January 26, 2012

Week At-A-Glance

ECD and LS Second Semester and Flip Friday Begins
Friday, January 27

Varsity Boys Basketball Home Game
Friday, January 27

Eighth Grade Beijing Exchange Students at CAIS
January 28 - February 5

Varsity Boys Basketball Away Game
Monday, January 30

JV and Varsity Boys Basketball Away Games
Tuesday, January 31

Tuition Assistance Online Application Deadline
Wednesday, February 1

First/Second Grade Spring Sing
Wednesday, February 1

JV Boys and JV Girls Basketball Home Games
Thursday, February 2

Middle School Dance
Friday, February 3

Tuition Assistance Deadline is February 1

If you haven’t already started the tuition assistance process for the 2012-13 school year, the deadline of Wednesday, February 1 is quickly approaching. Your tax return must follow the submission, and be postmarked by Friday, February 10, 2012.

This year we are utilizing the online service of Financial Aid for School Tuition (FAST) to process applications. FAST does not decide whether tuition assistance will be given or how much to give; rather FAST provides a need-based tuition assistance analysis service which includes a recommendation of what a family should reasonably contribute toward tuition. All information from FAST is kept confidential. Results are reviewed by the Tuition Assistance Committee who makes recommendations to the Head of School based on next year’s budget. Upon approval by the Head of School, tuition assistance offers are then sent to families.

Here’s what you need to start the process:

• Log onto CAIS.org
• Click on the “FAST” button at the right hand side of the home page.
• The application process is self-guided. You may navigate in and out of the program allowing you to partially complete an application and go back to it at another time. Online e-mail and a 24/7 helpline is provided. Please do not call CAIS with questions.
• The charge for the application is $36.00 and to be paid by credit card at the end of the session. If you do not have a credit card, or cannot budget the fee, please contact the Business Office.

Community Meeting - CAIS's Transition from Traditional to Simplified

Please join us Tuesday, February 7 to discuss and learn about the school’s intended transition from traditional to simplified characters as the main script for Chinese instruction. A team of CAIS administrators and Chinese language faculty will be on hand to talk about the current transition plan and to answer questions at all levels about Chinese script.

An important part of this meeting will be inviting parents to express their views on continued support for traditional characters: What is the community’s desire for such support? What are potential ways to provide it?

What you need to know:

• When: Tuesday, February 7
• 6:00 – 7:30 p.m.
• Where: Lower Café of our Oak Street campus
• Childcare is available, please contact Kevin Lee to make arrangements.
• The presentation will be available online for those unable to attend. We will send specific information closer to the event date regarding online viewing.

Last Chance to Order School Pictures

Our school photographers are running a Valentine’s Day promotion for those of you who haven’t already ordered your child’s school photos. Instructions and school photo site password information can be found on the Veracross ECD, Lower School and Middle School division pages in the news section. Once logged into Veracross, look for the three division webpages at the top of the parent portal page and you will see a link for Pre-K/K, Lower School and Middle School. Clicking on these links will take you to the division page of your choice. See graphic for visual.

Once you're in, we encourage you to look around for news items, resources and photo galleries. Content is constantly updated.

CAIS Students Featured at Asian Art Museum Sunday, February 5

Sunday, February 5 is going to be a busy day at the Asian Art Museum for our CAIS students. An afternoon of Chinese New Years activities are planned and include student performances by eighth graders and members of the Black Pearl Music Ensemble on percussion, Chinese dance performances by three CAIS dance groups, Chinese music ensemble performances by fourth through seventh graders, a lion dance performance and alumni Chinese music ensemble featuring alumnus Reylon Yount on the Yangqin.


Following the music and dance presentations, a reception will take place for our second grade class, whose exhibition "New Year Celebrations" opens in the Education Classrooms gallery. Other interactive events happening in the afternoon include storytelling and hands on activities.


Over the course of the last month, second graders have been working on their artwork for the upcoming “New Year Celebrations” exhibition, which features gouache paintings from the entire second grade class. The second grade students found inspiration for their projects by attending a storytelling field trip at the museum in December where they heard traditional New Year stories from China, Vietnam and Japan. Afterward, in art class, they completed works of art depicting how they celebrate the New Year with their families or how they celebrate Chinese New Year at school.


Please join our community for a reception for our second grade students and their families from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m., following the CAIS dance and musical performances. A special acknowledgment of the second grade students will take place at 2:00 p.m. in the Education Classrooms gallery located on the first floor of the Asian Art Museum.


Schedule of Events for Chinese New Year at the Asian Art Museum - Sunday, February 5

Get Involved with the CAIS Contingent in the Chinese New Year Parade

There are a few spots remaining for students to join the CAIS Chinese New Year Parade contingent. Middle School families, we’d love to invite your child to have a prominent role carrying the 30-foot long community dragon. CAIS has secured a confirmation from the CNY Parade Committee that we will be one of the featured contingents during the televised parade and our students will be spotlighted.


If your child is interested, please email Esther Lee to hold a spot. But hurry! Spots are running out quickly. We will honor requests on a first come, first serve basis.


Volunteer


During the next two weekends, CAIS parents will volunteer their time and talents to help create the props that will be used in the Chinese New Year parade. The CAIS Business Office conference room is the staging area for this creative deluge of artistic talent.


Please consider giving a few hours to volunteer your time to help prepare what we need for the parade. Bring your children with you to 44 Page Street and make it a family activity. The more people we have, the more fun and festive! If you can come by on any of the following days, please email Esther Lee.

Parent Annual Fund Drive Breaks Through Fundraising Goal of $575,000!

Give Now | Pledge | Match | Transfer Stock




Today CAIS received gifts that put the total parent fundraising over the $575,000 goal!


Thank you to every single family who gave a gift to CAIS through the Annual Fund drive. Every gift makes a difference to our students’ education and for our ability to support the unique programs at CAIS.

A big congratulation to families in Pre-K Gold for reaching 100% participation! There are several classes that are just shy of reaching the top. Will your gift be the one that takes your class to 100%?


75% of CAIS families have expressed their commitment to support CAIS with a direct gift. We can still reach our goal of 100% participation if more families give a meaningful gift before the end of the school year through the Annual Fund drive.


Special thanks to our new donors and pledgers this week: Willy and Angela Wang, Edward and Janny Lukawski, Edward Han and Ariana Chung-Han, Susan Tom, Jonathan Heuer and Jean Liu, Franco Tarm and Janice Minamoto, August Jaenicke and Lan Sun, Joseph and Mellisa Pon, Gregory Davis and Karin Orsic, Andrew Wong and Yvonne Filarowski.


Click here to see this week's Annual Fund progress.

Before any other opportunity, please consider giving to the Annual Fund First.

ShowCAIS is Coming!

The Development Team has been working hard with parent volunteers to bring you a wonderful gala this spring. ShowCAIS 2012: Over the Dragon Gate will be held at the Ritz-Carlton on May 12, 2012. We have exciting things planned for this year, but you'll have to stay tuned for more info.

ShowCAIS is the school’s biggest community and fundraising event, garnering essential funds for CAIS through a raffle, a series of exclusive parties and live, silent and online auctions. In our 30th year, ShowCAIS will bring our parent community together with friends from the past to celebration all of our achievements as well as our exciting future endeavors. You won’t want to miss it!

ShowCAIS Volunteer Opportunities

Every year, CAIS relies on a dedicated group of parent volunteers to produce this momentous event. Our 30th year is no exception!

We are looking for parents of all different levels of experience with events to help us with decor, auction solicitation, gift processing and cataloging, writing, promotion and all the nuts and bolts activities that allows the school to throw such a big party. We have plenty of opportunities for all interests, and you can volunteer one time, occasionally or on a regular basis.

If you are interested in volunteering for ShowCAIS, please fill out this short questionnaire and you will be contacted in February.

Calling all Video Production Junkies: We Have a Project for You!

We are looking for a handful of tech savvy folks who are interested in helping to archive and preserve a gold mine of old video footage of CAIS, dating back as early as 1983. The footage is in a variety of formats, and we'd like to convert all of it to digital files in the interest of preserving for future use. We also plan to eventually compile the footage into a meaningful retrospective of some kind for the CAIS community to enjoy.

What is needed is a variety of equipment and software, technical chops and a few hours of time to do the conversions. Some of the conversions are analog to digital. For instance, there are 11 VHS tapes, which would require a VCR and a conversion method (video card, camcorder with firewire output, or other analog-to-digital video converter) for digitizing into a computer. Once digitized, we would like the video saved as movie files, (.mov or .mpeg) NOT burned to a DVD.

In addition to the VHS tapes, we also have 19 miniDV tapes and 7 DVCAM tapes, requiring a firewire connection between a deck/camera and a computer for conversion to files. There are also several DVDs containing the oldest footage, approximately eight hours worth. We would like the footage on these DVDs ripped and converted to .mov or .mpeg files.

Please contact JP Lor if you have the equipment and bandwidth to help with this project.

Kindergarten Families - Chinese Bridge Cup Contest Deadline is Tomorrow

Attention Kindergarten Families

The Confucius Institute at SF State and San Francisco Unified School District are organizing the 8th Chinese Language Bridge Cup Contests. The purpose of the contests is to provide more opportunities for our students to demonstrate their linguistic and cultural talents, and showcase their interest and achievements in learning Chinese language and culture.

The contests will take place from February 11 through March 3. Events include Chinese brush and pen, calligraphy, Chinese painting/drawing, Chinese composition, Chinese-English/English Chinese translation, and Chinese poetry recital.

Click here for more information. All students who are interested in participating these contests must register online before January 27, or mail/deliver the registration form to: Confucius Institute at SF State, 1600 Holloway Ave., Burk Hall 325, San Francisco, CA 94132. Fax or email registration forms are considered invalid.

For students participating in the poetry recital, Chinese teachers have agreed to help select appropriate literature for individual students. Teachers will provide up to two coaching sessions per student to help verbal expression only after literature has been memorized.

Event details:

Flip Friday and Kindergarten Progress Reports Tomorrow

Flip Friday marks the beginning of the second semester in the CAIS Early Childhood Division; and starting this Friday and continuing every Friday until the end of the school year, your child’s Chinese and English class times will be 'flipped.'

This means if your child has Chinese in the morning and English in the afternoon on Thursdays, they will also have Chinese in the morning and English in the afternoon on Fridays. The purpose of Flip Friday is to an attempt to even out the amount of time spent in Chinese and English classes across the entire school year.

Flip Friday and Progress Reports Tomorrow

Flip Friday marks the beginning of the second semester in the CAIS Lower School; and starting this Friday and continuing every Friday until the end of the school year, your child’s Chinese and English class times will be 'flipped.'

This means if your child has Chinese in the morning and English in the afternoon on Thursdays, they will also have Chinese in the morning and English in the afternoon on Fridays. The purpose of Flip Friday is to an attempt to even out the amount of time spent in Chinese and English classes across the entire school year.

CAIS-FAIS Play Yard Community Project Continues This Saturday

Much progress has been made with the Hickory Street play yard project and the effort continues this Saturday. Please join CAIS and FAIS families in the garden installation and painting project on the Hickory play yard this Saturday, January 28 for garden installation; bring gloves and small spades, as needed. Handy people, garden enthusiasts and community support are needed to:

• Paint stencils
• Paint planter boxes
• Place planter boxes
• Lay soil and filter fabric
• Install irrigation
• Planting
• Supervise children

If you wish to participate in this community project, please sign up here.

Chinese Bridge Cup Contest Deadline is Tomorrow

The Confucius Institute at SF State and San Francisco Unified School District are organizing the 8th Chinese Language Bridge Cup Contests. The purpose of the contests is to provide more opportunities for our students to demonstrate their linguistic and cultural talents, and showcase their interest and achievements in learning Chinese language and culture.

The contests will take place from February 11 through March 3. Events include Chinese brush and pen, calligraphy, Chinese painting/drawing, Chinese composition, Chinese-English/English Chinese translation, and Chinese poetry recital.

Click here for more information. All students who are interested in participating these contests must register online before January 27, or mail/deliver the registration form to: Confucius Institute at SF State, 1600 Holloway Ave., Burk Hall 325, San Francisco, CA 94132. Fax or email registration forms are considered invalid.

For students participating in the poetry recital, Chinese teachers have agreed to help select appropriate literature for individual students. Teachers will provide up to two coaching sessions per student to help verbal expression only after literature has been memorized.

Event details:

Spring Sing Happening Next Week at SF Conservatory

Next Wednesday, February 1, our first and second graders will help usher in the New Year with their annual Spring Sing, held at the SF Conservatory of Music and conveniently located next to our Oak Street campus at 50 Oak Street.

The program includes songs with the entire first and second grade as well as individual classes performing spring-focused songs and starts at 6:30 p.m.

Get Involved with the CAIS Contingent in the Chinese New Year Parade

There are a few spots remaining for students to join the CAIS Chinese New Year Parade contingent. Middle School families, we’d love to invite your child to have a prominent role carrying the 30-foot long community dragon. CAIS has secured a confirmation from the CNY Parade Committee that we will be one of the featured contingents during the televised parade and our students will be spotlighted.


If your child is interested, please email Esther Lee to hold a spot. But hurry! Spots are running out quickly. We will honor requests on a first come, first serve basis.


Volunteer


During the next two weekends, CAIS parents will volunteer their time and talents to help create the props that will be used in the Chinese New Year parade. The CAIS Business Office conference room is the staging area for this creative deluge of artistic talent.


Please consider giving a few hours to volunteer your time to help prepare what we need for the parade. Bring your children with you to 44 Page Street and make it a family activity. The more people we have, the more fun and festive! If you can come by on any of the following days, please email Esther Lee.

Get Involved with the CAIS Contingent in the Chinese New Year Parade

There are a few spots remaining for students to join the CAIS Chinese New Year Parade contingent. Middle School families, we’d love to invite your child to have a prominent role carrying the 30-foot long community dragon. CAIS has secured a confirmation from the CNY Parade Committee that we will be one of the featured contingents during the televised parade and our students will be spotlighted.


If your child is interested, please email Esther Lee to hold a spot. But hurry! Spots are running out quickly. We will honor requests on a first come, first serve basis.


Volunteer


During the next two weekends, CAIS parents will volunteer their time and talents to help create the props that will be used in the Chinese New Year parade. The CAIS Business Office conference room is the staging area for this creative deluge of artistic talent.


Please consider giving a few hours to volunteer your time to help prepare what we need for the parade. Bring your children with you to 44 Page Street and make it a family activity. The more people we have, the more fun and festive! If you can come by on any of the following days, please email Esther Lee.