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Spiritwear
from our
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 TCGIS Online Calendar
Upcoming Events:
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Mar. 18 - TCGIS Closed
Mar. 27:
Mar. 26: Virtual Board Meeting 6:30pm
Mar. 30 - SPRING BREAK (no school)
April 3:
April 18: Board Nominations Due
May 11- School Board Elections
May 15:
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| Message from the Director |
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Schöne Grüße von Herrn Anderson
A message from the quiet halls at TCGIS where our teachers have been working hard, collaborating on equitable distance learning plans for all TCGIS students. Be sure to watch all the way to the end to learn song the whole family can sing
auf Deutsch beim Händewaschen (while washing hands).
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| Videogruß vom Direktor 19. März 2020 |
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Community Events: Updates
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Maskenball 2020:
Postponed
Due to the current public health situation,
Maskenball 2020 has been postponed until further notice.
All other PTO events - including potlucks and meetings - have also been postponed.
However ...
The
spring STRUDEL sale continues online
Thursday, March 19 through April 2. (Pickup on May 1, along with items from the Plant Sale.) Support the school and arrange for easy dinners this Spring. Order your strudels here.
Open Positions on the PTO:
Elections coming up in May. For the 2020-2021 school year, there will be a some positions opening on the Exec team! Are you interested in getting more involved? Do you have expertise in marketing, finance, education or fundraising? We would love to get in touch with you!
Click here to submit your name if you are considering. Thanks!
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GAI: Closed until further notice
At this time all events are canceled through the end of April.
Please refer to their website for program and event updates:
www.gai-mn.org
Language classes beginning in April will proceed as scheduled, but may be delayed if necessary, or offered in online / live video format until it is safe to resume in-person sessions.
Please contact our language services department with any questions about our current and future offerings at language@gai-mn.org or leave a message at 651-222-2979.
The 8-week workshop is designed for young people, ages 13 - 16, with basic knowledge of German (Level 2 / A2 or higher). Sessions will take place at the GAI, but some weeks will include off-site visits to local museums or labs.
In addition to the scientific concept of climate change, we will look at how a changing climate affects other aspects of communities, such as the economy, wildlife, and society. The primary objective of the course is to enhance students' ability to discuss the issues most relevant to them and their peers. More info here.
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School Board Announcements
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School Board Statement of Support
It is truly humbling to be part of a school community whose mission and vision includes the phrases
"
Innovative education
" and "
Weltoffen denken und handeln
",
thinking and behaving in a manner open to the world
.
The globally-minded education TCGIS students receive is truly remarkable and never more relevant.
We thank our dedicated TCGIS teachers and administration for working so diligently to respond to this unprecedented pandemic. This situation is a strong reminder of how fortunate the children are to learn with the educators of TCGIS. The board recognizes and thanks Ted Anderson and his leadership team, for calling the first staff meeting to discuss COVID-19 contingency plans on March 6th, ten days before the governor's announcement of the mandated closure. The benefits of this proactive planning are evident, with some teachers already sharing ideas for our families at home.
In addition, seeing the TCGIS community supporting each other with schedule ideas and offers of home delivery of essentials is all the more heartwarming. Thank you all for your positive attitudes, patience, and strength as we move forward together on this uncharted path. With innovation and
weltoffen denken
, we can continue to build a school together.
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Julie Alkatout
, Chair, TCGIS Board of Directors
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Call for Nominations & Applications to the School Board
By serving on the TCGIS School Board, YOU can help our school, strengthen connections within our community, and make important decisions that affect the future.The work of the Board ensures that TCGIS provides a meaningful education and experience for all students.
This year, the community will elect
FIVE board members
to each serve a
three year term
. We seek any interested persons (
parents, teachers, and community members
), especially those with experience in management & leadership, diversity & inclusion, financial compliance, education, board governance, legal matters, and marketing & development.
If you are interested in serving or would like to nominate someone to serve, all details and forms are available through the links below. You do not need to be nominated to apply.
Important Dates
April 18
: All nominations and applications due by 4:45 pm. Send via email to Stephanie Forsland (
sforsland@tcgis.org
) or drop off in the school office.
TBD:
Meet the Candidates Forum
May 11-15:
Board elections, drop off all ballots by 4:45 pm on Friday, May 15.
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Finance & Facility Committee
The March 24th committee meeting has been canceled. A review of the monthly financial report will be done remotely by committee members and reported to the board. The report will be included in the March board meeting packet as part of the public record.
Well, from all of us at Finance & Facilities, you stay classy TCGIS...and thanks for stopping by...but mainly stay classy.
Nic Ludwig & Richard Heid
Finance & Facility Committee Co-Chairs
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Upcoming Committee Meetings
Finance & Facilities Committee:
Tue, March 24 - Canceled
Board Meeting:
Thu., March 26, 6:30pm - 8:30pm - will be held virtually. Please watch next week's EB and the school calendar on TCGIS.org for details on how to connect.
Updates on April meetings will be posted in next week's Elternbrief.
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All-School Updates
School will be open tomorrow (Friday) from 8:00 am - 4:00 pm and families are welcome to come pick up things and make sure
students have everything they need from their lockers. There are still some boots and sneakers in the hallways that might be useful, depending on what the weather does! Unfortunat
ely we can't guarantee the library will be staffed tomorrow.
Next week our teachers will be doing a lot of experimentation and trouble-shooting. Look for continued email updates as the picture clarifies; detailed plans will come in the second half of next week.
In case you missed any of the email updates this past week, find them here:
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Middle School Updates
Here's a message for Middle School students from Frau Schlee:
Hey MS students!
Check your email! Many MS Advisory teachers have set up (or will be setting up) Google Classrooms (or other ways) to check in with their advisory students, and some have already started posting some fun challenges and activities to keep us occupied over the next few weeks until Distance Learning officially begins.
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Construction Updates
We're happy to report that construction is proceeding as scheduled for now. At this point we anticipate that everything will go forward as planned and be completed in August. We will continue to share updates with our community every week.
Andy Nesset
TCGIS Facilities and Grounds
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Re-Enrollment Survey for All Current TCGIS Families
Help us prepare for the 2020-2021 school year by completing our re-enrollment survey! Please
click here
to fill out the survey by March 23rd. If you have more than one student at TCGIS, please submit one form for every child in your family grades 1-8.
Filling out this form is not required in order to attend TCGIS next year but it is extremely helpful for the school. We gather information about returning and withdrawing students to plan our class compositions for the next year. We appreciate your participation; thank you in advance!
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2020-2021 Kindergarten Parents
Please respond to the Enrollment Decision form provided in your offer letter email if you have not already done so. Vielen Dank!
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Share the TCGIS message in different languages!
In an effort to promote our school's goal of increasing diversity, the TCGIS school board Communications Committee wants to use videos in languages other than German and English to share what makes our school great. We are seeking volunteers to speak for the school in languages commonly spoken in Twin Cities immigrant communities such as Arabic, Spanish, Hmong, Vietnamese, Amharic, etc. Please contact Rich Iwen at
riwen@tcgis.org if you can participate in this outreach program.
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MCA Update
The MCAs (Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments) are state-wide mandated assessments we administer each year in March, April and May as per Minnesota Legislative Statute. We assess in grades 3-8, and our testing was going to begin this week.
We are waiting to hear from Federal officials as they communicate to state departments of education regarding any possible waiving of statewide assessing. We will update families when we have more information.
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TCGIS XC and Track - Recognition Ceremony 2020
During this last spring outdoor track-and-field season, we would like to congratulate this school year's captains and 8th graders. Thanks for being a strong part of our team! Let's have a blast during this spring season even while apart! Einmal Immer, immer Immer!
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| Recognition Ceremony 2020 |
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Update: Enrichment Activity Spring Session Registration Still Open
Registration for the spring session of enrichment classes (formerly after-school activities) is still open! Spring session runs from April 6th until June 5th. TCGIS uses an online registration platform called Popsicle where you can register your children for classes and pay for them all online. The registration deadline is March 25th at 11:59pm.
March 18 Update: Classes led solely by interns have been cancelled and refunded or we are in the process of finding substitutes. We are working with our activity leaders to develop at-a-distance activity plans for our games, crafts, and movement classes. For now, please continue registration and if classes are cancelled, registration fees will be refunded.
Please pair your enrichment class sign-up with delegating your child/ren in PikMyKid to the "Enrichment Activities Spring Session" pickup mode on the appropriate days. You can set the change to recur weekly if you scroll forward on the calendar to select the deadline, but be sure to remove any no class days like early-release days.
This link will take you to course descriptions and
this link will take you to the schedule for the spring session.
If you need a scholarship for the classes, please visit
this link for more information.
Please visit
this link to create your Popsicle account and sign up for classes.
Here are instructions for creating a parent account and adding classes.
This link will take you to a troubleshooting guide and contact information for Popsicle support.
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The Yearbook Committee says ...
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Support TCGIS: Volunteer Opportunities
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Seeking Intern Host Families for 2020-2021
Interns add so much value to our school - inside the classrooms, within host families, and to our entire school community. While it feels odd to recruit host families in the immediate wake of our spring interns' sad and abrupt departures this week, it helps to consider that we will hopefully have returned to our normal routines by the time our fall interns arrive in August.
We are still seeking 10 more host families for next fall.
The Info-Abend for new host families on March 24 has been cancelled.
Instead Katharina will reach out to all interested families by email.
If you're interested in learning more about hosting an intern, please fill out
this short interest survey
as soon as possible and Katharina will be in touch
. Vielen Dank!
Spring Interns 2020
L. to R.: Vadim, Lotte, Jan, Verena, Ina, Janina, Sarah, Nina, Christina
Not pictured: Niklas and Ariam
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Summer Camps & Activities
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Girls Excel in Math (GEMs) Summer Camp
Missy Morrissey (Middle School) is offering GEMs, a summer math camp for girls, with support from the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Student Chapter at the University of Minnesota during the week August 17th-21st.
Register online here!
Who: All students entering grades 1-8
What: GEMs Summer Math camp
Where: University of Minnesota,Vincent Hall
When: August 17th-21st, 2020, from 9am-12pm.
Cost: $150 (daily snack provided)
Deadline for Registration: June 14th, 2020
Deadline for Payment: August 1st, 2020
Contact Missy Morrissey
gemsummercamp@gmail.com with questions.
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St. Paul Parks & Rec Summer Sign-ups
Click on this
link to access a Google Drive folder with information about Summer Park and Rec Activity Camps at North Dale, Northwest Como and Langford Park Recreation Centers. Click on
this link to see a complete list of camps offered at these three locations.
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Vienna Community Arts Summer Studio
Vienna is at TCGIS and in Maplewood this Summer!
We offer music lessons for new and continuing students in piano, classical guitar, ukulele (new) and violin/viola.
Extended Lessons, Buddy Lessons, Creative Projects, Parent-Child Duets.
Have some musical fun this summer with Vienna!
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Summer Camp at the GAI: Registration Now Open!
Each camp will last one week (M-F) and is centered around a fun, highly-interactive theme
. TCGIS families can register at 'member'
rates.
German beginners to bilingual campers are welcome, as different activities will be offered according to the children's language skills. Teachers and children will speak, hear, sing, and create in German while exploring subjects including arts & crafts, geography, cooking, science, photography and more. Half-day, Full-Day, and Extended Care Options available.
Click
here
for details and to register.
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Parent &
Family Resources
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Family Resources
Prepare your family and household:
Practice social distancing:
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Here's a
helpful graphic
from the Washington Post about the impact social distancing can have on flattening the curve.
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Take care of yourself and your family's behavioral health:
Free and reduced internet options:
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