November 29, 2018

Dec. 7: Professional Learning Day - NO SCHOOL

Dec. 12: Early Release Wednesday

Dec. 24-Jan.4: Winter Break

Jan. 16: Early Release Wednesday

Jan. 18: Teacher Grading Day - NO SCHOOL

Jan. 21: MLK Jr. Day - NO SCHOOL

Jan. 22: First Day of Second Semester

Administrative Information

Calling All D10 Residents!

If you live in D10 we need your attendance at an important District 10 Land Use meeting on Dec 5 at 7:00 PM at the OPC Church, which is on Como Ave directly across from TCGIS.

The Land Use Committee will be discussing the school's building project that evening. All D10 residents are able to vote on this project, so it's vital we get as many D10 TCGIS families to attend this meeting as possible. Please reach out to your friends and neighbors living in D10 and encourage them to attend this meeting as well.

Special Note: Only D10 residents will be allowed to vote; therefore, please bring your ID, a utility bill with your name and address, or any piece of mail with name and address to prove that you are a D10 resident.

Host an Intern - Seeking 30 Host Families for Next Year!

Now is the time to apply to become a host family for the next school year. Hosting is available for fall semester and spring semester, or for the full year. 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 learn more about our intern program. Already interested in hosting an Intern? Please complete this very brief Host Family Interest Survey by Feb. 1. Contact Katharina Schirg with questions.

Tell Us What You Thought About St. Martinstag!

St. Martinstag was held at TCGIS for the first time this year, and we'd like to know how you think it went! Whether you attended or not, we'd be grateful if you'd take 3 minutes to fill out this short parent pulse survey. Your feedback helps us improve large events like these!

Join Us for Family Hour of Code

Thursday, December 13th from 3:30-5pm

Make Hour of Code a family event! Hour of Code is a one- hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify coding and show that anyone can learn programming basics. Participants will play games and complete puzzles using code. No experience with coding? No problem! Activities are sorted by experience level and interests.

At TCGIS we host a family Hour of Code event which is open to K-8 students and their parents. K-3rd grade students must have a parent attending. 4-8th grade students can join us on their own, but parent participation is encouraged. K-3 students in Kinderclub may be registered as supervised by Kinderclub staff, however space is limited to the number of staff available. Note that all students have the opportunity to participate in Hour of Code or do coding in some capacity in class during school hours.

Hour of Code is free, but space is limited. Participants must RSVP in advance here.

Contact Esther Neu ( eneu@tcgis.org) o r Michael White (mwhite@tcgis.org) for questions or comments.

Survey on Exploration of TCGIS Western Metro High School Pathway

TCGIS is exploring creating a high school pathway in the western metro at St Louis Park High School. This option would be similar to the St Paul Central HS pathway, if implemented, and would be open to all TCGIS graduates. If you live or work in the western metro this may be an attractive option for you!

Our goal would be to have this option available for the 2019/2020 academic year.

We need your input! To make this a viable option for St Louis Park HS, we need to provide them with data on number of students who would take advantage of this option. If you are at all interested in this option, please take the survey by December 5 so we can provide this data to St Louis Park HS administration.

St Louis Park HS has an outstanding German program and is one of the most highly ranked high schools in MN. For more info on the high school and their excellent German program please click here. For more information on this option contact Dianne Bell at 612-554-1332 or dbell@tcgis.org .

December Facilities Committee Meeting Date

The Facilities Committee usually meets the 2nd Tuesday of the month. Because of winter break, however, the committee will be meeting on 12/4/2018 at 6:00 PM. Facility committee meetings are open to the public and are typically held in Room 99. You can ask questions about the building project by using this link.

TCGIS Jahrbuch - Don't Miss Out!

The TCGIS Jahrbuch (yearbook) is now available for pre-order for the price of $16.50 through Jostens website. Please note that the price will increase to $17.50 on December 1. There are many new ways to personalize a yearbook, so order today!

Please note the price of the yearbook will increase as follows:

December 1 - February 22: $17.50
February 23- May 11: $20.00 (online ordering closes on 5/11)
May 12- end of school year: $25.00 cash only

The yearbooks should arrive at the school in May 2019 and can be picked up in the Front Office.

Ein großes Dankeschön an die TCGIS PTO ! They kindly gave the yearbook program two DSLR cameras that will be available for yearbook staff/students to borrow and use to document TCGIS student life. A special thank you to parent Matt McKinney and PTO Vice President Candace Davis for their generous contributions. If you have any questions about TCGIS yearbook please email Yearbook Coordinator Louise Brask at lbrask@tcgis.org.

National Geographic Bee at TCGIS

This morning, the finalists competed in the National Geographic Bee . In the final round, the nine finalists were narrowed down from two, who moved on to the championship round.

Our nine finalists were:

André Schrick

John Tuite

Mathias Kreuziger

Liam Delaney

Gus Beaton

Gretchen Wilkinson

Jaya Zeitler

Maximilian Johnson

Cecily Jones

Third place went to Mathias Kreuziger, a nd after competing in the championship round, Liam Delaney achieved second place.

The 2018 TCGIS Champion is John Tuite, who will take the qualifying test in January for the Minnesota State National Geographic Bee. Congratulations to all finalists!

Congrats to our Mausmünzen Winners!

Congratulations to this week's Mausmünzen winners! This week we said gratuliere to Nellie Warren (Kc), Ellie Nicholson (1a), Annelise Yaeger (7b), Adeline Hansen (3a), Isaac Leggs (5a), and Herr Fankhanel!

PTO Announcements

Help show our staff some Holiday love this month....

5th Grade Families: Please click http://signup.com/go/xWDvLEq
To contribute to the early release day potluck on Wednesday December 12th. Note: this is open for all staff. Bring enough for 20 and LABEL your items!! (Better yet, provide a disposable dish you don't need returned!)

8th Grade Families: Please click http://signup.com/go/FHqKJNP
to contribute to the December intern breakfast on Monday, December 17th. This is for all 15 interns.

SAVE THE DATE!

January 10th PTO Meeting & Maskenball Theme Reveal!

Please note that our January meeting will be on Thursday January 10th (not on the 3rd during break). 6:30pm at TCGIS.

Come and learn more about Maskenball: date, location and join a sub-committee to help plan this event! Make sure to bring ideas for a theme. Your idea may be the lucky one pulled out of the hat at the meeting!

GAI Announcements

HOLIDAY OPEN HAUS - December 1 & 2, 11AM - 4 PM; FREE and open to the public

Get in the holiday spirit with our annual Holiday Tradition! This two-day event features authentic food and drink, local vendors, and entertainment for the entire family