Weekly Newsletter October 27, 2011

Rockstar Party Our Rock Star themed school auction party was truly one not to be missed. Thanks to great organization by Indra Pachtner and her fund raising team, the 200 plus parents and friends had a rocking good time at the Faultline Brewery in Sunnyvale last Saturday. The event, billed both as a school party and auction, raised over $90,000, a significant increase over last year. Much of the success was due to the overwhelming participation of GAIS families in offering about forty events and parties which mostly all sold out. There were also about 340 auction items donated both by parents, school classes and many local companies and organizations. This is 70 more items than were available last year. One of the popular auction items was the school reserved parking spot. The winner this year was again the Brown family who will have exclusive rights to this designated spot. Based on the success of this year's venue, we have decided to again return to the Faultline Brewery on October 20th 2012.

To see more pictures and videos please click here

News from the Head of School

Having a Productive Teacher Parent Conference

Our Parent Teacher conference day is an important opportunity for you to get an accurate temperature reading of how your child is doing this school year. In order to make the most of the time allocated to speak with your teacher I offer the following recommendations:

Come on time so you get the maximum out of the meeting.
Come to the meeting with specific questions.
Take notes during the meeting.
Speak with your child before and explain the purpose of the meeting. Ask what they feel they are having trouble with academically or what they might be concerned about at school.
Ask the teacher for advice on what you can do at home to help.

Please note that I and the admin staff will be on campus all day should you wish to drop into our offices for questions or concerns. Have a great conference day!

MYP Corner by Dominic Liechti

Dominic November 1st is Conference Day in the International Middle School (IMS). Next school year we will have about 90 students in the International Middle School, both because we will be incorporating the fifth grade into Middle School and because the current classes are growing as well. Because of this growth the International Middle School has had to develop a different conference system than the Elementary School in order to accommodate all of the parents and students.

Our main goal at the conference is to give feedback about our approaches to learning (ATL). What are the ATL's?

A MYP student in the IMS acquires 21st century skills which include collaboration, communication, information literacy, organizational abilities, attitudes toward work, reflection, problem-solving, critical thinking and conceptual understanding.

In the Middle School, we enhance this process through the approaches to learning (ATL) which are organization, collaboration, communication, reflection, information literacy, thinking and transfer skills. These ATL's, with clear indicators, are developed over the three years of our MYP program and each teacher has a specific focus in each Unit on certain ATL's.

Here is an example of how these indicators are cultivated in practice in the MYP. In information literacy, one of our indicators is the ability to reference accurately. Therefore, if a teacher has this focus in his Unit, he will enhance the process in using APA citation style, which has been used worldwide as a standard for capstone projects. Moreover, he/she will demonstrate how to identify reliable and valid information on different resources and not only Wikipedia. Although, we have a certain focus, all the ATL's are ongoing and will be practiced during the Unit.

In sum, at the Conference Day our IMS team will take the time to share a thorough ATL feedback with the parents and the students. The feedback is based on a self-evaluation from the students and an evaluation from the teacher. After the discussion, the parents, students, and teacher agree on sustainable goals, which will be enhanced during the school year.

PYP Corner by Maike Silver

Currently most classes are in the middle of their second Unit of Inquiry. The complexity of the universe and space is inquired into by the fifth graders. Our fourth graders are interviewing members of religious groups to gain a perspective of different belief systems and values. The histories of indigenous people, explorers and settlers are investigated by grades three. They look at it from the perspective of how newcomers impact existing populations. The second graders are looking at adaptation of communities over time as they compare the Ohlone village with those of settlers and today. Transportation systems and basic scientific principles connected to these are the concepts explored by our first graders. In our Vorschule students examine shelters and how they changed over time to meet the needs of the people. How to express yourself through music is the unit that will start in Pre-School next week. Looking at these big concepts provide students with opportunities to be inquirers and become knowledgeable global thinkers.

Preschool Corner by Heike Schmalstieg

Kiepenkasper2011 Uwe Spillman arrived yesterday for his annual Kiepenkasper performance. He is currently touring the West Coast putting on performances at various German schools with his puppet Kasper. The show ran for about 45 minutes and was a big hit with the kids. Uwe lives in Germany and travels throughout Europe and the US putting on old fashioned puppet shows in German. All preschool and vorschul classes assembled in the Gym to enjoy the two act show. The show is unique, as it is all in German, uses traditional puppets and the interactions of the children and uses a big wicker basket ('Kiepe') as a stage

School's Office Closed

closed Next Thursday and Friday, October 27-28, we will have a training session for all administrative staff on the new Blackbaud software package that we are introducing. As a result we will be closing our office for these two days. We will still check phone and email messages periodically. In the event of an emergency please call Peter Metzger at 650-796-5971.

GAIS School Band First Concert

School Band Concert Amy Nathan, our music teacher and band director, would like to invite the GAIS community to the upcoming Music Debut Concert next Thursday, November 3rd starting at 6:00 pm. The entire middle school will perform a few short pieces (full-class and duets) to showcase their progress so far this year. We are certain you will be very impressed by many of the student's hard work and dedication in this new program. Hope to see you all there next Thursday evening in the school gym from 6-7pm.

Workday

Work day Our next Workday is on Saturday, November 5 from 10 am to 4 pm. Some painting, cleaning, distributing playground bark etc. is needed. If you would like to participate please contact the office at offmgr@gais.org and bring your own cleaning supplies (e.g. bucket, cleaning spray, gloves, wheel barrel, old rags and sponges). Please also bring a snack and drinks for yourself.

Marketing GAIS Events

As you probably know, GAIS organizes a lot of community events during the year. While most of these events are organized to create the great community spirit which we are lucky to have, some events also promote the school to the outside community. We try to post information about these events on the many internet club and organization bulletin boards and this year we have a parent volunteer, Christine Jojarth, who is responsible for this task. In order to make sure that the messages that go out are consistent and not overlapping on these bulletin boards, we ask that parents do not post without first consulting directly with Stella Klose. She can be reached at

sklose@gais.org

For newsletter information, questions or article submissions, please contact Dagmar Stullich at offmgr@gais.org. or call the office at 650-324-8617.

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