Halloween 

Halloween, this past Monday, was another big day at GAIS.  It started in the morning when many students come to school already in costume. Activities in class went on all day which are theme related including such things as pumpkin carving and parading around the school. The big event of the day for those in Grades 1-5 was the haunted houses, run by the Student Council.   Thanks to the SMV for their work and enthusiasm and to their advisor Maike Silver.

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News from the Head of School

Creating a Great Supportive Community   

In the past few days I have become especially impressed by the great atmosphere and supportive community that exists here at GAIS.  Some recent events have really brought this to light.  The Auction Party was not only a great deal of fun on a social level but also produced a fantastic result in terms of fund raising.  The Parent Teacher Conference Day saw almost perfect participation and gave me the opportunity to check in with a lot of parents on how things were going.  The feedback I received was overwhelmingly positive and highlighted a community of happy children and satisfied parents.  

1. We will soon be entering the enrollment season. Many new families first hear about the school from friends so spreading the word about GAIS is not only a great way to support the school but will also result in a referral bonus for you.
2. You can also share your positive GAIS experience with other parents by writing a review and posting it on the sites below. Whether 10 words or 100, your review is very valuable and many parents look at THESE reviews to get a sense of our school and our community:

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MYP Corner by Dominic Liechti

To keep you up to date: The International Middle School (IMS) is currently in the candidate phase of getting authorized for the Middle Years Program (MYP) in 2013. Because my team is developing and diligently revising the academic program, we are on track to fulfill the rigorous requirements for MYP authorization.  

A year ago we started offering the option to take Humanities and Mathematics in either English or German, to accommodate non-native-German speakers. Although we switched Science to English language, overall our program follows the ambitious concepts of the German-speaking countries, which teach Physics, Chemistry and Biology in the Gymnasium. 

Along with the development and alignment of the curriculum, we analyzed our current IMS program and came to the conclusion that we need to incorporate the fifth grade into the IMS. Several factors led us to this decision: 

First, it allows a smoother transition time into IMS and into high school. I would like to highlight one point here. Because we are teaching rigorous high school prep math and incorporating the sophisticated MYP assessment structure, which measures the students against certain predetermined criteria, we need more time with the students to introduce and enhance these qualitative approaches. For us as an MYP team, it's critical to promote a more qualitative rather than a quantitative way.
Second, it fosters, through the departmentalized structure, more independence for each individual student, although each student will still have his/her advisory teacher. In addition, the students are exposed much earlier to challenging and interesting science components, to an inspiring world history and world geography program, and also to either French or Spanish as their 3rd language, all of which are taught by specialists. 

Third, it promotes more retention in upper elementary by allowing students to select their instructional language one year earlier. Moreover, the program is similar to the educational structure in German-speaking countries. 

Finally, it equips the students with the MYP approaches to learning (ATL) and other fundamental concepts of the MYP in a truly effective manner for the 21st century world. Moreover, in the near future we will be able to enrich our art electives, which would be visual art, performing art, drama, school magazine and expository writing. Last but not least, it supports staffing and the IMS will grow to a sustainable number of 90 students, which allows more social interaction with their peers.
The decision process was carefully conducted and included two parent coffee meetings, one in Grade 3 and one in Grade 4, two presentations at the board meeting, and interviewing all elementary staff.  As a result, the board and the education committee approved my request at the last board meeting in October. 

The next step is for me to plan carefully the beginning and transition phase of the next school year with my team. Our goal is to create an environment in which each individual student will succeed and at the same time learn to be more independent, starting as early as possible. Moreover, for us it's important that along this journey we always keep our IB value in mind, which connects us to the PYP and the people around us. 

I have uploaded the new fifth grade flow chart into the middle school section on the website. 

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PYP Corner by Maike Silver  

Assessment in the PYP is part of the curriculum cycle. As such at the beginning of all learning teachers collaboratively establish how they can assess the expected learning outcomes. These include both social-emotional and cognitive skills. In their planning teachers consider: How can the assessment task demonstrate understanding? What is the evidence that needs to be collected? How can the assessment data be analyzed and recorded?  And last but not least how and when will the students and/or parents be provided with feedback. Our parent conferences provided one opportunity for the teachers to communicate to the parents where they see the child in the learning process based on the evidence they collected. We hope that the information provided to you was helpful in order to foster a continuous partnership and collaboration between the school and the home.

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Preschool Corner by Heike Schmalstieg     

The Preschool school children were busy last week, celebrating Halloween. In the beginning of the week, our Preschool yard transformed magically into a pumpkin patch overnight. The children arrived in the morning, finding more than a hundred pumpkins scattered all over the yard. There were pumpkins in the garden, on the see saw, in the bunny cage and anywhere else you can imagine. All were able to select their very own pumpkin, which were then used as little stools during our outdoors circle. On a later day, they celebrated Halloween. They all came dressed up and enjoyed a day full of games, songs and trick-or-treating. What a magical time!

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Student Leadership 

Thanks you to all the students who participated in making this years Halloween and Haunted House a huge success. Many students provided us with goodies for the bake sale. This helped us buy all kinds of materials for the "day "of fright. During the haunted house several 6th, 7th and 8th graders shared the responsibility of being tour guides, fortune teller, scarer and door stopper. The story of the house of "Nicholas Butcher", whose spirits haunted the gym that day, will go down in "Haunted House history. GAIS spirit was at its best. 

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GAIS School Band First Concert    

Amy Nathan, our music teacher and band director, would like to invite the GAIS community to the upcoming Music Debut Concert tonight 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 tonight in the school gym from 6-7pm! 

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New Library Hours

Please note the new library hours which start next week:

Tues., Wed., Fri.: 8:00 - 12:00
Mon., Thurs., 8:00 - 15:00      

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