SILC 2010-11 News: October 2011

Sunday, October 30, 2011

SILC: Weekly Digest (10/30/11)

Dear SILC Students, Parents, Teachers and Volunteers:

Hope you are all getting ready for more Halloween fun tomorrow. You can see the pictures of Haloween@SILC event yesterday on SILC blogs here or at http://www.silcblogs.com

SILC News Letter
Deadline for submitting the articles for the first edition of SILC news letter is fast approaching. It is Friday November 4th.

The first edition of SILC News Letter for the academic year will be released on 12th November / Diwali day at SILC / Picture Day. Please contribute your articles (book/movie reviews, your experiences at SILC, your works of art, any travel to India experiences, etc.) to the News Letter editor "Krishnan Nambudiripad" <knambudi@yahoo.com>

SILC Achievement Project

Under the guidance and mentoring of Raj Menon, SILC Achievement Program 2011 kicked off yesterday. This is for SILC students who have already completed all the levels of Social Studies at SILC. The students have brainstormed and have short listed the following three projects.

Fund-raiser to support village school in India (led by Bhavana Suvarna)
Reenactment (movie / play) of British impact on India (led by Sanjana Pandya)
A Quilt of Indian Art Forms (led by Aekta Mouli)

More details will be shared with SILC community in the coming weeks on the progress of these projects and SILC Board is committed to make this program a success so as to ensure the continuity of our students and challenge them in SILC learning environment once they have completed all the levels of Social Studies.

Assamese

Bengali

Gujrati

Hindi

Kannada

Kashmiri

Konkani

Malayalam

Manipuri

Marathi

Nepali

Oriya

Punjabi

Sanskrit

Sindhi

Tamil

Telugu

Urdu

[2] What are the top three (based on the number of speakers) languages spoken in India?

Answer: Based on 2001 census, the top three languages are - Hindi, Bengali and Telugu

S. No.	Language	Persons who returned the language as their mother tongue	Percentage to total population **

1	Hindi	422,048,642	41.03
2	Bengali	83,369,769	8.11
3	Telugu	74,002,856	7.19

Quiz of the week

What is the location (name of the place and state) of these tourist attractions and monuments in India?

1. Taj Mahal
2. Jantar Mantar
3. Charminar
4. Gate of india
5. Red Fort
--
Regards
Siva Jasthi
Director - Communications
School of India for Languages and Culture
http://www.silcmn.com
(mobile) 612.217.4821

Halloween at SILC (10/29/2011)

Sunday, October 16, 2011

SILC: Weekly Digest (10/16/2011)

Dear SILC Students, Parents, Teachers and Volunteers:

Please note that we do not have SILC next week (on 22nd October) due to MEA weekend and we will meet on 29th october.

SILC Library 2.0:

SILC Library has some educational books, CDs, games which can be borrowed by SILC community. For the current inventory of items in SILC library, please click here or access the link http://www.silcmn.com/docs/SILC-Library_Inventory_2011-03-31.pdf

We are busy looking at reinvigorating the SILC library to become a valued resource for SILC students and families. Currently, we're investigating both ways to ensure awareness of all that the library has to offer, to make it easy to check out and request materials, and to make it easy to maintain.

We want to leverage technology and also get students involved in raising awareness of the SILC Library Collection, and we'll be asking SILC families to help us understand what they would value and how they could leverage the resource.

More to come on this...look for an early 2012 launch!

SILC Calendar:

One of the parents have asked for a copy of the SILC Calendar. Please note that you can access it from http://www.silcmn.com --> click on the Calendar on the left hand side

You can access the calendar directly from this link http://www.silcmn.com/docs/SILC_Calendar_2011_12.xlsx

Halloween@SILC on 10/29
Everyone is encouraged to dress up in costumes. Class pictures in halloween costumes will be taken during language class. Candy will be distributed at the end of SILC session after Jana Gana Mana

SILC News Letter

The first edition of SILC News Letter for the academic year will be released on 12th November / Diwali day at SILC / Picture Day. Please contribute your articles (book/movie reviews, your experiences at SILC, your works of art, any travel to India experiences, etc.) to the News Letter editor "Krishnan Nambudiripad" <knambudi@yahoo.com>

Yoga and Dance at Institute of Himalayan Tradition:

Institute of Himalayan Tradition is holding a fund raiser event on 22nd October; Our Yoga substitute teacher and SILC parent Vaishalee Ballolla will be presenting a solo Bharatnatyam (South Indian Classical Dance) "Bhakti Maargam—Path of Devotion" during this event. Please visit http://www.ihtyoga.org/ for the details on the tickets and timings. For any further questions, please contact Viashalee Ballolla.

Tabla Class - Rental of Instrument

If you are interested in renting Tabla from SILC, please contact our Principal - Shiv Bhatia (shivbhatia66@yahoo.com ; 651-894-2551) to reserve Tabla and for any questions.

Auditing of SILC finances
Financial transparency, accurate book keeping and managing the finances for an effective operation of SILC are important aspects SILC board takes very seriously. SILC financial year is from September 1st to August 31st. We would like to have SILC finances audited on Second Saturday in November which falls on 12th this year. We will be inviting one or two folks from the twin cities community (from IAM or other organization); We are also looking for 2 to 3 volunteers / parents from SILC who would like to participate in the audit. If you are interested to be part of auditing SILC, please contact "Raj Menon" <rklr_menon@yahoo.com>, .

Upcoming events

22nd October: No SILC due to MEA

29th October: Halloween at SILC (classes will be held per schedule; all are encouraged to come in costumes)

4th November: Deadline for receiving the articles for SILC News letter 1.

12th November: Diwali celebration / Picture Day / SILC News Letter 1

Answers to last week's Quiz:

1. How many states are in India?
(28 states)

2. What is the youngest state in India?
(Chatishghar)

3. What is the largest state (by area) in India?
(Rajasthan)

Quiz of the week

[1] How many regional languages are recognized by Govt of India as "official" languages? What are those languages?

[2] What are the top three (based on the number of speakers) languages spoken in India?

--
Regards
Siva Jasthi
Director - Communications
School of India for Languages and Culture
http://www.silcmn.com
(mobile) 612.217.4821

Sunday, October 9, 2011

SILC: Weekly Digest (10/9/11)

Dear SILC Students, Parents, Teachers and Volunteers:

Hope you are all enjoying the fall colors, last few days of the sunshine and warm weather.

SILC News Letter

The first edition of SILC News Letter for the academic year will be released on 12th November / Diwali day at SILC / Picture Day. Please contribute your articles (book/movie reviews, your experiences at SILC, your works of art, any travel to India experiences, etc.) to the News Letter editor "Krishnan Nambudiripad" <knambudi@yahoo.com>

Yoga and Dance at Institute of Himalayan Tradition:

Institute of Himalayan Tradition is holding a fund raiser event on 22nd October; Our Yoga substitute teacher and SILC parent Vaishalee Ballolla will be presenting a solo Bharatnatyam (South Indian Classical Dance) "Bhakti Maargam—Path of Devotion" during this event. Please see the attached or visit http://www.ihtyoga.org/ for the details on the tickets and timings. For any further questions, please contact Viashalee Ballolla.

Tabla Class - Rental of Instrument

We have a number of new students for the tabla class this year. Some parents had approached us to see if SILC rented out tablas to students who do not have the instrument.

The SILC Board has approved the rental of tablas to interested families on first come first served basis. The rental cost will be $8 per month. A student renting out a pair, will need to pay $100 for the entire year, which includes a refundable deposit of $28. (Rental cost of $72 for nine months plus $28 as refundable security). For the current academic year, the overall rental will be less due to the number of remaining months being less.

Please contact Shiv Bhatia (shivbhatia66@yahoo.com ; 651-894-2551), for any questions or reserving a pair of tabla.

Punctuality for Classes

Our volunteer teachers devote their personal time to come and teach. We request you to be respectful of their commitment by being punctual for classes.

Auditing of SILC finances
Financial transparency, accurate book keeping and managing the finances for an effective operation of SILC are important aspects SILC board takes very seriously. SILC financial year is from September 1st to August 31st. We would like to have SILC finances audited on Second Saturday in November which falls on 12th this year. We will be inviting one or two folks from the twin cities community (from IAM or other organization); We are also looking for 2 to 3 volunteers / parents from SILC who would like to participate in the audit. If you are interested to be part of auditing SILC, please contact "Raj Menon" <rklr_menon@yahoo.com>, .

Lost and Found
With winter approaching, please ensure that you take care of your belongings - especially winter jackets. Please do not leave your winter gear on the tables unattended. And at the end of the session, please ensure that you gather your belongings. At times, it is possible that a parent or student may have forgotten a jacket or a book. If you find any lost items, please hand over those to one of the SILC board members or hang on to those to bring to the next session. Speaking of Lost and Found, if you have found ""How to Live in a Science Fiction Universe" book yesterday, please hand it over to Erin Oberdorfer

Como School Homecoming Day
Please be aware that Como will be holding a Homecoming Parade on Saturday October 15th in the morning. So starting at 10:00am there will be a lot of traffic congestion in the parking lot and people in the building to use restrooms, etc. Please start and arrive early so as to reach SILC in time.

Upcoming events
15th October: Como Homecoming Event; Leave some time so that you can find parking spot

22nd October: No SILC due to MEA

29th October: Halloween at SILC (classes will be held per schedule; all are encouraged to come in costumes)

12 November: Diwali celebration at SILC

Quiz of the week:

1. How many states are in India?
2. What is the youngest state in India?
3. What is the largest state (by area) in India?

--
Regards
Siva Jasthi
Director - Communications
School of India for Languages and Culture
http://www.silcmn.com
(mobile) 612.217.4821

Sunday, October 2, 2011

SILC: Weekly Digest (10/2/11)

Dear SILC Students, Parents, Teachers and Volunteers:

[1] Chitram - Our first field trip:

We just came back from CHITRAM - A Portrait of Indian Culture. The program is very exciting (this is also our first field trip) and it is good to see many SILC students, parents participating in the event. Please share your experiences as a participant or spectator with us. We would like to share the pictures of the event, experiences of the participants and viewers in the coming weeks - through weekly digest, news letter, year book.

[2] SILC Achievements Projects

SILC is considering whether to restart the SILC Achievement Projects (SAP) program. SAP is open to SILC students who have spent 3/4 years in the Social Studies program and are 12+. SAP projects are meant be challenging in nature and require commitment on behalf of the participant.

Projects could be one or more for the following:

    * Student proposed projects
    * Comparison of modern India vis-a-vis India 1947
    * Comparing ancient mythical figures India vs Greece vs Roman vs Egyptian (aka Percy Jackson stories !)
    * Design and development of online portals, tools for learning Indian languages, culture, arts. These tools may possibly be hosted on the web, desktop, hand-held devices, touch screen devices. This may involve computer programming
* Design and development of instructional aids for learning/teaching Indian languges, culture, arts.

The actual projects will be decided based on requests from participants and SILC's ability to facilitate the project.

If your child is interested in participating, please send an email saying you would like to participate to info@silcmn.com on or before 10/07. If they have any projects they would like to work, please let know that also, and we will consider the request.

[3] Interested in serving on IAM Board?

Please see the note from the IAM team. If you are interested to know more about IAM, please get hold of Raj Menon or Shalini Tadani or Kusum Gosain at SILC on any saturday.

Hello,

The IAM Nomination Committee, which is charged with selecting a slate of candidates who would be interested in joining and meaningfully contributing to the IAM Board in 2012, invites you for the same. Contact us at boardnomination@iamn.org or individual members using the contact information below.

India Association of Minnesota (IAM), a non-profit organization, is building a strong and cohesive community of Asian Indians in the state of Minnesota with the primary goal to educate and inform the broader MN community about India and how to make the connection easier with India in this globalized world. Today, IAM achieves this via a number of events throughout the year. For example, IAM held IndiaFest 2011 at the State Capitol grounds this year. IAM has been participating since 1979 in the Festival of Nations, a trailblazer event for the International Institute of Minnesota, supports various organization in the Twin Cities including School of India for Languages and Culture and is sought out as a voice of the Indian American community. Please visit http://www.iamn.org for more information on India Association of Minnesota.

IAM has many other aspirations and a lot more needs to be done. With your participation in the Board, some of these aspirations and other innovative ideas can be realized that will make this community a vibrant participant in Minnesota.
As a member of the Board you will be responsible for event planning and execution, operations management and strategic planning. Members elected to the Board are expected to attend monthly meeting (2 hours), as well as when planning for events, a weekly meeting. We expect a minimum of 50 hours per year of volunteer time.

If you believe you can contribute to make this organization represent the interests of the Indian Americans and all those interested in India, please let us know by Oct. 5th, 2011. You must be a member of the IAM to apply to the Board.   However, if you are not a member, please visit http://www.iamn.org to become one. In addition, if you have an interest in participating and/or volunteering at the events, but not be part of the Board, please do let us know too.

Thank you very much and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Regards,
IAM Nomination Committee

Deepshikha Gupta (dshikha@skate.edu, 651-454-2124)
Nagraj Gurumurthy (nagraj.gurumurthy@gmail.com, 612-743-9369)
Ravi Sura (ravisura@gmail.com, 651-734-0645)
Shiva Elayedath (shiva.elayedath@gmail.com, 651-206-7907)
Shashi Gupta (gupta007@umn.edu)

[4] Today is Gandhi Jayanti

"Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served. But all other pleasures and possessions pale into nothingness before service which is rendered in a spirit of joy". - Mohandas Gandhi

Today is Gandhi Jayanthi - a national holiday in India to celebrate the birthday of Mohandas Gandhi, the "Father of the Nation". Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869. This day was declared as "International Day of Non-Violence" by United Nations.

If you are interested to know more about Gandhi and listen to his speeches or watch the videos, you can visit http://www.gandhiserve.org; There are also many books available at your local library in twin cities (just browse for "Gandhi" in the library catalog).

[5] Quiz

Here are the answers to the last week's quiz.

India's National Flower = Lotus
India's National Bird = Peacock
India's national Animal = Tiger
India's National Tree = Indian Fig Tree
India's National River = Ganga River
India's National Song = Vande Mataram
India's National Anthem = Jana Gana Mana
India's National Game = Hockey
India's National Days = 1.Independence Day (August 15th) 2. Republic Day (January 26th) 3. Gandhi Jayanthi (October 2nd)

And for this week, you can try out taking a quiz with Mahatma Gandhi at

http://www.gandhiserve.org/quiz/Mahatma_Quiz.html

----

Regards
Siva Jasthi
Director - Communications
School of India for Languages and Culture
http://www.silcmn.com
(mobile) 612.217.4821