Weekly Newsletter March 1, 2012

I hope all parents, students and staff had a relaxing and fun Winter Break. We have started up this period between the Winter and Spring breaks with an important decision being made. Yes, the school mascot will be the Phoenix. Not only will future t-shirts be graced by this fiery and meaningful image (see Student Leadership article), but it will also be on the cover of our yearbook. The spring season is the time when the yearbook team starts gearing up for the work at hand. Thank you in advance for the team of staff and volunteers that will be working on this important school project.

Yearbook information and order forms will be sent out in the next few days. The cost will be $45 for each book ordered by March 23rd and $50 for orders after this date. I also urge all parents to consider putting an advertisement in the yearbook. Having your company or business in the yearbook is a great way to show your support of GAIS. Please contact Petra Fenzl at plfenzl@gmail.com if you are interested in placing an advertisement.

Our next Guest Speaker and Information evening will be held next Thursday with an important and engaging title, "The Romance of Risk - Talking with your Teen about Risky Behaviors and Making Wise Decisions". While this will specifically be about behaviors related to children from about Grade 5 onwards, parents with younger children will benefit by getting an insight into what issues may lie ahead. I hope to see a great turnout of GAIS and other parents and lots of interesting sharing and discussion.

MYP Corner by Dominic Liechti

Dominic The yearly Student-Led Conference is coming up and I would like to highlight how the process works this year. There are two main differences between the Parent-Teacher Conference in November and the Student-Led Conference in March. On the one hand, the subject teachers will be present to observe the conference and the students will facilitate the conference, and on the other hand the evaluations are holistic and not subject-specific. Moreover, the students are presenting their subjects and Units of Work in a creative way. This year we have planned that during advisory classes the students are reflecting on their approaches to learning and on the attributes of the learner profile. At the conference, our emphasis is on the students and the parents analyzing together the students' self-evaluations and coming up together with goals for the upcoming year and the next school year. Besides the goal-setting, the students will display in a variety of modes and show the different Units of Work. Lastly, the set goals will be followed up in the advisory classes and at the beginning of the school year with their homeroom teacher.

For the conference, each student will have a 45-minute time slot. A sign-up sheet (Jooners) will be sent out shortly by the office. In order to accommodate all the students, every subject teacher will observe a block of the different conferences during the whole day.

PYP Corner by Maike Silver

Personal and social education at GAIS is integrated into the curriculum. Every unit teachers plan learning engagements that highlight 2-3 attitudes (appreciation cooperation, commitment, confidence, curiosity, creativity, independence, respect, tolerance, enthusiasm, integrity or empathy) and 2-3 attributes of the Learner Profile ( inquirer, thinker, open-minded, reflective, communicator, caring, principled, balanced and risk-taker). Besides that teachers discuss social emotional issues based on need in individual or classroom conferences. Students are asked to reflect on the attitudes and attributes of the learner profile and think of situation that exemplify these characteristics. Books are also a great way to promote these attitudes and the Learner Profile at home. Below please find a list of recommended books for children that can be borrowed from most local libraries. https://sites.google.com/a/asf.edu.mx/ecc-library/pyp-library.

Preschool Corner by Heike Schmalstieg

Heike 3 We all know that bilingualism has many advantages. Besides the cognitive advantages of being bi-lingual and the fact that bi-lingual speakers are more flexible in thinking, new studies have found that there is a strong indication of delayed onset of Alzheimer in multilingual speakers.

While GAIS provides a language immersion environment, there are many things you can do to help your child through this process. Here are some tips that help you improve the language absorption of your child, especially if you are a non-native German speaker: The daily morning circle time and activity times are the best daily routine for language learning. Through finger-plays, songs, stories and discussions they are immersed in the language in a natural way. Also take advantage of the following resources: our library with hundreds of German books and audio books, CD's and DVD's, the annual German Book Fair, extra-curricular classes and summer school (www.gaspa-ca.org).

If you have an occasional babysitter, try to have a German one. Even though not a practical solution for everyone, getting a German Au-pair can be a great solution for your child care and language needs. If you show your child that you think it is important and fun to learn another language, your child will tend to think the same way. GAIS also offers adult language classes, so does the German Saturday School (www.gaspa-ca.org) and other local adult schools and colleges. If you speak German, make sure you speak to your child in German and be as consistent as possible.

Also, check our GAIS website, under Resources/German Language. You will find an excellent list of websites and information.

Student Leadership

Phoenix The student leadership team decided to come up with a mascot for GAIS. They took their idea to the student council (SMV) and together brainstormed suggestions. Together with the administration they decided on 4 choices that might be appropriate for the school. Yesterday it was up to the students to decide whether or not we would be called the GAIS bears, otters, jaguars or phoenixes. As it turned out the majority of students voted for the phoenix. The phoenix is represented in many different cultures and therefore quite fitting for an international school. The legend of the phoenix can be simply interpreted to mean that the end is only the beginning or no matter how bad (hot) things may get you will get back up on your feet. It is a message of hope and perseverance for all GAIS students.

News from the Music Department - Amy Nathan

Music grade 4 Grade 4 is currently working on a unit entitled "How We Express Ourselves". This is a great opportunity for interdisciplinary collaboration, so we are taking the opportunity to tie this lesson in with our music class. The students from each class have voted on a favorite poem which they feel best expresses their class. We are currently working on setting the words to music, which we eventually hope will turn into a creative performance!

Setting words to a melody is not an easy task (unless you are Joan Baez) as it requires a good ear, musical experience and of course a lot of creativity. This task is a perfect exercise for our grade 4 students at this stage, after many lessons on setting rhymes to music, using the pentatonic scale (a scale of five notes that all sound good together). Stay tuned for a future performance of this project.

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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