LREI: Middle School

A number of you have recently inquired about the advisory program and the role that it plays in the Middle School. The advisory program provides a space for students to come together to explore issues related to the middle school experience. It is also provides a forum for advisors to get to better know the members of their group so that they can best advocate for their advisees. Our Tuesday morning meetings are used for brief check-ins. During this time, an advisor may meet with two or three of his/her advisees. They use this time to check in about schoolwork and about any other issues that might be on an advisee's mind. While these check-ins are taking place, the other advisees are preparing for the day (e.g., going over homework, organizing binders, etc.). In some advisories, each advisee has a peer who he/she checks in with in addition to his/her advisor.

During our Thursday sessions, groups have been developing and implementing a variety of long-term projects. Our hope is that some of these projects will become on-going efforts that advisory groups cycle through during the school year or during alternate years. These efforts are in addition to the our evolving relationship with St. John's Food Pantry. Each week an advisory group travels to the pantry to help with the sorting of food. More recently, advisory groups have started going to the pantry to help with the distribution of the food to pantry clients. This has added a new dimension to the experience and deepened the sense of service connected with this work. We will continue to identity additional service experiences that can serve as a cornerstone of the advisory program.

To support connections across all grades, periodically throughout the year advisory groups meet with their buddy groups. These meetings provide an opportunity for students across the four grades to come together for discussions around important issues and to simply enjoy each other's company.

So the advisory program continues to be a work in progress. Below is a list of some of the exciting projects that are taking shape in the advisory program. Advisory groups are:

• creating a weekly "calendar" that is posted in the second floor hallway. Each day has a specific repeating theme (e.g., Current Events Monday, Brain Teasers and Puzzle Tuesday, etc.).

• creating brochures that describe who we are and where we come from. Groups within the advisory have been divided up to focus on home, school and New York City. These will eventually be sent out to our penpals in Zuni, New Mexico. Our activist project for MLK Day was focused on Animal Testing. We plan on generating awareness and writing a letter and petition to ban products that test on animals.

• volunteering with Children' s Aid Society kids every Thursday

• continuing to focus on recycling at LREI. We have made announcements at LS meeting, creating and posting "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" signs throughout our building, and other activities. We hope to enter one of the Sanitation Department recycling contests.

• writing to our Zuni pen pals. After we finish our activist letters on global warming, each advisee will spend a session teaching the rest of the group how to do something - play a game, make origami, etc.

• creating the Bleecker Street Journal. Students researched, wrote, and edited the articles. Some of them also took photos.

• combining forces to explore FAIR TRADE - What it is, how it works/doesn't work, and what to do about it. So far students have viewed a video, visited local coffee store/cafes, visited a roasting plant, interviewed store employees, surveyed adults in early AM who come in w/ coffee, and we will organize and present data for bulletin board display.

• brainstorming and making posters for the five middle school lunch rules that you now see posted around the school.

• participating in a pen pal project with our sister's school, which I know some other advisories are doing as well. We have also been doing a group game each semester that focuses on team building, and we are planning a Heimlich maneuver training session for Middle School meeting.

• planning a project that involves raising funds to plant trees all over the world. There is an organization that will plant one tree somewhere in the world that needs it with each dollar raised. We are creating a pledge form and hope to do a jump rope-a-thon to raise the funds.

Some really interesting projects. I hope you will talk to your child about his/her group's project.

On other fronts, congratulations to the co-champion Middle School Girls Basketball Team (see update below)! Their determination and effort over the course of the season was remarkable. Thanks also to the many fans who came out to support them.

Dear Families:

There were moments over the last three days where the Middle School building was eerily quiet as students concentrated on the ERBs. The regular sounds of students hard at work on projects and in discussions born of collaboration gave way to the focused attention each student gave to these standardized tests. At this week's parent rep meeting, the question came up as to how we use the results of these tests. In general, they serve two major purposes:

1. The ERB results allow us to look at the performance of a whole class or grade. We compare these results against our expectations for how we think the group should perform on those areas that are aligned with our curriculum. This helps us to identify skills/knowledge where students are meeting expectations and to identify, if any, those areas that may require some additional attention. While there are many important aspects of the curriculum that the ERB cannot and does not assess, it does provide a useful lens for looking at particular aspects of the curriculum.

2. In a similar way, the ERB results provide another perspective for looking at individual achievement and give rise to a number of questions: Do the results seem to tell a similar story to what we see each day for a particular student or do there appear to be some discrepancies? Do ERB results indicate areas of strength that we do not see in class? If so, how can we better draw on these strengths? Are there areas of challenge that have not revealed themselves in the curriculum that would benefit from additional support in and outside of the classroom?

So for us, the ERBs are really an invitation to a conversation about learning. They are a piece of a puzzle that is always in process. They are important, but not all that is important.

What was all important on Wednesday afternoon was our annual Middle School Literary Festival. In one or two-hour long workshops students explored a range of interesting literary themed experiences. One the menu, this year were:

Picture Books and Children’s Literature (with Matthew Rosen and Michelle Boehm): Matthew Rosen, former editor, shared techniques for writing and constructing picture books. Participants then had the opportunity to create their own picture-book dummies. They laid out text, added illustrations, and formatted their dummies accordingly.

Opposing POVs: Writing from Different Points of View (with Suzanne Cohen): Students wrote an account from the point of view of two characters that felt very differently about a subject or incident (for example: a teenager and her mother after the mother reads an entry from her daughter’s journal; a coach and athlete after the team loses the competition). Participants explored the different voices and character traits that an author might use to shape a character, which influences how a character might report an incident and convey specific detail.

Scrap Booking (with Margaret Andrews): Margaret provided the materials; all students had to do was to bring in photos they wanted to include in a scrapbook page. Students learned how to document their photos and create a keepsake that records special moments, people and places in their lives.

Booktalking (with Jennifer Hubert Swan): Challenged to find a more dynamic way to tell someone, “You’ve got to read this book!”? Jen, the Queen of the Book Talk, helped willing participants to explore how to help uncover the joys of reading for others.

Found Poetry (with Heather Brandstetter): Participants set out on a poetry-finding adventure and explored the streets of New York to find the poetry that is there everyday.

Movie Reviews (with Jeannie Park): Students joined Executive Editor Jeannie Park and another People Magazine editor to hear about what it's like to have to watch movies day in and day out and then write about them--even the ones you hate! They got tips about what makes a review interesting to the reader and even tried their hands at writing their own movie review.

Visual Autobiography and Bookmaking Workshop (with Melissa Rubin and Robin Shepard): Students came prepared to create their very own hardcover autobiography. They brought in memorabilia that told a story about themselves. This included a range of flat 2-D special items that had personal meaning: their prose and poetry, photos, maps, stamps, feathers, ticket stubs, playbill covers, movie ads, pressed flowers, etc. were used to create the books.

Comic Books (with Aaron Renier): In this workshop, participants got tips from the author of the graphic novel Spiralbound, Aaron Renier, on how to write and illustrate a graphic novel.

The Personal Essay and Memoir (with Betsy Rapoport): In this workshop, students read their essays aloud, critiqued each other in a supportive way, and talked about how to find a "writing tribe" with whom you can share your future work.

Who the Heck Are You?? (with Dennis Kitchen): Ever wonder who that person is you see wandering around the building? You know they work here, but you’re not quite sure what they do. In this workshop, studentswere outfitted with a camera and tracked down these folks, snapped their picture and then interviewed them. Dennis shared interviewing techniques and helped participants to create a fascinating bio on that person they thought they knew, but not really.

Playwriting (with Raquel Cion): In this hour-long workshop, students joined in a facilitated discussion of what constitutes dramatic writing. Students learned about the who, where, what, and how of constructing scenes. By using tools such as automatic writing, image, and structured writing time, they explored character, action, conflict,
setting, which are the building blocks of playwriting. Through this exploration they then wrote a "mini-play". These plays were then read aloud. The workshop culminated with a discussion of how to continue writing and creating plays on your own.

Songwriting (with Henry Chapin): In this workshop, participants looked at list songs, which are songs where the lyric form is a list, such as Cole Porter's "Let's Do It," or "Don't Know Much Biology..." They listened to other examples of list songs and then wrote your own. After writing their song, they recorded it on GarageBand.

The Fewer the Words, the More Important They Are...(with Marthe Jocelyn): Writing a picture book is harder than you think, but in this workshop, students gave it a try! Celebrated children’s book author Marthe Jocelyn led students through the process of choosing their words carefully and creating their very own children’s book.
After feasting on this veritable banquet of literary entrees, students returned to their homerooms to share with each other the fruits of their labors. A wonderful day!

On the subject of literacy, at the recent Parent Adolescent Issues Evenings, we spent some time taking about how technology is changing the way we look at the world and how these changes have generational impacts. What is a matter of course for our kids may often feel at odds with the way we learned things and may seem somehow non-essential. It is increasingly the case that technology is changing not only how we access and use information, but how we communicate and collaborate with others. So from a relational perspective, it is important for adults to get up to speed and close this technology gap. To get some sense of how things are evolving, I encourage you to view this link to an interesting video on how our ideas about text in a digital age are changing. Finally, we are looking to schedule two technology evenings for parents (one for K-6 and one for 7-12) to discuss some of these issues.

Dear Families:

This week in Middle School meeting, we heard a report from the fifth and sixth grade class reps about what they have been studying in each of their classes. Next week, we will hear from the seventh and eighth grade reps and then bi-wekly reports from each grade will follow. The addition of these reports to our weekly meeting is part of a concerted effort on our part to make the academnic life of the school a part of our collective gatherings. It also provides a meaningful context for student leaders to practice their leadership skills and for the whole community to consider what constitutes high-quality work. We hope that these reports will also create additional opportunites for students and teachers to share work at our meetings.

I have also asked the class reps to send these reports on to me for inclusion in the weekly email. This week's blog includes the sixth grade report. I hope that these reports will provide you with a regular peek into what is happening at school and may serve as a good jumping off point for diuscussion about school with your child. On that note, at this week's meeting we enjoyed a presentation by some of the eighth graders on on their recent Mousetrap Car project, which you will be able to learn more about in their report that will appear in next week's blog.

Dear Families:

On Friday, students will come home with their second quarter report cards. These reports include a narrative section that provides teachers with an opportunity to share insights, strategies, and goals that they have for your child. Always thoughtful, these narratives reveal the deep understanding that your child's teachers have about her/his learning and social experience in the classroom. The narrative goes hand in hand with the progress grid section and connects grade level expectations to the lived experience of the teacher and the student. The narrative is at once a story and an invitation to dialog with your child about successes and challenges to date and her/his plans for the second half of the year. We hope that the new format of the reports will also make it easier for you see the story of your child's school year as it has unfolded over these first two quarters. That said, to the extent that these reports offer a window into the daily school experience of your child, they should also be seen in the larger context of your child's potential for growth and change. As we still have a substantial distance to travel before the end of the year, we hope that you will use these mid-year reports as we do: as one of a number of assessment maps that will guide us on our on-going journey.

For the dedicated members of the LREI Middle School Robotics Team, an important journey came to an end this past Sunday . . . and what a journey it was! Sixth graders Liam C., Hannah, Isabella, David, and Charles and seventh graders Maya P-H, Cameron, Ella, Nicholas, and Deion joined the members of over 65 other teams at Riverbank State Park for the FIRST Lego League (FLL) competition. It was a long and grueling day and one that was preceded by many weeks of preparation. After multiple rounds of competition and the research and technical presentations, the LREI Robotics Team walked away with the first place Teamwork Award and the third place Champions Award.

That the team was recognized for their intellectual and community-focused efforts speaks to our overarching commitment to help students to think deeply and to act with an awareness of the needs of others. While the competition is a highlight of each team members' experience, the real work took place over many weeks in the LREI science lab. Along the way, their preparation was guided by a number of core principles that resonate with our schools progressive values. The Robotics Team and the related robotics curriculum that is part of the Middle School science program seek to ignite an enthusiasm for discovery, science, and technology in our students. Each year, the Robotics Team embarks on an adventurous challenge based on a current, real-world issue. This year, the team explored the field of Nano technology and discovered that his new frontier will impact every facet of society, from medicine to computers to the environment. Guided by team coaches Sherezada Acosta and Steve Neiman the team members:
• Researched and solved real-world problems based on the Challenge theme
• Presented their research and solutions
• Built an autonomous robot using engineering concepts

Guiding this work are a number of key principles that drive the robotics program. The experience should:
• Entice kids to think like scientists and engineers
• Provide a fun, creative, hands-on learning experience
• Teach kids to experiment and overcome obstacles
• Build self-esteem and confidence
• Inspire kids to participate in science and technology

Whether it is by creativity, technology, or research, the LREI robotics program dares kids to test, explore, expand, and revise their thinking about foundational scientific concepts as they tackle meaningful real-world problems.

Well done!

Mark Silberberg
Middle School Principal

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Dear Families:

At this Wednesday's Middle School Meeting, we had our annual National Geography Bee. Prior to this, students competed in their homerooms to identify our eight finalists. The first round was exciting and challenging. Students pondered a range of questions and supported each other as we worked through this preliminary competition. A number of these competitions were decided by tie breakers, which added to the excitement. So with a thank you first to all of those students who participated, the participants in the Final Round were as follows: Fifth Grade – Olivia and Niles, Sixth Grade – Edith and Liam M., Seventh Grade – David and Jimmy, and Eighth Grade – Noah and Ian. At the end of the Final Round, two students – Edith and Noah – moved on to the Championship Round. The Championship Round, which produced a stalmate after three questions, was ultimately decided after three additional tiebreaker questions with Noah emerging as the champion. On Monday, he will take the qualifying exam for the State Geography Bee competition. The state level competition will take place in the spring in Albany, NY. Congratulations to all of the finalists for a job well done.

In addition to the good fun that the National Geography Bee provides, it also points to the critical importance that a basic understanding of geography plays in being an informed citizen of the world. As technology makes the world smaller and increases our interconnectedness, we should not let ourselves be fooled into thinking that the boundaries, borders, and geographic features of our planet don't matter any more. The geography of our planet provides a key to understanding important aspects of history and culture and provides a lens for focusing on issues that are "of the moment." Knowing where something is by necessity establishes a relationship between places. With an understanding of place, we can gain a deeper insight into the people who inhabit that place while we simultaneously gain new insights about our own place in the world. It is these moments of insight that help to define us as citizens of the world.

On the subject of insight, I'd like to say a few words about the upcoming ERBs, which are scheduled For February 13th-15th. The ERBs represent one piece of the assessment puzzle at LREI and it is important that they are seen in this light. They convey useful information, but not the full-picture of a child's achievement. While the content of the ERbs is generally aligned to grade-level expectations, there are areas where this is not the case. For example, a math concept that appears on the sixth grade test, may not be addressed in our curriculum until the seventh grade and teaching this concept out of context may not always make sense. Your child's teachers will make every attempt to identify these particular alignment areas. So while much of our ERB prep is focused on reviewing concepts that have been addressed in the curriculum, teaching general test prep skills, and helping students to feel comfortable with standardized testing conditions, our focus tends not to be on "cramming" new concepts. Please do not hesitate to speak with me if you have questions about the ERB process.

Dear Families:

This week in our MLK Assembly, after a communal singing of "Lift Every Voice and Sing," we looked to Martin Luther King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" for inspiration. Student representatives read selections from the essay against a backdrop of images that chronicled the events that took place in Birmingham during the spring and summer of 1963. As they read, we reflected on the power of words and the role that they play in supporting social justice movements. Building on this idea, we also watched a short film called "One Million Postcards" that told the story of the efforts of two young girls to support a social justice action. We ended the assembly portion of our activities with a rousing singing of Stevie Wonder's "Happy Birthday."

As a continuation of the ideas and issues explored in the assembly, students met in their advisory groups to discuss issues of importance on which they wanted to take a stand. Each advisory then agreed on an issue of shared interest; we are now in the process of drafing letters on these issues. Advisory groups will also research who should receive these letters. This may include local city council representatives, members of Congress, or the President. The discussions in advisory groups were heartfelt and passionate. So as we reflect on the life and work of Martin Luter King, we understand that it is our obligation to continue to raise our voices against injustice and in support of our common humanity.

Best,

Dear Families:

The values and norms at the center of our learning community may be easy to speak and write about in abstract terms, but they are much harder to live by in our daily lives. In schools, where these ideas often exist as expectations, our attention and energy are often drawn to those instances where the norms are not being met. As a result, we sometimes forget to recognize those individuals who on a daily basis meet and even surpass our expectations for what it means to be a member of a community. Two key values that guide much of our work at LREI are kindness and justice. In advisory groups today, we talked about the meaning of these two values and committed to a challenge to thank the members of our community who manifest these values in their actions.

In our discussions, we acknowledged that acts of kindness and justice can happen anywhere, at anytime, and between any two people, even if they do not see each other as friends. These acts may be small, but they are contagious, they spread to others and each act celebrates the ideas of our greatest social movement leaders. So for the next week, we have committed ourselves to be more aware of these simple actions and to bring them to each other’s attention. When we observe an act of kindness or justice, we will let that person know and we will inscribe the act on the Kindness and Justice Wall that will reside outside of my office. As Martin Luther King III said:

So we will try to do a better job living and affirming these shared community values, which are certainly worthy of our attention with our annual MLK assembly just around the corner (more on that next week).

Also on the subject of affirming our community values, this week at Middle School meeting, we formally recognized the 2006-2007 Irwin Scholars. The Irwin Scholars program is a merit-based scholarship that recognizes eighth graders for their sustained commitment to academic excellence, active participation in the life of the Middle School, service to the community, demonstrated leadership, and the potential to serve as a community leader in the High School. This year we had more applicants than ever before, which made the selection process all the more difficult because the quality of applicants was so strong. I would like to extend my thanks on behalf of the faculty and administration to all of the applicants for their thoughtful essays and interviews and am pleased to share with you the 2006-2007 Irwin Scholars. They are Amy, Any, Eda, Emily W., Margret and Jake.

I wish you a good long weekend and, in the spirit of the letter that Phil sent out earlier this week, one also filled with service.

Mark Silberberg
Middle School Principal

Welcome back! I trust that you all had a relaxing break and plenty of time to be together as a family. As part of our on-going diversity work, the faculty used this past Tuesday's Professional Development day to explore a range of diversity issues. We were guided by consultant Pat Romney in the morning (Pat has a long-standing relationship with the school) and in the afternoon we participated in workshops run by our own colleagues. The workshops explored a range of issues that helped us to deepen our understanding of the interplay between different perspectives and experiences. They included:

• East Meets West, an overview of current diversity titles - Jesse Karp, Stacy Dillon, Jennifer Hubert Swann, Karyn Silverman

• Examining Class and Race, an exercise designed to examine issues of class and race in our lives – Delia Hernandez

• The Culturally Competent Educator, an explanation of Multicultural Counseling Therapy – Noni Polhill

• LGBT at LREI, welcoming new LGBT families into our community – Elaine Winter

• “A Different Place”: Diversity in Greenwich Village - Tracing the changing racial, cultural, ethnic, and socio-economic “geography” of Greenwich Village – Nicholas O’Han

• White Allies, examining the role of white allies within a school community – Sandra Chapman and Kelly O’Keefe

• African American and Caribbean American Cultures, comparing historical legacies, immigration patterns and experiences, communication styles, family values and traditions – Samantha Caruth and Sharon DuPree

• An Open Dialogue about Religion in LREI, how religion and religious study present themselves at LREI – Pat Romney

• Discussions about Class, a look at the sometimes forgotten “ism” in diversity work – Marcus Chang

They workshops challenged us to think about how this work informs our lives as teachers and as human beings. It was a challenging and exciting day. Equally important was the oppurtunity to learn from our colleagues and to come to see the incredible wisdom and support that exists in our own professional community. In future meetings, we will continue to build on this work.

As an outgrowth of this work, next week our seventh and eighth grade students will have the opportunity to experience the Human Race Machine, which will be at the high school the week of January 8th. Prior to visiting the machine, students will participate in preparatory discussion in their Adolescent Issues class. For additional information about the Human Race Machine, please read High School principal Ruth Jurgensen's blog. On a related note, the work we did this past Tuesday will also inform planned discussions in advisory groups and our upcoming MLK Assembly, which is scheduled for Wednesday, January 17th.

Lower School principal Elaine Winter's blog included a nice reference, which I've included below, from our recent NYSAIS Self-Study document that addresses the relevance of our diversity work to the school's mission.

Our founder, Elisabeth Irwin, regarded the school as a laboratory for the development of those skills and values that are prerequisites for effective citizenship, democratic life and civic endeavor. The culture of the school was marked by pervasive respect for the dignity of each individual - the recognition and celebration of racial, ethnic and religious diversity and an ethic of abiding trust, cooperation and group decision-making. We continue to cultivate these values today as the LREI experience nurtures in your children a predisposition to pursue learning within the context of active citizenship and service to the community. Yesterday’s Professional Day reinforced our school’s historic mission. Everyday of the school year witnesses that mission in action.

So it is good to be back in the thick of things feeling well rested and ready to be challenged by thoughtful colleagues and students.

Dear Families:

A rousing congratulations to all of the members of the cast of the Middle School play. The three performances of "Afraid of the Dark" and "The Hitchhiker" were truly outstanding. Each of the cast members made important contributions to the production and pushed themselves to fully inhabit their roles. The substantial commitment of time and energy by each of the actors helped to create a real ensemble work of the highest caliber.

On Wednesday, we enjoyed another celebration of our students sustained commitment to academic excellence. A in past years, the seventh grade Colonial Museum was rich in scholarship and offered many interesting insights into life and work during the 1700s. Students dug deeply into areas of personal interest and, in addition to learning much about their topics, they learned important research skills that will serve them well in future academic endeavors. The Colonial Museum is one of several culminating activities that are part of the seventh grade core curriculum. Each of these events occurs against the backdrop of a year-long exploration of the events that led up to the framing of the Constitution.

Throughout this journey, students explore the theme of "Cultures in Contact." Through this lens, they examine the experience of Native Americans, Africans, and Europeans and how each contributed to the history of the period. Students also confront the issue of how the historic record is often not reflective of these varied perspectives. As a result, they come to understand why it is crucial that our attempts to understand the past take in the fullest possible view of these diverse experiences. The idea of history as an echo of varied voices and contested stories, mirrors the seventh graders attempts to craft the story of their research experience and to find their voices as historians. One needed only to spend a few minutes in the Museum yesterday to hear the power of their voices. It was my pleasure to have spent the better part of a day surrounded by their stories.

One the subject of stories, a reminder that this evening is the Winter Concert and our choruses and the high school jazz band will have their stories to tell. The concert is at the Charlton Street PAC and starts at 6:30PM. On Friday, we will have our annual Winter Assembly and as Middle School music teacher Henry Chapin notes:

My best wishes to you and to your family for a healthy and happy winter break and I look forward to seeing you all in the New Year!

In addition to all of the hard work that is taking place in the Middle School classrooms, the members of the Middle School Chorus have been hard at work preparing for a concert next Tuesday at the Hudson Guild and for our Winter Concert next Thursday, December 14th at 6:30PM at the Charlton Street PAC. This is a wonderful evening of music that brings the three divisional choruses and the high school jazz band together. Also hard at work is the cast of the Middle School play, which is scheduled for this Friday (7PM) and Saturday (2PM and 7PM). All shows are at the Charlton Street PAC and tickets will still be on sale tomorrow morning in the Sixth Avenue lobby; they will also be available at the door before each show. The shows promise to be great fun. On the bill are . . . AFRAID OF THE DARK: A Mystery-Farce by James Reach and THE HITCH-HIKER: A radio play originally written for Orson Welles, by Lucille Fletcher. See you at the theater.

One of the things that we learn from the study of history is that often those aspects of a culture, especially ritual and tradition, that seem most fixed and static really tell a story of significant evolution and change. They speak not just to origins, but to the influence of subsequent generations responding to their own local conditions as they carry the culture forward. So it is with our own Middle School community. For many years, the highlight of our Thanksgiving assembly has been the communal telling of Byrd Baylor's story I'm in Charge of Celebrations by the eighth grade. While always moving, there was a growing sense that the story upon many hearings had lost its connection to our own community.

As we searched for a new tradition, the idea to revise the original story to make it more reflective of the lives of our eighth graders emerged as the most appropriate solution. And so a new tradition emerged from the old one. We will now continue to reinterpret the story each year so that each new eighth grade class can leave its mark on this new tradition. This first revision reflects the collaborative work of the entire eighth grade class. While adults provided some general context and support for the work, the process that gave rise to its writing and the final product were truly student-centered efforts and reflective of our progressive practice. It is always exciting to be present at the moment when a community experiences a significant change in its traditions and practices. It was deeply moving and humbling to be present at the moment of this new tradition. I hope that the this telling of "I'm in Charge of Celebrations" gives you as much pleasure as it gave us. Click here to read the eighth grade's adaptation of I'm in Charge of Celebrations.

Windows and Mirrors

Dear Families:

It was a very exciting and busy week. Our NYSAIS visitors were engaged in deep conversations with faculty and students and explored all aspects of our program. The week provided us with an opportunity to reflect on what we do and to consider strengths and challenges. In the faculty SEED group meeting this week, we talked about windows and mirrors as metaphors for ways of looking at the world and at ourselves. The NYSAIS visit provided valuable windows and mirrors into our daily experience as members of the LREI community and as teachers and learners. At the same time, students, teachers, and families were engaged in a similar process as part of our Family Conferences, which are a time to celebrate, explore, wonder about, support, challenge, and plan. These meetings are not always easy; they call on all parties to enter into a conversation that places trust at the center of the dialog. When we find ourselves in that place, the Family Conference reveals itself as a moment for real understanding and empathy. I hope that you will let me know about any special moments that take place in your conferences.

Next Wednesday, we will have our annual Thanksgiving Assembly, which is a wonderful moment in the flow of the school year. In the assembly we sing and share together and reflect on those things for which we are thankful. This year, we will add a new song to our assembly repertoire. As a community we will sing Pat Humphries' "Swimming to the Other Side." For more about the origins of the song and about Pat Humphries, please check out the story that appeared on NPR.

Swimming to the Other Side
by Pat Humphries

We are living 'neath the great Big Dipper
We are washed by the very same rain
We are swimming in the stream together
Some in power and some in pain
We can worship this ground we walk on
Cherishing the beings that we live beside
Loving spirits will live forever
We're all Swimming to the Other Side

I am alone and I am searching
Hungering for answers in my time
I am balanced at the brink of wisdom
I'm impatient to receive a sign
I move forward with my senses open
Imperfection it be my crime
In humility I will listen,
We're all Swimming to the Other Side

On this journey through thoughts and feelings
Binding intuition my head, my heart
I am gathering the tools together
I'm preparing to do my part
All of those who have come before me
Band together to be my guide
Loving lessons that I will follow
We're all Swimming to the Other Side

When we get there we'll discover
All of the gifts we've been given to share
Have been with us since life's beginning and
We never noticed they were there
We can balance at the brink of wisdom
Never recognizing that we've arrived
Loving spirits will live forever
We're all Swimming to the Other Side

Our NYSAIS visit and Family Conferences come at an opportune time with Thanksgiving just around the corner. These are exciting times at LREI and I am grateful to be a member of this wonderful and vibrant community. I wish you and your family the best for the upcoming holiday and hope that it affords you plenty of time to share with family and friends.

Best,

Mark Silberberg
Middle School Principal

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11/09/06

Next Tuesday, students will be coming home with their progress reports for the first quarter. We ask that students do not open their reports in school or after school with friends. Rather, they should share them with you at home. The reports provide an important opportunity for shared discussion about successes to date and challenges to address as we move forward into the second half of the year. As I've mentioned before, these reports will follow our new format, which we believe will provide greater clarity with regard to how your child is assessed by his or her teachers. The new format has also ignited some important discussion among the faculty about the expectations we have for students and how we communicate these expectations. The goal of these discussions is to figure out how we can most effectively connect our assessment practices to our guiding principles about teaching and learning, which drive our daily work. These are important and exciting discussions to be having.

For sixth grade families, this will be your first set of reports with letter grades. Letter grades are based on a set of evaluations in three categories that are outlined on the report card. There is some variability in these categories across subjects. The reported letter grades reflect a student's progress in comparison to grade level expectations. For example, a “C” means progress that is approaching grade level expectations and a “B” signifies progress that meets grade level expectations. However, within these ranges could be unsatisfactory class participation balanced by excellent quiz scores and/or homework assignments. It is natural for there to be some anxiety around grades. As with all assessments, it is important for students and parents to view them as representative of where the student stands as learners at a particular moment in time. Areas of struggle as indicated by reported grades can be addressed by committed hard work. Our decision to move to reports that will show a student’s progress over the four quarters was motivated by a desire to help students to see the work of a particular quarter in a broader context of their overall learning experience. Prior to receiving the reports, take the opportunity to speak with your child about his/her perceptions of the work he/she has completed this past quarter. This will help to frame your discussions when you go over the progress reports together and help you to prepare for Family Conferences.

I look forward to seeing you at the conferences.

10/26/06

What our students had to say . . .

Dear Families:

Last week, Phil sent out an email announcing our selection as a "Rising Star" Middle School as part of the Manhattan Media Group's 2006 Blackboard Awards. The award is a true honor and a validation of the committed and dedicated work of the Middle School faculty, students and parents. A number of you have inquired about the award and the selection process. The following is a brief excerpt from the Blackboard Awards' website:

Why We Give Them
In the lives of New Yorkers, it’s hard to think of a bigger issue than the state of our educational system. It’s a financial, political and moral issue: educating the next generation. The city’s in the middle of a gigantic debate about how best to do that, just as the state’s in a struggle over how much to pay for it. While the big issues continue to play out — and we’re committed to covering them — it’s also important to tell the success stories from our educational system. That’s one reason we have the Blackboard Awards, which pay tribute to the schools, teachers and students who are succeeding, every day and in every way.

Despite the drumbeat of criticism and the ongoing debates, some of our children are learning – not just their ABCs, but how to become active citizens in a global community. And what better place to learn that than here in New York City? In this dizzyingly diverse city, our children are growing up street smart, tech savvy and racially tolerant. The number of children from the city’s schools matriculating to the best colleges in the country is at a high - all thanks to a dedicated corps of public servants who work long hours, for little pay and even less recognition. Teaching is a labor of love – nobody gets rich in this business.

Manhattan Media and The Blackboard Awards salute the professionals who work so hard to create and sustain successful learning communities; the parents who provide the moral and financial support to make that success possible; and our children, whose spirit, enthusiasm and openness make it all
worthwhile.

How it Works
The Blackboard Awards were created in 2002 by Manhattan Media, owners of Our Town, the West Side Spirit and AVENUE magazine. Our goal is to highlight notable achievements by schools across all of New York's educational systems. The Blackboard Awards program has met with an excellent response from schools, readers and the New York Press Association. Enormous care is taken with the selection process. We polled parents and students; spoke with many educators and educational consultants; and ran a Web site where well over 1,000 opinions were recorded. We were guided throughout by a distinguished advisory board, including representatives from independent, public and religious schools, who helped us define great learning communities, and who offered us insights into how the best schools educate their students.

With this as our backdrop, Middle School dean Gabrielle Keller, our two most senior eighth grade class reps and I had the pleasure of attending the Blackboard Awards ceremony last week. It was a wonderful event, but in one respect long on adults giving and accepting congratulations for the learning that takes place in their schools. For me, the highlight of the evening was when our award was accepted by our eighth grade reps Amy and Emily. They were the only students to speak that night and when they did the side conversations in the audience stopped. Their presence on the stage refocused the evening on the real reason why we were all gathered in celebration. . Amy and Emily were poised and articulate and, as representatives of our larger community, reflected the core values of our progressive mission that places students at the center of the learning process. The impact of this was not lost on those gathered for the event. I close with their words, which speak volumes for the hard work that takes place each day in the Middle School.

Emily: We're glad to accept this award on behalf of the middle school students, faculty, and parents. When I think of our middle school, I think of great teachers, community, progressive values, interacting with my peers, and the confidence to be myself.

Amy: For me, LREI is a place that sets the highest of standards for us, both academically and personally. It challenges us to reach our goals and gives everyone a chance to be their best person. It fosters independence and a knack for digging deeper into any material we get our hands on. It's all this and more that makes me so proud to accept this award on behalf of my school. Thank you again for this wonderful honor.

See you soon,
Mark Silberberg
Middle School Principal

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10/19/06

Where we are from . . .

Dear Families:

In advisory, some groups have been working on "I am from . . ." poems. These poems have provided us with an entry point for discussions about identity and values and given us an opportunity to see the world from another's point of view. In sharing the poems, we find that we have much in common and that our differences provide moments for understanding. Expressed in images of important places, people, sounds, experiences, and advice, these poems provide clear representations of our students' creativity and willingness to look inward and to share that "looking inward" with others. What follows is a collection of these images from a number of writers that turns the "I am from" into a where "we" are from.

I am from the whoosh of cars and the murmur of people talking.

I am from adobe houses with tin roofs, bodegas and tortillerias, cactus covered hillsides, milpas, and fields of grass and magueyes.

I am from visiting relative and old teachers who have taught me life long lessons.

I am from the deli around the corner and walking into walls.

I am from Old Hickory and the Festival of Lights on Christmas Eve. I am from bicycle keys, monkeys, and "I forgot my keys."

I am from a little child spitting out his non-sugar free bubblegum before his mother noticed.

I am from feeding the cat and forgetting to practice the piano.

I am from "clean that room" and "make your bed" because we are having guests.

I am from two different countries, two messy apartments, two loving parents, and two annoying brothers.

I am from looking out the window to a sky blue river and the Williamsburg Bridge.

I am from Honey Nut Cheerios and Nutella on toast and cheesy pizza with pepperoni and garlic and bagels with butter.

I am from where dogs bark wildly and children play freely.

I am from warm quilts, ringing telephones, honking cars and trucks, ringing doorbells, and photo albums from the past.

I am from "work hard," "be happy," try your best," and "don't overreact."

I am from trying to figure it all out.

I am from everything I've ever done, everyone I've met, everywhere I've been, but mostly I am from everything I've loved.

I am from the memories that fill my mind and the ones yet to come.

See you soon,
Mark Silberberg
Middle School Principal

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10/12/06

We each have a story to tell . . .

Dear Families:

First, a thank you to those of you who were able to attend the PA Diversity and Community evening this past Tuesday. Our discussion on “How to Continue Diversity Conversations at Home” was an engaging one and reinforced for me the need for these on-going dialogs. One theme that emerged from the evening was the power of stories. In many ways, our efforts to address issues of diversity are about creating the space for members of our community to tell their stories to each other. Whether in the context of engaging in experiences outside of the classroom, exploring challenging texts, or participating in well-structured activities, these are stories that need to be heard and shared.

In the spirit of telling stories, I thought it would be useful to share with you some of the ways that we have been continuing the conversation about diversity issues in the Middle School. Last June, the middle school faculty met with a team of facilitators who led us through a series of activities aimed fostering an adult-to-adult dialog on issues related to group identification and unpacking assumptions and biases that can impact on our work with students. The workshop helped to bring us closer as a community of colleagues and raised important questions for us as to how best to tackle these issues in our Middle School community. When we returned from summer break, we revisited many of these ideas and were able to better reflect on the experience now that some time had passed. As a faculty, there was universal agreement that we need to continue this work, which we will do.

This past Tuesday afternoon, we met as a full faculty to hear reports from colleagues on grant projects that were carried out over the summer. A number of the Middle School projects that were completed took as their primary focus work on diversity and social justice issues. Fifth grade core teacher Heather Brandstetter researched and read a variety of books with diversity themes. The books ranged in topics from a family struggling to survive in Afghanistan under the Taliban rule, to the life of a migrant family from Cuba, to a Japanese-American family fighting racism in rural Georgia. Through this research, Heather identified several new texts appropriate for fifth grade and developed curriculum that integrates our language arts studies with a range of multicultural issues. Eighth grade core teachers Sarah Barlow and Noni Polhill developed a Social Justice Activist Project as a culminating project for the eighth grade. Working in partnership with Children for Children, the eighth graders will develop a service project in the community related to a social justice issue and host an event for National and Global Youth Service Day in April. Both of these grant projects will create additional focused and developmentally appropriate opportunities for students and faculty to explore important diversity related themes.

I have written elsewhere about how the Middle School core curriculum addresses issues related to multiculturalism and how this focus supports the development of important critical thinking skills and of our students' predispositions to understanding, empathy, and action. These skills are crucial as students explore a range of perspectives and seek to better understand social justice issues that include equity, power, access and privilege. One fundamental change to the sixth grade exploration of the Middle Ages is the use of religion as a lens to explore this time period in Africa, Asia, and Europe. This change has allowed us to engage in important comparative studies across time and regions. This comparative approach helps students to better understand the ways in which the world views of individuals and groups are shaped by a common perspective; it also helps them to better understand how conflicts between individuals and groups are often mediated by these differing world views. In a way, as with Tuesday night’s dialog, we are simply searching for better ways for students to access and understand the stories that individuals, groups, tribes, empires, and nations tell about who they are and what they value.

On other fronts, our decision to reconfigure advisory groups into fifth/sixth and seventh/eighth grade groups was in part a response to discussions related to diversity issues that the Middle School faculty had last year. This decision was based on our belief that while all Middle School students should participate in diversity discussions as part of the advisory program, these discussions need to take in the varied levels of developmental readiness reflected in the Middle School population. As we talk about helping students to choose texts that are “just right,” we also need to make sure that students are exploring these complicated issues in ways that are “just right.” To this end, Middle School PE teacher and Co-Athletic Director Marcus Chang worked with Director of Diversity and Community Sharon DuPree over the summer to create a series of diversity focused activities to be used in classes and in advisory groups.

We also looked at feedback from both Marcus and fifth and sixth grade science teacher Sherezada Acosta who co-facilitate the Students of Color group and from members of the group about how to better support the group and increase opportunities for participation. This led to some changes in the schedule that we think will better support this group’s work. The Students of Color group will have their first meeting of the year in the next week or two.

So whether behind the scenes or in the classroom, these discussions and stories about diversity are always present. Our challenge is not simply to make them an extra piece that we add on, but rather to use them as the jumping off point for authentic and meaningful explorations of self and community. We invite you to partner with us in the on-going telling of these stories.

Having mentioned this past Tuesday’s faculty meeting, I would be remiss if I did not also share with you the other summer grant projects carried out by members of the Middle School faculty.

Middle School PE teachers and Co-Athletic Directors Larry Kaplan and Marcus worked on creating better avenues of communication to the LREI community with regards to the Athletic program. They created a coaches handbook, a Sports Information Packet, a new uniform policy, and worked with our publications department to make the athletic section the website more user friendly (this included posting important forms on the site and providing directions to all playing fields).

Middle School music teacher Henry Chapin explored a number of tools for integrating technology in the music classroom. Henry spent each day, for a week, in a music studio in Cabot, VT, under the tutelage of trumpeter Brian Boyes. Together, they worked with Sibelius, which is notation software that Henry will use to increase the clarity of his published lead sheets. They also worked with GarageBand, which is a music composition program that is on every LREI Mac computer. Henry is going to use GarageBand in a unit with the fifth grade later in the year.

Middle School art teacher and visual arts department chair Melissa Rubin participated in a weeklong seminar designed to foster creativity through the integration of writing and art. Called “The Creativity Workshop”, the seminar provided opportunities to write through visual observation of art, objects and environment, visual map-making, collaborative exercises, and an examination of how scientists, writers and artists throughout history have used art and writing in combination to make connections and inspire creativity. The seminar was designed for artists, educators and those wishing to expand their creativity through the writing and art process. Her intention was to learn some effective strategies through this seminar whereby the transition between creating and looking at art, and then writing/reflecting about the work, is seamless. As a result of her experiences in the workshop, she has developed, and continue to develop, a variety of templates (reflection/idea sheets) and prompts (questions and ‘wonderings’ to consider) that can jump-start writing in the art studio and beyond.

Thanks for listening to this story!

As a final reminder, I hope that you will spend some time reviewing our new format for the progress reports and the accompanying year-long subject area skills. This work represents substantial effort on the part of the middle school faculty and is also the result of the thoughtful feedback that you provided to us last year. The purpose for this new format is to make the assessment and evaluation process more transparent and better aligned with our progressive values. If you have any questions about these new reports, do not hesitate to contact me.

See you soon,
Mark Silberberg
Middle School Principal

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10/05/06

To Be a Student Leader

Dear Families:

One of the fall traditions in the Middle School is the election of student representatives. In Adolescent Issues classes, we discuss the characteristics that might make one a good representative and we explore the many responsibilities that representatives are expected to meet. After these discussions, students who are interested in being a rep write an essay to their classmates in support of their candidacy. At the same time, students who are not running for class rep consider what they are looking for in a class rep. These essays are then read by their teacher to the class without attribution. This calls on students to really listen to the substance of each essay and makes the election of a class rep more than just a popularity contest. The essays are always thoughtful and, while some candidates make bold promises (e.g., a three-day school week, extended recess, nap time), all address issues of real concern to middle school students (e.g., more recess equipment, additional clubs, independent art time).

Students take the voting process seriously, applaud the efforts of all of the candidates, are supportive of those candidates that are not selected, and have high expectations for their elected representative. As the terms of these newly elected representatives begin, they will be asked to seek out the full range of opinions on issues discussed by their classmates, help their classmates to work towards consensus on these issues, on occasion represent ideas with which they may not agree, help to resolve conflicts, problem solve with their classmates, welcome and speak with families visiting the school as part of the admission process, make presentations at middle school meeting, and work with the deans and the principal to clarify old roles and develop new roles for class representatives. These are weighty challenges and this year’s reps with the support of their classmates are ready to meet them.

See you soon,
Mark Silberberg
Middle School Principal

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9/29/06

A Year in a Night

Dear Families:

It was a pleasure to see so many of you this week at Curriculum Night. As I mentioned in my opening remarks that evening, the Middle School faculty is truly an exceptional group of professionals and I have no doubt that you found their presentations to be informative and inspiring. While Curriculum Night affords you an albeit too brief glance into what goes on each day in the Middle School, I do encourage you to read through the curriculum guide that was included in your folders as it provides a clear overview of the Middle School program.

I also hope that you will use Curriculum Night as an opportunity to talk with your child about his or her impressions of the Middle School so far this year. There is an opportunity here for a rich dialog about the curriculum itself and its relationship to your child's strengths and areas of challenge as a learner and as an adolescent. What ideas have already captured their imagination? On what goals are they working?

I also hope that you will spend some time reviewing our new format for the progress reports and the accompanying year-long subject area skills. This work represents substantial effort on the part of the middle school faculty and is also the result of the thoughtful feedback that you provided to us last year. The purpose for this new format is to make the assessment and evaluation process more transparent and better aligned with our progressive values. If you have any questions about these new reports, do not hesitate to contact me.

For those of you who were unable to attend Curriculum Night, your child should have brought home a folder that contained some of the materials given out on Tuesday night. Curriculum Night provides an opportunity to view the Middle School through a wide-angle lens that takes in the full spectrum of the essential questions that drive our work with your children; Family Conferences, which are scheduled for Friday, November 15th (half day) and Friday, November 17th (full day), provide a lens that allow you to better focus on your child's experience and progress. Sign-up sheets for conferences with core teachers will be posted outside of their classrooms and sign-up sheets for conferences with specialist teachers will posted on the bulletin board outside of my office in the next few weeks. I will let you know when these sign-up sheets are posted. If you feel that there are issues that you would like to address with your child's teachers before the Family Conferences, please contact them directly.

See you soon,
Mark Silberberg
Middle School Principal

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9/21/06

Tell, Me, Show Me, Involve Me

Dear Families:

Yesterday, fifth and sixth graders worked collaboratively in the forests at Greenkill to solve a variety of physical challenges. Today, they confronted the rigors of a two-hour long hike, the low ropes course, canoeing, and navigating with compass and map. Tomorrow, they will meet the challenge of the climbing wall. At the same time, eighth graders will travel to Prospect Park to participate in the Doctors Without Borders "A Refugee Camp in the City" program. Whether confronting challenges in the natural world or attempting to understand challenges that are the direct consequence of human actions, our goal as educators is to narrow the distance between ideas in the abstract and the direct experience of these ideas. The Chinese proverb, "Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I will understand." provides a concise formulation of our ideas about experiential education. In his 1916 book Democracy and Education, John Dewey wrote:

To "learn from experience" is to make a backward and forward connection between what we do to things and what we enjoy or suffer from things in consequence. Under such conditions, doing becomes a trying; an experiment with the world to find out what it is like; the undergoing becomes instruction--discovery of the connection of things.

In the spirit of our collective effort to discover the "connection of things," I also encourage you to attend our Middle School Curriculum Night, which is scheduled for this Tuesday, September 26th, at 6:00PM.

See you soon,
Mark Silberberg
Middle School Principal

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9/15/06

And SoWe Begin Again

Dear Families:

Walking through the halls of the Middle School building, it feels like school has been in session for much longer than six days. Students have jumped into their classes with a purposefulness that is inspiring. This same spirit infused our discussions preceding and following our participation in the September Concert on Monday. Students were both thoughtful and serious as they explored with their classmates the meaning of the events of 9/11 and the implications of these events for all of us today. We also talked about the power of music as a means for remembering and as an expression of our common humanity. We touched on many important themes in these discussions that we will return to throughout the year in classes and in advisory.

The start of the year is also a time when we reestablish old ties within the community and begin to forge new ones. If you have not done so already, I encourage you to drop in and say hello to your child's teachers. You may also want to email your child's advisor a brief note that touches on some of your hopes for your child this year. Please know that my door is always open; I look forward to speaking with each of you throughout the year and learning more from you about your experience as an LREI Middle School parent.

See you soon,
Mark Silberberg
Middle School Principal

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Greetings! I hope you are all well and taking advantage of these last days of summer. With the summer camp program concluded, it is now quiet here in the Sixth Avenue building. It’s a quiet that affords ample opportunity for reflection, but one that regularly reminds me of just how alive with ideas and activity these halls and classrooms are when filled with students and teachers. I’m looking forward to the resumption of that “buzz” when everyone returns in September. In the meantime, I hope you take advantage of what’s left of the summer to get to those remaining items on your summer to-do list.

One item to add to your to-do list is a review of the Middle School Student and Family Handbook. The handbook contains a number of revisions, which are indicative of the rich professional dialog that took place this past year. These revisions reflect our efforts to make important Middle School policies and practices clearer so that we can better achieve our divisional goals and the school’s mission. I encourage you to review the handbook with your child as this affords an excellent opportunity to talk about hopes and goals for the coming school year. If you have specific questions, please do not hesitate to contact me before the start of the school year. Whether before school starts or during the year, my door is always open and I look forward to hearing from you. The following are a few important items to keep in mind as you review the handbook:

The official start of the school day for Middle School students is 8:15AM. Morning homeroom will run from 8:15-8:30AM. It is important that students arrive to school on time. Please remember that students who are late to school and who do not have a note from their parent/guardian will be expected to make up this time at the end of the day.
We have reconfigured advisory groups as follows: Advisory groups will be comprised of twelve students and two faculty advisors and will meet in fifth-sixth grade groupings and seventh-eighth grade groupings. These groupings will allow us to provide a more nuanced curriculum for the advisory program that will better meet the needs of advisees and advisors. The advisory program will continue to provide opportunities for students in all four grades to come together on a regular basis. Each fifth-sixth grade advisory group will have a buddy seventh-eighth grade advisory group. These buddy groups will come together throughout the year for discussion and activities. In the future, sixth graders will join their buddy advisory group when they move up to seventh grade. This will provide continuity in the advisory relationship as these students will already have had significant interactions with their seventh-eighth grade advisory through the buddy activities. This change will necessitate some reorganization of existing advisory groups, which may result in your child having a new advisor and some new members in her/his advisory group.
Advisory groups will meet twice a week. On Tuesdays, advisories will meet from 8:15-8:30AM in lieu of homeroom. The Tuesday morning session will function as a check-in time for advisors to meet individually with advisees or for the group to check-in collectively. Advisories will also meet on Thursdays from 12:00-12:45PM. The Thursday session will be an open session for community-building and goal-setting activities and for discussions relevant to school issues and for issues taking place outside of the school community.
The handbook also indicates some important changes to the quarterly progress reports, including changes to the checklist section (now called the “progress grid”) and clarifications about how grades are calculated. A final version of the new progress report with explanatory material will be available at Curriculum Night, which is scheduled for Tuesday, September 26th. Thanks to all of you who provided feedback last year on the progress reports as we embarked on this project.
I have also posted to the website a document that contains several of the letters of communication that faculty members may send out as email during the course of the year. We recognize that these letters have a formal tone, but we feel that they contain important information that you should know about your child’s progress. In addition, this information allows for better coordination among Middle School faculty members. It is helpful if you read these letters now so that you are familiar with their form. You can access the letters at http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ms/MS_Emails.pdf.
With regard to communication, please make sure to keep of abreast of Middle School and schoolwide events by reading the weekly blog, which you can access at any time at http://lrei-ms-news.blogspot.com. The blog is updated every Thursday afternoon.

As I mentioned in the spring, we welcome the following new teachers to the middle school team this year:

In addition to these new faculty members, the following returning faculty members will take on new responsibilities as follows:

Amidst travels, spending time with families and friends, and reflecting on the past year, many returning faculty members spent time this summer focusing on their curricula and on life in school in general:

Fifth grade core teacher Heather Brandstetter researched new texts for inclusion in the fifth grade core program and developed a series of units with a social justice theme to accompany these new additions to the reading curriculum.
Fifth and sixth grade science teacher Sherezada Acosta taught a robotics class as part of the LREI Summer Institute and with Middle School computer coordinator Steve Neiman participated in the Logo Summer Institute that was held at LREI. The focus of the institute was on the Logo programming language that we use for Microworlds and the Middle School robotics curriculum.
At the end of the summer, Sherezada traveled to Egypt where she was a presenter at the SEED Collaborative Workshop. The workshop provided a hands-on intensive experience for teachers that focused on creative uses of educational technology through project- and inquiry-based learning techniques.
Middle School librarian Jennifer Hubert Swan taught a class on Young Adult Literature in the library science graduate program at Queens College, expanding upon and adding to her knowledge of literature for adolescents, and sharing her great enthusiasm for Young Adult Literature with future youth librarians and teachers.
Fifth and sixth grade art teacher Melissa Rubin attended a weeklong workshop focused on incorporating writing activities into the arts. Melissa will incorporate this experience into activities for students and will share these practices with other members of the art department.
Seventh grade core teacher Matthew Rosen served as a member for the faculty for the Regis
High School Reach Summer Program. Through the experience, Matthew continued his work on implementing the reading and writing workshop.
Seventh and eighth grade Spanish teacher and dean Gabrielle Keller traveled to Scotland to attend an Explorica Convention for experienced trip leaders. Gabrielle met with Explorica directors to discuss how to enhance the trip experience for students and teachers.
Eighth grade core teachers Sarah Barlow and Noni Polhill worked on the development of a service-based “Social Justice Activism Project” for eighth graders that connects to their year-long theme “Choosing to Participate.” Sarah was also a keynote presenter at the Facing History and Ourselves Summer Institute that was held Teachers College.
Noni and sixth grade core teacher Frank Portella served as the principals for GO Project Summer at Grace Church School. GO Project is an academic support program for elementary students in the downtown public schools. Seventh and eighth grade science teacher Stephen Volkmann who taught an enrichment course joined them. Frank also taught a creative writing class as part of the LREI Summer Institute.
Athletic Directors Marcus Chang and Larry Kaplan created a handbook for LREI coaches and a handbook for student athletes and their families. These two documents will help to move the LREI athletic program to the next level.
In addition to teaching a physical challenge course and a media literacy course as part of the LREI Summer Institute, Marcus also worked with Director of Diversity and Community Sharon DuPree to create a series of diversity focused activities to be used in classes in the Middle School.
Middle school math teachers Ana Fox Chaney and Michelle Boehm attended a five-day mathematics and technology conference organized by The Discovery Institute at the College of Staten Island. The meetings explored the mathematics curriculum with a special focus on technology's impact and application in the classroom.
Middle School music teacher Henry Chapin worked with a variety of computer-based music composition programs, which will find their way into a number of new units in the music program.
Middle School French teacher Sharyn Hahn attended an Apple workshop that explored the use of Ipods and podcasts in the classroom. This work will lead to some new and interesting uses of these technologies in the foreign language classroom.

A most impressive list and reflective of the commitment that LREI faculty have to their own continued professional growth. Rest assured that whether connected to the projects noted above, or through the day-to-day work that the teachers have planned for students, we have many thought provoking and challenging activities planned for the coming school year.

Foreign Language—If you are a sixth grader or a student new to LREI and have not informed me of your choice for foreign language, please call to discuss this.
New Student Orientation—All students new to the Middle School (all fifth graders and sixth-eighth graders new to LREI) are invited to join us for an orientation session on Wednesday, September 6th at 9:00AM in the Sixth Avenue auditorium. Faculty and returning students will be on hand to answer all of your questions and to let you know the inside scoop on being an LREI middle schooler. Families are invited to attend.
Summer Reading—Fifth through seventh graders should bring summer reading assignments to school on the first day. If you are not sure if you have completed all that you have to do, check out the summer reading section of our website— http://www.lrei.org/libres/sr06.html.
Middle School Chorus and Band—The Little Red School House Chorus (grades 3-5) meets on Thursdays from 3:00-3:45PM. The Little Red Singers (grades 6-8) meets twice a week for 45 minutes (Mondays, 8:00-8:45AM and Wednesdays, 3:00-3:45PM). The Little Red School House Chorus is directed by Helen Yoo and Little Red Singers are directed by Henry Chapin. The Middle school band meets on Fridays from 2:15-3:45PM. All instrumentalists and vocalists are invited to attend. The focus of the band is on performance and not individual instruction. Henry Chapin also directs the band.
New Parents—you are invited to a cocktail party hosted by Board Chair Michael Patrick (LREI ’71) and his wife Carol Sedwick— Thursday, September 14th at 6PM, at the home of Michael and Carol, 250 West 94th St. 15E
LREI Medical Forms—please make sure that you return all medical-related forms to School Nurse Kitty Highstein before the first day of school.
Greenkill--Fifth and sixth graders will leave for their three-day outdoor education trip to the Greenkill Environmental Center on Wednesday, September 20th. Please read and complete the forms that have been enclosed in this mailing.
Middle School Curriculum Night – Tuesday, September 26th at 6:30PM. All are invited to attend.

Among the highlights of the Middle School program are the overnight trips taken by each Middle School grade. The fifth and sixth grades begin our trip program for the year with their annual journey to the Greenkill Environmental Education Center. This three-day experience provides an excellent opportunity for the middle school students and faculty to learn together in a setting that helps to further the sense of community that is so important to our program. In late-October, seventh graders will travel to Williamsburg, VA as part of their study of Colonial America. Eighth graders will travel to Gettysburg, PA and Washington DC in May as a part of their two-year study of American history. All children will participate in the trip program. In addition, our two optional foreign language trips will take place over Spring Break.

That’s all for now. With the start of school just around the corner, I hope that you make the most of these last days of summer and that you return with interesting experiences and stories to share as we embark on new and exciting adventures in the fall.