From Phil Kassen, Director:

Late last year I had a fascinating conversation with a group of middle schoolers about the technology that is so central to their lives. I mentioned that when I was a kid we did not have answering machines or VCRs and that I remember the very first calculator I used—four functions, bright red LED numbers and completely amazing to us all. I told them that we used to have to get out of our chairs to switch the channel on the TV and that we had to carry change in our pockets in order to make phone calls from the street. How different the world is now and how quickly technologies come and go!   The students had a fairly easy time grasping the changes in concrete “things.” Harder for them to grasp the ways in which life and lives have changed—careers that have come and gone, pastimes that have passed and societal norms whose evolution has fundamentally altered everyday human interactions.  Our conversation ended with the logical question—what’s next?

“What’s next?”  A question we at LREI frequently ask ourselves.  The middle school students with whom I was speaking will graduate from high school in 2016 or so.  Their kindergarten schoolmates will move on from LREI in 2023.  Move on to what?  What’s next for them? What options will these, now, children, soon to be young adults, have when they graduate from college in 2027?  Most immediately, what sort of preparation must we provide to them for success in a world that we cannot imagine?

We discuss “What’s next” a lot during various administrative and faculty meetings. More formally, and focusing mostly on the high school, we have been examining what new strands our current program, as innovative and demanding as it is, might require in order to prepare our graduates for what will come just a few years down the road.  What are the competencies that will allow your children to be successful no matter what the future holds?  In order to support this investigation and the creation of new program, we applied for a grant from the Edward E. Ford Foundation.  Late last June the Foundation informed us that, through a highly competitive process, we had been awarded a $50,000 grant to support this effort.  The grant will be matched by an equal sum from within our community. We will use this $100,000 to fund the faculty’s work in creating the curriculum for the coming decades. While our initial focus will be the high school, we intend for lessons learned to quickly filter down through the middle school to the lower school. We will visit other schools, meet with leading educators in a variety of settings and attend conferences all in coordination with LREI’s historic mission.  We are thrilled that the E.E. Ford Foundation supports our vision of 21st Century progressive education. Through our initial research, we have been pleased to find that much of what we hear will be essential in the future is currently at the core of LREI’s historic mission—connecting school learning with life, the ability to work with colleagues, resilience, adaptability, cultural sensitivity, sound reasoning and communication skills and a deep understanding of a variety of content areas.  Much of what we have been doing so well for the past 90 years is what will be required in the coming century.

A committee of teachers and administrators is beginning its work.  In the coming months this group will team with the faculty as a whole and will invite the high school students and interested parents into the discussion.  We are looking forward to this challenging work and to the conversations that it will create.

I invite you to join me to discuss our efforts to prepare our students for the future on Tuesday, October 19th at 8:45 A.M. in the Sixth Avenue cafeteria.

In addition, I invite you to meet Carey Socol, our new Director of College Guidance, and to hear about LREI’s college guidance process on Tuesday, November 9th, 8:45A.M.-9:15 A.M., in the Sixth Avenue cafeteria.

I hope to see you soon,

Phil

Updates and Announcements:

*The 10th grade potluck is on October 19, 6:30 PM, Charlton Street Cafeteria.

*The PSATs are next Wednesday, October 13, for all 10th and 11th graders, from 8:30-12:00 PM.  10th and 11th graders will not have classes after the test, but may stay for lunch. The test costs $13 and all students must give their money to the college office before the test.  All students need to bring 3 sharpened #2 pencils and a calculator on test day.

1.  From the Sports Committee:

Come out to a Home Game and show your support for our LREI Knights Volleyball teams!
Both the Middle School Co-ed team and the Varsity Girls are having a great season so far and its always fun to have some fans in the bleachers cheering on our student athletes. Wear your team colors and join us!

Upcoming games:

Wednesday 13th October 4pm  Varsity Girls vs Calhoun
Thursday 14th October 4pm   Varsity Girls vs BWL
Monday 18th October 4pm   Varsity Girls vs Garden

All home games are played in the Thompson Street Athletic Center (145 Thompson, just below Houston)

All game schedules and news can be found at www.lrei.org/athletics

2.  There is still time to sign up for the first term of Adult r(ED), LREI’s adult education courses.  Click here to see this term’s offerings.  Classes begin next week. Contact Rowena Penaranda Askins to enroll, rpenaranda@lrei.org.

3.  Did you know that approximately 500 to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide?  Did you also know that plastic bags are not biodegradable and take from 500 to 1000 years to decompose?  It would help the environment if we all used less plastic bags.  But, it is sometimes unavoidable so let’s recycle the bags we have.  Red is Green is kicking off its 2010-’11 school year recycling drive with plastic bags.  We will collect clean plastic bags in the entryway of the lower school throughout October.  After that, you can bring your bags to most chain stores for collection.

Also, Red is Green is sponsoring our first Walk to School Green Day for this school year on Wednesday, October 13.  So wear your walking shoes or take a “green” mode of transportation to school –  bike, scoot, public transportation or car pool.

Dear Families,

We have had another wonderful week, the second full week of classes, believe it or not, and we are hitting the grove of fall.

In student news, Arvid Logan ’12, was just accepted into the prestigious Cooper Union School of Art’s Fall Pre-College Program.   This program, which Arvid applied for with the help of our incredible arts department, is an eight week program for “serious students who intend to pursue an advanced degree in art.”  If accepted to this program, students do not have to pay to participate and are given all materials.  Arvid’s classes include Photography, Drawing and Contemporary Art Issues, which is a writing class.  I can tell you, since seeing Arvid’s progress from ninth grade, this honor comes as no surprise as he is truly a gifted artist, but it is an honor just the same.  We are very proud of his accomplishment!

Next Tuesday, we will welcome ninth grade families to their first potluck event at 6:00 PM in the high school cafeteria.  The potluck will run until 6:45, 7:00, and then we will host a “wellness” portion of the event.  At that time, School Psychologist Andrew Weiss will talk about family transition to high school life, Class Dean Margaret Magee will speak to the transition to high school academic work for students, School Nurse Sue Gower will speak about health and wellness issues that can come up in high school, Life Issues teacher Peggy Peloquin P’11, will be there to speak about the life issues program, and I will be there to talk about school policy and the handbook.  In preparation for this event, I ask that all ninth grade families and all high school families read this letter from Director of School Phil Kassen regarding the school’ policy on drugs and alcohol use by underage students.  Please read this letter with your high school student(s) so that your family can be on the same page as their high school.  If we can be of assistance and support in this matter, do not hesitate to contact me, the school nurse, the school psychologist, your class dean, child’s advisor, or director of school.

For further important information, please refer to the 2010-2011 High School Student Handbook.

Finally, please take a look at the Trimester II signups for 11th and 12th graders.  As you may remember, we did not sign students up past Trimester I because Micah was on paternity leave in the spring.  Signup sheets are due to Micah by next Wednesday, October 6.  If a student is in our academic support program, that student needs to go over the options with a member of the support staff before turning in their sheet.  Trimester II begins December 13, 2010.  See the blog post, “2010-2011 Electives” for course descriptions.

All the best, Ruth

Updates and Announcements:

*Don’t forget to turn in your health forms and trip cards to the school nurse!  We need your child/ren’s forms on file for them to attend school.

*If you have yet to check out “Podium,” our new student information database for class schedules, faculty and staff information, grades and comments and more, please do so by checking out this instructional video.  Please change your password immediately!

*We always have a need for your extra graphing calculators!  If you have a TI-83 or 84 calculator that is not needed, feel free to loan it to the school.  While our students are certainly well-equiped, by December some calculators end up misplaced so we like to keep extras on hand.

*The 2009-2010 Annual Report is hot off the press—and green on the Internet!  Check it out here and keep an eye on your mailbox for the hard copy.  We want to extend a special thanks to everyone who supported LREI this year. Tuition alone doesn’t cover the cost of our unique, progressive program. We count on donations from the entire community. Every single gift helps us grow. Thank you for your generosity!

1.  “Please click here to read about the Parent Associations LREI Exchange.”

2.  From Stacy Dillon, Lower School Librarian and member of the 2012 Newberry Awards Committee- Chances are you don’t think too much about book banning in your everyday lives. Even with the recent press about the burning of religious texts, book banning seems like something out of another time. Unfortunately, this is not the case. According to the American Libraries Association, over 1000 books have been reported as “challenged” in this country since 1982, and many (if not most) of these are children’s and young adult books. From Maurice Sendak to Judy Blume, books are still being restricted, challenged and banned outright. To find out more about Banned Book Week, visit http://www.bannedbooksweek.org or talk to Jesse, Stacy, Jen or Karyn in the libraries.

Dear Families,

Thanks so much for coming to curriculum night on Tuesday evening.  It was a terrific event, and really wonderful to see so many families.  To have engaged families is essential to our success and our work with students.

This blog is an important one because in this families will be introduced to our new “Backpack” called “Podium.”  Podium is our new student information software that will serve as the place to go to for student schedules, courses, faculty information, assignments, and interim, trimester and final grades and comments.  Assignments, course information, schedules and more are available now.  More information will be added regularly as we build the site.  Please take a look at this informative tutorial video which will give information on initial login and passwords and how to navigate the site to find what you need.  As we add information, we will add tutorials as needed.  Please note, students already know how to access all information on Podium.

Every day, I hear of the great work our students are doing outside of the classroom.  It seems that this summer, many students participated in service projects in particular. Please keep sending stories of your child/ren’s summer of service!

We are so proud of Lucia Zerner ’12, who writes:

I worked in Nepal in Budhanilkantha which is a part of Kathmandu. The orphanage that I stayed/volunteered in is called Kinder House. During the day I went to school with all the children. The name of the school is Budhanilkantha Model Community Academy (BMCA). At the school I was able help the teacher in the Upper Kindergarten class. I helped the students with Math, English and Science by teaching them from their workbooks or checking their homework or classwork. It was a very interesting and fun experience.

She, along with so many of our students give in ways that are unimaginable and immeasurable.  I hope you find inspiration in Lucia’s service.

Also in the news here at the high school, Cameron Diggs ’11 has been chosen as one of the SPARK summit panelists at Hunter College this October;  Cameron will be featuring her video on sex trafficking.  In fact, all of the students in the English department’s feminism class taught by Ileana Jimenez,  who applied to be bloggers at the summit were accepted:  Lidor Foguel’11, Hannah Rifkin ’12 Julie Wintrob ’11, Grace Tobin ’12, Olivia Tjernberg ’12 and Meiling Jabbaar will all be a part of the SPARK bloggers team.

Cameron is one of 20 girls from around the country helping SPARK launch an “intergenerational movement to push back against the increasingly sexualized images of girlhood in the media and create room for whole girls.”  We are proud of her and the class!

All the best,

Ruth

Updates and Announcements:

Please don’t forget to turn in your health forms and trip cards to Sue Gower, school nurse.  Any questions, please contact her at sgower@lrei.org.

Check out the LREI photostream updated with new pictures from Ramapo!

1.  The annual Senior Class potluck and college night for students and families is on Monday night, Sept. 27 at 6:00 PM.  The potluck will run from 6:00-7:00 PM and the college presentation will begin promptly at 7.  We hope to see you on Monday night!

2.  Prescription Drug Drop Off Day sponsored by the DEA:

The DEA is promoting a nationwide pilot “Take-Back” event for disposal of prescription drugs and over-the-counter pills.   Flushing pharmaceuticals into wastewater can have an unfortunate impact on aquatic life and people who draw drinking water downstream.  Wastewater treatment plants are not designed to remove these types of chemicals.

This Saturday expired or otherwise unwanted drugs can be dropped off at a variety of locations.  A few local drop off points are:  Engine 24 Fire Station at 227 Sixth Ave;  Engine 9 Fire Station at 75 Canal Street; and St Patricks Old Cathedral – corner of Mott and Prince Streets.  A list of other drop off points and details of the program are available on the front page of www.dea.gov.

3.  If your child’ advisor is Nick O’Han, please note that his advisory will now be shared with new HS nurse Sue Gower.  This way, Sue can learn the advisory ropes before taking on her own group.  Sue will join in parent/advisor meetings and may take advisory once a week if Nick is on a class trip or attending to another duty.  Any questions, email Nick at Nohan@lrei.org.

Dear Families,

Welcome back, and for new families to LREI, welcome!  The year is off to a great start and we look forward to seeing you at Curriculum Night next Tuesday, Sept. 21, at 6:30PM.  Today, our tenth graders joined our ninth graders upstate at Ramapo, where everyone is having a terrific time bonding, taking risks and challenging themselves on Ramapo’s incredible rope course.  Meanwhile, our eleventh and twelfth graders just left for East New York Farms to spend the day learning about sustainable agriculture, food justice, the economics of farming and gardening in the city and preparing their gardens for the winter.  The mind to hand work all of our students are doing in the next day or so is really important to their growth and development we believe, and of course the fresh air can’t hurt!

We are so proud of our students and I thank you for trusting us to educate and support them.  One’s high school experience is never flawless but we work tirelessly to communicate with families and partner with students in their efforts to achieve their academic, athletic and social goals.  We are great at getting to know the kids and if the summer is any indication, when members of the class of 2010 lingered in the lobby and the halls, taking one last look and getting one last hug before heading to college, the faculty and staff are doing their jobs and going above and beyond in most cases.  Thank you for partnering with us.

Again, we look forward to seeing you at Curriculum Night and the various potlucks and events throughout the year.  Please be sure to check the school calendar regularly. Finally, three of our students lived in China this summer.  Ian Tsang ’11, Tatanka Tan ’11 and Steven Susanna ’12, represented the school remarkably.  Here, a picture of Steven at The Great Wall of China.

All the best,

Ruth

Updates and Announcements:

Carol Sedwick and Michael Patrick ’71, LREI Board Chair cordially invite you to the New Parents Reception, Monday, September 20, 2010, 6-8 PM, 250 West 94th Street (between Broadway and West End)

1.  The PSATs for all 10th and 11th graders will be here at school on Wednesday, October 13.  This is the national PSAT testing date.  Students taking the PSAT will be dismissed from school after taking the test.

2.  The first potluck is the 12th grade potluck and College Night on Monday, September 27!  The potluck will begin at 6PM in the cafeteria and end at 7PM.  Families are then invited to hear from College Guidance Director Carey Socol and College Guidance Associate Analisa Cipriano ’05, in the PAC.  The evening will end around 8PM and students are encouraged to attend.

Dear Families,

With graduation tomorrow, I can honestly say that “time flies.”  What a terrific year!  Our students and faculty accomplished so much together and while we are looking forward to a summer break, we also look forward to returning to the work in the fall.

When we return, we will not have our wonderful colleagues school nurse Joanne Gouge and studio art teacher Janet Atkinson here with us as both are headed off to retirement.  

Last Thursday, we celebrated their work and impact with a surprise assembly and party.  At the assembly, history teacher (and LREI legend) Mark Bledstein spoke on behalf of the faculty about Janet, who has been here for 26 years.  In his remarks, he shared the following:

Janet Atkinson is in my mind the most conscientious and professional educator on the LREI staff…Each day she gives both the students and her colleagues her fullest attention and best judgment.  Daily, she does her job both thoughtfully and creatively.   She never asks for any special considerations, not because she is paid more for her superior service, but because, in her eyes, integrity and authenticity are the twin pillars that bind her together, hold her erect…

Now and then I donned my hiking boots and wend my way up to Janet’s art studio on the fourth floor. Year after year what impressed me most about her art studio was the riot of color and design that spread across the tables and ran up and down the walls, the free and open spirit of the students and finally, the easy instructional banter that passed non-stop between Janet the art teacher and her many students.  “You might brighten this up, you might tone this down.  Stand back, look at it, think about it.  Maybe you could rework this.”   In my presence students embraced Janet as the gentle and experienced guide, the caring and conscientious mentor, the trustworthy and astute advisor.

Thus, one might call Janet’s art studio a haven … Indeed, I believe that for many students the art studio served as a refuge, a retreat, a place where knitters could knit, sewers could sew, painters could paint, sculptors could sculpt, printers could print and anybody, absolutely anybody – including me – could hang loose, let go, vent their creative frustration.   Example.  On Arts Day several years ago, I was assigned to the studio where I played around initially with paint on paper.  Then, when the paper didn’t seem large enough I began dribbling and dashing lattice-like streamers of water based paint – a la Jackson Pollock – over the newspaper that covered sections of the linoleum floor.  If Janet was amused by my enthusiasm she was not at all pleased by the sight of her studio’s paint-splattered linoleum flooring.    I spent the late afternoon and early evening scrubbing and mopping away my creative enthusiasm.  Trust me.  If Janet has a keen eye for quality she has an even keener nose for bullshit.

Still, Janet’s foremost achievement in her 27 year tenure at LREI was the way in which she turned the arts studio from a somewhat narrow, didactic space dedicated to still-life drawing into an open-ended, free spirited, imaginative and inventive play space dedicated to a wide range of creative arts, ideas and styles.  From day one, Janet’s aim was always to widen student exposure, to broaden student sensitivities, to expand student awareness concerning all the variable and different visual and plastic mediums defined today as the World of Art.

A personal note.   A conversation with Janet is not simply a superficial exchange of pleasantries.   A conversation with Janet wanders invariably into a wide-ranging exploration of both the power of ideas and the comedy of the human condition.

A professional note.  When I first came to E.I. art and photographic galleries were opening up for the first time in Soho.  Although I loved the arts, I didn’t really have an arts background.  Nevertheless, I had the bright idea of developing an art history class at E.I. and in making a central component of the class a weekly visit to a Soho gallery.  Once Janet joined the staff I found myself aided, supported and guided by an arts professional who was both friends with artists in England and America and knowledgeable of the major gallery openings taking place in Soho and around the City.  For many years, I and all of our engaged arts students benefited from the happy and seamless cooperation and interaction that bound together Janet’s superb studio art classes and my (pre – internet) slide-centered courses on the cultural history of the arts.

At LREI Janet has always combined in herself an uncanny blend of depth and kindness,, imagination and clarity, skill and generosity.   And, just as we have all benefited from her special presence, we will all feel a palpable sense of loss due to her regretful but necessary absence.  Next year Janet will not walk amiably and reliably every morning through LREI’s fresh-minted glass doors.  She intends to spend more time, as she should, with her two daughters and their families and with her soon to arrive grandchildren.  Still, I know that she will visit us and I know that she will respond to our e-mails.  In fact, Janet already remains in contact with many of our former students.   Often she tells me about one former student who just gave birth to her first child, and then another who has started her own art gallery, and still another who is working on a master’s degree in psychology, and then another who is working on a PhD.

In sum, Janet is first and foremost a people person.  She loves to hear from you, to know about you, to encourage you to reach high, do your best, – sometimes even better than your best – to stake out for yourself, as she has staked out for herself, a path you enjoy, a profession in which you are challenged, a creative life in which you can join hands with those who cherish the values you cherish, and ultimately, to succeed as she has succeeded in nourishing and enriching for 27 years all those in our school who have been privileged to know, to love and to learn from Janet’s wonderful character and presence.  I thank you.  Our students thank you.  The entire institution thanks you…

Mark A. Bledstein

Have a terrific, restful, wonderful, inspiring summer.  Congratulations to the Class of 2010 and their families!

Best, Ruth

Updates and Announcements:

*Congrats to all on a terrific Trimester III!  Grades and comments for Trimester III will be available online on “My Backpack” on June 25, by 3PM. Please check to make sure you can log on to the system successfully. If you have any problems logging on, please contact help_desk@lrei.org, which can assist you. If you would like your child’s grades or comments mailed, please send an email to Adria Maynor, amaynor@lrei.org.  She will also be available at 212-477-5316, x301 until July 1.  She will return from vacation August 2.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding a grade or comment, please contact the teacher directly, the student’s advisor, and/or class dean. Please note, teachers, advisors and class deans will be on vacation starting on Friday, June 18 at 12 noon, so a response may not come right away.

*Summer reading assignments are now online!  Please take a look here.  Students will receive necessary texts this week and next, and if your student has any questions, he or she should ask teachers next week.

1.  From the Literary Committee: 6/8 – 6/9 Little REaD Book Swap! Are your kids’ bookshelves so full they’re about to buckle? You can start clearing them out for the first ever Little REaD Book Swap! On June 8th and 9th, bring those books that your kids loved a few years ago but will never read again to school to swap for something new. Drop off and pick up books from 8-9 AM and 2:45-3:45 PM next Tuesday and Wednesday. Please — only kids’ books in good condition. Foreign-language books are fine. Any leftover books will be given to the GO Project or other charities. Please help recirculate good books around our community! Please see the flyer for more information.

2. The cookbook committee is still taking pre-orders for our new LREI community cookbook, Downtown Potluck, to be published in the fall of this year. Look for us in the lobby, or send an email to cookbook@lrei.org if you would like to order a copy ($25 each). If you place an order by the end of the school year, you will be entered in a drawing to win a free cookbook and a dinner for two at Minetta Tavern! Thanks to everyone!

3. Pride 2010 is upon us and the LGSA committee at LREI is in full swing on planning the March again this year. As usual we will have a float, and this year The Calhoun School will be joining us again.  The parade is Sunday June 27th from 12pm – end.

This week, sign up at our Pride Table on Thursday 6/10 and Friday 6/11 outside of the Sixth Avenue building.    Please see the attached flyer for more details!  See you at the March!

Dear LREI Families,

As we sprint towards the end of the school year—two weeks filled with all sorts of special events and celebrations to go—it seems like a good time to congratulate members of the faculty on some of their successes this year.  I asked the faculty in all three divisions to volunteer specific honors earned this school year.  The responses were:

Ana Chaney, middle school math teacher and math department chair, completed Bank Street College of Education’s Leadership in Mathematics Education program and earned a Masters’ of Science in Education.

MicahDov Gottlieb, high school Assistant Principal, was chosen to represent Brooklyn College’s Educational Leadership program at their NCATE (National Council of Accreditation of Teacher Education) accreditation.  In addition, he will be working with PBS on an episode of a new program called “Do The Math.” His record label “The Brooklyn Label” will be showing children how math is used in the recording studio. The group that will be featured is DobleFlo (a hip-hop duo), which features LREI alum Luis Lopez, ‘03.

Matthew Rosen, seventh grade core teacher, was awarded an National Endowment for the Humanities grant to attend a summer institute at Yale, The Lost World of Early America, in which he will explore themes in colonial American history, such as race relations, politics, economics, family and community life, and rites of passage.  In addition, he was selected to be a recipient of the Richard Koppenaal Scholarship for superior academic achievement at NYU where he will continue with his graduate studies in English Literature and Writing in the fall.

Deborah Damast, lower school movement teacher/middle school dance teacher, was the recipient of the Outstanding Postsecondary Educator award from the National Dance Education Organization for outstanding contributions to dance education nationally and in the community. This award is given once every two years and nominations come from colleges and universities across the nation.

High school English teacher Ileana Jiménez has recently been awarded the Distinguished Fulbright in Teaching Award (which is different from the Fulbright Teacher Exchange). The Fulbright will allow Ileana to spend six months in Mexico conducting research at a major university, providing professional development to local teachers, and completing a capstone project on gender and education. Her Fulbright will extend from January through June 2011.  She hopes to bring her research on gender and education back to both our English program and the high school’s program re-design focusing on global education and diversity.

Vin Scialla, high school music teacher/jazz band director was recently offered an album and distribution deal with Random Chance records for Snehasish Mozumder & Som, whom he performed with at Lincoln Center Out of Doors.

Elizabeth Simmons, seventh grade Core teacher, will attend the Klingenstein Summer Institute for Early Teachers. The Institute brings together approximately 75 teachers from across the country and around the world, and is especially designed to make teachers more effective leaders in the classroom and throughout the school.

Early childhood librarian Jesse Karp’s first novel, Those That Wake, will be published by Houghton Mifflin in Spring 2011.  The young adult novel centers on two teenagers who stumble upon a dark force that secretly manipulates society, and their struggle against it.  In addition, Jesse’s Graphic Novels in Your School Library, a non-fiction book about using comics and graphic novels in education, will be published by ALA Editions in Spring 2011.  Finally, he is currently serving his second year on the American Library Association’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens Committee, a body devoted to selecting the best graphic novels for ages 12-18.

Stacy Dillon, Lower School Librarian, has been selected to be a member of the Newberry 2012 committee. What an honor!  As you may know, the “Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.”

MS Librarian and Library Department Chair Jennifer Hubert Swan has been accepted into the Cullman Center Institute for Teachers Summer Seminar taught by author Karen Russell this July, and will be chairing the 2012 YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) Award for Excellence in Nonfiction committee starting in September. She is also a Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute in the School of Information and Library Science where she teaches evening courses in young adult and tween literature.

Karyn Silverman, high school librarian, is currently Chair of the Frances Henne YALSA/VOYA Research Grant Jury, which awards an annual fund to research supporting the Strategic Goals and Mission of YALSA, and am currently a member of the YALSA Nominating Committee, which is charged with finding qualified candidates for all award committees and governance positions. In addition, I will be teaching a graduate class on Young Adult Literature at Queens College this summer.

Each summer, for many years, LREI awards summer grants to support program development. Two years ago we began to award a series travel grants to support travel by LREI employees that may be, but does not have to be, related to the curriculum.  Click here to go to the Director’s blog to see a complete list of grant recipients.

We also had a very successful year for some of our academic teams. To read of their successes, please click here.

Best,

Phil

Updates and Announcements:

• Congratulations to the Class of 2010!  Senior Project Presentation evening was a huge success.  We are so proud of each member of this class.
• New photos are up on Flickr!  Check out photos from the Spring Concert last week and from Field Day!
• Please remember to remind your student about appropriate dress for Graduation Day, June 11, 2010.  No sneakers, flip-flops, t-shirts or jeans, please.  Thanks!
• Please see last week’s blog about next week’s exam schedule and the last days of school.
• Summer reading assignments are now online!  Please take a look here.  Students will receive necessary texts this week and next, and if your student has any questions, he or she should ask teachers next week.

1.  6/8 – 6/9  Little REaD Book Swap! Are your kids’ bookshelves so full they’re about to buckle? You can start clearing them out for the first ever Little REaD Book Swap! On June 8th and 9th, bring those books that your kids loved a few years ago but will never read again to school to swap for something new. Drop off and pick up books from 8-9 AM and 2:45-3:45 PM next Tuesday and Wednesday. Please — only kids’ books in good condition. Foreign-language books are fine. Any leftover books will be given to the GO Project or other charities. Please help recirculate good books around our community!

2.  We’re on Facebook and Twitter! So parents, students, faculty and the community have two new ways to stay in the LREI loop.

LREI on Facebook

LREI on Twitter

3.  Please click here for the 2010-2011 school calendar!

4.  Spring Admissions Alert:

Greetings!  As the end of the school year approaches, the Admissions Office is already planning for Fall 2011.   In order to best anticipate enrollment needs, it is helpful for the department to know the number of current LREI families who intend apply for admission for a sibling for the 2011-2012 school year.

In order to facilitate our planning for 2011-2012 we ask that you contact the Admissions Office by June 11th to provide your child’s name, date of birth, current grade and school name, and the grade to which she or he will apply for the 2010-2011 school year.  In doing so you will assist the admissions office with entering this information into our database so we may provide you with information about the process beginning in late summer.

As a point of reference, please be advised that LREI offers an optional Early Notification Program for applicants to Fours, Kindergarten and First Grade who are siblings of current LREI students, children of faculty or staff, and children or grandchildren of alumni. This program expedites the admissions process for those who are members of the community and benefits the School by clarifying the number of places available in each grade for the general applicant pool.  Applicants to Fours and Kindergarten must be four years old and five years old respectively by September 1st of the year in which a child will begin school.

Should you have any questions about the admissions process for your child, please contact the admissions office at 212.477.5316.  You may also send us information about your child by sending the aforementioned details to admissions@lrei.org.  We look forward to our continued work with LREI families.

Best wishes for a healthy spring!

The Admissions Team

5.  Join us on the LREI Float to Gay Pride March 2010, Sunday, June 27th, 2010 12pm -end.  March sign up to come.  Contact: Carrie Borows, cborows@gmail.com for more details!

6.  Click here for the 2010-2011 Ballot for Parents Association Officers.  To cast your ballot, please print the form, complete it and return it to the receptionist in either building by Monday, June 14th.

Dear Families,

Beginning June 4, students will enter exam week for Trimester III with Reading Day.  Click here to find the Trimester III exam schedule.  The exam schedule may undergo a minor change before Friday’s Reading Day. The most current schedule will be posted at the high school. Below, please find what exam week will look like in case you have any questions, or need to make particular arrangements.

Friday, June 4:  Reading Day

• School is open regular hours.  This is a day for students to prepare for exams, final papers and exhibitions. This is also an opportunity to catch up with outstanding work, work with groups for final presentations, use the Tech Center and printers around the school, etc. This is a quiet work day. Students may choose to work at school or at home. Students are not required to report to school, and it is not counted as an absence if they are not here. However, you may prefer your child to come to school for the full day to work. Please send him or her. School will be open. The Library will be open all day. No classes will meet so that all teachers are available. There will be review sessions held. If a student is in crisis, teachers may encourage that student to make an appointment or attend a review session.
• Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, June 7, 8, 9:  Exams. Exam periods are 9 AM-11 AM and 1 PM-3 PM. Each day, students should come in plenty of time for their morning exam, and students may leave after their exams are complete. Again, the exam schedule is attached.

Thursday, June 10:  8:30 AM start time.  We will have an arts assembly in the morning, wrapping up arts for the year, then advisory and clean-up.  Students will be dismissed after lunch.  If students are in need of community service, they should check in with their class dean, as there may be opportunities to help teachers pack up for the summer on this day.

Friday, June 11:  8:30 AM start time.  We will have class meetings to distribute yearbooks and wrap up the year.  Then, we will have a school meeting to give end of the year awards, lunch, then head to NYU for 2010 graduation which will begin at 1PM.  Students will be dismissed for the year after graduation.

Please note, all students must be dressed appropriately for graduation.  Nothing revealing, no t-shirts, jeans, flip-flops or sneakers.

Finally, don’t forget, tomorrow is Field Day!  Students should be here by 8:30 AM.  Every student needs to bring a lunch (no nuts, seeds or glass bottles).  This year, we will begin with a brief introduction of the Class of 2010 and their after high school plans and ribbon cutting to celebrate the new addition to the high school, then head to Pier 40 for games, bonding and fun.  Each student will receive a t-shirt to wear for Field Day tomorrow morning.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

Best, Ruth

Updates and Announcements:

11th grade parents, please see this important email from Director of College Guidance, Amy Shapiro.  Please note that the 11th grade will meet new Director of College Guidance Carey Socol and Associate Analisa Cipriano on Thursday, June 3.  I will be sending contact information to all parents for the new members of the office so that summer appointments can be made in the coming weeks.

1.  We’re on Facebook and Twitter! So parents, students, faculty and the community have two new ways to stay in the LREI loop.

LREI on Facebook

LREI on Twitter

2.  Please click here for the 2010-2011 school calendar!

3.  Spring Admissions Alert:

Greetings!  As the end of the school year approaches, the Admissions Office is already planning for Fall 2011.   In order to best anticipate enrollment needs, it is helpful for the department to know the number of current LREI families who intend apply for admission for a sibling for the 2011-2012 school year.

In order to facilitate our planning for 2011-2012 we ask that you contact the Admissions Office by June 11th to provide your child’s name, date of birth, current grade and school name, and the grade to which she or he will apply for the 2010-2011 school year.  In doing so you will assist the admissions office with entering this information into our database so we may provide you with information about the process beginning in late summer.

As a point of reference, please be advised that LREI offers an optional Early Notification Program for applicants to Fours, Kindergarten and First Grade who are siblings of current LREI students, children of faculty or staff, and children or grandchildren of alumni. This program expedites the admissions process for those who are members of the community and benefits the School by clarifying the number of places available in each grade for the general applicant pool.  Applicants to Fours and Kindergarten must be four years old and five years old respectively by September 1st of the year in which a child will begin school.

Should you have any questions about the admissions process for your child, please contact the admissions office at 212.477.5316.  You may also send us information about your child by sending the aforementioned details to admissions@lrei.org.  We look forward to our continued work with LREI families.

Best wishes for a healthy spring!

The Admissions Team

Dear Families,

This blog post is particularly important for current 10th and 11th grade families, but will be of interest to 9th grade families as well.  Yesterday, we gave students moving up to 11th and 12th grades in the coming school year History, English and Art electives for 10th, 11th and 12th grade course descriptions and sign up sheets.  Please take the time to look it over with your student if you are interested.  There are many wonderful choices for the next school year.  The sign-up sheets are due next Wednesday, May 26, by 3PM.  If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to ask me, Sarvjit, advisors and grade level deans.

Also out this week, NYU College Preview Courses available to us for Fall 2010.  Please click here for the list of classes and the requirements for applying for this opportunity.  Applications for NYU are due on Monday, May 24.

While we are sad to say goodbye to a few of our colleagues, we are thrilled to welcome our new faculty and staff members for the 2010-2011 school year.  More information about our new colleagues will be shared in the summer letter, sent mid-August, but I wanted to introduce our new folks by name now:

• Carey Socol, our new Director of College Guidance beginning July 1, comes to us from Hunter College High School, where she was a college counselor for ten years.  She is thrilled to be joining our community.
• Analisa Cipriano, a graduate of LREI’s Class of 2004, and Connecticut College Class of 2009, will be joining the community as the high school College Guidance Associate.  She has already started working with our current college office to begin the transition.
• James French, who has been a member of our community for two years, filling in for Janet in the studio art room on Fridays, will be starting full time in the position of Studio Art Teacher in the fall.  The students are so excited to have him as a teacher five days a week!  James is excited to bring woodshop to the high school, in addition to studio classes.
• Amy Chang will be our new Mandarin Chinese Teacher beginning in the fall.  She comes to us from Hunter College, where she taught college level Mandarin classes and from Hunter College High School, where she participated as an instructor in their after school Mandarin program.

Finally, on Friday, May 28th, we will hold our annual Field Day at Pier 40. Prior to beginning the Field Day festivities, we will convene as a community on Charlton Street to celebrate the completion of the most recent phase of renovations/expansion at the Charlton Street campus. Here, we will also celebrate our senior class and hear what each senior’s plans are for after graduation.  We are looking forward to an exciting day! School will close at 1:00PM on this day. Some additional information follows:

• It is important for all students to arrive on time.
• To celebrate the importance of the day, LREI will be providing each student with a Ribbon Cutting/Field Day T-shirt. T-shirts will be distributed on Friday morning. Students do not need to wear any special color shirt to school on Field Day.
• Students will spend the first part of Field Day in activities with their buddies. The younger lower school classes will return to the school after lunch while the third through twelfth grades will participate in a variety of activities in mixed age groups.
• Students will need to bring their own lunch along with a container of water. (No nuts or seeds, please.)  Plastic bottles are fine, but please no glass containers!  Clothing should be comfortable and easy to move in, shorts or sweatpants and athletic shoes.  No sandals.  Sunscreen, sunglasses and a hat are strongly recommended.
• We will return to school in time for 1:00PM dismissal, 12:45PM for the Fours, Fours/K and K.

Lots to look forward to!

All the best,

Ruth

Updates and Announcements:

1.  Urinetown, the DVD, is now on sale!!  Please email Musical Director Joanne Magee, jmagee@lrei.org, for more details.

2.  Dear Parents,

Spring is here, so we are starting to plan for the next school year.  The PA would like to let you know the many ways you can participate. Becoming a parent rep is a great way to get involved. If you have not been a parent rep before but would like to try it or find out more about it, please let us know.  We would be happy to talk to you more about what the job entails.  In the meantime, you can look at the Family Handbook, page 36 (link on our website www.LREI.org) for the Parent Rep Guidelines. Of course, until the classes are actually made up for next year (mid-August or so), we cannot match parent reps to classes.  If you’re looking for other ways to get involved, you could consider volunteering for any of our PA committees; a list is attached. Also in the Family Handbook (p.38), is a list of the co-chairs of the PA committees if you would like to contact them for more information.  Please email us at PA-Presidents@lrei.org if you would like to get involved.

3.  Save the Date:  The 17th Annual LREI Camping Trip will take place June 4-6 this year at the Riverbend Group Campground along the Delaware River.  All LREI families and their children — from all grades pre-K through high school — are invited to participate.  Watch for details and sign-up tables coming soon.  If you have any questions or would like to volunteer to help organize, please contact Larry White at LWhite@stern.nyu.edu or (212) 533-1966

Dear Families,

With four weeks until graduation and Friday being the end of the internship portion of senior project, it is time that we celebrate the seniors, wrap up this school year and prepare for the fall.  In these final few weeks, we have heard some terrific news celebrating students and faculty:

From Media Instructor, Vinay Chowdhry:

Last week, our students participated in Social Justice Expo 2010 is an opportunity for high school students who have been working on social justice oriented projects to showcase them for each other and for other New York educators and activists.  The Kimmel Center at NYU was abuzz with hundreds of young activists from all over the 5 boroughs. The atmosphere was positive, with considerable energy built up around the star of this event, Social Justice. It was evident as we rounded the second hour of judging that things were looking good for LREI. A queue of judges gathered around our sleek Macbook Pro stations; some of the judges even went so far as telling the students bluntly: “This should win hands down” and “This is really incredible.”

So we weren’t that surprised when LREI seniors Kayla Green, Harry D’Agostino, Kevin Schneck, and Gabe Rudin walked away with the 3rd place overall Social Justice Expo prize, awarded by a jury of activists, NYU alumni, filmmakers, and journalists, for their film “201 Varick Street.” The film highlights the injustice and abuse faced by detainees just a few blocks from our school.

Another film that received considerable attention was “Number One” by junior Cameron Diggs. It is an informative piece about the horrors of the domestic human sex trafficking industry. After the screening, an NYU faculty member came over to commend Cameron for her amazing film, citing it as her favorite.  She told Cameron that her film was “one of the only ones here that actually is about something serious.”

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