Dear Families,

I the spirit of the rich Family Conference conversations taking place today throughout the building, I hope that the accounts given below shed a little more light on the many exciting things taking place in the middle school and provide you with some new entree points into dialog with your child about her/his school life.

Fifth graders are . . .

• continuing their deep reading of The Circuit and focusing on how to have rich discussions using prompts like:
  • “I used to think… but now I think…”
  • “This is similar to/ different from…”
  • “I partly agree, but… because…”
  • “I think this is important because…”.
• preparing for a literary essay and will be using their reading responses to develop a thesis.
• investigating why plant and animal domestication plays such an important role in tribes being able to settle in  ongoing civilization simulation
• testing, recording and graphing their own walking and running paces as part of their of their study of patterns and change
• looking at examples of guardian figures from the ancient Sumerian culture as inspiration for clay relief tiles of their own Demon Spirit Guardians that students are making.
• preparing for a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to view more art and artifacts created by the people of the ancient Near East.
• putting the finishing touches on their original music compositions, which have been composed for brass, piano and percussion instruments. Each piece began as a guided exploration of melody and students have gone on to incorporate an extensive list of important musical topics that a composer must consider such as, harmony, form, rhythm, sequences, dynamics and articulation.   Near the end of the term in December, we will hold an informal rehearsal/performance of student work performed by musicians from NYU.  Stay tuned for the date and time!
• starting a new unit on touch football with a focus on throwing and catching skills. Games are just around the corner.

Sixth graders are . . .

• deep into their reading of Parzival and Arabian Nights. This reading is also shaping writing that will eventually become their Medieval dramatic presentation. Current events projects are also just getting underway.
• talking about feudalism and have begun examining the rise of Christianity in Europe and the hierarchy of the church.
• working through a series of activities to better understand fraction operations.  They began by adding and subtracting fractions and  are now using brownie pans to help us understand how to multiply fractions.  They are doing all this as well as making sure we are all using efficient strategies to operate with whole numbers.
• reflecting on their trip to the Cloisters museum (the medieval branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art) as inspiration for the creation of their own illuminated letters. To create these letters, students are using quill pen and ink, watercolor paints and will be making their own gold paint to illuminate their letters.
• putting the finishing touches on their original music compositions, which have been composed for brass, piano and percussion instruments. Each piece began as a guided exploration of melody and students have gone on to incorporate an extensive list of important musical topics that a composer must consider such as, harmony, form, rhythm, sequences, dynamics and articulation.   Near the end of the term in December, we will hold an informal rehearsal/performance of student work performed by musicians from NYU.  Stay tuned for the date and time!
• starting a new unit on touch football with a focus on throwing and catching skills. Games are just around the corner
• participating in a series of “Olympic” PE challenges.

Seventh graders are . . .

• gearing up for the Colonial Museum by digging deeper into their research topics.
• finishing up their reading of Lois Lowry’s The Giver and thinking about the viability of a perfect community and the relationship between community and identity. This will culminate in a book critique and creative mini-exhibition
• learning about settlement in America in the early 1600’s and presently are looking at the establishment of community from the perspective of English settlers and Native Americans.
• engaging in literature circle work: one half of the class is reading The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, and the other half is reading Animal Farm by George Orwell.
• organizing and analyzing data needed to establish a simulated bike tour company.  They’ve examined travel time, expenses, pricing and are now ready to synthesize information in the most concise form of equations.  The next question to examine is, “How do we maximize profit?’ With the help of graphing calculators, it will be interesting to test the various variables involved in calculating profit.
• deconstructing electric motors in order to better understand how electrical energy is converted into mechanical energy. They will then design and build a working motor. Once they understand this concept, they will reverse the process to turn mechanical energy into electrical energy.
• reviewing in French  irregular verbs such as avoir, etre, and faire,
  and interrogative expressions and applying them to everyday conversation; studying adjectives, describing famous individuals for a guessing game using descriptions, getting ready to start a project in which they will use adjectives and design an “ideal” model bedroom that they’ll build and use to write complex sentence structures.
• fully immersed in a food unit with new vocabulary related to food, condiments and utensils as well as continued practice with all regular and stem-change (”shoe”) present tense verb conjugations.
• navigating the ins and outs of self-defense in PE and learning how to release themselves from hand grips, chokes and bear hugs. They are also learning strategies for being safe on the streets.
• creating original PE games, which they are playing and Larry is then teaching some of the class favorites to the fifth grade.

Eighth graders are . . .

• examining the roots of the bias, discrimination and inequality that the Civil Rights Movement addressed by reading Julius Lester’s To Be a Slave, a collection of slaves in their own words, connected and commented upon by the author.
• examining linear functions and algebraic notation.  They are writing equations, making tables and creating graphs that tell stories of things that grow at a constant rate.  Taxi rides, t-shirt sales, bank accounts, walking rates and road races are just a few of the real life situations we have used in our investigations.The following are examples of questions they have answered through observing these patterns:
  • How do you identify a linear function in a table, graph or equation?
  • Can you give an example of an “everyday” linear function?
  • What is true about the equations of parallel lines? perpendicular lines?
  • What helps you to write the equation of a linear function?
  • How do the characteristics of line show up in a table, graph or equation?
• using  graphing calculators to enables them to explore answers to the above questions.  They are unafraid to ask the “What if?” question because it’s so easy to readjust their thinking with these useful tools.
• designing and constructing Mousetrap Powered Vehicles to further advance their understanding of motion and the forces that enhance and oppose motion. They are incorporating what they know about motion, simple machines and energy transfers to do this. They will then use these vehicles to make predictions associated with Newton’s second law of motion. Knowing their vehicle’s weight and the force generated by the mousetrap, they will make predictions about the vehicle’s acceleration and then test them in the field.
• learning in French regular adjectives, clothing vocabulary and the new verbs porter, mettre, acheter. They are beginning a project using the future proche tense to describe an imaginary event that will be attended, doing some virtual shopping online in France to “buy” a new outfit for the event, and documenting their work.
• reading  stories in their reader “Cuentos Simpaticos” and finishing a quick review of articles and adjective agreement in “Spanish Grammar.”  They  have also been reviewing present and past tense verbs so that they can begin a new past tense.
• starting a painting project around the theme of favorite artists. The class has been looking at various artists and discussing different painting styles and art movements as a means to help students identify an artist on which they will focus. Students have selected their artists of inspiration and are in the process of  creating an acrylic painting based on a particular piece of art or art movement.
• exploring  digital photography. The class looked at and discussed a variety of photographs before going outside to take their own. While walking around the neighborhood students were asked to think about photographing subjects from different vantage points. There were also asked to  look for and photograph things such as lines, textures, colors, and shapes.
• well into units on volleyball and soccer.  We have worked on individual skills, partner skills and teamwork skills.  With the favorable weather, we’ve been taking advantage of the turf field at JJ Walker for soccer.  We have also started training for the first leg of our fitness test, where we work on long and short distance running, stretching, arm and core exercises.

Goings on in the Seventh And Eighth Grade Performing Arts Electives:

• Vocal Majors are working together in small groups, learning Broadway songs and presenting their arrangements to the class.    The Vocal Majors and the MS Chorus are also preparing for the Winter Concert on Tuesday, Dec. 14th at 6:30PM at NYU. Vocal Minors have started creating music videos, where students pick a song, arrange and choreograph a presentation.
• In the dance majors classes, students have been spending one day a week learning modern dance technique, warm up exercises, and beginning to develop a dance sequence that incorporates modern dance, salsa, and capoeira. On the second day in the week students have been exploring choreography and composition and beginning to design short dance works.
• Students taking the major in drama have been exploring spontaneous improvisation using colors to represent emotions. Students are acting in scenes, and using a color chart to determine their character’s emotion. In the minor class, we are working on games and activities to develop confidence in the group before moving on to scene study.
• The Instrumental Elective Class is progressing wonderfully! Students who are playing their instrument for the first time -trumpets, trombones and saxophones- are making excellent progress and the ensemble has been rehearsing a number of demanding numbers for the upcoming Winter Concert. In the digital music minor, students are becoming familiar with the keyboard and Garageband, which are the two main tools that we’ll use for composition.

In and outside of the library . . .

• booktalks have started in all classrooms, fifth graders have begun their introduction to MS research in anticipation of their civilizations project and seventh graders are  deep into their colonial research process. The fifth grade Friday Nonfiction Book Nook has begun, as have read alouds in the sixth and seventh grade core classrooms.

All that in a day!

Dear Families,

With the end of the first quarter just behind us, progress reports, family conferences with your child’s advisor and meetings with subject area teachers are just around the corner (see below for information on signing up for a conference/meeting). Conferences are scheduled for November 5th and 11th (the Middle School will be closed on both days). Progress reports will go out on Tuesday, November 2rd. These reports will be accessible on-line and I will send out an email next week with information on how to access your child’s report.

Progress reports provide an important opportunity for shared discussion about successes to date and challenges to address as we move forward into the second quarter. I encourage you to review the section on progress reports in the handbook so that you are familiar with the format of the reports.

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 families to view them as representative of where the student stands as a learner at a particular moment in time. Areas of struggle as indicated by reported grades can be addressed by committed hard work.

Our reports are purposely designed to show a student’s progress over the four quarters so that you and your child can more easily 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.

For all families, while progress reports and family conferences provide an opportunity to reflect on a student’s progress and to think about strengths and challenges, it is important to remember that assessment is an on-going process at LREI; it is a means to an end, but not an end in and of itself. Its aim is to improve student understanding of key ideas and skills. In the Middle School, teachers strive to develop assessments that are learner-centered and focused on student understanding in relation to the particular goals identified for each area of inquiry. Rather than being separate from learning, assessment plays a central role in the instructional process. The assessment process also sheds light on which instructional strategies are most effective. Through thoughtful assessment, the teacher gains critical feedback for choosing and utilizing those teaching strategies that can best help a learner progress towards the goals of a particular unit of study. Opportunities for meaningful assessment also allow students to gain deeper insight into areas of strength and challenge and allow them to develop plans to address growth in both of these areas.

The Family Conference is an extension of these assessment activities and should be viewed as a dynamic opportunity to talk about growth and development. The student’s presence and participation in these discussions is of vital importance. The Family Conference affords the student an opportunity to reflect, applaud, and problem-solve with two of her/his most important advocates, family members and her/his advisor. These conferences should be approached with a forward-looking perspective. As prior performance is reviewed, all of the participants should seek to work together to identify strategies and opportunities for learning that will support the student’s continued growth and development.

The Family Conference in the Middle School places the student at the center as an active participant. We do this for a number of reasons:

1. to encourage students to accept personal responsibility for their academic performance;
2. to help students develop the reflective skill of self-evaluation;
3. to facilitate the development of students’ organizational and oral communication skills and to increase their self-confidence; and
4. to encourage students, parents, and the advisor to engage in open and honest dialogue.

Family conferences are an important part of the educational experience at LREI. They are important for students, parents/guardians, and teachers. Like all learning opportunities, the Family Conference requires trust and a willingness to take risks on the part of all participants. While the conference may not be tension-free, it does provide an opportunity for inquiry and understanding. Here are two discussion ideas that you might want to consider as you prepare for these important dialogues:

• share with your child memorable experiences from when you were a middle school student and consider why such memories may be important to the educational life of your child
• explore how you and your child approach the concept of learning and reflect on why looking at the differences and similarities in your responses might be important.

In preparation for these conferences, Middle School students will spend  time reflecting on their work thus far this school year. With their teachers’ and advisor’s guidance, students will identify areas on which to focus during the next quarter and will develop plans for achieving these goals. Your child will have these reflections with her/him during your conference. Here are some additional topics/questions that you might reflect on before your family conference:

• Your child’s work habits at home–when are the most and least successful?
• Which assignments, or types of assignments, seem to lead to the most success? To be the most frustrating?
• Is our organizational plan working for your child? How is your child managing her/his time?
• When you and your child discuss school/school assignments at home, are there consistent themes that should be discussed at the conference?
• Are there extracurricular commitments or extenuating circumstances that should be discussed at the conference?

There’s no doubt that conferences are hard work, but the potential for learning that can take place when all participants commit to the process is clearly worth the effort.

I look forward to seeing you at the conferences.

Dear Families,

As a follow up to Chap’s post from last week on social justice work at LREI, I thought I’d highlight some work that is happening in our eighth grade classes.

Each year, our eighth grade students embark on a project to better understand and personalize the social justice issues that emerge from their study of post-Civil War US history. This project connects them to individuals and organizations that are making a difference in the community and beyond. Through this process, our eighth graders come to better understand the rewards and challenges of active citizenship and the need for all individuals to choose to participate. One benchmark point on what we hope will be a life-long journey is our annual spring Social Justice Teach-In during which the eighth graders plan and run a set of workshops and assemblies for the rest of the middle school.

This year-long journey begins in the summer as students read the novel Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals, which chronicles the experiences of the Little Rock Nine and the efforts of many others to desegregate Little Rock’s public schools. This reading serves as frame for our students’ critical examination of our nation’s history from the Civil War through the Civil Rights era.

Inspired buy the Little Rock Nine and the Civil Rights Movement and their investigation of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, each eighth grader created an action art project and a supporting artist’s statement about their work as it related to a current civil or human rights issue. Their art work and writing ask us to stop, think and, ultimately, to act. Click here to view a few representative pieces of this work.

On a related note, the following letter from eighth grade core teacher Sara-Momii Roberts highlights how one of last year’s social justice projects has created some new possibilities for this year’s eighth graders:

Dear Families,

Thank you so much for your active participation in this past Tuesday’s Curriculum Night. We hope that you left with a clear sense of how the curriculum that your child will experience this year is structured and some of the essential questions that they will explore. We also hope that you will use the evening as a springboard to help you to be an active participant in the curriculum with your child. When questions about the curriculum emerge, seek out your child’s teachers. Take advantage of the teacher blogs and use them as jumping off points for conversations. I have written elsewhere about the way in which we approach curriculum at LREI and those ideas were much on my mind as I left the building on Tuesday evening. As I imagine you were, I was truly impressed by our Middle School teachers and their ability to develop curricula that is experiential, relational and oriented to action.

While Curriculum Night is an opportunity to look at the big picture, it is also an opportunity to get clarifications about specific procedures and practices. Homework is often much on peoples’ minds. I include below some “big picture” thoughts on homework and its connection to the curriculum and to each student’s development as a learner.

Homework:
First and foremost, homework is practice; it is not a quiz or a test. Homework is not generally graded for correctness, but rather for effort and completion. That does not mean it should be done haphazardly or carelessly. It should be done in relation to the expectations established by the teacher. For example, spelling does not need to be perfect, but work should be proofread and errors that are caught corrected. In math, a problem may be done incorrectly, but students are expected to show how they arrived at their answer.

For us, the measure of a successful homework session is not one where everything is done correctly, but one where the work reflects a focused and committed effort on the part of the student. Practice is also a time for risk-taking and a natural consequence of risk-taking is error making; we learn from these mistakes.  So errors that are the result of risk-taking are useful for teachers and are an important part of the learning process. Errors that are the result of carelessness or lack of effort point to areas where students may need more support in terms of their study skills.

Homework will often be assigned as part of an on-going project. When this is the case, students are not expected to bring in a completed project when only a component of it is due. In most cases, the assigned homework will be used in class to teach students the next step in the project. So if your child is asked to write an introductory paragraph, she and you should not worry about the body and concluding paragraphs. Her teacher will take her through the rest of the process and the homework completed in the evening will often become the foundation for the class work for the next day.

It is also crucial  for us to know where your child is encountering challenges. Without this information, we cannot provide the best support. Your child should know that at some point during the year, he will encounter this kind of challenge; it is a normal part of the learning process; it is perhaps the most important part of the process.

So what can you do to best support your child? Here are a few ideas:

1. Make sure that you have read the homework section in the Student and Family Handbook.
2. If you are unclear about the particular expectations for homework in a class, first check on the teacher’s blog as this information is often posted there. If it is not on the blog, contact the teacher.
3. Each family will need to consider what level of intervention makes sense with regard to student errors and confusions. Some families will leave the identification and correction of any problems to the teacher (this is our preference), while some families will intervene more directly. As a guideline, it is helpful to address these issues by asking questions of your child rather than by telling or doing the work for her.
4. Help your child to understand the parameters of the assignment. Help him to budget his time so that assignments that are assigned over multiple days are worked on over multiple days. Extra effort is generally fine if it falls within the assignment parameters; doing more when it falls outside these parameters may not be helpful.
5. Your child should work independently on her work, but she should feel comfortable asking you for clarification and you should feel comfortable monitoring her progress.
6. Students should be able to complete most nightly assignments in 15-30 minutes. If it is taking substantially longer than this or if the 30 minutes is filled with tears and frustrations, you should intervene and stop the homework session. You can send an email or a note to the teacher or better yet you can help your child to feel comfortable seeking out his teacher first thing the next morning. This will help him to develop important self-advocacy skills that will be important for his on-going development as a learner.
7. In those cases where the level of anxiety or frustration is happening with some regularity or if you have specific questions, it is important that you bring your child’s teacher into the conversation. If you feel that this is happening in more than one class, it would make sense to touch base with your child’s advisor who can help you navigate through the problem.

One of our main goals in the middle school is to help students understand who they are as learners. As a result, it is important for students to come to terms with and own their areas of challenge and strength. This will allow them to better identify and use strategies that lead to success. In this way, students will come to see their challenges not as judgments of their worth, but as obstacles that can be overcome. Over time, these strategies will be internalized as habits and students will come to know what they have to do to produce their best work. Again, this is a process and students will work through it at different rates. We acknowledge that this can be frustrating for some students and for some families.

Homework is one medium we use to nurture excellent learning habits in our middle school students; students will over time grow into these habits. While we acknowledge that challenges can emerge because students develop these habits at different rates, students will master these habits as they move through the middle school. In those cases where a student really struggles with a particular learning skill, we will work with the student to develop alternative strategies that will help her to better manage the challenge so that she can produce her best work. It is our job to make this happens and we are most effective in this work when we are able to do it in collaboration with you.

From digital musings to the lived experience of students, here are seventh graders doing some of their initial research on their colonial topics. This research will inform their visit to colonial Williamsburg and will culminate in their exhibit at our annual Colonial Museum . . .

and the fruits of fifth graders’ labor as they explore the role that shelters play in the development of civilizations. This project is an important component of their Civilization Simulation project, which serves as a frame for their year-long study of ancient civilizations.

Dear Middle School 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. In fifth through seventh grades, 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, more independent work time). In the eighth grade, students discuss the pros and cons of reading their own speeches and consider the additional obligations that come when a candidate reads her/his own speech. These are always intense conversations and the students’ commitment to the integrity of the democratic process really rises to the fore.

Students in all grades 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 in collaboration with their classmates are ready to meet them.

In this spirit of collaboration, we are looking forward to seeing you on Tuesday evening at 6:30PM for our Middle School Curriculum Night. At the event, you will get to meet your child’s teachers who will provide you with an overview of their classes and their class expectations. We hope that all of you will be able to attend as Curriculum Night helps to provide a meaningful frame for the work that we will undertake together over the course of the year.

Dear Middle School Families,

For the past two days, fifth and sixth graders have taken to the woods, ponds and craft shops at the Ashokan Center with joyful enthusiasm. This annual three-day trip provides students with an opportunity to build community while they explore the natural world and consider our place in it. The trip also provides numerous situations where students must work collaboratively in order to solve a variety of challenges.

Throughout their three days at Ashokan, each student will likely confront moments of personal challenge as s/he ponders how to do something new or how to address something that s/he knows is difficult based on prior experience. In each of these situations, students will likely take advantage of the support of a friend or teacher who will help them to navigate through the risk at hand. It is this support and safety that helps students to explore the obvious and not so obvious opportunities for learning connected to their efforts. This collaboration with peers is also a collaboration with place; as middle schoolers interact with the natural world, they simultaneously reinforce an important connection with the world around them. As Richard Louv observes in his article, “A Walk in the Woods.”

In the formation of American ideals, nature was elemental to the idea of human rights. Inherent in the thinking of the Founding Fathers was this assumption: with every right comes responsibility. Whether we are talking about democracy or nature, if we fail to serve as careful stewards, we will destroy the reason for our right, and the right itself. Those of us who identify ourselves as conservationists or environmentalists—whatever word we prefer—nearly always have had some transcendent experience in the natural world, usually in the form of independent play, with hands muddy, feet wet. We cannot love what we do not know. As Robert Michael Pyle puts it so well, “What is the extinction of a condor to a child who has never seen a wren?”

We must do more than talk about the importance of nature; we must ensure that children in every kind of neighborhood have everyday access to natural spaces, places, and experiences. To make that happen, this truth must become evident: we can truly care for nature and ourselves only if we see ourselves and nature as inseparable, only if we love ourselves as part of nature, only if we believe that our children have a right to the gifts of nature undestroyed.

Whether at Ashokan or in the green spaces of our city, an essential part of the LREI experience is the comntinued forging of this link between self and place. In images, here is evidence of this work being practiced at Ashokan as students push beyond the obvious and seek unusual ideas, see other points of view, challenge assumptions, explore new territory and go beyond the boundaries.

Click here to view images from the trip.

Dear Middle School Families,

It’s truly a pleasure to be back in the swing of things and it feels like we are off to a great start. I trust that you all had positive meetings with your child’s advisor and that the meeting has marked the beginning of what will be a productive yearlong collaboration. Below is a note that I sent to faculty on Monday evening; I think its sentiment applies equally to families as well:

Dear Colleagues,

Per Phil’s suggestion to remember to take some “snap shots” during the year, here is a collection of some “snap shots” from our end-of-year meeting. I look forward to taking some new ones with you this year! In no particular order:

1. The kids at the Black History Month Assembly – proud of themselves and the content
2. Fifth grade talent show – they kids practiced so hard
3. A joyful Arts Festival
4. Memoir of a fifth grader who had a hard year with peers, but focused on kid’s strengths in her writing
   
5. Seeing kids bouncing off to performing arts electives
6. Kids really into the POCOC Book Club meetings
7. Touring the Colonial Museum and Egyptian tomb with guides who were really in character
8. Striking Viking Story Pirates – no comment needed
9. Watching kids on GPSF Day talk about the school and what they do each day
   
10. Kids helping with packing up without having to ask
11. Watching the fifth grade Grecian Festival animation project
12. Colleagues always willing to lend a hand
13. Playing frisbee with a reluctant student who then came to love it
14. Watching students help each other and work independently
15. Watching kids travel the distance in the play and musical
16. Planning with my colleague
17. The seventh grade Food Celebration – good reads and good eats
18. Letting a class discussion go down an unplanned path and being amazed by where we went
19. Watching kids run their hearts out at track
20. Coming together with others to respond to the earthquake in Haiti
21. Being blown away by our kids who spoke at the UN
22. The abundance of spirit at our first Olympic Games
23. Watching a student’s hard work finally pay off
24. Reading student reflections that used words like “fun, “enjoyed,” and “learned”
25. Seeing a student who was up and down throughout the first three quarters really commit in the fourth quarter
26. The “thank you” from a student who I pushed all year
27. Watching kids push themselves to answer questions at the science Exploratorium
28. Listening to the truly moving student speeches at Moving Up
29. All the little everyday interactions that helped students to be successful and to be their best selves so that they were able rise to the occasion when it counted.

Have a great day tomorrow!

Dear Families,

This week’s Eighth Grade Moving Up Ceremony was a wonderful conclusion to a most exciting year. Since a number of you have asked, below is the speech that I gave at the ceremony. Click here for the text of the Marge Piercy poem ‘The Low Road” that Momii read.

You can also find at the bottom of the page links to the summer assignments and the supply lists.

As I mentioned last week, I also hope that the summer provides you with ample opportunities to spend quality time with family and friends and to also think about trying something new together as a family.

Be well,
Mark

Delivered on Tuesday, June 15, 2010,
on the occasion of the Class of 2014’s Moving Up

It is an honor to be able to share in this day with you; you have worked hard to get to this moment so savor it. As some of you know, it’s become something of a tradition for my words on this occasion to find their inspiration in your dream flags. That decision makes this speech something of a risk because I can’t really begin it until you have finished, which was yesterday morning. Despite the looming deadline, what was reassuring for me as I tried to find my way through the flags last night was that we’ve really been writing this speech together for the last four years. So it’s true that time is relative, our frame of reference – our perspective – really does matter.  That was a comforting thought as the clock on my computer screen crept towards this moment, but . . .

I’m ready, I’m ready, I’m ready . . .

Not my words. They belong to SpongeBob SquarePants and are boldly painted on one of the flags behind you. And what of SpongeBob? Does he really deserve mention at this celebration of your accomplishments? I ask only that you withhold your judgment until we’ve found our path through the flags. So for what are we “ready?” What lies just ahead as we move on from Moving Up?  As one of you commented,

Moving on is a simple thing, what it leaves behind is hard. (1)

We move on all the time, in a way it is like breathing, but as the Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, “You can never step into the same river; for new waters are always flowing on to you.” What the moving on of the river leaves behind is change and change can be hard to accept. Even in this moment, your cherished past is slipping away. So you are right when one of you acknowledges that . . .

Change is inevitable except from vending machines. (2)

And what do you do? Do you stand helpless in front of the machine, defeated and cheated? Or do you embrace the inevitability of this change? As one of you observes, do you understand that you must

Be the change you wish to see in the world, (3)

and that

You have to speak your mind to change the world. (4)

Be and speak – actions and words. They are intertwined. Neither is sufficient. Your words are empty if not followed by actions and action that does not lead to thought, which is embodied in language, does not last. Your middle school experience has sought to strengthen this crucial relationship between these two imperatives at every step. But it is not a simple matter of us just telling you that there is an important relationship here. It is true that . . .

Education is an admirable thing, but it’s well to remember . . . that nothing worth learning can be taught (5)

And that is why we have asked you to spend so much time inquiring, experiencing, questioning, analyzing, collaborating, sharing, presenting, evaluating and reflecting. These are the true building blocks of learning. And your teachers have not simply seen it as their job to talk and tell; they have sought to learn with you, to guide and be guided by you. So what is it that we have been trying to learn during our time together that we will carry with us after today? Is it . . .

When in doubt . . . Google

Maybe? But ours is an age where information is not the problem. There is more of it than has ever existed. So the question is really, “What will you do with the information you get when you Google when you are in doubt?”  As Harvard’s Tony Wagner suggests, your Googling will only be of value if you have these “must-have” skills of the future:

• Critical thinking and problem-solving
• Collaboration across networks and leading by influence
• Agility and adaptability
• Initiative and entrepreneurialism
• Effective oral and written communication
• Accessing and analyzing information
• Curiosity and imagination

We have tried to cultivate these skills during our time together, but acquiring these skills is hard work that requires commitment and dedication. One of you reminds us of Albert Einstein’s admonition that

Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.

So our actions do define us. And repeated actions create habits and these habits define who we are – our characters. How often do we claim to know something that we have neither understood nor experienced simply because we want to impress or are afraid of how others might perceive us? If the response is “with some significant frequency” then are we willing to say as Socrates did and as echoed on one of these flags that . . .

All I know is that I know nothing.

Socrates is not being glib here. His commitment to this belief marked him as a corrupter of youth and cost him his life. He was instead opening himself up to the true possibilities of knowledge and learning. He was saying to us as one of you observed

Come as you are (6)

and as another noted

Today you are you that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you. (7)

Who you are is where you begin. It is the only honest starting point and touch point along this path of growth. And how you see your “youness” and your relationship to the world is of crucial importance and is captured in the flag that says . . .

You’re only as tall as your heart will let you be and you are only as small as the world makes you seem. (8)

It is certainly the case that when we are feeling small we aren’t likely to do our best thinking or be our best selves. And in those moments we may fool ourselves into thinking that we are getting by, but getting by is an illusion. As one of you correctly observes,

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. (9)

That middle ground is the home of inaction, of indecision. We would do well to abide by the flag that reminds us that

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly. (10)

Over the last four years, we’ve talked about the importance of taking risks and how most if not all of our most important learning is the result of having taken a risk. To be clear, we’re not talking about foolish risks here; we’re talking about thoughtful risks, which are considerably harder to take than the foolish ones. The thoughtful risk leaves us vulnerable to those who choose to occupy that middle ground. This idea is reflected in the flag that says,

The higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those that cannot fly. (11)

So who you choose to fly with is of the utmost importance. Every Adolescent Issues conversation you’ve had over the past four years has been a variation on this theme. Continue to choose wisely and remember that as one of you points out,

Be who you want to be and say what you want to say, because people that mind don’t matter and the people that matter don’t mind. (12)

And who are these people that matter? They are the ones sitting next to you right now. You know that

Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave and impossible to forget. (13)

And you know that you would not be here today were it not the case that

I get (You got) by with a little help from (your) my friends. (14)

Now I’m not so sure that I agree with the premise of the following flag that says,

Friendship is not something you learn in school, but if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship you really haven’t learned anything. (15)

I do however wholeheartedly agree with its concluding sentiment. Friendship is something that can be learned in school and it is a cornerstone of the LREI experience. Our commitment to the growth of whole student recognizes the absolute importance of these relationships. At LREI, the other is always present in everything we do. We do not use the word “community” lightly and as the next flag points out,

We both go together if one falls down. (16)

But friendship and community are ideas that demand committed and on-going work. We need only to look at the news to see that we live in a word where people do great harm to each other on a daily basis. This harm comes in many forms and as one flag acutely observes,

The tongue like a sharp knife . . . kills without drawing blood. (17)

At Houston Street when you were younger, you likely chanted, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names can never hurt me.” I think it is fair to say that you understand now that this is not true at all. Words have tremendous power and they can do immeasurable harm. Your study of history and human rights has shown you that words can be a powerful tool for prejudice, discrimination, and hatred. While you have learned the fundamental importance of empathy in the role of understanding, an idea embodied in Atticus Finch’s statement that “You never really know a man until you walk a mile in his shoes,” there is something deeper here. It is expressed in the flag that takes its inspiration from Bruce the Shark in the movie Finding Nemo:

I am a nice shark not a mindless eating machine.  If I am going to change this image, I must change myself first. Fish are friends not food.

Empathy is necessary, but not sufficient. We also need to do the demanding work of looking at ourselves. We need to understand our own capacity for unkindness, which can give rise to the damaging ways that we may come to see and treat others. For those of us who enjoy certain privileges we need to be more mindful of the prices that have been paid by others to make these privileges possible.  So it really is about choosing to participate, in our own development as individuals, as members of our families and as members of the various communities to which we belong.  This is the journey that you have been on and will continue on as you move up. As one of you points out,

The road doesn’t end, it splits.

And today marks one of those moments where paths diverge, where you will go separate ways even when it may appear like you seem to be going together. You will not be together in this way again, but there is a flag that reminds you to

Look beyond.

Do not limit yourself, consider what might yet be and envision a role in that future for these people with whom you have traveled so far. And as you dream, remember that while

The sky is full of dreams, you need to learn to fly. (18)

And we have tried over the past four years to develop your flying skills as writers, historians, mathematicians, scientists, artists, athletes and activists so that you can.

Talk about a dream, try to make it real. (19)

We have asked you to think out of the box, to consider alternate perspectives and possibilities, to regularly ask, “What if” because we know that there is a certain elegant truth in the flag that says,

It takes skill to trip over flat surfaces.

It may take some hard work, but it is relatively easy to see what others already see. It is much harder to see that which is not yet visible, the promise of what is possible. Wherever your path takes you, we know that you will find opportunities for leadership and that you will share your vision of the world with others so as to make our world a better place. And in this process, consider the flag that reminds us that

A leader takes you were you want to go. A great leader doesn’t necessarily take you were you want to go, but where you ought to be. (20)

And in the process, make the most of each moment; as you think about the future, live fully in the moment so that you can say as one of the flags does

Tomorrow is another one. Today was fun. Today was good. (21)

This idea is echoed in a number of flags so be mindful that you

Live as if you were to die tomorrow . . . Learn as if you were to live forever (22)

and

Live, Love, Laugh – I believe you should live each day as if it is your last, which is why I don’t have any clean laundry because, come on, who wants to wash clothes on the last day of life? (23)

So keep a sense of humor about things. Getting through the day is hard enough and it is certainly true as one of you observed that while

Every man dies,  not every man lives. (24)

It may often feel like our choices are confined to either/or possibilities and that we are somehow stuck with choices that aren’t really choices just two sides of the same coin. As one flag suggests, it is almost like

Darkness is moving at a speed of light

What do we mean here? If darkness is the absence of light how can it have a speed? But turn off the light and the darkness seems to appear at the same speed as the light recedes.  Maybe the question is a trick question. Maybe it requires us to see in a different way. Three flags may offer a clue to that different way. The first,

I have to thank you . . . G-d,

The second,

If God is a DJ, life is a dance floor, love is the rhythm, and you are the music, (25)

And the third

All you need is love. (26)

Whether it be through an organized religion, a personal sense of spirituality, or an ethical framework, the discovery of our shared humanity is connected to the varied ways that we have found for foundational ideas and ways of being to coalesce into a set of values. It is these values that guide us and continually shape us as we move up. In our most difficult moments, we look to these values so that we may not be constrained by either/or thinking, which can limit us from seeing alternate possibilities.  The challenge is that our values do not always overlap. One value is not necessarily wrong, while the other is right. They are different and our shared task is to understand even if we don’t always agree. As the last flag, suggests

We could flood the streets with love or light or heat whatever. Lock the parents out, cut a rug, twist and shout. Wave your hands. Make it rain. For stars will rise again. The youth is starting to change. Are you starting to change? Are you? (27)

So we are almost there, our journey takes us back to SpongeBob and the emerging realization that he too connects to your Moving Up and our progressive practice. He lives in a pineapple under the sea (that is certainly out of the box), curious, passionate, open to new experiences and others, a committed friend, and engaged in the world in which he finds himself.  So I think we do have a developing sense of what he means when he says, “I’m ready . . .”

But just so we are truly clear, let’s go one step further. I do believe that the answer lies in a scene from the very first episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, which I will now recite (I’ll let you imagine the voices):

SpongeBob SquarePants: There it is. The finest eating establishment ever established for eating. The Krusty Krab, home of the Krabby Patty, with the Help Wanted sign on the front. I’ve waited years for this moment. I’m gonna go in there, march straight up to the manager, look at him straight in the eye, lay it on the line, and – I can’t do it!
[turns away, but is stopped by Patrick]
SpongeBob SquarePants: Patrick!
Patrick: Where do you think you’re going?
SpongeBob SquarePants: I was just…
Patrick: No, you’re not. You go in there and get that job.
SpongeBob SquarePants: No, I can’t! Don’t you see?
Patrick: Who’s first words were “May I take your order?”
SpongeBob SquarePants: Mine were.
Patrick: Who made a spatula out of toothpicks in shop class?
SpongeBob SquarePants: I did.
Patrick: Who’s a… who… Ungh… Who’s a big, yellow cube with holes?
SpongeBob SquarePants: I am!
Patrick: Who’s ready?
SpongeBob SquarePants: I’m ready!
Patrick: Who’s ready?
SpongeBob SquarePants: I’m ready!
Patrick: Who’s ready?
SpongeBob SquarePants: I’m ready!

And you are, Congratulations!

Sources for unattributed quotes from flags:

1. Dave Mustaine
2. Robert C. Gallagher
3. Mahatma Gandhi
4. Immortal Technique
5. Oscar Wilde
6. Kurt Cobain
7. Dr. Seuss
8. Christopher Drew
9. Helen Keller
10. Robert Kennedy
11. Friedrich Nietzsche
12. Dr. Seuss
13. G. Randolf
14. John Lennon and Paul McCartney
15. Muhammad Ali
16. Jason Schwartzman
17. Buddha
18. Brandon Flowers
19. Bruce Springsteen
20. Rosalyn Carter
21. Dr Seuss
22. Mahatma Gandhi
23. Jeremy Schwartz
24. William Wallace
25. Pink
26. John Lennon and Paul McCartney
27. MGMT

Dear Families,

What a week! Tuesday began with our wonderful Sixth Grade Poetry Potluck where those present were treated to an incredible selection of poetic delights all expertly read by their authors. Tuesday evening saw the auditorium transformed into our Science Exploratorium. Eighth grade students presented the results of their individual science research projects that addressed an impressive range of questions that appear below for your consideration:

• Can mice be trained to run a maze? And do mice learn better when they have been trained in a maze?
• Do changing maze conditions affect how fast a mouse can learn a maze?
• What living conditions do crickets prefer?
• How can goldfish adapt to changes in their environment?
• Do colors affect people physiological state?
• How does lying effect people physically?
• How do forensic scientists study fingerprints?
• Can you tell a person’s gender from their bones? How do forensic scientists discover how bones have been broken or cut?
• Which citrus fruit battery produces the most electricity?
• What solutions can be separated using chromatography?
• What factors determine a physical or chemical change in a substance?
• What is the science behind pinhole cameras?
• Which fin size and shape produces the greatest output from a waterwheel?
• In a wind turbine, what blade configuration generates the most electricity?
• What blade shape produces the most effective wind turbine?
• How can buildings be reinforced to withstand earthquakes?
• What weather conditions cause tornadoes?
• How does arm length affect the distance a trebuchet throws a projectile?

Click here for photos from the event.

Wednesday saw the fifth grade regale students and families with their rousing adaptations of a series of Greek myths accompanied by an original musical prologue and epilogue. The performance began with the showing of an animation project created in their art classes with an accompanying original soundtrack created in their music class. Prior to the performance, families had a chance to view students’ technology animation projects, science robotics projects, core memoirs and essays and to play a variety of math games.

Click here to view photos from the event and follow these to links to view video from the event:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52PPl6mFnsI
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58tCZRfvCQk

Today, the seventh grade presented its Constitution Works First Amendment role play at the courthouse in Brooklyn and, tomorrow night, the eighth grade will celebrate their upcoming Moving Up, which will take place on Tuesday.

Congratulations to eighth grader Ivo who was selected as this year’s recipient of the Andrew McLaren Scholarship. This award was established in honor of former LREI Director Andrew McLaren to recognize an eighth grader moving on to the high school who exemplifies the school’s values and who has also showed dedication and promise in the arts.

No question that this has been an amazing week that is capping off a truly wonderful year in the middle school and at LREI. In addition to the potlucks at which teachers are formally thanked, I hope that you will each find a moment over the next few days to thank the members of the middle school faculty for their inspired teaching and  unwavering care of your children.

I also hope that the summer provides you with ample opportunities to spend quality time with family and friends and to think about trying something new together as a family.

Enjoy!

Dear Families,

On Saturday, April 24, 11 middle schoolers participated in the 21st Packer Collegiate Middle School Model Congress. This year’s participants included sixth grader Kai, seventh graders Benjamin, Georgia, Jerel, Marcelo, Nicholas, Odelia, Olivia, Simmon  and eighth graders Danica and Jasper. The group has worked with faculty facilitator Sharyn Hahn since the end of October to write bills, prepare speeches, read students’ bills from the other schools that participate, and learn about and practice parliamentary procedure. The team spent the entire day at Packer Collegiate High School on the 24th for the annual culminating event.

Nearly 200 middle school students from 13 area independent schools, including LREI, sent delegations of model legislators to the event. When students arrived at the event, they broke off into one of 17 separate committees based upon the content of their bill. These committees were meant to resemble actual congressional committees and included among others Judiciary, Education, Health, Housing & Urban Affairs, and Science Space & Technology. After a morning committee session filled with heated debate and criticism, the bills that passed committee were reviewed in one of four full sessions. (House I, House II, Senate I and Senate II).

The bills introduced by the LREI delegation included the following:

1. Delegates: Danica and Jasper
   Title: An act to reduce pollution in the United States by charging small fees based on large companies’ carbon footprints.
   Preamble: By fining companies for their neglect toward the environment, we can create a healthier, stronger, greener nation.
2. Delegates: Olivia and Odelia
   Title: An act to ensure the health and well-being of shelter pets and to make pet adoption and care-taking more affordable for all families, especially those for whom this would be a financial hardship.
   Preamble: To enable all families, including those with financial limitations, to adopt and/or care for a pet, when the animals would otherwise be kept in an unstable and unsafe environment.
3. Delegates: Simmon, Jerel, and Georgia
   Title: An act to prevent the New York City MTA from ceasing to provide students with free student metro cards to travel to and from school, and to institute this practice in other metropolitan areas in the United States that do not already provide this service.
   Preamble: The intent of this bill is to have the MTA continue to provide funding that will defray the full cost of student metro cards so that both public school and private school students who must travel over a mile can do so free of charge and to incorporate this in other cities.
4. Delegates: Nicholas and Kai
   Title: An act to make all restaurants in The United States display the correct calorie value and all the ingredients that go into their food on their menu in clearly visible type.
   Preamble: The purpose of this bill is to allow everyone to see clearly the nutritional value of a prepared meal at the restaurant.
5. Delegates: Benjamin and Marcelo
   Title: An act to create cleaner and more efficient public transportation systems in metropolitan areas.
   Preamble: The purpose of this act is to ensure that public transportation systems all over the Unites States would become more efficient in order to transport more people, as wells as reduce the use of fossil fuel emitting vehicles. After this act is initiated it will create a safe and stable atmosphere for public transportation riders. This act will also ensure that public transportation systems are sanitary and are not harmful to their customers.

The students’ hard work throughout the year resulted in a day of excitement and accomplishment.  All 11 of our delegates participated in all of the sessions and several debated in the plenary committees.  4 of our 5 bills were passed in their committees.

The afternoon concluded with an Awards Ceremony in which all of the delegates were recognized for their the hard work and performance. In addition, special awards were given out to the best prepared and most “professional” delegates. At the ceremony, Marcelo was awarded Honorable Mentions.  All of the delegates had a good time and they are all looking forward to next year with their eyes on the coveted Golden Gavel award (of which we have won two over the past five years). We are very proud of all of the delegates for their commitment to the Model Congress program.

Dear Families,

Several times this year, I’ve written about the eighth grade social justice project “Choosing to Participate,” which has become a cornerstone of the eighth grade humanities curriculum. The culminating event of this project took place this past Wednesday, as the the eighth graders ran two assemblies and facilitated workshops for the fifth through seventh graders. The day’s events were not only exceedingly well-executed, but also challenged middle schoolers to think deeply about a range important social justice issues and asked participants to consider how each individual can make a difference. This work reflected substantial research done by the eighth graders over the past few months and included significant volunteering opportunities at the following organizations:

• Aid for AIDS: http://www.aidforaids.org/
• AIDS Walk NY: http://www.aidswalk.net/newyork/
• IANSA: The International Network on Small Arms: http://www.iansa.org/
• Getting Tools to City Schools: http://www.gettingtoolstocityschools.org/home
• Go RED for Women: http://www.goredforwomen.org/
• Positive Exposure: The Spirit of Difference: http://www.positiveexposure.org/
• LINC: Literacy Inc NY: http://www.lincnyc.org/
• Lower East Side Girls Club: http://www.girlsclub.org/
• PEN American Center: Protecting Free Expression and Celebrating Literature: http://www.pen.org/
• Village Temple Soup Kitchen: http://www.villagetemple.org/soupkitchen.asp
• HUC: Hebrew Union College Food Bank: http://huc.edu/
• Food Bank of NYC: http://www.foodbanknyc.org/
• Father’s Heart Ministry NYC: http://www.fathersheartnyc.org/

In the opening assembly, the eighth graders provided some important context to help frame the day’s activities. Click here to view the video.

They also shared their public service posters, which were created in core and art (these posters are also on display in the lobby and outside of the eighth grade rooms) and performed an original song written by Lenny whose lyrics appear below:

eating drinking breathing living life

eating drinking breathing living life
that’s the way were told to give and strive
light the fire but don’t think to put it out anytime
volunteering strong with all your might
fighting sickness helping women’s rights
you got to learn to take your part in society

you’ve got to wipe the tears
and volunteer
for faith and peace
and justice please
don’t take what you can break
it’ll be your mistake
its for others sake
there are people at stake

gun violence seems to tear us up
our economy isn’t high enough
world hunger is eating us all alive all the time
why not take a look at the world today
with all our help we’ll be ok
but not when the wind of hate
blows us all away

you’ve got to wipe the tears
and volunteer
for faith and peace
and justice please
don’t take what you can break
it’ll be your mistake
its for others sake
there are people at stake

The morning assembly concluded with a moving speech given to UN delegates in 1992 by 12-year-old Severn Cullis Suzuki.

Following the assembly, fifth through seventh graders participated in two hour-long workshops facilitated by the eight graders. The following descriptions of the workshops give you a clear sense of the richness and depth of the morning’s activities:

• Free the Freedom in a Square: In this workshop, we will write out loud! We will go out to Little Red Square and express ourselves using sidewalk chalk, sidewalk paint, and our own opinions about freedom of expression and freedom of speech. We will create a “democracy wall”, answering the question, “What does freedom of expression mean to you?” You will draw, write, or create, liberating your inner voice. People will stop and stare at the art we’ve all made; all you need is your imagination!
• Chocolate for Change: In this workshop we will talk about the ongoing and very important issue of world hunger, and hunger in NYC. We will show you a brief presentation on the topic and then we will make chocolate-covered pretzels to donate to The Village Temple Soup Kitchen. Your work will allow those served at this soup kitchen to have a dessert with their meal, and you will also learn how to make these treats!
• Repairing Hunger — One Grain At A Time: People in this workshop will learn about hunger in both NYC and around the world. We will show you a website filled with online quiz games about math, science, geography, foreign language that help feed the hungry while you play! For every question you get right, 10 grains of rice get donated to the World Food Programme. In this workshop, you will have fun, make a difference, and go for the high score!
• A Pencil Per Person: All over NYC, kids go to school without the basic school supplies they need to function effectively as students. Our organization, Getting Tools to City Schools, raises money and collects supplies to donate to these students. Come and decorate pencils and stamp them with facts about our organization and its mission. These pencils will be circulated around the school, spreading awareness and inspiring others to get involved with our campaign. You will walk away entertained, informed, and having made creative pencils that make a difference!
• Justice Jeopardy: Did you know that the largest epidemic in our time is preventable? Did you know that you cannot get HIV/AIDS from shaking hands? What is the difference between HIV and AIDS? What does AIDS stand for anyway? Come and play your favorite game: Jeopardy, while answering these questions and learning more about these four key categories: the difference between HIV and AIDS, HIV and AIDS prevention, discrimination towards people with HIV and AIDS, and testing your HIV/AIDS knowledge. Finally, find out how to be a part of the LREI AIDS Walk Team!
• Changing the World One Book at a Time: Are you a person who loves kids? Are you the one who’s always trying to teach them new things? Do you appreciate the gift of literacy? If so, you will love Changing the World One Book at a Time. In this workshop, you’ll be educated about the importance of childhood literacy, learn the secrets to a great read-aloud, and find out strategies to make reading with children more beneficial. You’ll get time to try out these skills with a trip down to a Lower School classroom where you will read to kids!
• Love Your Heart: Have you ever wondered what’s in that buff, blood-pumpin’ organ you call a heart? Well, we have got the answers! You will learn about the organ that keeps you alive, and how to keep your food heart-healthy. You will be able explore different types of mid-day munchies and see what mutant sugar monsters they actually are. After our discoveries we will play Battle of the Heart! Will YOU win?
• Stitching Up The Facts About AIDS: Come and use your head to learn and your hands to decorate and sew! This workshop has everything you need to know about what’s true and false about HIV and AIDS. Once you have some knowledge, we will sew up the facts by making a quilt together! You will create quilt patches with your own drawings and words that will educate others about HIV/AIDS. Your unique quilt will be hung up in the Middle School for our whole community to see and from which to learn!
• Gender Bender — Empower Yourself in the Face of the Media: How do advertisements affect you as a male or a female? How do they use stereotypes? How can you become empowered instead of subject to the ad’s power? In this workshop, we will examine advertisements targeted towards men and ones towards women. Based upon what we see, we will write skits that show what an average woman/man is like and then also what a woman/man can really be if given room to move beyond stereotypes. Empower yourself to make up your own mind about gender stereotypes and the media!
• In Harm’s Way: Stop Gun Violence: Guns seem cool. James Bond uses guns and so does the American soldier in the videogame “Call of Duty.” Guns are made to seem fascinating, exciting and fun. The facts are, however, that guns do terrible things such as harm, hurt, and kill people all over the world. In our workshop, you will learn more about the effects of gun violence in NYC and how to stop it. You will learn that everybody has a voice against gun violence in our society. Take back the power and use your voice while having fun. We will create skits, make posters and songs, and play trivia games that will educate others to stand up for those in harm’s way due to guns.

Click here to view photos from the workshops.

The day concluded with a reflection activity and a final assembly in which several of the groups shared ways in which our middle school community will continue to take action on these issues (more on this to follow). A reflection by activist Severn Cullis Suzuki on her journey concluded the eighth graders’ stewardship of the day:

I spoke for six minutes and received a standing ovation. Some of the delegates even cried. I thought that maybe I had reached some of them, that my speech might actually spur action. Now, a decade from Rio, after I’ve sat through many more conferences, I’m not sure what has been accomplished. My confidence in the people in power and in the power of an individual’s voice to reach them has been deeply shaken…In the 10 years since Rio, I have learned that addressing our leaders is not enough. As Gandhi said many years ago, ‘We must become the change we want to see.’ I know change is possible.”

Real change depends on us. We can’t wait for our leaders. We have to focus on what our own responsibilities are and how we can make the change happen. I know change is possible, because I am changing, still figuring out what I think. I am still deciding how to live my life. The challenges are great, but if we accept individual responsibility and make sustainable choices, we will rise to the challenges, and we will become part of the positive tide of change. Over the last few years, after Rio, I was invited to many, many different conferences. Over time I’ve realized: this is not where we’re going to see change. We’ve seen positive activism happening in the last ten years at the grassroots level, in small communities. It’s about the individuals that make up the statistics about consumption and pollution, as well as the people who feel the negative impact, who are actually going to be the change. It is powerful, because you realize that each individual really does count. And the more I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve realized that each person is a role model to all the people around us. Not only the children, but everybody. That’s how cultures evolve and things change because the influence of a few individuals catches on.

There’s no doubt in my mind that the influence of our eighth graders was profoundly felt by their peers and teachers during this year’s “Teach-In.” Well done!

Congratulations also to the members of the Model Congress team! More on their efforts in next week’s blog.

Dear Families,

On Tuesday and Wednesday night, Middle School psychologist Andrew Weiss and I enjoyed spirited discussions with fifth-seventh grade parents as part of our annual Adolescent Issues Parent Evenings.

In these discussions, we spent much time talking about the many ways in which adolescents seek to test boundaries and that this can invariably lead to a certain level of conflict. As Andrew astutely observed, the goal for parents and teachers is not to find ways to avoid this conflict, but rather to work through it. For it is precisely these moments of conflict that define where the boundaries are and how they connect to the values that serve as a foundation for your family and for us at LREI. Navigating through these waters is certainly difficult for both kids, parents and teachers, but is is essential. We also acknowledged that these values may differ from family to family and with the school and that this can create additional challenges.

We talked about the challenge of responding to difficult questions that we may not want or feel prepared to answer. We agreed that acknowledging the significance of a question is important, but that we may want to let our child know that we want to think about it for a bit to figure out the best may to respond. In this way, we can model thoughtful and reflective thinking for our child as we look for the best way to enter into the conversation. We talked about the importance of finding a response that was honest, but that also felt comfortable with regard to what you may or may not want to share with your child.

We also discussed situations where parental expectations/requests don’t need to be justified with an immediate explanation (e.g., you need your child to act in a particular manner at a given moment or you may choose to not give them permission to do something that they want to do). That said, finding a way in a quieter moment to circle back to what was at the heart of the matter and to explore your response and its connection to important family values with your child is essential. It is precisely this on-going dialog, which often has its origins in conflict, that provides a sense of safety and consistency for your child. And each time you return to these conversations you also send an important message about what you value. Below are a few links to some resources that you might find useful in this on-going work:

• Helping Your Teen Make Responsible Choices
• Helping Your Child through Early Adolescence (PDF)
• Surviving (Your Child’s) Adolescence

For parents, adolescence marks the beginning of a “letting go” and by the end of adolescence, your young adults will be very much responsible for their lives. Because we/you can’t always be there for them, we hope that the values that we have worked to instill in them hold fast and guide them through their difficult moments. This is the clearest evidence that that you and your child are productively making your way through adolescence. I see ample evidence of this in our students and it is a reflection of the hard work that you do at home and that we reinforce at school.

On other fronts, the seventh grade was in Philadelphia today exploring Independence Hall and the National Constitution Center as part of their on-going inquiry into the birth of our nation and the drafting of the Constitution. Click here to view some photos.

Dear Families,

First, a hearty congratulations to the members of our Rube Goldberg team who competed this past weekend in the annual Rube Goldberg Machine Competition at the Fay School in Massachusetts. With the support of Middle School science teacher Stephen Volkmann, seventh graders Lola, Maxine, Olivia, Marcello and Will and eighth grader Ivo worked diligently over the past few months to prepare for the event. This year’s event required teams to use a common set of materials to create a contraption that used multiple energy transfers to accomplish the simple task of stapling three pieces of paper together. At the competition, the teams were given a set of materials and under timed conditions the teams had to construct and run their machines. They were also required to give a presentation on their design and the associated scientific principles. While only six team members were allowed to construct the machine at the competition, our team was rounded out by sixth graders Mars and Zach, seventh graders Ben, E.D. and Nicholas and eighth grader Matan. Well done all! Click here for photos.

Also on the subject of accomplishments, this week’s sixth grade Medieval Pageant was a wonderful culmination to units of focused study that were carried out across core, science, and visual and performing arts classes. Click here for photos.

As I reflect on the Pageant and on my varied interactions with students and teachers, I am continually struck by the richness of our integrated curriculum. The value of an integrated curriculum, which connects traditionally-separate subject areas, and its particular relevance at the middle school level, is something that has been a core value at LREI from the very beginning. While students learn an incredible amount of what we traditionally consider as subject area knowledge through this process, they also learn how to use this information to solve authentic problems and to assess critically this knowledge. Through our integrated curriculum, inquiry occurs in a thematic and holistic manner. In this way, the curriculum empowers our students to see connections and to generalize and transfer knowledge to a variety of problem-solving situations.

Dear Families,

For our fifth graders, it has been an exciting last few days as the many weeks of study of the ancient Egyptians culminated in their much anticipated Egyptian Tomb project. The depth of their study was clearly in evidence in the comprehensive tours that they gave of the tomb, in their focused museum demonstrations and in the recorded excerpts from their research papers playing in the listening room. In what was one of the most important part of the project, students stepped into the demanding role of expert and guide. Through this process, students solidified the important knowledge and skills that they had worked on throughout the project. As a result, the tomb became more than just a culminating experience it was an authentic assessment of student learning.

Authentic assessments ask students to read real texts and use real materials, to write for authentic purposes about meaningful topics, to confront meaningful problems that may have multiple solutions, and to participate in authentic tasks such as discussions, presentations, experiments, journal and letter writing, and regular revision of their work. Most importantly, authentic assessment values the thinking behind work, the process, as much as the finished product. As the tomb was unearthed beneath the sands of our “third floor Sahara,” the more significant discovery was each student’s realization of just how far s/he had traveled on this journey.

Click here to view some images from the event.

Also on the subject of assessments, congratulations to all of the members of the Middle School Robotics Team for an excellent performance at this past week’s citywide championships. Special thanks to coach Sherezada Acosta and to Steve Neiman and Carin Cohen for their support. Click here to view some images from the event.

I hope that you all have a relaxing and restful spring break and return refreshed for the many other authentic assessments that will unfold as we move towards the end of the year.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

As we take in events happening around the world and as adults debate and argue on how to best resolve them, we often fail to hear the true power and authority that imbues the voices of our younger citizens. That failure, a sort of generational silencing, can have profound consequences for both adults and children. That is why one of the driving forces behind our progressive practice is the belief in the transformative possibilities that come from helping each student to find her/his voice. Just such a moment occurred this week when several of our middle school students presented to a panel of adults at the UN. This presentation, which grew out of work being conducted by all of our eighth graders, is part of a larger social justice project that will culminate on April 28th, the day of the “Social Justice Teach-In.” On this day,  the eighth grade will run the middle school morning schedule.  In addition to putting together an assembly, each research group will run two hour-long workshops with the fifth-seventh graders in order to share their knowledge and inspire them to act. You can learn more about this project at http://blog.lrei.org/greencore/ and you can also read student posts about their work in the “field.”

For three of our students, this week’s fieldwork took them to the UN for a unique opportunity to give voice to their current work. As Middle School core teacher Sara-Momii Roberts recounts:

I had the pleasure of taking three eighth grade students to speak at the United Nations this week. As a part of our the eighth grade social justice project “Choosing to participate,” Phoebe, Samantha, and Niles began researching gun violence and gun violence prevention in New York City and started volunteering at IANSA (International Action Network against Small Arms).  IANSA subsequently asked the three to speak on a panel at the United Nations, addressing their research and their school project.  They worked for two months to prepare. The group presented statistics, interviews with a number of NYC gun violence victims and activists in our city, and shared about their personal interest in the topic. The other speakers on the panel included women from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Columbia, Guyana and Norway, in addition to a United Nations representative from the Department of Disarmament Affairs. The students were very well received and the response to having a “youth voice” from the “field” was overwhelming.! It was a very proud moment for their family members who were in attendance and our school at large.

And this from Sarah Master our contact at IANSA:

Thanks once more for everything, the kids really made a difference and I was delighted that their speeches were received so well, interspersed with applause — fantastic! Thank you for making our event today so successful. There were over 80 people in the room, including lots of people sitting on the floor that we couldn’t see. The audience included diplomats from missions including the Gambia, Spain, Norway, Switzerland, Korea, Kenya, USA and Sweden. You were fantastic and the audience was engaged the entire time.

We are so proud of these students for their hard work! Click here for some video of their presentation at the event.

Dear Families,

This week we were treated to a truly exceptional Black History Month Assembly. What originally started as a 5-10 minute video projected coordinated by Middle School math teacher Margaret Andrews, became, thanks to the dedicated and committed work of a group of third through fifth grade students (and Margaret), an hour-long celebration of Black History in words, images, music, dance and song. I’ll step aside and let some of their words take center stage.

Welcome to this Black History Month Celebration!

Some people have asked us, “Why do we celebrate Black History Month?” And here is what we have to say… It is because Black History Month is a very special time of year. Granted, we do not become less black on March 1st. And we take pride in our heritage all year long. But by setting aside this month, we set our heritage apart. We take it from the pages of history books and bring it to life. We take the time to remember, to reunite, and to rededicate ourselves to our history. And what a glorious history it is!

When we consider Black history, we think of it as a narrative of people crossing color lines….and fulfilling dreams. African-Americans, Black Americans have long struggled to understand their place in society. With each passing decade, we have pushed the color line forward, widened the circle, and moved closer to America’s promise of equality.

During Black History Month, we honor the memory of African-Americans like Dr. Martin Luther King, as we also celebrate current history makers like Dr. Condoleezza Rice. We remember the greatness of Jackie Robinson breaking down color barriers in sports and then cheer as Usain Bolt sets another record. These and so many other heroes pushed color lines and then broke through them, forever altering America’s history.

Today, we want to share our celebration with you. Please sit back, relax and enjoy!

Since we have said goodbye to 2009, one thing is clear: The first ten years of the 21st century have been as tumultuous and noteworthy as any in American history. The decade began with a Presidential election in which the man with the most votes lost and the horror of 9/11, when nearly 3000 people died in the worst terrorist attack ever on American soil. The decade ended with the first African-American in the Oval Office, the first Latina on the Supreme Court and the nation in the grips of a Great Recession even as Congress nears a final vote on historic health care reform. And while the goal of “Peace on Earth,” remains as elusive as ever, we are ending a major war in Iraq, setting the stage for the return of our troops from Afghanistan and celebrating Barack Obama’s 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. During the past decade we’ve experienced an almost equal mix of tragedy and triumph. But as the National Urban League prepares to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2010, we share the belief of millions that America’s best days are yet to come.

If September 11, 2001 will be remembered as the day of terror in America, August 29, 2005 will forever be known as the day of Katrina. More than 1800 people in the Gulf Coast and New Orleans lost their lives in the storm, hundreds of thousands were displaced, and property damage exceeded more than $100 billion. But while the levees failed, the spirit of New Orleans remains unbroken. The city is rebuilding and a few weeks ago, you saw the New Orleans Saints win the Super Bowl.

The past decade also included a number of breakthrough achievements by African Americans and women. The election of Barack Obama in 2008 tops the list, but there have been other notable “firsts.” In the business world, Dick Parsons, Ken Chenault and Stan O’Neal became the first African American Chairmen and CEOs of Time Warner, American Express and Merrill Lynch respectively. And in May of 2009, Ursula Burns became the first African American woman CEO of a Fortune 500 company when she took over the reins at Xerox.

In politics, Colin Powell was appointed the first African-American Secretary of State in 2001. Deval Patrick became only the second elected African-American governor when he took office as Massachusetts’ chief executive in 2006. David Paterson was sworn-in as New York’s first African-American governor in 2008. Nancy Pelosi made history as the first woman Speaker of the House in 2007. And in 2009, Eric Holder became the nation’s first African-American Attorney General and Judge Sonia Sotomayor became the first U.S. Supreme Court Justice of Puerto Rican decent.

During the past decade words like Facebook, YouTube and iPod became a part of our everyday lexicon. But one simple word – Hope – has defined the American spirit since our beginning, 234 years ago. As we celebrate Black History month this year, it is our fervent hope that we will find the courage to build on our successes, meet our many challenges and create an even better tomorrow.

Click here to view a video prepared by students for the assembly and here for a vocal number that was shared during the assembly.

Congratulations to all of the students for their work and a well-deserved thanks to Margaret for leading them through this experience, which was valuable for them, but immeasurably valuable for those of us who received the gift of their efforts.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

One of the fall traditions in the Middle School is the election of student representatives. The essays prepared by the candidates 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).

So far this year, representatives have been asked to seek out the full range of opinions on issues discussed by their classmates and they have helped their classmates to work towards consensus on a variety of these issues. On some occasions, they have also had to represent ideas with which they did not agree. Along the way, they have also helped to resolve conflicts, problem solved with their classmates, welcomed and spoken with families visiting the school as part of the admission process, made presentations at middle school meeting, and worked with the deans and the principal to clarify old roles and develop new roles for class representatives.

In the midst of all of these efforts, the representatives also want to leave their mark in some more permanent way on the life of the Middle School. This year’s representatives are hopeful that our first Mid-Winter Afternoon Olympics becomes an on-going tradition. Tomorrow afternoon, eight teams of fifth through eighth graders will meet at the Thompson Street Athletic Center dressed in their team colors with matching names, cheers, songs and dances to face a series of team challenges. The reps have worked hard with dean Gabrielle Keller and PE teacher Larry Kaplan to make the event a success. While it promises to be a fun afternoon, only time will tell if the Mid-Winter Afternoon Olympics enters the honored pantheon of desert, chocolate milk, Crazy Hat Day and Pajama Day, which are the lasting legacy of reps from the not so distant past.

Be well,
Mark

Update: If the following images are any indication, we are well on the way to establishing a new tradition. Well done reps!

Dear Families,

Despite the interruption of a much welcomed (by students) snow day, we are back to this week’s atypical routine of desks in rows and sharpened #2 pencils. Students continue to be thoughtful and focused as they contemplate a range of language arts and math concepts and skills and practice their test taking skills. This afternoon’s annual Literary Festival proved to be as popular as ever as students participated in two hour-long literary focused workshops given by LREI faculty and outside guests. Here is the menu of this year’s rich and varied offerings:

• Travel Writing (with David Lee). In this awesome workshop you’ll write a short travel article and get the opportunity to submit it for publication in Teen Ink magazine. Please come to the workshop equipped with an idea of the place you want to write about – foreign or local.  The smaller  the place, the better, as it provides a microcosm of the culture. For example, if you want to write about NYC, you could write about a local store or a subway route, or a person you see on your route to school. This is a great opportunity to learn about travel writing from your Spanish teacher, who also happens to be a NEW YORK TIMES PUBLISHED WRITER!
• How to Write a Brilliant Book Review (with Jennifer HS). Want to write the GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL? Sorry, can’t help ya. Want to become a New York Times reporter? No can do. Want to learn how to write a brilliant book review in 175 words or less? THAT I can show you! Come prepared to learn how to be a concise wordsmith and still get your point across when it comes to sharing your opinion about books
• Found Poetry (with Heather Brandstetter). Explore the streets of New York and find the poetry that is there everyday.  Heather will lead participants on a poetry-finding adventure!
• Who the Heck Are You?!(with Dennis Kitchen). A perennial favorite! 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, you’ll be outfitted with a camera and you’ll hunt these people down, snap their picture and then interview them. Dennis Kitchen will share interviewing techniques and help you create a fascinating bio on that person you think you know, but not really.
• Make a Book of Secrets! Historically, books have been used as a hiding place–holding secrets, memories, charms, treasures, jewelry, etc. This bookmaking and collage workshop uses small matchboxes as drawers to tuck away your secrets. You can create a Book of Secrets for a literary or historical character, or create a book that holds your own secrets. What secrets or treasures would Parvana from The Breadwinner tuck away?  or Harry Potter?  or Jonas from The Giver?  or Anne Frank?  or you?
• Picture Books and Children’s Literature (with Matthew Rosen and Michelle Boehm). Matthew Rosen, former editor, will talk about writing and constructing picture books. You will have the opportunity to create their own picture-book dummies, and you’ll lay out text, add illustrations, and format their dummies accordingly. This is lots of fun, so don’t miss out.
• Songwriting. Join middle school music teacher and band director Matt McLean in this workshop where you’ll explore the exciting world of songwriting. Participants will explore the various components that go into creating a memorable song and then will set out to create their own hit.
• Spanish One Act (with Gabrielle Keller). Participants will read through and perform a very short one act play in Spanish and then will rework the language to change the dilemma, but not the humor.
• Striking Viking Story Troupe. In this interactive workshop, you’ll work with members of the Striking Viking Story Pirates theater troupe. They’ll guide you through a dynamic process in which individuals and small groups will write and act out stories. After the workshop, the Story Pirates will take these ideas back to their secret headquarters/laboratory, and several weeks later, they will return for Middle School meeting with newly-built puppets, props, and a brand new sketch comedy show, including some new stories written by participants in the workshops.
• Dramatic Writing Workshop with Performance Component (with Meghan Astracan) A dramatist, also known as a playwright, is a person who writes dramatic literature or drama. These works are usually written to be performed in front of a live audience by actors. In this workshop, participants learn some tricks of the trade from professional dramatist and LREI high school drama teacher and director, Meghan Farley Astrachan. Participants will write short scenes and have the opportunity to bring some of the writing “to its feet” by having participants work as actors, bringing the dramatists’ words to life.
• The Comic Book (with Sanjun Chon) Graphic novelist/comic book author Sanjun Chon will lead you in a workshop where you’ll create your own graphic novel, and he’ll show you how he creates his own comic books using a computer. This promises to be a great time!
• Designing a Superhero (Frank Portella, Ana Chaney and Larry Kaplan). In this workshop, you will get the chance to create a superhero based on original images drawn by an illustrator. You will create a character history, decide on superpowers and more!
• What’s it like to be a rock journalist? (with Lizzy Goodman) Do you get put on a special list for shows? Yes. Do record companies send you free music? They sure do. Do you get to meet some of your heroes? Absolutely.  But after you’ve attended the rock show, listened to the free records and met your heroes, you have to synthesize those experiences into crisp, clean copy that tells your reader something new. And you often have to deliver this copy very quickly under less than ideal circumstances (like from the back of a tour bus or under a tent in the rain at a music festival). Staying cool under pressure is key and knowing your craft is the secret to staying cool under pressure. In this workshop we’ll go through the basics of rock writing, from how to deal with a difficult interview, to what makes a good live review, to how to write a profile of a band. Students will practice interviewing several real musicians and then writing short pieces based on the quotes they get from these artists.
• Poems, Prose and Play with Language (Sarah Barlow). Play with words while trying forms you may never have worked with before. Come to write ticker thangas, puzzle poems, list poems, poems within poems and 5 words and go! poems.
• Concrete Poetry (Momii Roberts). In this workshop, participants will explore the rich world of concrete poetry, which uses words and images. Students will explore a variety of techniques and will create their own concrete poems.
• Political Cartoons (Steve Volkmann). Political cartoons are not all fund and laughs; they are a serious matter and often say as much in a small space as a written news story. In this workshop, students will explore this fascinating news medium. We will look at the history, techniques and various approaches cartoonists use to communicate their sharp-witted and often sarcastic views to their audience. By the end of the workshop, each student will produce a political cartoon that delivers their own commentary on a current pressing issue in their lives.
• Enter The Writing Ninja (with Libba Bray) The mighty writing ninja approaches the story. It will not get away this time, for the ninja is strong and creative and also, the story is due tomorrow at 8:20, and not to turn it in is unacceptable to the ninja’s code of honor and the teacher’s grade book. Suddenly, from out of the shadows come the ninja’s greatest enemies: Writer’s Block, Lack of Inspiration, Boring Characters, Even More Boring Plot, and–worst of all–the dreaded Inner Critic. It will take all the stealth warrior’s cunning and writing ninjutsu to lay waste to these enemies. But how to defeat these monsters? Come learn tricks to get your mind into prime fighting mode, featuring the Nunchuks of Word Styling, the Legendary Pressure Point Move of Improv Story-Building, and the Final Whammy of Something-I-Have-Yet-to-Make Up. For this workshop, you will need only paper, a writing implement of some sort, a sense of humor, and a thirst for adventure which cannot be slaked through ordinary means, such as Snapple Fruit Punch. Your heart is strong, mighty warrior. Soon, your writing will make nations tremble.

Truly, a literary feast.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

On Wednesday, January 20th, we held our annual Martin Luther King Assembly that was organized and run by our eighth graders. The focus of this year’s assembly was on service and the ways small and large that LREI students are committing themselves to serving others. To frame the assembly, we listened to an excerpt from Dr. King’s “The Drum Major Instinct” speech. Prior to the assembly, the eighth graders had asked middle schoolers to respond to a set of questions about ways that they serve; these written responses were shared at the assembly in a slideshow set to James Taylor’s “Shed a Little Light.” This was followed by a series of student presentations on a range of service projects being pursued by LREI students.

Middle schoolers first heard from seventh grader Esme who talked about her experiences with the shoe4africa project. Sixth graders Leo and Emilio, seventh graders Mikayla and Katya and eighth grader Benno talked about their “Imagine” group that has supported humanitarian projects in Uganda, Tanzania, and Nepal. Middle Schoolers also heard from eleventh graders Jane and Marget who described transformative service-focused international experiences. All of these projects “shed a little light” on King’s call to service and his persistent and urgent question, “What are you doing for others?” The assembly also raised important questions that we will continue to explore about how we can make sure we ask others about the kind of service that is most helpful and not assume that we know what others need. That King’s vision was ultimately rooted in the understanding of the value and worth of each individual and that our perceptions of other’s needs must not be allowed to replace their essential character are ideas that we will continue to explore throughout the curriculum.

Our assembly also served as a kick-off event for the eighth graders multi-month service project “Choosing to Participate” that they are about to undertake in their core class. This project will culminate in April with a “Teach In” during which the eighth graders will lead workshops for the rest of the Middle School on a range of social justice topics connected to their volunteer experiences and their related research.

On other fronts, congratulations to the members of the Middle School Robotics Teams and coach Sherezada Acosta who continued their winning ways with excellent performances at this past weekend’s FIRST Lego League Manhattan borough competition. Both teams have now qualified for the citywide competition that will take place at the Javits Center in March. Both teams performed well in the challenge portion of the event, but really rose to the occasion in the research presentation phase of the competition with the Advanced Team coming in 2nd place and the Rookie Team coming in  3rd place.  What looked to be a building year at the start of the season is turning out to be a year with both teams right in the thick of the competition.  Congratulation on these most excellent achievements.

On the subject of achievement, I want to acknowledge our 2009-2010 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 a most excellent cohort of applicants, 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 am pleased to share with you the 2009-2010 Irwin Scholars. They are Cheyenne, Danica, Jason, Josh and Samantha.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

Our thoughts over the past few days have been with the citizens of Haiti and with our own LREI families who have relatives and friends in the country. Over the next few days, we will be thinking about how to best coordinate an institutional response and students will play a crucial role in shaping how we respond. Students have been asking lots of questions about Haiti and about earthquakes and we are helping them to find answers to these questions. Why these  kinds of tragic events occur are, of course, harder  questions to answer, but they are also at the forefront of our work with your children.

Understanding our relationship to others and our relationship to the larger world in which we live has never been more important. Many of us carry powerful tools in our phones and in our cars that help us navigate from point A to point B. These tools offer incredible opportunities for better understanding our world and the many ways that it is interconnected. At the same time, if we are not careful these tools can also induce a certain passivity that can preclude our active engagement with the world (i.e., I simply follow my Google map instructions without really understanding where I am going.) So the geography strand of the middle school curriculum plays an important role in helping students to better understand the concept of place and how place informs the way we live in and with the world and with others. In this spirit, each year middle schoolers participate in the National Geographic Geography Bee.

At this Wednesday’s Middle School Meeting, we had our annual National Geography Bee. Preceding the meeting, 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 – Sadie Isabel W., Sixth Grade – Kai and Allesandro., Seventh Grade – Elizabeth and Marcelo, and Eighth Grade – Viviane and Ivo. At the end of the Final Round, two students – Kai and Alessandro – moved on to the Championship Round. The Championship Round was decided after 3 questions with Kai emerging as the champion. Next week, 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 to it. 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 and our relationship to the larger world. These ideas are very much on our minds as we work to understand what has happened in Haiti and as we think about how we can best respond.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

Yesterday, our seventh graders presented their annual Colonial Museum to lower and middle school students and teachers and to their families. The museum represents a culmination of several months of study including a week-long visit to Williamsburg. During their week in Williamsburg, students gathered information for their research papers, conducted and recorded intrviews with historical re-enactors, and took photos to document their experience. This initial research in the field informed the substantial additional research that they carried out once they were back at school.  Based on the research papers that they then wrote, each student created an exhibit that s/he curated at the museum. For the final stage of the project, students will make additions to our growing Colonial Museum wiki that future seventh grade classes will explore and will then add to in turn. In this way, students come to understand something of the historians experience as they wrestle with what new contributions they can make to the field.

Click here to view the slideshow from the day.

Congratulations seventh graders and congratulations also to all of the members of the Middle School chorus and band for their wonderful performances at Tuesday’s annual Winter Concert.

It has been a busy and exciting first half of the year and I wish yo a relaxing and restful winter break.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

On the Wednesday before the Thanksgiving break, we had our annual Thanksgiving Assembly. It was a gathering at which our students’ voices rang clear and true.

The fifth graders shared stories of thanks written to important people in their lives. These stories focused in on the individual they were thanking and through rich description brought that person and why he or she was important to life for their listeners.

The sixth graders shared a collective poem that focused on those things for which they were most thankful. The poem touched on the personal and the global and built to heartfelt shared expression of thanks.

The middle of the ceremony was reserved for our newest assembly tradition. During the weeks leading up to the assembly, Middle School music teacher Matt McLean worked with fifth and sixth grade classes to create the lyrics for an original composition “Thanksgiving Song”  focused on the spirit of giving thanks. The fifth and sixth grade classes sang their verses and the community joined in on the upbeat choruses.

The seventh graders who earlier in the morning held their annual food festival offered  stories about food that were connected to their family, their heritage or their past. Following the assembly, the retired to the cafeteria to continue the communal “breaking of bread.”

As has become our longstanding tradition, the eighth graders offered their revision of  the Byrd Baylor story I’m in Charge of Celebrations. Their revision reflected 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. I hope that their version of “I’m in Charge of Celebrations” gives you as much pleasure as it gave us. Enjoy!

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

As Chap mentioned in last week’s blog,

Justice-oriented citizens look at the root of a problem and the layers of complexity involved in understanding unjust situations before attempting to join others in exploring strategies and finding resolutions. There are various curricular opportunities at LREI where students’ awareness of social justice issues in history and in the present are raised. Students learn of the actions of justice-oriented citizens and the impact their work has in creating necessary change.

Each year, our eighth grade students embark on a project to better understand and personalize the social justice issues that emerge from their study of post-Civil War US history. This project connects them to individuals and organizations that are making a difference in the community and beyond. Through this process, our eighth graders come to better understand the rewards and challenges of active citizenship and the need for all individuals to choose to participate. One benchmark point on what we hope will be a life-long journey is our annual spring Social Justice Teach-In during which the eighth graders plan and run a set of workshops and assemblies for the rest of the middle school.

This year-long journey begins in the summer as students read the novel Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals, which chronicles the experiences of the Little Rock Nine and the efforts of many others to desegregate Little Rock’s public schools. This reading serves as frame for our students’ critical examination of our nation’s history from the Civil War through the Civil Rights era.

Inspired buy the Little Rock Nine and the Civil Rights Movement and their investigation of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, each eighth grader created an action art project and a supporting artist’s statement about their work as it related to a current civil or human rights issue. Their art work and writing ask us to stop, think and, ultimately, to act. The following are a view representative excerpts from their work:

• The biggest thing that threatens world peace is a mental war because it is a mental conflict within that causes controversy and the disagreement over ideas and beliefs.
• The message of my artwork is that people need to speak up against the loss of freedom. When people lose their freedom holes are created within our society and this allows other people to fall into them and do or suffer bad things.
• In my art piece the bold words are direct and confront the viewer with the shocking realities of torture practices around the world. By being faced with these truths, I hope people will think about what is happening globally and do their part in making change.
• I imagine a world where all kids are guaranteed a full education from grades K-12 (boys and girls).
• The right to vote is one of the most important civil rights. If you do not have the right to vote for your leaders, you cannot truly be a free person. People struggle for the right to vote all over the world. Democracy, with voting rights for all adults, is the form of government that is most fair because it gives everyone a say in how they are governed.
• I chose to make my art work the way I did because I felt that by showing the silhouette of a displaced person rather than a straight forward picture would make the viewer have to decide what the face or gender of the person will be, making it different for each observer and more personal. I chose to use paint for the color of the flags and plain black paper and pencil for the figure in order to contrast between a vibrant community and flat isolation.

This work is on display outside of the eighth grade classrooms. Please stop by for a look and read.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

With the end of the first quarter just behind us, progress reports, family conferences with your child’s advisor and meetings with subject area teachers are just around the corner (see below for information on signing up for a conference/meeting). Conferences are scheduled for November 6th and 13th (the Middle School will be closed on both days). Progress reports will go out on Tuesday, November 3rd. As part of our on-going sustainability efforts, reports will be sent out as pdf files. You will receive a paper copy of the fourth quarter report that will include progress report information for the whole year.

Progress reports provide an important opportunity for shared discussion about successes to date and challenges to address as we move forward into the second quarter. I encourage you to review the section on progress reports in the handbook so that you are familiar with the format of the reports.

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 families to view them as representative of where the student stands as a learner at a particular moment in time. Areas of struggle as indicated by reported grades can be addressed by committed hard work.

Our reports are purposely designed to show a student’s progress over the four quarters so that you and your child can more easily 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.

For all families, while progress reports and family conferences provide an opportunity to reflect on a student’s progress and to think about strengths and challenges, it is important to remember that assessment is an on-going process at LREI; it is a means to an end, but not an end in and of itself. Its aim is to improve student understanding of key ideas and skills. In the Middle School, teachers strive to develop assessments that are learner-centered and focused on student understanding in relation to the particular goals identified for each area of inquiry. Rather than being separate from learning, assessment plays a central role in the instructional process. The assessment process also sheds light on which instructional strategies are most effective. Through thoughtful assessment, the teacher gains critical feedback for choosing and utilizing those teaching strategies that can best help a learner progress towards the goals of a particular unit of study. Opportunities for meaningful assessment also allow students to gain deeper insight into areas of strength and challenge and allow them to develop plans to address growth in both of these areas.

The Family Conference is an extension of these assessment activities and should be viewed as a dynamic opportunity to talk about growth and development. The student’s presence and participation in these discussions is of vital importance. The Family Conference affords the student an opportunity to reflect, applaud, and problem-solve with two of her/his most important advocates, family members and her/his advisor. These conferences should be approached with a forward-looking perspective. As prior performance is reviewed, all of the participants should seek to work together to identify strategies and opportunities for learning that will support the student’s continued growth and development.

The Family Conference in the Middle School places the student at the center as an active participant. We do this for a number of reasons:

1. to encourage students to accept personal responsibility for their academic performance;
2. to help students develop the reflective skill of self-evaluation;
3. to facilitate the development of students’ organizational and oral communication skills and to increase their self-confidence; and
4. to encourage students, parents, and the advisor to engage in open and honest dialogue.

Family conferences are an important part of the educational experience at LREI. They are important for students, parents/guardians, and teachers. Like all learning opportunities, the Family Conference requires trust and a willingness to take risks on the part of all participants. While the conference may not be tension-free, it does provide an opportunity for inquiry and understanding. Here are two discussion ideas that you might want to consider as you prepare for these important dialogues:

• share with your child memorable experiences from when you were a middle school student and consider why such memories may be important to the educational life of your child
• explore how you and your child approach the concept of learning and reflect on why looking at the differences and similarities in your responses might be important.

In preparation for these conferences, Middle School students will spend  time reflecting on their work thus far this school year. With their teachers’ and advisor’s guidance, students will identify areas on which to focus during the next quarter and will develop plans for achieving these goals. Your child will have these reflections with her/him during your conference. Here are some additional topics/questions that you might reflect on before your family conference:

• Your child’s work habits at home–when are the most and least successful?
• Which assignments, or types of assignments, seem to lead to the most success? To be the most frustrating?
• Is our organizational plan working for your child? How is your child managing her/his time?
• When you and your child discuss school/school assignments at home, are there consistent themes that should be discussed at the conference?
• Are there extracurricular commitments or extenuating circumstances that should be discussed at the conference?

There’s no doubt that conferences are hard work, but the potential for learning that can take place when all participants commit to the process is clearly worth the effort.

I look forward to seeing you at the conferences.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

This week, students in sixth grade adolescent issues classes began reading the book Jarvis Clutch Social Spy in which

the fictitious eighth-grader Jarvis Clutch offers insight and advice on the middle school social scene. Jarvis’s spy notes provide a bird’s eye view of the often challenging social experiences that middle school students encounter. The cornerstone of the book is the concept of social cognition, or your skills and ability in interacting with others. Through this lens of this concept, students examine the social challenges they face daily at school and at home (EPSBooks.com).

At the beginning of our reading, students did a reflection activity in which they explored personal strengths and challenges related to navigating the social dynamics of adolescence. Through this activity, we identified a set of challenges and students were surprised to realize that many of their concerns were also shared by their peers. Here the list we generated of social skills on which sixth graders want to work:

• Not dominating or needing to be the boss
• Having the image of myself that I want to have
• Expressing my feelings accurately
• Not being shy
• Feeling better about the way I look
• Watching my actions
• Not reacting too strongly
• Self-monitoring myself better
• Being able to call a friend
• Calling someone I don’t know well
• Not talking for too long
• Having a boyfriend/girlfriend
• Having other kids respect me
• Not talking so loud
• Having a best friend
• Being friends with more people
• Being accepted by more groups

In fifth grade Adolescent Issues classes, we’ve been exploring the theme of “appearances” and how they play a role in the judgments that we often make about others. We explored how these appearances that are often reflected in clothing, physical appearance, mannerisms and ethnic, racial and religious indicators can result in impressions that prevent us from seeing the what we might share in common with another individual. We used a public service announcement produced after 9/11 to explore the power of these first impressions. Students watched the video without sound and recorded positive and negative impressions based only on what they were seeing. These impressions (e.g., “friendly,” “weird,” trustworthy,” “scary,” etc.) were then shared without attribution to the individual in the video. Students indicated that they would be more likely to want to be friends with the individuals they rated more positively. We discussed why this might be the case and then watched the video again this time with sound. The addition of the sound caused many student to reconsider their first impressions. This led to some interesting conversation about appearances, first impressions and the problems of passing judgment. We’ll return to these ideas in future classes.

In both fifth and sixth grade classes, we also discussed the additional difficulties that students can face when their social experiences are negatively impacted not by particular social skills on which they can work to improve, but on core values or essential aspects of how they identify as individuals. When this happens, the role that a friend or classmate can play is of vital importance. These are instances where an individual who makes the choice to be an ally to a classmate in need can have a profound and lasting positive effect on the individual experiencing the difficulty and on the larger community. I end this week, with some thoughts from our Director of Diversity and Community Sandra “Chap” Chapman on “Ally Week,” which also took place this week:

Dear LREI Community,

Last year a small group of fifth and sixth grade students filled out a brief questionnaire about their perception of their peer’s feelings about LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) people. They discovered that they AND their peers had positive and accepting views of LGBT people in their family and community. Joining these students were countless LREI faculty, administrators, and fours through twelfth graders wearing labels that read “I am a Good Friend,” “I am an Ally,” or “See Something, Say Something,” all in an effort to raise awareness of standing up for others and practicing our role as allies.

What exactly is an Ally? I find the work of the Reverend Andrea Ayvazian, ordained pastor in the United Church of Christ and anti-racism educator since 1985, answers this question.

An ally is a member of a dominant group in our society who works to dismantle any form of oppression from which she or he receives the benefit. Allied behavior means taking personal responsibility for the changes we know are needed in our society, and so often ignore or leave to others to deal with. Allied behavior is intentional, overt, consistent activity that challenges prevailing patterns of oppression, makes privileges that are so often invisible visible, and facilitates the empowerment of persons targeted by oppression.
— The Rev. Dr. Andrea Ayvazian from Interrupting the Cycle of Oppression: The Role of Allies as Agents of Chang in From Fellowship, January-February 1995, pp, 7-10

This week marked the fourth year of GLSEN’s Ally Week. It was started by members of the Gay, Lesbian, Straight, Education Network’s Jump-Start National Student Leadership Team to celebrate allies committed to ensuring safe and effective schools for all and to encourage students to take action. During this past week, various people at LREI engaged in conversations with students about the importance of being a good friend, classmate, and citizen. The curriculum is rich with opportunities to raise awareness of unfairness and bias in our history as well as in today’s society, and then to discuss and develop strategies to support victims of any form of bias. This week, and every week, I invite you all to take a seat at the Ally table and continue these discussions with your children at home.

Thanks Chap. And I hope that your conversations at home find their way back to our LREI table as well.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

I had the pleasure this week to meet with a number of parents from the fifth grade on Tuesday morning to talk about how to make sense of our progress reports and how to prepare for family conferences (I’ll have more to say about family conferences in a subsequent post and be on the lookout next week for an email from your child’s advisor about how to sign up for a conference). An underlying theme to our conversation was the importance of making sure that you have the information  you need to talk with your child about her/his school experience in meaningful ways. To this end, we actively encourage you to reach out to your child’s teachers before the conferences to get a sense of how things are going. This can be accomplished by a quick phone call or email; the follow up by teachers will likely provide you with important information about the class and your child’s progress.

As I mentioned at curriculum night, we are also adjusting the schedule on the two conference days (November 6th and 13th) to create time so that all teachers can be available to meet with families. While we expect all families to participate in a Family Conference with your child’s advisor,  these brief conversations with subject area teachers will be optional. We suspect that families will chose to meet with some, but not all teachers in order to have questions answered, learn more about the program, or just to say hello. However you choose to use this time, we think it will be an important programmatic addition to help you develop the most complete picture of your child’s school experience.

I’ve included below an explanation of some of the expectations that we have for middle school students that drive their everyday work and that are assessed on our progress reports across all subjects. I encourage you to look over these expectations and to use them as a jumping off point for a conversation with your child about what they see as areas of strength and challenge and how they impact on her/his daily work.

Middle School Report to Families: Explanation of Common Skills and Expectations
In the paragraphs below you will find descriptions of the common skills and expectations found on the progress grid section of the Middle School Report to Families.  These categories are on each progress report and students are evaluated against a set of criteria agreed upon by the entire Middle School faculty.  These criteria are described below.

Homework:

• Timely completion: A student who excels in this area submits work when it is due. In order to do this, she records assignments properly in her assignment book and seeks out support from peers and/or the teacher when she has questions. If she encounters a problem that may result in work not being handed in on time, she proactively seeks out the teacher to address the situation and come up with a plan. On occasion, work is handed in in advance of its due date without the quality of the work being compromised. If the teacher asks the student to use the extra time to review the work and see if there is anything else to add, she willingly does so.
• Quality: When submitting homework, the student who excels in this area is sure to address all aspects of the assignment. Work is neat, legible and well organized. He proofreads and reviews his work to make sure that it fully answers the questions and includes all of the required steps. The work includes not only specific answers, but also provides ample evidence of his underlying thinking The work will also often make connections to other relevant concepts and content being studied, but not necessarily required to be addressed in the assignment.

Classwork:

• Quality: While this category includes a wide range of assignment types (including written, oral and hands-on work), the student who excels in this area works with precision and attention to detail. Her written work is neat, legible, well-organized and comprehensive with respect to the content being addressed. Oral comments reflect a depth of thinking and engagement with the topic at hand. Hands-on work reflects careful planning and an attention to detail. Whatever the format, her work provides a clear record of her individual thinking and the ideas being shared in class. She is able to use the products of this work at other times to extend and deepen her understanding of the topic.
• Attention and focus: A student who excels in this area is prepared for class and makes the transition from one room to another efficiently and independently.  He gets to class on time and settles down quickly and quietly in his seat and is ready to work.   The student has his texts, notebook, assignment book, paper and pencil, and any other necessary materials ready for immediate use. Homework is ready for collection or for class use. When working on a task, the student who excels in this area remains engaged and active throughout the activity at hand. She will be able to delve into his work while working alone or in a group and will work hard to stay focused in a variety of different learning environments. The student also follows routine directions for everyday classroom practice and directions for specific projects and activities.  These directions may be written, oral, or demonstrated. She not only follows directions, but also asks for clarification when needed.
• Independent work: When working independently a student who excels in this area takes ownership of his work.  He is serious and self-motivated.  While being supportive of the independent work of others, he respectfully asks his peers for help when needed.  This student is able to generate and develop his own ideas and is familiar with the available resources to bring those ideas to fruition.  Strong independent work requires perseverance, follow-through and the ability to pace oneself throughout, which this student demonstrates on a regular basis.
• Group work: A student who excels in this area collaborates and works cooperatively with others. She listens to and respects colleagues and is responsible for an even distribution of tasks. She is willing to take leadership or supportive roles as decided upon by the entire group.  She will provide for an inclusive environment and work towards a completed product in the time allotted.  Although, the entire group is responsible for the progress of a group-oriented activity, the excelling student is proactive in requesting assistance when needed.
• Discussion: A student who excels in this area contributes relevant ideas, questions and information during discussion.  He is able to communicate his thoughts clearly and concisely.  His contributions stay on the topic while enhancing and widening the scope of the discussion. He is equally adept at being an active listener. He is alert as others speak and does not interrupt.

Conduct:

• Respects adults: A student who excels in this area demonstrates appropriate tone, language, and demeanor when interacting with adults. She responds promptly and respectfully to teacher requests and directions.  She questions the teacher at the appropriate time and in a constructive and respectful way.
• Respects peers: A student who excels in this area uses appropriate tone, language, and demeanor when interacting with his peers.  He displays a sensitivity to the feelings and needs of other students in the class, and he respects his classmates’ property and work.  He responds to peers’ academic work and ideas in a constructive and respectful manner.  He does not use insults or “put-downs”.
• Respects classroom environment and norms: A student who excels in this area actively participates in creating and maintaining a positive and productive learning environment.  She respects all agreed upon routines and practices established in the classroom. She respects common space, peer space, and teacher space. She uses classroom supplies and materials in a respectful manner and assists in classroom set-up and clean-up. She keeps her desk, locker, and personal materials neat and orderly and her materials are in their appropriate places.  She understands and follows classroom routines that may vary from teacher to teacher.  The student follows proper format for assignments including a proper heading and presents her work neatly.  She copies homework accurately in her assignment book and uses this book as a reference.  She is able to manage her time so that he completes both short and long-term assignments in a timely fashion.

Keep on talking!

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

To help you cut through the “It was fine,” “Nothing much,” and “I don’t remember” type of responses that are often hallmarks of adolescent reports on the goings-on in classes, I hope that the accounts given below shed a little more light on the many exciting things taking place in the middle school and provide you with some new entree points into dialog with your child about her/his school life.

Fifth graders are . . .

• getting to know their areas, hunting and gathering and creating shelters as part of our civilization simulation where it’s 10,000 years ago and bands of humans are settling in a variety of locations around the world.
• writing about people and places that matter to them and building stamina for independent reading books.
• testing, recording and graphing their own walking and running paces as part of their of their study of patterns and change
• learning body parts as well as learning subject pronouns along with the conjugation of the verb “to be”and regular -ar verbs in Spanish.
• completing their introduction to French by learning the alphabet, numbers 1-50, and basic greetings. They are also sharing math problems with each other, getting ready to play Bingo in French, reciting out loud and making a wearable item with their new French names.
• currently working on collages of landscapes. Their challenge is to create the illusion of space by utilizing fore ground, middle ground and back ground. To prepare for this project they painted papers, creating color gradations, which they are now using to create their collages.
• discussing the importance of and learning how to organize information on a computer by placing ‘like topic’ files into folders and using embedded folders.  They are also practicing keyboarding skills and had a session with Jennifer pertaining to doing library research and how and when to do research on the internet.
• are working on the climbing wall and playing indoor soccer

Sixth graders are . . .

• deep into their current events projects and are in the middle of reading Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
• talking about feudalism and have begun examining the rise of Christianity in Europe and the hierarchy of the church.
• working through a series of activities to better understand fraction operations.  They began by adding and subtracting fractions and  are now using brownie pans to help us understand how to multiply fractions.  They are doing all this as well as making sure we are all using efficient strategies to operate with whole numbers.
• studying the properties of fractals by creating Cantor Dust in math seminar.
• learning in French how to order food and drinks in a restaurant,
  reviewing formal and informal expressions (concept of tu and vous) and practicing pronunciation by reading short dialogs.
• talking in Spanish about what they like to do as a way to focus on present tense conjugation.
• exploring color using tempera paints. In order to understand how colors relate to each other, they created their own color wheels. They then painted color studies using complimentary colors. They are now exploring ‘color temperature’, using warm and cool colors in their paintings.
• participating in a series of “Olympic” PE challenges.

Seventh graders are . . .

• gearing up for the Williamsburg Trip and learning how to create note cards and have begun research on their individual colonial topics. This work will culminate in a formal research paper and Colonial Museum exhibit.
• finishing up our grammar unit and reading Lois Lowry’s The Giver and thinking about the viability of a perfect community and the relationship between community and identity.
• learning about settlement in America in the early 1600’s and presently are looking at the establishment of community from the perspective of English settlers and Native Americans.
• engaging in literature circle work: one half of the class is reading The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, and the other half is reading Animal Farm by George Orwell.
• organizing and analyzing data needed to establish a simulated bike tour company.  They’ve examined travel time, expenses, pricing and are now ready to synthesize information in the most concise form of equations.  The next question to examine is, “How do we maximize profit?’ With the help of graphing calculators, it will be interesting to test the various variables involved in calculating profit.
• are also spending some time sharing the many math moments that are experienced by any one of us on any given day (you may want to share with your child one of your math moments from today).
• designing and conducting investigations with pendulums and investigating the absorbency of paper towels as they refine their scientific method skills.
• writing comprehensive lab reports and a paper on the Scientific Revolution.
• well into  a study of the properties of matter and the concepts of  mass and volume their relationship in terms of density.
• reviewing in French  irregular verbs such as  avoir, etre, and faire,
  and interrogative expressions and applying them to everyday conversation; studying adjectives, describing famous individuals for a guessing game using descriptions, getting ready to start a project in which they will use adjectives and design an “ideal” model bedroom that they’ll build and use to write complex sentence structures.
• fully immersed in a food unit with new vocabulary related to food, condiments and utensils as well as continued practice with all regular and stem-change (”shoe”) present tense verb conjugations.
• making their own sketchbooks, which will serve as their artist journals for the year and are finishing up an observation drawing project. Inspired by the flowers of Georgia O’Keefe, Seventh Graders looked at flowers and thought about how to draw them focusing on organic shapes, lines, composition and abstraction.
• starting our much-loved student created games program in PE.

Eighth graders are . . .

• completing their Action Art Projects. Inspired by the memoir Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Patillo Beals, one of the Little Rock Nine, students created Action Art Projects about a current human or civil rights issue accompanied by an Action Art Statement. The artwork and writing ask the viewer to stop, think and ultimately, take action.
• examining the roots of the bias, discrimination and inequality that the Civil Rights Movement addressed by reading Julius Lester’s To Be a Slave, a collection of slaves in their own words, connected and commented upon by the author.
• examining linear functions and algebraic notation.  They are writing equations, making tables and creating graphs that tell stories of things that grow at a constant rate.  Taxi rides, t-shirt sales, bank accounts, walking rates and road races are just a few of the real life situations we have used in our investigations.The following are examples of questions they have answered through observing these patterns:
  -How do you identify a linear function in a table, graph or equation?
  -Can you give an example of an “everyday” linear function?
  -What is true about the equations of parallel lines? perpendicular lines?
  -What helps you to write the equation of a linear function?
  -How do the characteristics of line show up in a table, graph or equation?
• using  graphing calculators to enables them to explore answers to the above questions.  They are unafraid to ask the “What if?” question because it’s so easy to readjust their thinking with these useful tools.
• investigating mixtures, solutions, chromatography and viscosity as part of a chemistry unit. They are also learning how Forensic scientists conduct controlled investigations.
• learning in French regular adjectives, clothing vocabulary and the new verbs porter, mettre, acheter. They are beginning a project using the future proche tense to describe an imaginary event that will be attended, doing some virtual shopping online in France to “buy” a new outfit for the event, and documenting their work.
• reading  stories in their reader “Cuentos Simpaticos” and finishing a quick review of articles and adjective agreement in “Spanish Grammar.”  They  have also been reviewing present and past tense verbs so that they can begin a new past tense.
• starting a painting project around the theme of favorite artists. The class has been looking at various artists and discussing different painting styles and art movements as a means to help students identify an artist on which they will focus. Students have selected their artists of inspiration and are in the process of  creating an acrylic painting based on a particular piece of art or art movement.
• exploring  digital photography. The class looked at and discussed a variety of photographs before going outside to take their own. While walking around the neighborhood students were asked to think about photographing subjects from different vantage points. There were also asked to  look for and photograph things such as lines, textures, colors, and shapes.
• well into units on volleyball and soccer.  We have worked on individual skills, partner skills and teamwork skills.  With the favorable weather, we’ve been taking advantage of the turf field at JJ Walker for soccer.  We have also started training for the first leg of our fitness test, where we work on long and short distance running, stretching, arm and core exercises.

Goings on in the Seventh And Eighth Grade Performing Arts Electives:

• The Vocal Majors and Minors are working on expressing themselves vocally through poems.  The Majors have created their own poems and we had a Poetry Slam where performances were terrific!  The Minors explored archetypes to inspire characters as they recited sonnets.  Next vocal exploration is rap!  Expect to hear some beat boxing in the halls!
• In the dance majors classes, students have been spending one day a week learning modern dance technique, warm up exercises, and beginning to develop a dance sequence that incorporates modern dance, salsa, and capoeira. On the second day in the week students have been exploring choreography and composition and beginning to design short dance works.
• Students taking the major in drama have been exploring spontaneous improvisation using colors to represent emotions. Students are acting in scenes, and using a color chart to determine their character’s emotion. In the minor class, we are working on games and activities to develop confidence in the group before moving on to scene study.
• The Instrumental Elective Class is progressing wonderfully! Students who are playing their instrument for the first time -trumpets, trombones and saxophones- have learned their first three notes and will begin learning their first song next class! Experienced musicians, pianists, guitarists, bassists and percussionists have been learning several short, CHALLENGING, selections that they will play as an accompaniment for the new musicians. In the digital music elective, students are becoming familiar with the keyboard and Garageband, which are the two main tools that we’ll use for composition.

In and outside of the library . . .

• booktalks have started in all classrooms, fifth graders has begun their introduction to MS research in anticipation of their civilizations project and seventh graders are  deep into their colonial research process. The fifth grade Friday Nonfiction Book Nook has begun, as have read alouds in the sixth and seventh grade core classrooms.

All that in a day!

Be well,
Mark

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. In fifth through seventh grades, 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). In the eighth grade, students discuss the pros and cons of reading their own speeches and consider the additional obligations that come when a candidate reads her/his own speech. These are always intense conversations and the students’ commitment to the integrity of the democratic process really rises to the fore. This year, one of the eighth grade classes is wrestling with the idea of having the candidates debate each other in lieu of simply reading speeches.

Students in all grades 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 in collaboration with their classmates are ready to meet them.

In this spirit of collaboration, we are looking forward to seeing you on Tuesday evening at 6:30PM for our Middle School Curriculum Night. At the event, you will get to meet your child’s teachers who will provide you with an overview of their classes and their class expectations. We hope that all of you will be able to attend as Curriculum Night helps to provide a meaningful frame for the work that we will undertake together over the course of the year.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

For the past two days, fifth and sixth graders have taken to the woods, ponds and craft shops at the Ashokan Center with joyful enthusiasm. This annual three-day trip provides students with an opportunity to build community while they explore the natural world and consider our place in it. The trip also provides numerous situations where students must work collaboratively in order to solve a variety of challenges. Tonight, they will take on the roles of developers, environmentalists, community residents, politicians and members of the media as they work to resolve a proposed development plan in the simulated community of Enchanted Valley.

Throughout the three days, each student will likely confront moments of personal challenge as s/he ponders how to do something new or how to address something that s/he knows is difficult based on prior experience. In each of these situations, students will likely take advantage of the support of a friend or teacher who will help them to navigate through the risk at hand. It is this support and safety that helps students to explore the obvious and not so obvious opportunities for learning connected to their efforts. In this way, the Ashokan experience helps to frame a set a habits that are essential to the on-going LREI learning experience. These habits have been defined in many ways, but I like the way that they are articulated by the educator David Perkins and his colleagues. They identify the following set of dispositions:

• The disposition to be broad and adventurous
• The disposition toward wondering, problem finding, and investigating
• The disposition to build explanations and understandings
• The disposition to make plans and be strategic
• The disposition to be intellectually careful
• The disposition to seek and evaluate reasons
• The disposition to be metacognitive

In images, here are some of those dispositions being practiced at Ashokan as students push beyond the obvious and seek unusual ideas, see other points of view, challenge assumptions, explore new territory and go beyond the boundaries.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

The excitement in the Middle School is palpable. Old friends reconnecting, new friendships in the making, old skills and habits of mind strengthening and new worlds of ideas and ways of being unfolding. While the particular joys of summer may be starting to recede into the past, it’s our goal to make sure that the spirit of summer curiosity, creativity and wonderment continue on with us throughout the year.

I spoke with many of you yesterday as you left your family conferences and it was abundantly clear that you left knowing that your children are in most excellent hands. We hope that these first conversations lead to many more and to a powerful and supportive relationship with your child’s advisor as you ride the currents of the year to come.

As the Greek philosoper Heraclitus noted, “Upon those who step into the same rivers, different and again different waters flow,” so to is change a constant for those of us who find a home in a progressive learning community. While LREI like the river remains LREI, its “water,” the teachers, students, families, ideas, and curricula are always in flux; and this is what makes our community such a vibrant and challenging place to be. So as we step into the stream of these first days, the excitement of how we will change and be changed by the experience is an exhilarating one. That feeling was clearly in abundance throughout the Middle School.

While this week marked the first days for students, faculty were hard at work last week not only preparing our spaces, but also engaged in deep and profound experiences and conversations about our progressive purpose. Teachers across all three divisions offered workshops and trips for their colleagues as we explored how to refine and enhance our best practices. So “What happens when you put a bunch of progressive teachers together in a room?” While the shape of the question suggests a soon-to-arrive punchline, in this case, it marked the beginning of a profound professional dialog. Together, we worked towards a  deeper understanding of the learning process and how to translate it into meaningful experiences for LREI students from the 4s through twelfth grade.

I close this first of many conversations that we will have over the course of the year with a list of the faculty offerings that guided our work last week. They speak for themselves and I hope that they provide one more window into the experiences that will guide your child’s learning each day. It’s a long list, but well worth the read

• “Every Day Heroes” – We think today’s children are in need of role models and people to inspire them. When we asked our fifth graders who their heroes were, the same few names came up over and over, and they didn’t seem to take every day heroes into consideration. So, we designed a curriculum to help kids identify people they could emulate and feel inspired by. Using videos from the CNN Heroes contest we helped kids recognize everyday people who are making a difference in the world. We are now looking for ways to make this curriculum even more far-reaching and meaningful for students. Please come participate in our workshop and help us brainstorm ways to make this project more active and on going.
• Finding your Inner Mathematician – Put on your math hats and reflect on yourself as math learners. How do we employ progressive approaches to empower our students to see themselves as mathematicians and become effective and confident math students. This workshop will guide your through a process of reflective self-awareness that is challenging, revealing and fun. The process will help students identify their strengths, weaknesses and learning styles. After we take our student hats off we will resume our teacher roles as curriculum designers and classroom practitioners. How can you use what you’ve experienced in part I to inform and improve our classroom practice. Come ready for stimulating dialogue appropriate for Lower, Middle and High School teachers.
• Paper Towers – Problem solving, critical thinking, resourcefulness, and the capacity for collaboration – all habits of mind we aim to foster at LREI. In this workshop, you will put al these tools to work constructing the tallest freestanding tower using a limited supply of paper and tape. The emphasis is on teamwork, planning and structural integrity. Working in pairs teachers as students will figure out how to create a New York skyscraper using only 30 cm of masking tape and one sheet of computer paper along with a pencil, a ruler and a pair of scissors. You’ll have only 15 minutes to complete the task and you’re on your own! No instructions will be given how to attack the problem. After 15 minutes all building stops and attention is turned to each group as they then explain their strategy and design. After a short demonstration emphasizing principles of design. You’ll get another shot at it! Afterwards we’ll put our teacher hats on and consider how the lesson could be expanded upon, and how this example of problem solving and active learning can be applied to our own classes.
• Dangerous Language: Banned Books, Censorship, and Student Expression — Throughout history, societies have repressed, censored, and banned books perceived to be “dangerous” due to their provocative subject matter, political extremism, or incendiary language. This workshop will introduce participants to some of these controversial books while also exploring how issues of free speech and censorship can be applied to our work as teachers, curriculum designers, parents, and activists. In particular, we will be discussing the important and at times problematic process of “selection” — for classrooms, libraries, and at home — as well as sharing our personal reactions to contemporary censorship cases. Though much of the content of this workshop originates from a high school elective course of the same name, we will devote much of our attention to children’s literature and applications across grade levels. Please come prepared to read, write, and discuss your own notions of “appropriate” and “dangerous”!
• Introducing the Research Process in Middle School – How do you introduce the idea of research to middle school students in a way that makes sense to them developmentally? For years I have taught middle school students that there are 4 steps to the research process, but I want them to understand why the steps should be performed in this order, not just memorized. I ask 5th graders to use their powers of observation to tell me why the 4 steps are ordered the way they are, and ask them leading questions to make the connections between steps. Please come to my workshop and help me make this lesson even more relevant to what you do in the classroom and brainstorm other collaborative research projects.
• The Handshake Problem: How do we “do math” at LREI? – What does a progressive math classroom look like? How can a math lesson be experience-based? How do you address a broad range of learners in a progressive way? What is the role of “skills” in a progressive curriculum? What does it mean to move towards mastery? How are conversations about math like (or not like) conversations about writing, social studies, or Spanish? The first math unit of fifth grade is an algebra unit – it draws from the extensive work with patterns in the lower school and introduces some of the more formal symbols and ways of thinking that students will use in later grades Participants will be presented with a few of the problems from this unit for us to approach first as problem-solvers ourselves, then as teachers. We will brainstorm answers to some of the questions above and consider the implications for our own classrooms.
• Creating Caring Communities – How can we crate meaningful service projects, especially for our younger children that are connected to our curriculum, are hands-on and go beyond fundraising and clothing collections? The workshop will spend the morning baking together, and in the early afternoon will take what we have made to share with senior citizens who have lunch at The Caring Community, a program hosted by Our Lady of Pompeii Church just a block from school. Participants will have the opportunity to visit with the guests, most of whom come from the neighborhood and who represent not only the Italian Americans who first made up this turn of the twentieth century immigrant parish, but also the various cultures now served by the parish. After our visit we will discuss ways in which we might be able to develop ongoing projects with The Caring Community.
• Catapults & Inquiry-based Instruction – Catapult yourself into a 6th grade science class as we explore the Interactive Physics computer simulation program. Enjoy the challenge as you play around with this incredible tool and discover how physics plays a role in the success of a medieval period catapult. This inquiry-based project will help participants go beyond studying science to becoming real scientists in the exploration of their own questions and ideas. Teachers of all subject matters are welcomed to join as the focus of this workshop is not the science content itself but inquiry-based instruction across any discipline.
• Exploring the Diverse Community Around Us – Nick O’Han writes, “Irwin’s life-long commitment to social justice, inclusion, and preparation for democratic life remains fundamental to the life of the LREI community today. The culture of our school is marked by a pervasive respect for the dignity of each individual, and by respect and celebration of human diversity grounded in culture, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or family configuration.” How does our community serve its diverse demographics as well as those outside of this community? How can we empower our students to discover what we mean by a diverse, interdependent and inclusive community? First we’ll put our student hats and become young social anthropologists in search of signs of diversity and ways our community serves the needs of its members. Then, resuming our role as professional educators, we’ll break the morning experience down. Building on last year’s professional development work, we’ll explore the roles of allies, urban organizers, and active civic leaders in the life of communities, and consider how we can enlist and encourage our students to become active participants in this vital work of democracy. Designed for a third grade class, the workshop as appropriate for teachers of all grade levels.
• Working to make The Museum of Natural History a Progressive Resource for our Classrooms – The American Museum of Natural History was founded under the belief that simple exposure to objects in collections would allow deeper learning and understanding of the world around us. How can progressive educators utilize this essentially traditional notion of the learning process? Over the past century and a half, the museum has worked hard to establish its image as a partner to schools – indeed at times, it has offered itself as an alternative and more successful model of education. The AMNH is one of many museum resources that we utilize in our work as teachers in New York City. How can we begin to think of it as a more progressive experience for our children when the collection is limited in terms of hands-on experiences? This trip will allow educators to experience the museum first as their students might, and then to brainstorm ways of building off that experience to bring the collections alive in an investigative, progressive approach.
• A Trip to the Met: Using Art to Inspire Writing – Art can be used to foster literacy and creative thinking skills through writing activities. These can be based solely on observation or imagination, or a combination of both. Participants will choose three different works of art from any section of the museum. First they will sketch each artwork. Then they will write about them. Writing about a work of art is an imaginative transaction between the viewer and the possible worlds the artwork discloses. Participants can choose from many kinds of written interactions with art. Some examples we will explore include: a diamante – or diamond shaped poem; a “found” poem based on observation, theorizing and wondering about the works; a letter to the artist in which the viewer talks about what she particularly likes about the artwork and why, what it makes you think of, or who in the work you would like to meet ; a dialogue between the people/animals in the work of art revealing what they are saying to each other or what activity they just finished or are about to begin; a study of a person depicted in an artwork. After we share our writing and talk about the way encountering art registered on us as adult learners, we will collaborate on ideas about how this transaction of words and images can form the basis for developmentally appropriate curriculum in our classrooms.
• Beyond Swastikas and Jim Crow – In this lesson we will visit the Museum of Jewish Heritage’s exhibit Beyond Swastika and Jim Crow, which chronicles the unique experiences of a few dozen German-Jewish intellectuals who, upon fleeing pre-WWII Nazi Germany, unexpectedly found teaching positions in historically black colleges in the American South. Once there, and face to face with the American hypocrisy of Jim Crow segregation of the era, these professors and their students embarked on critical intellectual and artistic exchanges in response to their shared experience of racism and injustice at a critical historical moment. The exhibit touches on many foundational topics in the eighth grade curriculum including, The Civil Rights Movement, The Holocaust, Jim Crow segregation, integration, and resistance to injustice. Additionally, this trip will also help the eighth graders find meaning in our year’s theme, “Choosing to Participate”, which invites them to consider themselves much alike the people and communities we study, people who have been powerful in the face of odds and agents of change in their lives. As these issues are central to the mission of LREI in all three divisions, the workshop welcomes Lower, Middle and High School teachers
• “Chords of Caste”: The Slave Galleries and the Meaning of Freedom — Along with the African Burial Ground, Historic Weeksville and Abolition Place, the preservation, restoration and interpretation of the historic “slave galleries” in St. Augustine’s Church on Manhattan’s Lower East Side Research has transformed our understanding of the African-American experience in New York City. The Slave Galleries offer clues to the development of race relations during the years following New York State emancipation in 1827. We will visit the church and experience the confines of the galleries, which constituted a particularly insidious version of the widespread practice of segregated seating in Northern churches prior to the Civil War. Such seating arrangements were one aspect of the systemic racism that in effect replaced slavery as a way of creating a racial hierarchy in virtually every Northern, and nominally free, state Frederick Douglass and others compared this system, which spanned a wide range of laws, policies and informal social arrangements and attitudes, to caste systems around the world. A trip to the slave galleries provides students with a moving experience. It also offers a critical perspective on the conventional narrative so many of us learned – and many students continue to learn: a triumphalist narrative that enshrines virtuous northern states altruistically freeing enslaved Southern Blacks. The sad reality, as the slave galleries demonstrate, was that for many African Americans freedom was but “slavery by another name.”
• Exploring Urban Spaces: The Public/Private Connection – Many of the most prominent urban public spaces in America are the product not of urban planners, but of developers and architects who create these spaces in order to build taller or cheaper buildings. We’ll be visiting some of these spaces, exploring our reactions to them, and discussing how similar visits can be used to inform our students’ understanding of the built environment that they inhabit.
• All the Places to Love: Developing and Nurturing a Sense of Place – How can we empower our students to “think geographically?” How do we empower our students to explore their neighborhood and in the process help them both build a sense of community with their classmates and develop meaningful connections to the larger global community in which we all live? Young people participate in their own ‘lived’ geography all the time. They develop a sense of place from their first moments of consciousness and expand it every day of their lives. Geography in school can both draw on kids’ expertise in using their own mental maps connecting them to the wider world of people, places and relationships that all occupy places on these maps. This workshop will encourage us to slow our pace and focus our perspective on what is right in front of us. The goal for us and for our students is cultivation of a deeper and richer sense of our surroundings and our personal and social identities. Our approaches in this workshop will involve: photography, sketching, recording, visiting stores and talking with storekeepers – what Lucy Sprague Mitchell called “intake.” Back in classroom we’ll engage in block building, drama, dance, song writing about neighborhood – ways to comprehend, interpret and symbolically express the meanings yielded by the morning’s experience. Finally the class will consider ways that such exploratory activities can lead to social action. Join this workshop and consider the results of our adventure in “human geography.”
• Diverse Queens – With over on 150 languages spoken within its borders, Queens is New York City’s most diverse borough. This whirlwind tour will take in a few of the most vital examples of that diversity, as well case studies of three very different stages of New York’s development and history: Jackson Heights, Sunnyside and Long Island City. We’ll start with Jackson Heights’. The scene of incredible social and cultural diversity, a polyglot community made up of scores of immigrant groups who have arrived over the past two decades making it one of the most dazzling neighborhoods in New York. Then we’ll visit a utopian community from the 1920’s, walking through the private gardens and garden coops of Sunnyside, the first Garden City built in the United States on the British model. Sunnyside was built as affordable housing for the working class. It will be interesting to see who lives there now. Finally we’ll move back in time still further and visit what was the “gold coast” in the first heyday of American industrialism in the decades before the Civil War. Long Island City, today appears to be a distinctly post-industrial landscape, but gentrification has encroached on the artists’ lofts, which revived the neighborhood in the lean days of the 70s and 80s. Be ready for the inevitable surprises that come with urban exploration along the way, the food, music, the sounds and sites of urban life, that assault the senses as nowhere else in Diverse Queens.
• The Irish Hunger: Famine and Society – This workshop will explore how the Potato Famine changed Ireland. Using primary source documents and census data we will examine the impact of the famine of the 1840s on individuals and on Irish society as a whole. Later we will visit the Irish Hunger Memorial. The memorial is a monument to those who perished during An Gorta Mór (The Great Hunger), and is a symbol to highlight areas of the world affected by hunger today. When we return we will discuss how to enrich the lesson and to develop its relevance to ongoing issues of global hunger, malnutrition, and famine.
• From the Little Red School House to the Little Red Lighthouse – Built on its present site in 1921, the Little Red Lighthouse may be the most famous of New York State’s 100 or so surviving lighthouses, including 16 on the Hudson River alone. After the George Washington Bridge was constructed in the 1930s it was determined that the lighthouse was no longer needed and it was deactivated and scheduled for demolition in 1947. Millions of children and their parents, charmed by the 1942 children’s book, The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Grey Bridge cried out in protest saving it from destruction. It was later deeded to New York City. Today a trip up the Hudson River on the newly completed bike path affords a magnificent study of continuity and change in the nation’s greatest port. Join in a bike hike from our Little Red to the one alongside “the great grey bridge.” We’ll walk around the grounds and photograph, sketch, video and collect botanical samples to share when we return. In case of rain, we’ll travel via mass transit to visit the site and to do the same activities. Just show up with appropriate gear : Bicycle, helmet, lock (In case of rain: Umbrella, wind breaker, rain boots) and LOTS of stamina! Optional: camera, video camera, sketchbook and some refreshments for energy along the way!

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

This week’s Eighth Grade Moving Up Ceremony was an wonderful conclusion to a most exciting year. Since a number of you have asked, below is the speech that I gave at the ceremony.

As I mentioned last week, I also hope that the summer provides you with ample opportunities to spend quality time with family and friends and to think about trying something new together as a family. To get you thinking, take a look at the following list of items that high school students will be tackling over the summer. If you come up with your own ideas, let me know.

Be well,
Mark

Delivered on Tuesday, June 16, 2009,
on the occasion of the Class of 2013’s Moving Up.

We are surrounded today by dreams and wishes. And nowhere are these dreams more clearly embodied than in the dream flags that hang above us. Presiding over us in this auditorium are the dreams and wishes of previous eighth graders who have moved up before you. These dreams and wishes are captured in their beautiful dream flags, which have graced our hallways throughout the year and that now bear witness to your moving up. Behind you are the dream flags that you have created  that now join this important collective of hopes, aspirations and advice.

So I choose to address you on this occasion, as I have with other eighth grade classes, with your own words. Hidden in your dream flags is a story, your story, and my humble task is to find a way into that narrative. At first glance, the flags and the sentiments they express seem to have no internal coherence; they are just a collection of random thoughts. But after thoughtful reflection, a flag will always emerge to reveal a thread that connects all of the flags together. So it is with this flag that we begin, but first a quick aside.

Many of you are familiar with the Middle School archives. If not, then know that the archives are that slightly mythical realm in which reside great deeds of middle school daring and accomplishment. This first flag gains a storied place in the archives for being the first flag to provide the inspiration for a Moving Up speech that quotes a line from Mel Brooks’ irreverent Star Wars send-up Spaceballs. And what is that line?

Ludicrous speed engaged

What could this possibly mean and how could it have any relevance to the members of the Class of 2013? Of the many things that impress me about this class, one that stands out is your fierce devotion to each other. You have had your ups and down, but there is an essential goodness that binds you together as a collective group.  Perhaps it is true that

Each friend represents a world in us, possibly born until they arrive
and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born. (1)

And maybe it is true that

In a friend you find a second self. (2)

In your own interactions with each other, you have clearly demonstrated that

A real friend is one who walks in
when the rest of the world walks out. (3)

You understand that a community is an interdependent entity.  In communities driven by caring and compassion, the one gives without regard to self because she knows that the community will be there for her in her time of need. As you sang and as captured on one of the flags,

Lean on me, when you’re not strong I’ll be your friend,
I’ll help you carry on,  for it won’t be long
‘til I’m going to need somebody to lean on. (4)

What gets us to this understanding where as one of you observes

I will shed a tear of my own to prevent a few of yours.

Maybe you already understand the essential truth that it is as simple as

Hearts that give and take and break and heal and grow. (5)

And you know that

You’re not alone. Together we stand.  I’ll be by your side.
You know I’ll take your hand. (6)

You only get this moment once so take a look around and

See your friends.  See the sights.  Feel alright. (7)

What makes this community of individuals so strong?  Perhaps you’ve taken to heart Oscar Wilde’s admonition to

Be yourself, everyone else is taken.

Or, as the good Dr. Suess opines

Today you are you, that is truer than true.
There is no one alive youer than you.

But you have not allowed yourself to get lost in your “youness.” Look to your right and to your left. These are the people who matter. So

Be who you are and say what you feel because
those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind. (8)

Your teachers and the school like to think that we also matter in your lives.  You have challenged us to live our progressive mission as teachers and as a school because you have always understood that

We can’t always prepare the future for youth,
but we can always prepare our youth for the future. (9)

It was true when FDR said it and is no less true today.  Earlier this year, you sat in this room transfixed as we watched history unfold as the nation inaugurated Barack Obama as our first African American president who said,

Change will not come
if we wait for some other person or some other time.
We are the one’s we’ve been waiting for.
We are the change that we seek.

So be that change, you have practiced for it everyday in the Middle School by taking risks in your thinking and in your actions towards each other.  Despite the ample supports, these risks were real and you were courageous.  And by courageous we mean something more that simply facing your fears; true courage touches on something deeper

Courage is the discovery that you may not win and
trying when you know you can lose. (10)

You have understood that facts and knowledge are important but not sufficient; they require a purpose, a driving force connected to our shared humanity.  This is what Albert Einstein meant when he observed that

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Our imagination allows us to consider not simply what is, but what might be.  And it is our inner life as expressed through our creativity that touches on what it means to be human. And so it is that

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.
Art is knowing which ones to keep. (11)

And before us today sit artists of all sorts.   But do not forget that the most important work of art that you will create is the one that is already in progress…your life, but heed John Gardener’s advice that

Life is art without an eraser

And while it may be true as Shakespeare noted that

Love is blind

and that a common humanity cuts across our differences, one need only to look at the news to see that hate, anger, and intolerance are not blind.  They actively seek to target others simply because they are different. So let your love be blind, but do not be blinded.  Be vocal and active where you see injustice, be an ally when one is needed.  Do not be content with the status quo.  Do not give up on your own capacity to constantly push the limits of your own thinking forward. Do not come to regret as Ozzy Osborne has that

Of all the things I’ve lost, I miss my mind the most

One of you reminded us to

Live on the edge. (12)

This idea of an “edge” speaks to possibilities and of being on the threshold of change.  You are at one of these edge moments right now. Over the past four years, we have encouraged you to try even when the way was not always clear.  This sentiment is captured in your own words on the flag that says

Try your hardest even if you don’t know what you are doing.

A wise teacher once told his Jedi student

Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try. (13)

I think that what Jedi Master Yoda was getting at is that all action must have a purpose.  To try is to not fully commit. To do is to commit purpose to action.  So be purposeful in you efforts so that

What doesn’t kill you will make you stronger. (14)

But be cautious, mindful and fully awake to the world because while

People occasionally stumble over the truth,
most of them pick themselves up
and hurry off as if nothing ever happened. (15)

Be vigilant, ask questions and don’t always be satisfied by the first answer you hear.  As Adlai Stevenson notes,

When you leave here, don’t forget why you came.

So there is something today about journeys that is very present for all of us.  One of you worries that

When we look back, will our jokes still be funny? (16)

If it’s true as one of you observes that

Life is like riding a bicycle,
to keep your balance you must keep moving. (17)

Then the question hinges on how you achieve that balance; another of you tells us

Don’t cry because it’s over…smile because it happened. (18)

So maybe it’s about knowing what to hold on to and what to let go of.  All of you in this moment are tied together by memories.  The idea of letting go of even one of these memories may seem inconceivable.  But at the same time, none of you really want to live in a past that you have already traveled.  You are ready to move up. As Christopher Columbus commented,

You can never cross the ocean
until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.

One of you suggests that

Life is like a road, you must move on to get somewhere.

While another stresses the authentic journey.  So ask yourself, whose journey are you really on? Is it yours or someone else’s?

Don’t go where the path may lead.
Instead go your own way and leave a trail. (19)

Easy words “Go your own way,” but harder to do.  Mark Twain sums the challenge up best

Twenty years from now,
you will be more disappointed
by the things that you didn’t do
than by the things you did.
So throw away the bow lines,
sail away from the safe harbor,
catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover.

And where does all of this leave us? Right back where we started because you are going to have to do this in a world where “ludicrous speed” is engaged. It’s literally true that information and ideas are flying around you at the speed of light.  It’s estimated that 40 exabytes (that’s 4.0 x 1019 bytes) of unique new information will be generated worldwide this year.  That’s estimated to be more than in the previous 5,000 years. The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years.  It’s predicted to double every 72 hours by 2010. (20)

That’s truly ludicrous.  Your challenge will be to think about how we will use this new information to bring humans together and not divide us along lines of class, race, religion, and sexual orientation.  That this information will be used to support peace, tolerance, and understanding.  That we will use it to fully realize our human potential and capacity for goodness. These are not insignificant tasks, but we have faith and confidence in you.  And to help you along the way, remember the immortal words of Spaceballs’ Yoda-like sage Yogurt, “May the Schwartz be with you.”

(Click here to download a pdf of the speech. )

Dear Families,

What a week! Tuesday began with wonderful Sixth Grade Poetry Potluck where those present were treated to an incredible selection of poetic delights all expertly read by their authors. Tuesday evening saw the auditorium transformed into our Science Exploratorium. Students presented the results of their individual science research projects that addressed an impressive range of questions that appear below for your consideration:

• How do different materials react to different liquids with a range of pH values?
• How does axle size effect the movement of a vehicle powered by a mousetrap?
• How can the speed of a mousetrap vehicle be increased by the use of gears?
• What role does shape play in designing an effective wind turbine?
• What effect does the size of wind turbine fins have on the speed of a turbine?
• What conditions or factors determine why organisms may have similar or different responses to the same stimuli?
• What effect does changing the amount of wire in a coil have on the speed of a motor?
• How does the shape or size of a coil or its distance from a fixed magnet effect the motor’s speed?
• What effect does changing the number of fins on a waterwheel have on its speed?
• How does changing the shape of a wing effect it’s ability to produce a lift force?
• What effect does the shape of a vehicle’s body have on the maximum speed at which it can travel?

Wednesday saw the fifth grade regale students and families with their rousing musical adaptation of  The Adventures of Ulysses. Prior to the performance, families had a chance to view students’ technology animation projects, science robotics projects, core memoirs and essays and to play a variety of math games.
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On Friday, the seventh grade will present its Constitution Works First Amendment role play at the courthouse in Brooklyn and, on Friday night, the eighth grade will celebrate their upcoming Moving Upon, which will take place on Tuesday.

No question that this has been an amazing week that is capping off a truly wonderful year in the middle school and at LREI. In addition to the potlucks at which teachers are formally thanked, I hope that you will each find a moment over the next few days to thank the members of the middle school faculty for their inspired teaching and  unwavering care of your children.

I also hope that the summer provides you with ample opportunities to spend quality time with family and friends and to think about trying something new together as a family. To get you thinking, take a look at the following list of items that high school students will be tackling over the summer. If you come up with your own ideas, let me know.

Enjoy!

Mark

Dear Families:

With the end of the year almost upon us, students in all grades are hard at work on a range of culminating activities. I look forward to seeing all of you in the coming weeks at the various grade level potlucks and celebrations. These are always wonderful opportunities to enjoy the impressive work that students have done this year and provide a window through which you can view the richness of their daily school experience.

Students are also in the process of reflecting on the year and considering goals achieved and areas for continued effort. These reflections will ultimately be shaped into their end-of-year comments that will appear in their fourth quarter progress reports. Giving students the final word in these reports has been an exciting process for us. While it has helped to narrow the distance between the student and her/his report, it has also helped students to discover a greater sense of ownership in their work and their overall school experience.

It is a powerful experience for me to read all of these comments. Students are articulate, celebratory, demanding, critical and honest in ways that are truly inspiring. When considered in total they provide compelling evidence for the thoughtful and passionate teaching and learning that goes on in the Middle School each day. I look forward to reading this year’s collection of comments; I know that you will too.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families:

Thank you to those of you who were able to attend The Middle School Awards this past Tuesday evening. The number of students involved in extracurricular activities and the diversity of these activities was inspiring. There is no doubt that these opportunities, which challenge students to think and learn in powerful ways, play an important role in helping us to fulfill our mission of educating the whole child. As with all endeavors, these experiences are not without their own obstacles (being over-matched by an opposing team, struggling to get the harmonies just right, having to adapt materials to meet a robotics challenge). However, when we see our students pushing themselves to do their best for themselves and for the team/group, the opportunities for learning are self-evident. These programs also provide students with the opportunity to “bump” into a new passion or to deepen a commitment to an area of interest and strength. Through our extracurricular programs, students with varied prior experiences and abilities regularly come together under the guidance of experienced teacher leaders to support each other as they work to be their best selves. I hope that this year’s Awards Night sparked some new areas of interest for students and faculty alike. I look forward to future evenings where we are able to come together as a community to celebrate this important work.

Following on the heels of Awards Night, we were treated to a preview of this evening’s Spring Concert by the the Little Red Singers, the Little Red Ensemble and the Middle School Jazz band. Click on the player below for some samples of the vocal and musical offerings that we enjoyed.

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On a related note, I write to you with some exciting news about our plans for the middle school performing arts program. While these changes will primarily impact seventh and eighth grade students, they will also have some important programmatic implications for fifth and sixth grade students. In brief, beginning next year, seventh and eighth graders will take a performing arts elective in lieu of their current twice-a-week general music class and once-a-week drama class. Elective offerings will include instrumental music, vocal music, drama and dance. In addition, we will offer a formal jazz band program for fifth and sixth grade students and a brass and woodwind morning instrumental class for beginners. More specific details follow.

Currently, seventh and eighth graders have a general music class that meets twice a week and a drama class that meets once a week. Both of these are year-long classes. Beginning next year, seventh and eighth graders will have the opportunity to participate in an exciting performing arts elective program in which students will have the chance over the two-year sequence to take instrumental music, vocal music, drama and dance classes. Because we believe that opportunities to explore all four of these areas are important to the artistic development of all students, the program will be structured to provide focused study in at least one of these areas and an introduction to the other three. In addition, seventh and eighth grade students will participate in the elective classes together. We think this is good for the community and for building program continuity (i.e., after the first year, there will be experienced students in some of the electives who can help new students as mentors and to reinforce norms and expectations).

To accomplish this, students will take a year-long major course that will meet twice a week and two semester-long minor courses that will meet once a week. Over the course of the two year sequence students will be expected to take classes in all four performing arts areas through the combination of their major and minor classes. Please note that:

• Instrumental music majors will be expected to have had some prior experience playing a musical instrument and this ensemble will perform as the MS Jazz Band at our annual fall and spring concerts.
• Vocal music majors will study a range of genres and styles, but will not be expected to join the official MS chorus.
• Drama majors will explore the many varied aspects of stagecraft and will be encouraged, but not required to participate in the Middle School play and musical.
• Dance majors will not be expected to have had any prior formal dance training and will be expected to be active participants in all dance and choreography activities.

All seventh and eighth grade students will be expected to participate in a spring MS Arts Celebration evening in their major area. The minor classes will share their work at the end of each semester at our regular Wednesday Middle School meetings.Middle school music teacher Matt McLean will teach the instrumental music class, lower school music teacher Ledell Mulvaney will teach the vocal music classes and middle school drama teacher Joanne Magee will teach the drama classes. We are still in the process of identifying a teacher for the dance program. When we discuss these changes with current sixth and seventh grade students, we will ask them to give us a general sense of their likely first choice for their major class. These choices will not be binding, but will help us in our planning. In the fall, students will learn more about the major choices and will have one or two sessions during which they can make changes so that students end up in major class to which they are fully committed. More detailed course descriptions will be available at the start of the year.

By moving the Jazz Band into the elective period, we will be able to offer an instrumental ensemble program for fifth and sixth graders who already play a musical instrument. This ensemble will meet during our regular Friday Activity Period. Matt will also work with this group during occasional IWP periods and mornings. This ensemble will perform at Middle School meetings and at the Arts Celebration evening. In addition, we will offer a once-a-week morning program for students interested in learning to play brass or woodwind instruments. Families will need to rent or buy an instrument to participate in this program. In instances where this cost might prevent an interested student from participating, the school will provide an instrument on loan. The Middle School chorus will continue to meet during the school day and will continue to be open to students in grades five through eight. These changes will also provide an opportunity for us to look at the fifth and sixth grade general music program so that we can continue to strengthen its focus on community singing, musical literacy including composition and performance and integration with the core curriculum.

I hope that you are as excited about these changes as we are. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families:

While the eighth grade is away this week in Gettysburg and DC as part of their core curriculum (click here to view pictures and updates from the trip Twitter page), I thought I’d take the opportunity to share with you another important piece of their learning journey, which culminated on April 29th.

The eighth grade core curriculum explores a range of social justice themes connected to the study of US history and literature from the Civil War through the Civil Rights Era. Throughout the year, students look at a cross-section of individuals who have taken a stand on social justice issues and who have “chosen to participate.” In turn, we ask the same of our students as they explore a range of pressing social justice issues. As with last year’s class, this year’s eighth grade choose to focus it’s inquiry on issues related to sustainability. So for the past five months, the eighth graders have been researching these issues as part of their core curriculum.

Their research into sustainability led them to organizations and volunteer opportunities that have helped them to better understand this crucial issue. As leaders in the Middle School, the eighth graders then planned a Teach-In for the students in grades five through seven. This day included a series of assemblies and student-run workshops that framed their experiences over the past five months and suggested ways for their classmates to take action on this issue.

Here is a sampling of the workshops that were offered:

• Public Service Announcements: Giving Hope for Animals
  During this workshop, you will learn information about stray animals in New York City and animal cruelty. Participants will then use this information to make print PSA (public service announcements) about this issue and its impact on our city. If you are an animal lover and want to make a difference, join this workshop!
• Save a Cat; Don’t be Dog!
  We’ll learn about the not-always-positive experience that many animals have  in animal shelters, we’ll watch a short movie, and then see how much we’ve learned by playing a fast-pased game.
• Hunting for the Facts
  In our workshop, you will participate in a “hunt” for animal rights.  With a series of clues and some very valuable information, you and your group will learn about the importance of ethical treatment of animals as you race to answer questions about a certain animal-related issue.
• Wiggle
  In this workshop, you will learn about the wonders of red wiggle worms and how they help our planet sustain itself.  You will engage in a hands-on activity with the worms as we make our own composting bins.  You will feed the worms and make their home while learning how they help our planet.
• CATastrophic Crackers
  Participants will bake kitten cookies for the homeless cats at Ollie’s place (a non- profit cat shelter).  These cookies will be made with all organic flour and will be delivered to Ollie’s place after the workshop.  Learn about this important issue while you help feed animals that were not getting the proper nutrition!
• Reaching to Save the Screeching
  This workshop teaches you about Screech Owls in Central Park and the efforts people have made in sustaining and protecting their habitat.  You will learn about the owls’ living and eating habits as well as the projects that are in place to save them.  As part of the workshop, we will dissect owl pellets to learn more about the owls’ diet and how this is connected to the survival challenges that they face.
• You Can Taste a Sandwich, but Some People Can’t
  In this workshop, participants will learn impiortant facts about food pantires in NYC. You will also make sandwiches for the hungry and will designing a message for the recipient of your sandwich to be included in the bag. The sandwiches we make will be delivered to the Grand Central Food Station Wednesday night and you will have a direct and immediate impact on feeding the hungry!
• Wind Wizards
  In this workshop, you will learn the importance of wind-generated energy and alternative energy sources.  We will build wind turbines in groups and then we will try to power a light bulb with the turbines!
• Renewable Fuel & Green Technology
  In this workshop, you will learn about the incredible concepts connected to Green technologies and renewable fuels.  In an interactive set-up, you will explore different types of technology and how renewable fuels such as biodiesel work.  We will look at solar panels, wind turbines, wave turbine and a selction of  renewable fuel.  You will be able to experiment with and learn about the challenges associated with these different technologies.  We will also learn about which states are causing the most pollution and why this is the case. Participants will then take on the role of a government official and will draft a short bill to describe their plan of action to make their state go green!
• Little Green School House
  In this workshop, we will explore green architecture and a “greener” more sustainable way of living a modern life. We will do this by applying sustainable building practices to a construction of “green” gingerbread houses. This workshop will allow you to identify the most essential elements of green architecture, by using your knowledge and creativity to green an ideal “green” living space.
• Pin the Green on the Building
  Play a “green” version of the classic game. If you are interested in learning about green architecture and you enjoy fun and games, this is the workshop for you.
• Junk or Art?
  In this workshop, you will make your own musical instrument made out of recycled materials. Using bottles, buttons, and balloons, you will paint and paste your way toward the construction of a homemade instrument.  You will learn that there are many fun and creative ways to reuse, recycle and reduce what too often goes into our landfills.  Come and make ec0-friendly music with your peers!
• RESTYLED
  Have you ever had a shirt that just wasn’t right for you?  In RESTYLED you will give your clothes a second life.  We’ll teach you how to make something beautiful out of something that might otherwise end up in the garbage.  We’ll use recycled materials to decorate your clothing into something you’ll be sure to wear.

Click here and then on “Middle School Earth Day ‘Teach-Ins'” to view photos from the workshops.

The assemblies featured a number of student-created videos, original music and a presentation based on excerpts from the award-winning documentary Flow, which examines the powerful role of water in the sustainability conversation. It was an empowering day and one that profoundly put students at the center of a progressive learning experience. It taught them something about the complexities of organizing and leading an event. I think they also discovered some new found respect for their teachers after having to walk a mile in their shoes.

Throughout the project, students maintained a class blog that was used for recording thoughts and experiences and for collecting feedback from the rest of the Middle School students and teachers following the Teach-In. I encourage you to explore the blog to dig more deeply into the learning experience of our eighth graders.

I am already looking forward to next year’s Teach-In.

On other fronts . . . as most of you are aware, our hiring efforts this season were limited to one position. We met with a number of talented teachers and, as always, I am grateful for the focused and collaborative effort of the middle school team in helping to identify the most promising candidates.  I am pleased to inform you that Elizabeth Simmons will be joining us next year as a seventh grade core teacher. Elizabeth has worked in both public and independent schools and is currently teaching English and humanities in the New York City Public Schools. She made immediate connections with students in her demo lesson and faculty were impressed with her thoughtful reflection on the demo and on her approach to teaching. We look forward to what she will bring to the seventh grade program and to the LREI community.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

On Saturday, April 25, nine sixth graders participated in the 20th Packer Collegiate Middle School Model Congress. This year’s participants included Andrew, Ben, Georgia, Lola, Marcelo, Martine, Michelle, Odelia, and Simmon. The group has worked with faculty facilitator Sharyn Hahn since the end of October to write bills, prepare speeches, read students’ bills from the other schools that participate, and learn about and practice parliamentary procedure. The team spent the entire day at Packer Collegiate High School this past Saturday for the annual culminating event.

Nearly 200 middle school students from 13 area independent schools, including LREI, sent delegations of model legislators to the event. When students arrived at the event, they broke off into one of 17 separate committees based upon the content of their bill. These committees were meant to resemble actual congressional committees and included among others Judiciary, Education, Health, Housing & Urban Affairs, and Science Space & Technology. After a morning committee session filled with heated debate and criticism, the bills that passed committee were reviewed in one of four full sessions. (House I, House II, Senate I and Senate II).

The bills introduced by the LREI delegation included the following:

1. Delegates: Benjamin  and Marcelo
   Title: An act to require that one out of every building on each block in U.S. cities that is rainwater accessible has a rainwater collection plant on its roof.
   Preamble: This act would ensure that many buildings in New York City could reuse water that would normally go down to sewage and be unused. With these collection plants, buildings would have chlorinated and filtered water for bathing and washing.
2. Delegates: Lola, Michelle and Odelia
   Title: An act to increase the amount of Farmers Markets/Greenware across the country.
   Preamble: The purpose of this act is to increase the production of local farmers’ produce by creating more places where they can sell their harvests and where customers can get to know the agriculturists who grow their food.
3. Delegates: Georgia and Martine
   Title: An act to stop the littering of gum and cigarette butts in public places and on the streets in Us cities.
   Preamble: The purpose of this act is to enforce the prohibition of the littering of gum and cigarette butts in public places and on the streets. We will do this by putting more ashtrays up around in U.S. cities and large reminders to spit out gum into a trashcan and not onto the street or stick it to park benches. In addition, signs referring to the fines that will be imposed on offenders will be highly visible. Cities will be a much cleaner and safer place for people to live.
4. Delegates: Andrew and Simmon
   Title: An act to build designated smoking areas other than outside of buildings on the streets in towns and cities in the United States.
   Preamble: The purpose of this act is to stop smokers from smoking in highly populated outdoor areas, such as public train stations, outdoor bus stops, and children’s playgrounds. This will prevent non-smokers from inhaling second hand smoke.

The students’ hard work throughout the year resulted in a day of excitement and accomplishment.  All nine of our delegates participated in all of the sessions and several debated in the plenary committees.  At the end of the morning committee sessions, the students voted on the one bill that passed in their session that was the most controversial and informative, in order to bring it to the plenary session. These bills were then debated within one of the larger group in the afternoon. The bills introduced by Georgia and Martine and Marcelo and Ben were debated in these plenary sessions. Marcelo and Ben’s bill was passed during this session, which was a first for LREI.

The afternoon concluded with an Awards Ceremony in which all of the delegates were recognized for their the hard work and performance. In addition, special awards were given out to the best prepared and most “professional” delegates. Both Marcelo and Ben were awarded Honorable Mentions.  All of the delegates had a good time and they are all looking forward to next year with their eyes on the coveted Golden Gavel award (of which we have won two over the past four years). We are very proud of all of the delegates for their commitment to the Model Congress program.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

It has been a busy week in the Middle School. With many of our classes focused on writing poetry, I hope that you were able to spend dome time on Monday night reading as a family and perhaps enjoying a poem or two. Poems were certainly in abundance in the halls and classrooms for Tuesday’s Poem In Your Pocket Day. My pocket featured Philip Levine‘s “M. Degas Teaches Art And Science At Durfee Intermediate School–Detroit, 1942” (click here to listen to the author reciting the poem). I like this poem for the way that it reveals the power of a particular learning moment and the possibility for that moment to transform not only how we look at the world, but how we commit ourselves to an ongoing search for meaning. As you participate in your family conference, I think you will find that these moments occur with astonishing frequency in the middle school and, as a result, create a profound poetry of their own.

Poem In Your Pocket Day was followed by our belated celebration of Pi Day (usually held on 3/14, postponed to 4/15 [the 3rd-5th digits of pi] and subsequently rescheduled for this past Wednesday, 4/22 [the 1,840th-1,842nd digits of pi]. While Pi Day provides an opportunity for us to celebrate the importance and “poetry” of math, a favorite highlight is the much-anticipated Memorized Recitation of the Digits of Pi Competition. This year, we heard from four competitors at our Wednesday Middle School Meeting. Fifth graders Alessandro and Pia recited 54 and 112 digits of pi respectively; these were impressive first efforts. Sixth grader Odelia improved her effort from last year with an amazing recitation that ran to 438 digits of pi. To give you some sense of what that looks like, here they are:

 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307
8164062862089986280348253421170679821480865132823066470938446095505
822317253594081284811174502841027019385211055596446229489549303819644
288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091456485669234603486104
543266482133936072602491412737245870066063155881748815209209628292540
9171536436789259036001133053054882046652138414695194151160943305727036
575959195309218611738193261

Our final contestant was math teacher Margaret Andrews who turned in a respectable effort of 86 digits. However, it was revealed that Margaret’s effort could not be entered into the Pi Day Archives as she had achieved it through the use of a bluetooth headset hidden under a scarf through which she received the digits from a mysterious Mr. Pi. Any information regarding the identity of this surreptitious mathematician should be reported to the other members of the math department.

On other fronts, the seventh grade spent Thursday in Philadelphia exploring Independence Hall and the National Constitution Center as part of their on-going inquiry into the birth of our nation and the drafting of the Constitution. Click here to view some photos.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

On Monday and Tuesday night, Middle School psychologist Andrew Weiss and I enjoyed spirited discussions with fifth-seventh grade parents as part of our annual Adolescent Issues Parent Evenings (click here for an overview of topics being explored in Adolescent Issues classes). In these discussions, we spent much time talking about the many ways in which adolescents seek to test boundaries and that this can invariably lead to a certain level of conflict. As Andrew astutely observed, the goal for parents and teachers is not to find ways to avoid this conflict, but rather to work through it. For it is precisely these moments of conflict that define where the boundaries are and how they connect to the values that serve as a foundation for your family and for us at LREI. Navigating through these waters is certainly difficult for both kids, parents and teachers, but is is essential. We also acknowledged that these values may differ from family to family and with the school and that this can create additional challenges.

We talked about the challenge of responding to difficult questions that we may not want or feel prepared to answer. We agreed that acknowledging the significance of a question is important, but that we may want to let our child know that we want to think about it for a bit to figure out the best may to respond. In this way, we can model thoughtful and reflective thinking for our child as we look for the best way to enter into the conversation. We talked about the importance of finding a response that was honest, but that also felt comfortable with regard to what you may or may not want to share with your child.

Many parents felt that their child’s “need to know” was also challenged by the ease with which information can be accessed in a digital age. Whether intentionally or by accident, it is surprisingly easy for children to stumble upon information that may be misleading, confusing, or scary. While we might want to try to limit what a child can access so only that which is developmentally appropriate can be found, we acknowledged that this is probably impossible. We also talked about the challenges that online communication can create for authentic and meaningful dialog between peers and friends. These challenges make it all the more important for parents to understand and to become comfortable with the information/entertainment tools that our children are using. Knowing how to IM, text, blog, and access social networking sites is crucial. Let your kids teach you these skills and while they are teaching you, you can help them to understand how you expect them to use these tools in ways that are consistent with your values. You’ll probably also have a lot of fun in the process.

On a related note, there was much conversation about how parents can keep a pulse on what their child is thinking and wondering about as they move through adolescence. Many parents commented that this is compounded by the fact that as their child is seeking greater independence s/he may appear unwilling to want to share what is going on in his/her life. Many of you commented about how important it is to keep trying, but not to push too hard. The metaphor of a set of closed doors surrounding the adolescent was offered. we agreed that it is important to knock regularly on these doors and to not always knock on the same door. And despite all this knocking, we need to be okay with the fact that the child may not always open the door. This regular knocking lets them know that when they are ready to talk to us about an issue, we will be there ready to listen. As it is in the classroom, the student wants to know where the boundaries are and wants to make sure that they are enforced. When the boundaries are vague and inconsistent students tend not to feel safe and will find it hard to take the risks that are required to do good thinking. In the same way, the regular knocking on the doors of adolescent issues creates a sense of safety and consistency that is so important. Each time you knock, you also send an important message about what you value.

Towards the end of our conversation, I commented that one of the things that so impresses me with our students is that when the stakes are high and a friend is at risk they really do rise to the occasion. We often become aware of issues because students tell us. They tell us because they know that we care about them and want to help, but at a deeper level, they tell us because they truly care about their classmates. This caring for others is hugely significant. For parents, adolescence marks the beginning of a “letting go” and by the end of adolescence, your young adults will be very much responsible for their lives. Because we/you can’t always be there for them, we hope that the values that we have worked to instill in them hold fast and guide them through their difficult moments. This is the clearest evidence that that you and your child are productively making your way through adolescence. I see ample evidence of this in our students and it is a reflection of the hard work that you do at home and that we reinforce at school.

Keep knocking and talking!

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

This week’s sixth grade Medieval Pageant and fifth grade Egyptian tomb were wonderful culminating activities to units of focused study that were carried out across several subjects. As the quarter draws to a close and I reflect on my varied interactions with students and teachers, I am continually struck by the richness of our integrated curriculum. The value of an integrated curriculum, which connects traditionally-separate subject areas, and its particular relevance at the middle school level, is something that has been a core value at LREI from the very beginning. As Agnes De Lima notes in The Little Red School House: “We are, then, concerned in our curriculum to make sure that it affords the kind of experience and the kind of activities which will help children grow normally and naturally. The old-line pedagogue was continually asking, what must a child know, what knowledge is of most worth? We ask instead, What should a child be like, what ways of acting and what habits of repose are most worthwhile…. We take the child as he is and where his is, try to understand him, and then seek to help him understand the kind of world in which he lives and the part he is to play in it (p. 16).”

The interesting thing is that through this process students learn an incredible amount of what we traditionally consider as subject area knowledge. More importantly, they learn how to use this information to solve authentic problems and to assess critically this knowledge. Through our integrated curriculum, inquiry occurs in a thematic and holistic manner. In this way, the curriculum empowers our students to see connections and to generalize and transfer knowledge to a variety of problem-solving situations. As we celebrate Founders Day tomorrow, I have no doubt the Elisabeth Irwin and her colleagues would be pleased with the current state of affairs here at LREI. Here are a few images from the Pageant and Tomb that capture this spirit. The images go quite well with this piece composed by the students for the pageant.
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Last Saturday’s competition, which ran from early in the morning until late in the afternoon, was the culmination of several months of hard work for the members of LREI’s Middle School Robotics Teams.  What follows is an update from team coach and middle school science teacher Sherezada Acosta:

This weekend marked the end of a great season!  I was proud of the great work all the students put in to get us here and how hard they pushed themselves throughout the competition day.  It was a very long day, but they did an incredible job representing our school! I am happy to report that out of the 72 schools at the event, which represented the top performing teams in the New York City area, the LREI Knights Team received a perfect score in every aspect of the teamwork category, earning them a 4th Place for the Teamwork Award!

Teamwork Award:
“Teamwork is critical to succeed in FIRST LEGO League and is the key ingredient in any team effort.  FLL presents this award to the team that best demonstrates extraordinary enthusiasm, an exceptional partnership, and the practice of the FLL values.”

What the judges had to say:
“Great enthusiasm!”  “Good group collaboration”
“Good innovative solution proposed”
“very proactive and high awareness”
“Research extensive!”

The LREI Squires were not far behind getting incredible feedback from the judges as well:

“Informative, polite, well spoken large team with excellent teamwork.”
“Most out of the box solution”
“Demo was very creative”
“Great job dividing and sharing roles to design robot”
“Very enthusiastic presentation”

Well done all!

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

This week, we had our annual Black History Month assembly. It afforded us a chance to look forward and back as we considered important achievements made by Black Americans and, at the same time, reflected on the the many ways in which we are all connected.

The eighth grade class reps opened the assembly with a reading by Matthew Whitaker on the subject of why Black History Month is important. This segued into a reading of Maya Angelou‘s moving poem “And Still I Rise.” After viewing an excerpt from Ken Burns‘ documentary Jazz, we were treated to a rousing performance of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers‘ “Moanin‘” by the Middle School Jazz Band. This was followed by a video of the fifth grade music classes performing the music and singing the civil rights era protest song “Which Side Are You On?” Victor, Sarah and David’s advisory then followed up on an activity that they had prepared for the other advisory groups last week and shared the fruits of their research on a number of important African-American figures that included Mae Jemison, Thurgood Marshall, George Washington Carver, Malcolm X, Shirley Chisolm, Dr. Charles Drew, Mary McLeod Bethune and W.E.B. DuBois. In a similar vein, Margaret, Sherezada and Sharyn’s advisory produced a video of other influential people of color set to the music of Stevie Wonder’s “Black Man.” Our assembly concluded with the singing of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” led by the Middle School Chorus. All in all it was a thought provoking and engaging student-run affair.

On a related note, our students have been busy this week talking to others about their learning experience at LREI. On Monday, a group of students met with author Laurie Halse Anderson for a book discussion about her most recent book. For more information about this meeting, click here to read Middle School librarian Jennifer Hubert Swan’s blog. On Wednesday, members of the Robotics Team traveled to the offices of Google to talk about their involvement in the FIRST Lego League. We hope to have video of both of these discussion available on the website soon.

And so we rise . . .

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

I hope that you had a relaxing long weekend and were able to enjoy some valuable time together with family and friends. Things are back in full swing for us and students are hard at work on a number of important curriculum projects.

• Over the next few weeks, the fifth graders will transform their classrooms into an Egyptian tomb filled with a range of artifacts connected to their study of this ancient civilization. The “discovery” of the tomb will culminate in a full day of guided tours through the tomb by our expert archeologists.
• Sixth graders are hard at work preparing for our annual Medieval Pageant that will feature a dramatic and musical presentation  and exhibits in the core, art and science classrooms all connected to various aspects of their study of the Middle Ages.
• Seventh graders are in the midst of presentations on the Red Scare of the 1950s, which is connected to their reading of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, and has provided an powerful lens for examining parallels between the American colonial experience and our more recent history.
• Eighth graders have been studying the Progressive Era and the impact that muckraking investigative journalists had on affecting public opinion and regulating laws on important social issues of their day.  As an outgrowth of this study, students will identify pressing social issues of our day and write their own investigative pieces. Much of this work will connect to their on-going explorations of the intersection between social justice and sustainability issues.

These are just a few examples of the kinds of projects that drive student learning in the middle school. Not only do they support the development of important learning skills (e.g., collaboration, research, discussion, presentation), we believe that they also lead to a  deep and lasting learning of critical content and knowledge. The learning is powerful because it is not only connected to authentic problems and questions that resonate for middle schoolers, but because it also provides them with opportunities to share their learning in meaningful ways. Click here to view a video on the value of project-based learning and an interview with educational pioneer Seymour Papert.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

Last Wednesday at our Middle School meeting, we had the unique opportunity to screen the Sundance award winning film “Fuel” and to speak with the director Josh Tickell.

FUEL is an insightful portrait of America’s addiction to oil and an uplifting testament to the immediacy of new energy solutions. Director, Josh Tickell, a young activist, shuttles us on a whirlwind journey to track the rising domination of the petrochemical industry—from Rockefeller’s strategy to halt Ford’s first ethanol cars to Vice President Cheney’s petrochemical company sponsored energy legislation — and reveals a gamut of available solutions to “repower America” —from vertical farms that occupy skyscrapers to algae facilities that turn wastewater into fuel. Tickell and a surprising array of environmentalists, policy makers, and entertainment notables take us through America’s complicated, often ignominious energy past and illuminate a hopeful, achievable future, where decentralized, sustainable living is not only possible, it’s imperative.

Josh’s story provided us with a profound example of the power of activism and made clear the powerful intersection of issues related to sustainability and social justice. While both personal narrative and persuasive essay, “Fuel” challenged each of us to wrestle with where we stand on the issues. We will continue to explore the issued raised by the film and the power of film as a communication medium in classes and in advisory. I encourage you to see the film.

On other fronts, students have been serious and focused during this week’s ERB administration. Truth be told, I think they like the three-day break from our regular demanding collaborative, inquiry-based and hands-on work, which was on hold while they sat quietly in rows, contemplated each question and carefully filled in the bubbles on their answer sheet. That said, we did reward ourselves on Wednesday afternoon with our annual Literary Festival during which students participated in a range of exciting workshops. This year’s menus of offerings included the following:

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

ACTION! . . . Making a Story Into a Script (with Maureen Johnson) Ever go see a movie made from a book? Ever wonder why it’s so different?  The same but . . . not the same? Why does stuff get left out? Why do characters change? WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE? Don’t they KNOW they left out the most important part? Or maybe you just wonder how they do it at all—how do they take hundreds of pages of story and turn it into something you can see and hear. How does that work? The answer to all of these questions is HERE! Now you can learn about the art of adaptation—taking a story in one form and changing it to another—and try your hand at it yourself!

Found Poetry (with Heather Brandstetter). Explore the streets of New York and find the poetry that is there everyday.  Heather will lead participants on a poetry-finding adventure!

Writing Music (with Matt McClean) In this workshop we will cover the process that goes into composing music. We will look at how composers go about composing melodies and harmony and the part that rhythm plays in putting it all together. In addition we will examine the process of orchestration in an attempt to answer the question: How do composers decide which instruments to write for.

Who the Heck Are You?! (with Dennis Kitchen). A perennial favorite! 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, you’ll be outfitted with a camera and you’ll hunt these people down, snap their picture and then interview them. Dennis Kitchen will share interviewing techniques and help you create a fascinating bio on that person you think you know, but not really…. Note: If you have a digital camera, please bring it to this workshop.

Visual Autobiography and Bookmaking Workshop (with Melissa Rubin and Robin Shepard). Come prepared to create your very own hardcover autobiography. Bring in memorabilia that tells a story about you. Any flat 2-D special items can be included. Items such as: your prose and poetry, photos, maps, stamps, feathers, ticket stubs, playbill covers, movie ads, pressed flowers, etc. can be used (anything that can be glued into a book that has personal meaning).  Note: Bring special items for your book to this workshop.

Playwriting (with Raquel Cion). In this workshop, you will join in a facilitated discussion of what constitutes dramatic writing. The building blocks of playwriting (character, action, conflict, setting) will be explored using tools such as automatic writing, image, and structured writing time. You will learn about the who, where, what, and how of constructing scenes. Through this exploration each student will write their own “mini-play”. These plays will then be read aloud and the workshop will culminate in a discussion of how to continue writing and creating plays on your own.

Scrap Booking (with Margaret Andrews). Margaret will provide the materials; all you need to do is bring in photos you’d like to include in your scrapbook page. Learn how to document your photos and create a keepsake that records special moments, people and places in your life. Note: Bring photos for your scrapbook page to this workshop.

Striking Viking Story Pirates  — In this interactive workshop, you’ll work with members of the Striking Viking Story Pirates theater group. They’ll guide you through a dynamic process in which individuals and small groups will write and act out stories. After the workshop, the Story Pirates will take these ideas back to their secret headquarters/laboratory, and several weeks later, they will return for Middle School meeting with newly-built puppets, props, and a brand new sketch comedy show, including some new stories written by participants in the workshops.

Newspaper Writing (with David Lee).  Ever want to write for a newspaper? Well David has, and he’s going to show you how you can too. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to come up with a story idea, a headline, how to interview people and how to write your piece. You’ll come up with the subject and David will help guide you through it. And he should know – his recent article about surfing in NY appeared in the New York Times this January!

Picture Books and Children’s Literature (with Matthew Rosen and Michelle Boehm). In this workshop, Matthew Rosen, a former editor, will talk about writing and constructing picture books. You’ll have the opportunity to create their own picture-book. You will lay out text, add illustrations, and format you book.

Enter The Writing Ninja (with Libba Bray) The mighty writing ninja approaches the story. It will not get away this time, for the ninja is strong and creative and also, the story is due tomorrow at 8:20, and not to turn it in is unacceptable to the ninja’s code of honor and the teacher’s grade book. Suddenly, from out of the shadows come the ninja’s greatest enemies: Writer’s Block, Lack of Inspiration, Boring Characters, Even More Boring Plot, and–worst of all–the dreaded Inner Critic. It will take all the stealth warrior’s cunning and writing ninjutsu to lay waste to these enemies. But how to defeat these monsters? How? HOW? HOOOOOWWWWW? (That was for dramatic effect. Four how’s would have been overkill. This is what we’re talking about here.) Come learn tricks to get your mind into prime fighting mode, featuring the Nunchuks of Word Styling, the Legendary Pressure Point Move of Improv Story-Building, and the Final Whammy of Something-I-Have-Yet-to-Make Up. For this workshop, you will need only paper, a writing implement of some sort, a sense of humor, and a thirst for adventure which cannot be slaked through ordinary means, such as Snapple Fruit Punch. Your heart is strong, mighty warrior. Soon, your writing will make nations tremble.

Tasting And Writing About Food (with Mario Batali). In this workshop, you’ll taste foods that are examples of the 5 taste sensations:  sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami (and if you don’t know what this taste sensation is, you will by the end of the workshop!) Afterwards, you’ll describe these tastes without using their 5 exact terms (such as salty or sweet). You’ll discuss the geography of the tongue with chef and cookbook author Mario Batali, and he’ll show you how you can translate sensation into words.

Not bad for an afternoon feast!

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

Last Friday, progress reports for the second quarter were sent 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. In reviwing assessments for the second quarter, we hope that you will look at the progress for this quarter in a broader context of your child’s overall learning experience. If you have not done so already, I encourage you to take the opportunity to speak with your child about his/her perceptions of the work s/he has completed this past quarter and how s/he sees this work in relation to the work completed last quarter. This will help to frame your ongoing discussions about her/his learning experience.

While progress reports provide an opportunity to reflect on a student’s progress and to think about strengths and challenges, it is important to remember that assessment is an on-going process at LREI; it is a means to an end, but not an end in and of itself. Its aim is to improve student understanding of key ideas and skills. In the Middle School, teachers strive to develop assessments that are learner-centered and focused on student understanding in relation to the particular goals identified for each area of inquiry. Rather than being separate from learning, assessment plays a central role in the instructional process. The assessment process also sheds light on which instructional strategies are most effective. Through thoughtful assessment, the teacher gains critical feedback for choosing and utilizing those teaching strategies that can best help a learner progress towards the goals of a particular unit of study. Opportunities for meaningful assessment also allow students to gain deeper insight into areas of strength and challenge and allow them to develop plans to address growth in both of these areas.

Also on the subject of assessment, I’d like to say a few words about the upcoming ERBs, which are scheduled For February 10th-12th. 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.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

It has been an amazing week, which started for many with the call to service in honor of the MLK holiday on Monday. On Tuesday, we came together as a community to watch the historic inauguration of President Barack Obama. As the swearing in ceremonies were about to get underway, we spoke with math teacher Margaret Andrews who was at the event; the palpable excitement in her voice as she described what she was seeing and feeling helped to bring us one step closer to the stage on which this historic event was playing out. We listened, we cheered, some cried and we all understood that these were indeed “interesting times.” Phil made the astute observation that amid all the excitement surrounding our new president, the image of Barack Obama standing next to George Bush on the capital steps was for him a profound one. Without the violence or disruption that is often all too common in other parts of the world, we bore witness to the smooth transition of government and saw in it a clear manifestation of the democratic principles on which our nation was founded.

With President Obama’s words still fresh in our minds, we reconvened in the auditorium on Wednesday for our annual Martin Luther King assembly. In song, poem and prose, we honored Dr. King and sought to connect his life’s work to our on-going obligation to fight for freedom, equality and justice.  The assembly was led by the eighth graders who in the spirit of James Taylor’s “Shed a Little Light,” which served as frame for the assembly, also”shed a little light” on the connection between King’s call for social justice and the multi-month service project “Choosing to Participate” that they are about to undertake in their core class. This project will culminate in April with a “Teach In” during which the eighth graders will lead workshops for the rest of the Middle School on a range of social justice and sustainability topics connected to their work. As a prelude to this event, the eighth graders shared original poems focused on some of the tasks that stand before us if we are to make children, families, communities, cultures, animals, and/or the planet free and strong. The eighth graders will also lead workshops tomorrow in advisory during which every middle schoolers will explore these tasks and write their own poems.

As a way to connect Tuesday’s events with our MLK assembly, we also listened to an excerpt from the speech given by Barack Obama last year on the MLK holiday. This moving speech echoed the call expressed in James Taylor’s lyrics that:

… there are ties between us
All men and women
Living on the earth
Ties of hope and love
Sister and brotherhood
That we are bound together
In our desire to see the world become
A place in which our children
Can grow free and strong
We are bound together
By the task that stands before us
And the road that lies ahead
We are bound and we are bound

As we continue to navigate through these interesting times within and beyond the LREI community, we will be mindful of the words of inaugural poet Elizabeth Alexander who observed that:

Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others’ eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise.
We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; words to consider, reconsider.
We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, “I need to see what’s on the other side; I know there’s something better down the road.”
We need to find a place where we are safe; We walk into that which we cannot yet see.
In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp — praise song for walking forward in that light.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

Congratulations again to the members of the Middle School Robotics Teams who continued their winning ways with excellent performances at this past weekend’s FIRST Lego League Manhattan borough competition. Both teams have now qualified for the citywide competition that will take place at the Javits Center in March. The Advanced Team won 1st place in the Champion’s Award category. It “is the most prestigious award that any team can win. It celebrates the ultimate success of the FIRST mission and FLL values”. When the scores from their Project Presentation, Technical Presentation, Robot Performance and Teamwork were added they received the highest score out of the whole event. The Rookie Team won 2nd place in the Robot Design Award category where “judges look for teams whose robot stands out for innovation and dependability”. This is an incredible achievement for a group of kids in their first competition. Click here for pictures of the event.

On the subject of achievement, I want to acknowledge our 2008-2009 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 a most excellent cohort of applicants; this 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 am pleased to share with you the 2008-2009 Irwin Scholars. They are Liam C., Thomas, Dominic, Edith, Anna, Isabella and David.

At this Wednesday’s Middle School Meeting, we had our annual National Geography Bee. To kick off the Bee competitions, last week at Middle School meeting we were joined be documentary filmmaker Celine Cousteau. Celine, the daughter of ocean explorer Jean-Michel Cousteau and granddaughter of legendary filmmaker Jacques Cousteau, spoke to us about her many projects and expeditions around the globe and her efforts to raise awareness about our relationship to the natural world and to each other. Her visit was truly inspirational.

Following Celine’s visit, 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 – Atticus and Ethan G., Sixth Grade – Andrew and Carlo., Seventh Grade – Julian and Logan, and Eighth Grade – Dominic and Edith. At the end of the Final Round, two students – Ethan G. and Julian – moved on to the Championship Round. The Championship Round was decided after 3 questions with Julian emerging as the champion. Next week, 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 and our relationship to the larger world.

So much to be proud of in the middle school. With the third quarter just underway and second quarter reports about to go out, this is a great time to check in with your child about their developing strengths as scholars, technological innovators, and citizens of the world.

I hope that you will also make Monday, January 19th “A Day On and Not a Day Off” in honor of MLK and the historic inauguration of Barack Obama, which we will watch live as a Middle School community on Tuesday. Click here for a list of service opportunities for youth and families on the MLK holiday.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

With the new year only two weeks away, my thoughts are increasingly pulled to the many exciting projects, events and opportunities for learning that await us in 2009. That said, the upcoming Winter Break also presents us with an opportunity to look back over the distance we have traveled together so far this year. Your children have been active and engaged explorers on this journey, but they have also benefited from the expert guidance of their teachers. As you can well imagine, teaching at LREI is a joyful, but demanding enterprise. Thinking about, designing, collaborating on and implementing our rich and varied curriculum is no small task. So I’d like to take this opportunity as we come to the end of the year and look forward into the new year, to thank the members of the Middle School faculty for their incredible work with and caring for your children.

Thinking about the future, I’d also like to share with you some exciting news. Middle School Science Teacher Sherezada Acosta has been selected as a National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) Teacher of the Future. Through this program,

NAIS has selected and support a cadre of innovative teacher leaders currently working at NAIS member schools who will help NAIS develop a new online community for independent school teachers.  This program and the development of online education communities are part of NAIS’s goals to provide valuable networking opportunities and to enhance the excellent education provided at independent schools. NAIS has selected these 24 outstanding Teachers of the Future to build, lead, and moderate this new online community.  The 24 Teachers of the Future exemplify excellence in teaching through their leadership, innovation, and commitment to environmentalism, equity and justice, globalism, technology, and other key areas of sustainability.

Beginning in January, Sherezada and the other recipients will lead online discussion forums for other NAIS teachers. Each recipient also created a video that highlights important aspects of her/his curriculum. To view Sherezada’s educational video, go to the Teachers of the Future Videos Page. The video provides some wonderful examples of our students hard at work in the science lab. It also provides an excellent overview of some of the foundational principles that guide our approach to science instruction.

Congratulations to Sherezada for this honor and thanks to all of the members of the Middle School faculty for their daily work in support of your child’s growth as a learner!

Also on the subject of good work, Heather’s advisory held a sale of crafts created by kids from Akany Avoko- a children’s home in Madagascar.   They raised $550, which is enough to feed all of the kids in the orphanage for two months! For more information about Akany Avoko, please visit http://www.akanyavoko.com.

I wish you all a relaxing and family- and friend-filled Winter Break.

Best,
Mark

Dear Families,

With the Thanksgiving Break receding into the past and the Winter Break just ahead of us, I thought I’d take a moment and share with you some of the highlights of our recent Thanksgiving Assembly. As one teacher commented to me after the assembly, “this year the students’ voices were so present.” And indeed they were . The assembly was a veritable feast of stories offered by each grade and as a collective group.

The fifth graders shared stories of thanks written to important people in their lives. These stories focused in on the individual they were thanking and through rich description brought that person and why he or she was important to life for their listeners.

The sixth graders shared a collective poem that focused on those things for which they were most thankful. The poem touched on the personal and the global and built to heartfelt shared expression of thanks.

The middle of the ceremony was reserved for what I hope will become a new tradition for our assembly. During the weeks leading up to the assembly, Middle School music teacher Matt McLean worked with classes to create an original composition focused on the spirit of giving thanks. The sixth through eighth grade classes sang their verses and the community joined in on the choruses, which were composed by the fifth grade. Click here to read the lyrics of our “Thanksgiving Song.”

The seventh graders who earlier in the morning held their annual food festival offered  stories about food that were connected to their family, their heritage or their past. Following the assembly, the sixth graders joined them in the cafeteria to continue the communal “breaking of bread.”

As has become our tradition, the eighth graders offered their revision of  the Byrd Baylor story I’m in Charge of Celebrations. Their revision reflected 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. I hope that the their version of “I’m in Charge of Celebrations” gives you as much pleasure as it gave us. Enjoy!

I also hope that your Thanksgiving like our assembly was filled with stories both new and old.

Best,
Mark

Dear Families:

As Robert Frost commented, “Good fences make good neighbors;” and so it is with the fences surrounding the tree pits in Little Red Square. Born of the hard work of middle schoolers during advisory period, lower and middle school students, parents and faculty who attended “It’s My Park” Day, and a dedicated group of middle schoolers who helped to build and paint before and after their Family Conferences, these fences are truly the product of a communal effort. As the fences went  up, it was as if the community suddenly rediscovered the tress that had always been there. Neighbors and passers-by commented on the much appreciated care that students were taking of this shared community space.

While seemingly simple in their appearance, the fences tell a story of students and their advisors thinking about ways to take care of our urban garden, of thoughtful planning and preparation, of physical labor and of committed work. A number of Middle Schoolers completed some of this work in the Lower School woodshop, a place they had not been for several years. As one student commented, “the saws used to seem so big,” and as Peggy commented on her former students, “it was amazing to watch them work; they worked with such energy and a sense of purpose.”  These fences also embody a core LREI value originally stated by Elisabeth Irwin, which is “to encourage children to respect the dignity of manual labor by working with our hands as well as with our heads.” And as Agnes De Lima observes in The Little Red School House:

This labor has a value of its own. The children hammer, saw, file. They lift heavy weights; they pound into wood; they enjoy their bodies. When they put their bodies to a definite task, like planning and sawing, the medium of the tool forces them to coordinated, economical, and rhythmical movement which is excellent physical education and which the children unconsciously enjoy.

So these fences are an extension of the classroom and as such they connect the work of students, families and teachers to the broader world of lived experience. Take a moment to enjoy the fruits of this labor.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families:

While some of you have already had your Family Conferences, the bulk of middle school families will have their conferences tomorrow. Students and advisors have invested significant time in preparing for these conferences and I hope that they provide you with a clear picture of your child’s learning experience so far this year. A key belief that informs these conferences is the idea that students need to reflect in meaningful ways on their experience as learners in order to further the depth of their understanding; it is this act of reflection that helps students to understand in more profound ways their strengths and challenges. It also helps them to take appropriate action to address both of these domains.

The same is true of LREI faculty who are fully committed to the idea of being reflective practitioners. A critical component of the work of reflective practitioners is dependent on the time that they are able to spend with other colleagues engaged in purposeful dialog about their practice.

In this spirit, approximately once a month during our Tuesday divisional faculty meetings, middle school faculty members meet in their chosen Professional Learning Group (PLG). PLGs are facilitated by a colleague or a pair of colleagues and represent a forum for shared inquiry and professional growth. The PLGs are non-evaluative and faculty run; they represent a focused and solution-oriented approach to supporting reflective practice. The aim of these meetings is to provide a space for faculty members to exchange ideas, learn from each other and support one another in reaching their professional goals. The group allows each member to examine his/her practice in a non-judgmental and non-evaluative setting. A group succeeds to the extent that it helps all of its members to set and reach their goals and move to a new level of professional practice. This year’s groups have chosen to focus on:

• Differentiated Instruction
• Integrating reading into the curriculum
• Assessment and Action Research

Agnes de Lima observed in The Little Red School House that “we take the child as he is and where he is [and] try to understand him, and then seek to help him understand the kind of world in which he lives and the part he is to play in it.” This represents a core value at LREI and one that hinges on our ability to “fit the school to the child.” This is certainly hard work and while no school can be all things to all children, it does create for us a moral imperative to try our best to meet the learning needs of our students.

Through thoughtful inquiry and reflective practice, teachers can and must come to know their students. This allows teachers to structure the learning experience to meet the varied needs and approaches to learning that are present in the classroom. So from a historical perspective, differentiating instruction is nothing new at LREI. The faculty members who have chosen this as their area of focus are framing their work around the foundational ideas that

• no two children are alike,
• no two children learn in the identical way,
• an enriched environment for one student is not necessarily enriched for another, and
• we should teach children to think for themselves,

Their inquiry recognizes that although essential curricular goals may be similar for all students, the methodologies employed in a classroom must be varied to suit the individual needs of all children. Therefore, learning must be differentiated to be effective. Differentiating instruction calls on teachers to create multiple paths so that students of different abilities, interests or learning needs experience equally appropriate ways to absorb, use, develop and present concepts as a part of the daily learning process. Through their work, the members of this group will make this work the focus of their inquiry.

Assessment is a crucial component of the learning experience for students and structuring meaningful assessments is a demanding and important task for teachers. In addition to the more traditional forms of assessment, like tests and quizzes, which require thoughtful planning and preparation, as a progressive school, we are also committed to the use of meaningful authentic assessments. The creation of these kinds of assessments also require substantial teacher expertise.

Authentic assessments ask students to read real texts and use real materials, to write for authentic purposes about meaningful topics, to confront meaningful problems that may have multiple solutions, and to participate in tasks such as discussions, presentations, experiments, journal and letter writing, and regular revision of their work. Most importantly, authentic assessment values the thinking behind the work, the process, as much as the finished product. As you can well imagine, creating assessments that are focused on clear learning goals and aligned with the curriculum and that are simultaneously relevant to and appropriately challenging for students is no small feat.

The group of faculty members who have decided to dig beneath the surface of their assessments has also chosen to do so using action research as a way of gaining greater insight into their work in this area. Action research is a methodology that calls on teachers to look at their own work and to identify areas of inquiry that can be investigated in their classroom or schools. It is a “reflective process of progressive problem solving led by individuals working with others in teams or as part of a ‘community of practice’ to improve the way they address issues and solve problems.”

Reading is a critical cornerstone of the LREI experience. Our third professional learning group has chosen to look at the many ways in which reading is integrated throughout the curriculum. They are approaching this work with a particular focus on connecting with students through texts that are meaningful and relevant to the adolescent experience.

Through targeted readings of thematically related texts and scholarly writings on the integration of reading in the curriculum, group members will become more familiar with a diverse selection of grade level titles so that they can make individual recommendations to students, select titles for literary circles and book partnerships, and supplement classroom libraries. Group members will also share insights on texts and reading strategies and will discuss ways that these texts and strategies can be better implemented into the curriculum and used to better meet the needs of individual students.

While the work of all three Professional Learning Groups allows teachers to focus in on important elements of their teaching practice, ultimately, the work of these groups is focused on enriching the learning experience for all middle school students. What better goal could there be!

Best,
Mark

Dear Families,

Whether through class discussions and projects, current events presentations, or registering voters on Sixth Avenue, the current election has provided an authentic opportunity for middle school students to consider what it means to be informed and active citizens. Last week in Middle School meeting, the class reps read a series of quotes without attribution to Senators McCain and Obama and asked their classmates if they could determine which quote was spoken by which candidate. It was not quite as easy as students thought and through this experience we affirmed the need for citizens to research the issues and to be thoughtful and critical thinkers. This activity served as a kick-off to our Mock Election project. In order to participate, students were required to register in advance of the election day and were informed that they would need to give up some time during recess and lunch on voting day if they wanted to vote. Students were also given a chance to review the ballot so that they could consider thoughtfully the set of issues questions on which they would be asked to vote.

There was a strong turn out of eighth graders who voted early on Tuesday because they would be at Minimester on Wednesday. The polls opened for fifth through eighth graders on Wednesday and while students had to wait in line to vote electronically in the computer lab, the polling place was well monitored by the class reps. Students were able to vote for President and Vice President and Representatives. They were also asked to consider a number of critical domestic and foreign policy issues, a slate of issues specifically relevant to young people, and a number of issues relevant to life in the Middle School. The results of our election will provide opportunities for additional discussion and inquiry as the real election approaches; the results of the questions specific to LREI will provide important information for the class reps and their on-going work.

As John Dewey observed in Democracy and Education (1916) “A democracy is more than a form of government; it is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience.” That shared sense of experience was clearly evident in the conversations and palpable excitement that surrounded our mock election. Moving beyond their relevance to this particular experience, Dewey’s words have profound implications for how schools conceive of the educational process itself. Schools that consciously organize themselves around this foundational idea are, through their very structure, educating students for active participation in a democratic society. We’ve worked hard to structure LREI in this kind of way and as Dewey observed elsewhere in Democracy and Education, “In static societies, societies which make the maintenance of established custom their measure of value, this conception applies in the main. But not in progressive communities. They endeavor to shape the experiences of the young so that instead of reproducing current habits, better habits shall be formed, and thus the future adult society be an improvement on their own.”

With that in mind, I encourage you to consider our students’ take on some of the issues that are at the center of the upcoming election (click here for a summary of our mock election results). They present a unique look into what is on their minds. I hope that their responses will inform the on-going dialog taking place at home about these important issues. Regardless of the outcome, on Wednesday, November 5th, we will run an extended morning homeroom so that students can share and discuss their responses to the election. We will also meet as a whole community at our regular Middle School meeting that afternoon.

On other fronts, a reminder that progress reports and family conferences are just around the corner. If you have not already, you will receive in the next few days an email from your child’s advisor with information about how to sign up for a conference. Conferences are scheduled for November 7th and 14th (the Middle School will be closed on both days). Progress reports will go out on Tuesday, November 4th. As part of our sustainability efforts they will be sent out as pdf files. You will receive a paper copy of the fourth quarter report that will include progress report information for the whole year. For additional information from last week’s blog on progress reports and family conferences, please click here.

I look forward to seeing you at the conferences.

Best,
Mark

Dear Families,

With the end of the first quarter just behind us, progress reports and family conferences are just around the corner. During the next few days, you will receive an email from your child’s advisor with information about how to sign up for a conference. Conferences are scheduled for November 7th and 14th (the Middle School will be closed on both days). Progress reports will go out on Tuesday, November 4th. As part of our sustainability efforts they will be sent out as pdf files. You will receive a paper copy of the fourth quarter report that will include progress report information for the whole year.

Progress reports provide an important opportunity for shared discussion about successes to date and challenges to address as we move forward into the second quarter. I encourage you to review the section on progress reports in the handbook so that you are familiar with the format of the reports.

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 families to view them as representative of where the student stands as a learner 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.

For all families, while progress reports and family conferences provide an opportunity to reflect on a student’s progress and to think about strengths and challenges, it is important to remember that assessment is an on-going process at LREI; it is a means to an end, but not an end in and of itself. Its aim is to improve student understanding of key ideas and skills. In the Middle School, teachers strive to develop assessments that are learner-centered and focused on student understanding in relation to the particular goals identified for each area of inquiry. Rather than being separate from learning, assessment plays a central role in the instructional process. The assessment process also sheds light on which instructional strategies are most effective. Through thoughtful assessment, the teacher gains critical feedback for choosing and utilizing those teaching strategies that can best help a learner progress towards the goals of a particular unit of study. Opportunities for meaningful assessment also allow students to gain deeper insight into areas of strength and challenge and allow them to develop plans to address growth in both of these areas.

The Family Conference is an extension of these assessment activities and should be viewed as a dynamic opportunity to talk about growth and development. The student’s presence and participation in these discussions is of vital importance. The Family Conference affords the student an opportunity to reflect, applaud, and problem-solve with two of her/his most important advocates, family members and her/his advisor. These conferences should be approached with a forward-looking perspective. As prior performance is reviewed, all of the participants should seek to work together to identify strategies and opportunities for learning that will support the student’s continued growth and development.

The Family Conference in the Middle School places the student at the center as an active participant. We do this for a number of reasons:

1. to encourage students to accept personal responsibility for their academic performance;
2. to help students develop the reflective skill of self-evaluation;
3. to facilitate the development of students’ organizational and oral communication skills and to increase their self-confidence; and
4. to encourage students, parents, and the advisor to engage in open and honest dialogue.

Family conferences are an important part of the educational experience at LREI. They are important for students, parents/guardians, and teachers. Like all learning opportunities, the Family Conference requires trust and a willingness to take risks on the part of all participants. While the conference may not be tension-free, it does provide an opportunity for inquiry and understanding. Here are two discussion ideas that you might want to consider as you prepare for these important dialogues:

• share with your child memorable experiences from when you were a middle school student and consider why such memories may be important to the educational life of your child
• explore how you and your child approach the concept of learning and reflect on why looking at the differences and similarities in your responses might be important.

In preparation for these conferences, Middle School students will spend  time reflecting on their work thus far this school year. With their teachers’ and advisor’s guidance, students will identify areas on which to focus during the next quarter and will develop plans for achieving these goals. Your child will have these reflections with her/him during your conference. Here are some additional topics/questions that you might reflect on before your family conference:

• Your child’s work habits at home–when are the most and least successful?
• Which assignments, or types of assignments, seem to lead to the most success? To be the most frustrating?
• Is our organizational plan working for your child? How is your child managing her/his time?
• When you and your child discuss school/school assignments at home, are there consistent themes that should be discussed at the conference?
• Are there extracurricular commitments or extenuating circumstances that should be discussed at the conference?

There’s no doubt that conferences are hard work, but the potential for learning that can take place when all participants commit to the process is clearly worth the effort.

I look forward to seeing you at the conferences.

Best,
Mark

Dear Families,

Last week, our fifth and sixth graders traveled to the Ashokan Center in the Catskills for three days of outdoor and experiential education.

These are certainly core values that are well aligned with the LREI mission. Since the school’s inception, the notion of having students engage in direct experiences (i.e., going to the woods as opposed to simply staying in the classroom and learning about the woods) has been seen as a crucial pathway for developing student knowledge and skills. In this work we are guided by the assumption that our educational goals can be effectively met by allowing the nature of the learner’s educational experience to influence the educational process. At the same time, we are well aware that experiences alone are not in and of themselves inherently good for learning. The progressive educator therefore seeks to arrange particular sets of experiences, which are conducive towards particular educational goals. For the Ashokan trip, there are a number of underlying goals:

1. To build community between the fifth and sixth grade classes
2. To help students to better understand the impact that humans have on the natural world and the responsibilities that come with this interaction
3. To learn skills to allow one to move with minimal impact through the natural world
4. To gain insight into the value of labor and work that is often hidden or held at arms length in our consumer driven society

With these principals in mind, fifth and sixth graders:

• participated in a series of adventure-based activities in which group participants got to know one another better and learned how to work through difficult adventure-based challenges. The activities required problem-solving skills, determination and cooperation. They challenged students mentally, physically and socially, and required total cooperation and participation.
• took a night walk through the woods and a participated in a community-drumming workshop.
• experienced the “Age of Homespun” at the Ashokan pioneer homestead. They hiked out to visit the log house and joined the daily life of the Homesteader. Activities included cooking, spinning, shingle splitting, woodcutting, and games of the era.
• experienced blacksmithing, broommaking and tinsmithing. These activities put an emphasis on the apprentice system. The concept of community, roles people had within the community, how these roles have changed, and how the Industrial Revolution changed our lives were explored.
• participated in an “Orienteering and Survival Afternoon.” In teh woods, they learned the basics of Wilderness Preparedness, Fire Building, Shelter, First Aid, and Wild Edibles. Through games and practice, students also learned to use topographic maps and compasses to find their way. This may included a hike through the forest, use of the Ashokan compass course, “bushwhacking” to find a location on a map, and games on the field. Plant and animal communities, which make up each forest type, were also examined through observation and first-hand experience.
• participated in the “New Games Festival: These were fun, challenging activities which gave the students experiences that developed a sense of trust and cooperation among the group. These games were designed to de-emphasize competition, encourage creative play, spontaneity, participation and use of the imagination.
• participated in the “Ashokan Scavenger Hunt.” In this activity, students put all of their Ashokan skills to work. They used orienteering skills, their knowledge of survival skills and an appreciation of the environment to navigate their way through the hunt.

All in all, a mission worthy endeavor!

Click here to view the photo gallery for the trip.

Best,
Mark

Dear Families,

It was a pleasure to see so many of you at yesterday’s Building for Action event. I hope that you are as excited as I am about the future of LREI. While our building plans are bold and innovative, the Building for Action campaign is really an affirmation of the mission and purpose of Elisabeth Irwin’s experimental school. In this way, the bricks and mortar of the project are invested with a special significance; they support our continued efforts to engage your children in authentic and engaging inquiry that draws on the most current ideas about teaching and learning.

The Middle School has been fortunate to already be reaping the benefits of the Building for Action plan. Our new classrooms stand as an affirmation of the vibrant exchange between students and teachers that takes place every day. The new spaces have also helped to invigorate our on-going dialog aimed at understanding “what is best for learners.” To that end, I thought it would be useful to share with you a sampling of some of the rich and rigorous work that is taking place in our Middle School classrooms.

Fifth graders are . . .

• using tables, graphs, and rules to model solutions to problems like the Ice Cream Problem which asks, “With 31 possible flavors, how many different types of 2-scoop cones are there?” They are also beginning to use the same algebraic principals to act out and model trips – steady, accelerating and decelerating motion.
• taking their first steps into the exciting world of French. They are getting comfortable with the pronunciation, picking French names, reciting the alphabet, counting, and talking about the weather.
• continuing and expanding on their Lower School study of Spanish with the introduction of new vocabulary and verbs
• creating collages of “things they like to do when they are not in school,” making sketch books that will be used in school and on trips and beginning a painting project that incorporates the art elements: line, shape, and color.
• learning important organization skills as they organize their files into folders on the server and on their flash drives. They are also continuing to work on improving their keyboarding skills.
• playing indoor soccer and doing fitness training.
• exploring the question, “What is music?” through discussions of John Cage’s Water Walk and their own musical experiences in class.

Sixth graders are . . .

• reading Beowulf and learning how to take notes as they read so that they can analyze the text in class discussions, working on current events and vocabulary and are beginning their study of feudalism. They have also found time to complete their first round of booktalks.
• investigating situations in which they need to add, subtract, multiply, and divide fractions. They are developing strategies to solve problems like, “Blaine plans to paint a highway stripe that is 9/10 of a mile long. He is 2/3 of the way done when he runs out of paint. How long is the stripe he painted?” and “There are 12 baby rabbits at the pet store. Gabriella has 5 1/4 ounces of parsley to feed the rabbits as treats. She wants to give each rabbit the same amount. How much parsley does each rabbit get?”
• practicing in-class dialogues and working on their accents and pronunciation in both Spanish and French classes
• creating collaged triptychs of a journey they have taken, binding and decorating their own sketch books and learning the basics of color theory by creating their own color wheel.
• scaling the Thompson Street climbing wall.
• gathering with the other fifth grade members of the Little Red Singers each Tuesday to sing, dance, listen to and share music! They recently performed a swing jazz piece, “Dancin’ on the Rooftop” at our Middle School Meeting to enthusiastic ovations.
• using found objects to create full class planned improvisations to exhibit the expressive potential of timbre. In small groups, students are then creating pictoral representations for their sounds and then using these to create a musical score for a short composition.

Seventh graders are . . .

• reading Lois Lowry’s The Giver and are exploring the viability of a utopia as well as the complex themes this novel presents: perfection, fairness, justice, and the role memory has on an individual and on a society, to name a few. Students are learning how to use textual evidence to support their understanding of these themes and this thought-provoking novel.
• learning how historians use primary and secondary source materials to generate an understanding of early English settlement in North America, especially when those source materials present differing perspectives and viewpoints on important individuals and moments in American History.
• helping our fictitious bike tour company get off the ground. By analyzing data in various forms, and with the help of graphing calculators, the class will decide on a bike tour price and look at variables that will affect profit.
• looking at the significance of the Scientific Revolution and have been conducting experiments with pendulums. They are also measuring and calculating mass, volume and density of irregular objects using measurement tools, mathematical formulas and displacement as part of our study of the properties of materials matter
• writing a composition using the new verb “etre” and some -“er” verbs from last year.
• reviewing Spanish verb conjugations and classroom vocabulary so that they can begin a study of family and the home.
• developing their mime skills and are about to embark on an exploration of theater in NYC over a century ago. Vaudeville acts, melodramas and silent movies will be the focus of the class for the next month.
• creating their own PE games, which they will teach to the rest of the class.
• reporting on the important historical music events from the week and are turning these into podcasts.
• discussing how graphics can be used to communicate ideas as they create personal symbols for their silhouette project.

Eighth graders are . . .

• reflecting on their summer reading memoir about the struggles of school integration at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in the 1950s. After learning about the intense conflict of racial politics and federal versus states rights during the civil rights movement, students are discussing current civil rights struggles and choosing one about which they feel particularly concerned. Their final project is to create an art piece and reflective explanation about their cause in order to bring visibility to it for their peers and the school community at large.
• studying linear functions. They will use what they learn to predict the consequences of leaky faucets. Stay tuned….
• conducting experiments to gain an understanding of Newton’s Laws of motion. These understandings will be used to design and construct Mousetrap powered vehicles that demonstrate these laws.
• reviewing fundamentals of Spanish grammar and vocabulary so that they can begin to study the imperfect, the new past tense as a prelude to their readings in Cuentos Simpáticos.
• completing a composition using adjectives and verbs, both regular and irregular, to describe themselves physically and to describe an activity that they were involved in during the summer.
• are working on the climbing wall for fitness. Students are challenging themselves on the wall with different challenges, like using only certain colored pieces or having two people cross paths as they work across the wall. On sports days, they are working on volleyball skills and strategy.
• learning Breachtian conventions in preparation for creating their own piece of political theater. This week students learned about “Geste” and the impact of ensemble tableaux.
• sketching out their ideas and exploring painting techniques as they prepare to paint the art room stools around this year’s theme of literary characters.
  Eighth graders are incorporating Literary Characters for this years theme.
• beginning an exploration of digital photography by going on a “Photo Scavenger Hunt” in which they were asked to look for a variety of things to photograph that included interesting textures, reflections and other artistic elements
• are creating original podcasts that examine music that interests them and answer the following questions: “why is this music important to you?” “what do you like about the sound of it?” “when do you usually listen to it?”

Truly some excellent foundation building is going on here.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

Thank you so much for your active participation in this past Tuesday’s Curriculum Night. We hope that you left with a clear sense of how the curriculum that your child will experience this year is structured. We also hope that you will use the evening as a springboard to help you to be an active participant in the curriculum with your child. When questions about the curriculum emerge, seek out your child’s teachers. Take advantage of the blogs, which you can access through the “Digital Classroom” link on the sidebar, and use them as jumping off points for conversations. I have written elsewhere about the way in which we approach curriculum at LREI and those ideas were much on my mind as I left the building on Tuesday evening. As I imagine you were, I was truly impressed by our Middle School teachers and their ability to develop curriculum that is experiential, relational and oriented to action.

While Curriculum Night is an opportunity to look at the big picture, it is also an opportunity to get clarifications about specific procedures and practices. In the fifth grade, there were a number of questions about homework. I include below a letter that I sent to the fifth grade families as I think it’s points are relevant for all grade levels.

Homework:
First and foremost, homework is practice; it is not a quiz or a test. Homework is not generally graded for correctness, but rather for effort and completion. That does not mean it should be done haphazardly or carelessly. It should be done in relation to the expectations established by the teacher. For example, spelling does not need to be perfect, but work should be proofread and errors that are caught corrected. In math, a problem may be done incorrectly, but students are expected to show how they arrived at their answer.

For us, the measure of a successful homework session is not one where everything is done correctly, but one where the work reflects a focused and committed effort on the part of the student. Practice is also a time for risk-taking and a natural consequence of risk-taking is error making; we learn from these mistakes. So errors that are the result of risk-taking are useful for teachers and are an important part of the learning process. Errors that are the result of carelessness or lack of effort point to areas where students may need more support in terms of their study skills.

Homework will often be assigned as part of an on-going project. When this is the case, students are not expected to bring in a completed project when only a component of it is due. In most cases, the assigned homework will be used in class to teach students the next step in the project. So if your child is asked to write an introductory paragraph, she and you should not worry about the body and concluding paragraphs. Her teacher will take her through the rest of the process and the homework completed in the evening will often become the foundation for the class work for the next day.

It is also crucial for us to know where your child is encountering challenges. Without this information, we cannot provide the best support. Your child should know that at some point during the year, he will encounter this kind of challenge; it is a normal part of the learning process; it is perhaps the most important part of the process.

So what can you do to best support your child? Here are a few ideas:

1. Make sure that you have read the homework section in the Student and Family Handbook.
2. If you are unclear about the particular expectations for homework in a class, first check on the teacher’s blog as this information is often posted there. If it is not on the blog, contact the teacher.
3. Each family will need to consider what level of intervention makes sense with regard to student errors and confusions. Some families will leave the identification and correction of any problems to the teacher. Some families will intervene more directly. As a guideline, it is helpful to address these issues by asking questions of your child rather than by telling or doing the work for her.
4. Help your child to understand the parameters of the assignment. Help him to budget his time so that assignments that are assigned over multiple days are worked on over multiple days. Extra effort is generally fine if it falls within the assignment parameters; doing more when it falls outside these parameters may not be helpful.
5. Your child should work independently on her work, but she should feel comfortable asking you for clarification and you should feel comfortable monitoring her progress.
6. Students should be able to complete most nightly assignments in 15-30 minutes. If it is taking substantially longer than this or if the 30 minutes is filled with tears and frustrations, you should intervene and stop the homework session. You can send an email or a note to the teacher or better yet you can help your child to feel comfortable seeking out his teacher first thing the next morning. This will help him to develop important self-advocacy skills that will be important for his on-going development as a learner.
7. In those cases where the level of anxiety or frustration is happening with some regularity or if you have specific questions, it is important that you bring your child’s teacher into the conversation. If you feel that this is happening in more than one class, it would make sense to touch base with your child’s advisor who can help you navigate through the problem.

One of our main goals in the middle school is to help students understand who they are as learners. As a result, it is important for students to come to terms with and own their areas of challenge and strength. This will allow them to better identify and use strategies that lead to success. In this way, students will come to see their challenges not as judgments of their worth, but as obstacles that can be overcome. Over time, these strategies will be internalized as habits and students will come to know what they have to do to produce their best work. Again, this is a process and students will work through it at different rates. We acknowledge that this can be frustrating for some students and for some families.

Homework is one medium we use to nurture excellent learning habits in our middle school students; students will over time grow into these habits. While we acknowledge that challenges can emerge because students develop these habits at different rates, students will master these habits as they move through the middle school. In those cases where a student really struggles with a particular learning skill, we will work with the student to develop alternative strategies that will help her to better manage the challenge so that she can produce her best work. It is our job to make this happen and we are most effective in this work when we are able to do it in collaboration with you.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

Just below the eighth grade classrooms on the Bleeker Street side of the building, there is a small dedication plaque in honor of Rank Smith who followed Elisabeth Irwin as the school’s second director. You have likely walked past the plaque many times, but may not have read its words. It says, “Where school is fun at work.” Simple, but profound.

At our beginning-of-the-year meetings, the Middle School faculty talked about this quote and its relevance to our teaching practice. For us, the use of the word “fun” pointed to something deeper and more purposeful than just having a good time. A recent article in Educational Leadership by Steven Wolk explores similar ground as it examines the idea of schools as “joyful” learning communities. For Wolk, joy is the “emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something good or satisfying.” This “something” can produce moments of unexpected or easy joy, but the pursuit of joy most often requires a fair amount of dedicated and committed work. Seen through this lens, schools that are a joyful places are ones where “the hearts and minds of children and young adults are wide open to the wonders of learning and the fascinating complexities of life.” I find LREI to be just such a place; I hope you do too.

In our meeting, I asked the members of the Middle School faculty to think about some of the ways that they’d like to bring more joy into our work with your kids and with each other this year. Here is a collection of some of their responses:

• Help students to discover that the creative process is the learning process
• Ensure that learning process is safe, meaningful and personal
• Create opportunities for students to explore literary genres that interest them
• Continue to explore the ways in which math is embedded in other subjects and in day-to-day experience
• Allow students to engage in independent inquiry that is driven by their own interests
• Connect student interests to key skills and concepts that are part of the curriculum
• Provide more authentic opportunities for students to publish and share work
• Allow students to build on skills developed in PE activities by having them create their own games that we can then play
• Make sure that students know that they have a voice and that their ideas are valued
• Use student input to help shape projects and activities
• Let a sense of excitement enter into our investigations
• Use student-built models and machines to explore and discover how the natural world works
• Connect students’ science understandings to a better understanding of how things are interconnected
• Discover the joy of community service and giving back
• Allow students to be teachers
• Make sure that students are really getting to live their learning experience
• Challenge students to explore the range of places where learning can take place
• Make more room for laughter
• Provide a sufficiently wide range of “tools” for students to use as they play with ideas
• Make sure that students have “time to tinker”
• Connect language learning to real lived experience
• Engage parents in the learning process with their children
• Make our learning spaces comfortable
• Shift from working with to exploring with students
• Help students to discover themselves as active citizens within and beyond the LREI community

Taken individually and collectively, these statements provide clear evidence of our commitment to a program where “school is fun at work.” I hope that you were able to sense this potential for joyful work in your meeting with your child’s advisor and in your child’s comments on her/his first few days of school. I encourage you to join us in this on-going inquiry by spending time as a family thinking about ways that you can help to make this a truly joyful year.

In this spirit of collaboration, the members of the Middle School faculty are looking forward to seeing you this Tuesday evening at 6:30PM for our Middle School Curriculum Night. At the event, you will get to meet your child’s teachers who will provide you with an overview of their classes and their class expectations. We hope that all of you will be able to attend as Curriculum Night helps to provide a meaningful frame for the work that we will undertake together over the course of the year.

Finally, the Middle School marked the 9/11 anniversary by attending and participating in the September Concert at Washington Square Park. The concert was coordinated by High School music teacher Vin Scialla and featured performances by the High School Jazz Band and Chorus and high school and middle school bands. All of the participants took part in a community singing of the Beatles “Let It Be.” In their advisory groups, students also had time to reflect on the significance of this day. Their comments were thoughtful as was their participation at the event.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

Greetings! In June, the Middle School faculty members packed up their rooms to make way for the summer camp who made excellent use of all of our spaces. Truth be told, it was nice being surrounded by the sounds of camp as I took advantage of the time to think about things middle school. As July came to an end, the summer camp packed up and was almost immediately replaced by a legion of contractors and craftspeople who are hard at work at a major renovation of our Middle School space. All of the core classrooms and common spaces will arrive shiny and new in September. These rooms will also reflect some new technology additions including ceiling mounted wireless projectors, which we will use in conjunction with a set of new tablet notebooks. The tablets and projectors will allow teachers and students to more easily collaborate and share work. Over the course of the year we will also explore a number of other ways to use these tools to enhance our curriculum.

I hope that things have been equally exciting for you and that you are all enjoying your summer and finding time to be with family and friends. With August here, it is only a short time before we are back in full swing. So I hope that you make the most of these last few weeks.

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 important revisions. These revisions are indicative of the rich professional dialog that took place this past year. While we certainly expect that you will review the full handbook, a link to a detailed summary of the revisions can be found here.

One important change has to do with the schedule for the first day of school (Thursday, September 4th), which has been adjusted to allow each family to meet with their child’s advisor in the afternoon:

Beginning of the year meeting with your child’s advisor:
Advisors meet with each advisee and her/his family at the start of the year to introduce her/himself and for you to learn more about her/his role as an advocate and liaison. This meeting will occur on the afternoon of the first day of school and provides all parties with an un-charged, friendly environment to get to know each other. It is also a chance to establish connections and set goals. This is especially useful for new families and for fifth grade families as the meeting will provide families with a sense of what is new and what to expect. This meeting will also provide a chance for families to discuss any goals or concerns that they may have.

On the first day of school, we will run abbreviated morning schedule with students seeing all of their teachers. Following lunch and recess, the mini-conferences will begin. Advisors will meet with the advisee and her/his parents for 15 minutes. Faculty members who are not advisors will be with kids at Houston Street doing structured games (a kind of mini field day). Parents will pick their child up from Houston Street and can leave with their child after meeting with the advisor. Students may also return to Houston Street following their conference and will be dismissed at 3:15PM.

Some other revisions to the handbook touch on:

• Clarifications of the arrival and dismissal policy
• Homework blogs and agenda books
• Daily Study Group for seventh and eighth graders
• A statement about unkindness and exclusion
• Preparation for Family conferences with your child’s advisor
• Communication between home and school
• Student support

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 provides 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.

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

• Sara-Momii Roberts – Eighth grade core teacher
• Matt McLean – Middle School music and band
• Susannah Flicker – Seventh grade learning specialist

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

• Peter Fisher – Eighth grade PE and Athletic Director
• Larry Kaplan – Fifth through seventh grade PE and Intramural Sports Program Coordinator
• Ledell Mulvaney – Middle School chorus

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:

• Middle School art teacher Carin Cohen, PE teacher and Athletic Director Peter Fisher, and science teachers Sherezada Acosta and Stephen Volkmann all taught classes at the LREI Summer Institute.
• Sherezada also participated in a Salvadori Center workshop that focused on integrating standards-based built-environment projects and activities into the curriculum so that students can use the “urbanscape” around them to increase their knowledge of mathematics, science, arts, language arts, social studies, and technology. In August, Sherezada participated in workshops at EduChange’s Annual Summer Invitational on backwards planning, assessment and rubric design and subject-specific differentiated Instruction.
• Middle School librarian Jennifer Hubert Swan completed her third summer teaching a Young Adult literature survey course in the Queens College graduate library program.
• Middle School art teacher and visual arts department chair Melissa Rubin taught a visiting artist workshop to graduate art education students at Manhattanville College during the first week of July and had artwork in an exhibition at the Gold Dome Gallery in Oklahoma City, OK.
• Ana Fox Chaney continued her masters program at the Bank Street College of Education in Leadership in Mathematics Education. The program’s focus is on innovative curricular and instructional approaches and new assessment strategies in mathematics.
• Sixth grade core teacher and dean Lynne Cattafi worked with a number of colleagues from the lower and high school divisions to develop an intensive three-day orientation program for new LREI faculty members. Lynne was also the recipient of one of our first travel grants. In August, Lynne traveled to Turkey. This experience will certainly add a new dimension to the Islam unit of our sixth grade study of the Middle Ages.
• Fifth grade core teachers Wendy Bassin and Heather Brandstetter were also the recipients of a summer grant that they used to develop new materials and resources for their fall Civilization Simulation. This work will further enhance an already rich unit of study.
• Eighth grade core teacher Sara-Momii Roberts participated in the Facing History and Ourselves Summer Institute that was held Teachers College. The Seminar challenges participants to explore a range of inquiry-based approaches to the teaching of history and to reflect on questions about what it means to participate responsibly in a civil society.

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.

Among the many 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 Ashokan Outdoor Education Center. This three-day experience provides an excellent opportunity for our 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 these grade-level trips. In addition, our two optional foreign language trips (Spain and France) 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.

See you soon,
Mark

Dear Families,

Fourth quarter progress reports are about to go out. A reminder that these reports include written comments from students on their work this year in each of their classes. We think it fitting that each student’s voice find it’s way into her/his final report. I must say that it was a great pleasure reading through all of these reports. The students’ reflections were thoughtful, honest, and focused on growth.

Many of you have asked about the supply letters. For those of you who want to get a jump on things, a link to the letter is below. You can also find links to the summer assignments.

General:
Middle School Supplemental Reading List
Middle School Supply Lists
2008-2009 LREI Calendar
Eighth Grade:
Summer Reading Assignment and Reading List
Summer Math Assignment
Seventh Grade:
Summer Reading Assignment and Reading List
Summer Math Assignment
Williamsburg Trip Registration Form
Sixth Grade:
Summer Reading Assignment and Reading List
Summer Math Assignment
Fifth Grade:
Summer Reading Assignment and Reading List

A reminder that the first day of school is Thursday, September 4th. We will be modifying the structure of this day to allow for every family to meet with their child’s advisor. I will send more information in August explaining how to sign-up for this meeting.

In the meantime, I hope that you all have a most excellent summer!

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

It’s been a busy week in the Middle School with

• the sixth graders sharing some most excellent poetry at their potluck on Tuesday morning,
• the fifth graders wowing us with their robotic amusement park rides, memoirs, math games, animations of Greek myths and a stellar dramatic production in which Ulysses was put on trial,
• the seventh graders sharing scenes from Romeo and Juliet and then arguing a simulated supreme court case on national security and the first amendment at the courthouse in Brooklyn; and
• the eighth graders preparing for the culmination of their Middle School experience, which will take place next Tuesday at our Moving Up Assembly/Ceremony.

It has been an exciting year in the Middle School and these culminating events point to just how far we’ve all traveled together this year. In a way, I’m surprised that the end of the year is upon us. However, with so much amazing work going on, it’s hardly surprising that it’s turned out that way. It has been a pleasure working with you and your children and I look forward to our continued collaboration in the fall. In the intervening months, I hope that you have a joyful summer filled with plenty of quality time for family and friends.

Relax and be well!

Mark

Dear Families,

With the end of the year almost upon us, students in all grades are hard at work on a range of culminating activities. I look forward to seeing all of you in the coming weeks at the various grade level potlucks. These are always wonderful opportunities to celebrate the impressive work that students have done this year and provide an open door through which you can view the richness of their daily school experience.

On the subject of doors, I’d like to share an impressive art project that a group of eighth graders completed quietly and without much fanfare. This year, the whole Middle School has explored the ways in which art can be used as a tool for social and political activism. Through the Paydirt/Fundred Dollar Bill Project, which is still ongoing, we discovered first hand how art and collective action can make a difference. In the same spirit, The Doors of Hope project empowered our students to address civic and social issues through the creation of public art.

As Middle School art teacher Carin Cohen who coordinated our group of artists notes:

This Spring, LREI was asked to participate with Cityarts in the Doors of Hope Project. Emerging from the theme Young Minds Build Bridges, CITYarts created a portable mural consisting of eight doors, painted by students from eight schools in New York, to be given to the kids of New Orleans. The groups of students were each given a standard-size wooden door to paint and asked to think about inspirational messages and images that celebrate nature while raising awareness of global warming. The students were also encouraged to think about and incorporate aspects of their own New York City culture or what they know about New Orleans culture.The students designed the doors specifically with their contemporaries in New Orleans in mind. They were visited by Paul Deo, a professional artist from New Orleans who moved to New York after Katrina. He provided some insight about New Orleans culture as well as sharing some related imagery with the students. Upon completion, the doors were assembled together into a paneled mural. The mural was displayed at CITYarts’ 40th Anniversary Benefit and Awards Ceremony in early May. Following the Benefit, the Doors of Hope panel was sent to the Louisiana Children’s Museum in New Orleans as a gift from the youth of New York City to the youth of New Orleans. The doors and the collective spirit reflected in the work will provide encouragement and support for the children of New Orleans, who are still coping with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Click on the above images to see the full image.

Congratulations and thanks to eighth graders Maya P-H, Henry, Jack G., Gaia, Brianna, Lilly, David, and Emma for their beautiful work and committed activism.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

In the spirit of this week’s Book Fair, I thought I’d give you a glimpse at some of the literacy activities that have been taking place in Middle School core classrooms:

• In fifth grade, students are currently working on “A Day in the Life” journal entries written from the point of view of a real or fictional ancient Greek person. This is a culmination of their ancient Greek research unit in which students studied and took notes on a particular aspect of Greek life.
• In sixth grade, students recently completed a research project on the “ABCs of Islam.” They are currently in the middle of a poetry unit, exploring haiku (in conjunction with their study of Japan), personification poems, creative translations, elegy, poetry comics and concrete poetry. They’re also working on writing poems in the the styles of their favorite poets.
• In seventh grade, students recently completed vignettes modeled after Sandra Cisneros’ House on Mango Street. Currently, seventh graders are reading William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” and will be writing literary essays on the role of fate and free will in the play. In these essays, students will argue whether or not the lovers were fated to die, and what role, if any, free will played in this tragedy.
• In eighth grade, students recently completed muckraking-style exposés on a sustainability issue after studying various Progressive Era and modern investigative journalists such as Upton Sinclair and Eric Schlosser. Students also took a variety of paths in their approach to their final written projects on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. These included researching the real-life Scottsboro Boys trial, creating Boo Radley’s journal, interviewing friends and family about their experiences with the text, and doing a close reading of the text.

All impressive endeavors and reflective of the thoughtful approach to writing that takes place throughout the year. It is an approach that is grounded in the belief that while students must master the many aspects of writing as a craft, the literary terrain they travel must also inspire them to take risks in their thinking, to be bold in their writing, and to embrace writing as a medium for communicating their real insights and passions.

In a similar vein, thank you to those of you who were able to attend The Middle School Awards this past Tuesday evening. The number of students involved in extracurricular activities and the diversity of these activities was inspiring. There is no doubt that these opportunities, which challenge students to think and learn in powerful ways, contribute in important ways to our mission of educating the whole child. As with all endeavors, these experiences are not without their own obstacles (being over-matched by an opposing team, struggling to get the harmonies just right, having to adapt materials to meet a robotics challenge). However, when we see our students pushing themselves to do their best for themselves and for the team/group, the opportunities for learning are self-evident. These programs also provide students with the opportunity to “bump” into a new passion or to deepen a commitment to an area of interest and strength. Through our extracurricular programs, students with varied prior experiences and abilities regularly come together under the guidance of experienced teacher leaders to support each other as they work to be their best selves. I hope that this year’s Awards Night sparked some new areas of interest for students and faculty alike. I look forward to future evenings where we are able to come together as a community to celebrate this important work.

On the subject of our community, I’m pleased to let you know about the three new members of the Middle School faculty:

• Susannah Flicker who has worked this year in the lower school providing academic support will join the Middle School learning support team next year. Susannah will work primarily with the seventh grade team. Prior to coming to LREI, Susannah was the director of learning support at another NYC independent school
• Sara Roberts-Harding will join us as an eighth grade core teacher. For the past four years, Sara has taught middle school social studies in the NYC public schools. She made an immediate connection with our students during her visit and brings with her a solid background in project-based learning. Prior to her work in the public schools, Sara worked in a NYC independent school teaching and supporting a range of diversity initiatives.
• Matt McLean also comes to us from the NYC public schools. For the past 10 years he has taught music classes, directed choruses, run instrumental programs, and served as a musical director. His varied musical experience will be an asset to our music program.

All three are excited to join the LREI learning community and are looking forward to working with your children.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

While the eighth grade is away this week in Gettysburg and DC as part of their core curriculum, I thought I’d take the opportunity to share with you another important piece of their learning journey, which culminated on May 28th.

For the past five months, the eighth graders have been researching issues related to sustainability as part of their core curriculum . This curriculum explores a range of social justice themes connected to the study of US history from Civil War through the Civil Rights Era. Throughout the year, students look at a cross-section of individuals who have taken a stand on social justice issues and who have “chosen to participate.” This year, we expanded the curriculum to support students as they developed social activist skills and “chose to participate” themselves.

Their research into sustainability led them to organizations and volunteer opportunities that have helped them to better understand this crucial issue. As leaders in the Middle School, the eighth graders then planned a Day of Learning for the students in grades five through seven. This day included a series of assemblies and student-run workshops that framed their experiences over the past five months and suggested ways for their classmates to take action on this issue.

Here is a sampling of the workshops that were offered:

• Food, Glorious Food! — Have you ever been dissatisfied with an apple that you wished fulfilled your taste buds? Did you ever consider where that apple came from, or how much pollution it created before it arrived in your hand? Well, if you come to our workshop we will make an organic snack. You will learn to experiment with local food to create a delicious meal while we learn about the environmental impacts associated with our food.
• Other People’s Trash, Our Treasures — In this workshop, we will create wonders out of trash. You will make a piece of art out of a variety of recycled objects, such as bottle caps, magazines, cans, hangers, and paper towel rolls. You are free to open your imagination to anything that shows people how important it is to be sustainable. If you enjoy letting lose and being creative, join us for this thrilling workshop, and bring some recyclables along with you!
• Malaria Jeopardy — Interested in the health side of sustainability? Enjoy game shows? How about saving the young children of Africa from the malaria epidemic? Have fun, learn a lot, and win great prizes in this Jeopardy-style educational experience.
• Make Trees, Save the Planet! — In this workshop, you’ll learn about different types of trees, and why it is crucial that we plant new trees and sustain forest growth. We’ll design and create our own tree shapes and paste them onto a huge roll of paper, making a collage of a forest. You will use magazines and different shades of green construction paper. If you like creative group work, this workshop is for you!
• Build-A-Farm — Are you interested in cows? Farms? Sustainability? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you are perfect for the Build-A-Farm activity. In this workshop, we’re going to sketch architectural blueprints for farms and examine the differences between organic and factory farming. If you looking for a fun workshop, this is the one!
• Race to the Best Bento Box — If you like Japan and cool art, this workshop is for you. First, we’ll explore the importance of “reusing,” which is one of the three Rs of sustainability. Then we will make our own bento boxes out of sustainable materials. A bento box is a Japanese lunch box with many compartments to store different items. You don’t necessarily have to use your finished box for food. You can use it to store whatever you want. There will also be a (sweet) surprise.
• Green House for the Gingerbread Man — In this workshop, you will create a sustainable “gingerbread” house. Using different candies to represent different aspects of sustainable architecture and design, you will create a graham cracker house that will be as sustainable as possible. Group members will be able to eat their “green” creations to make the activity even more sustainable!
• Sweet, Sustainable Jewelry — Sustainability extends much farther than many people may think…and you can do the simplest things to help. Come to our workshop and explore the easy ways you can reuse candy wrappers to create some great, colorful jewelry. It’s fun and creative, not to mention environment-friendly!
• The Solar Shop — On your marks, get set, gooooo! The race toward discovering and using solar energy has begun. Build your own solar powered car and race them against remote controlled cars. If you like to build or are curious about the usage of solar energy, join our workshop.
• The Little Green School House — In this workshop, we will come up with ideas that will make a room in LREI more green and eco-friendly! Then you will split up in groups to design and construct your vision of what that room could look like. We will have a contest to see what group came up with three or more different ideas to make a room at LREI more “green.”
• Natural Beauties — Have you ever wondered how beauty products are made? Here’s your chance to find out! In this workshop, we will make natural beauty products with ingredients such as essential oils, fruits, and honey, as well as learn about how making your own products is better for you and for saving the environment! Please bring small, airtight, plastic containers (such as Tupperware or Ziploc containers).

The assemblies featured a number of student-created videos, a panel discussion with local sustainability activists and a keynote presentation by educator and activist Josh Hahn from the Stone Bridge group. It was an empowering day and one that profoundly put students at the center of a progressive learning experience. It taught them something about the complexities of organizing and leading an event. I think they also discovered some new found respect for their teachers after having to walk a mile in their shoes.

Throughout the project, students maintained a class blog that was used for recording thoughts and experiences and for collecting feedback from the rest of the Middle School students and teachers following the Day-of-Learning. I encourage you to explore the blog to dig more deeply into the learning experience of our eighth graders.

I am already looking forward to next year’s Day of Learning.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

If you’ve walked up or down the Middle School staircase the this past week, you may have noticed a few students “hanging around” on the walls. They are the result of a project that’s was carried out in Heather, Sherezada and Sharyn’s Thursday advisory group. As Heather writes:

The fifth grade advisory has been exploring the effect the media has on what kids think of as “cool.” We discussed the difference between someone who is “media cool” (heavily influenced by the media) and “authentically cool” (someone who is an independent thinker). We decided that kids that are influenced a lot by the media feel they can only wear specific brands and tend to spend a lot of money on clothes. The “authentically cool” kids, on the other hand, tend to have more diverse interests and are also more accepting of all types of people. They don’t care about fitting in and tend to be an inspiration to other kids.

Their research led them to create profiles for a number of typical students who exemplified these two categories. The text that accompanies these portraits really gets gets at the heart of the matter:

Click on the pictures to view the full-size image

• This is Johnny, our “media cool” kid. As you can see, Johnny is wearing “cool” and expensive clothes. Johnny isn’t actually “cool,” he just wears clothes that he thinks make him look “cool.”

• This is an example of our “media cool” kid, which basically means that she is influenced by what he sees in ads and on TV programs and commercials. The brands she wears are glad to have her as a walking advertisement for their products.

• This is Kate. She is “authentically cool.” She is a big fan of the Artemis Fowl books and lows to speak French. She does not care what other people think about her — especially her glasses and braces. She wears cargo pants, French shirt and a pair of cheap, comfortable shoes. She is courteous, adventurous and perky.

• This is Michelle. Michelle is a “media cool” kid. She doesn’t have many of her own ideas about what is “cool.” She and her friends are not nice to other kids unless they wear “cool” clothes and have the “right” brands.

• This is Jasmine. Jasmine is “authentically cool.” She is not influenced by the media or by her friend. She has her won ideas about what is cool and doesn’t feel any pressure from her friends to wear certain things. She and her friends are too busy having fun to care only about Shopping and clothes.

• This is Michael. He is “media cool” and only cares about getting new and cool stuff that the media approves. He doesn’t have a lot of free time to do fun things because he’s always shopping. He is never satisfied with what he has because he always wants the next cool thing.

• This is Raquel. She is “authentically cool.” This means she’s what she wants to be and doesn’t care what people think . She’s a little sporty, a little girly and lots of fun. She knows who she is and that won’t change even though the media influences a lot of people.

There thoughtful work in class has given us all a lot to think about as we maneuver through the Middle School halls. Well done!

Here are a few other “authentically cool” pieces of news:

A hearty congratulations to the LREI Middle School Robotics team who returned last week from their successful journey to Tokyo, Japan. They had an incredible experience as cultural ambassadors and performed well in the competition. They were also recognized by the tournament officials for their efforts to support the other US team from the Bronx so that they could also make the journey to Japan. Thank you for representing LREI so well!

Congratulations also to the members of the LREI Model Congress Delegation. The delegates for the Model Congress this year were fifth graders Marcelo, Odelia, Lola, Danielle, Michelle and Simmon and seventh grader Diana. The group has been working with faculty facilitator Sharyn Hahn since the end of January to write bills, prepare speeches, read other students’ bills from the other schools that participate, and learn about and practice parliamentary procedure. The team spent the entire day at Packer Collegiate High School on Saturday, April 26th for the annual culminating event.

Nearly 200 middle school students from 13 area independent schools, including LREI, sent delegations of model legislators to the event. When students arrive at the event, they break off into one of 17 separate committees based upon the content of their bill. These committees are meant to resemble actual congressional committees and include Judiciary, Education, Health, Housing & Urban Affairs, and Science Space & Technology. After a morning committee session filled with heated debate and criticism, the bills that pass committee are reviewed in one of four full sessions. (House I, House II, Senate I, and Senate II).

As Sharyn notes:

Our delegates had a great time and learned a lot; they all are looking forward to next year! This year, all of our bills all had to do with the environment and sustainability. Diana’s and Lola’s and Danielle’s bills passed and were debated in the full sessions. The others had a tough fight in their committees! In the plenary session in the afternoon several of the fifth graders spoke out on various topics. I was impressed by their thoughtfulness and their courage to speak out in these large groups sessions.

Since we’re in the mode for congratulations, kudos to the sixth-eighth grade French students participated in the National French Contest, which was given in March. The test was given all across the country in both independent and public schools. We had several students who did very well, and a few who have been invited to the formal awards ceremony on June 14th. At the ceremony, students from all over the Metropolitan area will be honored. The following students achieved scores that placed them in the top 10th percentile in the metropolitan area: Seventh grader Lily and eighth graders Gaia, Talia, Ella, Hannah S., and Sophia. Other students who received
There were other students who deserve recognition but did not meet the cut-off needed to be included in the list published by the National Association of Teachers of French. They are: sixth grader Katharine and eighth graders Michelangelo, Robbie, Henry, Brianna, and Emma in the 8th grade, and Katherine M. in the 6th grade. Felicitations!

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

I thought it would be useful to share with you some of the diversity work focused on issues of class that have been taking place in our seventh grade Adolescent Issues classes. This topic is one that we spent a fair amount of time talking about at our recent sixth/seventh grade Adolescent Issues Parent Evening. It is a difficult topic and I applaud our teachers for addressing it in such a thoughtful way. I also want to thank the parents who attended our evening meeting for their equally thoughtful participation in the discussion.

I hope that the following provides some useful background to this on-going work:

In our discussions of values during Seventh Grade Adolescent Issues class, it came to our attention that students have been grappling with issues of class and wealth. To begin the process of addressing this issue, seventh grade core teacher Matthew Rosen and Director of Diversity and Community Sandra Chapman attended a workshop at the Annual Conference of the National Association of Independent Schools called “Tackling Issues of Socioeconomic Inequality with Grades 7-12.” The presenters confirmed what was echoed by The New York Times writers in Class Matters and by Annette Lareau in Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race and Family Life, which is that we likely do more harm when we portray the image of living in a “classless” society as opposed to directly acknowledging the presence of these differences.

We found ourselves asking, “What do LREI Middle School students know about socioeconomic class in the United States?” This led to the next and equally challenging question, “How do we honestly, appropriately, and delicately address class issues with adolescents?” Together, we designed a series of conversations and activities to provide a safe space for students to explore statistics and ask questions, while maintaining individual privacy about themselves and their families.

Our goals for these sessions in Adolescent Issues were to:

1. Raise awareness of class issues in America.
2. Provide age appropriate and accurate information about the five economic classes used in the US: poor, working class, middle class, upper middle class, hyper rich.
3. Dispel stereotypes and assumptions about how people live within these class structures.
4. Use real data to draw conclusions about the choices people might make and why.
5. Help answer questions about what students see and experience in and out of school.

Prior to the students engaging in this work, we reaffirmed some important Adolescent Issues community norms for the activity:

1. There are no right or wrong answers when people are sharing their opinions.
2. Be Serious. Be Realistic. Be Honest
3. Do not publicly or quietly announce where you think you and your family belong.
4. Do not publicly or quietly announce where you think a classmate belongs.

In our initial discussions, students were asked to make assumptions about the life styles of imaginary 14 to 16 year olds from the five different class structures. We felt it was important to begin with what the students thought they knew about the effects of class on an individual’s hobbies, education, diet, health, possessions, etc..

Students then worked in teams on an activity called “The Hand You’re Dealt,” which draws on the following statement from Class Matters: “One way to think of a person’s position in society is to image a hand of cards. Everyone is dealt four cards, one from each suit: education, income, occupation, and wealth, the four commonly used criteria for defining class.” Using the four cards and a fifth with personal information, the teams created a “silhouette” for their person. They used pictures and words to “flesh” out their silhouette, which were derived from the characteristics indicated on their cards. The goal of this exercise was to familiarize students with the impact that one’s class can have on daily life and opportunities.

After creating the five silhouettes, students compared them in terms of values, family life, culture, beliefs, goals, and aspirations. Students noticed and were surprised by the many values and aspirations that were shared across classes. As they observed:

• They all have children
• They all have partners
• They all have a home (no one is homeless)
• They all have some amount of money
• They all live in America (either born or immigrated)
• They all have ethnicities
• They have all traveled somewhere other than their home town
• They all have a job (or used to) and make money
• They spend a lot of money in order to keep kids healthy, educated and happy
• They all work hard
• They all have family values
• They are all working to support their family
• They all receive support from the people they are close to
• They all want the best for their children
• They want their children to go to a good school
• They all had some type of education (not all the same level)
• They want to pass something (values, beliefs, knowledge) onto somebody in the family
• They are all motivated to work in order to support relatives
• They all value their family
• They all worked with the class (“cards”) they were dealt
• Health care is important to them all
• They all like to rest
• They all want the ability to retire
• They all want the best life they can have (they want success)

In response to the question, “What message would you want to give to people outside of your silhouette’s social class?” students responded with:

• I was just really lucky in the hand I was dealt and it did make somethings easier.
• If I were very poor, like my silhouette, I would tell them not to judge me by my social class. I would explain that I have a good heart and I’m going through more than they expected — that they don’t know the half of it.
• Try to get as much education as you can.
• We work for our families; we struggle to support the people we love. We have to go through the same things — we just have to work a little harder.
• I think that the main reason for his success was that he was rich as a child and he had parents who could help finance his early career.
• I’m really working hard to support my family, but I’m not making enough to give them what I want. I’m in a really tough position.
• Having money doesn’t always mean happier. You have to take all the opportunities to make your life better.

Students then explored how these values and aspirations are impacted by class and privilege. To do this they participated in an activity called, “Step Forward, Step Back.” In most diversity workshops, this activity is done with individuals responding to a set of questions and drawing on their own individual experience. Participants begin from a common starting point and respond to questions by either taking a step forward or back. This provides a visual metaphor for the privileging force of class. We adapted this activity so that the student groups responded from the perspective of their silhouette and not from their own personal experience of class. This allowed students to visualize the impact of privilege in a safe and non-threatening context. Throughout the activity, students reflected on what was happening to their group and to others and on the impact that class and privilege can have on their goals. Students were asked to consider the following statements as part of the activity:

• Take a Step Forward if‚
  • English is your first language
  • Your parents were born in the US
  • Your parents went to college
• Take a Step Backward if‚
  • You did not complete four years of college
  • You did not complete four years of high school
• Take a Step Forward if‚
  • You grew up living in a house (not in an apartment building)
  • You identify as Caucasian
  • You identify as Straight
  • You attended private school
• Take a Step Backward if‚
  • You rent
  • You have no medical coverage
• Take a Step Forward if‚
  • You grew up with a country house
  • You are male
  • You go on vacations
  • You own a car
• Take a Step Backward if‚
  • You have no savings account
  • Your children attend the public school in your neighborhood

Having completed the activity, students are now in the process of reflecting on it and are beginning to make connections between the more abstracted life experience of their silhouettes and their own experiences. This work will continue in future sessions.

I want to thank Matthew, Victor, Jennifer, Chap, and the seventh grade students for their thoughtful work and for their contributions to this post. I look forward to our continued exploration of this important issue.

Click here for some additional resources that were used to frame this work. Click here for a web resource that provides additional context and information on the “Step Forward, Step Back” activity, which we adapted for our students (examples of the kinds of questions that can be used can be found in the middle of the page; there are also many links to a number of other thoughtful discussion on the issue of class and privilege).

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

First, a hearty congratulations to the members of our Rube Goldberg team who competed this past weekend in the annual Rube Goldberg Machine Competition at the Fay School in Massachusetts. With the support of Middle School science teacher Stephen Volkmann, seventh graders Aaron and Isabella and eighth graders Cameron, Emma, Maya and Nicholas worked diligently over the past few months to prepare for the event. This year’s event required teams to use a common set of materials to create a contraption that used multiple energy transfers to accomplish the simple task of blowing a bubble. At the competition, the teams were given a set of materials and under timed conditions the teams had to construct and run their machines. They were also required to give a presentation on their design and the associated scientific principles. The members of the LREI team completed the task successfully and were awarded the prize for Most Creative Design. Well done!

We’re looking forward to the upcoming Family Conferences, which are scheduled for this Friday, April 18th, from 8:30AM-3:15PM and on Wednesday, April 23 from 12:15-3:30PM (this will still be a full day for students). These conferences will be with your child’s advisor and will address work completed in all subjects. Because the format of this conference will be different for some of you, I wanted to take a moment to share with you our ideas about the goals for the conference. Students and their advisors have been reviewing work completed in all of their classes over the past quarter. They have identified areas of strength and challenge and work samples that provide examples of these strengths and challenges. Students have also done reflections in each of their classes and they will share some of these in the conference. We expect students to take the lead in this conversation and the advisor’s role is to help guide them through this process. We hope that a holistic picture of who your child is as a learner will emerge.

With regard to the third quarter reports you have just received, it is likely that your child’s comments on his/her work may answer many of your questions. If you have specific questions that are not answered by the end of the conference, we ask that you contact that teacher directly as s/he will be best able to answer the question. The conference represents a moment to celebrate good work and to think about how the school and home can work together to support your child as we move towards the end of the year. If you have not done so already, please read my previous posts about Progress Reports and Family Conferences (and some additional resources). The structure of our Family Conferences is always an evolving one and I encourage you to let me know about your conference experience. Your feedback is tremendously useful in helping us to shape this experience so that it is a meaningful and productive one for all.

While there is still much to be accomplished in the 2007-2008 school year, spring also signals the beginning of our formal planning cycle for the 2008-2009 school year. A crucial piece of this planning is the hiring process, which is well underway. I thought that it would be useful to update you on where we are in this process.

Middle School PE teacher and Co-Athletic Director Marcus Chang who has been on leave this year completing a Masters degree at Teachers College Columbia University will return next year. While he has been on leave, Marcus has continued to support the athletic program and we are excited to have him back full-time. That said, I would also like to thank Peter Fisher who has done an inspired job in Marcus’ absence and has helped to maintain our strong PE and athletic programs. I look forward to Peter’s continued contributions through the end of the year and hope that he will be able to continue to support our athletic program as a coach next year.

With regard to other faculty on leave, drama teacher Julia Collura has been on leave this year in London where she has also been completing a Masters degree. While a difficult decision, Julia has decided to remain in London and to pursue other opportunities. During her lengthy tenure at LREI, Julia has made important contributions to the life and programs of the school. She established lasting relationships with her students and with her colleagues and she will be missed. As a community, we are most grateful for the time, energy and passion Julia has given to LREI. Despite the distance, I know that she will continue to find ways to connect with the ongoing life of the school.

We have also been fortunate this year to have a talented drama teacher serving in an interim role for Julia. Joanne Magee has helped to move the Middle School drama curriculum forward and has ably stepped into the director’s role for the High School musical, the Middle School play, and the upcoming Middle School musical. In light of her excellent work, I have asked her to continue on in her position and am excited to report that she has accepted this on-going position. I look forward to working with Joanne and to the positive contributions that I know she will continue to make to the Middle School program.

Middle School learning specialist Jennifer Haakmat is also in the midst of completing a Masters program and for next year will go from four days a week to two days. Jennifer will continue to work with the eighth grade and we will hire an interim learning specialist to work with the seventh grade. We have already seen a number of excellent candidates for this position.

Finally, Middle School music teacher Henry Chapin Henry has decided to leave LREI in order to continue his work as a community dance and song leader and arts-in-education administrator. I am most grateful to Henry for the work that he has done in moving our music curriculum forward. And while we have certainly benefited from her energy and teaching expertise over the course of this year, eighth grade core teacher Leila Sinclaire has made the difficult decision to return to her home in Bay Area this summer with her husband. She is pulled westward by her extended family and hopes to expand her nuclear family in the not-too-far-off future. I wish Leila the best in her future endeavors and know that we have benefited as a community from her time with us.

We are in the process of identifying a set of promising candidates for interviews and demo lessons. we have already met a number of strong candidates and hope to conclude both of these searches soon. That we are only looking to hire for these two positions is a true testament to the quality and strength of the Middle School program. I am honored to work with such outstanding and passionate educators all of whom are equally committed to serving your children and to supporting each other in their own professional growth. Setting aside any pretense of modesty, the Middle School faculty really is an exceptional team!

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families,

This past Monday night, Middle School psychologist Andrew Weiss, psychology intern Rebecca Platt and I enjoyed a spirited discussion with fifth grade parents as part of our annual Adolescent Issues Parent Evening. We spent much time talking about the many ways in which adolescents seek to test boundaries and that this can invariably lead to a certain level of conflict. As Andrew astutely observed, the goal for parents and teachers is not to find ways to avoid this conflict, but rather to work through it. For it is precisely these moments of conflict that define where the boundaries are and how they connect to the values that serve as a foundation for your family and for us at LREI. Navigating through these waters is certainly difficult for both kids, parents and teachers, but is is essential. We also acknowledged that these values may differ from family to family and with the school and that this can create additional challenges.

We talked about the challenge of responding to difficult questions that we may not want or feel prepared to answer. We agreed that acknowledging the significance of a question is important, but that we may want to let our child know that we want to think about it for a bit to figure out the best may to respond. In this way, we can model thoughtful and reflective thinking for our child as we look for the best way to enter into the conversation. We talked about the importance of finding a response that was honest, but that also felt comfortable with regard to what you may or may not want to share with your child.

Many parents felt that their child’s “need to know” was also challenged by the ease with which information can be accessed in a digital age. Whether intentionally or by accident, it is surprisingly easy for children to stumble upon information that may be misleading, confusing, or scary. While we might want to try to limit what a child can access so only that which is developmentally appropriate can be found, we acknowledged that this is probably impossible. That makes it all the more important to understand and to become comfortable with the information/entertainment tools that our children are using. Knowing how to IM, text, blog, and access social networking sites is crucial. Let your kids teach you these skills and while they are teaching you, you can be helping them to understand how you expect them to use these tools in ways that are consistent with your values. You’ll probably also have a lot of fun in the process.

On a related note, there was much conversation about how parents can keep a pulse on what their child is thinking and wondering about as they move through adolescence. Many parents commented that this is compounded by the fact that as their child is seeking greater independence s/he may appear unwilling to want to share what is going on in his/her life. Many of you commented about how important it is to keep trying, but not to push too hard. The metaphor of a set of closed doors surrounding the adolescent was offered. we agreed that is important to knock regularly on these doors and to not always knock on the same door. And despite all this knocking, we need to be okay with the fact that the child may not always open the door. This regular knocking lets them know that when they are ready to talk to us about an issue, we will be there ready to listen. As it is in the classroom, the student wants to know where the boundaries are and wants to make sure that they are enforced. When the boundaries are vague and inconsistent students to not feel safe and will find it hard to take the risks that are required to do good thinking. In the same way, the regular knocking on the doors of adolescent issues creates a sense of safety and consistency that is so important. Each time you knock, you also send an important message about what you value.

Towards the end of our conversation, I commented that one of the things that so impresses we with our students is that when the stakes are high and a friend is at risk they really do rise to the occasion. We often become aware of issues because students tell us. They tell us because they know that we care about them and want to help, but at a deeper level, they tell us because they truly care about their classmates. This caring for others is hugely significant. For parents, adolescence marks the beginning of a “letting go” and by the end of adolescence, your young adults will be very much responsible for their lives. Because we/you can’t always be there for them, we hope that the values that we have worked to instill in them holdfast and guide them through difficult moments. This is the clearest evidence that that you and your child are productively making your way through adolescence. I see ample evidence of this in our students and it is a reflection of the hard work that you do at home and that we reinforce at school.

Keep knocking and talking!

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families:

It would be an understatement to say that it has been a busy week in the Middle School. Over the course of the week, the third floor slowly transformed itself into an ancient Egyptian tomb. With their “excavations” complete, fifth grade “archaeologists” led insightful tours to parents and students throughout the day today. The tomb was notable for the many fine antiquities that our young scholars “unearthed” and studied in a rigourous and systematic fashion.

A few floors below and centuries apart, the sixth graders have been hard at work preparing for the Medieval Pageant, which took place on Wednesday. Through drama, music, art, and scholarship in their other classes, the sixth graders provided a powerful and nuanced demonstration of the journey they have taken so far through the Middle Ages and of the interplay between “east” and “west.”

Closer to home and connected to their reading of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible,” the seventh graders have been making presentations on the Red Scare, that served as a cultural and historical subtext for the play. They have also sought to make connections between the hysteria of this more recent period and the hysteria that came to define an important moment in our colonial history. Embedded in both explorations are important themes of politics, power, and privilege.

And finally, the eighth graders have been researching a range of social justice issues connected to their “Choosing to Participate” project. This work has been profoundly captured in a series of “muckraking” expose posters that are on display in their classrooms and in the vestibule between the two eighth grade rooms. I encourage you to take a look when you are in the building.

Reading this makes me think that we are due for a well-deserved break. Fair enough, but for most of our eighth graders, spring break will find them in either France and Spain as they participate in our annual foreign language trips. These trips provide students with ample opportunities to put to use in authentic contexts the languages they have been studying. In addition, the trips provide students with direct exposure to the culture and customs of these two countries. In the spirit of full disclosure, a group of high school students will also journey to Germany over the break, so we’ll have the continent well covered.

It goes without saying that behind all of these incredible curricular projects and experiences are the truly gifted and dedicated members of the LREI faculty. Their passion for what they do and their commitment to your children often creates the illusion that what they do is easy. It is the hardest work imaginable and I am continually impressed by what they give of themselves each day in support of your children.

Have a restful and well deserved spring break!

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families:

This week, we had our annual Black History Month assembly. It afforded us a chance to look forward and back as we considered important achievements made by Black Americans and, at the same time, reflected on the roles and responsibilities of White allies.

Our assembly began with a look to our own LREI past. When a number of our current eighth graders were in first grade with Suzanne, they read The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles. Their exploration of the story and its themes of courage and compassion set against a backdrop of hatred and fear (and the students’ own frustration that Ruby Bridges’ story had not been mentioned at a Lower School assembly) inspired two of the students to write a poem, which Suzanne set to music and the class recorded. The resulting The Bravest Girl (this file may take a few minutes to load) became a standard at many subsequent Lower School Assemblies. Suzanne thought it would be interesting to revisit this experience with her former students and to reflect on the ways in which that early experience has influenced them over the past seven years. In addition to listening to the song again, Calen, Cameron, Jack I. Lilly and Talia shared some of their reflections with the rest of the Middle School community as an introduction to our assembly. In their words, they remembered:

• “that even first graders and young people really can make a difference,”
• “that we saw something that was wrong and wanted to correct it,”
• “what it felt like to try to walk a little bit in someone else’s shoes” and
• “how much that we have to be grateful for when you think about the hardships that others have had to go through.”

Wise words! This presentation was followed by a powerful original poem, “I feel a scream coming on . . .,” by seventh grade core teacher Victor Diggs. In his poem, Victor highlighted some of the many important contributions that Black Americans have made to society. This overview provided an important backdrop for our viewing of the documentary, “Mighty Times: The Legacy of Rosa Parks.” While the documentary revisited the familiar story of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, it did so by offering a range of first person accounts and new stories that introduced new heroes.

As a complement to Victor’s poem and the stories of Ruby Bridges and Rosa Parks, the fifth grade offered a collective “I am from . . .” poem that offered insights into the stories and lives of a number of important contemporary Black American figures. Our assembly concluded with a moving reading of a revised version of Maya Angelou’s “Phenomenal Woman” by eighth graders Gaia, Jimmy, Maya PH and Quinn. They offered their reading to Cleo Banks a Civil Rights leader, an African-American woman, and a teacher they (and we) know and love who was in attendance. A community singing of the chorus from The Bravest Girl provided a fitting closing to the assembly. It was a wonderful assembly, both celebratory and thought provoking.

Click here to view the follow-up activity that students completed for their advisory group meetings that took place today.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families:

What a wonderful surprise to walk into the building on Monday and to see such a visible display of your appreciation. While your appreciation is felt throughout the year in gestures large and small, this week’s collective gesture (and the tasty treats) provided just one more reminder of how grateful I am to be a member of this community. So on behalf of all of the members of the Middle School division, thank you.

That said, the lobby was not the only space that underwent a transformation as students and teachers entered the Middle School. This week, the usual dynamic hum of students exploring new ideas and working on exciting studies and projects gave way to the routines of chairs-in-rows, number 2 pencils, and bubbling in answer sheets that are hallmarks of the ERBs. In the midst of that change, our annual Wednesday afternoon Literary Festival provided a wonderful counterpoint to the morning’s testing activities. While lots of fun, the Literary Festival also provides an opportunity for students to encounter writing in some novel and engaging contexts. The list of this year’s offerings follows:

• Booktalking (with Jennifer Hubert Swan). Want to find a more dynamic way to tell someone, “You’ve got to read this book!”? Jen, the Queen of the Book Talk, worked with participants as they explored how to help uncover the joys of reading for others.
• Found Poetry (with Heather Brandstetter). Heather led participants on a poetry-finding adventure where they explored the the LREI building in lieu of the slushy streets of New York to look the poetry that is hidden in the everyday.
• Who the Heck Are You?! (with Dennis Kitchen). Ever wonder who that person is who you see wandering around the building? You know they work here, but you’re not quite sure what they do. In this workshop, students outfitted with a camera and pen “hunted” these people down, snapped their picture and then interviewed them. Dennis shared interviewing techniques and helped participants to create a fascinating bio on a person they thought they knew, but not really….
• Movie Reviews (with Jeannie Park). Students joined editors from People Magazine and heard what it’s like to have to watch movies day in and day out and then write about them–even the ones they hate! Students got tips about what makes a review interesting to a reader and then took a stab at writing their own reviews.
• Visual Autobiography and Bookmaking Workshop (with Melissa Rubin and Robin Shepard). Armed with a range of personally relevant items (their prose and poetry, photos, maps, stamps, feathers, ticket stubs, playbill covers, movie ads, pressed flowers, etc.), students created their very own hardcover autobiography and their turned memorabilia into a story about themselves.
• Slam Poetry (with Leila Sinclaire). What is slam poetry? Is it like a slam dunk? In this workshop, students found out more about this exciting form of performance poetry that resembles freestyle rap, stand up comedy, and traditional poetry all rolled into one. Participants watched filmed slam poetry performances and learned how to write and perform their own slam poems in a non-competitive, supportive atmosphere.
• Comic Books (with Aaron Renier). In this workshop, students got tips from the author of the graphic novel Spiralbound, Aaron Renier, on how to write and illustrate a graphic novel. At the end of the workshop, students walked away with their very own graphic novel, one that they’d written and illustrated.
• Turning Anger Into Stories (with Willard Cook). What is a story? Why do people tell stories? Willard, the editor of the literary journal Epiphany, led students in a writing activity that improved their ability to tell a good story. Beginning with a situation that aroused their anger, students discussed character and plot development, point of view and conflict and turned this seed into a story.
• Playwriting (with Raquel Cion). In this workshop, students joined in a facilitated discussion about what constitutes dramatic writing. The building blocks of playwriting (character, action, conflict, setting) were then explored using tools such as automatic writing, image, and structured writing time. Students learned about the who, where, what, and how of constructing scenes. Through this exploration each student wrote their own “mini-play”. These plays were then read aloud and the workshop culminated with a discussion of how to continue writing and creating plays on your own.
• Pitching a Pilot – Writing for TV (Diana Son). Ever want to write for television? Diana Son, who writes for Law and Order: Criminal Intent, taught students how to pitch a pilot to TV executive and then students worked on ideas for their own pilot pitch.
• The Op Ed Page (with Aaron Jaffe). In this workshop, students learned about the art of opinion writing with Wall Street Journal reporter Aaron Jaffe. Aaron discussed the primary election process and then students decided if this is the best process in deciding on a presidential candidate. They then wrote an op ed piece in which their opinion on the process is front and center.
• Everyone’s a Critic (with Julie Salamon). What’s it like to be paid to watch TV and movies? Sounds easy huh? Except that telling the truth and being judged for it can be hard. Author and culture critic Julie Salamon took students through the ups and downs of writing your creative opinions at the risk of offending your friends and possibly becoming unpopular! Students explored questions like: Can a reviewer be honest and generous? Helpful and critical?
• Seize the Day! (with Danny Gregory). You don’t have to be a great artist or a devoted writer to turn the most ordinary day into a beautiful illustrated journal. Danny showed students how to make a book out of a single piece of paper, which they then filled with simple line drawings and little captions about these found moments.
• Ad Power (with Helayne Spivak). Award-winning copywriter, Helayne Spivak showed students how advertisers use words and pictures to persuade people to do or buy things that they never knew they needed! They also found out what goes on behind the scenes when marketers are trying to grab our attention and influence us. Students the created an advertising campaign for something they either hated, or for a product or idea that they believed in!
• Striking Viking Story Pirates In this interactive workshop, students worked with members of the Striking Viking Story Pirates theater troupe. They guided students through a dynamic process in which individuals and small groups wrote and acted out stories. The Story Pirates took these ideas back to their secret headquarters/laboratory, and in several weeks, they will return for Middle School meeting with newly-built puppets, props, and a brand new sketch comedy show, including some new stories written by participants in the workshops.
• Finding Story Ideas Everywhere (with Liz Braswell). Ever wonder how writers come up with story ideas? Is a story idea always something major, huge? It doesn’t matter what genre you prefer – every story begins with an idea, and sometimes these ideas are very small. Writer Liz Braswell helped students through that most agonizing of writing moments – the blank page!

It was truly a wonderful afternoon. I certainly hope that you will talk to your young writer about her/his Lit Festival experience.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families:

This week Sharon, Ruth, and I are attending the New York State Association of Independent Schools Conference for Division Heads. It’s a great opportunity for us to meet up with peers from other schools to talk about work that is taking place in our schools and to hear from a number of speakers on a wide range of educational issues. One of the speakers this year is Alan November. Alan is a provocative thinker whose work is focused on teaching, learning, and the role of technology in education. He is interested in looking at ways that technology can positively impact on teaching and learning and that can also help students to develop the necessary skills to be successful in a collaborative information-based society.

These are questions that we continue to explore as a faculty. From the introduction of teacher blogs, to on-line literature circles and the use of wikipedia tools for student research, it is clear that we need to incorporate these tools into our daily work with students. We also need to make sure that we do this in a thoughtful and purposeful way so that learning is deep and rich. While there are many interesting archived articles on Alan November’s site, I encourage you to read “Banning Student Containers” and “Beyond Technology: The End of the Job and the Beginning of Digital Work.” Both of these articles identify important challenges that schools face in keeping up with the times and suggest possible frameworks for how to address these issues. I’d be interested to hear from you on your thoughts about Alan’s ideas.

Finally, congratulations to all of the members of the Middle School Robotics team and their coaches for their most excellent work at this past weekend’s FIRST Lego League competition. The following summary comes to us courtesy of Middle School science teacher and Robotics Team coach Sherezada Acosta:

Our robotics season has come to an end. This weekend’s tournament was a great end to the months of hard work. I am happy to report that out of the 82 schools at the event, which represented the top performing teams in the New York City area, the LREI Robotics Advance Team received a 5th Place Award in the Robot Design category. This is an incredible achievement! For this award, the judges “look for teams whose work stands out for innovation and dependability. To assess innovation, the judges watch the robots work, looking for things that make them say ‘Wow!’ They interview team members to reveal the less obvious unique and inventive ideas. To assess dependability, the judges interview the teams to learn what solid principles and best practices were used to reduce variability and errors. Preference is given to robots that are best able to ‘back it up’ throughout the matches.”

As for the Rookie Team, just the fact that they did so well in the last competition and qualified to be in this one, which was mainly filled with veteran teams with more experience, was pretty amazing as well.

Both teams also got very positive feedback on the presentations and interviews with the judges. Below are some of the comments they wrote:

• Advance Team:
  “Excellent team and energy displayed”
  “Innovative Presentation! … Thinking out of the Box”
  “Amazing integration of individual goals with benefits to the community; creative idea to combine health and energy issues”

• Rookie Team:
  “Excellent teamwork and Robot Presentation”
  “High enthusiasm; engaged with activities designed to improve school life”
  “Excellent movie!!”

I was very proud of both teams’ performance at the event. It was a VERY long day (almost 10 hours!), but they did an incredible job of representing our school. Their enthusiasm and support of not only each other but other teams as well, was recognized by the announcers any time LREI was in the competing area, other parents and other team coaches. I was approached several times by different people to compliment our group. Even the photographers and video crew seemed to love them. When our kids were competing they spent most of the time covering them!

Well done!

Best,
Mark

Dear Families:

On Wednesday, we had our annual MLK assembly. We continued our tradition of using this assembly to examine social justice issues in the context of Martin Luther King’s words and work. This year’s assembly was organized by our eighth graders as a kick-off to a more comprehensive day-of-learning event that they will organize for the whole Middle School in April. The focus of our assembly was on making connections between social justice and sustainability issues both of which relate to the eighth grader’s year-long humanities theme “Choosing to Participate.” Through presentations on the impact of bus idling on health, industrial fishing in Africa, and the disposal of toxic waste in North Carolina, students introduced the concept of environmental racism and how these issues can have immediate and long-term local and far-reaching impacts. Students also shared poems that were written on a variety of sustainability themes; these poems crystallized their profound observations and deeply held convictions on this issue. The observations and insights offered were framed by an excerpt from King’s speech “Where do we go from here?” and video clips of social justice and environmental activists Van Jones and Paul Hawken. Our assembly concluded with a rousing performance of Stevie Wonder’s “Happy Birthday” performed by the eighth grade members of the Middle School band The Special Guests. It was a truly thoughtful assembly the spirit of which was continued by students today in advisory as they engaged in a series of follow-up activities. Our eighth graders really rose to the occasion and left us all, students and faculty, with much to consider about how we can “choose to participate.” Well done!

This Friday, students will be coming home with their progress reports for the second quarter. We ask that students 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. Our decision to move to reports that show a student’s progress over the four quarters was motivated by a desire to help students and families to see the work of a particular quarter in a broader context of their overall learning experience. Prior to receiving these reports, take the opportunity to speak with your child about his/her perceptions of the work s/he has completed this past quarter and how s/he sees this work in relation to the work completed last quarter. This will help to frame your discussions when you go over the progress reports together.

While progress reports provide an opportunity to reflect on a student’s progress and to think about strengths and challenges, it is important to remember that assessment is an on-going process at LREI; it is a means to an end, but not an end in and of itself. Its aim is to improve student understanding of key ideas and skills. In the Middle School, teachers strive to develop assessments that are learner-centered and focused on student understanding in relation to the particular goals identified for each area of inquiry. Rather than being separate from learning, assessment plays a central role in the instructional process. The assessment process also sheds light on which instructional strategies are most effective. Through thoughtful assessment, the teacher gains critical feedback for choosing and utilizing those teaching strategies that can best help a learner progress towards the goals of a particular unit of study. Opportunities for meaningful assessment also allow students to gain deeper insight into areas of strength and challenge and allow them to develop plans to address growth in both of these areas.

Also on the subject of assessment, I’d like to say a few words about the upcoming ERBs, which are scheduled For February 12th-14th. 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.

Be well,
Mark

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 – Marcelo and Ryan, Sixth Grade – Josh and Julian., Seventh Grade – Adam and Hannah, and Eighth Grade – Micki and Nicholas. At the end of the Final Round, two students – Micki and Nicholas – moved on to the Championship Round. The Championship Round was decided after three questions with Micki emerging as the champion. Next week, 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.

Also at this week’s Middle School meeting, we formally recognized the 2007-2008 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 a most excellent cohort of applicants; this 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 2007-2008 Irwin Scholars. They are Ama, Deion, Hannah S., Nicholas, and Quinn.

On another celebratory note, this from former MS and current HS parent Chris Flemming:

I had the pleasure of being one of the chaperones accompanying the 29 LREI middle and high school students to the American Library Association (ALA) Mid-Winter Conference in Philadelphia on Sunday. To say they were impressive is an understatement. Led by our incredible librarians; Jennifer, Karyn, Stacy and Kerri the students were given a few guidelines and were free to roam the exhibits. On the exhibit floor I witnessed them politely and enthusiastically engage in conversations with the book publishers and exhibitors. But they really sparkled at the Teen press conference attended by publishers, editors and librarians. Clad in various LREI shirts and sweatshirts the students individually stepped up to the mics to share their book reviews. They were articulate, humorous, full of insight and completely honest. It was clear to everyone that these students were well read and had strong opinions about literature. You would have been very proud of them.

An indeed we are!

Be well,
Mark

Dear LREI Families:

At our most recent Middle School Parent Rep meeting, we talked a bit about some of the projects taking place during our Thursday advisory meetings. Each Thursday afternoon, students and their advisor meet in a group with the advisor and advisees from another grade level group. These mixed grade groups of fifth and sixth graders and groups of seventh and eighth graders engage in community-building and goal-setting activities, have discussions about school issues and issues taking place outside of the school community, and develop and implement a range of service projects. Here are some highlights of the projects that are underway and in development. Advisory groups are:

• responding to the lack of a crossing guard at the Sixth Avenue and Houston Street intersection with the a letter writing and signature collecting campaign. The letter and signatures will be sent to a number of local officials.
• planning for field trips around the theme of sustainability
• planning monthly visits to meet with seniors at the Fulton Senior Center of the Hudson Guild. At their first visit, students shared letters of introduction and then listened to some of the experiences recounted by their new senior “buddies.”
• visiting first grade classes in the lower school school and using these meetings to think about what it means to be a mentor or role model
• exploring a variety of games played by children around the world
• learning about media literacy and how to be a more informed consumer in the digital age
• planning a sustainability-themed art project
• producing a movie about the school, which would be a complement to the movie that was made for the school’s seventy-fifth anniversary
• engaging in a range of community-building activities to better understand what it means to be a seventh grader or an eighth grader

Quite a range of offerings. While these projects are varied in their focus, they all seek to provide opportunities for students and teachers to learn from each other, for students to learn important leadership skills, and for advisors to gain additional insights into the lives of their advisees. Each in their own way, helps to establish an important foundation for the LREI Middle School program.

MS Boy’s Basketball Team Wins Winter Holiday Tournament
The MS Boy’s basketball team played the first game of the the St. Hugh’s/LREI Holiday Invitational Tournament against St. Hugh’s last Thursday, December 6th. The game started out strong for the boys, who hit their first couple of shots and took an 8 point lead. St. Hugh’s three big men and defensive aggressiveness kept them in the game and started to disrupt the up-tempo style of the LREI Knights. As the game started to slip away, Quinn Hood hit a number of big shots to keep LREI in the game. Jack Irving and Cole Kitchen took turns defending the leading scorer from St. Hugh’s. LREI let a 6 point lead slip away in the last 2 minutes and the two teams headed to overtime to decide the outcome. Jimmy Hall had a big game for the Knights on both sides of the court and out muscled St. Hugh’s big men for most of the game. In overtime, he took control and scored the decisive basket. Malcolm Staso hit a huge free throw to clinch the game and send the team to the championship game. On Saturday, December 8th, the team took on Epiphany in the championship game. LREI got off to a great start and never looked back as they won 48-28. Quinn Hood was named Tournament MVP, and Cole Kitchen and Jimmy Hall were named to the All-Tournament team. LREI had contributions from all players who played very unselfish basketball. Congratulations!

Please check the home game schedule for the boys and for the girls and we hope to see you at the Thompson Street Athletic Center.

Also, please check out pictures from the recent robotics team competition, which can be accessed at http://lrei.org/photos/0708/ms/.

Best,
Mark

Dear LREI Families:

For many years, robotics has played an important role in the Middle School science and technology curricula. As many of you already know, our classroom inquiry has been supplemented by our award winning Middle School Robotics team. This year, interest in the program has grown so much that we now have two teams competing in the FIRST Lego League. This past weekend, both teams competed in the Manhattan borough competition and they both did extremely well.

• The Advanced Team won 1st place in the Robot Performance category— their robot achieved the highest score in the competition in this category.

• The Rookie Team won the Champion’s Award — the Champion’s Award is given to the team that achieves the highest combined score from their Project Presentation, Technical Presentation, Robot Performance and Teamwork

Most impressive. Under the guidance of science teacher Sherezada Acosta, art teacher Carin Cohen, and computer teacher Steve Neiman, both teams will now prepare for the FIRST Lego League Citywide Competition in which the top teams from the five boroughs will compete against each other. This competition will take place on January 26th, so save the date! More details to come in January.

Whether as part of the curriculum or as part of our extracurricular program, robotics provides a meaningful entry point to learning that supports creative problem solving, experimentation and risk taking. Building a robot requires students to analyze their environment and the parameters of a particular challenge. Through this process, students quickly discover that even the simplest of tasks can be surrounded by a level of complexity that demands focused critical thinking.

As students work towards the solution to a particular problem, they also learn that having a good idea is not the same thing as designing and implementing a solution to a challenge. As a result, students learn to experiment with their ideas and adapt them to the constraints imposed by the real world.

They also learn to represent their ideas and plans in a formal programming language. This provides a direct experience in exploring how symbolic language can be used as a means for representing and describing actions that can be directly experienced and observed. Finally, because they engage in robotics with other learners, they regularly practice and come to see the value in collaboration. They learn that the successful completion of a task requires contributions from all of the group members and, more importantly, they see how their multiple points of view on a challenge can propel the group’s thinking in directions that they would likely not have discovered on their own.

So our robotics program is just one of the many tools that we use to narrow the distance between learning and experience that are part of our progressive toolkit.

With the robotic teams’ victories fresh on our minds, congratulations are also due to the Middle School Girls Basketball team and the Middle School Boys Basketball team who have both started off their seasons with impressive victories. Please check the home game schedule for the boys and for the girls and we hope to see you at the Thompson Street Athletic Center.

Best,
Mark

Dear LREI Families:

At last week’s Thanksgiving assembly there was much sharing about the people and things for which we are thankful. I mentioned how much I enjoyed hearing students singing the words to and humming the melody of the song “Indian Prayer” in the hallways and classrooms in the weeks leading up to the assembly. As the strains of the song floated through our shared spaces, my thoughts turned to the origins of the song. After some searching, I discovered that some of the lyrics were originally a prayer for peace from the Cheyenne nation:

Let us know peace.
For as long as the moon shall rise,
For as long as the rivers shall flow,
For as long as the sun shall shine,
For as long as the grass shall grow,
Let us know peace.

Equally interesting is that these words were often used in treaties between our government and many of the Indian nations. Unfortunately, history shows that we rarely lived up to the promises protected by these words. These words are also found in the song “As long as the grass shall grow,” which was written by Johnny Cash and Peter La Farge. As I thought about the background of the words that we sing in “Indian Prayer,” I was struck by the importance of our moral and ethical obligation to keep our promises. In a way, those things for which we are thankful are the consequence of promises kept by others either directly for our benefit or indirectly. At the assembly, I asked students to think about those promises that others have kept for them, the promises that they have kept, and, perhaps most importantly, those promises that each of us have not kept. As Thanksgiving provides us with moment to give thanks, it is also a moment to think about how we can be better at keeping those promises that should be kept “for as long as the grass shall grow.”

One promise that we did keep this year at our Thanksgiving assembly was to continue the tradition that was started last year of having the eighth graders revise the Byrd Baylor story I’m in Charge of Celebrations. Their 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. 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. Enjoy.

Best,
Mark

Dear LREI Families,

Over the past week, I have heard from many of you about your Family Conferences and how they provided an important opportunity to learn more about your child’s school experience.  Many of you commented not only on how deeply your child’s teachers  knew your child as a learner, but also on how much insight your child had into his or her own learning. I’m not surprised when I hear this because I know just how hard everyone works to prepare for these conferences. Changes to the advisory system helped to ensure ensure that students had ample time to prepare for their conferences and to identify areas of strength and challenge that they wanted to share. Many of you mentioned your excitement at looking at and talking about specific work samples and how they helped to provide a meaningful frame for your discussions.

What’s clear to me is that when students, families, and teachers get together and apply their combined knowledge and experience to the challenges of teaching and learning, amazing things can happen. The commitment to inquiry that guides our Family Conferences encourages all participants to work collaboratively to arrive at a set of goals and strategies that can best support each student’s learning. It’s my hope that each of you left your conferences with a deeper insight into the link between instruction and your child’s school experience—and with a renewed sense of how best to support your child’s continued success.

Thank you for partnering with us in these crucial dialogs and I wish you the best for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.

 Best,
Mark

Dear LREI Families,

As Phil mentioned last week, Family Conferences are an important part of the school year. Middle School students and their teachers have been preparing for these dialogs and the fruits of this hard work was much in evidence on Wednesday. I have no doubt that Friday’s conferences will be equally rich in substance. If you have not done so already, please read my previous posts about Progress Reports and Family Conferences (and some additional resources). The structure of our Family Conferences is always an evolving one and I encourage you to let me know about your conference experience. Your feedback is tremendously useful in helping us to shape this experience so that it is a meaningful and productive one for all.

On the subject of home-school communications, please access http://blog.lrei.org/msnews/the-middle-school-digital-classroom/ for a listing of all of the Middle School homework blogs. You can bookmark this page or return to this blog where the address appears on the sidebar on the left. This page serves as an entry to our “Digital Classrooms.” As we explore the use of this technology as a way of disseminating information, I offer the following observations, which I hope will provide some context for how we envision these pages fitting into our educational program.

First, while much valuable information can be found in the blogs, we will still expect students to record homework assignments in their planners. We think it is absolutely critical that students develop this important organizational skill. While this is especially true for fifth graders, it is also important that students in all four grades continue to refine this skill. The seemingly simple task of writing down homework calls on students to listen actively, to ask clarifying questions, and to attend to specific instructions given by teachers. If a student thinks to him or herself, “I don’t need to pay attention to this, I’ll just check the blog,” he or she is likely to miss more than just the homework assignment. So you should continue to check your child’s planner and you can use the blog as a reference to see if your child’s is capturing in his or her planner what he or she needs in order to complete an assignment.

Teachers will use the blogs in a variety of ways and, as a result, the blogs will vary in the quantity and kind of information provided. It is reasonable to expect blogs to identify nightly homework assignments. In those classes where homework is assigned less frequently, the blogs may also be used to communicate information about what is happening in these classes. These blogs may not be updated on a daily basis and will more likely be updated weekly. Some teachers will post additional resources on the blog and others will not. If you have suggestions for a teacher that you think would be helpful, please do not frame these suggestions in a way that compares their blog to another teacher’s blog. Just describe the kind of information that would be helpful for you and your child. In these cases, teachers will consider the information in terms of thinking about how to best support your child. They may offer alternative suggestions that they feel may be more useful than changes to the blog. The homework blogs should be seen as one of a number of tools and not the be all and end all of what we do. We also hope that you will use the blog not just as a check for homework, but as a means to engage your child in conversations about his/her school experience.

Finally, as teachers refine their use of the blogs, we will identify ways in which the use of this technology can enhance and deepen opportunities for learning. An example: In the next few weeks, seventh graders will start to use the blogs as a forum to discuss the literature that they are reading. In this way, we will be able to add a new dimension to the literature circle experience that is already an important part of our program.

So we look forward to strengthening our partnership with you as we take this step forward into the digital world.

Regards,
Mark

Dear LREI Families,

For the past two weeks in sixth grade adolescent issues, we have been talking about the characteristics we look for in a potential friend. As part of our discussions, we conducted an auction in which groups of students bid on characteristics that they valued in a friend. To do this, groups had to discuss and come to a consensus about those values that the group as a whole shared. In doing this, the students realized that there while there were differences in what they valued individually, there was also much that they shared in common.

The auctions themselves were spirited events. When all was said and done, the characteristics that were most valued by the class included the following: A potential friend . . .

• is someone I can confide in (share feelings and tell secrets)
• is smart
• is cool
• doesn’t talk behind my back and is loyal
• is part of a group I like being with
• is honest
• likes me for who I am
• shares common interests with me
• is good looking

In our discussions after the auction, students commented that some of these valued characteristics can create tensions between friends and potential friends. They observed that the pressure to be “cool” can sometimes cause them to betray a confidence or talk behind someone’s back, that a focus on someone’s appearance can be at odds with liking someone for who they are, that being part of a group can put pressure on a relationship with a friend. We talked a bit about how we can navigate through these tensions. As one student commented, “You know what the right thing to do is, but it’s hard to do it sometimes when you’re worried about how others will react.”

We also had some interesting conversation about the items that were not highly valued as potential characteristics of a friend. These included choosing a friend who is . . .

• the same race an/or religious background
• from a family that is not richer or poorer than mine
• completely different form me

For middle schoolers who are so focused on their identity and fitting in and feeling good about it, I think it is significant that these characteristics were not seen as obstacles to friendship. At the same time, students did observe that while these differences did not prevent them from considering someone as a friend, they did sometimes lead to difficulties and misunderstanding between friends. Significantly, the students talked about these misunderstandings as opportunities for understanding. As one student commented, “I was upset when my friend couldn’t go out with me on a day that was an important holiday for her. For me it was just a regular day. I didn’t understand what the big deal was. But when my friend explained what it was and why it was important, I felt like I got to know her a lot better.”

Making and sustaining friendships is hard work and during the middle school years this work can be even harder. Our students are not exempt from this challenge, but I do believe that some of our core values about community help to make this easier. LREI middle schoolers really do care about each other. They work hard with their classmates and teachers to make the Middle School a place where individuals are committed to knowing and understanding each other at a deep level and to working through and past superficial judgments and first impressions. In reflecting on both students’ comments in Adolescent Issues and my daily observations, I sense a clear collective commitment to making sure that the Middle School is a place where all of our community members feel safe and supported. This is especially true as students push themselves to take risks to better understand themselves and others.We know that we will not always get it right every time, that there will be bumps along the way, but, in the end, it’s really not all that surprising that our middle schoolers understand what to value in a friend.

Be well,
Mark

Dear LREI Families,

Next week marks the end of the first quarter and students are hard at work completing a variety of projects and units of study. Planning for Family Conferences is also getting under way. A reminder that conferences are scheduled for Wednesday, November 7th from 12:15-3:15PM (please note that the 7th is a regular day for students) and for the full day on Friday, November 9th. If your child is in the fifth or sixth grade, his/her advisor will be contacting you to set up a conference on either the 7th or the 9th. Sign-up sheets for seventh and eighth grade families are posted outside of core classrooms and on the bulletin board outside of my office (for conferences with specialists).

Advisors in all four grades and individual subject area teachers are working with students to identify significant pieces of work to share at the conferences and to identify areas of strength and challenge in their classes. It is our hope that the Family Conference will provide multiple perspectives on your child’s learning experience. In addition to highlighting her/his performance in individual subjects, we also hope that the conversations that take place during these conferences help to paint a clearer picture of who your child is as a learner. A related and overarching goal of the Family Conference is to bring into focus the broader themes and the habits of mind that we want to cultivate in our students.

Last year in advisory (and we will revisit them again this year), we framed some of our preparation for Family Conferences around an essay by Charles Slater entitled, “What does it mean to be an educated person?” In our conversations, we discussed his observations that students should be:

• Readers of literature
• Poets whose words envision new ways of being
• Writers who reflect thoughtfully
• Problem solvers who can use mathematics
• Observers who sense the wonder of science
• Citizens who study history and take action
• Speakers of two languages who cross cultural borders
• Workers who can create with their hands and use technology
• Artists who sculpt, draw or paint
• Musicians who sing or play an instrument
• Athletes who exercise for a lifetime
• Leaders who recognize the moral dimension

I think that these outcomes resonate strongly with our daily work in the Middle School and that they are characteristics that we want to see in our students. How do you answer the question, “What does it mean to be an educated person?” Make it the subject of your next dinner table conversation as a family. Let me know of any new habits of mind that surface in your conversations.

Be well,
Mark

Dear LREI Families,

No doubt there are those moments when, with the planets perfectly aligned, your child without prompting lowers the veil that shrouds her/his adolescent experience and lets you know about what is going on at school. These narratives of offered experience stand in bold contrast to the more mundane responses of “Nothing,” “It was fine,” “I forget.” So to assist you in the search for the holly grail of full disclosure, below please find an overview of some of the current happenings in our Middle School classrooms. My colleagues and I hope that they provide you with some valuable entry points into conversation with your child.

Fifth graders are . . .

• in the midst of their “civilization simulation” and are creating shelters suitable for the climate and resources in their area. In this first phase that takes place 10,000 years ago, they will begin to “hunt and gather” food to survive as a band of nomadic peoples. They are also reading The Breadwinner, doing plurals in spelling, and writing about small moments that matter in writer’s workshop.
• exploring beat and rhythm as a prelude to a study of melody and always singing, singing, and singing
• flipping, exaggerating, inverting, and overlapping the letters of their names to create nonrepresentational compositions that emphasizes lines and shapes. The next challenge is to use their primary colors to create as many secondary colors as possible and use these colors to fill the negative space created by their letters.
• continuing with their French adjective study and are using puppets to learn new body parts vocabulary

Sixth graders are . . .

• getting to the heart of Beowulf’s struggle against the monstrous Grendel and creating timeline cards to get a better sense of the scope of the Middle Ages. Books talks and current events are also the order for the day.
• delving into color theory by creating their own color wheels and exploring the relationships between primary, secondary and tertiary colors. This study has led to a set of drawings of mirror images with one side painted in primary, secondary and tertiary colors and the mirror image painted in complementary colors.
• composing and notating 4-measure rhythm-only phrases and exploring melodies based on Mediaval themes
• Practicing oral and written dialogues using new French vocabulary
• refining their soccer skills, making their way along the climbing wall and and learning new fitness routines
• using “Inspiration” to create digital family tress and learning how to organize data on the computer

Seventh graders are . . .

• continuing their thematic exploration of the novel, The Giver, by Lois Lowry and are finding textual evidence to support the novel’s many themes, including sameness and Utopian ideals, ignorance versus knowledge, fairness and its relationship to justice, and the subtle differences between honor and power. This work is finding its way into a formal book review. Students are also well into the notetaking process as they gather information for their Colonial Research Papers and Projects.
• learning English Country dances from 1650, and exploring African-American ring shouts.
• writing descriptive sentences in French using multiple verbs
• making JJ Walker field the home of some spirited soccer workouts
• designing, carrying out, writing up and presenting on their investigations that have focused on identifying and controlling variables, and collecting and analyzing data about the properties of matter

Eighth graders are . . .

• concluding a study of Bob Dylan by writing a critical analysis of a Dylan song
• deducing meanings from context through their close reading of the French text Un Ete pas Comme les Autres
• exploring the early roots of the American Civil Rights Movement from multiple angles and have committed themselves to the notion of studying history from the “bottom up,” through the voices of the disenfranchised.
• raising the level of their soccer skills and tactics to new heights
• investigating motion and deriving and coming to an understanding of Newton’s Laws on Motion. They are also reviewing the principles of Simple Machines and will soon be using this information to design and construct mousetrap powered vehicles to illustrate these concepts.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families:

Last night at about 8:30PM, the fifth and sixth graders, their teachers and I walked back from the Greenkill Recreation Center to our bunks in silence. We were, however, surrounded by a symphony of sounds – crickets, birds, frogs, and toads – no doubt commenting on the strange procession of flashlight-bearing city dwellers passing through their neighborhood. As New Yorkers, we sometimes like to think of ourselves as sufficiently in control of our environment to deal with life’s many daily challenges, but a trip to the woods directly confronts this sense of perceived authority over our surroundings.

The journey unsettles us and forces upon us a shift in perspective; it leaves us with the realization that we are not such much in control as we may have thought. The wet ground, the smells, the bugs, a rain shower that catches us by surprise conspire to help us to see ourselves in relation to this environment and, by extension, to each other. So as we share a living space and meals and work together to solve a variety of physical challenges, fifth and sixth graders and their teachers discover each other as an interdependent community. This is an awareness that biologist Gary Nabhan comments on In The Geography of Childhood, “It is a crime of deception-convincing people that their own visceral experience of the world hardly matters, and that pre-digested images hold more truth than the simplest time-tried oral tradition. We need to turn to learning about the land by being on the land, or better by being in the thick of it. That is the best way we can stay in touch with the fates of its creatures, its indigenous cultures, [and] its earthbound wisdom. That is the best way we can be in touch with ourselves.”

So while the Greenkill trip represents but a small portion the school year, we hope that the moments shared and lessons learned during these three days continue to resonate and amplify as we move through the year. That our world should become a bit bigger as a result of our direct experience of living in it, that we can also learn to look more deeply at that which is right in front of us, that we need to recognize the impact that an action in one place can have on others in some other place, and that our obligations to each other must extend also to the natural and human-made worlds in which we live – these are a few of the goals of our Greenkill adventure that we hope to build on as we continue our work out in the “field.”

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families:

First, a thank you to those of you who were able to attend this week’s Curriculum Night. I hope that you found the evening informative and inspiring. I also hope that you were equally moved by the profound commitment of our most excellent faculty to your child’s learning experience.

Curriculum Night does however raise some important questions, among them “What exactly do we mean by curriculum?” and “How does our conception of the curriculum emerge from and reinforce the values and ideas that drive LREI’s progressive mission?”

One way to answer this is to consider the various ways that “curriculum” can be defined. In his essay “Curriculum Theory and Practice, ” Mark K. Smith provides a thoughtful synthesis of these views. In the broadest sense, Smith identifies three main lenses through which the idea of a curriculum can be approached.

He also offers several important ideas that unify these three points of focus:

• Curriculum relates to learning that is planned and guided. We have to specify in advance what we are seeking to achieve and how we are to go about it.
• Curriculum can be seen as a body of knowledge to be transmitted.
• Curriculum can be viewed as an attempt to achieve certain ends in students – product.
• Curriculum can be seen as process and can lead to praxis

In addition to the materials that were in your red folders when you picked them up, you should also have collected a variety of documents from your child’s teachers. These syllabi are important documents, but by themselves they cannot be considered the full curriculum. They suggest content to be covered and provide a general organizing structure that points to the knowledge and skills that are to be transmitted. They are not, however, able to adequately convey the experience and relationships the are crucial to meaningful learning. A “curriculum” that does not encompass the experiential and the relational falls far short of our expectations for a progressive learning community. I am sure that you can all remember classes where the teacher simply “followed the syllabus” and, as a result, you likely felt robbed or cheated out of what should have been a more meaningful learning opportunity.

On the other hand, there is the view of curriculum as “product,” which when seen in isolation reduces education to a technical exercise. As Smith observes, “Objectives are set, a plan drawn up, then applied, and the outcomes (products) measured.” The products that your child will produce this year are certainly important. We hope that they will have a particular intrinsic value for your child and, at the same time, they do play a role in helping us to assess whether your child has acquired important skills and knowledge. However, these products may often point to other skills and knowledge that have been gained that were not initially identified as objectives of a unit of study. This dimension is important and can too often be lost or minimized in the strict adherence to pre-determined objectives. So our relationship to the product and to the set of experiences that give rise to it are of tremendous importance. As a result, it is the context in which these products are produced that makes the crucial difference. One has only to look at the impacts of the No Child Left Behind legislation to see how problematic a dogmatic focus on product can be.

So while the theoretical and the productive inform our view of curriculum at LREI, it is the practical, which encompasses process and praxis, that is at the heart of our progressive approach. In this way, curriculum comes to be seen as a process driven by “the interaction of teachers, students and knowledge” that has as its goal praxis, which we can define as “an explicit commitment to human well-being and to the emancipation of the human spirit.”

An example: the eighth grade core curriculum has as it’s focus the theme “Choosing to Participate.” This theme provides a lens through which students and teachers engage in a critical examination of our nation’s history from the Civil War period through the Civil Rights era. Through this work, students come to understand some of the many factors that served to motivate those who choose to participate and take a stand against injustice. In a way, this process that students engage in helps them to better understand the praxis of others. But a commitment to this process is only partially sufficient if we are to fully realize the LREI curriculum. That is why eighth graders will also take this learning and use it as a stepping stone as they collectively take action on a pressing social justice issue. To do this, they will have to draw on the experience of others and develop the leadership skills that will allow them participate directly in the change process. In this way, the LREI curriculum becomes the driving force that allows us to realize Elisabeth Irwin’s lasting challenge for students, teachers, and parents who are committed to change and transformation:

The school will not always be just what it is now, but we hope it will always be a place where ideas can grow, where heresy will be looked upon as possible truth, and where prejudice will dwindle from lack of room to grow. We hope it will be a place where freedom will lead to judgment — where ideals, year after year, are outgrown like last season’s coat for larger ones to take their places.

I look forward to our on-going discussions and to the journey that we will all undertake together this year in the spirit of understanding and action.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Families:

The start of the year is always an exciting time in the Middle School. Students look older and they move through the building with a sense of anticipation as they consider the new adventures that are about to unfold. While there is much conversation about procedures and organization, there is also an important dialog unfolding about the work to be done this year. Fifth graders realize that this year they will be the ones to build and guide visitors through their Egyptian tomb. Sixth graders contemplate how their Medieval Pageant will be different from previous years. Seventh graders are aware that in a few short weeks they will be in Williamsburg doing research for their Colonial Museum. The eighth graders have already shared their summer Warriors Don’t Cry projects in a moving gallery display focused on the events and themes connected to the experiences of the Little Rock Nine, which will serve as a touchstone for much of their work in humanities this year.

I anticipate a year rich in collaboration between students, students and teachers, the school and homes, and within each of your families. In this spirit of collaboration, we are looking forward to seeing you on Tuesday evening at 6:30PM for our Middle School Curriculum Night. At the event, you will get to meet your child’s teachers who will provide you with an overview of their classes and their class expectations. We hope that all of you will be able to attend as Curriculum Night helps to provide a meaningful frame for the work that we will undertake together over the course of the year. Childcare for this event is available. Please contact Mary Shea at mshea@lrei.org to register or to inquire about the details. Please do not drop your child off on the evening of the event without having first contacted Mary.

Be well,
Mark

Dear Middle School Families,

Greetings! I trust that you are all enjoying your summer and finding time to be with family and friends. The Middle School classrooms took on a new life in July as the summer camp made use of all of our spaces this year. The sound of children in the classrooms and halls was a welcome one as previous Julys were much too quiet. With August here, our spaces are now in the process of being prepared for the fall and it is only a short time before we are back in full swing. So I hope that you make the most of these last few weeks.

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. The faculty has spent considerable time reviewing the advisory system and have created the following changes:

• Since the inception of the advisory program, there has been some confusion between the role of the homeroom teacher (the student’s core teacher) and the role of the advisor. Beginning this year, your child’s homeroom teacher and advisor will be the same person. Advisory groups will meet in grade level groups during morning and afternoon homeroom periods. Each homeroom will have two advisors and each student will be assigned to one of the two advisors (these are the individuals indicated on the included class list). Your child’s advisor will contact you by the second week of school to introduce him/herself . Your child’s advisor will be your primary contact person. Unlike last year, where students reported to their advisory group on Tuesday mornings, students will now report to their homerooms every morning.
• In order to preserve the mixed-grade aspect of the advisory program, students and their advisor will meet in a group with the advisor and advisees from another grade level group during our 45-minute Thursday advisory period at 12:00PM. This will create mixed grade groups of fifth and sixth graders and groups of seventh and eighth graders. These meetings will allow students to come together across grades to engage in a variety of projects and to address community issues.
• These within and across-grade groupings will allow us to continue provide a developmentally appropriate curriculum for the advisory program that best meets the needs of advisees and advisors.
• These changes 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.
• These changes will also impact the structure of our Family Conferences, which take place at the end of the first and third marking periods. Beginning this fall, students in fifth and sixth grade will have a single Family Conference with their advisor. Families will not sign up with individual teachers for conferences in each subject area. The conference with the advisor will address the student’s work to date in all of her/his classes. As in the past, students will be expected to be active participants in these conferences and the conference will be structured so that the student can share samples of her/his work and address specific areas of strength and challenge. These conferences will run about 30-40 minutes and advisors will contact families to schedule a mutually convenient time during one of the two conference days. This means that fifth and sixth grade families will no longer need to engage in the complicated business of trying to sign-up for and schedule multiple conferences. Students will also be able to better prepare for a single conference.
• For students in seventh and eighth grade, conferences will proceed as they have in the past with families signing up for conferences with core teachers and specialists. Core teachers will continue to post sign-up sheets outside of their rooms and specialist teachers will post sign-up sheets on the bulletin board outside of my office. Prior to the spring conferences, we will determine if we will hold advisor-facilitated conferences for the seventh and eighth graders.

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 other 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.
• I have 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://blog.lrei.org/msnews. Please note that this is a new address for those of you who have bookmarked the old one. 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:

• Leila Sinclaire – Eighth grade core teacher
• Joanne Magee – Sixth thriough eighth grade drama and play and musical director
• David Lee – Fifth and sixth grade Spanish and eighth grade French teacher
• Peter Fisher – Seventh and eighth grade PE teacher
• Ledell Mulvaney – Fifth grade drama and lower school music teacher

In addition to these new faculty members, the members of the math department will take on new responsibilities as follows:

• Ana Chaney – Fifth grade math and sixth and seventh grade math seminar
• Margaret Andrews – Sixth and eighth grade math and fifth grade math seminar
• Michelle Boehm – Seventh and eighth grade math

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:

• Middle School art teacher Carin Cohen, Co-Athletic Director Marcus Chang, and Science teachers Sherezada Acosta and Stephen Volkmann all taught classes at the LREI Summer Institute.
• Carin was also the recipient of a Summer Sustainability grant. As part of her grant, Carin developed curriculum units that incorporated sustainability themes/approaches into the art making process.
• Middle School music teacher Henry Chapin was also a recipient of a Summer Sustainability grant. He worked with Lower School teacher Jamie Atlas and High School teacher Tim Cooper to develop a web-based resource list of sustainability ideas that the LREI community will be able to access and use in the classroom and at home.
• Middle School librarian Jennifer Hubert Swan completed her second summer teaching a Young Adult literature survey course in the Queens College graduate library program.
• Ana Fox Chaney began a masters program at the Bank Street College of Education in Leadership in Mathematics Education. The program’s focus is on innovative curricular and instructional approaches and new assessment strategies in mathematics.
• Visual Arts chair and fifth/sixth grade art teacher, Melissa Rubin, received a fellowship grant to participate in an Art Teacher’s Workshop in southern France during July. The art center, Les Tapies, located in the Ardeche region of France, provided Melissa with an opportunity to meet other art educators from around the globe and engage in discussions and workshops focusing on art education. Melissa was also provided a studio space and had a chance to get a body of artwork done, ranging from drawing and painting to printmaking and dark room photography.
• Sixth grade core teacher Frank Portella continued in his role as the principal for GO Project Summer at Grace Church School. GO Project is an academic support program for elementary students in the downtown public schools.
• Seventh grade core teacher Matthew Rosen attended the Bread Loaf School of English in Middlebury, Vermont. The program offers a rich array of graduate courses in literature, the teaching of writing, creative writing, and theater arts to students from across the United States.
• English department chair and eighth grade core teacher Sarah Barlow completed the planning for a service-based “Social Justice Activism Project” for eighth graders that she started last year. The project connects to their year-long theme “Choosing to Participate.”
• Eighth grade core teacher Leila Sinclaire participated in the Facing History and Ourselves Summer Institute that was held Teachers College. The Seminar challenges participants to explore a range of inquiry-based approaches to the teaching of history and to reflect on questions about what it means to participate responsibly in a civil society. She also took an “Adolescents and Literature” class that explored social constructions of adolescence through young adult literature.

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.

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.

See you soon,

Mark Silberberg
Middle School Principal