Grade 3 B Presents "Cinderella" at Student Assembly
 

In their recent IB unit, Grade 3 students explored people expressing history, imagination and values through theatrical performances. This unit fell under the transdisciplinary theme of "How we Express Ourselves". As a result of their studies Frau Burris's class presented 2 versions of Cinderella during the elementary school assembly this Wednesday morning. They started out with the original German version of "Aschenputtel" followed by an international version that included components from over 20 different Cinderella stories from around the world. Through clothing, animals, food for the festival and a variety of slippers it became apparent how the perspective of the play changes when you include local history and values into a performance. The students worked very hard and were proud of what they have accomplished. They will now finish up the unit by writing a critic about their own play. We are impressed by the outstanding and creative work done in Grade 3!

News from the Head of School

School-WASC Self Study in Final Stages

On March 28-30 we will host an accreditation team visit from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.  They will evaluate the school in order to extend our term of accreditation for a further six years. To this end we will be sending them our self study report which we have been working on for the past year or more. This self study will be available on our website for all parents to look at by the end of next week.  At the Members Meeting last night I outlined the 6 components of the action plan which are found at the conclusion of the self study report.  They are:

1.  Review and revise the staff compensation package to ensure that  GAIS is competitive on both the local and international levels to attract good teachers and ensure staff retention.
2. Increase student enrollment in the Middle School through the development and marketing of the International Middle School program.
3. Increase the number and diversity of extra-curricular programs to give the GAIS community an outlet for creative, social and physical activities.
4. Plan for GAIS' long term facility and financial stability.
5. Obtain verification for the MYP Program.
6. Increase behaviors of respect and tolerance in the student community.

It is almost the half way point of the school year. Teachers are completing summative assessments in the elementary school and are working diligently on the report cards. In a PYP school, report cards are meant to describe the progress of the students' learning and identify areas for growth. As you know by now tests are only a fraction of what we use to assess the students. Group and individual projects, reflections, educational games, group posters and oral reports are only some other strategies we use to ensure we have an accurate picture of students skills, knowledge and attitudes. Teachers have been carefully keeping track of observations and tasks given to the students and are now accumulating these to give you a good picture of their accomplishments. All core subject grades are separated into components and comments are added to ensure you get a clear representation of your child's strength and areas for improvement. Please take the report cards and use them as an opportunity to support and celebrate your student's learning.

At the end of January Nancy Urbach will return to Germany for personal reasons. Nancy has been with GAIS as Preschool Assistant teacher and HORT teacher for almost three years.  We wish Nancy all the best in her future. She will be succeeded by Judith Schroeder who is a trained Preschool teacher from Eisenach, Thuringia. She has worked both in Germany in Preschools and in the USA as an au pair. Judith will arrive at the beginning of February.

We had a very good turnout for our mid-year members meeting last evening. The most important item on the agenda for this meeting is the election of Board members. In the new Board we will no longer have the services of Andreas Wendker who stepped down from his position as Board President. Andreas has been on the Board for a phenomenal 6 years and has been a driving force in the school's growth and development as a world class IB school during his term of office. Also leaving the Board is Tracey Grown. Tracey has had an important leadership role in the implementation of the new International Middle School program.  Our sincerest thanks go to Andreas and Tracey for their incredible level of service and commitment to GAIS.   We welcome new and returning Board members Allison Marakovic, Martin Doettling, Jon Kessler and Bernard Putz.

The Spring 2011 Extracurricular Program is out now, sign-up is through Tuesday Jan. 25th. You can find the program description and sign up sheet on our website:  http://www.gais.org/resources/extracurricular-program. Please sign up early to ensure a place in your favorite class.

The deadline for early re-enrollment is January 31^st. Parents that return their enrollment contracts by this date will receive the 5% discount.  You can certainly still hand in contracts after this time but we will not be able to guarantee a place in the class as we will start accepting external applications. Parents wishing to enroll siblings should have application forms in to the office as soon as possible. Sibling enrollment will commence immediately after January 31^st.  Should you have any questions, please contact the office.

Caroline Laupp, a 18 year old student from Stuttgart/Germany is looking for a host family beginning this summer. If you are interested in hosting her, please contact her at caroline@laupp.info.

The Lost & Found Box in the back yard, near the bathrooms will be emptied next week. If you are missing some items please check before it is too late.

Native German speakers are needed to read books aloud to make book/cd sets for GAIS families who do not speak German.   Recording takes place on Fridays from 8:30-10:00 am in the library.  It usually takes only 20 minutes to complete one book.   The recordings are edited and burned onto CDs and the sound quality is quite good.  These sets are very popular with non-German speaking families.  We can only use one reader at a time, so please email our librarian Jana at jseidel@gais.org if you can help and she will put you on the schedule.