Elternbrief for December 19, 2019

Winter break is almost here! Hear about achievements TCGIS students made at tournaments last weekend, a few last-minutes notes before winter vacation, and Ted's wishes for your winter break!

Videogruß vom Direktor 19. Dezember 2019

Fundraising at TCGIS

Early-Bird Tickets Now Available:
A Conversation with Sara Zaske, author of Achtung Baby

January 29, 7:00-9:00 p.m., University of St. Thomas

Buy your $10 Early-Bird tickets to an evening with Sara Zaske, author of Achtung Baby: An American Mom on the German Art of Raising Self-Reliant Children.

Ms. Zaske will share her research and experiences on raising children in Germany, where school kids often:

walk to school and take subway trains by themselves
buy things in stores without their parents
learn how to build fires
climb 15-foot+ playground structures
tackle difficult subjects including sex, death and the darker parts of history

She will discuss how the German approach to risk-taking and independence fosters self-reliance in children and young people - and ways that American parents and educators can bring more freedom back into our own children's lives. The evening will include a Q & A session with the audience, and a book-signing.

Early-Bird tickets ($10) are available until Dec. 31. After January 1 ticket prices increase to $12-$15. Buy your own tickets and invite your friends to join you!

This public event is a fundraiser for the TCGIS Annual Fund, co-sponsored by TCGIS and the German Department at University of St. Thomas.

Copies of Achtung Baby are available at TCGIS for a $20 donation to the TCGIS Annual Fund. Pick up or order your copy now and enjoy a great read over Winter Break!

School Board Announcements

Next School Board Meeting: Thursday, Dec. 19

The TCGIS School Board will meet at 6:30 pm on Dec 19 in room 100. The board will give special recognition to TCGIS's cross country, track & field coaches. Director Anderson will present on his recent development initiatives, including responsive classroom training for administrators and outreach activities in Chicago. The board will also hear a presentation on the financial audit for the school year ending June 30, 2019. The full meeting agenda and packet are available here .

Nomination Committee

The Board is looking for one or two parents willing to serve on the Nomination Committee in preparation for this year's elections in April and May. The time commitment is small, and the impact big! If interested, please contact Stephanie Forsland ([email protected]) by the end of December.

Moving to Electronic Board Packets

To preserve paper and more fully engage with TCGIS's focus on managing our resources with care, the Board will begin using primarily electronic packets for each monthly meeting. Packets can always be found in the public folder and are uploaded three days before each meeting. The Board invites you to follow along on your personal electronic device during meetings or bring your own printed packet. If you would like a printed packet and cannot print your own, an individual packet can be printed for you if requested before 3:30 PM on the day of the Board meeting. Please contact Nicole Crashell ([email protected]), the Administrative Assistant to the Board, with any questions or to request a printed packet.

School Information

Reminder: January Order Window for Lunches/Milk & Kinderclub Closes Midnight December 22!

Don't forget to place your order for January ! Please log on to our online store website Boonli to place your child's Kinderclub and School Lunch/Milk order.
Please make sure to check out your cart to successfully place an order.

All orders must be submitted by midnight on Sunday, December 22.

For any questions regarding our online store website (e.g. forgotten username or password, payment questions, etc.), please contact us at [email protected] .

Reminder: 2020-2021 Enrollment is Open

Please visit the TCGIS website under the prospective parents tab to find our 2020-2021 application online.

Parents with incoming siblings of currently-enrolled TCGIS students: please remember to submit an application for sibling enrollment.

Last Chance to Dig through the Lost & Found

We had a fabulous parent volunteer come into school yesterday and centralize all of the classroom lost & found bins into ONE lost & found location.

If you drop-off or pick up your child(ren), please come a few minutes early to go through the HUGE lost and found; we know kids will need their coats, hats, mittens, boots, etc. over the winter break!

Teachers are going to be taking their classes to the lost and found this week to have all students look for their things, so if you can't make it into school to look, know that your students should have a chance to look before things are donated on Friday. If you spot anything in these photos belonging to your child, please let them know to look for that item! Vielen Dank!

TCGIS Food Drive continues through tomorrow!

Vielen Dank to everyone who sent food to TCGIS for our Food Drive! We are so close to our goal of 1,000!

Donations are still being collected this week, and w e expect to meet our goal of 1,000 food items by tomorrow (Friday.)

Ideal Food Donations: Soup (canned or boxed); Cereal (cold and hot); Rice & Beans; Proteins (peanut butter, canned tuna, canned meat).

Thank you for helping your child(ren) share the TCGIS value of Freundlichkeit (Kindness) and expand our TCGIS Gemeinschaft (Community) to this corner of St. Paul.

Construction Updates

RJM is pouring footings right now and bringing additional sand for backfilling. They'll be working through Winter Break and footings are scheduled to be done in early January. The next step will be to receive the precast walls; if they arrive on time, our construction will proceed on schedule.

TCGIS Students Do Well at Robotics Tournament

Last Saturday 24 of our 56 students taking robotics this semester went to the MN First Lego League Regional Tournament in Rochester, MN. There were 28 teams from 14 schools in Minnesota, and 9 of the teams were from TCGIS. Everyone did very well, and one of our teams won the Programming Award. The Programming Award is given to the team that best demonstrates an in-depth understanding of the exceptional and unique programming of their robot.

Leonie (7th grade) David, Thomas, Joshua, Caleb, Luca, Eric (8th grade)

Immer Sportlich!

Our cross-country Loons ran a number of personal records and set a couple of school records in the very windy and cold Wisconsin weather this past weekend at the 2019 USATF Junior Olympic National Cross Country Championships in Madison. Congratulations to all TCGIS XC runners for an amazing season!

TCGIS Track-and-Field / Cross-Country Shirts

This is the ONLY order for this school year. Please get your orders in for the spring track season, as well!

Take a look at the TCGIS Track-and-Field & Cross-Country shirts ( front / back). Place your order here . Write out your check to TCGIS and hand in to Coach Tabisz in room 314.

ORDERS ARE DUE ON DECEMBER 31, 2019!

(Checks may be turned in after winter break.)

Questions? Contact Coach Tabisz ( [email protected]).

Mausmünzen Winners for Dec. 12, 2019

The selected students have shown exemplary behavior at TCGIS during the school day and are representing their class and grade level. Meistermäuse have demonstrated to staff one or more of the following praised traits: Sicherheit (safety), Verantwortung (responsibility), Respekt (respect), and Freundlichkeit (kindness).

KC Jasper (not pictured); 1A Juliane; 3B Trystan; 4B Annika (not pictured);

6B Irene; 7A Bruno; Teacher: Frau Stolzenbach

PTO Updates

Waldsee Family Retreat Still Open!

This 4 day/3 night respite will send you home refreshed and ready to face the rest of winter.
Herr Tabisz is hosting a long weekend over Spring Break (March 28-March 31) filled all the amazing things Waldsee has to offer (woods, snow, sauna, great food, and fantastic company). Learn more about the weekend here.

Here's how this will work: You buy-in to the event with the Auction at $20/person (a minimum suggested donation). That's the fundraising part and what will go to support the PTO.

Once the Auction is over, Herr Tabisz will be in touch regarding arranging payment for the actual cost of the weekend. That cost ($166) is per person and includes your cabin and all of your meals. Alle sind willkommen - everyone is welcome!
Click here for more info.

Get Involved!

We could use YOU to join the Maskenball planning team. Reach out to [email protected].

Save the Dates:

Thursday, February 6th - PTO Meeting at School

Saturday, March 21st - Maskenball