Quick reminder: This Saturday, it's time for the library's annual flea market (9AM to 11AM lower hallway) and Dr. Naomi Steiner, parent at our school as well as pediatrician/author, will be back with a presentation on how to raise a bilingual child (10.30AM in auditorium 515 on the 5th floor). This is a great chance for those of you who missed her presentation last year or who would like to come back and hear more about this topic which is near and dear to all of us at our school. Dr. Steiner's presentation will be based on her book "7 Steps to Raising a Bilingual Child".  Join us for coffee and donuts and more bilingual talk afterwards.  Copies of the book will be available for sale. 
 
Please remember our parking advisory for this Saturday: The Agganis Arena is holding its annual Robotics event which coincides with our school hours. Please come early to avoid long lines on the parking lot and be prepared to look for on street parking. Also, don't forget to bring your Saturday School parking tickets and display them visibly on the dashboard. 

Germany's Foreign Minister, Guide Westerwelle, is making it his personal mission to promote the learning of the German language. Although it doesn't look like he will increase the budget on German language education and cultural projects, he may inject some welcome enthusiasm into the existing promotion of learning German. You can read about his efforts (and reasoning behind his campaign) in this recent Associated Press story from February 25, 2010.
 

The German Saturday School Boston, one of the oldest language schools in the country, is looking to fill teaching positions for the 2010/11 school year. Applicants should have the following background:
 

Registration for the 2010/2011 school year will begin on March 1, 2010.  Registration is online only via our online registration tool . Should you have questions during the registration process, you may refer to a few helpful documents posted under registration. 

If your child is in 6th Grade and higher, he or she participated in the annual AATG Test (American Association of Teachers of German) back on January 9th. This test was administered on three levels (level 2 correspond to having two years of High School German language classes; level 3 to three years; and level 4 to four years). The test consists of 100 questions which correlate to a raw score of 100. The average raw score for our school this year is almost 90 (89.4), compared with the national average of about 70. Especially impressive are the results of our students who took the level 4 tests (11th, 10th, 9th graders as well as a few 8th graders): their average raw score was 92.5. Congratulations! Students who scored in the 90th percentile (meaning they scored better than 90% of all other students nationwide) will receive an invitation to the AATG Massachusetts Chapter award ceremony to be held in May. Individual results for each student are being mailed out and should be received in the next 10 days.

The German International School Boston (GISB) informed us that their Open House has been rescheduled to Wednesday, February 24th due to inclement weather. Also, there are open slots for students of the German Saturday School at the GISB's After School Program (February - June).

Essay writing may not always be the most popular activity for our students - but the ZfA Essay Contest usually rewards all participants well, so it's worth "writing" the extra mile! This year, the contest information came to us a little delayed, so our student writers have to sharpen their pens and go to work very quickly on the topic of "Mein deutsches Lieblingswort/My favorite German word" or "Mein deutscher Lieblingsausdruck/My favorite German expression" for younger students (ages 6-11).

Ever wondered if our school has an Honor Society? Well, now it does and last week it officially inducted 12 students from our grades 10 and 11 into the newly formed "National Honor Society for High School Students of German - Delta Epsilon Phi". Thanks to Claire Sehringer and our principal Claudia Bonmassar for making this possible.

The deadline to submit an application for AATG's Summer Study Program is coming up (March 1). This is a program for High School students to spend 3 weeks in Germany during the summer studying language and experiencing the culture. This program has been offered for many years. To learn more about dates, costs, location and to download an application, click here or visit www.aatg.org.
 

This announcement came in this week from our friends at the BSV:
 
"Would you like to enjoy going to events that have dancing?  Would you like to learn how to dance or improve your skills?  Want to dance at the next event?  Learn Ballroom Dancing at the Boylston Schul-Verein with a professional dance instructor.