Working With and Caring For

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.

This Week’s Attachments
General:
December MS Parent Rep Meeting Minutes
Eighth Grade:
DC Trip Registration Form
Seventh Grade:
Fifth and Sixth Grade:

Of General Interest . . .
1) Reminders from Phil:

  • We will be distributing an updated LREI Directory after Winter Break. Please contact Mary Shea (mshea@lrei.org) if you would like to revise your family’s information. Remember that you can print individual pages from the electronic version of the directory if you wish. Also, the most up-to-date school calendar is the one of the web site. On this page you can download LREI’s calendar to you iCal. You can choose which events are displayed on your version of our calendar by clicking on the “filter events” button on the left hand side of the calendar page.
  • Important Dates:
    • January 15, 2009: Re-enrollment contracts will be mailed to all families no later than this date.
    • February 1, 2009: Re-enrollment contracts are due.

2) Gifts to Teachers: If your child wants to give his or her teacher a gift at winter break, the end of the year, or any other time during the year, a homemade gift or drawing is welcome and appreciated. A group gift from parents and children in the class may be given at the end of the school year. This will be organized by the Parent Rep. It has been our experience that individual gifts, though thoughtfully intended, may be misinterpreted by the children and, consequently, we discourage this. Thank you for your awareness and
cooperation.

3) Calling All Embroidery Buffs! Embroider a square for the 2009 Big Auction Community Quilt.  All squares must be completed by February 1, 2009.  Please see the PDF for details.

4) Red is Green Committee’s December Sneaker Recycling Drive

  • Starting Monday, December 1st, LREI will be recycling old tennis shoes through the Nike Re-Use A Shoe program. Shoes will be ground up and recycled into outdoor basketball courts, volleyball courts, tennis courts, soccer fields and playgrounds. You can drop off your old sneakers in the collection boxes located in the lobbies of the Sixth Avenue and Charlton Street campuses through January 15. So tell your friends and relatives over the holidays to bring you their old sneakers!
  • January is recycle your greeting cards month! Save all your cards this holiday season and we’ll be collecting them in January. St. Jude’s Ranch accepts recycled cards which they use to make “green” holiday cards. The proceeds go towards helping abused, abandoned and neglected children.
  • Some green holiday ideas from the Red is Green Committee:
  1. Looking for recycled wrapping paper?  www.greenfieldpaper.com has a lovely collection.  Or better yet, make it an arts & craft project with your child – use paper shopping bags and some paint to create fun and unique wrapping paper!
  2. Getting a new computer this holiday season and wondering what to do with your old one?  Bring your old computers, printers and other electronics to the next e-waste recycling event on January 4 at Union Square.  Visit www.lesecologycenter.org for details.

5) Afterschool Registration Information! Follow this link to download the new Afterschool registration forms for 2009, which are posted on the Afterschool portion of the LREI website. Registration for programs begins on January 6th and continues through January 9th. If you are registering for Instrumental lessons, turn in your form by 3:00pm on January 6th to be included in the registration shuffle. During registration week, Afterschool will offer free childcare. Please contact the Afterschool Office with any questions at 212-477-5316 ext 239. You may also email Kelly Eudailey at keudailey@lrei.org or Cari Kosins at ckosins@lrei.org.

6) The Alumni College Panel: Our annual Alumni College Panel is scheduled for Thursday, January 8th at 6:30PM at the High School. Meet recent LREI graduates and hear from them about their experiences and how LREI prepared them for college. Moderated by Amy Shapiro, Director of College Guidance. RSVP to Liza Sacks, at lsacks@lrei.org or (212) 477-5316 ext. 291. Click here for more information.

7) Save the Date for Karamu!  Friday January 23rd… Karamu! is a multicultural celebration of music, dance, and food celebrating the diversity of our school and community – all are invited! Tickets go on sale Tuesday, January 20th. Discount tickets are available –  please contact Juliet Burrows (jkka@mac.com). This  event always sells out so get your tickets early! Here are ways to be involved: get tickets & come to the show, volunteer to help out on the day of or donate a prepared dish for the feast!. More details to follow… join the fun of this wonderful community building event!

8) From the LREI Family Handbook: Vacations: We remind families to only take vacations during LREI breaks and that your child’s time away from school does not begin before the school break does or end afterwards. Teachers use each scheduled day to support their classroom program goals and the School’s mission. Students who miss days adjacent to breaks, or who take vacations outside of our break times, miss work and can disrupt planned activities. This affects the learning of the absent students and her/his classmates. In addition, divisional or all-school assemblies often precede our longer vacations. These gatherings are essential for creating the sort of community that drew you to LREI. Students sing, listen to speakers, applaud their schoolmates, meet students in other divisions and generally strengthen community ties.

We will not honor families’ requests to receive work their children will miss due to family vacation plans. Families that are presented with once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to make an extended visit to another city, country, etc. should speak to their child’s principal. In general, we are focused on making sure that we are using each moment of each school day as effectively as possible. Part of being able to do this is to have each student in school each of these days. Thank you for your support of these efforts.

9) For updates on faculty performances, openings, presentations, and publications visit the Faculty in the News page on the school web site.

10) 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. Please read the attached flyer to view their 2008-2009 calendar. You can also access their website at http://www.parentsinaction.org/.

For All Grades . . .
1) Just a reminder that the Middle School dance originally scheduled for Friday, January 9th, has been rescheduled for Friday, January 30th. The dance will start at 6:30PM for fifth graders and at 7:00PM for sixth through eighth graders. The dance will end at 8:30PM for fifth and sixth graders and at 9:00Pm for seventh and eighth graders. Permission slips will go out the week of the dance.

For Eighth and Seventh Grade Families . . .
1) Boys and girls practice and basketball schedules are online:

For Eighth Grade Families . . .
1) While the trip to DC is not until the spring, please use the attached form to register your child for the trip. If you have questions about payment, please do not hesitate to contact me.

For Seventh Grade Families . . .
No updates this week.

For Fifth and Sixth Grade Families . . .
1) Intramural Basketball:

  • Students will be assigned to a team by Friday, December 12th.
  • The week of December 15th players will have practice either on Wednesday or Thursday depending on what team they are on.
  • Click here to view the full practice and game schedule.

For Sixth Grade Families . . .
1) On Wednesday, January 7th, the sixth grade will travel to the Met to view their Arms and Armor collection. Students should bring a bag lunch (No nuts, seed or glass bottles on that day).

For Fifth Grade Families . . .
1) On Wednesday, January 28th, the fifth grade will travel to the Brooklyn Museum to view their Egyptian artifact collection.

============= For additional information, follow these links: =============

  • View important middle school dates here.
  • View all events with the LREI On-line Calendar
  • LREI Athletics. For general LREI Athletics news go to this link . This page will provide general announcements, game summaries, league standings and season recaps.
  • Click here to view the Middle School Photo Gallery.

A reminder that the individual homework blog and the “feeds” for every class can be accessed from the Digital Classroom link on the sidebar (you may want to bookmark this page for easy access). These feeds provide an easy “one-click” solution to find out what has been assigned for homework. Keep in mind that a feed will only show what has been posted as of the time you check it.

Don’t forget to check the LREI website for updates and other interesting school-related information.

Be well,
Mark

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