 Dear Families, Upcoming Dates Thursday, February 3rd 6:30 PM State of the School Monday, February 7th PTO Meeting featuring Rita Rodriguez with updates from the Light Rail Corridor development February 11th 6:00 PM K-4 Carnival of Cultures Performance 7:20 5-6Carnival of Cultures Performance Thursday, February 17th NORMAL SCHOOL DAY, Parent Teacher Conferences after school Friday, February 18th NO SCHOOL Public Recognition We are pleased to announce that TCGIS has been nominated as a Center of Teaching Excellence by the American Association of Teachers of German. We appreciate this vote of confidence and prestigious recognition. We look forward to a story in the Star Tribune on Tuesday, February 8th in the Rites of Passage section featuring Herr Solakau and the Performing Arts program at TCGIS. Please take a look at the Strib on Tuesday. We'll send you the link next week. Classroom Celebrations February and March bring a couple of new excuses for celebrating at a classroom level. Individual classrooms will plan low-key Valentine's Day celebrations. You will hear from classroom teachers directly of any plans. If children bring in Valentines for their peers they must bring them for everyone in the class. Germans also traditionally celebrate Fasching or Carnival the day before Ash Wednesday. Children will be invited to wear a costume to school for Fasching on March 8th for classroom-level celebrations. February 3rd State of the School You will receive updates from leaders at the school on where we are and where we're heading with a particular focus on plans for our Middle School. We invite you to join us, ask questions, talk with each other and learn more about our school as an organization. February 11th Carnival of Cultures Performance: St. Thomas More Cathedral It is a big production to bring everyone from the school together. We are working very hard at school to streamline the schedule of that day. We recognize that it is logistically difficult to get families organized at this time of day and appreciate your flexibility and support in making it happen. Please aim to have K-4 kids dropped off between 5:15 and 5:30 to facilitate kids being prepared to start on time for a 6:00 performance. 5-6 graders are more than welcome to watch the K-4 Performance, but if they are not able, they need to be at the church at 7:00. We also welcome families of younger kids to enjoy the 5-6 Performance, but respect families' needs to get home as well. We very much hope that you can join us for one or both of the presentations of work done in Performance Arts classes this year. The schedule for the evening is: · 5:15 5:30 Drop-off for students K - 4 · 6:00 - 7:00 K-4th grade Performance · 6:45 - 7:00 5th and 6th grade Drop-off (tentative) · 7:20 - 8:05 5th and 6th grade Performance Report Cards You should have received your child's report cards earlier this week. Some of the changes in this year's report cards are a reflection of work being taken on by the Assessment Committee. This dedicated group of teachers and others is working hard to take a deep look at what expectations are at each grade level and communicating those expectations clearly to parents. Ultimately we would like those grade level expectations to be reflected in our report cards. This is not work that can be done overnight. The committee's first addition was the Report Card supplement that had a more detailed checklist of social skills. We are preparing documents to detail skills in academic areas. Staff will be taking time on Curriculum day on March 18th to make progress on this project. We will update you as we go on this project. The Performing Arts program was ungraded at all grade levels. Herr Solakau and I agreed that our focus is on encouraging creativity and helping all to participate and did not feel that a grade would be useful. We will include comments about Performing Arts in the June report card. Grants Committee Request Please let us know if your company has a grants and/or donations committee. As we continue to look for funding resources for the school, we recognize that many companies have small grants committees made up of employees. Usually, these committees give donations in the range of $500-$2,500, and they support programs that involve their employees. If your company has such a committee, please let Carley M. Stuber know about it and she can help you submit a request. She is a member of the Grants and External Relations Committee and can be reached at cmstuber@earthlink.net or 651-245-9918. You may also call her with questions about this idea. Thank you very much! Opportunities to support the school Many events coming up to be involved with our community that also support the school financially. Thanks for your purchase of Maskenball tickets for February 26th and Timberwolves tickets for March 7th. More information below. Thanks for all you do to support your children and the school as a whole. Frau Annika Fjelstad
Director
Twin Cities German Immersion School afjelstad@tcgis.org | 
