This Week . . .

Dear Families:

For those of you who had conferences last week, I trust that they were productive and created new opportunties for dialog with your child and his/her teachers. If your conferences are scheduled for tomorrow, I encourage you to consider some of the observations that I included in last week’s update. In that update I noted that 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 have spent time reflecting on their work thus far this school year. With their teachers’ guidance, students have identified areas on which to focus during the next marking quarter and developed 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?

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:

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

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.

This Week’s Attachments
(Click on the links below to open the attachments. If you are having trouble opening the links, go to http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ms/ to access the files.)

General:
Visibility Photo Exhibit
PA Community Service Committee Calendar
Eighth Grade:
Seventh Grade:
Williamsburg Letter
Sixth Grade:
Fifth Grade:

1) Coat Drive for St. John’s Church, November 14-18. We are holding our coat and outerwear drive for the clients of the St. John Food Pantry.
The church has asked that we focus on larger sizes this year- older teen and adult. THEY WOULD ALSO WELCOME MEN’S PANTS, JEANS, AS WELL AS NEW (IN PACKAGE) UNDERWEAR FOR BOTH MEN AND WOMEN. Please bring your clean and gently used donations to Matthew’s room (push 2 in the elevator) beginning Monday, November 14th. Thanks!
2) Just a reminder that on Thursday, November 18th, The MIddle School Parents of Children of Color group will meet. We will meet at 6PM in the Sixth Avenue Library.

3) The photos from this weekend’s High School musical are online. They can be accessed from the homepage by clicking on the LREI News button or by going directly to: http://www.lrei.org/news/index.html.

4) Whether you are lesbian, gay, straight or none of the above, we invite you to recognize the lesbian and gay people in your life or your child’s life and to let them tell their stories. Invite them to join you in LREI’s photo exhibit, “VISIBILITY: Celebrating the Lesbian and Gay People We Love.” For more information, please read the attached letter.
5)For information about LREI’s other efforts to aid the victims of Hurricane Katrina please go to http://www.lrei.org/whoweare/katrina.html. For additional service opportunities, please see the attached calendar from the PA Community Service Committee.

4) From MS librarian Jennifer Hubert Swan: Please take a look with your child at the new LREI homework help website entitled ‘Homework 311.’ The LREI librarians created this website over the summer to provide students with an alternative to Google. All of the web links listed on the site have been evaluated and annotated by the librarians and chosen because of relevance to LREI curriculum. Please help reinforce good searching techniques by reminding students to go to HW311 before navigating the vast waters of Google on their own! Link to HW311 by going to the LREI website, clicking on “Library/Resources” in the bar directly beneath the red banner, then clicking on “Homework 311” at the top of the right-hand sidebar. Or bookmark http://www.lrei.org/libres/hw311.html on your home computer.

5) LREI is a member of NYC-Parents in Action (NYC-PIA). NYC-PIA provides parenting education, information and a communications network to help parents prepare their children and teenagers to cope with social pressures and to make sound choices towards a future free of alcohol and drug abuse. You can access their on-line calendar of events at www.parentsinaction.org. Two upcoming seminars that may be of interest to Middle School families are: Wednesday, November 16th – Independence: Holding On and Letting Go; and Wednesday, December 7th – Independence in Middle School: Safety, Self Reliance and Risk Taking.

For 8th Grade Families . . .
1) The 8th grade class has been invited to participate in a panel discussion at the Donnell branch of the NYPL with the five finalists for the Young People’s Literature award section of the National Book Award on Tuesday, November 15th. This is a much coveted invitation and we are lucky to have been invited for the third year in a row. Students are provided with free copies of the books, and given an opportunity to ask questions of the authors during the panel, then retire to Donnell’s newly renovated Nathan Straus Teen Central for refreshments and a chance to get their books signed. The five finalists and their titles are: The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall, Where I want to Be by Adele Griffin, Inexcusable by Chris Lynch, Autobiography of My Dead Brother by Walter Dean Myers, and Each Little Bird that Sings by Deborah Wiles

2) After the awards the eighth grade will return to EI for lunch and will then participate in an assembly at he high school featuring eighth grade parent Ron Kuby who will lead a discussion on the Consitution and the rights of an American citizen.

3) On Wednesday November 16th, the eighth grade class will travel to Bear Mountain for a day of hiking and communing with nature and with each other. Faculty will also develop a number of curricular connections to help integrate the experience with learning in their classes. Bear Mountain is a beautiful location that is located about 40 miles north of New York City. Once there, the students will be able to experience first-hand the beautiful fall colors; they will also participate in a challenging hike and bond as a group. This will be a one-day trip; we will embark from LREI at 7:45AM and plan to arrive back at LREI at 6PM.

4) Each year LREI offers scholarships to incoming ninth graders who demonstrate exceptional accomplishment and promise in the areas of scholarship, citizenship, leadership and service in their time at LREI. Copies of the application are in the mail. Completed Irwin Scholar Applications are due no later than Friday, December 2, 2005. Notification letters will be mailed by Friday, January 13, 2005.

5) The schedule of boys and girls basketball games is on-line at http://lrei.org/athletics/at_4b.html. Practices will start the week of November 7th. The practice schedule for the teams is attached.

For 7th Grade Families . . .
1) The schedule of boys and girls basketball games is on-line at http://lrei.org/athletics/at_4b.html. Practices will start the week of November 21st. The practice schedule for the teams is attached.

2) Please make sure that you have turned in a completed Williamsburg trip form. A copy of the trip form and other related information is attached. Please make sur ethat your child is at school at 8AM on Monday so that we are able to leave for Williamsburg on time.

For 6th Grade Families . . .
1) No updates this week.

For 5th Grade Families . . .
1) Fifth Grade Chorus – Helen will have an extra chorus rehearsals to make up for the one missed due to holidays. This will be after school on Monday, November 21st and will end at 4:00PM.

Middle School Sports
Schedules and general information about Middle School sports programs can be found at http://lrei.org/athletics/at_4b.html. Information is also available through the LREI Sports Hotline at 212.477.5316 x 494.

Looking Ahead . . .
On the LREI web site additional information about upcoming events can be found at http://www.lrei.org/caleven/index.html (the middle school events page can be found at http://www.lrei.org/midschool/Events.html)

  • Friday, November 11th, 12:10PM- 3:00PM — School closes at noon for Family Conferences
  • Monday, November 14th – Friday, November 18th — Seventh Grade trip to Williamsburg
  • Tuesday, November 15th, 8:15AM — Parent Rep Meeting
  • Thursday, November 17th, 6:00PM — MS Parents of Children of Color Meeting
  • Tuesday, November 22nd — Fifth Grade to the Met
  • Thursday, December 1st, 8:00AM — Lesbian/Gay/ Straight Alliance Meeting in the Sixth Avenue cafeteria.
  • Friday, December 2nd, 7:00PM-9:00PM — Seventh Grade DISC dance. The dance will be held at St. Luke’s School (487 Hudson Street).
  • Monday, December 5th — “Book Week” begins. The Book Fair will take place Wednesday-Friday.
  • Thursday, December 8th — Literary Evening
  • Tuesday, December 13th, 8:15 AM — MS Parent Rep Meeting
  • Thursday, December 15th — Winter Concert
  • Friday, December 16th — School closes at 12:00PM for Winter Break

Don’t forget to check the LREI website for updates and interesting information – http://www.lrei.org.

Be well,
Mark

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