Checking in with Advisory

Dear Families:

A number of you have recently inquired about the advisory program and the role that it plays in the Middle School. The advisory program provides a space for students to come together to explore issues related to the middle school experience. It is also provides a forum for advisors to get to better know the members of their group so that they can best advocate for their advisees. Our Tuesday morning meetings are used for brief check-ins. During this time, an advisor may meet with two or three of his/her advisees. They use this time to check in about schoolwork and about any other issues that might be on an advisee’s mind. While these check-ins are taking place, the other advisees are preparing for the day (e.g., going over homework, organizing binders, etc.). In some advisories, each advisee has a peer who he/she checks in with in addition to his/her advisor.

During our Thursday sessions, groups have been developing and implementing a variety of long-term projects. Our hope is that some of these projects will become on-going efforts that advisory groups cycle through during the school year or during alternate years. These efforts are in addition to the our evolving relationship with St. John’s Food Pantry. Each week an advisory group travels to the pantry to help with the sorting of food. More recently, advisory groups have started going to the pantry to help with the distribution of the food to pantry clients. This has added a new dimension to the experience and deepened the sense of service connected with this work. We will continue to identity additional service experiences that can serve as a cornerstone of the advisory program.

To support connections across all grades, periodically throughout the year advisory groups meet with their buddy groups. These meetings provide an opportunity for students across the four grades to come together for discussions around important issues and to simply enjoy each other’s company.

So the advisory program continues to be a work in progress. Below is a list of some of the exciting projects that are taking shape in the advisory program. Advisory groups are:

  • creating a weekly “calendar” that is posted in the second floor hallway. Each day has a specific repeating theme (e.g., Current Events Monday, Brain Teasers and Puzzle Tuesday, etc.).
  • creating brochures that describe who we are and where we come from. Groups within the advisory have been divided up to focus on home, school and New York City. These will eventually be sent out to our penpals in Zuni, New Mexico. Our activist project for MLK Day was focused on Animal Testing. We plan on generating awareness and writing a letter and petition to ban products that test on animals.
  • volunteering with Children’ s Aid Society kids every Thursday
  • continuing to focus on recycling at LREI. We have made announcements at LS meeting, creating and posting “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” signs throughout our building, and other activities. We hope to enter one of the Sanitation Department recycling contests.
  • writing to our Zuni pen pals. After we finish our activist letters on global warming, each advisee will spend a session teaching the rest of the group how to do something – play a game, make origami, etc.
  • creating the Bleecker Street Journal. Students researched, wrote, and edited the articles. Some of them also took photos
  • combining forces to explore FAIR TRADE – What it is, how it works/doesn’t work, and what to do about it. So far students have viewed a video, visited local coffee store/cafes, visited a roasting plant, interviewed store employees, surveyed adults in early AM who come in w/ coffee, and we will organize and present data for bulletin board display.
  • brainstorming and making posters for the five middle school lunch rules that you now see posted around the school.
  • participating in a pen pal project with our sister’s school, which I know some other advisories are doing as well. We have also been doing a group game each semester that focuses on team building, and we are planning a Heimlich maneuver training session for Middle School meeting.
  • planning a project that involves raising funds to plant trees all over the world. There is an organization that will plant one tree somewhere in the world that needs it with each dollar raised. We are creating a pledge form and hope to do a jump rope-a-thon to raise the funds.

Some really interesting projects. I hope you will talk to your child about his/her group’s project.

On other fronts, congratulations to the co-champion Middle School Girls Basketball Team (see update below)! Their determination and effort over the course of the season was remarkable. Thanks also to the many fans who came out to support them.

Note: If you had trouble accessing the link in last week’s blog about technology, you can access it here.

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:

2007-2008 Calendar
Parents in Action Flyer
Middle School Musical Information
Big Auction Donation Forms
Eighth Grade:
LREI High School Reception
Class Rep Report
Seventh Grade:
Sixth Grade:
Fifth Grade:

Of General Interest . . .
1) From Phil Kassen, Director: Dear Families, click here for the calendar for the 2007-2008 school year. I am sorry that it is so late in coming. I hope that this has not caused any inconvenience. A couple of notes–the two long vacations have moved back to their traditional spots, we will have two professional development days for faculty—October 5th and February 29th—and we have added a second full day of conferences for the Lower School in the fall and the spring. Please do not hesitate to contact me with questions.

2) Middle School Sports Update from Co-Athletic Director Marcus Chang: The MS Girls Basketball Team finished as Co-Champions of the GISAL and placed second in the season ending tournament. The team was coached by Victor and Orville and had an impressive 19-2 record that included league and non-league games. They will end their season with the Town Tournament on February 22nd and 23rd. The Seventh Grade Boys Basketball Team finished their regular season with a win vs VCS and ended up with a 7-1 record. The team was coached by Marcus and Tracie. The Eighth Grade Boys Basketball Team finished their season in fifth place in the ISAL. They really came together as a team and worked hard throughout the season. The team was coached by Luis Hernandez and Nick Fabrikant. Both the boys teams will combine and compete together in the St. Luke’s Tournament on March 1st and 2nd. The Fifth and Sixth Grade Intramural Basketball Program is continuing a string of great games. The season will conclude on March 9th. The coaches are Gabrielle, Noni, Victor and Jessie Highstein, Sara Wyatt, and Zach Webber, who are High School Seniors.

The spring sports season starts on March 12th for seventh and eighth graders. For the spring season we will field the following teams:

All eighth graders are eligible to participate on the high school teams. Any seventh graders who are interested in participating on one of the high school teams must speak to Larry and Marcus.

Fifth and Sixth Grade Intramural Softball will start after Spring Break. The team will be coached by Luis Hernandez (louishernandez@rcn.com).

Specific dates for practices for all teams will be posted as soon as fields are finalized.

3) Attention Sports Fans — Friday, March 16th (not Friday, February 23rd as originally announced) will be the annual LREI Spirit Basketball Game that will match up LREI’s multi-talented faculty/staff against the up-and-coming stars of the Middle School and High School basketball teams. This will be a great opportunity to witness the athletic talents of our student athletes and to experience firsthand how exciting it is to have a home court gym. At half time, there will be a foul shooting contest for athletes in the Sixth Grade or younger. We have hosted some amazing games this season, where the roars for the home team were heard on Houston Street. So come out and see what all of the excitement is about — March 16th at 3:30PM at the Thompson Street Athletic Center, 145 Thompson Street between Houston Street and Prince Street. We look forward to having a big crowd to help celebrate the end of our first year of having a “home court advantage.”

4) From Seventh and Eighth Grade Dean of Students Gabrielle Keller: Thanks to all of you who participated in this year’s Pennies for Patients drive to support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. This year we raised over $4000, which is more than double what was raised last year. A most impressive effort the results of which will go to support an important cause. Well done!

5) Think LREI Big Auction! While shopping in your favorite stores or dining out at your favorite restaurant, take along some donor forms and make on-the-spot requests. It’s easier than you think! Think… Restaurants, Entertainment (tickets to shows, sporting events, film festivals), Beauty and Health (facials, massages, spa gift certificates), Wine, Champagne and Specialty Foods, Children’s Items, Services (passes to museums, classes, birthday party certificates), Designer Fashion (handbags, gift certificates, jewelry), Vacation Homes, Creative One-of-a-Kind Events (behind the scenes tours,backstage passes), Frequent Flyer Miles and Preferred Guest Points. Donation forms can be found here or in the Sixth Avenue and Charlton Street lobbies. Please return your forms to the LREI Development Office no later than Friday, March 2nd. If you have any questions, please contact Sandra Song at ssong@lrei.org. Remember…The Big Auction is on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007. All proceeds of the auction support Tuition Assistance.Donations are tax deductible.

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

7) 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 2006-2007 calendar. You can also access their on-line calendar of events at http://www.parentsinaction.org/.

For Eighth Grade Families . . . .
1) Please read the attached letter from Middle School Musical Director Julia Collura concerning auditions and other important dates for this year’s musical. Parents/guardians of students interested in auditioning for the Middle School musical are requested to attend the parent meeting on February 26th from 8-8:30AM in the Sixth Avenue cafeteria. Students will not be allowed to audition if their parent/guardian does not attend this meeting.

2) The Eighth Grade Spanish classes will be going to the Guggenheim this Friday, February 23rd, to see the “Spanish Painting from El Greco to Picasso: Time, Truth and History” exhibit. They will have a tour of the exhibit and then do a workshop: Symbolic Portrait Painting in which students create triptychs (three-panel paintings) using acrylic paints that explore their identity or community. On each panel, students will depict a different aspect of his/her self or respective community. We will leave at 9:15AM and return around 1:15PM for lunch here (students should bring a bagged lunch – no nuts, seeds and/or glass bottles)

3) If you have not done so already, please have your child bring in a completed permission form for this Friday night’s Eighth Grade DISC Dance at Grace Church School.

4) Finally, a reminder that you are all invited to attend a reception with current high school parents, students and members of the faculty and administration on Monday, March 5th from 6:00-7:30PM. Please RSVP to the Admissions Office (scaruth@lrei.org or 212-477-5316 ext 305) by Wednesday, February 28th.

5) Please read the attached class rep update for information about goings-on in the Eighth Grade.

For Seventh Grade Families . . .
1) Please read the attached letter from Middle School Musical Director Julia Collura concerning auditions and other important dates for this year’s musical. Parents/guardians of students interested in auditioning for the Middle School musical are requested to attend the parent meeting on February 26th from 8-8:30AM in the Sixth Avenue cafeteria. Students will not be allowed to audition if their parent/guardian does not attend this meeting.

For Sixth Grade Families . . .
1) Please read the attached letter from Middle School Musical Director Julia Collura concerning auditions and other important dates for this year’s musical. Parents/guardians of students interested in auditioning for the Middle School musical are requested to attend the parent meeting on February 26th from 8-8:30AM in the Sixth Avenue cafeteria. Students will not be allowed to audition if their parent/guardian does not attend this meeting.

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

Middle School Sports
Schedules, permission forms and general information about Middle School sports programs can be found at http://www.lrei.org/athletics/index.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, February 23 — Eighth Grade Spanish classes to the Guggenheim
  • Friday, February 23, 2007, 7:30PM — Eighth Grade DISC Dance @ Grace Church
  • Wednesday, February 28, 2007 — MS Black History Month Assembly
  • Thursday, March 1, 2007,8:45AM — Parent LGSA Meeting
  • Thursday, March 15, 2007, 6:00PM — MS POCOC Mtg.
  • Tuesday, March 20, 2007, 8:15AM — MS Parent Rep. Mtg.
  • Wednesday, March 21, 2007, 6:00PM — Sixth Grade Medieval Pageant
  • Thursday, March 22, 2007 — Fifth Grade Egyptian Tomb
  • Friday, March 23, 2007 — Founder’s Day
  • Friday, March 23, 2007 — MS End of 3rd Quarter
  • Friday, March 23, 2007 — Spring Break-School closes at 12:00PM (school reopens on Monday, April 9, 2006)

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

Be well,
Mark

To view the attached .pdf files, please download Adobe Reader, if you do not already have it. Click on the following link or paste it into your browser: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

Comments are closed.