SILC: Weekly Digest (1/30/2011)

Dear SILC Students, Parents, Teachers and Volunteers:

[1] A few years ago SILC was invited to perform at the Woodbury Elementary Heritage Festival. Sharon Simon from the school has called SILC to say that the kids and the families had much enjoyed the experience, especially the Indian dances and had helped solidify the Festival in the minds of the attendees.

They have invited us again to perform on Friday Mar 4th, from 5 to 7.30 pm. They would love the Kids and Teens to perform there and would be happy to have them each perform a couple of times during the evening.

Neelam Malhotra - our dance teacher and coordinator - has already contacted some students and have received some confirmations to dance at the festival; If your child is interested, please contact Neelam via email or phone on in person.


[2] Please pay attention to the class rooms and their usage. When you leave the class room, please ensure that the room is clean and is in the same arrangement and order;

 I would like to bring to your attention of the mail we have received from Como School so that we all understand the gravity of the situation if we do not show respect to the classrooms.


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Hi Mangala:  Again we are having issues with the foods room.  If this continues, you will not be allowed to use it so it  is up to your staff to make sure the room is left exactly as found or not use the room any more.   The teacher should come in on Monday and expect their classroom to be ready to teach. 

I know you are trying but you have to have the same person responsible every week for the inspection of the foods room so you have consistent and proper care of the room and equipment.  I will check back with the foods teacher after a couple of weeks and if there are still problems, you will have to adjust your classes to not include that space. 

I hope this is the end of it.  Please take pictures before you leave each week.  It seems that it is always dishes either dirty or not put away.  Also, tables must be put back in order and perhaps you can bring your own dish towels and not use the school dish towels. 

Thanks,

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[3] I realize that many of you take up many activities to promote Indian culture in the community (For example, you have done a project at your school related to a topic or person of India; OR you have learned an Indian dance or musical instrument and performed at an event in twin cities, OR you have already performed the dance you are learning at SILC this year at your school).  If you would like to share this with the rest of the community, please provide brief write up on your accomplishment and pictures to me or Shiv Bhatia. We can either publish these to blogs or to the news letter (or both).


[4] Do you have SILC Mela pictures (or any other pictures you have taken at SILC) which you like so share? Please send those pictures to us.

--
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 (1/23/2011)

Dear SILC Students, Parents, Teachers and Volunteers:

[1] Thanks to all of you who are volunteering at SILC. It would not be possible to run SILC without the passion and dedication of its volunteers. Are you aware that some of the twincities organizations (for example, 3M) provide matching grants for the volunteer hours their employees have given to a non-profit organization?

If you work at such an organization, please consider nominating SILC as receipient of the grants for the volunteer hours you are giving to SILC.

(Thanks to Kusum Gosain for alerting me to this possibility of matching grants for volunteer hours)

[2] We are happy to let you know that a permanant web site  http://www.silcblogs.com/ has been registed.   To catch up the news of the current academic year, you simply have to remember   "silcblogs"  and type in http://www.silcblogs.com/ to see what is happening at SILC.  You can also navigate from the main web site http://www.silcmn.com/ as well.

[3] Have you seen the IAM Auditions videos Raj Menon has provided? If not, here are the youtube links (these are posted to SILC blogs as well)

Kids Dance 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxTZYmquki0

Youth Dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3RcGvGCkzU

Adults Dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15yFYZPtjgY

[4]  We are working to bring out SILC Handbook and Directory (Big thanks to Raj Menon for taking the initiatie to pull this together). It provides a good reference to SILC community on what is expected from each of us as well as information about SILC events.

The directory will contain the following details.

Student

Student Since

Parents Address

City

Zip

Phone

Parents Email

If any of you do not wish to see the students name published in the students directory, pleae contact Raj Menon directly by

[5] As Erin, our principal, outlined in the assembly, please ensure that you are not using the cell phones to make the calls or to text in the SILC class room.  It is expected from the students and parents that they show and exhibit similar respect to SILC as they would o in the regular school.  It helps the teachers and classrooms to conduct the classes with focus and without any interruptions.

[6] Lost and Found:   If you have found any items at the end of SILC session, please pick those up and get those to SILC next week to hand it over to me or Principal or Assistant Principal. We can announce it during the assembly so that those items can be claimed. (Note: A folder and a boy's olive green hooded jacket are lost yesterday; If anyone picked those up, please bring those to SILC next week)

[7] Our second SILC News letter will be released during the social studeis day (date TBD; we are working out the logisics of booking the school auditorium for this purpose). Please wear your thinking caps and contribute the news letter. Submissions are due by 19th February to Shiv Bhatia (Assistant Principal)

[8] January 26th is Republic Day of India. And India is celebrating its 62nd Republic Day this year. To learn more about this day, encourage your children to visit some of these references

http://republicday.nic.in/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_Day_(India)

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 (1/16/2011)

Dear SILC Students, Parents, Teachers and Volunteers:

[1] Thank you all for making SILC Mela a grand success by participating in the event in many different ways.  Hope all of you had fun at the event. Many of you have spent considerable amount of time in planning, preparing, organizing and conducting the event. 

 

[2] If you have any photos of the SILC Mela you would like to see appear on the blog, please send those to me. I will post and share.

 

[3] On behalf of SILC, I thank the following businesses for donating their services and gift certificates to SILC Mela

 

* Kabob's Restaurant

 

 

 * Dosa King

 

 

 

 * Everest on Grand

 * India House Restaurant

 

 

* Bombay Bistro

 

 

 

 

 

 

* Mega Travels (Pradip Das)

 

* H & R Block (Mangala Achar)

 

 

 

* Mehendi Made Memories (Lisa Seltzer)

 

 

 

Please visit their pages for information about the services they offer / locations / contacts.

 

 

[4]  Please see the note from Sarah Hansen who coordinated the SAP (Special Achievement Project) for Social Studies 3 students to select  2011 Mela Funds Recipient

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Thank you to the teachers and students in the Social Studies 3 class for selecting the recipient of this year’s Mela funds:  Vibha! 

 

Students carefully considered the 8 nonprofit organizations nominated by the SILC community. They selected Vibha based on the wide variety of projects the organization supports in India. They also connected with Vibha’s mission “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.” Vibha’s mission statement and more detailed information about the organization can be found at this web address: http://wiki.vibha.org/Main_Page. Thank you to the entire SILC family for helping to give back to our larger community!

Sarah Hansen
hanse230@umn.edu

 

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[5] Our next event is Social Studies and Literature day - where our teachers and students are preparing to show case what they have learned at SILC in these classes.  Please stay tuned for further communication on this.

[6] Also note that our next SILC news letter will be released on Literature and Social Studies and Literature Day. Please start thinking about contributing to the news letter.

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 (1/9/2011)

Dear SILC Students, Parents, Teachers and Volunteers:

Hope you are all sticking to the new year resolutions you have made :)

[1] Thank you all for making IAM/FON Auditons go smoothly as planned. 

Comparing where these students are four months back and how they are dancing now -- always gives a feeling of accomplishment.

All the students who practiced hard for these auditions deserve a big hand. I couldn't attend SILC yesterday due to conflicts. However, through the video clips Raj has shared, I can feel the excitement of the day.

Here are the videos for your viewing and listening pleasure.

Kids

 

Youth

Adults







Your dance teachers will share the feedback IAM review committee has provided on your auditions.

[2] Are you all getting ready for SILC Mela next week?   We have discussed Mela preparations in the board meeting yesterday and one thing that is clearly recognized and highlighted is - WE NEED LOT OF HELP in making this a successful and memorable event. If you have not already done so, please


(*) sign up to bring a food item;  Please contact Neelam Malhotra
(*) sign up to run a carinval style game and manage the kids who come to play the game; Please contact Pamela Berry or Neelam
(*) donate gently used stuff (books, cd / dvds, decorative stuff, clothes, etc. - related to India). If you have not already done, you can still bring items next week
(*) solicit some gift cards (for the silent auction) from the businesses, restaurants, grocerty stores, services you patronize. They will be recognized in the news letter and on silc blogs. Please contact Ralph Davini for any further details on this.
(*) provide gift cards if you are running any business / service organization


[3] I understand our social studies students have researched the non-profit organization and have arrived at a decision regarding the receipient of $1000 (or whatever is raised if it is less).  They will share the outcome on Mela day and also the process they followed. Please stay tuned.


[4] All of us are going to be kids on SILC Mela - having pure and simple fun.  It is sure going to be busy, exciting, fun day at SILC next Saturday. To minimize the chaos, please follow the guidelines posted/announced.  Please ensure that you keep your winter jackets at the designated place, consume the food in the cafetaria and chip in to clean up the place at the end of the event.

--

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 (1/2/2011)

Dear SILC Students, Parents, Teachers and Volunteers:

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. Happy New Year.

[1] Please note that there will be IAM / FON dance auditions this coming Saturday (8th January). Adults, Teens and 8-10 year old kids should be practicing hard this week to get ready for the auditions.

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

[2] Please see the following special note from Aishwarya for the 8-10 year olds: " Hey kids, the Dholna dance  is only 3 minutes long. All of you have the dance video with you already. So I need you to practice atleast 2 times everyday till next Friday. That will help prepare you all for the audition. We will be practicing in the first period on Sat Jan 8th also. Please report to me after the assembly".

[3] 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 January 8th (preferred day as it helps to sort, arrange and put the tags on the items) or on the day of the Mela itself.

b) Cooking a food item. Please contact Neelam at 651-501-8035 or neelamm@comcast.net to signup for bringing a dish to Mela

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

[4] And finally, have you got the chance to review the non-profits we are considering to donate SILC Mela proceedings? if not, please take a look at these @ http://silc1011.blogspot.com/2010/12/silc-mela-and-non-profit-organizations.html

[5] Note that you can always find these weekly digests at SILC Blogs. Go to http://www.silcmn.com and click on Blogs. If you are not receiving this mail, please bring it to our attention.

--

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