• A letter from the Director
• Fall 2006 Diversity and Community Update
• Lower School Welcomes Two Math Specialists
• Imagination at Work in Afterschool
• From the Admissions Office
• 2006 Summer Grants
• HS Minimester
• 2006 Blackboard Awards
• Change is Afoot at the High School
• New Faculty, New Classes and New Ideas in Middle School Math
• Parents Association Notes
  
  

One of the great pleasures of coming back to school each fall is hearing of all of the hard work and planning that teachers have undertaken during the summer months. Even better is to see these plans come to fruition during the school year. All of our teachers spend a good deal of time during their summer break reviewing the prior year and looking ahead to the term to come. They examine their plans for units that were particularly inspiring to students and for those that did not captivate the class in the way the teacher had hoped. They learn from areas that were appropriately challenging and from those that might not have been challenging enough.

In addition to the general attention to curriculum that all teachers engage in over the summer, each year LREI awards a series of program development grants to faculty members, individually or in groups, to support their work on projects whose scope falls outside of what we expect from all. In the early spring, interested faculty members submit proposals for review by a committee made up of the principals, the department chairs and colleagues from each division. Each year we receive more applications than we can fund and the decision making process is quite difficult. I am always impressed with, yet not surprised by, the thoughtful and caring manner in which these decisions are made. In general, work begins early in the summer, with each recipient creating her or his own timeline. The expectation is that the new program will be implemented at some point in the coming school year. In the fall, all grant recipients present their work at a faculty meeting attended by the teachers in all three divisions. This meeting is a highlight as colleagues learn from each other and the seeds of the next summer’s grants are planted.

Phil Kassen, Director

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by Sharon DuPree, Director of Diversity and Community

Welcome to new members of the LREI community and welcome back to those of you who are returning! In the first few weeks of school it’s been my pleasure to hear the stories of your lives in formal meetings, social events and those infamous corridor conversations. The Diversity & Community position has changed this year, from 50% to 85% of my time, to support the administrative attention required to further institutionalize our efforts and therefore deepen our daily practice. The following are a few Diversity & Community Updates:

• This past school year, the Human Resources Committee (consisting of parents, faculty and administration) created a multi-year strategic plan for diversity and community. The purpose of the plan is to organize D&C actions in order to pool resources and prioritize actions. The plan was sent to faculty and parents via e-mail, and presented to the Board in spring 2006. Paper copies can be reviewed in the Sixth Avenue library. Principals allocated time in faculty meetings to brainstorm and prioritize divisional goals for the next three years. The plan will be finalized after follow-up meetings with faculty, administration and student government.

• The Director of Diversity & Community in collaboration with the MS/Coordinating Librarian, created a Diversity & Community Corner in the Sixth Avenue Library for parents, faculty and administration. The DVD section includes titles such as, The Eye of the Storm, Oyeme, That’s a Family, The Color of Fear, and People Like Us: Social Class in America. Short introductions to films and booktalks will be conducted in faculty/leadership meetings. In addition, faculty meetings devoted to diversity and community topics will continue this school year.

• LREI’s first Parent SEED dialogue group was held on October 18, 2006. Over fifteen parents from across divisions signed up for SEED. Participants from a variety of backgrounds eagerly agreed to share stories, explore assumptions, and exhange ideas and information. The parent SEED group will determine the best ways to disseminate the work they do within the larger LREI community.

• After ten years of working together the Lesbian, Gay, Straight Alliance (LGSA) this year will become separate parent and faculty committees. In discussions about the lack of parent membership, the purpose of the group for parents, and the support needed by faculty from the school, it seemed for the time being, a good idea to have two groups that meet separately (most of the time) and come together (by choice) periodically during the year to share ideas and support each others’ efforts. The first parent LGSA sponsored breakfast included faculty, administration and many families, some who lingered after the event to continue informal conversations with each other and to brainstorm additional social events for this year.

• An affinity group chairs committee has been established this year to share information, promote collaboration and overall support and to explore ways different parent groups can share the work they do within the larger LREI community. The first meeting took place on September 21st.

• Last spring the Leadership Team (formerly known as Senior Administration) participated in a one day Diversity & Community Retreat, facilitated by Pat Romney (Diversity Consultant). We spent the afternoon tackling concrete issues and making decisions about such things as resource allocation, institutional goals and developing guidelines for handling incidents of bias.

Your questions, comments or suggestions are welcome. Contact me either by phone (x294), or by e-mail sdupree@lrei.org if you’d like to further discuss any of the above diversity and community changes/actions. As always, thank you for the work you do at LREI.

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by Harriet Lieber, Lower School Learning Specialist & Lower School Newsletter Correspondent

If you have poked your head into the LS Math/Science office this year, you may have had the opportunity to meet Dawn Wheatley and Sharon White, our new math specialist and consultant. Dawn and Sharon have worked together previously at Brooklyn Friends and come to us as a strong team. While Dawn is settling in, getting to know our community, Sharon is actually reacquainting herself with LREI. A previous LREI math specialist, she is rejoining our faculty in a new part-time role.

Dawn joined our Lower School division as a full-time math specialist after spending twenty years as a Kindergarten, Second and Third Grade classroom teacher. During that time she had the opportunity to work with special math groups and developed an interest in curriculum development. She will be working here with our First through Fourth Graders, going into each classroom once or twice a week to teach special math lessons.

While Dawn will primarily be in classrooms working directly with the children, she will also be available to the teachers, helping them develop their day-to-day math programs. They will plan lessons together, strategize approaches to use with the children and discuss the children’s individual needs.

In contrast, Sharon will help develop the overview of our math program and will oversee its implementation. She will be working on the scope and sequence of our math curriculum to ensure continuity from grade to grade.

In late August, both Sharon and Dawn provided our teachers with an all day workshop in TERC Investigations. This day was meant for our new teachers (both heads and associates) who had not previously received the training, and for returning teachers who wished to brush up on their existing TERC skills.

Sharon and Dawn will continue to provide professional development opportunities for our staff throughout the year, and will be putting together an exciting evening for parents as well. The Lower School Community is very fortunate to have this strong team available to us all.

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by Hannah Watkins, Afterschool Teacher & Assistant for Dress-up Club

This fall in Afterschool at LREI, students can be seen and heard practicing musical instruments, chasing after basketballs, teetering down balance beams, and searching for moon rocks in the classroom - not real moon rocks, pretend ones. Shiny balls of tin foil serve as stage props on a trip to the moon in Dress-up Club, a new Afterschool class where the central activity is developing the skill of imagination.

Nora Woolley, an Afterschool, Enrichment, and Summers at LREI veteran as well as a professional actress, teaches this fresh addition to the Afterschool class listing for the Reds (Fours-First Grades). Every week the Dress-up Club “visits” a different place using costumes, props, and, most importantly, imagination. So far this fall, the class has explored the moon, a jungle, and a restaurant without once leaving the classroom.

Dress-up Club started as an experiment taught by Nora and Molly Poerstel (another LREI Afterschool instructor and professional dancer) during Little Red Summer Camp several years ago. Of that first class Nora said, “We came up with a mish-mash of costume pieces and props and a plan to ‘visit’ specific locations each class. Sometimes the costumes and props matched the place we were visiting, and sometimes they didn’t - a fireman on the moon was one example. It didn’t really matter as long as we felt the children were challenging themselves to use their imaginations fully and without self-judgement.” This time around Nora has incorporated recorded sound, cooking, and art projects into the class in an attempt to appeal to all of the senses. In their most recent meeting, the Dress-up Club turned their classroom into a working restaurant.

The class began with everyone seated in a circle on the rug to discuss the roles people play in a restaurant. After coming up with the jobs of server, customer, and chef, the children were encouraged to further define these roles. In response to the question about what do chefs do, one child answered, “They make the food, they flip the food.” With the basic foundation laid for the day’s activity, the children were then asked to choose the role that most interested them.

While the servers set up their “wait station” with cups, pitchers, and trays and the chefs fitted tall, paper hats onto their heads, the customers chose masks and tails out of a box. Pretty soon, the Lynx, Toucan Queen, and Magic Dude were perusing their four-course menus seated around a red-checked tablecloth. Servers approached to take down drink orders (red, green, yellow, or blue) and appetizers (popcorn, oats) with pencils and pads of paper. Nearby, three hardworking chefs scooped popcorn out of pots and onto plates (and sometimes back again). After being served their main course (all chose the “snake” special) and a vibrantly-colored drink refill, the customers wondered if they were allowed to actually eat and drink their choices, of course, they could – and did.

Each child was completely invested in his or her role throughout the hour-long class - the customers thoughtfully considered their menu options, the servers went about their duties with enthusiastic precision, and the chefs actually broke a sweat as they worked to get another order up. At the end of class, a parent mentioned how excited her child had been about “being a chef”. Dress-up Club gives Afterschool students an opportunity to employ their imaginations and improvise a world.

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by Samantha Caruth, Director of Admissions

Last year’s admissions efforts yielded an exciting new group of families. Fifty-two new students entered the Lower School, eight new students entered the Middle School and thirty new students entered the High School. We welcomed families moving from California and Florida to NYC. In addition, students from New York and New Jersey have come to us from fifty-seven different schools, and reside in thirty-eight different zip codes in the five boroughs and neighboring towns. Two months into the school year, we see these students making wonderful contributions in their classrooms, on the playing fields, and in the visual and performing arts.

This fall, we are busy with admissions tours and interviews, as well as conversations and visits with our colleagues in independent schools. We have strengthened our relationships with placement professionals in nursery schools and Early Steps, and with the Albert G. Oliver Program, TEAK, and Prep for Prep. We have also broadened our outreach to public and charter schools such as the Shuang Wen School in Chinatown and Harlem Day Charter School.

LREI students continue to add their voices to our tours and open houses. Their work is complemented by LREI parent involvement. Parents visit their children’s former preschools, greet and host lower school parent applicants during playgroups, and participate in a variety of ways at open houses for all three divisions.

Thank you for all of your efforts to formally and informally support LREI and the work that we do in Admissions.

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The following faculty members received summer grants and worked on the following topics.

Guo-Quing Heaton, High School Mandarin and Art Teacher, spent four weeks in China participating in an intensive program in teaching Mandarin to high school students.

Heather Brandstetter, Fifth Grade Core Teacher, researched and read novels with diversity themes for inclusion in the Fifth Grade curriculum. She chose several books that she will integrate into her existing Language Arts program.

Eighth Grade Core Teachers, Sarah Barlow and Noni Polhill, developed a Social Justice Activist Project as a culminating project for the Eighth Grade humanities class. Working in partnership with Children for Children, the Eighth Grade 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.

Megan Dunphy, Lower School Assistant Principal and Science Coordinator, catalogued the Lower School science program. This included summarizing the science program’s goals, creating week-by-week outlines for each grade, developing sample report writing comments, clarifying teacher and science coordinator roles, reorganizing and revamping the storage of supplies and resource books, and compiling lists of websites, stores, supply catalogues, teacher resources, videos and student materials.

Kelly O’Keefe, Third Grade Teacher, developed a resource binder for the Third Grade writing curriculum. The resources catalogued include a detailed overview of these programs, the reading and writing scope and sequence, day-to-day teaching points for each writing unit, mentor texts and professional resources. The units included are small-moment personal narratives, writing about reading, non-fiction writing and poetry.

Tina Lane, Lower School Reading Teacher, created a professional development portfolio on differentiated instruction. This includes information on instructional strategies, adjustable assignments, multiple intelligences and learning centers.

Our three High School English Teachers - Jane Belton, Julia Heaton and Ileana Jimenez - continued their two-year project of redesigning the High School English program. In 2005, they overhauled the Ninth Grade World Literature course and designed new elective courses for the Eleventh and Twelfth Grades. This summer, they focused their attention on the Tenth Grade American Literature course, teaching of research skills across the grades, writing arcs for the Ninth – Twelfth Grades English program and the development of new Eleventh and Twelfth Grade trimester electives.

Larry Kaplan and Marcus Chang, Co-Athletic Directors, created a handbook for coaches, a Sports Information Packet for families and worked with the publications office to make the athletics information on the website clearer and more user friendly.
Our three First Grade Teachers - Jamie Atlas, Gina Goldmann and Dorothy Mehler - spent their time this summer increasing the level of integration in the First Grade curriculum. Across the subject areas, they evaluated themes and projects already in place, wrote lesson plans, reorganized and expanded existing curricula to create year-long social studies, math, and science integrated First Grade projects.

Melissa Rubin, Middle School Art Teacher and Visual Arts Department Chair, participated in a weeklong seminar designed to foster creativity through the integration of writing and art. As a result of her experiences in the workshop, she has developed, and continues to develop, a variety of templates (reflection/idea sheets) and prompts (questions and ‘wonderings’ to consider) that jump-start writing in the art studio and beyond.

Sharon Dupree, Director of Diversity and Community and Peggy Peloquin, High School Dance and Life Issues Teacher, participated in The National SEED Project training. This fall Peggy and Sharon will facilitate monthly discussions with up to twenty parents/community members on making school and/or community climates more gender-fair and multicultural.

Henry Chapin, Middle School Music Teacher, spent a week learning to use technology in the music classroom under the tutelage of a colleague from a high school in Vermont. The software that Henry learned to use will be used by Middle School students throughout the school year.

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Minimester is a three-day immersion term of minicourses designed to engage students in a stimulating range of subjects. Students experience extraordinary opportunities to learn and experience a subject on multiple levels — immersion in one topic, an interdisciplinary approach and freedom from the constraints of the regular schedule. Minimester is a laboratory of progressive education. It inspires teachers, allowing them to create experimental, experiential learning activities, bring in outside experts and resources and develop material that reflects their passions and experiences. This year’s Minimester courses included:

- A Green World
- Architecture in New York
- Cinema
- The Culture of Cheese
- Digital Photography books
- Election 2006
- Experiments in Mixed Media
- Food
- Graffiti
- Jazz Band Recording
- Modern Art
- New York in its Neighborhoods
- Painting, Collage and Sculpture
- Poetry
- The Sikh Faith

Click here for a Minimester photo gallery.

Past Minimester courses included: Vietnam and America, Exploring Foreign Cultures Through Cinema, Mural Painting for Community Service, Music Production: Songwriting/Composing for Film, Tibet: Culture/Art, Religion, New York Harbor and the Hudson River Estuary and Watershed, Introduction to India, Food, Nutrition, Diet & Cuisine, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones - An Overview of Asian Art and Culture, Robotic Toys, Filming Poetry in Motion, Pinhole Photography, Hip-Hop: Making the Beat, and Finding the Self on the Page and Stage.

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On Thursday, October 19, Middle School Student Association leaders Amy Weiss-Meyer and Emily Wilson attended a gala awards ceremony to accept the “Rising Star Middle School” award at the 2006 Blackboard Awards. Accompanied by Middle School Principal Mark Silberberg and Seventh and Eighth Grade Dean of Students, Gabrielle Keller, Amy and Emily were the only students to speak and accept an award on behalf of their school.

The award, presented by Betsy Gotbaum, NYC Public Advocate and LREI alumni parent, acknowledges our intelligent, creative, involved and spirited students as well as our dedicated and talented Middle School faculty. The sense of motion, of change and of growth illustrated by the phrase “rising star” accurately describes our progressive program.

Congratulations to the Middle School students and faculty and to Mark Silberberg, Middle School Principal, on being named the “Rising Star Middle School” by the Blackboard Awards!

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by Karen Silverman, High School Librarian & High School Newsletter Correspondent

The moment you enter the High School, it’s obvious that things have changed. The lobby sports new furniture and carpeting, sign-in is automated for students and faculty, the walls and bulletin boards are freshly painted. The Thompson Street Athletic Center and refurbished library and tech center demonstrate more physical changes—and of course, everyone is thrilled to find new Principal Ruth Jurgensen at the center of this whirlwind. These physical changes are only a small piece of what’s going on in the High School, and the academic changes make the physical changes seem dull by comparison!

As the student body grows larger and new faculty join the community, our curricular options grow. Each course added to the roster represents increased choice, embracing the concept of the individual learner by providing a dizzying array of course options; by senior year, students choose every course in their schedule.

It is fitting, then, that the most noticeable changes in the Science Department affect the seniors, but a glance at the course guide only tells part of the story. This is the first year in which we offer three science options for every grade. Last year, we added Astronomy for the Eleventh Grade; now, seniors can explore the concepts behind the hands on lab work they have conducted for the last three years by taking History of Experimental Science with new faculty member Benjamin Rubin. History of Experimental Science is a truly interdisciplinary course; the three disciplines within science (Biology, Chemistry, and Physics) combine with outside disciplines like history, mathematics, and more as the class explores misconceptions, inventions, theories, and the nature of scientific thought. Students have the opportunity to conduct research according to their passions; recent papers included the atomic bomb, x-rays, and neuroscience. The second change for seniors is the revamping of the Environmental Science course; in true LREI fashion, environmental science is being made personal; after all, the environment is something we are affected by and have an affect upon every day of our lives. Under the guidance of new biology teacher Ed Gay, we will explore the possibilities of a green roof on the High School, or at least some hydroponic vegetables appearing in the cafeteria! Best of all, the curricular changes have strengthened the Ninth and Tenth Grade rotations; as the faculty explored the ways in which each scientific discipline plays a role in the new courses, stronger connections were added to the curriculum.

All the curricular transformation has not been limited to the math and science departments! The slate of mixed grade electives for Eleventh and Twelfth Grade English and History has expanded again, spurred by the larger student body and the need for additional courses. In addition to all the old History favorites, Nick O’Han now teaches Gotham 2 and Bill Bailey has added new electives to last year’s offering of Constitution and Law. Bill’s new courses include 20th Century, which focuses on Europe through both World Wars and the Cold War; and American Government and Politics, where students gain a greater understanding of our world by studying America through the lens of the current political scene. At this moment, those students are prepping for a debate that will cover multiple topics, from foreign policy (the war) to domestic (abortion), and are engaged in following specific states and predicting election outcomes for next week.

Next trimester, new courses will include The War on Terror, an in-depth look at American Foreign Policy since 9/11, and The Sixties, a look at the famous decade that will go beyond the glitz to see what really defined it and how the ramifications are felt today. In English, the work started last year has continued; Shakespeare has taken center stage for some students and others are writing short fiction; additional courses will be introduced as the year continues. These options join offerings that debuted last year such as Latino/a Literature and Dangerous Language. English and History continue to revise and refresh their offerings based on faculty and student interest, and now that we have experienced one full year of the dual electives, it’s easy to see the success of the program. Student excitement has been strong and only grows as each new course is unveiled, and the products continue to improve.

All in all, things feel fresh and exciting at the High School—an excellent way to start a new year!

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by Jennifer Hubert Swan, Middle School & Coordinating Librarian & Middle School Newsletter Correspondent and Mark Silberberg, Middle School Principal

As many of you already know, our Middle School math program is a demanding and innovative one; our dedicated faculty members continue to push the envelope to provide our middle school mathematicians with authentic and meaningful math experiences.

The Middle School math program challenges students to investigate important math concepts through an inquiry-based approach. At the same time, the program provides multiple opportunities for students to practice and strengthen basic math skills, which students draw on as they explore new concepts through a range of hands on activities. Fifth Grade experiences are built upon in each successive year so that by Eighth Grade students are able to tackle sophisticated investigations. As part of the Eighth Grade curriculum, Michelle Boehem’s students explore a variety of relationships: linear, exponential, and quadratic. Michelle explains, “As students are accustomed to connecting narrative and graphic representations of mathematical relationships, they are ready to explore a more generalized form - the equation. With that, students must learn the basics of writing and simplifying algebraic expressions, as well as solving different types of equations. In a recent investigation focused on discovering the equation for the volume of a sphere, my students discovered that their equation, which was derived from observing the connection between the volumes of a sphere and cylinder with equal heights, was different from that which was noted in a mathematical handbook. Of course the equations were equal, but the discussion of why they were came from true curiosity that led them to their study of simplifying algebraic expressions. Subsequently, one student commented that the volume equation in the handbook would have been harder to use if he hadn’t worked through their investigation.”

Math Seminar, was first introduced by Fifth and Sixth Grade Math teacher Ana Fox Chaney ‘94 and is now taught by Margaret Andrews, allows the program to better meet the needs of those math students who are ready for additional math challenges. In Fifth through Seventh Grades, the seminar program challenges students to both explore in greater depth topics directly related to the grade-level curriculum and also to investigate tangentially related topics. Examples of past math seminar projects include creating a computer program that will draw a mathematically accurate spiral, designing and flying different types of paper airplanes in order to gather statistics that would describe a “typical” flight, and exploring topics in cryptology and code breaking systems.

Last year the Middle School math department and Middle School Principal Mark Silberberg decided to move away from the seminar arrangement for Eighth Grade to a model with two math sections. While the focus of the Fifth through Seventh Grade seminar classes was not to move ahead faster within the grade-level curriculum, they recognized that this was what was happening in the Eighth Grade seminar, which had evolved over time to cover additional Algebra 1 topics.

In reviewing the goals of the Eighth Grade seminar program and the overall Eighth Grade math program, they decided last year to revise the Eighth Grade program so that it is now built around two math sections that fully cover the standard Eighth Grade curriculum. In place of the seminar program, one of the sections moves at a faster pace and covers the additional supplemental Algebra units that comprise a first year high school algebra course. The Math Department is excited about this change and its potential to enhance the math experience for all students. In its second year of implementation, the teachers feel that this reconfiguration of the Eighth Grade math program better takes into consideration students’ comfort levels in transitioning to an Algebra intensive curriculum; it also allows the teachers to better target the pace at which students can work comfortably in order to master new concepts.

To support these changes, the math department teachers recognize the importance of their own growth as learners. This past summer, Ana and Michelle attended the Middle School Math and technology Conference held at the College of Staten Island’s Discovery Institute. There, they were both inspired to add new software like “Tinkerplots,” a graphic modeling program, and want to begin introducing students to graphing calculators earlier in the program. With regard to participating in these kinds of professional development activities, Michelle commented that “It’s incredibly invigorating to be with a group of people who truly have a passion for mathematics. Teachers at these kinds of conferences are looking for ways to make mathematics accessible and exciting to as many students as possible.”

With new faculty, new classes, and the infusion of fresh ideas, the Middle School math faculty continues to meet the challenges of teaching math in a progressive environment.

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