SILC: Weekly Digest (05_22_11)

Dear SILC Students, Parents, Teachers and Volunteers:

Thank you all for making 2010-11 graduation / annual day a success yesterday. It is nice to see the presentations from all the students - reflecting what they have learned at SILC.

Here is the link to the graduation / annual day pictures; We are working on to make the videos available at a later time.

SILC: Graduation Day (05-21-2011)

Without the help and dedication from all of you - teachers, volunteers, parents and students, we wouldn't have had another successful year.

Teachers/Volunteers	Class
abhi nayar	MC for graduationd day
aishwarya menon	dance - tweens
amrit Devgun	dance - children 1
anil kumar	tabla
anjali goptal	Social Studies - 3, dance-youth
baiju sadanandam	gurukul - silc registration system
divya karan	silc board - curriculum coordinator, hindi - 1b
divya raman	art, literature
erin oberdorfer	principal, silc board
gayatri moorthy	hinidi -4
geetha sharan	Preschool
gupthan namudiripad	malayalam adults
jeyanthi govindhan	dance - children 1
jyothsna harris	Preschool
kamakshi Lakshminarayan	Substittue Teacher - Tamil
krishnanan numbudiripad	silc board
krupali shah	yoga, gujarati
lakshmi buddhavarapu	silc board - secretary
lakshmi warriar	cooking
lata menon	dance - adults, malayalam 2
mahima gupta	MC for graduationd day
mangala achar	kannada, silc board - treasurer
manu achar	Social Studies - 3
mary kate	dance - tweens
namrata gupta	gurukul - silc registration system
natarajan raman	silc board - volunteer coordinator
neelam malhotra	silc board, dance - youth
nidhi khandelwal	hindi -preschool
padam sharma	nepali
pamela berry	snack coordinator
prad das	bengali
praveen puligondla	sports / cricket
preeti jariwala	gujarati
punjabhai patel	yoga
raj menon	silc board, gurukul - silc registration system, social studies
ralph Davini	silc board
reshmy Narayanan	hindi -3
riya Arora	hindi -2
sapna Das Bradoo	Social Studies - 1c
sarah hansen	literature, art
seema nambudiripad	hindi - adults
shalley Gupta	Social Studies - 2
shiv bhatia	silc board - asst principal, hindi - 1a ,editor -  silc year book, editor - silc news letter
siva jasthi	silc board - president, telugu, gurukul - silc registration system
sona das	bengali
sonja Agarwal	Social Studies - 1b
sridevi mahavadi	hinidi -4
srinivas bukkuri	telugu
suganya chandrasekharan	tamil
sunita Mannamkunnath	hindi -2
varsha bhatia	Social Studies - 1a
vishnu nambudiripad	malayalam 1

On behalf of SILC Board, I thank you all for your contributions. We had lunch celebration at Surabhi restaurant today to appreciate our volunteers and it is attended by around 35 people. Thanks for making it to the event.


Before you get busy in your kids schools or summer break, here are some things you need to follow up

[1] All the dance students interested in participating in summer festivals (dragon festival, burnsville international festival, india fest) should contact Neelam Malhotra and watch out for the email communications from her

[2] If you couldn't make it the graduation day event yesterday and wanted to get a copy of the year book and certificate for your child/yourself, please contact Shiva Bhatia for arrangements. Considering that we will be bumping into each other at one or other summer festival, we will work out the logistics.

[3] If you want an extra copy of the year book for yourself or to be given to your extended family, please contact Shiv Bhatia. Each copy costs $5 and will be available on first-come first-served basis.

[4] SILC Board will continue to meet over the summer for planning for the next year and will keep you posted on a regular basis.

[5] If any of you are interested to teach at SILC or assist / substitute in teaching, or to serve on SILC board, please contact us.  If you are interested to start a new language or new program, please contact us with your proposal. 

[6] Most importantly, if you have any ideas, suggestions for improving on how we can do better at SILC, please pass those on.

Have a wonderful summer


--
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: Graduation Day (05/21/2011)

Dear SILC Students, Parents, Teachers and Volunteers:

I hope you are all getting ready for the graduation day tomorrow. The final preparations are going on and we are all feeling excited about tomorrow.

Here are some quick reminders for the tomorrow

[1]  Please plan to be in the auditorium by 9:45 AM. The graduation event will start at 10 AM.  We have a program packed for over 2.5 hours with all lanaguge students and electives students performing.

[2] At the entrace to the auditorium, you can pick a copy of the schedule 

[3] Please feel free to bring another family or friend. This is a great day to show them what you and your children are learning at SILC

[4] We will be assembling in the cafetaria for some light snacks after the event;

[5] Once you are in the cafetaria, please ensure that you collect your year book from Shiv Bhatia

Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow

--
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 (05/15/2011)

SILC: Holi Celebrations (05-14-2011)

Dear SILC Students, Parents, Teachers and Volunteers:

It is wonderful to play Holi outside the school in the drizzle yesterday. Some of you almost dropped out of the fun due to the drizzle. I am sure you are all glad now to venture out to have fun. Color and some drizzle is great combo. Pictures speak 1000 words and watch the fun we had in this album.

My family and I went to Hindu Temple of MN today to watch Samparnam - Indian Classical Dance program by twin cities dance teachers and their students; It is nice to see so many SILC members there. Special appreciation to Neelam Malhotra - our dance teacher, and Samykuta and Divya - SILC students. We are all proud to have you as part of SILC family.

Next Saturday 21st is the big day at SILC - it is graduation day;  All our langauge and elective classes will be presenting what they are learning through out the academic year. This is also a perfect day to bring a family or two along with you to show them what your children are learnign at SILC. Please feel free to bring a friend or family with you.

Please note that the graduation event will be held in the auditorium. So, please ensure that you directly come to the auditorium by 9:45 AM and settle down in your seats. We will start the program with vande mataram at 10:00 am and the children need to be on stage before that.

We are looking for some additional volunteers to setup the stage and to make the arrangements (projector, mike, screen, speakers). Please contact Shiv Bhatia or show up at 9:30 to help us out.

I will send out another mid-week summary of the finalized graduation schedule. Printed copies will also be made available for you to pick up upon arrival. However, here is an inkling of the outline.

of the schedule. We will have language and elective classes to come up on stage class-wise to show / perform what they have learned. In the end, we will also invite all the volunteers, teachers and SILC board members to come up on stage to see the people who worked hard to make this year a success. The graudation event will be followed by light snack in the cafetaria.

We expect to wrap up the event by 1 PM. Please ensure that you get a copy of the year book and certificate (all students and volunteers will get one) before you leave SILC.

Please note that I have finally managed to upload the pictures from Social Studies Day. See the Weekly Digest dated 03/27/2011 or click here to see the pictures.  On seeing these pictures, you will get an idea of how the graduation day is going to be.

See you all next week along with your friends and family.

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 (5/8/11)

Dholna: Childrens Dance

SILC Youth Dance at FON 2011 - Chunari Chunari / Marjaani Marjaani

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlgVZttf204

Kaikottikkali: Adults Dance

Dear SILC Students, Parents, Teachers and Volunteers:

Hope you all have had fun at Festival of Nations this week. I  couldn't attend the event yesterday, but I did attend FON today. I heard SILC dancers (children, youth and adults)  rocked the stage with their performances.  I have posted some pictures and links I have recived from SILC community. I have also bumped into the photos / videos posted by SILC and FON community at youtube and Facebook as well.

 

Thank you and congratulations to all SILC performers for thier  performances at FON.  Please send me any pictures and video you have taken at FON. I will archive the best of these at silcblogs for future reference and record.

Note that we have two more weeks of SILC classes and both are big days - Holi Celebrations (May 14th) and SILC Graduation (May 21st)

May 12 - Deadline for sending the articles for SILC Graduation Year Book.  The deadlie is extended by four days to get the articles for the year book. Please send your articles to Shiv Bhatia, Assistant Principal - shivbhatia66@yahoo.com directly

May 14 - Holi Celebrations:  We will be celebrating Holi next week. I just checked whether forecast for next saturday. Looks like we are going to have a good day with 60 degrees - the perfect weather to celebrate Holi.   Language classes will be held as usual. After the language classes, we will go outside the school  and celebrate Holi with colored powders (dry colors for sure; and wet colors if weather permits).   So, wear something you do not mind getting messy - because it will sure gets messy and it is going to be lot of fun.

May 21 - Graduation:  All our studetns from languages and electives classes will be show casing what they have learned on this day.  We will also release SILC graduation book. This is the final day of the SILC for the current academic year and should not be missed.  Please ensure that you resolve other conflicts and attend this event.

And thank you for sending your nominations for Uma Nambudiripad Volunteer award.  Our volunteer coordinator Natarajan Raman will be working with his team to chose one of the nominees and will let us all know all about the receipeint of this award on the graduation day.

Also note that there is a "Samarpanam" event  - an evening of Bharatnatyam by local artists at Hindu Temple of MN (MapleGrove) on Sunday, May 15th at 4:30 PM. If you are interested in Indian classical dances, this is an event you do not want to miss. Our very own SILC dance teacher - Neelam Malhotra - is also performing at this event along with the other teachers in twin cities.  The tickets are $15 adults and $10 students/children. Tickets are available at the door on the day of the event. 

Wishing you all another wonderful week.

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 (5/1/2011)

Please take note of the detailed schedule of SILC Performances at FON. In earliest digests, I listed children's (Aishwarya's students) dance timing incorrectly. Children will be dancing at 12:30.

Dear SILC Students, Parents, Teachers and Volunteers:

 

Does "Gurukul" ring a bell?  "Guru" means Teacher and "Kul" means Extended Family. "Gurukul" in Indian culture reflects the traditional schooling system. On behalf of SILC Board, I am excited to announce that our registration process for next academic year will be completely online and it will be called "Gurukul".  We are working with NGIN - a twin cities based vendor providing the backend support for secure processing of registrations for many schools and communities.  If you have registerted your child for basket ball, la crosse, soccer classes online in your community/school district, you will get an idea of how the "Gurukul - SILC registration system" is going to work.  Big thanks to Raj Menon and Baiju Sadanandan - who have spent lot of time in translating the SILC needs into detailed requirements and ensuring that these get implemented in "Gurukul". We are working towards a goal of having some initial demo of this process by the graduation day. Please stay tuned for further details.

 

Hers is rest of SILC schedule:

 

Not that we do not have classes next week due to Festival of Nations event (May 5th to 8th). Please visit http://www.rivercentre.org/events/event.asp?event_id=1286 for the event details and direction.

 

All three dances from SILC are scheduled for Saturday May 7th. We will not have SILC classes on that day. 

 

* SILC Youth (Neelam's students): 11:30 AM

* SILC Children (Aishwarya's students): 12:30 PM

* SILC Adults (Lata's students): 7:00 PM

 

Please ensure that you reach the venue at least one hour before the start time to ensure that you reach the back of the stage to meet with your dance group. 

 

Note from Shiv Bhatia - Assistant Principal on SILC Year Book

 

Dear Students, Parents and Volunteers,

As we come to the end of yet another academic year, we eagerly await the graduation day.

One of the events on graduation day is the release of "Year Book". The year book includes articles from students, volunteers and parents....and acts as saved memories of another SILC year gone by. 

The contribution for the year book has been scant. I would like to request all of you to tickle the literary part of yourself and write something. It could be anything related to SILC or India.....Festival of Nations, SILC Mela, your experience at SILC as a parent or student or volunteer.......a trip to India............just about anything. 

 

Also note that we are looking to chose a photo or art or drawing from your submissions to be placed on the back cover page of graduation book. There will also be $10 gift card to be given out to the winner of the back cover page on the graduation day.  Please pull out the pictures you have taken during the school year or draw some picture - and send in those for a chance to see your creation on the back cover of graduation book.

Please send in your articles to info@silcmn.comor to Shiv Bhatia (shivbhatia66@yahoo.com) on or before May 7th. 

 

Deadline for receiving the nominations for Uma Namboodiripad award (May 7th)

 

This permanent annual award was instituted in March 2008 to honor the memory of Uma Namboodiripad, a dedicated volunteer at SILC, who demonstrated immense commitment to its students and its mission. 

 

Volunteers are life blood of this organization and are the primary reason for the success of SILC all these years. Please take a moment to recognize a teacher or volunteer and send your nominations to our volunteer coordinator  Natarajan Raman – Volunteer coordinator (nraman4002@gmail.com)  or hand over a printed/written copy to Raman in person at SILC

 

You can review the nomination form and guidelines in the last week's digest (or at http://www.silcblogs.com/)

 

Camp Masala (June 10th - June 12th): Registration deadlie is May 6th. Some of you may be interested to register for Camp Masala - Indian Heritage camp. Note that the last day to registger for the camp is May 6th. You can see the details of Camp Masala at http://www.campmasala.org/

 

 

Wishing you all another wonderful week.

--
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

* Festival of Nations (May 7th) - we will NOT have regular SILC classes.

* Deadline for registering for Camp Masala - Indian heritage camp (May 6th) 

* Deadline for receiving the nominations for Uma Namboodiripad award (May 7th)

* Deadline for receiving the articles for SILC year book (May 7th)

* Holi celebrations (May 14th) and
* Graduation Day (May 21st) 

 

Festival of Nations (May 7th) - we will NOT have regular SILC classes.