This week, the education field received a letter from the commissioner of education that indicated New York state was making some effort to reduce unnecessary testing.
In response to concern expressed to the commissioner from the education community, New York has applied for a waiver from the U.S. Department of Education to permit eighth grade students who are taking ninth grade algebra to be exempt from the eighth grade Math Assessment.
With successful approval of the waiver request, our eighth grade students taking algebra will not have to take this additional assessment, which is not specifically related to the course work they will be studying. I will continue to keep you posted of updates we receive regarding Common Core, assessments and related items.
Congratulations to 10th-grader Christopher Shen and eighth-grader Abhishek Kumar who were recently named Long Island Young Scholars of Mathematics and accepted into the Institute of Creative Problem Solving for Gifted and Talented at SUNY College at Old Westbury. The Institute selects 80 students from a pool of approximately 950 students to pursue this rigorous course of study of mathematics and mathematical science applications.
Earlier this month, the New York Times, in its Sunday Review section on Oct. 13 featured an opinion piece titled, “Is Music the Key to Success?” Did you know that Condoleezza Rice trained to be a concert pianist, Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve was a professional clarinet and saxophone player, and hedge fund billionaire Bruce Kovner is a pianist who took classes at Juilliard?
The article speaks to many more high achievers in a variety of fields who believe that music opened up the pathways to creative thinking. The article’s author Joanne Lipman asserts that “…their experiences suggest that music training sharpens other qualities: Collaboration. The ability to listen. A way of thinking that weaves together disparate ideas. The power to focus on the present and the future simultaneously.” To read the full article: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/opinion/sunday/is-music-the-key-to-success.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 . Pieces such as this remind us of the importance of providing our students with a range of opportunities and well-rounded experiences that include the arts.
The New York Times article leads me to this congratulations and commendations section.
The Long Island String Festival Association will hold its String Festival on Nov. 15-17. Wheatley students honored to play in the Senior High Division Orchestra are sophomore Jessica Cao (violin), sophomore Krista Chen (violin), sophomore Samantha Leong (viola), sophomore Christopher Shen (viola), senior Chloe Tso (cello), junior Kuan Yu (viola) and sophomore Cindy Zhou (violin). Musicians honored in the Junior High School Orchestra are freshman Sahaj Gulati (bass), freshman Diana Lee (violin) and eighth-graders Justin Vega (violin) and Emily Wang (cello).
Congratulations to all the staff and administration who worked so hard to put together a fabulous Family Math and Science Activity Night, under the direction of Lisa Minerva, elementary math content area leader and Dave Casamento, director of science and technology. The Activity Night is meant to be a hands-on math and science adventure for our North Side students and their families, making math and science fun.
From the forensics station where teachers helped students examine their fingerprints to the roots, fruits, seeds and leaves station where teachers helped students make salsa to the copy cat construction zone and to a combined music and math exercise, our North Side families saw math and science in action. Thank you to all the teachers who participated: Mr. Plana, Ms. Gurick, Mrs. Chanin-Bermudez, Mr. Gottlieb, Mrs. Casano, Mrs. Chirel, Mrs. Widyn, Mrs. Powers, Ms. Ambrose, Ms. Boyd, Mrs. Rubin, Mrs. Byrne, Mrs. Simoes, Mrs. Beberman, Mrs. DeVito, Mrs. Viola, Mrs. Sepe, Mrs. Ilkiw, Mrs. Homer, Mrs. Sroka, Mrs. Tarnok, Ms. Schrager, Mr. Finkelstein, Mr. Mazur, Mrs. Kasschau, Mr. Lim, Ms. Devine, Mr. Kupstas, Ms. O’Connor, Mrs. Goodman, Mr. Coyne, Ms. Soliman, Mrs. Fraser, Mr. Abdale, Mr. Schwalm, Mr. Lattari, Mrs. Butler and Ms. Skiadas.
Just to recap. Last year the Strategic Planning Committee provided a report to the board of education that summarized the results of the community survey in identifying high priority areas for the East Williston School District over the next five years. The board of education accepted the report’s priorities at its July 2012 meeting. Priority areas identified were math, science, college admissions, enrichment (competitions, advanced learning opportunities) and STEM which adds engineering to an integrated sequence of math, science and technology offerings.
Since the July report, the educational team has been working on creating a draft action plan for implementing these priorities over the next five years. The Strategic Planning Committee will discuss the plan which will be shared at the Nov. 4 board of education work session.
Thank you to the teachers, administrators and parents who participated in the guidance director search to replace Mary Harrison. At the October board of education meeting, Wheatley guidance counselor Greg Wasserman was appointed K-12 director of guidance for the East Williston School District, with a start date of Feb. 3, 2014.
Wasserman has been a member of the Wheatley Guidance Department since 2009. Previous to joining Wheatley, Wasserman worked as a college admissions officer. Wasserman brings a depth of experience to his new position to further develop our guidance and college admissions program. Wasserman is a past president of the New York State Association for College Admissions Counseling.
At the same board meeting, Diane Johnson was appointed acting director of guidance beginning Oct. 22 through Jan. 31, 2014. This interim appointment provides the opportunity for Wasserman to make a smooth transition to his new role of director and have the opportunity to continue to fully focus on the admissions applications process for the seniors on his counseling roster. Ms. Johnson is the retired director of guidance and support services for the Lawrence Public Schools and currently works as an independent college consultant. The district will now begin the search for a new guidance counselor to replace Wasserman when he transitions to the director position.
You may have noticed sign up boxes for updates and alerts from the website 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. 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.
Tri-M Music Honor Society is the international music honor society for high school students. It is designed to recognize students for their academic and musical achievements, reward them for their accomplishments and service activities and to inspire other students to excel at music and leadership.
Wheatley’s Tri-M will host their ninth annual Wheatley Idol in the Wheatley auditorium on Friday, Nov. 1 at 7:30 p.m. Contestants/students compete and the audience decides who will be named this year’s Wheatley Idol. This event is Tri-M’s biggest fundraiser and helps raise money for charities and Tri-M’s senior citizen dinner at the Big Band Night, Puttin’ on the Ritz at the end of the year, on April 25. Tickets are $5 for North Side and Willets Road students at the door, $5 for Wheatley students and adults in advance and $8 at the door. Senior citizen admission is free.
Our Parent University will be held on Thursday, Nov. 7 beginning at 6:45 p.m. Parent University is made up of a volunteer group of district parents and educators. The goal is to enhance the knowledge and skills of parents with children in grades K-12 through information and resources covering a variety of parenting subjects.
This year Workshop Session A (7 p.m. to 8:10 p.m.) will have the following choices:
How to Listen So Your Kids Will Talk – for North Side, Willets Road and Wheatley parents.
What Are You Looking At? – for Willets Road and Wheatley parents.
Financial Aid – Meeting College Costs – for Wheatley parents.
College Testing Overview – for Wheatley parents.
Workshop Session B (8:15 p.m. to 9:25 p.m.) will have the following choices:
Stuck in the Middle: Raising Healthy Kids through Divorce/Separation Process – for North Side and Willets Road parents.
What’s the latest RAVE? – for Wheatley parents.
To Help or not to Help, that’s the Question – for North Side, Willets Road and Wheatley parents.
Please register for workshops and view more detailed information about the workshops by going to the district website at www.ewsdonline.org and viewing the Parent University news item.
Finally, congratulations to Frank Bannerman’s North Side class for winning the PTO Box Top contest by collecting 1,270 Box Tops. Wow!
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.
