The Curriculum Night Lens: Seeing the Big Picture

Dear Families:

I trust that you all found Curriculum Night to be informative and inspiring. The Middle School faculty is truly an exceptional group of professionals. While Curriculum Night affords you an albeit too brief glance into what goes on each day in the Middle School, I do encourage you to read through the curriculum guide that was included in your folders as it provides a clear overview of the Middle School program.

I also hope that you will use Curriculum Night as an opportunity to talk with your child about his or her impressions of the Middle School so far this year. There is an opportunity here for a rich dialog about the curriculum itself and its relationship to your child’s strengths and areas of challenge as a learner and as an adolescent. What ideas have already captured their imagination? What goals are they working on?

For those of you who were unable to attend Curriculum Night, your child will be bringing home your folder today. While Curriculum Night provides an opportunity to view the Middle School through a wide-angle lense that takes in the full spectrum of the essential questions that drive our work with your children, Family Conferences, which are scheduled for Friday, November 4th (full day) and Friday, November 11th (half day), provide a lens that allow you to better focus on your child’s experience and progress. Sign-up sheets for conferences with core teachers are posted outside of their classrooms and sign-up sheets for conferences with specialist teachers are posted on the bulletin board outside of my office.

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:
Eighth Grade:
Seventh Grade:
Math Update
Williamsburg Trip
Sixth Grade:
DISC Field Day
Fifth/Sixth Grade Soccer Program
Fifth Grade:
Fifth/Sixth Grade Soccer Program

Of General Interest . . .
1) Schedules and general information about Middle School sports programs can be found at http://lrei.org/athletics/at_4b.html. Information is also available through the LREI Sports Hotline at 212.477.5316 x 494.

2) Congratulations to Sophie Erlich and Ava Crawford who organized a bake sale last Sunday in Union Square Park, to raise money for the animal rescue effort on the gulf coast. With the help of many of their classmates, they raised $860. Well done! On other relief effort fronts, a number of advisory groups went to Rockefeller Center this week to participate in a project coordinated by the group Children for Children. Students created large murals on wood paneling that will be sent to schools and businesses in the Gulf Coast region as a “welcome back” card from the children of New York. They also assembled and decorated kits titled, “Backyard in a Box,” which included toys and gardening supplies to help families rebuild the outdoor space that was destroyed or damaged by the disaster. Save the Date: A Benefit Concert to Aid the Victims of Hurricane Katrina will be held on Monday evening, October 17, 2005, at 6:30 PM in the High School Performing Arts Center on Charlton Street. Broadway performers and LREI students will perform for this worthy cause. Minimum donation – $20.00; Suggested donation -$50.00 per ticket. For information about LREI’s efforts to aid the victims of Hurricane Katrina please go to http://www.lrei.org/whoweare/katrina.html

3) Multicultural Committee Meeting — Thanks to everyone who came to the potluck lunch last weekend. This parent committee’s first official meeting will be Thursday, Oct. 6th, 8:45 a.m., 6th-Avenue Cafeteria. On the agenda: brainstorming for activities and meeting topics for the year and early planning for Karamu!, our annual high-energy performing arts event in January. All parents from all divisions are encouraged to join this very diverse group. Questions? Contact co-chairs Mario Murillo (mario@wbai.org) or Noreen Stallings-Hall (nstallings@lcbf.com).

4) Asian-American Families Breakfast — Please bring your whole family for this group’s first get-together of the year. Friday, Oct. 7th, 7:45 a.m.-9:00 a.m., 6th-Avenue Cafeteria. If you have to come late or leave early, that’s fine, it’s very informal. It’s also potluck, so please let Ruth Yang (ryang@walzyanglaw.com) know what food you will bring. And if you forget to sign up or can’t bring anything, please still come!

5) Just a reminder that Picture Day has been rescheduled for Monday, October 24th.

6) 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. You can access their on-line calendar of events at www.parentsinaction.org. Two upcoming seminars that may be of interest to Middle School families are: Wednesday, November 16th – Independence: Holding On and Letting Go; and Wednesday, December 7th – Independence in Middle School: Safety, Self Reliance and Risk Taking.

7) Art opening for Middle School art teacher Susan Leopold: In Practice – exhibition runs: September 10 – November 27, 2005 at the Sculpture Center, which is located at 44-19 Purves Street (off of Jackson Avenue) in Long Island City, NY, 11101. Exhibition hours: Thursday – Monday, 11am – 6pm; closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Directions: [ http://sculpture-center.org/gi_directions.html ] Exhibition Information: [ http://sculpture-center.org/pe_ip6_des1.html ]

For 8th Grade Families . . .
1) Please don’t forget to attend one of the High School Open Houses. Open Houses are scheduled for Thursday, October 6th and Tuesday, October 25th from 6:30-8:ooPM at Charlton Street. Please email (scaruth@lrei.org) or call (ext. 305) Director of Admisions Samantha Caruth to RSVP.

For 7th Grade Families . . .
1) The deadline for submitting payment for the Williamsburg Trip, which is scheduled for the week of November 14th, is October 15th. Please read the attached letter for more information.

2) Please read the attached letter from math teacher Michelle Boehm about the new math unit.

3) Please don’t forget to attend one of the High School Open Houses. Open Houses are scheduled for Thursday, October 6th and Tuesday, October 25th from 6:30-8:ooPM at Charlton Street. Please email (scaruth@lrei.org) or call (ext. 305) Director of Admisions Samantha Caruth to RSVP.

For 6th Grade Families . . .
1) This Thursday, October 6th is the Downtown Independent Schools Committee (DISC) Field Day. For more information, please read the attached letter.

2) This year in Adolescent Issues, our initial focus is conflict resolution. Our discussions and activities are designed to help students acquire the skills and understandings they need to deal with conflicts productively and nonviolently. Through our work, students will develop a “Conflict Resolution Tool Kit,” which will not only help them to understand and resolve their own conflicts, but will also help them to understand conflicts in the community, the nation, and the world. The program we will use, Conflict Resolution in the Middle School, was developed by Educators for Social Responsibilty, a national organization that specializes in producing resources for teaching violence prevention and conflict resolution in schools. I’m looking forward to working with your children as we explore this important topic. Please do not hesitate to contact me (msilberberg@lrei.org) if you have any questions or concerns regarding the program.

2) A reminder about dismissal: All Middle School students are dismissed from their homerooms. Fifth and Sixth grade students who are waiting to be picked up must wait in front of the school building. Students who have not been picked up by 3:30PM must come back into the building and wait in the lobby. If you have given your child permission to walk home on his/her own, please send me a note indicating so. We will review these procedures with students and ask that you also review them at home. Thank you.

3)For information about the fifth/sixth grade soccer program, which started today click here.

For 5th Grade Families . . .
1) In Adolescent Issues, we have started an exciting program called The Mind That’s Mine. The program is designed to help children understand their own learning profiles of strengths and weaknesses. Through discussion and activities, students will learn to celebrate their own unique minds while learning to recognize, tolerate, and respect individual differences in learning and behavior. The topics we will cover include the human mind and brain, attention, remembering, language, problem solving, skill building, behavior and “The Mind That’s Mine.” The program was developed by Dr. Mel Levine. More information about Dr. Levine and his work can be found at the above link. Please do not hesitate to contact me (msilberberg@lrei.org) if you have any questions or concerns regarding the program. I anticipate an exciting educational adventure for all of us as we take a look into our unique and wonderful minds.

2) A reminder about dismissal: All Middle School students are dismissed from their homerooms. Fifth and Sixth grade students who are waiting to be picked up must wait in front of the school building. Students who have not been picked up by 3:30PM must come back into the building and wait in the lobby. If you have given your child permission to walk home on his/her own, please send me a note indicating so. We will review these procedures with students and ask that you also review them at home. Thank you.

2) For information about the fifth/sixth grade soccer program, which started today click here.

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)

  • Thursday, October 6th, 8:00AM — Lesbian/Gay/ Straight Alliance Meeting in the Sixth Avenue cafeteria.
  • Thursday, Oct. 6th, 8:45AM — Multicultural Committee Meeting 6th Ave. Cafeteria
  • Thursday, October 6th, 11:00 AM-2:30 PM — Downtown Independent Schools Committee (DISC) Field Day: Sixth graders from LREI will lunch and participate in a variety of games and athletic events with students from Village Community School, Grace Church School, Friends, City and Country, and St. Luke’s School. (Raindate is October 12th.)
  • Friday, Oct. 7th, 7:45AM — Asian-American Families Breakfast 6th Ave. Cafeteria
  • Monday, October 17, 8:30 am — Library Open House at drop-off. Ever wonder where the easy readers are, or how to check out a book when a librarian isn’t around? Please come and visit Jennifer in the Sixth Avenue library, have a cup of coffee and find out how the library works!”
  • Tuesday, October 18th, 8:15AM — Parent Rep Meeting
  • Wednesday, October 19th – Friday, October 21st — 8th grade participates in EI Minimester
  • Wednesday, October 19th, 7PM – Literary Event: “Tweens Going on Twenty”
  • Thursday, October 20th, 6:00PM — MS Parents of Children of Color Meeting
  • Monday, October 24th — Raindate for Class Photos

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.