December 15, 2016

Take a look at current volunteer opportunities! If you are not yet a volunteer, but are interested in becoming one - please email Tina Haarbusch. Vielen Dank!

Administrative Information

TCGIS Office Hours Over Winter Break

TCGIS Office will be closed Friday, December 23, 2016 and Monday, January 2, 2017. The Office will be minimally staffed December 19 - December 22; we suggest calling ahead if you are planning to come in to make sure someone will be available to assist you. We wish everyone a safe and happy Winter Break - we'll see you in the new year!

Brrr...It's Cold Outside!

The temperature has dropped and the snow has fallen! Please click here to brush up on our policies regarding cold weather recess, recess cancellation, and to find some tips for staying warm outdoors! If you're curious about snow day and cold day cancellations, please click here.

Please help your child remember to wear/bring to school appropriate outdoor clothing (coat, gloves, hat, scarf, snow pants, boots) so that they can enjoy the fresh air outside while staying warm! And PLEASE be sure everything is labelled with the student name. Please also remember that e ach student needs Hausschuhe as well.

Registration for After School Activities Now Open!

It's that time again - time to register for After School Activities! Click here for the course descriptions, here for the schedule and pricing, and here to register. All registrations and payments are due on January 4. Please note that classes do fill up quickly, so be sure to get your registration in sooner rather than later.

Note About Kinderclub Full-Day Care, December 19 - 23

For the safety of students and staff, Kinderclub will follow St. Paul Public School closings in case of excessive snow or cold. If St. Paul Public cancels school, Kinderclub will also be closed. We will also delay care by 2 hours if a 2-hour delay is called. In the event that we will be closed or delayed, families signed up for care will be emailed by 6:30am the morning of care.

Host an Intern - We NEED 30 Host Families for Next Year!

Now is the time to apply to become a host family for the next school year. Options are available for short-term hosting, Fall semester, Spring semester or for full-year arrangements. Hosting a TCGIS intern from Germany, Austria or Switzerland can be a valuable experience for your family and expand the horizons of your children forever!

Click here to find out more about our intern program! Have any questions? Contact Tina Haarbusch. Already sold and excited to host? Click here to sign up by February 1, 2017!

Morning Aula Volunteer Sign Up

We are looking for volunteers to help supervise an extra morning recess in the Aula before school. Volunteers are needed for one day per week (four-five days per month) in January, February and March. Once we have two volunteers for one day, teachers will be notified that they may send students to the Aula on these days. Please click on the link for more information of rules and duties. Thank you in advance for your consideration.

Order Window for Bus, Kinderclub, Lunch & Milk Open

REMINDER: Our Order Window for Bus, Kinderclub, Lunch & Milk is currently open. Please log onto our online store and place your child's orders now. All orders are due by midnight on Monday, December 19.

If you are a returning family and you need assistance with your Account Log-In information, please email us at [email protected] .

If your family is new to our online store, please click here for more information on our online store, how to "Register" for an account and how to navigate the website. Please note the school password needed during the registration process is TCGIS1.

Thanks for a Great Hour of Code

On December 6 nearly 80 students and parents gathered for Hour of Code in celebration of Computer Science Education Week. Hour of Code is an introduction to computer science designed to demystify coding and show that anyone can learn programming basics. Participants played coding puzzles and programmed their own artwork, games, and animations. Did you miss Hour of Code? Put on your own Hour of Code together as a family. You can find resources at tinyurl.com/HOC2016TCGIS.

First Lego League Robotics

7th and 8th graders in the fall technology elective competed at the First Lego League tournaments this weekend. Congratulations to team "Pastel Scorpions" who took home the Core Values award and "Team Gear" for making it to the quarter finals in the head-to-head competition. TCGIS received the Judges Choice award for bringing so many teams to the tournament.

A special thanks to a donor who has provided the school with the funds for updating and expanding some of our equipment. We were able to purchase three EV3s and some more sensors and motors. This will help us immensely next year!

Save the Date!

Mark your calendars for January 29, 2017 from 2pm - 5pm! There will be a Kinder Karneval at The Klub Haus on Rice Street. More details will follow in the coming Elternbriefe.

FireBears Robotics Team Visit January 4th

Roseville Area High School's FireBears robotics team has volunteered to visit TCGIS on Wednesday January 4 from 3:30-4:15 to do a demo with their robots. Students will be able to hear about what robotics is like at high school, ask questions, and even get some hands-on experience playing with robots! This is a great opportunity from a well-respected robotics team. The FireBears went to the world championships last season and recently earned recognition for their robot from Igus (a German corporation) .

The event is open to middle school students (5-8th graders). Please contact Esther Neu at [email protected] with questions or to let her know your child will be attending.

Congratulations to Our Maskenball Ticket Winnters!

Congratulations to the teachers who won free tickets to Maskenball: Frau Krug, Herr Dahl, Frau Bledsoe, Herr Taulbee, Frau Sims, Herr Prater, Frau Heindl, Frau Morrissey, Herr Koch, and Frau Van Gerpen. For the rest of the community, tickets are on sale now! $30 per person, $15 for staff, and interns are free. Find out more here.

Musical Strings with Vienna Community Arts

Vienna Community Arts offers private and group lessons in string instruments, for beginning to advanced students. We also rent and sell instruments. Check it out!

Call Herbert or Nancy at 651-773-9525 for more information or to set up a time to observe a lesson with one of our teachers.

Curriculum & Instruction

I'm briefly writing to you from the Curriculum and Instruction (C & I) perspective about a couple of wonderful initiatives that my colleague Esther Neu has implemented this year. Esther is our Tech Integrationist and in the last 1 and ½ years has brought significant qualitative additions to our C & I Program. I'm speaking to you about Esther's involvement of your children in Tech/Robotics and Hour of Code. A wonderful aspect of all her work and the benefits to the children are that tech is integrated into the instruction ( in the German language) with a purposeful intent.

A concrete result of her efforts and the children's energy is witnessed in their successes at the recent Robotics Competition last weekend in the Metro. Hats off and congratulations to all TCGIS pupils who participated in that recent event and thanks go out to Esther Neu and Chad Prater for their commitment to enriching the school's and the children's experiences. Please be sure to read the three submissions from Esther in this week's Elternbrief.

PTO

PTO Announcements

Click here to find out more about these upcoming events:

Parent panel on transitioning to high school, Jan. 17
Maskenball, Feb. 4, University Club
Kaffeeklatsch, Jan. 27