From Phil Kassen, Director

Dear LREI Community,

Hello, all. A quick blog posting before I run off to see many of you at our annual Big Auction—a terrific community building and fund raising event.

I want to take this opportunity to point out a number of highlights of the past few weeks and in the coming the days leading up to Spring Break. This list is by no means complete. It is just a taste of what happens each day.

In the Lower School:

  • I saw many of you at the Lower School Art Show. Wow! What a terrific display of all of the handiwork that children create in the art room and wood shop. Congratulations, Artists.
  • Last week the Kindergarten celebrated the 100th day of school. The students had spent considerable time investigating the number 100 and on the big day they shared much of what they learned with parents and other LS classes. From shells to Lego to milk cartons, the number 100 took some fascinating sizes, shapes and forms. Among my favorites were the 100 self-portraits of visitors to Luise’s room.
  • Fourth graders study immigration to the US in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In addition to visits to Ellis Island they have experienced a number of simulations of immigrant life. It is not surprising to walk past the fourth grade rooms and find the students dressed as “recent” immigrants. Residents of Minetta Lane looked out of their windows last week to see our fourth graders learning old fashioned street games such as Potsy and Stickball. A blast from the past!

In the Middle School:

  • Each eighth grader has selected one or more aspects of sustainability that he or she finds interesting and will join classmates with similar interests to arrange community service and self-education relating to this chosen area. Their work will culminate when the eighth grade will present the “Sustainability Teach-In” for the entire Middle School. More information at http://blog.lrei.org/greencore
  • The fifth and sixth grades have big days next week. On Wednesday, the Sixth Graders will perform their Medieval Pageant, the annual presentation of all that they have learned about feudal societies. This original play will be performed for students and parents. Next Thursday, Fifth Graders will guide their schoolmates and parents through an Egyptian Tomb. One of the two fifth grade classrooms will be transformed into a tomb in which the students display all of the artifacts they have “unearthed” as part of their studies of ancient civilizations.
  • On Saturday, our Middle School Robotics teams will defend their NYC Championships. More info can be found at http://www.nycnjfirst.org/nyc_fll.html. Last week representatives of this team were selected by league officials to discuss the league and competition with representatives of Google. Team representatives are scheduled to be on the CBS Early Show on Friday between 8:00 – 8:30 AM.
  • Our Middle School Rube Goldberg Contest team (winner of last year’s Creativity Award) is beginning their creation of a multi-step contraption that will meet this year’s challenge—turning off a very small light switch. A number of high school students who have worked on this project in years past are acting advisors to this year’s team as they prepare for this contest, sponsored by the Fay School and MIT. More info at http://web.mit.edu/museum/rubegoldbergcontest/2009/contestoverview/

In the High School:

· I hope that many of you were able to attend last weekend’s performances of The Taming of the Shrew. A truly amazing production!

· Two LREI high schools students have won Scholastic Writing Awards. Junior Montana Jaro won a Silver Key for a short story, “Down the Stairs” and Senior Celi Lynch won a Gold Key for a personal essay/memoir titled “Identity Search.”

· As our seniors move towards the end of their college process, our juniors are just beginning theirs. Eleventh grade families have started their college search by having family meetings with Amy Shapiro, Director of College Guidance. These students will spend several days in early April visiting a number of colleges and universities as a group in order to help them to define their ideal school and to hone their search skills. Tenth grade families will meet for their first college night, Monday, March 9 at 6:30 PM in the PAC, to have an introduction to the college process they will engage in during the next two years.

· As our seniors gear up for their third trimester senior projects they are also participating in Senior Seminar, which takes time to focus on the health and well being of our twelfth graders as they transition to internships and college life—significantly increased independence—begins next week. Joanne Gouge, School Nurse and Andrew Weiss, School Psychologist meet with the seniors over the next few days to discuss and revisit general health, first aid, emotional well being in the context of making thoughtful choices in this transitional period and into their move to college.

March also signals the end of the basketball season. Thank you to all of the fans who came out and cheered our teams on as they represented the School in a variety of playoff games and end of season tournaments. Don’t forget tomorrow’s Spirit Game—come out and watch our student athletes play against their teachers, Friday, March 6th, 3:30PM, Thompson Street gym. You can also watch the Championship games of the Middle School Intramural Basketball League next Thursday, March 12th, beginning at 3:30 in the Thompson Street gym. These are great games for lower school basketball fans.

Phew! That is just the tip of the iceberg. LREI is a busy and challenging place of learning. Stay tuned for future updates.

Phil

Updates and Announcements:

  • The school’s calendar can be accessed by clicking here.
  • Click here to view the 2008-2009 LREI Calendar. You can also now access the 2009-2010 calendar here! Note that school will begin on the Wednesday after Labor Day this year, not Thursday. Middle School and High School orientation will be on the Tuesday after Labor Day. Lower School phase in schedules, for our early childhood classes, will be distributed during the summer.
  • For general LREI Athletics news go to this link . This page will provide general announcements, game summaries, league standings and game recaps.

*Tuesday, March 10: Community Service Day! Students have the opportunity to use Tuesday to participate in community service opportunities across the city. Please check this terrific list of opportunities. Tech instructor Stephen MacGillivray has also made a connection with Housing Works on 10th and Hudson, and they are in need of volunteers! All students need to do is stop by! We are also offering a project here at school, soundproofing the music room at TSAC. Any student interested should be at the high school by 9AM to help Micah and Vin with this project. It is open to all students who are interested in fufilling in-school community service hours, and anyone interested should let Micah or Vin know he or she will be helping on Tuesday. Here are more opportunities and organizations in need:

OPPORTUNITY #1
If you have high schooler age students who are seeking community service
hours, we have several options at The Children’s Storefront in Harlem that
include:

a) helping out in the computer lab from 4-6 pm on weekdays
b) helping out with Tech Saturdays which take place monthly on Saturdays
from 9-1 (see www.techsaturdays.org)

OPPORTUNITY #2
If your school would like to become a “penny partner” and help us gather 1
million (and then 1 billion pennies) on 129th street, please go to
http://www.cstorefront.org/pennies/ and send an e-mail … by doing age
appropriate penny problems from school to school (many samples posted) and
SKYPING, we would like to connect our kids in any grade.

OPPORTUNITY #3
If you know any college age student or adult who would like to be a tech
intern, please direct him or her to
http://www.thechildrensstorefront.org/jobs/tech.htm … this is NOT a paid
job but hopefully a meaningful one:

Steve Bergen (sber…@cstorefront.org)
CIO and Computer Teacher, The Children’s Storefront
70 East 129th Street, New York, NY 10035

An Independent School in Harlem
Web site: http://www.thechildrensstorefront.org
Tech Saturday Info is posted at http://www.techsaturdays.org
Penny info is posted at http://www.cstorefront.org/pennies

Summercore 2009 includes June 15-19 at Castilleja, June 22-26 at New
Canaan Country School , July 6-10 at Berkeley Carroll
July 13-17 at Horace Mann, NY as well as July 27-31 at Shorecrest in St.
Petersburg, FL (both open to public)

*An Historic Folk Music Performance will take place at the high school March 28th and 29th! Please see the message from Nick O’Han about two very exciting events for the whole family taking place during Spring Break co-sponsored by LREI and the New York Folk Music Society. If your child would like to volunteer to help with this event, please email Nick directly at Nohan@lrei.org.

*Junior familes of students who receive academic accommodations: From Pat Carter, Academic Support instructor,

“I’ll need all remaining SAT and ACT applications for kids seeking special accommodations for the June 6th SAT and June 13th ACT tests by Friday, March 6th as ASC will no longer be processing any Junior applications until next September.

This means that any junior who is currently receiving extra time or any other accommodation at school needs to be in touch with me before Friday, March 6th in order to apply for those same accommodations on their SAT and ACT exams. Thank you!”

*Director’s Drop-In–Phil will be available for drop-in conversations in his Sixth Avenue office from 8:45AM-9:30AM on Friday, March 6th. Drop in, ask a question, and hear about what is going on at LREI. Can’t make these times? Give a call or send and email.

*The senior class is trying to locate a space in which to hold their prom. If anyone knows of a good space for this event, or has a contact of some sort, kindly email Vio Picayo at vpicayo@yahoo.com. Please respond as soon as possible, as time is running short before this late May event. Thank you.

1. From Mary Shea, if you did not receive an email and/or the phone call announcing our snow day on Monday please contact Mary Shea to update your contact information. Also let Mary know if you would like to add to or change your contact numbers or addresses. You can reach Mary at mshea@lrei.org or at extension 244.

2. Our Annual School Spirit Game, in which our Middle School and High School basketball teams play against the faculty is scheduled for Friday, March 6th at 3:30PM in the Thompson Street Athletic Center at 145 Thompson Street. This is a fun event for young and old. You are all invited to attend. See you at the gym.

3. Red is Green Committee:

Update from Red is Green committee: Our March recycle drive is… Corks! We will be sending them to Terracycle, a company that upcycles various waste items into useful products (www.terracycle.net). They will accept both natural and synthetic corks. Look for the box in the 6th Ave. lobby and help keep corks out of our landfills.

4. Middle School Robotics continues to impress! On Saturday, March 7th you can cheer for our Middle School Robotics Teams as they take their First Place finish in the Manhattan championships to the 2009 New York City FIRST LEGO League Championship. For more information, click here .

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