October 2016
Contents
Team Update 1 Professional Dev 2 Student Map St. Martinstag 3 Registration System Scholarship Information 4 Tower Toot 2016 Inclement Weather 5 Box Tops Due Steuben Parade Photo 6 Favorite Links
Important Dates
St. Martin’s Day November 5th
No School – GLSC November 12th No School November 26th
St. Nikolaus December 3rd
Weihnachtsfeier December 17th No School December 24th December 31st
http://tinyurl.com/GSC-Volunteers-2016-17 http://tinyurl.com/GSC-Fall-Pause-2016
Willkommen, Herbst!
School is now in full swing! This fall, we welcome 108 students into
our school community! (Take a look at
page 2 to see the towns from which
everyone travels.)
Many thanks are extended to all of the
students, parents, teachers, and friends
of GSC who have worked together to
bring about a great start to our new
semester!
St. Martinstag GSC will celebrate St. Martinstag on
Saturday, November 5th. Many thanks
to the 6 volunteers who will be
baking cookies for the event. All
volunteer slots are full. Please see Gail
Z. or Julie S to borrow a goose shaped
cookie cutter by October 29th. See
page 3 for St. Martinstag details.
German Language School
Conference On November 12th, our teaching staff
will travel to NYC to attend the GLSC.
School will be closed on this day. See
page 2 to learn about the conference.
Administration Team Update…
West Hartford Campus
Newsletter
Box Tops for Education Due We are getting ready to submit our
Box Tops to General Mills. Please
bring any Box Tops you have collected
to the Pause room or the school office
before the end of the month. This is
free cash for our school, and so worth
the effort! Thanks for participating!
Volunteering At GSC Thanks are extended to all members
who have signed up to volunteer their
time at GSC. However, there are still
many opportunities to serve. Sign up
at the link provided on the first and
last pages of this newsletter! or search
Sign Up Genius for our e-mail address,
GSC Library The GSC Library “lending” system is
currently being reevaluated. But that
doesn’t mean that the library is closed.
Please feel free to browse and borrow
German books on the “honor system”.
Books are located in the GSC Office.
All borrowed books should be
returned within a two week period.
German School of Connecticut Page 2 of 6
From Where Do WH GSC Students Come?
Early in the school year, usually near the beginning of November, GSC is closed for one
Saturday to allow our teachers to continue their professional development alongside German
teachers from all over the country.
This year, the day is set for November 12th.
While the students get to sleep in, it is a very early day for our teachers and administrators. This
is the day our teachers travel to the Big Apple for the annual German Language Schools
Conference at the German Consulate. The conference starts at 8 am and lasts until the very late
afternoon. We all leave the house in the dark and come back in the dark.
The conference starts with a guest speaker, then breaks into 1 ½ hour workshops, lunch, more
workshops, and finishes with a conference round up.
During the lunch break we get a chance to look at various teaching materials, since different
publishers will exhibit their German books, DVD, etc.
Despite the fact that it is a very long day, it is also a great experience and sends us back home
to Connecticut energized and full of new teaching ideas.
Bärbel Röder
Assistant Principal
Professional Development at GSC
German School of Connecticut Page 3 of 6
St. Martinstag – Celebrated at GSC on November 5th
Each November 11, Germans celebrate
St. Martin's Day. But what exactly are
we celebrating and why are there kids
with paper lanterns in the streets?
The Local has the lowdown.
What exactly are we celebrating?
Martinstag is named after St. Martin of
Tours, a Roman soldier who became a
What is Martinstag?
monk after being baptized as an adult.
He eventually obtained sainthood from
the Catholic Church for being a kind man,
who cut his cloak in half to share with a
beggar during a snowstorm.
Read more by clicking here. By Kerstin von Glowacki
German children celebrate St Martin's
Day as the start of Carnival season. They
walk around the streets, after dark,
carrying lanterns, and singing special
songs. A bit like trick or treating, they
are rewarded for their singing and the
beauty of their lanterns, with sweets and
other goodies.
This year, GSC will celebrate St.
Martinstag on Saturday, November
5th.
Parents are invited to join us as the
children march (in the downstairs area)
with their lanterns and listen to a group
story. Teachers will send an e-mail to
communicate the time of the event.
Thank you to 6 members who
volunteered to bake 2 dozen goose
shaped cookies each for our
celebration!
Attention Volunteers: Goose shaped
cookie cutters may be borrowed from
GSC by the end of October. Please see
Pause or Office volunteers to borrow
yours.
Visit GSC’s website at www.germanschoolct.org and click on Registration, Online Registration.
Choose “West Hartford,” then scroll down the page.
Click on option 7, 8, 9, or 10 (whichever semester you or your child are registered in).
Click “continue” to load the Account Sign In page.
Sign In using the same e-mail address and password you used to create the account.
Register Family Members page will appear with student’s names and an edit function.
To have the system begin sending or stop sending e-mail, check or uncheck “No E-mail” and click
“Submit.” When checked, students/members will not be included in any e-mail broadcasts sent from the
site. Note: If one record is checked that includes an email address, all other records that include the same
email address will not receive email communications. We recommend that you leave at least one of your
unique e-mail addresses active.
How to Edit a GSC Registration System Record
German School of Connecticut Page 4 of 6
The Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange
Program (CBYX) offers merit-based
scholarships to spend an academic year in
Germany. The program was established in 1983
to celebrate German-American friendship based
on common values of democracy. Students live
with host families, attend local schools, and
participate in community life in Germany. For
more information and application deadlines,
visit the organization in charge of recruitment
for your state at
http://www.usagermanyscholarship.org/.
For more information on exchanges
sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s
Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs,
visit www.exchanges.state.gov or watch this
video about U.S. high school student
exchanges. To receive printed brochures
and/or posters about our study abroad
opportunities, send an email with your request
For information on having an international
experience without leaving home, consider
hosting a Department of State- sponsored
exchange student. Learn more at
http://hosting.state.gov
One of our German school students is currently
in Germany with the CBYX program. She loves
her host family and is having a wonderful
experience! Brochures are in the main office.
The 28th Tower Toot
Scholarship Information
Join us this year at Heublein Tower for a grand time!
Scha Musi will entertain us both days with their unique
German music! Food and beverages will be available all
day for sale. Hundreds of hikers are expected to hike to
the top of the Talcott Mountain and enjoy the view of
autumn foliage. And let’s not forget, the gift shop will be
open!
The entrance to the Talcott Mountain State Park is on
Route 185, seven miles west of Hartford, diagonally
opposite the entrance to Penwood State Park. Access to
the Tower is by a foot trail from a paved parking lot off
Route 185. The Tower is only accessible by foot, no
driving access is available. From Labor Day through the
end of October, the Tower is open daily from 10am to
5pm.
German School of Connecticut Page 5 of 6
Fall has just begun, but the German
School of CT would like to inform you
about our inclement weather policy:
In case of school closing or delayed
opening, the Principal will call the local
storm center to have that information
broadcast and will then notify all
teachers and officers.
The teachers will call their students.
If you are in doubt regarding the
closing of the school, please contact
your (child’s) teacher – please DO NOT
call the Principal in order not to block
the phone line.
The following stations will broadcast the
closing/delayed opening of the GSC -
West Hartford, in the case of inclement
weather:
CBS WFSB – Channel 3.1
WWW.WFSB.COM
NBC Connecticut WVIT – Channel 30.1
www.nbcconnecticut.com
Please make sure to have this
information at hand throughout the
winter as well as the contact
information for your (child’s) teacher.
Inclement Weather Policy
Box Tops for Education is a painless fundraiser that’s absolutely free
and easy to do! Just clip 10¢ Box Tops coupons (like the one to the
right) from hundreds of your favorite products such as Cheerios®,
Betty Crocker®, Pillsbury®, Ziploc®, Kleenex®, Hefty®, Juicy
Juice® and more! The entire participating product list can be found
at the Box Tops website. Ask Grandma and your neighbors to clip
for you, too! Turn in all of your Box Tops to the GSC Office by
October 29th.
As of 8/1/16, participants have earned $1583 for WH GSC, since
program inception.
We are looking for a Box Top Coordinator to carry on this worthy
fundraiser. Sign up at Sign Up Genius at the link provided on the
first and last page of this newsletter and someone will contact
you.
Many thanks to Antje Carter, Past GSC VP, for continuing to submit Box Tops all the way from North Carolina! Now that's loyalty!
http://www.boxtops4education.com/
Box Tops for Education
German School of Connecticut Page 6 of 6
German School of
Connecticut
Stamford Campus
Dr. Renate Ludanyi, Principal Rippowam Middle School
381 High Ridge Road Stamford, Connecticut 06905
(203) 792-2795
E-Mail: [email protected]
West Hartford Campus
Gail McCloud, Vice President Administration
Bärbel Röder, Vice Principal First Baptist Church 90 North Main Street
West Hartford, CT 06107 (860) 404-8838
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 370441
West Hartford, CT 06137-0441
Information E-Mail: [email protected]
We’re on the Web! www.germanschoolct.org
Join us on Facebook!
German School of Connecticut
WH Volunteer Sign Up http://tinyurl.com/GSC-Volunteers-2016-17 http://tinyurl.com/GSC-Fall-Pause-2016
or search on [email protected]
GSC’s float at NYC’s 2016 Steuben Parade - Photo credit: Stamford GSC
Volunteer from German School of Connecticut Facebook page.
Steuben Parade
Favorite Links
If you are looking for German
activities, try visiting German Clubs
in the area, austriandonauclub.com hartfordsaengerbund.org and also these German restaurants:
https://oldheidelbergct.com/ http://www.munichhaus.com/
There is also Ca zoo.org, an online
German-American Cultural Center,
which has a wealth of information.