I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.

Ralph Ellison

This trimester, I have the pleasure of re-reading Ralph Ellison’s important novel, Invisible Man, while teaching the novel to Sebastian Slayter ’07, in an Honors Study. As I reflect on this week, I have to think of the novel, which never fails to influence and inspire me.

September 15 through October 15 is Hispanic Heritage Month. This week, our students held a Hispanic Heritage Day at the school. Not only was a variety of flags on display, we enjoyed many aspects of a diverse culture: the literature, the music, the food, the dance. During the assembly portion of the day, there was music from both our Tenth Grade and Eleventh Grade music classes, poetry from students and faculty, and even a dance lesson for the entire high school.

This day was not only about enjoying what is so beautiful about another’s culture, or about learning or even tasting something new. It is about being seen, about visibility. We understand that we only scratched the surface of Hispanic heritage with the day’s events. At the same time, we as educators also know how critical it is for adolescents, our students, to be seen for whom they feel they are. In turn, it is our mission to see them as how they see themselves, and educate them in the ways to genuinely see others.

As part of this mission, we take our Ninth and Tenth Graders on an upstate retreat every year. This year, unlike year’s past, we took the Ninth Grade for two nights, so that the first day they would have a chance to bond, to take risks together, and to teach them strategies to handle uncomfortable moments. Helping them in this process of challenge and risk-taking are their advisors, class deans and Dean of Student Life, Micah Gottlieb. Also joining the retreat for the first time were our ten Peer Leaders, select and diverse members of the class of 2007. The class of 2007 as a whole is a confident and sure class, filled with very diverse individuals, with different goals and ambitions, many of them shaped right here. Last night at campfire, Peer Leaders led the Ninth Grade through a variety of events like a song game, s’more making, and expressions of gratitude for very special moments, which occurred during the day.

The Ninth Graders pushed themselves yesterday, laughed a lot, cheered each other on and they will return tomorrow a stronger group than before. Our Tenth Graders, leaders in their own right, arrived today, ready to support and push themselves even more in preparation for their own important journey.

Ralph Ellison believed that in America, we are not allowed to know who we are. This is why the protagonist of Invisible Man retreats underground. However, our understanding as readers, to put it very simply, is that he will emerge again when the world changes. We work, in our classes, with small efforts like special assemblies, community service and thoughtful trips, to make sure it does, so the students we see so well, are seen by everyone, and when they are not, they will have the confidence to keep going in their personal missions and not retreat underground.

“I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone…I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me…They see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination–indeed, everything and anything except me.”

Ellison may be right. Nevertheless, with this quote fresh in our minds, we continue our work here at the High School.

All the best,
Ruth

Sept. 29: Lesbian, Gay, Straight Alliance Family Welcome Breakfast, 8:00 AM, 6th Avenue Cafeteria
Oct. 5: Eleventh Grade Potluck, 6:30 PM, Charlton Street Cafeteria
October 17, 2006: High School Parent Rep Meeting with “Freedom Institute,” 6:30 PM, Charlton Street
October 18, 2006: PSAT day for Tenth and Eleventh Grades
October 26, 2006: Tenth Grade Potluck Dinner, Charlton Street
October 24-26, 2006: New dates for Minimester

This Week’s Attachments and Announcements:

The Multicultural Brunch, scheduled for 9/30, is postponed. Kasey Picayo will notify everyone when it is rescheduled.

From the PA Co-Presidents–Thank you to all who have completed the parent survey for LREI’s 10-year reaccreditation process. Your responses are very helpful to us as we prepare the Parent Association’s section of the self-study. By popular request, we will continue to accept responses through the end of the month.

For All Families: NYSAIS Parent Survey

The High School Musical Announcement

As always, please browse the web site at www.lrei.org. Also, note the links to the Middle and Lower School weekly emails on the right. Please take a look at what the students in the other two divisions are up to!

All attachments are in .pdf format. To view these files, please download Adobe Reader, if you do not already have it. Click on this link or paste it into your browser: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readermain.html.
If you are having trouble opening the attachments, go to http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ms/ to access the files.

“Nothing great could be accomplished without enthusiasm.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

This week, LREI proved Emerson’s point:

On Tuesday evening, Curriculum Night was greeted with enthusiasm by teachers and families. We always look for ways of presenting the challenging, experiential instruction that takes place in our classrooms. While the evening’s presentations were brief, we will continue to find ways to demonstrate the thoughtful work of our students and faculty.

On the night before, LREI won its first home game in the Athletic Center. Our volleyball team, coached by Susan Now, won against Garden in three games. The girls were enthusiastic (and something great was accomplished), but the audience was even more so! The bleachers have not seen so many LREI community members in recent memory, and the enthusiasm and pride in “Big Red” was infectious and continues in our halls. Win or lose, our athletic season promises to be memorable.

Third, after many students attended Sunday’s rally in Central Park to “Save Darfur,” I have had countless students meet with me determined to create a fundraiser to assist in the cause. Again, our students, who feel empowered, valued and enthusiastic, are ready to create something meaningful, and yes, great, for those who are significantly less fortunate than they are. I will certainly keep you posted as this major fundraiser evolves.

So, we end another week. We are lucky to have such a thoughtful and dynamic community, and what a great year so far.

Important dates to remember:

Sept. 27-29: Annual Ramapo trip for Ninth and Tenth Grades
Sept. 28: Parents of Children who receive Academic Support meeting, 6:30 PM, Charlton Street
Sept. 29: Lesbian, Gay, Straight Alliance Family Welcome Breakfast, 8:00 AM, 6th Avenue Cafeteria
Oct. 5: Eleventh Grade Potluck, 6:30 PM, Charlton Street Cafeteria
October 17, 2006: High School Parent Rep Meeting with “Freedom Institute,” 6:30 PM, Charlton Street
October 18, 2006: PSAT day for Tenth and Eleventh Grades
October 26, 2006: Tenth Grade Potluck Dinner, Charlton Street
October 24-26, 2006: New dates for Minimester

This Week’s Attachments and Announcements:

Asian-American Families Potluck Breakfast

Set your alarm clocks for our 3rd annual start-of-year breakfast. For parents and students in all divisions. Wednesday, September 27th, 8:00-8:45 a.m. Things to Bring: orange juice, apple juice, bagels, cream cheese, donuts, yogurt, fruit, eggs, breads, cereal, bialys, muffins. BUT, NO NUTS OR SEEDS please! RSVP to Ruth Yang at ryang@walzyanglaw.com with food and beverage commitments.
Hope to see you all there,
RUTH YANG, Asian-American Families Chairperson

From the PA Co-Presidents–Thank you to all who have completed the parent survey for LREI’s 10-year reaccreditation process. Your responses are very helpful to us as we prepare the Parent Association’s section of the self-study. By popular request, we will continue to accept responses through the end of the month.

For All Families: NYSAIS Parent Survey

The High School Musical Announcement

As always, please browse the web site at www.lrei.org. Also, note the links to the Middle and Lower School weekly emails on the right. Please take a look at what the students in the other two divisions are up to!

All attachments are in .pdf format. To view these files, please download Adobe Reader, if you do not already have it. Click on this link or paste it into your browser: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readermain.html.
If you are having trouble opening the attachments, go to http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ms/ to access the files.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Margaret Mead

This has been an extraordinary week in the life of the high school. Students are back in the full swing of things, the renovations and new desks still impress us, and the great work of our faculty begins to reveal itself once again.

As we enjoyed our renovated building, our new community members, and the hint of fall in the weather, this week we were reminded of the need for humanity, humility, compassion, and awareness. On Monday, September 11, students and faculty attended “The September Concert Series” in Washington Square Park, to remember lives lost on that incredible day. Organized by music teacher and LREI Jazz Band Director, Vin Scialla, the goal of the series is to “fill the skies with music every September 11th to bring communities together, to reaffirm our hope for peace, and to celebrate our universal humanity.” It was a wonderful tribute, and thank you to Vin for inviting our participation.

In another reminder of the importance of humanity, Twelfth Grader Adriane Alicea organized a “Save Darfur” assembly to bring awareness and encourage students to participate in the “Save Darfur Now: Voices to Stop Genocide” rally on September 17 in Central Park. Presented today, she and several other students spoke eloquently about the challenges facing the people of Darfur. What can you do? Please take a look at the attachment below for more information.

It is truly a luxury to enjoy such programming, to be able to think about the tragedies of the world together in our safe space and put them in context. We must remember our ability to make a difference. At LREI, progressive education manifests itself in so many ways. Our hope is to continue to provide our students with what they need, not only for college, but for the world we live in.

All the best,

Ruth

Calendar reminders:

September 15, 2006: Picture Day! Class pictures may be ordered at any time.
September 19, 2006 at 6:00 PM: Parent Association Welcome Fair in the PAC
September 19, 2006 at 6:30 PM: Curriculum Night, right after the Welcome Fair, PAC
September 21, 2006 at 6:30 PM: Ninth Grade Potluck Dinner
September 26, 2006 at 6:30 PM: Twelfth Grade Potluck Dinner
September 27-29, 2006: Ramapo for Ninth and Tenth Grades
October 17, 2006: High School Parent Rep Meeting with “Freedom Institute,” 6:30 PM
October 18, 2006: PSAT day for Tenth and Eleventh Grades
October 26, 2006: Tenth Grade Potluck Dinner
October 24-26, 2006: New dates for Minimester

This Week’s Attachments:
www.SaveDarfur.org
The High School Musical Announcement
Letter to Parents and Actor’s Contract
For all families: NYSAIS Parent Survey
Parent Association Welcome Fair!

As always, please browse the web site at www.lrei.org. Also, note the links to the Middle and Lower School weekly emails on the right. Please take a look at what the students in the other two divisions are up to!

All attachments are in .pdf format. To view these files, please download Adobe Reader, if you do not already have it. Click on this link or paste it into your browser: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readermain.html.
If you are having trouble opening the attachments, go to http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ms/ to access the files.

Dear Parents,

The last weeks of school are always a blur of activity as we wrap up this year and plan for the year ahead. I continue to bask in the glow of last week’s terrific Senior Project Presentation Evening; and, of course, students in grades nine through eleven have been hard at work completing projects and taking exams. It is such a privilege to be able to walk around from room to room seeing how far students have come in all subject areas since September. This trimester’s Final Exam/Presentation week is, appropriately for the end of the year, tilted a bit more toward the former, and I am pleased to report that our students are equally skilled at getting up and presenting in front of a roomful of their peers, and at sitting a string of exams, as they will need to do when they move on to college.

I am also thrilled to report on the activities of the High School’s signature community service activity, the Community Service Roundtable. As many of you know, the Roundtable petitions for and receives block grants from outside foundations, then accepts petitions from worthy volunteer activities and service organizations in the community. This year, the Roundtable made seven grants for a total of $8000. Grants went to: Family Focus, Foster Pride, Go St. Lukes, Stop, United Community Center/East New York Farms, SEED Artists and Outside the Dream. The activities of the Community Service Roundtable demonstrate that the school’s long tradition as an incubator of tomorrow’s leaders in community service is alive and well.

We will have four new faculty members join us in September (actually, one of them has been working with us since the middle of the year):

* Peter Bonfanti comes to us after fifteen years of mathematics teaching experience at a variety of schools, most recently the Nightingale-Bamford School uptown. He has a BA from Princeton – major in Architecture, minor in Mathematics – and an MA in Secondary Education from LaSalle University. Peter is also an accomplished soccer coach and piano and guitar teacher, and he wrote the Mathematics section of The SAT I For Dummies. Peter will be teaching mathematics across all four grades.
* Ben Rubin joins us after three years at Packer Collegiate as a teacher of mathematics and physics and as an assistant track coach. He has a BA from Oberlin with a double major in Mathematics and Physics, and he will be teaching both subjects next year.
* Our new Biology teacher next year will be Stacy Goldstein. Stacy has a BS in Biology, with a concentration on Cellular and Molecular Biology, from SUNY Binghamton, and an MA in Secondary School Science Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Stacy’s specialty has been using technology, including Smartboards, special science software and the Internet, to enhance science education. Stacy comes to us from Blind Brook High school in Westchester.
* Finally, Sunny Kim, who began leading the High School Chorus in the middle of the year, will continue to do so and will teach at least one if not two music classes during the year as well. Sunny is an extremely accomplished teacher of voice and choral conductor, having conducted choral groups of all sizes everywhere from Malaysia to South Korea to Colorado to Boston, and having taught vocal music both to individual students and to groups in schools and other settings to varied to list! A frequent performer at local clubs, Sunny has a BA magna cum laude in Jazz Studies and Voice Performance from the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver and a Master’s of Music in Jazz Studies and Voice Performance with an education concentration from the New England Conservatory of Music. Sunny has done a great job with the Chorus so far and we look forward to years of the same.

Along with these new faculty members, I am pleased to report that the increase in curricular opportunity continues apace. Next year’s Seniors will have, in their two trimesters, a remarkable 388,800 (!) different ways to sign up for classes. These include a new Senior Precalculus course, designed for students who are not yet ready for Calculus but who may wish to study subjects such as Economics or Science in college; “Experimental Science in History,” a new science elective that will delve into the history of significant scientific ideas and look toward the future; and potentially a vocal music offering in the Winter. The English and History Departments continue to expand their offerings; just to give you a taste, the first trimester’s offerings in History are: Japan, China, Korea, India; Gotham – The Global City; Government and Politics; 20th Century Europe; American Culture and Ideas in the Twentieth Century; and Wealth and Poverty: The American Economy in the 21st Century. The English Department counters with Dangerous Language; Latino/a Literature: Voices of the 20th and 21st Century; Creative Writing: Short Fiction; Shakespeare Revisited; Discovering the Self: Writing Memoir and Personal Narrative; and American Writers and the American Dream – the 19th Century. To think that just a few short years ago, the choices were 12th Grade History and 12th Grade English! Meanwhile, the highly successful Chinese program will grow to include the Tenth Grade, and the Foreign Language Department will have impressive new language lab facilities at their new digs over on Macdougal Street.

Some additional notes on the end of the year:

* Summer 2006 Building Projects–Have you seen our exciting new plans for the high school and the gym? Are you looking for a hands-on way to participate in our summer renovations? We need your help to pack up the Charlton Street Library. Come lend a helping hand at Charlton Street on Monday, June 12 from 2:00PM – 7:00PM. By using volunteers we can save $15,000 on the High School renovations! JUST SHOW UP!

*The summer reading list is ready and online. Note that rising ninth, tenth and eleventh graders will have assigned books from either the English or History Departments (or both) – which will be given to the students by the school – along with choices from the list.

* If your children have school textbooks, they need to return them or you will receive a bill from the school!

* An upcoming event: Family Picnic: Sunday, June 11th
Welcoming families touched by adoption and the friends and classmates who support us. A chance to celebrate LREI’s diverse community of families. ALL ARE WELCOME!
Time: 1AM on, throughout the afternoon
Place: Hudson River Park (just north of the World Financial Center)
We’ll set up on the grass just across from the playground. Look for lots of balloons! Bring your own lunch/snack/beverage and something to sit on. There are sprinklers for younger kids so bring bathing suits and towels.
Rain Date: Sometime in September
Sponsored by the LREI Adoptive Families Committee
For more info, contact Susan Glass at: sglass9@nyc.rr.com or Mamie McIndoe at: mmcindoe@marblechurch.org

* LREI celebrates Gay Pride: Sunday, June 25, 2006. Be a part of a worldwide movement for freedom and equality, and march with the LREI banner in the 2005 NYC PRIDE parade. It’s fun and festive, and kids are very welcome. High School students may earn three hours of community service credit. Three years ago, we were the first school ever to march, and we proudly wore our Elisabeth Irwin T-shirts. The crowd went wild! Come and join us, or come out and cheer us on. Please check the school web site, where the meeting place and time will be posted shortly.

* Schedule for the remainder of the year (8:45 AM Homeroom each day):
– Thursday, June 8, 6:30 PM (Tonight) – Senior Banquet
– Friday, June 9, 1:00 PM – Graduation at NYU’s Skirball Auditorium – Ticket Required
* Monday, June 12, 8:45 AM – Homeroom, Locker Clean-up, Student Government Field Day
* Monday, June 12, 2:00 PM – Community Service Boxing/Clean-up Afternoon – ALL STUDENTS IN NEED OF COMMUNITY SERVICE WILL BE EXPECTED TO ATTEND
* Tuesday June 13, 8:45 AM – Homeroom, Mini-classes/Exam return, Final Thank-you Assembly
* Tuesday, June 13, 12:00 PM – SUMMER VACATION BEGINS!!!!

On a personal note – thanks to all faculty, parents and especially students for the time we have spent together over these three years, and thanks to so many of you who have extended your warm wishes as I move on to a new life in public education. Have a great summer!

Take care one and all,

Tony

As always, please browse the web site at www.lrei.org. Also, note the links to the Middle and Lower School weekly emails on the right. Please take a look at what the students in the other two divisions are up to!

All attachments are in .pdf format. To view these files, please download Adobe Reader, if you do not already have it. Click on this link or paste it into your browser: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readermain.html.
If you are having trouble opening the attachments, go to http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ms/ to access the files.

Dear Parents,

As always, the end of the year brings with it wonderful culminations and achievements. Students are hard at work bringing projects in all of their classes to conclusions, and we will get to see the fruits of those labors during next week’s Final Exams/Presentations (see the attached schedule for the last days of school; I will write more about exams and presentations next week). In addition, along with the athletic accomplishments I listed last week, the LREI Boys High School Softball teach won the ISAL Tournament, beating Birch-Wathan-Lennox in the finals 10-6. We are sending four students from that team – including two 10th graders! – to the league all-star game. Once again, go Knights!

Standing out among all of these happenings: Last night was an amazing night that belonged entirely to the Seniors. This year’s Senior Project Evening featured so many fabulous presentations that I hesitate to single any of them out. I will say that in the weeks of the internships and during the research process, our students worked in the arts (“Cabaret”, “Special Effects, “The Future of Comics”, “The Integration of Hip Hop & Gospel”, “Theater for Social Change”, “Classical Music & The Test of Time” and “The Political Power of the Image”); real estate (“Real Estate 101” and “Blue: The Lower East Side”); education (“The Products of Lower Expectations” and “The Profit of Racism”); food (“The Food & Food Politics of Classical Rome”, “Chocolate” and “Catering 101”); politics (“Where the Responsibility Lies” and “Iran & The United States: A Complex Alliance”); and on and on. In addition, two of our students’ projects took them abroad (“La Nouvelle Vague” and “Falling in Love with Bavarians”). I am attaching here the program for the evening and the complete list of titles and mentors. Our Mission Statement begins, “Our goal is to educate students to become independent thinkers and lifelong learners and to pursue academic excellence and individual achievement, in a context of respect for others and service to the community.” Based on these projects and these presentations, we as a school can be pleased with the extent to which we have succeeded in this goal with these students. Great credit goes to the High School faculty, who worked tirelessly to help them with their papers and their presentations, and especially to Senior Project Coordinators Adele and Antonio. But even greater credit to our students, who followed their passions and made us all very, very proud.

An upcoming event: Family Picnic: Sunday, June 11th
Welcoming families touched by adoption and the friends and classmates who support us. A chance to celebrate LREI’s diverse community of families. ALL ARE WELCOME! 
Time: 1AM on, throughout the afternoon
Place: Hudson River Park (just north of the World Financial Centre)
We’ll set up on the grass just across from the playground. Look for lots of balloons! Bring your own lunch/snack/beverage and something to sit on. There are sprinklers for younger kids so bring bathing suits and towels.
Rain Date: Sometime in September
Sponsored by the LREI Adoptive Families Committee  
For more info, contact Susan Glass at: sglass9@nyc.rr.com or Mamie McIndoe at: mmcindoe@marblechurch.org

All the best,

Tony

CALENDAR

June
* Monday 5 Last day of Trimester III classes
* Tuesday 6-Thursday 8 Trimester III Exams/Presentations; End of Trimester II
* Thursday 8 Senior Banquet
* Friday 9 Graduation
* Monday 12-Tuesday 13 Closing days
* Tuesday 13 School closes at noon for Summer Vacation

As always, please browse the web site at www.lrei.org. Also, note the links to the Middle and Lower School weekly emails on the right. Please take a look at what the students in the other two divisions are up to!

All attachments are in .pdf format. To view these files, please download Adobe Reader, if you do not already have it. Click on this link or paste it into your browser: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readermain.html.
If you are having trouble opening the attachments, go to http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ms/ to access the files.

Dear parents,

A quick word about some artistic and athletic goings on:

What a terrific night on Tuesday! The High School Sports Awards Evening was a fun, touching and inspiring affair. The number of students who participate in sports continues to escalate – especially current ninth and tenth graders, promising even greater future success – as does the intensity that LREI students are bringing to athletics with each passing year. This year as last year, teams are practicing more and more often and with more and more sophistication, and we continue to compete with – and beat – teams from schools with far larger student populations. The Spring sports are going especially strong this year. First, Boys Softball has the ISAL (Independent School Athletic League) championship game today in Central Park. And, once again, the track team has had an exceptional Spring. In the GISAL Championship, the team finished third, highlighted by the 4×100 meter team’s league record-breaking performance. Then, in the New York State Association of Independent Schools meet yesterday, Junior Kristin Crichlow finished 2nd in the girls 100 meters, 8th Grader Emma Vasta-Kuby finished 5th in the 200m and the 4 x100m team finished 3rd. Go Knights!

In addition, I am pleased to announce that the following LREI student films have screened at recent prestigious youth film festivals:

The following films by LREI students have been shown in recent Film Festivals:
The 2006 Interschool High School Student Film and Video Festival, hosted by the Dalton School
* Ava Hamilton – “Ipod” – Honorable Mention for Editing
* Adriane Alicea – Untitled
* Amara Perez – The Heights
* Danielle Miller – My Dog
* The Bollywood Minimester Group – “Bollywood” – Winner for Art Direction, Honorable Mention for Cinematography

The 2006 Westport Youth Film Festival
* Jerelyn Rodriguez – “Made in NY”
* The Bollywood Minimester Group – “Bollywood”

One other item: Attached is a list of the colleges that our seniors have enrolled in for the past three years. This year’s class, like their predecessors, had a successful college search process. We are proud of each of them. A list of this year’s acceptances can be found at www.lrei.org. Congratulations LREI Class of 2006!!

Important events coming up:

* See the attached letter from Phil about tomorrow’s Field Day activities (mandatory for all students in grades 9 – 11, with Seniors greatly encouraged to attend!). Regular start time; students will be released by 1:00 PM at the latest.

* On Wednesday, May 31 we will have our annual Senior Project Presentation Evening, 6:30 PM, Charlton Street. This event is one of the highlights of the year and is open to all members of the community – parents, siblings, friends – no RSVP required!

All the best,

Tony

CALENDAR

May
* Thursday 25 Book Fair; Summer 2006 Fun-Raiser; Parents of Children who Receive Academic Support
* Friday 26 Field Day – No Classes
* Monday 29 School closed – Memorial Day
* Wednesday 31 Senior Project Presentation Evening

June
* Monday 5 Last day of Trimester III classes
* Tuesday 6-Thursday 8 Trimester III Exams/Presentations; End of Trimester II
* Thursday 8 Senior Banquet
* Friday 9 Graduation
* Monday 12-Tuesday 13 Closing days
* Tuesday 13 School closes at noon for Summer Vacation

As always, please browse the web site at www.lrei.org. Also, note the links to the Middle and Lower School weekly emails on the right. Please take a look at what the students in the other two divisions are up to!

All attachments are in .pdf format. To view these files, please download Adobe Reader, if you do not already have it. Click on this link or paste it into your browser: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readermain.html.
If you are having trouble opening the attachments, go to http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ms/ to access the files.

Dear parents,

A note on a simply fantastic assembly: On Tuesday, we had a three-person panel speaking from very different vantage points on the pros and cons of various positions on immigration. They were: Michael D. Patrick, LREI ’71 (and current Chair of the Board of Trustees), Partner at Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, a top immigration law firm; Raquel E. Batista, Executive Director of the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights, the only legal service organization in the Dominican community; and Michael Cutler, retired from the INS in February 2002 after a career that spanned some 30 years and currently a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based think tank, a Contributing Expert on the nexus between immigration and terrorism for the Counterterrorism Blog, and an advisor to the 911 Families for a Secure America (see the attached bio sheet for more information on these three experts). President Bush’s recent proposals were dissected from all sides, and the three took challenging questions from the audience. A follow-up student debate is scheduled for the May 30 assembly.

A packed last few weeks! Coming up:

* Tonight – Come to the Spring Concert! 6:30 PM at Charlton Street.

* See the attached letter from Phil about next Friday’s Field Day activities (mandatory for all students in grades 9 – 11, with Seniors greatly encouraged to attend!).

* NYU Courses: Check out the descriptions of the NYU courses for which our students (current tenth and eleventh graders) can sign up, along with a proposal form. The applications will be due to College Guidance Counselor Amy Shapiro on Tuesday, May 23rd.

* High School Sports Awards Night – Tuesday, May 23 at 6:30 PM, Charlton Street PAC.

* May Book Fair: The Literary Committee will have a Spring into Summer Book Fair in the Auditorium on May 25th (see the attached flyer). A selection of the optional reading titles will be sold from 8:00AM-6:00PM.

* Summer 2006 Fun-Raiser: Coming May 25, from 5 PM – 7 PM at
143 Thompson Street: A chance to have a great time, dunk yours truly and help support vital summer work! See the attached flyer for more details.

* The next meeting of Parents of Children who Receive Academic Support: Thursday, May 25, 6:30 PM, Charlton Street.

All the best,

Tony

CALENDAR

May
* Thursday 18 Spring Concert; Day 40 of Trimester III classes
* Tuesday 23 High School Sports Award Evening
* Thursday 25 Book Fair; Summer 2006 Fun-Raiser; Parents of Children who Receive Academic Support
* Friday 26 Field Day – No Classes
* Monday 29 School closed – Memorial Day
* Wednesday 31 Senior Project Presentation Evening

June
* Monday 5 Last day of Trimester III classes
* Tuesday 6-Thursday 8 Trimester III Exams/Presentations; End of Trimester II
* Thursday 8 Senior Banquet
* Friday 9 Graduation
* Monday 12-Tuesday 13 Closing days
* Tuesday 13 School closes at noon for Summer Vacation

As always, please browse the web site at www.lrei.org. Also, note the links to the Middle and Lower School weekly emails on the right. Please take a look at what the students in the other two divisions are up to!

All attachments are in .pdf format. To view these files, please download Adobe Reader, if you do not already have it. Click on this link or paste it into your browser: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readermain.html.
If you are having trouble opening the attachments, go to http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ms/ to access the files.

Dear parents,

Two signature LREI High School events:

1) On Monday, May 8th at 5 PM in the cafeteria at Charlton Street, we held a reading and celebration of IE: LREI’s Literary Magazine. The magazine has poetry, prose, and visual art from students from grades 7 through 12. Five High School students and five middle school students read their works aloud. The event was beautiful and inspiring and showed Middle School and High School students, together, doing what LREI students often do best – writing and presenting. Huge kudos to faculty advisors Jane Belton (HS) and Sarah Barlow (MS), and congratulations to all writers and artists who contributed. Your copy will be mailed home shortly – keep an eye out for it!

2) This Saturday, May 13, 7:00 PM at Charlton Street, we will host the annual Human Rights Coffeehouse. Co-organized by mathematics/music teacher Micah Dov Gottlieb and the High School Human Rights Club, this will be a terrific evening of music, poetry, film and more, all with a human rights theme. Like the IE reading, a uniquely LREI event – students and faculty, from all three divisions, joined together to entertain us while inspiring us to help to make the world a better place. Please join us!

Other announcements:

* Trimester III Interim Reports will go out in the next couple of days. Because so many of our courses are project based, at least 50% of the “assessment” often happens over the last few weeks of the trimester. We always do our best to balance sending the reports in a timely fashion with waiting long enough for students to have completed a sufficient quantity of fully assessed work.

* Summer 2006 Fun-Raiser: Coming May 25, from 5 PM – 7 PM at
143 Thompson Street: A chance to have a great time, dunk yours truly and help support vital summer work! See the attached flyer for more details.

* NYU Courses: Check out the descriptions of the NYU courses for which our students (current tenth and eleventh graders) can sign up, along with a proposal form. The applications will be due to College Guidance Counselor Amy Shapiro on Tuesday, May 23rd.

* May Book Fair: The Literary Committee will have a Spring into Summer Book Fair in the Auditorium on May 25th. A selection of the optional and all of the required reading titles will be sold from 8:00AM-6:00PM. I will speak more about the required reading titles in next week’s Blog.

All the best,

Tony

CALENDAR

May
* Saturday 13 Coffeehouse!
* Tuesday 16 High School Parent Rep Meeting
* Thursday 18 Spring Concert; Day 40 of Trimester III classes
* Tuesday 23 High School Sports Award Evening
* Friday 26 Field Day – No Classes
* Monday 29 School closed – Memorial Day
* Wednesday 31 Senior Project Presentation Evening

June
* Monday 5 Last day of Trimester III classes
* Tuesday 6-Thursday 8 Trimester III Exams/Presentations; End of Trimester II
* Thursday 8 Senior Banquet
* Friday 9 Graduation
* Monday 12-Tuesday 13 Closing days
* Tuesday 13 School closes at noon for Summer Vacation

As always, please browse the web site at www.lrei.org. Also, note the links to the Middle and Lower School weekly emails on the right. Please take a look at what the students in the other two divisions are up to!

All attachments are in .pdf format. To view these files, please download Adobe Reader, if you do not already have it. Click on this link or paste it into your browser: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readermain.html.
If you are having trouble opening the attachments, go to http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ms/ to access the files.

Dear parents,

What an amazing day! Arts Festival 2006 displayed so many facets of the LREI education: the incredible collection of artists of every ilk who are part, one way or another, of the LREI community (parents, alumni, and friends); the rigor with which artistic endeavors are approached at LREI; and, most of all, the aesthetic talents and practiced willingness to take risks of our student body. Students in mixed-grade groups ranging from eighth to twelfth spent the morning in three-hour workshops, followed by an afternoon assembly consisting of slide shows and performances of various kinds. I will let the attached list of workshops speak for itself. Congratulations to the High School Arts Department for putting together a fantastic program!

Important announcements:
* Please join us for a reception to meet incoming High School Principal Ruth Geyer Jurgensen on Monday, May 8th from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM at Charlton Street (see the attached invitation).

* Coming May 13, 7:00 PM at Charlton Street – the annual Human Rights Coffeehouse! There are still some slots available for members of the community to participate with music, poetry, or any other material with a human rights theme. This Coffeehouse is co-organized by mathematics/music teacher Micah Dov Gottlieb and the High School Human Rights Club. If you are interested, please contact Micah at mdgottlieb@lrei.org.

All the best,

Tony

CALENDAR

May
* Monday 8 Reception for incoming High School Principal Ruth Geyer Jurgensen
* Saturday 13 Coffeehouse!
* Tuesday 16 High School Parent Rep Meeting
* Thursday 18 Spring Concert; Day 40 of Trimester III classes
* Tuesday 23 High School Sports Award Evening
* Friday 26 Field Day – No Classes
* Monday 29 School closed – Memorial Day
* Wednesday 31 Senior Project Presentation Evening

June
* Monday 5 Last day of Trimester III classes
* Tuesday 6-Thursday 8 Trimester III Exams/Presentations; End of Trimester II
* Thursday 8 Senior Banquet
* Friday 9 Graduation
* Monday 12-Tuesday 13 Closing days
* Tuesday 13 School closes at noon for Summer Vacation

As always, please browse the web site at www.lrei.org. Also, note the links to the Middle and Lower School weekly emails on the right. Please take a look at what the students in the other two divisions are up to!

All attachments are in .pdf format. To view these files, please download Adobe Reader, if you do not already have it. Click on this link or paste it into your browser: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readermain.html.
If you are having trouble opening the attachments, go to http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ms/ to access the files.

Dear parents,

Several months ago, I did a “Day in the Life of the High School” blog, in which I described vignettes from a walking tour of classes on a typical day. I have had several requests for a repeat of those snapshots, so without further ado, this morning, here’s some of what was going on in and out of the High School:

* Tenth grade English students began a two- to three-page “Zoom In, Zoom Out” exercise focusing on both the details and larger significance of a passage of their choice from Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye.

* Students in the eleventh grade Latin American and Caribbean History elective learned about the merging of Christian and Aztec traditions throughout Mexico’s history.

* Ninth grade Chinese students expanded their knowledge of prepositions and continued to build their general oral and written vocabulary.

* Eleventh grade Biology students collaborated on presentations about research into primate learning, speech, biology and adaptation, and the implications about human development.

* Tenth grade French students took a test on double-object pronouns.

* Students in the eleventh grade Art and Politics: Toni Morrison English elective did a close reading of a passage from Beloved.

* Students in ninth and tenth grade Music classes visited Avery Fisher Hall, where they were treated to a normally private rehearsal of the New York Philharmonic.

* Eleventh graders in the Human Rights history elective worked on individual presentations that they will do on different issues concerning children’s rights.

* Tenth grade students in Technology learned left-right animation using Adobe Illustrator.

* Eleventh grade Precalculus students worked on solving trigonometric equations in preparation for trigonometry-based projects.

* Tenth grade Physics students used springs to measure the relationship between amplitude and wave speed, along with other characteristics of waves.

* Students in tenth grade Spanish went over the difference between the imperfect and preterite tenses.

* Ninth grade Photography, Media Arts and Studio Art students prepared their final projects for Monday’s grade-wide presentations, which will mark the end of the ninth graders’ fifth (out of six) arts rotation.

* Students in the eleventh grade required trimester-long history of New York City course, “Gotham,” learned about the New York City real estate scene – in the 1800’s!

* Tenth grade Drama students performed self-written scenes and monologues which incorporate music.

* Students in tenth grade Photography went outside to Charlton Street to take pictures using self-made pinhole cameras.

* Eleventh grade students in the Exploring Class Dynamics in Global Literature class discussed wedding traditions in the Indian caste society and in working class England.

One of the great joys of being the LREI High School Principal is getting to see all of these different manifestations of an outstanding progressive edcuational program. I hope you have enjoyed these written snapshots of what I see every day.

Important announcements:
1) Please join us for a reception to meet incoming High School Principal Ruth Geyer Jurgensen on Monday, May 8th from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM at Charlton Street (see the attached invitation).

2) A note from Director Phil Kassen about last night’s Big Auction: Congratulations to all involved in creating last night’s spectacular Big Auction! A thousand thanks to the Auction Committee Co-Chairs—Mandy Bouquet and Sharon Fong—and to their hardworking committee members. Last night’s event was an overwhelming display of generosity and support of LREI and its progressive mission. For those who were not able to attend, please visit the hall auction in the Sixth Avenue building for a selection of silent auction items and sign-up parties.

3) For tomorrow’s LREI High School Arts Festival, students should arrive at Charlton Street at 8:45 AM.

All the best,

Tony

CALENDAR
April
* Friday 21 School closed – High School Planning/Meetings Day – No classes
* Friday 28 High School Arts Festival

May
* Monday 8 Reception for incoming High School Principal Ruth Geyer Jurgensen
* Saturday 13 Coffeehouse!
* Tuesday 16 High School Parent Rep Meeting
* Thursday 18 Spring Concert; Day 40 of Trimester III classes
* Tuesday 23 High School Sports Award Evening
* Friday 26 Field Day – No Classes
* Monday 29 School closed – Memorial Day
* Wednesday 31 Senior Project Presentation Evening

June
* Monday 5 Last day of Trimester III classes
* Tuesday 6-Thursday 8 Trimester III Exams/Presentations; End of Trimester II
* Thursday 8 Senior Banquet
* Friday 9 Graduation
* Monday 12-Tuesday 13 Closing days
* Tuesday 13 School closes at noon for Summer Vacation

As always, please browse the web site at www.lrei.org. Also, note the links to the Middle and Lower School weekly emails on the right. Please take a look at what the students in the other two divisions are up to!

All attachments are in .pdf format. To view these files, please download Adobe Reader, if you do not already have it. Click on this link or paste it into your browser: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readermain.html.
If you are having trouble opening the attachments, go to http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ms/ to access the files.