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Weekly Newsletter
May 10, 2012
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A Midsummer Night's Dream - The Actors Speak Out
Sixth graders Xander Hughes, Jacob Mackenzie, and Carla Hinrichsen discuss their favorite lines from the upcoming play on May 24. "Now the hungry lion roars, and the wolf behouls the moon whilst the heavy plowman snores now is frolic. Not a mouse shall disturb this hallowed house I am sent with broom before to sweep the dust behind the door." "I like this line because it is easy and fun to act out," Xander ,who plays Puck in the play, expressed. "He is a crafty, madman who enjoys having fun at the expense of others." Xander, who has a loud, clear, expressive voice during rehearsals, often challenges himself and the other actors to practice their lines in many variations. "I practice in order to make sure that the performance will go well." A musician, Xander is looking into creating a sound scape for the performance as a way to introduce new settings. "Come hither, Puck. Thou rememberest since I once sat upon a promontory, and heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back." "This line embodies the craziness my character defines," Jacob who plays the powerful King Oberon, King of the Fairies pondered. "It also tells me to act sort of crazy for the rest of the scene. Saying these lines makes me feel great. My character isn't the most comedic character in the play, but saying these audacious lines makes me feel whizz-kapow." "I frown upon him, yet he loves me still. (Hermia) Oh that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill! (Helena) I give him curses, yet he gives me love. (Hermia) Oh that my prayers could such affection move! (Helena) The more I hate, the more he follows me. (Hermia) The more I love, the more he hateth me. (Helena)" Carla admits, "I enjoy playing Helena, because of the entertaining arguments with Hermia. I get to argue, sometimes be mean, and also lament about love." Carla who plays Helena, a spurned lover said recently. "The words of Shakespeare make it really fun," Carla, who is a dancer, will put her dancing shoes to work during forest scenes as she pirouettes past our cast of characters sleeping off the merriment and zaniness that can only occur in a forest created in the mind of the Great Bard William Shakespeare. |
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News from the Head of School
Great Results in ISA Tests
 As you know, the goal of outstanding academic performance together with an International world perspective is the cornerstone of the GAIS mission. I am particularly happy to report that our Grade 3 & 5 classes took the International School's Assessment test, given annually in English, with outstanding results. These results help us to evaluate our academic program in relation to other top international schools worldwide. This year 180 schools took the ISA test, which included about 4800 students per Grade level. Many well-established international schools that follow the IB program are included in the test group. The results, expressed in the ISA scale score, are as follows:
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Area
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Int. Grade 3 Ave
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GAIS Grade 3 Ave
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Int. Grade 5 Ave
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GAIS Grade 5 Ave
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Mathematical Literacy
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310
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350
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417
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502
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Reading
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254
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270
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381
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457
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Writing Narrative
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375
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393
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455
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483
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Writing Exposition
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392
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408
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465
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456
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As you can see, GAIS students performed consistently above the international average. This has been the pattern for the 6 years that we have been taking the ISA tests and thus it would be fair to say that the results are a realistic measure of the quality of the GAIS academic program on the international stage. The GAIS staff and administration have been doing an item analysis of the results to understand where students had the most difficulty and compare this with the GAIS curriculum and ultimately make suggestions for improvement. Congratulations are in order to all the teachers whose work this year, and over the years, contributed to these superb results.
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PYP Corner by Maike Silver
 This year as the outcome of the 5th grade exhibition the students VS-Gr.8 voted for a Walk-A-Thon cause. As a result the money will go to World Wildlife Fund, the leading organization for saving endangered species, conserving the world's most precious natural places, and reducing our impact on our only planet.
Students are asked to find sponsors that pledge an amount for each lap they walk or run around the school's soccer field. The time frame will be 20 minutes during lesson 6 on Friday May 18, 2012.
Each student has received a sponsor form which they are asked to return it to their homeroom teacher by May 16, 2012.
The process of engaging all students in the decision making to support a cause of their has been made in an effort to show that "actions can make a difference", the central idea of this last exhibition unit. Your support is as always appreciated.
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Preschool Corner by Heike Schmalstieg
Today is National Bike-To-Work-Day. We have quite a few families that are very committed to biking to school every day, with some of them making an extra effort today. We counted about 20 children, 10 parents and 10 staff members on bikes, which is a good number, considering that we have families from all over the Bay Area. Since most of our families live too far away to commute by bike, we had a special Bring-Your-Bike-To-School Day. The children were very excited to bring their own wheels to school and were busy decorating them and making license plates as well as getting their drivers license. Traffic was tight at times with so many bikes and some classes took advantage to spread-out on the large school yard, which the kids enjoyed tremendously.
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Student Leadership
This Friday evening the Middle School will have their annual Middle School Dance together with the students of GISSV. The student leadership team met with the student council of the GISSV to decide on the organization. The theme for this year is beach, so that the girls can still wear pretty dresses (according to our student president Isabel:)) and the boys can wear a more casual attire.
The gym will be decorated by the 8th graders and we will provide pizza, drinks and snacks during the dance. Nicolas Borbolla has put together the music for the dance. Thank you! The home room teachers, Dominic and Maike will be chaperoning together with the teachers from GISSV. We are looking forward to a fun filled evening.
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News from the P.E. Department
by Janine Weers
 This year we started something new in our after school program - a soccer class lead by two 8th grade students Philip Hausen and Marc Joshua, supported by Daniel Hausen. They use their incredible knowledge and skills to teach 15 boys and girls from 3rd to 6th grade once a week. Philip and Marc are great role models for the kids and do an awesome job on handing on their passion for soccer to the kids. The kids enjoy the class every week and Philip and Marc also profit from it by experiencing teaching their passion for soccer, working on their leadership skills and also working for their community and service lessons that they need in the MYP program.
The kids look up to their coaches and experience a lot of fun as well as skills in that class every week. I hope we will hopefully build up more of these extra curricular classes in sports next year, maybe find other schools to have games against us! If you have something in mind you would like to have as an extracurricular, feel free to email me at jweers@gais.org and I'd be happy to make it happen!
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Summerfest - June 2 from 2-5 PM
 Our annual GAIS Sommerfest is fast approaching. This year the theme will be, "The Olympics", and our games will embrace this theme. We will also repeat two events that were very popular during last year's Sommerfest, the Art Exhibit and the Student Talent Show. Students who would like to participate should pick up an application form from the office and submit it by May 18th. Student performances should be no more than 5 minutes in length and auditions will be held at school during lunch break starting on May 21st.
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Library News
 Due to the English Book Fair the Library is closed from Friday May 4 until Friday May 11. We will use this week to get our Library catalog online. To do this please, do not return any books since I can not process them. Thank you very much for your understanding.
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Follow the Child Summer Camp
 Follow the Child Summer Camp, run by Jay Levin, the Fifth grade English teacher, is a mobile camp for children between the ages of 6 and 12 who love to be outdoors. They go to a different exciting location each day. Science based, Follow the Child Summer Camp runs between June 18th until August 17th, and is designed for active children that love to hike, draw, paint, write, explore, and learn. We pick-up in two locations in San Mateo and Palo Alto. If you would like to learn more about the camp please click here or email Jay Levin at followtchild@gmail.com.
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Another Workday - May 19
 Are you interested in accumulating some volunteer hours? We will hold our next workday on Saturday, May 19 from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Tim Farris will organize volunteers in a variety of tasks including painting, sanding, cleaning and repairing. If you wish to participate please email the office by May 14 so we can set up the program. Email to: offmgr@gais.org.
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GASPA Summer-School-Camp
 Märchen aus dem Sack geschüttelt!
Attention all 3 to 12 year olds, in particular 9 to 12 year olds!! What would you say to 4 fun filled weeks, from June 25th to July 20th, of movement, music, theater, dance, learning new skills, and much, much more? What exactly the plan is and what we end up doing is for the most part, up to you. Can everything be decided by you? No! What is and remains is: Do it in German! Everything we do during the course of the 4 weeks; speaking, writing, reading, etc. will be done in German.
One other thing is also not up for discussion, namely Fairytales. If you think they are boring and only stuff for little kids, then you don't know much about Fairytales!
What do the above mentioned activities have to do with Fairytales? Join us for 4 weeks and find out. Do things differently, do things you may have never done before, do something for the first time, learn new moves, try out new skills which you thought you could never do. Don't be a frog, come on, jump in! Betcha, you won't regret it!
For more information please visit our website at www.gaspa-ca.org
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GASPA Fussball Camp
 Surely you already know that soccer is the world's # 1 sport. And you must have heard how popular soccer is in Germany and how seriously it takes its soccer history and future.
This summer from June 25th to July 13th, GASPA is offering 3 one week camps, for ages 8-12 and 13-17, during which we will combine soccer craziness and the German language to offer an intercultural exchange; the goal being to experience a cool sport in the German language and get to know contemporary Germany.
Become a better soccer player by learning from coaches from Germany, a world class soccer powerhouse! The Camp provides the opportunity for the participants to pass the DFB-McDonalds Fußballabzeichen (German Soccer Federation/DFB-McDonalds Soccer Insignia).
The camp is open for beginners and pros in soccer and German language, for boys and girls.
Hauptsache: Fuβball verrückt!
For more information, please visit our website at www.gaspa-ca.org
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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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