit s auxquelles se pr parer. Agir ainsi apporte aux tablissements la souplesse de rester r actifs et de se conformer toute situation particuli re pouvant surgir avec le temps. L administration de GWA s est mobilis e pour organiser diff rents sc narios pour 2020-2021 depuis plusieurs semaines. Jusqu la fin de cette ann e scolaire, l cole Secondaire, l cole Primaire et les unit s d exploitation veilleront se pr parer aux diff rentes situations auxquelles l cole pourrait avoir faire face la rentr e de septembre. Ainsi, le personnel et les l ves pourront faire une bonne rentr e, que celle-ci ait lieu sur le campus sans mesures restrictives, sur le campus avec des mesures de distanciations sociales, en ligne, ou dans un environnement d apprentissage mixte qui combinerait diff rents l ments de ces possibilit s. Les familles peuvent compter sur l engagement de GWA fournir un enseignement de qualit , conforme notre nonc de Vision, quels que soient les al as que la situation implique.G rer l organisation en naviguant entre confort et incertitude apporte son lot de d fis. Cela fournit par ailleurs de formidables occasions pour explorer et cr er des choses de valeur que nous n aurions m me pas eu l id e d imaginer, si nous n tions ballot s, de temps autres, hors des routines qui nous poussent suivre des chemins de plus en plus troits et pr visibles.

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