Modeling Congress

Dear Families,

Model CongressOn Saturday, April 24, 11 middle schoolers participated in the 21st Packer Collegiate Middle School Model Congress. This year’s participants included sixth grader Kai, seventh graders Benjamin, Georgia, Jerel, Marcelo, Nicholas, Odelia, Olivia, Simmon  and eighth graders Danica and Jasper. The group has worked with faculty facilitator Sharyn Hahn since the end of October to write bills, prepare speeches, read students’ bills from the other schools that participate, and learn about and practice parliamentary procedure. The team spent the entire day at Packer Collegiate High School on the 24th for the annual culminating event.

Nearly 200 middle school students from 13 area independent schools, including LREI, sent delegations of model legislators to the event. When students arrived at the event, they broke off into one of 17 separate committees based upon the content of their bill. These committees were meant to resemble actual congressional committees and included among others Judiciary, Education, Health, Housing & Urban Affairs, and Science Space & Technology. After a morning committee session filled with heated debate and criticism, the bills that passed committee were reviewed in one of four full sessions. (House I, House II, Senate I and Senate II).

The bills introduced by the LREI delegation included the following:

  1. Delegates: Danica and Jasper
    Title: An act to reduce pollution in the United States by charging small fees based on large companies’ carbon footprints.
    Preamble: By fining companies for their neglect toward the environment, we can create a healthier, stronger, greener nation.
  2. Delegates: Olivia and Odelia
    Title: An act to ensure the health and well-being of shelter pets and to make pet adoption and care-taking more affordable for all families, especially those for whom this would be a financial hardship.
    Preamble: To enable all families, including those with financial limitations, to adopt and/or care for a pet, when the animals would otherwise be kept in an unstable and unsafe environment.
  3. Delegates: Simmon, Jerel, and Georgia
    Title: An act to prevent the New York City MTA from ceasing to provide students with free student metro cards to travel to and from school, and to institute this practice in other metropolitan areas in the United States that do not already provide this service.
    Preamble: The intent of this bill is to have the MTA continue to provide funding that will defray the full cost of student metro cards so that both public school and private school students who must travel over a mile can do so free of charge and to incorporate this in other cities.
  4. Delegates: Nicholas and Kai
    Title: An act to make all restaurants in The United States display the correct calorie value and all the ingredients that go into their food on their menu in clearly visible type.
    Preamble: The purpose of this bill is to allow everyone to see clearly the nutritional value of a prepared meal at the restaurant.
  5. Delegates: Benjamin and Marcelo
    Title: An act to create cleaner and more efficient public transportation systems in metropolitan areas.
    Preamble: The purpose of this act is to ensure that public transportation systems all over the Unites States would become more efficient in order to transport more people, as wells as reduce the use of fossil fuel emitting vehicles. After this act is initiated it will create a safe and stable atmosphere for public transportation riders. This act will also ensure that public transportation systems are sanitary and are not harmful to their customers.

The students’ hard work throughout the year resulted in a day of excitement and accomplishment.  All 11 of our delegates participated in all of the sessions and several debated in the plenary committees.  4 of our 5 bills were passed in their committees.

The afternoon concluded with an Awards Ceremony in which all of the delegates were recognized for their the hard work and performance. In addition, special awards were given out to the best prepared and most “professional” delegates. At the ceremony, Marcelo was awarded Honorable Mentions.  All of the delegates had a good time and they are all looking forward to next year with their eyes on the coveted Golden Gavel award (of which we have won two over the past five years). We are very proud of all of the delegates for their commitment to the Model Congress program.

Of General Interest . . .

1) Click here to access the photo collection of LREI events and happenings at our on-line photo gallery.

2) “Stir the Pot” Tasting Event – Tonight, May 13th at 6:30PM at 40 Charlton Street. We hope to see you there.

3) From Phil Kassen, Director: Last week there was a front page article in the New York Times conerning the ERB test for admission to Pre-K and Kindergarten programs and the fact that some schools are considering dropping the test as an admissions requirement. Below are links to the article and to a letter to the editor that I wrote in response to the article that was printed on Wednesday.

A Test Parents Fear and Loathe Loses Luster in Private Schools

My letter

4) from High School media arts teacher Vinay Chowdhry:

The Kimmel Center was abuzz with hundreds of young activists from all over the 5 boroughs. The atmosphere was positive, with considerable energy built up around the star of this event, Social Justice. It was evident as we rounded the second hour of judging that things were looking good for LREI. A queue of judges gathered around our sleek Macbook Pro stations; some of the judges even went so far as telling the students bluntly: “This should win hands down” and “This is really incredible.”

So we weren’t that surprised when LREI seniors Kayla, Harry, Kevin, and Gabe walked away with the 3rd place overall Social Justice Expo prize, awarded by a jury of activists, NYU alumni, filmmakers, and journalists, for their film “201 Varick Street.” The film highlights the injustice and abuse faced by detainees just a few blocks from our school.

Another film that received considerable attention was “Number One” by junior Cameron . It is an informative piece about the horrors of the domestic human sex trafficking industry. After the screening, an NYU faculty member came over to commend Cameron for her amazing film, citing it as her favorite.  She told Cameron that her film was “one of the only ones here that actually is about something serious.”

5) From the Art Auction Committee: Thank you so much to everyone who helped to make this year’s Art Auction a rounding success! It was a spectacular event and everyone has a wonderful time. There are still some pieces of art that are for sale so please visit http://artauction.lrei.org/ for additional information and to view items that are available. If you have any questions, please contact Maude Kebbon at mkebbon@lrei.org or 212-477-5316, ext. 232. Additionally, there are still tickets available for two exciting events this spring. Please contact Maude if you are interested!

  • “Greater New York” Emerging Artists Survey, PS 1: Saturday, May 22nd at 2:00PM
    A private tour with curator & LREI parent Neville Wakefield one day before the exhibit opens. Meet the artists and see their art! Tickets are $200 each.

6) LREI Camping Trip: Sign-up tables will be in front of the Sixth Avenue building on the mornings of Tuesday, May 18 and Thursday, May 27. The 17th Annual LREI Camping Trip  will take place the weekend of June 4-6 this year at the Riverbend Group Campground along the Delaware River. Swimming, hiking, games, fishing, bird-watching & S’mores! All LREI families and their children — from all grades pre-K through high school — are invited to participate. If you have any questions or would like to volunteer to help out, please contact Larry White at LWhite@stern.nyu.edu or (212) 533-1966. For more details click here.

7) Red is Green Committee Announcements:

  • For more details about our monthly recycling drives and Go Green to School dates, please click Red is Green PA Page.

8) From PA Co-Presidents Regina Trumbull and Kim Hostler: Spring is here, so we are starting to plan for the next school year. The PA would like to let you know the many ways you can participate. Becoming a parent rep is a great way to get involved. If you have not been a parent rep before but would like to try it or find out more about it, please let us know. We would be happy to talk to you more about what the job entails. In the meantime, you can look at the Family Handbook, page 36 (link on our website www.LREI.org) for the Parent Rep Guidelines. Of course, until the classes are actually made up for next year (mid-August or so), we cannot match parent reps to classes. If you’re looking for other ways to get involved, you could consider volunteering for any of our PA committees

  • Adoption Committee
  • Art Auction (the next art auction will be in the 2011-2012 year. But the committee will meet next year.)
  • Big Auction Committee
  • Community Service Committee
  • Faculty & Staff Appreciation Committee
  • Food Committee
  • Graphics & Communications Committee (Supporting other committees)
  • Halloween Fair Committee
  • Lesbian/Gay/Straight Alliance
  • Literary Committee
  • LREI Camping Trip Organizing Committee
  • Multicultural Committee (this is the committee that organized Karamu)
  • Parents of Children of Color (Lower School and Middle School)
  • Red Is Green (our sustainability committee)
  • School Store
  • Sports Committee

Also in the Family Handbook (p.38), there is a list of the co-chairs of the PA committees if you would like to contact them for more information. Please email us at PA-Presidents@lrei.org if you would like to get involved.

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 – 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) Please come to this Saturday’s Coffeehouse for an evening of readings and musical performances to celebrate the newest issue of IE, the school literary magazine! The Coffeehouse starts at 7:00PM at the Charlton Street PAC.

2) Congratulations to the cast and crew of the Middle School musical Mulan. Thanks also to director Joanne Magee, musical director Matthew McLean, and choreographer Peggy Peloquin for so ably leading the students on this journey. Look for photos in next week’s blog.

3) relayCongratulations to all of the members of the Middle School track team for their efforts this season. Special acknowledgments to the following students who qualified for the league Gotham Games:

  • 100m and 400m: Eighth grader Naomi
  • Mile run: Eighth grader Harry
  • Boys 4 x 400 relay: Seventh grader Will and eighth graders Harry, Lenny and Niles

[flickrslideshow acct_name=”lrei-photos” id=”72157623908918141″ width=”460″ height=”345″]

4) The Judo team will hold its annual spring LREI Shiai (tournament) an Friday, June 11th at 3:30PM in the Thompson Street Athletic Center. For the tournament , students will be grouped into small subsections determined by gender and weight to compete against each other.  The winners of each of the smaller subsections will then compete against each other for the title, “The Grand Champion.”  There will be one Grand Champion for boys and one for girls. Each Judoka (practitioner) will have at least one match and will medal.  The award ceremony immediately follows the Shiai.  The Shiai is always a great event and, as in years past, we hope to see many students and families in the stands.

5) IMPORTANT SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES: As a follow up to the eighth grade Social Justice Teach-In, here is some information about related fund-raising opportunities:

  • Getting Tools To City Schools – Over the course of the year, we have had a number of collection drives to collect school supplies to make 200 binders that will be donated to students in one of Getting Tools to City Schools‘ partner schools. As we enter the final phase of this work, we are excited to announce a service drive that will run through the end of the month. We are asking middle school students to ask parents, friends and relatives if there are chores around the home that they can do. In compensation for this work, you will contribute $2/hour worked to support our collaboration with Getting Tools to City Schools. All of the money raised will be used to buy school supplies at wholesale cost. Please use the attached certificate to record hours worked by your child. We ask that the monies earned and the completed certificate(s) be returned to your child’s advisor. At the end of the month, the homeroom that has logged the most hours will earn a pizza lunch party.
  • Skip Lunch Fight Hunger: While we want all middle school students to eat a healthy lunch each day, middle school students can help in the effort to raise money to feed New York City’s most vulnerable. All this week, in afternoon homeroom, students will have an opportunity to make a donation to support the LREI team participating in the City Harvest Skip Lunch Fight Hunger initiative. We are asking that students donate money that they might otherwise have used for their own snack and that if they choose to do so that they do not ask you for additional money to underwrite their donation. In this way, students will be giving up something in order to help others.
  • L.E.S. Girls Club Walk-A-Thon on Saturday, May 15:
    http://www.girlsclub.org/about/walk
  • AIDS Walk NY– on Sunday, May 16 (LREI has a team):
    http://www.aidswalk.net/newyork/
    The AIDS Walk is an important LREI community service event. We’re hoping for strong representation from all Middle School grades this year. Please remember that students in grades six and below must be accompanied by an adult. Registering for AIDS Walk New York has never been easier. Just click on this link below and choose your registration type (“Join a Team” — we are team #1222). If you prefer, you can always register by phone. Simply call (212) 807-WALK (9255) and they will be happy to register you. If you are not able to walk, please make every effort to support the team by making a donation. You can do this by searching registered teams and enter “Gabrielle Keller” or the name of another LREI team member in the “name” field.
  • Free Rice – http://www.freerice.com/index.php (this site quizzes in many subject areas: math, vocab, foreign language, chemistry, geography and art–correct answers earn rice donations)

6) Our annual Middle School Awards Night will take place on Tuesday, May 18th, at 6:00PM in the Charlton Street PAC. This is a wonderful night in which all students in grades five through eight who participated on sports teams and/or in extracurricular activities are recognized for their effort and participation. Students will be recognized for their participation in the following activities: Model Congress, Little Red Singers, Band, Play, Musical, Robotics Team, Rube Goldberg Team, Intramural Soccer, MS Soccer, MS Cross Country, MS Volleyball, Intramural Basketball, MS Boys Basketball, MS Girls Basketball, Intramural Softball, MS Softball and MS Track.

book fair7) The annual LREI Spring Book Fair is coming up on May 20-21. As usual, the book selection for this fair is based on the summer reading lists put together by the faculty and librarians. The lists will be posted online at http://lrei.org/libres/sr.html before the fair starts, so please check them with your kids to plan out some great summer reading! All grades have reading requirements, which will be noted on the lists. Click here for a credit card pre-authorization form for parents to fill out; this form will enable kids to purchase books at the book fair, spending up to a limit determined by their parents. Please fax the forms to (212) 677-9159 (Attention Tracie McGee) by Monday, May 17. Students can also bring the forms with them to the book fair. Please note that high school books will also be on sale at Charlton Street the afternoon of May 18, just after the book assembly.

8) POCOC-Spring Book Club: This event, scheduled for May 21st, 2010 from 6:00- 8:00PM in the Sixth Avenue Auditorium, is a potluck event open to the families of both committees. After the potluck, children will break into their age/book groups with a facilitator (LREI teachers) to discuss the book they have read and/or do a project around it. During this time parents will be free to socialize. Book selections: 5th – 6th –Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis; 7th – 8th – Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson. Click here for the event flyer.

9) Some other important dates:

  • Wed, May 19, 2010, 3:00pm Spring Book Fair (through Friday)
  • Fri, May 21, 2010, 6:00pm POCOC-Spring Book Club
  • Thu, May 27, 2010, 6:30pm Spring Concert
  • Fri, May 28, 2010, Field Day-School closes at 1pm
  • Fri, Jun 4, 2010, 4:00pm LREI Camping Trip (through Sunday)
  • Fri, Jun 4, 2010, 6:00pm MS Dance
  • Tue, Jun 15, 2010, Last Day of School-School closes at 12noon

For Eighth Grade Families . . .

1) Please read the new math unit letter for section X from math teacher Michelle Boehm.

2) Some important dates (see above for important division-wide dates):

  • Tue, Jun 8, 2010, 6:00pm 8th Grade Science Exploratorium
  • Fri, Jun 11, 2010, 6:00pm 8th Grade Moving Up Party
  • Tue, Jun 15, 2010, 8th Grade Moving Up

For Eighth and Seventh Grade Families . . .

1) High School Dance Choreographers Workshop: Four high school students need seventh and eighth grade students who like to dance and are interested in being in student created dances. The workshops will take place on the following Fridays from 4:00-6:00PM: May 21st; and on the following Mondays also from 4:00-6:00PM: May 17th and May 24th. If you are interested, email high school dance teacher Peggy Peloquin at ppeloquin@lrei.org. No experience necessary but welcomed.

For Seventh Grade Families . . .

1) Some important dates (see above for important division-wide dates):

  • Fri, May 14, 2010, 7th Grade Visiting Day
  • Fri, May 14, 2010, High School Preview Event
  • Thu, Jun 10, 2010, 8:00am 7th Grade Potluck Breakfast & Constitution Work

For Seventh and Sixth Grade Families . . .

1) High School Preview: Are you thinking about what’s on the horizon for your sixth or seventh grader? Please join us on May 14th at 8:30AM for High School Preview Morning with High School Principal Ruth Jurgensen. You will learn about the program, hear from students and briefly see classes in action as we tour our fabulous new space! Contact the admissions office at bscott@lrei.org to confirm your attendance no later than May 12th. This event is a rescheduling of the High School Preview evening previously slated for April and is designed to connect with Seventh Grade Visiting Day that will take place on the 14th as well.

For Sixth Grade Families . . .

1) Some important dates (see above for important division-wide dates):

  • Fri, May 14, 2010, High School Preview Event
  • Tue, Jun 8, 2010, 8:00am 6th Grade Poetry & Potluck Breakfast

2) Looking further ahead to next year, click here to access the registration form for the Williamsburg / Jamestown trip that will take place next October. I’m sending you this information now so that you can spread out payments over a longer period of time. If you register online, please use the following trip ID#: A76310. W e would like all families to register for the trip by the end of the month. If you have specific questions about payment, please do not hesitate to contact me.

For Fifth Grade Families . . .

1) Some important dates (see above for important division-wide dates):

  • Wed, Jun 9, 2010, 6:00pm 5th Grade Grecian Festival

============= 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

Comments are closed.