Pre-K letters out; problems apparent already

Posted by Philissa at 9:32 AM

In keeping with its grand tradition of finding a long weekend during which to mail important letters to parents, the DOE let loose Pre-K admissions decisions at the end of last week. Already, the Insideschools forum is abuzz with discussion of the process. A couple of disappointed parents lament not getting into their top-choice programs or into any program at all.

Other parents describe what we can only hope are problems with the admissions process, the management of which was outsourced to an out-of-state provider. A couple of parents describe receiving rejection letters even though they live in the zone of a school with a large Pre-K program — and who have older children already enrolled in that school! (This year's new rules, finalized midway through the application process, give siblings preference for admission over all other applicants.) Either there are far, far more zoned siblings applying for Pre-K than anyone could ever have imagined, or else the DOE has some cleaning up to do.

If you applied for Pre-K for the fall, we welcome more information about your letter — and we hope your news was good!

Update: A DOE spokesman wrote to me to clarify concerns about the admissions process being outsourced. Parents mailed their applications to Pennsylvania for data entry, he wrote, but the actual applicant-to-program matches were made in-house at OSEPO.

Does your kid have "nature deficit disorder"?

Posted by Philissa at 1:45 PM

Kids these days spend more and more time inside their utilitarian public school buildings, and as a result they're alienated from nature and the creativity nature inspires, writes Alison Arieff in a recent Times column. "What if we looked beyond the notion of schools as institutions (like jails, banks, courthouses) and thought about them more as laboratories for creativity, exploration and innovation?" she asks.

Arieff suggests that one way to accomplish this might be by building "green" schools (or renovating existing buildings in environmentally sustainable ways) so that classrooms are integrated with the natural world around them. In New York City, that's not as easily accomplished as it might be elsewhere, especially given the glacier-like pace of school construction here. But schools in New York could do a lot more to release kids into the "wild" of the city, where rather than explore forests and streams they might explore the world's very best museums, theaters, and parks.

At PS 154, an environmentally sound switch in the cafeteria

Posted by Philissa at 7:47 AM

For the last year, parents at PS 154 in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, have been looking for ways to replace the styrofoam trays in their cafeteria with something more environmentally sound — something that takes less than 10,000 years to degrade. This week, they finally rolled out their solution: trays formed out of bagasse, a fibrous byproduct of sugar extraction. The new trays are designed to break down after 45 days in landfill conditions — but I hope parents at PS 154 know that won't happen if the trays are shipped off to landfills in plastic bags. And it looks like the PS 154 parents may be at the vanguard of a food service revolution in New York City — Bill de Blasio, the City Council member who represents PS 154, has sponsored a bill to ban the use of styrofoam by city agencies!

Jake G. dishes on life in the 2nd grade

Posted by Philissa at 9:21 PM

Last week, I took advantage of the elementary school half day to sit down with Jake G., a 2nd grader and member of the Insideschools family. Jake leveled with me on what it's like to go to Lower Lab, why having a computer means more responsibility for him, and how parents can keep their 7 year olds happy at the end of a long school day.

Q. What's your typical day like? What time do you get up?
A. I would need to get up at 7:30 a.m. to get to school, but I usually get up at about 6:20 so I can hang out with my dad, who leaves at 7. When I get to school, we go to the auditorium. Sometimes there will be an announcement. Then we get picked up by our teachers, and we start off with a morning meeting.

Q. Do you have a class news broadcast?
A: We do have a class newspaper. It comes out every six weeks. Last time I was going to do a jokes column. This time I am doing a math corner. The math problem is easy, but the idea is hard, so it takes a long time to figure out that it's easy.

Q. What's your favorite thing about your school?
A. My school's a pretty good school. The only thing it has to work on is actually getting good stuff to bring the two schools together [Ed. note: Lower Lab and PS 198 share a building] ... They have lots of ideas, but a lot of them aren't that good. It might be a little hard — the cafeteria might not be big enough — but we could have lunch together or recess together. That's what I would change. I do have a couple of friends who go to PS 198, from my karate class.

Q. What's your favorite subject?
A. My favorite type of book would probably be fiction. It's a little bit hard for me to get new books, so I read the same books over and over. And there's a graphic novel series I like, called "Bone." And I like Mad Libs.

Q. What do you do at recess?
A. I usually play a made-up game, but I also like kickball. I'm a pretty good pitcher.

Q. How much time do you spend on homework?
A. I usually have three pieces of homework, so it takes me maybe 30-45 minutes. I also have a hamster to take care of, named Sparky. And having my own computer is actually a responsibility too. I like to play Webkinz but I only use it for people I know, like kids in my class.

Q. What are you looking forward to in 3rd grade?
A. Learning how to write in script. I'm pretty sure it's going to happen in 3rd grade, but I'm not sure. But a lot of people use script.

Q. What advice to you have for kids who are nervous about going to 2nd grade?
A. A lot of times kids get hungry after school. Kindergarteners and 1st graders get a snack, but not in 2nd grade. The good news is that my dad always gets me a snack, usually a Clif Bar. My favorite food is sushi.

Most elementary schools not meeting state gym requirements

Posted by Philissa at 9:06 AM

In the last few years, the city's schools have gotten better about identifying overweight students and suggesting more activity for them, but physical education still gets short shrift at most schools, according to the Gotham Gazette. The DOE's Office of Fitness and Physical Education implemented a fitness test, called the FitnessGRAM, to give students and their parents more information about their fitness level. But because of the pressure to focus on tested subjects and space and staffing constraints, most elementary schools continue to offer far less than the state-mandated 120 minutes per week of physical activity, instead suggesting to parents ways to help their kids be active and eat healthfully at home. I wonder how many families are able to respond to the FitnessGRAM results the way the DOE expects them to. And even if every parent of an overweight child changes his or her habits because of the test results, should we let schools pass off state-required health and fitness instruction to students' homes?

The Money Mom: Children design charity fundraiser

Posted by Jennifer Freeman at 11:31 AM

Recently I served as a judge on a panel considering the proposals of 5th graders for a fundraiser at their school. These kids combined a statistics and economics lesson with a writing assignment -- all for the purpose of raising money for charity.

The children surveyed schoolmates about what kind of fundraisers the community would prefer, analyzed the survey results, and then wrote persuasive essays, backed up by data, about why their proposal should be the one accepted over all the others. Options included a movie night, sports field day, a stuffed animal sale, and other things along those lines. The proposals were rendered anonymous by whiting out the authors’ names, and the panel of judges included parents, teachers, as well as kids from another class.

Later in the spring the kids will actually carry out the winning fundraiser and donate the proceeds to a charitable cause shown by the survey data to be one that the kids in the school care about a lot. Right now polar bears and global warming are the front-running causes. What a great piece of curriculum!

Brooklyn teacher gets kids excited about science, parents out of bed

Posted by Philissa at 11:43 AM

Would you wait in the cold at 4:30 a.m. to sign up for more classes with your elementary school science teacher? That's what parents from PS 261 in Brooklyn did this past week when Carmelo Piazza, known in the neighborhood as "Carmelo the Science Fellow," opened registration for the 8-week summer program he runs. The New York Times reports that parents started lining up around 4:30 a.m., and the entire summer session was full less than 3 hours after registration opened at 9 a.m. Piazza sounds indefatigable (and possibly insane), teaching a full schedule, running after-school classes at his neighborhood science joint, and entertaining at weekend birthday parties. The city needs more teachers like him.

Kindergartener handcuffed at Queens elementary school

Posted by Philissa at 10:01 AM

We all know that overzealous security guards can be a problem in schools, but I didn't think the issue extended to kindergartens. Apparently it does. When a 5 year old at PS 81 in Queens had a tantrum — which presumably had something to do with him being 5 years old — a security guard handcuffed him and called an ambulance to take him to a local psych ward, the Daily News reports today. Of course, there may be more to this story than the Daily News is saying, but the school and the DOE aren't disputing what happened, and now a kid feels unwelcome at his neighborhood public school. This story is just one more reminder that the city's schools need personnel who are trained to work with children, not criminals.

Dual language coverage on the rise, too

Posted by Philissa at 7:54 AM

Insideschools must have started a trend with our recent article about dual language programs citywide — two daily newspapers have profiled the programs this week! Yesterday, the Daily News noted that Khalil Gibran will be "just 1 in 70" dual language programs (although it will not be dual language in its first year). Today, the New York Times takes a look at this fall's influx of French dual-language programs, many of which were started with the help of the French Embassy and the organization Education Francaise a New York. Everyone agrees that it's terrific when students achieve fluency in a second language, with one parent telling the Daily News that she turns heads at cocktail parties when she mentions that her son, a student at Amistad Dual Language School, speaks fluent Spanish.

Some new schools still have openings

Posted by Philissa at 5:40 PM

If you're still looking for a school for the fall, we've heard of a couple of new schools that are still trying to fill openings. The Urban Assembly School for Criminal Justice, an all-girls school in Brooklyn, has 6th grade seats, and Cornerstone Academy, located in a new building near Co-op City in the Bronx, has seats in multiple grades; it's opening with pre-kindergarten through 5th grade and is taking applications until Friday. Contact those schools if you're interested. You might also want to contact other elementary and middle schools opening this fall to see if they still have seats.