January 21, 2010

LREI Reflects on the Situation in Haiti

Dear Families,

On Wednesday, we held our annual MLK Assembly that was organized and run by our eighth graders. I’ll have more to say about this important event in next week’s blog.

Tomorrow, progress reports for the second quarter will be emailed to you. Please see below for additional information on the importance of these reports.

What follows is an important note form Phil on the school’s response to the earthquake(s) in Haiti.

Dear LREI Community,

I want to start this note by thanking all who donated to Monday’s collection of materials bound for Haiti. The outpouring of support was inspiring. Thank you also to the middle school students, families and faculty who participated in the organization and packing of your donations. According to our sources at charity : water your donations have already arrived in Haiti. Click here to view a short video about charity : water’s efforts. Thank you to Ella Crivello, (LREI ’08) for connecting us with charity : water.

Each year our high school students host a number of Coffeehouses—informal open mic evenings of music and spoken word. The students have decided to devote the Coffeehouse on February 6^th to support of the relief efforts in Haiti. I join the students in inviting you to come together with fellow members of the LREI community on Saturday, February 6^th, beginning at 6:30PM in the Performing Arts Center, 40 Charlton Street for this benefit event.

From MicahDov Gottlieb, High School Assistant Principal—This Coffee House will be an entertaining event in support of a worthy cause. We already have a great line-up of high school, middle school, faculty, and community members set to perform. If you are interested in performing or helping out in any way, please contact Micah at MDGottlieb@LREI.org. Mark your calendar now!

All money raised during the Coffeehouse, and other fundraising efforts, will support the work of two organizations. One, Partners in Health, has been involved in healthcare efforts in Haiti for many years. Learn more about them at www.pih.org. The second, The Harris Rosen Foundation, was founded by LREI alum, Harris Rosen, ’57. The Rosen Foundation is working with Haitian communities in Florida to send money and supplies to Haiti. The Foundation is also beginning to plan for rebuilding efforts including funding the development of earthquake and hurricane resistant housing.

In addition to the Coffeehouse, all proceeds from this year’s Karamu! celebration—this Friday night—will also be used to support these two organizations.

A number of LREI community members have asked how we plan our responses to events such as last week’s earthquake. In general, we allow ourselves the time to make deliberate decisions about our involvement. Our responses to world events must address LREI’s educational and social justice missions. Through our responses we teach about the specifics of the events, about the politics and history of the region, about how we can use current circumstances to think ahead to the “next time,” and about activism. Finally, we have to plan for our ongoing involvement, if any, and as events slow somewhat we find time to learn from our actions. To the point of ongoing involvement, we have decided that next February’s Coffeehouse will be a second fund raiser for organizations involved in rebuilding efforts in Haiti.

Thank you again for your interest and involvement.

Best,
Phil

For those of you with questions about how to talk with your child about the events that have taken place in Haiti, please click here to read Lower School principal Namita Tolia’s very thoughtful blog (it follows Phil’s message).

Of General Interest . . .

1) Thank you to the all of the families who dropped much needed supplies off at the school Friday, Saturday and Monday. Thank you also to the many students and families who helped to sort, organize and bag all of the supplies that we received. The following is a conservative estimate of the number of items that were donated:

1500 liters of water

more than a thousand individual bars of soap

close to 200 blankets

175 packs of gauze and band-aids

150 packs of feminine hygiene products

135 packs of medical gloves

55 tooth brushes and toothpaste

45 towels and linens

30 sleeping bags

20 packages of deodorant

20 packages of diapers and wipes

13 tents

10 bedrolls and tarps

2 first aid kits

2 bags of assorted clothes

[flickrslideshow acct_name=”lrei-photos” id=”72157623236517004″ width=”460″ height=”345″]

2) Save the Date for Karamu! Friday January 22nd… Karamu! is LREI’s annual multicultural event of music, dance, and food celebrating the diversity of our school and community. Tickets go on sale Tuesday, January 19th… Karamu! always sells out; get your tickets early (discounted tickets available – contact Juliet Burrows: julietburrows@mac.com). We need food and volunteers! …Sign up boards will be in the 6th Avenue Lobby – please volunteer and join this wonderful community building event. If you would like to solicit a donation of food or wine from a restaurant or business please use this letter and forward information to Juliet.

3) A Message from Chap, Director of Diversity & Community: Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” With that in mind, how do we help our children tap into and develop their social justice identity in order to find the courage to act against bias of any type? Join the LREI Parent Community for part two of How to Raise an Ally: Social Justice at LREI as we consider, share examples of, and learn about ways to raise a strong ally with anti-bias educator Dr. Jane Bolgatz (see attached flyer). Two sessions are offered to better accommodate family schedules. Wednesday, January 27, at 6:00pm in the Charlton Street Cafeteria OR Thursday, January 28 at 8:45am in the Sixth Avenue Cafeteria.

4) School Spirit Game! Next Friday, January 29th, 3:15PM at the Thompson Street Athletic Center (143 Thompson Street). All families invited. Show your school spirit and come out in our school colors – RED & WHITE! Middle and High School basketball teams play against faculty & staff. Come cheer on your teachers and teams. Shoot Off competition at half time for younger students. Fun for all!

5) Food Talk, a presentation sponsored by the LREI PA Food Committee, is scheduled for Wednesday, February 3rd at 8:45AM in the Sixth Ave. Cafeteria – Click here for flyer with details!

6) Please read the attached letter from the Lesbian Gay Straight Alliance committee about the upcoming Visibility exhibit.

7) Grandparents and Special Friends Day will be held on Friday May 7th from 1:00-3:00PM. Please send your names for Grandparent and Special Friends to Liza Sacks, lsacks@lrei.org , (212) 477-5317 ext.291. Invitations will be mailed March. You can also contact Liza if you have questions about this important community event.

8) Red is Green Committee Announcements:

- During the month of January we will be recycling holiday and greeting cards. These cards will be donated to St. Jude’s Ranch. No photo cards please. For more information click here.
- Also during the month of January you can bring in your wrapping paper scraps. These scraps will be used to decorate the school for Faculty/Staff Appreciation Day. Look for the box in the lobby after the holidays.
- For more details about our monthly recycling drives and Go Green to School dates, please click Red is Green PA Page.

9) The LREI Cookbook Committee is working on creating a LREI community cookbook. The theme of the cookbook is potlucks. If you have any recipes that you would like to submit for consideration, please send them to cookbook@lrei.org. Also, if you are interested in participating in the creation of the cookbook, email Kathryn Kellinger at kksidedish@aol.com or Susie Marples at susiemarples@yahoo.com

10) Click here to access the new LREI on-line photo gallery.

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

12) LREI is a member of NYC-Parents in Action (NYC-PIA – http://www.parentsinaction.org/). 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. Click here to view upcoming events and/or to download their calendar.

For All Grades . . .

1) As you review second quarter reports, which will go out on Friday, please remember that they 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 reviewing 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.

2) Also on the subject of assessment, ERBs are scheduled For February 9th-11th. 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. Please also read the attached letter from the Middle School math teachers regarding prep for the upcoming ERBs, which are scheduled for February 9-11.

3) Click here to read the minutes form this week’s Middle School Parent Rep Meeting.

4) The second Middle School Students of Color Meeting will take place on Thursday, January 28 from 11 am – 12 pm. Again we will share lunch together before attending to any agenda items and celebrating our community. Please consider encouraging your child to attend this next meeting. Feel free to direct any questions to Sherezada Acosta at sacosta@lrei.org or Chap, Director of Diversity and Community at schapman@lrei.org. Thank you for your ongoing support of our school and your/our children. Click here for information about the group’s discussion at the first meeting.

5) Just a reminder that the Middle School dance is scheduled for Friday, January 29th. 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.

As part of our on-going community service initiatives, this year we are partnering with the organization GETTING TOOLS TO CITY SCHOOLS (http://www.gettingtoolstocityschools.org/home), which seeks to procure and deliver free basic school supplies to low-income public schools in New York City.

To support their on-going efforts, we are encouraging students who attend the dance on Friday to bring in one or more of the following school supply items: *1.5″-2″ three-ring binders, *pocket dividers (sets of 5), *pencil pouch (three-hole to be used in binder), boxes of pens, boxes of pencils, lined paper packs; (*most needed).

GETTING TOOLS TO CITY SCHOOLS was started by a former LREI parent. This Friday’s dance will be one of several opportunities that will take place over the course of the year in which LREI students will support the group’s work. This service relationship is also connected to our reading and on-going discussions about Three Cups of Tea; our work with GETTING TOOLS TO CITY SCHOOLS reinforces the value of education and the need for activism to ensure that all children have access to quality schools and materials.

6) Middle School “Pajama Day” is scheduled for Friday, February 5th. Highlights will include hot chocolate and cookies at lunch and stories read by eighth graders during independent reading. Here are a few guidelines, which were developed by the Student Representatives on the occasion of the first Pajama Day:

- Just because it’s Pajama Day doesn’t mean the dress code went to sleep
- A robe adds a nice touch
- No lingerie or underwear
- If you wear boxers, please wear some type of undergarment beneath
- Slippers are fine, but you should bring a pair of shoes/sneakers (especially if you have PE)
- Blankets and stuffed animals are welcomed, but should not be so big that they require their own desk
- If you don’t wear pajamas, we do not want to know about it!
- If you can imagine Mark wearing it, it is probably okay.

7) A reminder that you can access teachers’ blogs by following the “Digital Classroom” link on the sidebar.

8) Read about our Middle School sports teams and game summaries at http://lrei.org/athletics/news.htm.

For Eighth Grade Families . . .

1) A reminder that final payments for the DC trip are due on February 18th. If you have payment questions, please let me know. If you have not registered, please do so ASAP using the attached form.

2) The student-parent meeting for the spring Spanish class trip will take place on Thursday, January 28th, at 8:00AM. If you have questions, please contact Gabrielle Keller. Before the meeting you should:

- check the expiration date on your child’s passport (or apply for a passport TODAY)
- check your Explorica account and see that you have paid in full- they won’t make our reservations until the group has a 0 balance
- fill out the Parental Consent form which your child will bring home on Thursday this week. The form gives me permission to travel with your children to Costa Rica. It must be notarized and Jesse, the Lower School librarian, has very generously consented to sign your completed forms at the meeting.

For Seventh Grade Families . . .

No updates this week.

For Fifth and Sixth Grade Families . . .

1) Click here for the team rosters. Regular team practices will start on Wednesday and Thursday, December 16th and 17th. Players must have a completed permission slip to play. Forms can be downloaded from the Athletics section of the LREI website.

For Sixth Grade Families . . .

No updates this week.

For Fifth Grade Families . . .

1) The fifth grade will visit the Brooklyn Museum to view their Egyptian collection on Friday, January 22. Students should bring a bagged lunch (no nuts, seeds, or glass bottles) on this day.

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

View all events with the LREI On-line Calendar
Click here to see the 2009-2010 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