GAIS is located in Menlo Park, in the heart of Silicon Valley and close to world-renowned Stanford University. The school, which follows a bilingual program in German and English, was founded in 1988 by a group of parents with a commitment to international education and the goal to educate critical thinkers. Today, as an authorized IB World School, GAIS represents a dynamic international community of over twenty nationalities, sharing the vision of strong family values, a supporting environment, positive challenges, and an inquisitive and fun approach to learning and life.

At GAIS we are working with the International Baccalaureate Organization (www.ibo.org), an international quality management organization that connects us with other schools and universities around the world to achieve an excellent educational impact. Our school has very high academic standards and we expect high quality in teaching and team collaboration. The content of our academic curriculum from preschool trough grade 8 compares to the California, German, and Swiss standards. We use various benchmark tests to evaluate ourselves, such as ISA, SAT, Klassenkockpit and Deutsche Orientierungssarbeiten. Our students perform exceptionally well in external achievement tests and continue their education in some of the most prestigious schools in the region and around the world. The very well educated parents have a strong involvement in the school and enrich and support the school environment.

The mission of the German-American International School (GAIS) is to provide an outstanding international, bilingual education focused on inquiry-based learning with the goal to foster confident, creative and responsible learners and global thinkers.

Internship Opportunities

GAIS regularly hosts student teachers from German, Austrian and Swiss universities.Student teachers can apply for stays for a minimum of 3 months and will be assigned a mentor teacher. While their observations and practical work will focus on one class, every attempt will be made to give student teachers a well-rounded learning experience in other areas of the school as well. The Director of Academics will complete all necessary documents which the student teacher will need to authenticate the internship experience for university credit.

Responsibilities and Organization

Once an internships period has been approved by the school, it will be the responsibility of the student teacher to arrive in Menlo Park at their own expense. Student teachers are responsible for their own room and board. If requested, the school will try to find a family that will host the student in exchange for child care and tutoring duties. Student teachers will be asked to work in a classroom under the direct supervision of a GAIS teacher and will be assigned mutually agreed upon instructional tasks. These can vary from teaching a full class, a sub-group of the class, individual students or assisting in a support role. Student teachers will be expected to show an outstanding attitude, collaboration and enthusiasm to take on a variety of tasks inside and outside the classroom. The Director of Academics will have a position-fixing with the student every two weeks and report at the conclusion of the internship to the university.

Expectations

• Maintain a high standard of courtesy and professional relationships with all colleagues, students, parents, and interested parties and, in particular, show full respect for the cultures and backgrounds of all students, parents and colleagues
• Maintain high quality instruction within all subject areas being taught
• Possess verbal and written English skills corresponding to a high intermediate level
• Show loyalty toward the head of school, directors and supervisors
• Possess a solid Gymnasium education (average grade of 5) and good interim reports from the university
• Possess strong IT skills
• Desirable: Experience in youth leadership

Time Period

We will accept students at any time during the academic year, if this is in agreement with the requirements of the university. However, we prefer the students to begin their internship after the completion of a so-called unit of iniqury (7-week-loop). For more information about the duration of the units and the general academic schedule can be found on our website.

Unit Loop 2009/2010

Vacation 2009/2010

Summer break: to August 14
Fall break: October 12 to 16
Holiday break: December 21 to January 1
Winter break: February 15 to 19
Spring break: April 12 to 16

Costs, Residence

• The school provides no financial support for student teaching assignments.
• Student teachers can stay in the USA for a total period of 3 months only. Applicants who wish to stay for more than 3 months need to apply for a student visa. GAIS will help applicants with the visa appliaction but the visa costs (around US$ 1,300) are the applicant's responsibility.
• Student teachers must abide by all US laws and regulations. GAIS assumes no legal responsibility for a student teacher.

Application process

1. Internship application form sent to the school office ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
2. Screening of application
3. Decision about placement will be sent to applicant by email
4. If necessary, GAIS will start the Visa process.

Internship application form

Attachments:

File
Application form Internships