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Weekly Newsletter
September 9, 2010
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Fall Extra Curricular Program Kicks Off
Ballerinas in tutus,
basketball players in  Air Jordans, artists with paint smudged fingers, chess
players in deep concentration or scientists experimenting with the force of
gravity. The GAIS extra curricular
program has all this and more... Thanks to our Administrative Assistant, Stella
Klose, our Fall program has gotten off to a great start with a total of 267
students participating in 32 different activities.
Last minute inscriptions are still possible,
especially in 'Deutsch-Sternchen' for
children aged 4 - 6. It will meet on Thursday 2 pm - 2:50 pm starting 9/23/2010.
This course is a perfectly playful way to help your child with the German
language. In a small group they will
read German books and stories, sing German songs, paint pictures and do
collages and afterwards discuss our artwork. Contact Stella Klose at sklose@gais.org for more info.
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News from the Head of School
2010-11 is the year of
WASC Accreditation
On March 28-30, 2011, a Western Association of  Schools and
Colleges (WASC) committee will arrive at GAIS to evaluate our school-wide
program. The committee will review the school's self study report; interview
staff members, parents, board members, and students; visit classrooms; and look
at our internal structure to determine if GAIS should receive accreditation for
another six years. In 2005, the committee awarded GAIS accreditation for the
first time. This summer, GAIS began the first step in the continuing WASC
accreditation process, a "Focus on Learning Self Study." It gives the school
community the opportunity to reflect, review, and revise the school's goals and
plans. The school has the opportunity to determine its educational program's
strengths and weaknesses for successful student learning. The school then takes
those findings and writes a report containing five chapters, including
demographics, student learning goals, progress report, self-study findings, and
school-wide action plans.
Some parents may ask why GAIS needs
accreditation. The word originally meant trustworthiness in middle French and
Old Italian. Today, the Accreditation Commission for Schools has developed a
dual process, the expectation that schools must be worthy of the trust placed
in them to provide learning opportunities for their students and the important
component of self-improvement. Ultimately, WASC strives to help schools create
the highest quality learning experience they envision for all students. For
GAIS, accreditation validates the school's program, fosters improvement,
provides feedback from the perspective of qualified outsiders, and commits the
school to continued assessment and improvement of its program. Accreditation
also enables GAIS to focus on its mission and learning goals on a daily basis.
Currently, the school's leadership team has attended preparation workshops provided by WASC. Focus
groups, composed of staff members and parents, have been established and met,
while home groups, comprised of all teaching faculty, will be meeting soon.
Both groups will meet throughout the fall and winter and submit draft reports
to the school Board and parent community for comment and feedback. By January
of 2011 we will submit the final self study report to WASC. This process
and report will ultimately be the result of a collaboration of the school
community, comprised of staff, parents and board members.
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IB Corner by Maike Silver
The first place to recognize that our school is focused on International Mindedness can be seen in our mission statement. The staff, the education committee and the board have spend numerous hours analyzing and revising our mission to ensure that it truly portrays what we as a school want to accomplish. Our mission statement is closely aligned with that of the IBO to ensure the meshing of the philosophies. In reviewing our mission the staff and the board approved the addition of two important words. We felt that fostering respectful and life-long learners was clearly something our school aspires to achieve. Our final version of our mission is now as follows:
The German-American International School (GAIS) mission is to provide an outstanding international, bilingual education focused on inquiry-based learning with the goal to foster confident, creative, respectful and responsible life-long learners and global thinkers.
Everything we do at GAIS supports this purpose.
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Preschool Corner by Heike Schmalstieg
The natural cycle of life seems to keep us occupied a  while longer in the Preschool. Last week we were able to rescue two baby squirrels. This week were
not as fortunate and we were not able to save one of our own animals. On Tuesday we
discovered that Mia, our guinea pig had died over the weekend, which again led
to many questions by the children. Carol answered all, as well as possible and
also assured the children that Mia was well taken care of and had enough food,
water and many caring adults and children around them. Sometimes however,
animals can still die, especially when they are already older, which was the
case. The children were very respectful, dug a hole together and decorated a
stone to be put on top of the grave. You might still get some questions
or comments from your child at home.
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Beach Party
Please come and join us at
our annual Beach Party at Half Moon Bay on Saturday, September 11. This is a
fun event and a great way to meet other parents in the community and make
friends. The invitations have been sent out by email last week. Come prepared
to join in the fun activities, like volleyball.
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Lost & Found Box
The school's lost and found box is placed behind the school, next to the
bathrooms. Please check for items on a regular basis. Clothes that are not
picked-up will be washed and given to charity at the last Saturday of each month. Labeled
clothes always have a better chance of being returned to its owner..
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IT - Website Help Needed
Are you familiar updating php servers? We need to move to the most up to date version of Jambla, a php based website management tool and need some help. If you can make this upgrade a smooth process please contact Kristin Hughes at kristen@hughes-family.org
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New Newsletter Format
We have heard lots of
positive feedback about our new newsletter format. Please be aware that the tabs at the top also
lead directly into our website. At present we have a circulation of over 700
addresses which the newsletter reaches.
This includes alumni, friends and family all over the world. If you would like to add someone on to the
circulation list just contact the school office. It has come to our attention
that a few parents are not getting the newsletter which comes out every
Thursday like clock work. If that is the
case please contact the office to check that we have your correct email
address.
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Going Slow on Elliott Drive
Thanks
to all parents for the effective traffic monitoring on Elliott Drive. Our neighbors do appreciate
our consideration. Please be attentive to residents trying to leave their
driveways in the morning and stop for them. I also recommend that you sign up
early for your traffic duty. Waiting
till the end of the year could result in not finding any open slots.
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New Parents Breakfasts
On September 13 & 14 we
will hold breakfasts to welcome new parents to the school. The breakfasts start at 8:20 under the blue
tent and all are invited. New parents
are welcome to come on either day. This
is being organized by the Class Reps.
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Host Family
Tim Strasser, the son of our 5th
grade teacher, Mrs. Strasser is looking for a Host family in Santa Cruz. He is studying at UCSC from
September 18th until December 9th, focusing on Society and Environment and
is willing to help with Babysitting, House-sitting, Tutoring etc. If you have
any leads, please contact him at tim.strasser@yahoo.de.
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For
newsletter information, questions or article submissions, please
contact Dagmar Stullich at offmgr@germanamericanschool.org. or call the
office at 650-324-8617.
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