Welcome back!

Dear Middle School Families,

I hope that it has been and continues to be a wonderful summer for you and your family. As always, our middle school spaces were filled with the sounds of Summers at LREI in July, but with August here they are transforming themselves back into their familiar form and await anxiously the arrival of students and the start of a new year.

As for me, when I was not in the office, I tried to spend as much time outside as possible with various gardening and building projects. I also did some kayaking on the Hudson and some fishing with my two older sons. As measured by what we caught, the fishing was largely unsuccessful, but as I tried to explain to my sons, the real measure of a successful fishing experience is in the actual doing of it. To be solely focused on the catch is to lose sight of the beauty and joy of the water and the other animals and birds also at work on the water. It’s about learning how to balance the need for a desired result with the patience and dedication that is required to get there; and mostly, what really matters is finding pleasure in and learning from the experience itself especially when the fish aren’t biting. As I think about it, this is a state of mind that I want to take with me into the school year. There is no question that the middle school program is driven by a number of clear goals for students, teachers and families, but I also want to make sure that we connect these to the daily experience of being part of the middle school community. So I hope that you will join me this year as we work to make sure that the many rich opportunities for joyful and meaningful experience do not go unnoticed.

That said, I trust that things have been equally exciting for you and that you are all enjoying your summer and finding time to be with family and friends. Since it is only a short time before we are back in full swing, I hope that you make the most of these last few weeks. What follows are some important items to keep in mind as you prepare for the start of the school year:

  • Opening Morning Parent Q&A—I will be available from 8:00-8:45AM on Tuesday, September 7th, in the cafeteria to answer any pressing “nuts and bolts” or “big picture” questions that you might have about the start of the year. It is not necessary to attend this meeting. If you have questions and cannot attend, you can always email (msilberberg@lrei.org) or call me (212-477-5316 ext. 221). I will also be available to answer questions on the afternoon of the 7th (see next item) if you are not able to attend the morning Q&A session.
  • Beginning of the year meeting with your child’s advisor—Also on the first day of school, Tuesday, September 7th, from 12:15-3:15PM, we ask each family to schedule a 20-minute conference with their child’s advisor. As you will notice on the class lists, we have increased the number of advisors in each homeroom. This will allow more faculty to participate in this important role and it will also allow us to provide better support for each advisee. In order to schedule these conferences, please click here. If you have any questions about this meeting or how to schedule it, please do not hesitate to contact me.The purpose of this meeting is to provide an opportunity for your child’s advisor to meet with you to introduce her/himself and for you to learn more about her/his role as an advocate and liaison. This meeting provides all parties with an un-charged, friendly environment to get to know each other. It is also a chance to establish connections and set goals. This is especially useful for new families and for fifth and sixth grade families as the meeting will provide you with a sense of what is new and what to expect. This meeting will also provide a chance for families to discuss any goals or concerns that they may have. Students are expected to participate in these conversations.

    On the first day of school, we will run an abbreviated morning schedule during which students will meet their teachers. Following lunch and recess, the mini-conferences will begin. When not in their conferences, students will be engaged in a division-wide service activity. When you arrive for the conference, you will be directed to where you can pick up your child. You can leave with your child after meeting with the advisor. Your child may also remain until the end of the day and will be dismissed at 3:15PM. We hope that all families will be able to participate in these meetings on this day.

Another item to add to your to-do list is a review of the Middle School Student and Family Handbook. Click here to access the handbook. I encourage you to review the handbook with your child as this provides an excellent opportunity to talk about hopes and goals for the coming school year.

If you have specific questions about any of the above items, please do not hesitate to contact me before the start of the school year. Whether before school starts or during the year, my door is always open and I look forward to hearing from you. The following are a few other important items to keep in mind as you review the handbook:

  • The official start of the school day for Middle School students is 8:15AM. Morning homeroom will run from 8:15-8:30AM. It is important that students arrive to school on time. Please remember that students who are late to school and who do not have a note from their parent/guardian will be expected to make up this time at the end of the day.
  • I have posted to the blog a document that contains several of the letters of communication that faculty members may send out as email during the course of the year. We recognize that these letters have a formal tone, but we feel that they contain important information that you should know about your child’s progress. In addition, this information allows for better coordination among Middle School faculty members. It is helpful if you read these letters now so that you are familiar with their form. Click here to access the letters.
  • With regard to communication, please make sure to keep abreast of Middle School and schoolwide events by reading the weekly blog, which you can access at any time at https://blog.lrei.org/msnews. The blog is updated every Thursday afternoon.

As I mentioned in the spring, we welcome Christopher Jung, Alicia Wang and Robert Bloch to the Middle School community. Christopher will teach the fifth grade technology classes and will coordinate our on-going division-wide integration of technology into the curriculum. Alicia will teach fifth and sixth grade Mandarin classes. Robert will teach eighth grade core while Sarah Barlow is on maternity leave for the first part of the year.

Amidst travels, spending time with families and friends, and reflecting on the past year, many returning faculty members spent time this summer focusing on their curricula and on life in school in general:

  • Sherezada Acosta, fifth and sixth grade science teacher, taught a two-week robotics class at the Summers at LREI camp program.
  • Margaret Andrews, sixth and eighth grade math teacher, worked with Yale University students who were selected for the Courture Fellowship and the Yale President’s Fellowship.  Her role was to present approaches to numeracy through a series of seminars. The program is dedicated to supporting the exploration of the vital world of elementary education and new practices that hold promise for exceptional achievement for all students through exchanges with experienced educators.
  • Lower school and middle school dance teacher Deborah Damast taught a modern dance technique and repertory graduate level summer intensive at the NYU Steinhardt School.
  • MS Librarian and Library Department Chair Jennifer Hubert Swan was accepted into the Cullman Center Institute for Teachers Summer Seminar taught by author Karen Russell that took place in July.
  • Sixth grade core teacher and dean Lynne Cattafi served as a program dean for the Oxbridge summer study abroad program in Cambridge, England. The Oxbridge program is for students in grades 8 to 12 and aims to give participants the opportunity to live and study at historic and scholarly centers of learning in Europe.
  • Elizabeth Simmons, seventh grade Core teacher, attended the Klingenstein Summer Institute for Early Teachers. The Institute brings together approximately 75 teachers from across the country and around the world, and is especially designed to make teachers more effective leaders in the classroom and throughout the school.
  • Matthew Rosen, seventh grade core teacher, was awarded an National Endowment for the Humanities grant to attend a summer institute at Yale, The Lost World of Early America, in which he explored themes in colonial American history, such as race relations, politics, economics, family and community life, and rites of passage. He also received a LREI Summer Program Grant to identify and develop additional resources and reading material, focusing on primary sources, for the seventh grade study of Colonial America
  • Wendy Bassin and Heather Brandstetter, fifth grade core teachers, also received a Summer Program Grant to add to the fifth grade’s study of ancient civilization and life by creating a unit that asks the students to make comparisons between the ways ancient civilizations produced food and the ways we do so currently;
  • Stephen Volkmann, seventh and eighth grade science teacher, was the divisions other Summer Program Grant recipient. His grant focused on the creation of several new units for both the 7th and 8th grades, establishing yearlong themes for each grade and integrating a number of new concepts into the course of study.

A most impressive list and reflective of the commitment that LREI faculty have to their own continued professional growth.  Rest assured that whether connected to the projects noted above, or through the day-to-day work that the teachers have planned for students, we have many thought provoking and challenging activities planned for the coming school year.

A few final reminders:

  • Foreign Language—If you are a fifth grader or a student new to LREI and have not informed me of your choice for foreign language, please call or email to discuss this.
  • Summer Reading—Students do not need to bring their summer reading assignments with them to school on the first day. Their teachers will let know when to bring them to school. If you are not sure if you have completed all that you had to do, check out the summer reading section of our website— http://www.lrei.org/libres/sr.html.
  • Middle School Sports—Practices for Middle School soccer, volleyball, and cross-country will begin the week of September 13th. You can access the game and practice schedule at http://lrei.org/athletics/fallsports.html. Fifth and Sixth grade intramural soccer will begin the week of September 20th. Practices days and times for all teams will be posted by the first day of school if not before. Questions about the seventh and eighth grade teams should be directed to Athletic Director Peter Fisher at pfisher@lrei.org. Questions about the intramural program should be directed to Middle School PE teacher and Intramural Coordinator Larry Kaplan at lkaplan@lrei.org.
  • Middle School Chorus and Jazz Band—The Little Red Singers (grades 5-8) meets once a week on Tuesdays from 11:00AM-12:00PM. Lower School music teacher and Middle School vocal music teacher Ledell Mulvaney directs the chorus. Seventh and eighth grade jazz band members meet during the performing arts elective period. Fifth and sixth grade jazz band members meet on Fridays from 2:15-3:15PM. Middle School music teacher Matt McLean directs the band.
  • New Parents—you are invited to a cocktail party hosted by Board Chair Michael Patrick (LREI ’71) and his wife Carol Sedwick— Monday, September 20th at 6PM, at the home of Michael and Carol, 250 West 94th Street, Apt. 15E
  • LREI Medical Forms—please make sure that you return all medical-related forms to School Nurse Kitty Highstein before the first day of school. For fifth and sixth grade families: Please make sure that your physician also completes and signs the Ashokan Trip Health Form.
  • Ashokan—Fifth and sixth graders will leave for their three-day outdoor education trip to the Ashokan Center in the Catskills on Wednesday, September 15th.  Please read and complete the forms that have been enclosed in this mailing.  A parent informational meeting about the trip will take place on Friday, September 10th, at 8:00AM in the Sixth Avenue cafeteria.
  • Middle School Curriculum Night—Tuesday, September 28th at 6:30PM.  All are invited to attend.

Among the many highlights of the Middle School program are the overnight trips taken by each Middle School grade. The fifth and sixth grades begin our trip program for the year with their annual journey to the Ashokan Outdoor Education Center. Forms for this trip are included in this mailing. In late-October, seventh graders will travel to Williamsburg, VA as part of their study of Colonial America. Eighth graders will travel to Gettysburg, PA and Washington DC in May as a part of their study of American history. Click here to access the registration forms for these trips. All children will participate in these grade-level trips. In addition, our optional foreign language trips to France and Spain will take place over Spring Break. The projected cost for these trips is just above $2,000, which includes all travel fees and spending money. If you have not already registered your eighth grader for one of these trips, the trip coordinators will be in touch with you at the beginning of the year. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have questions about the payment for your child’s trip(s).

That’s all for now.  With the start of school just around the corner, I hope that you make the most of these last days of summer and that you return with interesting experiences and stories to share as we embark on new and exciting adventures in the fall.

See you soon!

Of General Interest . . .

1) Click here to access the most current “At a Glance” calendar for the 2010-2011 school year. This calendar includes Family Conference dates not included in the last version that was sent by Phil.

For All Grades . . .

1) Click here to get a jump on school supplies for next year. The attachment has the lists for all four grades.

For Eighth Grade Families . . .

1) Looking ahead to the spring, click here to access the registration form for the spring Gettysburg/DC trip that will take place next May. 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#: 55757. If you have specific questions about payment, please do not hesitate to contact me.

For Seventh Grade Families . . .

1) 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 Sixth Grade Families . . .

1) Click here to access the registration forms for the Ashokan trip.

For Fifth Grade Families . . .

1) Click here to access the registration forms for the Ashokan trip.

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

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