I'm all for parent-school communication, but this??

Because I defy you to read it through to the end of the e-mail text below without your eyes glazing over and forgetting what the message is supposed to be about, I’ll tell you before you start reading – it is all by way of telling us that the third snow day will not need to be made up after all.

A two sentence message would have found me (and certainly, the kids) content.

But, we aren’t paying the 20,000 Euro tuition per child from our pocket. Ex-pat parents aren’t . However, the school has increased the number of local Germans who attend the school and, perhaps if I was paying the tuition for a school that has a cumulative 2 months of vacations out of a 10-month school year, I might have a laser focus on the number of days actually spent in the classroom!

And, if all the vacation isn’t enough, the Seniors are done with classes at the end of April. They graduate in early June, three weeks before grades K – 11 are done with school. Wow! Gives new meaning to “senior skip day (s!)”

Here’s the e-mail below, cut and pasted exactly as received… it came with the title: “School Closure Make-Up Day Decision” Huh?

Dear Mr Geipel and Mrs Geipel,

The frequency and amount of snow this winter was off the charts. The conventional wisdom is that we experienced a once in 30-years weather pattern. We lost three days of instruction due to snow conditions.

Our school policy requires that if more than two days are missed that we use e-learning to make up time lost or hold an extra day of school. Board policy #1.402 states, “Where e-learning is not practical, instructional time lost as a result of emergency closure will be rescheduled at the earliest appropriate opportunity…” E-learning was made possible. Fully 90% of our upper school faculty and 30% of elementary and ISW faculty used our school’s Studywiz online learning platform during our last emergency closure. Some of our upper school students (89% used Studywiz on the snow day) report that too many activities were assigned – but with this being the early stages of our implementing an online learning platform, our teachers gave a very strong accounting of how Studywiz is an important tool. We did our best to impact learning. Our teachers have also observed that the emergency implementation of Studywiz was helpful and important as a follow-up to their training with the system.

The concept of considering a make-up day confirms the importance of what happens in the classroom. The practical side of determining WHEN the make-up day can be held within our already established academic calendar is another matter. There is no available day to schedule a make-up day between now and the end of our school year. We do have spring vacation and religious holidays ahead of us, yet so many families have long-standing plans. The religious holidays over long weekends in May and June were announced 18 months ago and the bus companies we use have scheduled other customers. We considered adding time to the school day but this compromises both the lives of our youngest learners and negatively impacts an already short season for our cocurricular season and REAL PROGRAM. We looked at shortening our parent-teacher conference schedule but to do so compromises the work of our teachers toward creating student-led sharing of classroom work and setting goals. As an aside, I am proud to point to the fact that we are teaching our younger learners to evaluate their academic performance and setting goals for continuous improvement. Our parent-student-teacher conference needs to be implemented in line with our new reporting system to you as a parent. Finding the opportunity for a make-up day has proved logistically impossible with the consequences of greater negative impact than the original problem.

The above paragraphs make it painfully clear that I spoke too soon about the make-up day. Our online learning day promoted a high percentage of participation, exactly as we had hoped. Teachers at all grade levels have adjusted their instructional planning to ensure full coverage of material within their curriculum, prior to the end of our school year. As always, our IB teachers will continue to work with our grade 11 and 12 students, both within and beyond classroom hours to make sure students have the support, knowledge and skills essential for success with their exams in May. (This includes after hours and weekend coaching sessions as students approach their IB exams).

We will not schedule a make-up day for this school year. Our students and teachers deserve credit for implementing and using our online learning tools. However, we will continue to refine our school’s use of e-learning tools to be even more prepared in case of an emergency closure.

I am the one who must take full responsibility for calling for a make-up day too quickly. With the above explanation, please accept my apology and my hope that we have another 30 years to wait for a winter like this one.

All Good Wishes.

Mark

In Search of Sunshine - Finding Desert Rain, Dust Storms and Hurricanes

The third week in February is “Ski Week” at Frankfurt International School (FIS). Anyone who’s been paying attention knows -- I was ready for a break from the snow. So, we did NOT use the week to head in search of more and deeper snow! Instead, we set out for what we had every reason to believe would be five days of sunshine and warm weather. We went to Israel.

Wondering what in the world “Ski Week” is? I did too. Turns out that it serves as a warm-up for the two-week Spring Break that arrives exactly one month later. Having been back in school for 6 whole weeks since the three-week Christmas Break was ended, the kids felt they were quite entitled to another break.

How easily we all adapt to the aspects of German culture that we like! Germans, along with the rest of Europe, view vacation time (minimum of 6 weeks paid vacation for any fulltime worker) as a human rights issue. And, they’re teaching the kids the “appropriate” expectations at a young age!

I think they may actually have pushed it so far as to feel a bit defensive about all the time off from school. (See the next posting for an e-mail recently received from the school headmaster.)

Jerusalem
Even landing at Tel Aviv airport, we got a sense that we were in a different world. Israel, perhaps the most “western” of the Middle East countries is still most definitely middle-eastern. However, you learn quickly that English is virtually everywhere. All signs are in Hebrew, Arabic and English. Every person we encountered spoke passable English and most spoke excellent English. So, the logistics of getting around are actually quite simple.

We checked into a fabulous hotel, were given a verbal preview of the famous Israeli breakfast (i.e. takes "all-you-can-eat" to a new level of fresh, gourmet food!) to expect and headed out to dinner at a Turkish restaurant. One doesn’t even need to wonder in a place like this if it’s “authentic!”

We sat on pillows on the floor and ate excellent though unfamiliar food. Of course, in the end, there are fewer variations on how to cook food than there are countries and cultures – the kids favorite was a sort of Turkish pancake filled either with “sweet” or “savor y.” Its good for the kids (and us!) to learn that no matter how different a place feels, looks and is, culturally, you can almost always find at least some common approaches to things – something that is familiar, albeit with a twist.

Jerusalem is almost impossible for me to form a coherent opinion on. It is a city of more dichotomies than the obvious Muslim/Jewish/Christian ones. Although, those alone are fascinating. The city prides itself on the ability of these three faiths to live side-by-side in a city that is at the most sacred heart of each faith. That is a feat worthy of pride. It is also worth noting that this does not mean they are holding hands, singing Kum Ba Yah!

The kids were unprepared for the visible levels of security - even after flying El Al airlines. There were metal detectors to enter the main square where the Wailing Wall is, soldiers strolling everywhere with machine guns so casually strung over their shoulders, a palpable sense of suspicion and distrust and very clear demarcations of neighborhoods and boundaries. Even the rental car agent warned us against certain stretches of road to Palestinian territory and the city of Jericho can only be reached via a Palestinian taxi cab driver – by law.

So, they are living “peacefully” in one city for the time being. And, having seen the passion and devotion with which these groups live their respective (and conflicting) faiths, it is an accomplishment. But, it is by no means anything close to what an American would describe as “living peacefully side by side!”

The Next Dichotomy
Back to dichotomies – on one level, it is an interesting dichotomy to walk along the Via Dolorosa, which is the journey that Jesus walked to his crucifixion while carrying the cross and find it now an active and aggressive Arab Souk (market) . On another level it is just plain weird to walk through this most ancient city and be verbally accosted by each and every booth owner in the souk trying to sell you the most tacky of religious and secular souvenirs – everything from Nativity sets carved no doubt by Arabs to harem outfits with dangling coins in sizes from small child to adult!

Of course, if a Sponge Bob t-shirt in Hebrew is your desire - you can get that too.

…and the Next
Now, this I couldn’t make up if I tried. My imagination is not that good. While we were there, the Jerusalem Post reported that the Wailing Wall was selling advertising space. Yep! Coca Cola, among others, would start advertising on the wall – via images projected at the top of the wall, using it like a giant video screen. And, this was not an article expressing outrage… So, most sacred religious spot combined with most sacred capitalist tradition!

…and Yet One More
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre highlights the controversies within Christianity alone. This church is built on what is believed to be the site of the last five Stations of the Cross - the holiest Christian site in Jerusalem.

Once inside, one finds a church that has been divvied up into seven parts for centuries. Each major denomination of Christianity (save for the protestants who don’t agree that the site is the actual site of the crucifixion and resurrection – or, maybe they were just a century or two late to the carving up of inner-church territory!), has jurisdiction over a section of the church.

There they have built altars and sanctuaries in their individual traditions. But, the church has been in disrepair for decades, if not centuries, because they cannot all agree on maintenance, let alone repair! Even earthquake damage in 1927 was not repaired until agreement on the plan came in 1959.

The one shared place in the church is the Rotunda, a shrine built on top of the location of Christ’s tomb. Held up by scaffolding as “earthquake protection,” the Rotunda had a line of over 100 people wrapping around to enter the very small shrine. As I sat and watched the slow progression of “pilgrims,” I noted that at least half of them merely stepped inside the door, reached their arm deeper into the room and snapped a few pictures before heading out again. Many never even went inside the door – “snap, snap, okay, we were here!” Hmmm… either it is a sacred pilgrimage or it is not. If it is not, it is just another tourist site on someone's "bucket list."

And, the touristy feel of a most sacred place, in my opinion, is one more dichotomy to try to understand. The history of the place is very interesting and one tries hard to transport one’s mind back to ancient times but, again, my imagination is not up to the task. The sacredness is almost too hard to find while standing shoulder-to-shoulder with a sea of over 100 tourists in their bright yellow baseball caps which keep them from getting separated from their tour guide, grumbling about where they will go next and what will be for lunch.

So, in the end, I really cannot articulate a singular feeling about it all other than “interesting and thought provoking.”

The Tunnels
Unfortunately, I had one of the worst colds I’ve had in years during this trip so I did not join the night-time tour of the tunnels that have been excavated under the Temple Mount, which is today, under Muslim control and on which sits the Dome of the Rock, the oldest Muslim building in the world – built in 691. The tunnels that have been excavated now bring Jews even closer to the second temple than the Western (or, Wailing) Wall.

Though praying by Jews or Christians is now forbidden above the tunnels on the grounds of the Dome of the Rock, it is not forbidden underground. This location has become even more sacred to some than the Wailing Wall. The kids and Gary thoroughly enjoyed their underground tour.

These tunnels – most as yet unexcavated due to tensions surrounding Muslim control of the above ground site – were the most likely route the Jews used to flee with and hide the Ark of the Covenant, which, Indiana Jones notwithstanding, has never been found.

Driving the Desert
Mark Twain described the Negev Desert in his book "The Innocents Abroad" as "a desolation that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action…".

The desert may not have the pomp of life and action but on the day we drove down (literally “down” as our first destination, the Dead Sea, is 400 meters below sea level!) from Jerusalem to Eilat, the resort town on the Red Sea, there was most certainly drama.

The morning was sunny and warm as we headed for our first stop at the Dead Sea. Though not truly “swimming weather,” we stopped for a dip in the sea. It is known for being so salty that the water itself is a floatation device. Sure enough! It would be the perfect water for synchronized swimming – it is virtually impossible to submerge yourself. Synchro swimmers would achieve amazing heights with their extension of legs or torsos above the water line (a key aspect of scoring in competitions).

Then, it was on to Masada. Masada is a desert fortress built by King Herod. It was the site of a 2-year siege by the Romans around 73AD. A really interesting archeological site that one reaches today by cable car is wonderful to wander around. The absence of almost any other visitors save a National Geographic film crew made it no stretch at all for my imagination to imagine life there so many centuries ago. As you can see - Audrey could easily imagine how they bathed!

Then, it was two more hours of desert driving to our final destination. We drove for over an hour through a rare, though intermittent, desert rainstorm. Pictures did not do the sky justice. Along the roadside we frequently saw what looked exactly like the stakes with meter markings to alert snowplows to the actual depth of snow in places like Buffalo, NY. Instead, these stakes alert drivers to the depth of water during flash flooding! We had no worries about flash flooding as the rain didn’t last that long but, the landscape makes it easy to imagine just how quickly a flood could rise.

Eilot – Sunshine, Rain and Dust!

We came for “guaranteed” sunshine. We didn’t get it. Gary and Ethan went scu ba diving - wet suits and several meters of water overhead mean sunshine doesn’t matter for them. The girls and I walked the boardwalk until a heavy downpour “forced” us into a café for lunch. But, day two brought just what we were after – sunshine and sand. While the boys returned to scuba, we went to the Dolphin Reef.

Unexpected finds are the best kind. Expecting a somewhat theme-park atmosphere, what we found instead was a very nice sand beach, swimming area and dolphin reserve. Free umbrellas and beach chairs and very cheap and very fresh Mediterranean food brought by “cabana boys” as we lounged, read and dolphin watched made for a perfect day.

The next day, when we had to drive back to Tel Aviv airport, was again a crummy day. We were lucky to have the best day at the best spot! Our drive back to Tel Aviv allowed us to take in one more archeology location – Tel Be’er Sheva. This ancient city is the site of the well dug for Abraham by his servants over 4,000 years ago.

We drove through an astounding dust storm to this place. We walked around as the only visitors, perhaps because of the dust storm. Outside of the city and very truly in the desert, it was easy to transport oneself back thousands of years. The “techonology” of the underground water system and cistern was quite a surprise.

Back to Germany … and Hurricanes!
We were gone just five days but it felt like more than a week. Going to a place so completely different is one of the best ways to feel as though you’ve been away! And, in this case, we felt like we were returning to somewhere unknown! Our flight from Tel Aviv connected through Vienna. We hadn’t been watching the European news and weather. Unbeknownst to us, Germany and England were battening down the hatches because of hurricane-force winds of up to 160 kilometers per hour (100 mph)!

We learned this after we were in the air - one of the few flights that wasn’t cancelled that night - when the pilot came on and announced we would “perhaps” have turbulence because Frankfurt was experiencing 100 kilometer winds. Even I knew something was up before the English translation of the announcement – I can understand enough German to know that “es gibt hundert Kilometer Wind” means it will be a rocky ride!

Luckily we landed safely but the airport and adjoining train station were chaos. Over 280 flights were cancelled, all long -distance railway service was suspended and over a dozen injuries and deaths attributed to the storm!

But, the snow had all melted in Konigstein!