Necessary and Expedient
From guest blogger Director Phil Kassen:
Dear Middle School Families,
U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 3
“He shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union
and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary
and expedient.”
I started writing this note earlier in the week just as President Obama was finishing his State of the Union address—a moment each year that requires a deft balance of leadership and politics. I was struck by two of the themes of this address, both of which, in my opinion, fit the “necessary and expedient” requirement—collaboration and preparation for an unknown and uncertain future. Hard to argue with the importance of these two goals yet also hard to understand why they are held out as so difficult to achieve. You should expect us to foster these essential habits in your children each day. We certainly expect to see them in the students’ behavior. I accept that our current two party system is inherently antagonistic—bringing together officials who represent a variety of viewpoints and beliefs, people who may strongly disagree with one another. I accept that their work is hard and that sometimes compromise represents loss and, therefore, may be unwanted. I would suggest that, as we teach your children, there is often a larger purpose than the obvious “us vs. them” and that no matter how hard it is to get along, no matter how easy it is to get lost in the immediate details, no matter how much we may want to win the day, in order to be successful communities must find a way to communicate, to hear each other, to see the world for a moment through the experience of another whose life is quite different from your and to focus on the larger issues. For many of us, in our personal and professional lives, there is no choice but to create alliances and to get along. I don’t know why our elective representatives allow themselves to opt out of this most reasonable of expectations. I can’t imagine a discussion with the students, of any age, in which they counted sitting next to someone they disagreed with as a significant accomplishment. We don’t call this a momentous achievement. We call it lunch.
We also watch your children preparing for an uncertain future. We see them making connections between various disciplines; between what is happening at home and what is happening in the classroom. They solve complex problems. They are self-reflective and bold. They are willing to take risks and are supportive of their classmates. Not only do we expect these behaviors each day, we actually see them each day. Very much the stuff
of progressive education. You should be proud of your children. Ultimately, what we need is more LREI graduates sitting in the hallowed halls of government.
On a different note, as many of you know our high school juniors and seniors are able to apply to take a class at New York University as part of the NYU College Preview Program. These students take on the full workload of a college course in addition to their six major subjects at LREI and whatever extracurricular commitments they have made. The seniors are also in the thick of the college application process. Attendance and requirements for the NYU classes are the same as they are for “official” college students and only the professor knows that they are high school students. The LREI students who took courses at NYU last semester are:
- Lidor Foguel—Calculus II
- Rachard Kemp—Black Urban Studies
- Aaron Naves—Black Urban Studies
- Luca Schliemann—African Cultures
- Grace Tobin—History of Modern Ireland II
- Ian Tsang—Developmental Psychology Across the Lifespan
Each of these students earned an A or B in their course. Congratulations on a job well done!
Finally, by now most of you have received your re-enrollment contract(s) for the 2011-2012 school year. If you have not, you will quite soon. If you have, a reminder that these documents are due back to us by February 1st, 2011, next Tuesday. Please do not hesitate to contact Michel de Konkoly Thege, Associate Director, or me with questions.
Best,
Phil
Of General Interest . . .
1) A thank you to all who helped to make Karamu! such a success. Here are some pictures from the evening:
[flickrslideshow acct_name=”lrei-photos” id=”72157625896546226″ width=”460″ height=”345″]
2) If your contact information—address, phone numbers, email addresses—has changed since we distributed the directory in September, please contact Mary Shea, mshea@lrei.org, as she is preparing an updated directory for distribution in the coming weeks. Thanks.
3) Sports Committee: Ready for some indoor fun on a chilly afternoon? Our basketball teams are RED HOT! So warm up with friends and come to one of our exciting home games! Be prepared to scream, yell, wave your flags and MAKE SOME NOISE as we CHEER OUR TEAMS ON TO VICTORY! All games are held at Thompson Street Athletic Center, 145 Thompson Street. LET’S GO KNIGHTS!! Knights home game schedule for next week:
- 1/31/2011 — MS Girls vs Dwight 4PM
- 2/1/2011 — MS Boys vs City and Country 4PM
- 2/2/2011 — Varsity Girls vs LFNY 4PM
- 2/3/2011 — JV Boys vs York Prep 4PM
- 2/4/2011 — Intramurals – Red/TieDye Blue/Green
- 2/7/2011 — Varsity Boys vs Churchill 4PM
- 2/8/2011 — Varsity Boys vs Trevor Day 4PM
- 2/10/2011 – MS Girls vs BWL 4PM
- 2/11/2011 – Intramurals – Red/Blue TieDye/Black
- 2/14/2011 – MS Girls vs Packer 4PM
- 2/15/2011 – Varsity Teams Big Apple Conference Playoff 2 vs 3
- 2/16/2011 – MS Boys vs VCS 4PM
- 2/17/2011 – MS Boys vs BWL 4PM
- 2/18/2011 – Intramurals Playoffs
- 2/23/2011 – Varsity Boys and Girls ISAL PLAYOFF
- 2/24/2011 – JV Boys vs LFNY 4PM
- 2/25/2011 – Varsity Boys and Girls ISAL FINAL and Intramurals Playoffs
- 2/28/2011 – MS Boys and Girls Finals
- 3/1/2011 – JV Boys Playoff
- 3/3/2011 — JV Boys FINAL
- 3/4/2011 — Intramurals Finals/Consolation Game
- 3/11/2011 – Intramurals Parents Game
4) Red is Green: In January the Red is Green Committee will be collecting holiday cards for recycling. The cards will be donated to St. Jude’s Ranch. St. Jude’s will remove the front of each card and attach a new back then sell the new card to raise money for the organization. Cards that can be recycled must not have writing on the back side of the front cover. Please, no cards with personal photographs or Hallmark, Disney or American Greeting cards. Cards can be placed in the collection bin located in the lobby.
5) Our new community cookbook, Downtown Potluck, a compilation of recipes from our talented parents and teachers, has been garnering praise in the media, including Time Out New York Kids and Esquire. It will be on sale at Karamu! and other upcoming school events. It will also be available through the school store, and in the Sixth Ave. lobby shortly before Valentine’s Day (perfect for gift-giving!). The book costs $25; supplies are limited. Email cookbook@LREI.org for information.
6) Click here to access the most current “At a Glance” calendar for the 2010-2011 school year.
7) For additional school news, you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
8) 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) Just a reminder that the first Middle School dance is scheduled for this Friday, January 28th. 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. If you have not done so already, permission slips should be returned by Friday. As we have done in the past, the eighth grade Social Justice Project group that is working with the organization Getting Tools to City Schools would like to use the dance as an opportunity to collect much needed school supplies for the organization’s partner schools. Below is a note from eighth graders Charlotte, Jaron, Jerel and Shayna:
GET TOOLS TO CITY SCHOOLS THIS MIDDLE SCHOOL DANCE
We would like to ask all Middle School students attending the dance to bring school supplies as their “admission” ticket. These supplies will be used to support our Eighth Grade Social Justice Project on education and equity issues that we are doing with the organization Getting Tools to City Schools. Supplies can be submitted upon arrival in the lobby of the high school. The focus of this collection is on:
- boxes/packages of pencils
- boxes/packages of blue or black pens
- packages of lined paper
Please make sure these supplies are new. They will be distributed along with other supplies and a binder to students in under resourced New York City public schools.
2) The afternoon of Friday, January 28th is also our much anticipated Spirit Game in which faculty take on the seventh-twelfth grade basketball teams. The game will start at 3:30PM at the Thompson street Athletic Center. Please see flyer for details.
3) Both of the above events cap off our first annual Middle School Spirit Week. Tomorrow’s Spirit Week activity is:
- Pajama Day – Highlights 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 many years ago:
- 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.
- Here are some photos from Wednesday’s Twin Day:
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4) Second quarter report cards are available for your review. In addition to the grids and curriculum statements, these reports also include teacher comments. You will follow the same procedures that you used in the first quarter to access these reports. Below is an outline of these procedures:
- To enter our secure information system go to http://www2.lrei.org.
- Your user name is the first three letters of your first name and the first three letters of your last name (e.g., Donald Duck’s user name is “donduc.”). If you have any difficulty logging in, try adding the fourth letter of your last name to your username (e.g, “donduck”).
- Enter the password that you set last quarter.
- If you did not access reports last quarter, the temporary password is “welcome.” After you enter this password, you will be asked to select a new password.
- If you forgot your password, click on the link that says, “Forgot your login?”
- After logging in, you will be taken to the “Academic Portal” page and can access the reports from the “Performance” section of the page (i.e., click on the “Report Card” link).
- Reports can be read on-line and/or can be printed out.
- A video tutorial covering how to access progress reports can be viewed at http://screencast.com/t/VfadPfG5P.
- If you have any questions or run into any difficulties accessing the reports, please do not hesitate to contact me.
5) From Middle School Mandarin teacher Alicia Wang: Family Day: Moon over Manhattan- Celebrate the Lunar New Year – This Saturday, from 1:00-4:00PM, Asia Society (725 Park Avenue, New York, NY) rings in the Lunar New Year with incredible performances and traditional craft activities inspired by Lunar New Year traditions. Don’t miss an auspicious Lion Dance, Kung Fu demonstrations, and the extraordinary Chinese Theatre Works Company performing folk dance and classic scenes from Peking operas. $5 students, seniors, children, $7 members (Dual Family members FREE), $12 nonmembers. For more info: http://asiasociety.org/events-calendar/family-day-moon-over-manhattan-celebrate-lunar-new-year.
6) The new date for the POCOC Book Club & Potluck is Friday, February 4th from 6:00-8:00PM in the Sixth Avenue Auditorium. Rita Williams-Garcia , the author of our Middle School book selection and winner of the 2011 Scott O’Dell Award will join us. Reminder: The Parents of Children of Color Committee (POCOC) provides a forum for discussion on the needs and concerns of parents of children of color.
7) ERBs are scheduled for February 15th-17th. 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.
For Eighth Grade Families . . .
1) Starting last week, eighth graders are traveling in groups of four to the high school for half-day visits in the morning. During the visit, they have the opportunity to sit in on several classes and to speak with High School principal Ruth Jurgensen and other members of the High School team. These visits provide students with a window into the high school experience.
2) Gabrielle and Sharyn will send out information about the new date for this meeting. A reminder that there will be parent meeting on Thursday, January 27th at 8:00AM for the spring France and Spain trips. If you have not done so already, please make sure that Gabrielle or Sharyn have your child’s passport information.
3) Also, the NAEP testing scheduled for today has been rescheduled for the morning of Tuesday, February 1st.
For Seventh Grade Families . . .
No updates this week.
For Sixth Grade Families . . .
No updates this week.
For Sixth and Fifth Grade Families . . .
Intramural Basketball: The link to the schedule can be found HERE. Below is our season schedule:
PRACTICES ARE CANCELED THE WEEK OF 1/24
- Every Tuesday – Blue and Green Teams practices from 7-8AM at TSAC (145 Thompson St.)
- Every Wednesday – Black Team practices from 7-8AM at TSAC (145 Thompson St.)
- Every Thursday – Red and Tie Dye Teams practices from 7-8AM at TSAC (145 Thompson St.)
Game Schedule:
Friday, Jan 28th – LREI SPIRIT GAME, 3:30 – 5:30
Friday, Feb 4th – Red vs Tie Dye, 3:30, Blue vs Green 4:15 – Black – Bye Week
Friday Feb 11th – Red vs Blue 3:30, Tie Dye vs Black 4:15 – Green – Bye Week
Friday Feb 18th – Playoffs
Friday Feb 25th – Playoffs
Friday Mar 4th – Consolation and Championship
Friday Mar 11th – Parents Game 3:30
**The last practice will be March 3rd, no practices the week of the parents game
If you have any questions, please let me know!
For Fifth Grade Families . . .
No updates this week.
============= For additional information, follow these links: =============
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