SILC: Weekly Digest (12/19/10)

Dear SILC Students, Parents, Teachers and Volunteers:

Hope you are all getting ready for the holiday season.

[1] We had an overwhelming response from our students for the Diwali Quiz. Majority of the submissions were partially correct and there were 10 fully correct entries. Accordingly, a lottery was drawan on 12/18/10 to pick a winner from these 10 correct entries.

Meera and Sesh Miruru were picked as the lucky winners of the Barnes and Noble $10 Gift Card. Congratulations!

[2] Halloween @ SILC pictures  are posted here. It appears that SILC kids had lot of fun. I sure did :)

[3] Please see the note from Sarah Hansen on the nominations (of non-profit organizations doing work in India) and the Special Achievement Project our Social Studies level 3 students will be taking up to pick one of these organizations to receive SILC Mela proceedings. Click here.

[4] Please note that we do NOT have SILC for the next two weeks; Here is our schedule for the next four week.s

25 December: No SILC (Christmas)
01 January: NO SILC (new year)
08 January:  Festival Of Nations (FON) dance auditions by IAM
15 January:  SILC Mela

[5] FON/IAM auditions will start at 11:45am (on January 8th) in the SILC Commons.
We are planning to go in the following order.

* Kids (8-10) years - SILC Kids (8-10 years) Dholna dance with Aishwarya
* Youth dance - SILC Youth dance with Neelam
* Adults dance - - SILC Adults with Lata

Please visit http://silcdance.blotspot.com to practice your dance

[6] SILC Mela is on January 15th. Mark your calendars for a great day of fun, games and food.

We need help in the following ways.

a) Donation of gently used Indian clothes,decorative items, books,DVDs etc. The things can be brought and handed over to Neelam or Sunita or Ria on Dec 11th or on the day of the Mela itself.

b) Cooking a food item. The sign-up sheet will be out on Dec 11th as well. If you are not coming to SILC on Dec 11th you can sign-up by contacting Neelam at 651-501-8035 or neelamm@comcast.net.

c) We need volunteers on the day of the Mela to run a booth, to run a game, or help distribute the food. So please sign-up or just show up.

d) if you have any service to offer or know of any business/restaurant/grocery store, you can consider donating/getting a gift card for silent auction. Please contact Ralph Davini or Shiv Bhatia for further details

Happy Holidays

Regards
Siva Jasthi

President
School of India for Languages and Culture
http://www.silcmn.com
siva.jasthi@gmail.com
info@silcmn.com
(mobile) 612.217.4821

SILC Mela and Non-Profit Organizations

This year, SILC has the privilege donating funds from the annual Mela to a non-profit organization supporting educational programs and projects in India. There are so many non-profit organizations doing important work! We have a tough choice to make. We place this decision in the hands of our Social Studies 3 students. Students will research the organizations that the SILC community recommends and select one for SILC to support. This is an opportunity for our students to exercise their critical thinking skills and for our community to learn about other organizations whose missions align closely with that of SILC. As of now, we have 5 suggestions for organizations we are interested in supporting. Below you will find each organization’s mission statement. We encourage parents, teachers, and students to submit any additional suggestions to info@silcmn.com by January 1^st. 

Thank you!

Sarah Hansen

Literature and Art Teacher

Akshaya Patra “Unlimited Food for Education”

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is a leading organization that addresses two of the most immediate challenges facing India, hunger and education, through its school lunch program. Akshaya Patra feeds one million underprivileged children daily in government run schools in India.

www.foodforeducation.org

Chetana Foundation “Helping Hands Are Holier Than Praying Lips”

Chetana charitable Trust is an offspring of Sri Venkateswara Balakuteer. Sri Venkateswara balakuteer was founded by Dr.N.Manga Devi and G.Prabhavathi in 1965 in Guntur with a zeal to work for the child. This educational institution was recognized as a school with a difference at national and international level shaping the children into full bloomed personalities with human touch . . . Chetana [now organizes] service activities for the upliftment of the downtrodden and the less fortunate without any help from the Government.

www.chetanafoundation.com

Doorstep School “Education Moves on to Every Door Step”

All children deserve an education. An alarming number of India's urban poor still remain without an opportunity to receive formal education. Our mission at Doorstep School is to bridge this divide using innovative programs that will bring education to these children and help them make the transition to literacy and a brighter future.

www.doorstepschool.org

Premalayam “Everybody Needs Love: Awaken, Educate, Empower”

Premalayam is a civil society organisation dedicated to serve the deprived sections of the society. Committed and service-oriented youngsters from various walks of life form the core team. Only a knowledgeable and assertive society can pave the way for a developed nation and our main focus areas are Education, Health, Awareness & Empowerment and Community development. This organization adopts schools in India in locations impacted by poverty.

http://www.premalayam.in

Vibha “A Brighter Future for Children”

Vibha’s mission is to educate, empower and enable every individual who wishes to make a positive difference in the life of the underprivileged child. Founded in 1991, today Vibha . . . has supported about 190 projects in India and the US. [ . . .] Vibha’s main focus areas are 1) Education; 2) Vocational training; 3) Care for physically and/or mentally challenged children; and 4) Rescue and rehabilitation of children in vulnerable conditions.

http://www.wiki.vibha.org

http://wiki.vibha.org/Main_Page

SILC: Weekly Digest (12/12/10)

Dear SILC Students, Parents, Teachers and Volunteers:

Hope you all have had a safe, warm and leisurely weekend (other than digging yourself out of snow) as the life in twin cities had come to a halt due to the blizzard.

[1] Due to the school cancellation yesterday, there are some adjustments to our schedule as follows

18 December:  We will have regular SILC
25 December: No SILC (Christmas)
01 January: NO SILC (new year)
08 January:  Festival Of Nations (FON) dance auditions by IAM
15 January:  SILC Mela

[2] We have received quite a number of nominations for SILC Diwali Quiz from News Letter 1.  Thank you for your submissions.

Shiv Bhatia will arrange and announce SILC News Quiz winner (by lottery) on 18th December during the first break.

[3] FON/IAM auditions will start at 11:45am (on January 8th) in the SILC Commons.
We are planning to go in the following order.

* Kids (8-10) years - SILC Kids (8-10 years) Dholna dance with Aishwarya
* Youth dance - SILC Youth dance with Neelam
* Adults dance - - SILC Adults with Lata

[4] SILC Mela is on January 15th. Mark your calendars for a great day of fun, games and food.

We need help in the following ways.
a) Donation of gently used Indian clothes,decorative items, books,DVDs etc. The things can be brought and handed over to Neelam or Sunita or Ria on Dec 11th or on the day of the Mela itself.
 
b) Cooking a food item. The sign-up sheet will be out on Dec 11th as well. If you are not coming to SILC on Dec 11th you can sign-up by contacting Neelam at 651-501-8035 or neelamm@comcast.net.
 
c) We need volunteers on the day of the Mela to run a booth, to run a game, or help distribute the food. So please sign-up or just show up.
 
d) if you have any service to offer or know of any business/restaurant/grocery store, you can consider donating/getting a gift card for silent auction. Please contact Ralph Davini or Shiv Bhatia for further details

[5] With the tighter control of finances and visionary execution of SILC operations for the past few years, SILC is blessed and is in a position to help other non-profit organizations / schools/ projects in India.  SILC Board has decided to donate the first $1000 of SILC Mela proceedings (or whatever is raised) (typically we raise anywhere from $600 to $1200)  to another non-profit organization.

How do we select such non-profit organization?
            * Any SILC parent, teachere, volunteer, student can send your nomination of "Volunteer Organization" to info@silcmn.com
            * Social Studies Level 3 students under the guidance of Sarah Hansen will review these nominations and select one organization from the list

Please send in your nominations by 1st January 2010. 

Thank you for those who sent the nominations - we have four nominations so far.



--
Regards
Siva Jasthi

President
School of India for Languages and Culture
http://www.silcmn.com
siva.jasthi@gmail.com
info@silcmn.com
(mobile) 612.217.4821

SILC is canceled on (11th December) due to snow storm and school closure

Dear SILC Students, Parents, Teachers and Volunteers:

Please note that SILC is canceled tomorrow (11th December) due to snow storm and Como High School closure.

Will send out further details on IAM/FON dance auditions and SILE Mela on Sunday.
--
Regards
Siva Jasthi

President
School of India for Languages and Culture
http://www.silcmn.com
siva.jasthi@gmail.com
info@silcmn.com
(mobile) 612.217.4821

SILC: IAM / FON dance Auditions next Saturday - Dec 11th

Dear SILC Students, Parents, Teachers and Volunteers:

Indian Association of MN (IAM) is coming to SILC on next Saturday 11th December to audition Festival of Nations (FON) dances our SILC students are preparing for.

In view of these auditions this week,  some additional practices have been scheduled this coming Saturday as follows.

• 10.05 - 10.45 - SILC Kids (8-10 years) Dholna dance with Aishwarya
  
• 10.05 - 10.45 - SILC Youth dance with Neelam
• 11.00 to 11.45 - SILC Adults with Lata

It is required for the dance students to attend these practices.

The auditions will start at 11:45am in the SILC Commons.
We are planning to in the following order.

[1] Kids (8-10) years - SILC Kids (8-10 years) Dholna dance with Aishwarya
[2] Youth dance - SILC Youth dance with Neelam
[3] Adults dance - - SILC Adults with Lata

We are expecting that one or two students will come in traditional dance costume to give IAM some idea of how the final performance is going to look like;  Your teachers will contact you in this regard.

For any further questions, please contact your dance teachers (Neelam, Lata, Aishwarya).

For the benefit of the new families / students who have joined SILC this year (so that you all realize that it is an important event - and IAM evaluates all dances from twin cities organizations very seriously - so, practice, practice, practice to achieve perfection),  I am providing links to our past performances (2009 and 2010) at FON.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XXxP6ETXvQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFn1yNIKok8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5tDMvSpU80

Regards
Siva Jasthi

President
School of India for Languages and Culture
http://www.silcmn.com
siva.jasthi@gmail.com
info@silcmn.com
(mobile) 612.217.4821

SILC Weekly Digest (12/05/10)

Dear SILC Students, Parents, Teachers and Volunteers:

Thanks you to all who braved the snow and cold to come to SILC.  I appreciate your interest and dedication.  We have a number of items to cover in this digest and please click on the links to dive into the details.

[1]  SILC Mela is on December 18th. Mark your calendars for a great day of fun, games and food.

We need help in the following ways.
a) Donation of gently used Indian clothes,decorative items, books,DVDs etc. The things can be brought and handed over to Neelam or Sunita or Ria on Dec 11th or on the day of the Mela itself.
b) Cooking a food item. The sign-up sheet will be out on Dec 11th as well. If you are not coming to SILC on Dec 11th you can sign-up by contacting Neelam at 651-501-8035 or neelamm@comcast.net.
c) We need volunteers on the day of the Mela to run a booth, to run a game, or help distribute the food. So please sign-up or just show up.
d) if you have any service to offer or know of any business/restaurant/grocery store, you can consider donating/getting a gift card for silent auction. Please contact Ralph Davini or Shiv Bhatia for further details

[2] With the tighter control of finances and visionary execution of SILC operations for the past few years, SILC is blessed and is in a position to help other non-profit organizations / schools/ projects in India.  SILC Board has decided to donate the first $1000 of SILC Mela proceedings (or whatever is raised) (typically we raise anywhere from $600 to $1200)  to another non-profit organization.

How do we select such non-profit organization?
            * Any SILC parent, teachere, volunteer, student can send your nomination of "Volunteer Organization" to info@silcmn.com
            * Social Studies Level 3 students under the guidance of Sarah Hansen will review these nominations and select one organization from the list

Please send in your nominations 18th December

[3] Some pictures from Diwali Celebration Day / Diyas Painting are posted at

http://silc1011.blogspot.com/2010/11/diwali-celebration-and-picture-day.html

If you have any pictures to share (from this event or past events), please send those to silc.blogger@gmail.com with a copy to me

Those will be blogged and archived.

[4] Please review the snack signup sheet and guidelines at

http://silc1011.blogspot.com/2010/12/snack-guidelines-2010-10.html

http://silc1011.blogspot.com/2010/12/silc-snacks-signup-sheet-for-2010-11.html

If you have not signed up to bring the snack yet, please inform Pam Berry (pamelaberry@hotmail.com) - our snack coordinator to signup

[5] We are working on building an inventory of books and CDs and instructional material related to SILC classes.  You can get a preview of these books at

http://silc1011.blogspot.com/2010/12/silc-inventory-of-books-12510.html

We will work on a process to share the updated list so that SILC teachers, students and community can check out the books they need.

--
Regards
Siva Jasthi

President
School of India for Languages and Culture
http://www.silcmn.com
siva.jasthi@gmail.com
info@silcmn.com
(mobile) 612.217.4821

SILC Inventory of books (12/5/10)

SILC Snacks: Signup sheet for 2010-11

	Family #1		Family #2		Family #3
9/25/2010	Rakesh Didwania		Erin Oberdorfer
10/2/2010	Morgan's		Kalatoor's		Chaya Patel
10/9/2010	Koppikar's		Sherry Smith		Leslie Iyer
10/16/2010	Shiv & Varsha Bhatia		Sunita Mannamkunath		Jayashree Padiyath
10/23/2010	No SILC - MEA
10/30/2010	Nihar Atri		Shishir Ghate		Venkoba Rao
11/6/2010	Neelam Malhotra		Gita Gupta		Shalini Thadani
11/13/2010	DIWALI
11/20/2010	Natarajan & Manjula		Reshmy Narayanan		Lakshmi Warriar
11/27/2010	No SILC - T'Giving
12/4/2010	Subhas Das		Namrata Gupta		Michael Bastin
12/11/2010	Riya Arora		Sreedevi Suvarna		Gupthan Namboodiripad
12/18/2010	SILC MELA
12/25/2010	No SILC - Christmas
1/1/2011	No SILC - New Year
1/8/2011	Binita Sinha		Suganya Anand		Siva Jasthi
1/15/2011	Jeyanthi Govinthan		Anjali		Jagriti Mishra
1/22/2011	Winston Sequira		Sreenivas Bukkuri
1/29/2011
2/5/2011
2/12/2011
2/19/2011
2/26/2011
3/5/2011
3/12/2011
3/19/2011	Social Studies
3/26/2011	No SILC - Sprng Brk
4/2/2011
4/9/2011
4/16/2011
4/23/2011
4/30/2011	No SILC - FON
5/7/2011	SILC Holi Celeb
5/14/2011
5/21/2011	SILC Graduation