Parent participation program — please sign up

As you will recall, when you registered your children, we ask that each family fill one volunteer position for the school during the 2014-15 school year. Parents who have volunteered for our School in the past have found it to be fun and a great way to get to know other families in our community.  We hope you will enjoy your involvement in the school, and please know that we count on each of you.
You will find detailed information on the different jobs, as well as the on-line registration form here.
When you access the on-line sign-up form, you will see that you are asked to provide a first, second, and third choice of job. We will make every effort to match you with your preferred job.  There is a comment field at the end of the form for your ideas and questions. We look forward to hearing from you!
Please sign up before August 15, 2014. This gives us time to get organized before classes begin in September. Thank you — and we’ll see you in September.

Registration is now open

Registration for the 2014-15 school year is now open. Please follow the registration link to read about the process. We offer a $25 discount for early bird registrations (registration and deposit by July 15 [deadline extended]).

Parents of children who were enrolled in 2013-14 will be sent an e-mail by a current teacher with a class recommendation for 2014-15.  Parents of children who will be new students should pick the class that best seems to fit their children’s linguistic background and proficiency. If you are not sure about the right class for your child, please e-mail us so we can learn more about your child and his/her learning goals. Over the summer, class assignments will be reviewed for appropriateness, and teachers may contact parents prior to the start of Fall classes to discuss class placement. Teachers may also reassign students during the first two weeks of classes.

Curious about our teachers? Meet our fabulous team of teachers for 2014-15.

German School of Madison in the News

2014-05-11 02.47.17 pm

German School of Madison in the news: The Wisconsin State Journal recently published a great article about language schools for heritage learners in Madison. From the article:

In rented classrooms in central Madison’s Neighborhood House, the German School of Madison holds weekly after-school language lessons for children of native German speakers, as well as those with no German language background. Like the Russian school, the German school was formed by parents to give their children a linguistic link to their heritage. It started as something else — an informal group where adults got together a couple times a week to chat in their native language. “The adults would speak German with one another, and their kids would run around speaking English,” said Chris Tabisz, a teacher at the school. “The parents got to thinking they should have some sort of instructor or tutor to play games with the kids or do arts and crafts, and do it in German.”

In 2012, organizers began offering more formal German language classes for students from preschool through seventh grade who were growing up in German-speaking households. Last fall, the school added a class for children from non-German-speaking homes. The class proved so popular that the school had to add another section this spring. It plans to add more in the fall. For non-native speakers, “I’ve seen them really fall in love with the language,” Tabisz said. For the children of parents who grew up speaking German themselves, “it’s about keeping it alive.” The children “all go to public school and speak English all day long,” he said. “Even at home sometimes, their parents will speak German to them and they will speak English back. So this is really an opportunity to pull out whatever remnants they have of German.”

Read more:

 http://host.madison.com/news/local/school-outside-school-no-english-spoken-here/article_4c100fe4-405c-54c9-a39e-3044d5783853.html#ixzz31RDM9q3e