The Strategic Planning Committee met to review the draft of the five-year plan to implement the priority areas identified by the community in last year’s strategic planning survey. They are math, science, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math in an integrated sequence), advanced opportunities/enrichment and college placement.
At this month’s upcoming work session administrators and curriculum leaders will present the five-year plan for the board’s consideration. As always, there will be opportunity for public questions and comment. Some of the specifics of the five-year plan recommendations include, over time:
The implementation of a grade 9-12 engineering sequence.
The introduction of new next generation science standards units in the elementary school.
The revision of the grade 5-7 science curriculum.
An accelerated science sequence for the High School.
A seventh and eighth grade math research program to support the present grade 9-12 program.
An eighth grade Lego robotics program.
An expansion of the district’s partnership with AList to continue to strengthen student SAT and ACT preparation.
An expansion of student awareness of non-regional colleges.
An increased exposure to early college awareness programs such as Camp College.
Expanded relationships with colleges and professional organizations.
The evaluation of current enrichment opportunities to assess rigor and opportunity for differentiation.
The incorporation of science competitions into the Middle School program.
An addition of a college level math class, and the expansion of partnerships with neighboring districts to support shared advanced placement opportunities.
While the draft five-year strategic plan being presented focuses on the five areas the community recommended to emphasize and grow, it is important to note that the district continues to support all our other program areas through our ongoing program of yearly goal setting and implementation. Also at the November work session Jackie Fitzpatrick Pirro, assistant superintendent for business, will provide a presentation on tax levy and assessments for the 2013-14 school year. Pirro’s presentation will explain how the tax rate is calculated and show a sample school tax bill for 2013-14.
Some of you may have seen the article in the New York Times science section entitled, “Making Robots More Like Us” by John Markoff. Thanks to East Williston’s technology teacher Audra Beberman for bringing state of the art learning to our sixth grade students, she recently arranged for the very same robot featured in the article to make a visit to her sixth grade technology classes.
Our sixth graders are learning SCRATCH, which is a programming language similar to the language used to program the humanoid robot featured in the New York Times article. As a result our students were easily able to apply the programming skills they had learned with SCRATCH to direct the robot to perform actions such as walking forward, waving and speaking. It was a terrific opportunity for our students to experience first-hand the latest robotic technology as the world of robots changes from the industrial era to one where robots are beginning to imitate and look like humans and beginning to perform tasks as humans do.
The robot that visited Willets Road (named NAO and pronounced “Now”) can be programmed to kick a soccer ball, read poetry that a student has written or actually teach a whole class lesson. Students talked about future possibilities where older students could program a robot to teach a lesson as a guest speaker to elementary students. Thank you to Mrs. Beberman and the science and technology departments and Willet Road School for making this learning opportunity available to our students. We look forward to a repeat visit and are exploring grants that might provide our school district with the ability to purchase our very own humanoid robot to be used grades K-12. To view more information about NAO’s visit to Willets Road you can view website information at www.ewsdonline.org/District/News or visit the news section on the district homepage.
On Sunday, Nov. 3, two Willets Road teachers, Natalie Brew and Kristin Kandel presented at the 118th STANYS (Science Teachers Association of New York State) Conference. The title of their presentation was, “My Science Story: Where Science Inquiry Meets the Common Core.” During their presentation, they taught other teachers, from across the State, how the interactive science journal allows educators to provide science instruction in a hands-on, inquiry based manner while incorporating literacy into their daily curriculum and assessment.
Skills such as observing, analyzing, making inferences and recording data are all executed in conjunction with the science journal. Brew and Kandel have also presented on this topic at LISELA’s (Long Island Science Education Leadership Association) Conference in 2012 and at the Long Island Middle School Principal’s Conference in 2013. This is another example of how our teachers are among the best in the state and are willing to share with their peers, both locally and at the state level.
Save the date! Dec. 4 at 7:30 p.m. in Wheatley’s Room 450. The board of education work session will include the Common Core workshop. This should be an informative session given by administrators and teachers. Come and ask everything you always wanted to know about the Common Core curriculum and state assessments.
The district received a thank you from the Town of North Hempstead for the district’s assistance and community participation in the TONH Recycling program. On Saturday, Oct. 19, at The Wheatley School, the East Williston School District community recycled 120 lbs of prescription and over-the-counter drugs, keeping them out of our drinking water and landfills.
Over the last six weeks, the TONH together with co-sponsors, Nassau County Police Department and the Nassau County District Attorney and the school districts within the TONH collected and disposed of a total of 1,400 pounds of prescription and over-the-counter drugs. The thank you goes on to say that “law enforcement experts believe strongly that minimizing the potential for medications to be exposed to illegal uses will positively impact drug abuse.” To view the entire thank you, please read the news item/current news on the district homepage at www.ewsdonline.org.
As noted last week, sign up boxes for updates and alerts from the website are posted on each of the four main sites, the district homepage, the North Side home page, the Willets Road home page and the Wheatley home page. This notification system allows you to receive e-mails and/or text messages from specific pages on the site. Sign in on any of the homepages and check off the page(s) for updates and alerts and how you would like to be notified (by e-mail and/or text). Don’t forget to click on each school and the district to identify all available pages. If you have any questions, you can contact Susan Checkla, our public information officer, by e-mail at checklas@ewsdonline.org or by phone at 333-1693.
Last weekend, Wheatley junior Rohan Gulati presented his research titled “Parathyroid hormone agonists linked to a collagen binding domain increase anagen hair follicles and reduce hair loss in mice with Alopecia areata” at the annual meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research in Baltimore, Md. Rohan is listed as second author on the abstract. The research focused on a promising new treatment of Alopecia areata (patchy hair loss) and showed that parathyroid hormone agonists attached to a collagen binding domain increased hair growth significantly in mice with the condition. Rohan and his research colleagues presented their work during an open poster session.
Also last weekend, Wheatley senior Anum Mitha had the opportunity to present her research titled “Methamphetamine alters adaptive immune response after exposure to T-cell dependent or independent antigens” at the Metropolitan Association of College and University Biologists, an annual conference for biology researchers, at Bergen County Community College. She presented her work during an open poster session. Anum would have received first place honors for best poster presentation in microbiology if the award was not reserved for undergraduate and graduate students.
Wheatley seniors Kurtis Bassman and Lauren Miceli are finalists in a juried art exhibit entitled “Nightmare on Main Street” at the Main Street Petite Gallery in Huntington. The art exhibit is sponsored by the Huntington Art Council. A new exhibit in the Wheatley Gallery (in the Wheatley lobby) showcases students’ artwork from portfolio and advanced portfolio classes. Portfolio students worked in graphite from direct observation of still life and advanced portfolio students created large scale expressive self-portrait in charcoal.
Have a Good Weekend. As always, please e-mail me at kanase@ewsdonline.org or call me at 333-3782 with any questions, suggestions, and or any topics you would like to see for this newsletter.
