COMMUNITY EDUCATION COUNCIL MEETING
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012
SCHOOL ANNOUNCEMENTS
PS 102 -
The school has started a new program for parents called Walk and Talk.
Parents are invited to join the Parent Coordinator on a walk everyday
after morning drop off.
This activity has helped parents to make new
friends and improve their health. The program has proven to be a great
success.
PS 105 -
January 25th through January 27th, the school hosted A Lunar New Year
Extravaganza. The children, parents, and staff, together with the
community members, all participated in a huge performance celebrating
The Year of the Dragon.
Among the performances were such beautiful dances as the
Handkerchief Dance, Chopstick Dance, Taiwanese Aborigines Dance,
Umbrella Lantern Dance and Silk Fan Dance. The staff and parents also
performed ”The Jasmine Flower Fan Dance” to a standing room
auditorium on two nights, January 26th and 27th. Two classes
participated in the BCA, Year of the Dragon Celebration on 8th Avenue,
Sunday, January 29th.
It was a time of great pride for the P.S. 105 family as they danced
and sang together in celebration of the Lunar New Year 4710.
PS 127 -
The school is proud to announce that the garden committee was just
awarded the Lowes tool box for education grant for the sum of $3,350.
Congratulations to the garden committee on a job well done. The school
looks forward to the beautification of the school grounds.
PS 160 -
Second grade students at P.S. 160 celebrated the Lunar New Year in a
special assembly for the community on January 26th. Through a
partnership with Arts Connection, the students participated in
Traditional Chinese Dance classes during the fall and winter with
teaching artists, Jessie and Xhangi from the New York Chinese Cultural
Center. Each second grade class performed a dance to celebrate the
Year of the Dragon. Student Ridha Khan stated “I was so happy to
share my dance with my mom. I love Chinese dance!” Karen Huang
remembered seeing the Fan Dance on television when she lived in China.
She was so excited to finally learn this traditional dance. The dance
residency and performance is part of P.S. 160’s ongoing celebrations of
the many cultures in their community.
The community of P.S. 160 continued the celebration of the Lunar New
Year with a visit from the Brooklyn Chinese American Association Lion
Dancers on January 31st.
The Chess Team continues to compete and win tournaments in the Chess
in the Schools Program. The team is raising money to attend the
National Tournament in Nashville, Tenn. in May.
5th grade Ballroom Dance classes were filmed and interviewed with Mr.
Pierre from Dancing Classrooms by NBC News on February 8th.
Many activities are planned for Respect for all Week beginning on
February 13th. Students and staff will participate in activities to
promote a culture of respect.
PS 170 -
The Second PS 170 Annual Multicultural Festival was held on January 31
and February 1. Dressed up in their traditional cultural costumes, PS
170 students performed Arabic, Chinese, Irish, and Mexican dances.
The performances began with American patriotic songs performed by the
school band and chorus. Superintendent Karina Costantino, Councilman
Gentile, Assemblyman Abate, a few principals from neighboring schools,
and some CBO directors attended the performances with over 700
parents in two nights.
On Saturday, January 28, State Senator Marty Golden visited the
Albanian, Arabic, Chinese Language Schools at the PS 170 building as
well as the PS 170’s Literacy through the Arts for New Immigrant
Students Program. He was well received by the students and teachers.
He praised the students for coming to Saturday schools to English as
well as their native languages. He encouraged the students to do their
best to realize their American dreams.
On Saturday, February 4, the Brass Quintet, a group of five
professional musicians, performed for the students of the Literacy
through Arts Program at PS 170. The event was part of a series of
performances for the program funded by the Office of English Language
Learners. The musicians introduced the various brass instruments and
several pieces of classic music to the students.
At the PTA meeting on this coming Wednesday evening, the students of
PS 170’s ESL through the Theater Arts Program will perform an
“Informational Play”. The students wrote the play, designed and made
the props and settings all by themselves. The performance is free and
everyone is welcome!
PS 180 -
The “Students with Special Needs Information Night” on February 2 was
a huge success! A special thanks to our guest speaker Ann Edwards,
Brienza Academic Excellence, 1:1 Tutors, teachers, and pupil personnel
staff for making our students and their families a priority. Middle
school winter book fair will take place February 7, 8, and 9. The PTA
will be hosting a middle school Valentine’s Day Dance on Friday,
February 10, 3:30-6:30PM, novelty items will be sold. The first 8th
grade ring ceremony will be February 13, 2012 at 7PM. The PTA will
be holding a Valentine’s Day Sale February 13 and 14. Student Council
is hosting a “Valentine’s Day Rose Sale” for all grades to give someone
special. The roses will be delivered to students on Valentine’s Day, Feb
14. Ms. Gianuzzi and Ms. Cucuzza’s fourth grade classes will be
“sharing their hearts with the community” on Valentine’s Day/100th day
of school by visiting and donating one hundred (100) cans of food to the
Reaching Out Community Center. The annual “Ballroom Breakfast” will
be held for fifth grade parents and students on March 9, 2012. Save
the Date for our 2nd Annual Legislative Breakfast, Friday March 23,
2012.
PS 185 -
The school is having a Literacy Fair to celebrate student work on their
literacy tasks. The Fair is on Thursday, February 9th. The Fair is open
during the regular school day and in the evening from 6:00 to 7:30 PM.
All work from grades K-5 will be presented
IS 186 -
The schools ExpandedED was awarded the Disney Musicals in School
Grant. The school is one of five schools in the city that was awarded
this grant.
The school will create their own “Broadway Style Musical”
We will be performing Disney’s “Aladdin Kids”. This means that teaching
artists from Disney visit each week as the school prepares their very
own Musical Theater. The school is so excited about their partnerships
with Disney.
Hope everyone will attend the performance, which is
scheduled in May. More details to follow.
This month the teachers had the opportunity to share their work with
the creation of standards based Performance Tasks. Each classroom
completed one ELA and one Math task. Each performance task was
interdisciplinary therefore; it involved many curriculum areas such as
Social and Science and the Arts. In addition teachers used this
opportunity to promote public speaking and listening activities. Some of
the projects included research papers, brochures, dioramas, debates
and essay just to name a few. The bulletin boards and hallways are
bursting with artifacts of this initiative. It truly looks like our own
museum!
The ExpandedED Learning Program is expanding again! This month we
are adding a dance/cultural program that explores the Georgian culture.
A new cooking program, in partnership with Cornell Extension Program,
has been added as well. Cornell will also be teaming up with Ms.
Delaney, the Parent Coordinator, to offer a parent cooking class too!
Both courses will explore the preparation of healthy meals and snacks.
The 1st Grade recently did their first research paper. This year they
studied Dogs. The students worked very hard with their teachers to
become “dog experts” and created very comprehensive non-fiction books.
As a culminating event, this past week parents were invited into the
classrooms for a celebration of their learning and a “challenge”. The
first graders challenged their parents to a game of jeopardy, testing
their canine knowledge. Needless to say, our students won every game!
Next week P.S. 186 will be celebrating “Respect For All Week”. During
the week all staff and students are asked to wear a different color
each day of the week. Each color represents a positive characteristic
they should imitate that day. They include trust, caring respect,
fairness and responsibility. Together we can guide our children to make
this world a better place!
On February 14th, P.S, 186 will celebrate Valentine’s Day by asking our
whole school community to wear Red in honor of the American Heart
Association “National Wear Red Day”. We will also be celebrating the
100th Day of School! This fabulous “Celebration of Numbers” has been a
tradition at our school. This year the planning committee came up with
some great ideas!
Their Ideas include a school wide contest to wear an
article of clothing with 100 items, number games at lunch, a prize for
every 100th kid who arrives at school, announcements of “this day in
history…” (100 years ago, of course!) and many other special surprises
for our children. We will also be holding a food drive. Each grade will
bring in 100 items of a particular food. All items will be donated to the
“Reaching Out Community Services Food Pantry” located in our
community.
Congratulations to Kendrick Liang. the 5th grade student was the winner
of the District Spelling Bee. Kendrick will now compete at the citywide
level. We are so proud of Kendrick!
Back by popular demand, adult ESL classes have begun and will take
place every Friday morning.
PS/IS 229- The winner of the PS 229 National Geographic 2012 Geography Bee was
fifth grader, Andy Chang Wu. Jared Shapiro, Assistant Principal,
coordinator.
The school celebrates with fifth grader, Kaitlin Connor, one of the
school’s Representatives at the District 20 & 21 Spelling Bee, who will
participate in the Citywide Spelling Bee, sponsored by the NY Daily
News. Ann Keegan, coordinator.
PS 748 -
The Brooklyn School for Global Scholars became PS 748 Airlines as they
hosted their “International Night” on Thursday, January 26th where
students and their families were given a true travel experience around
the world complete with boarding passes, suitcases, and passports.
Classrooms were converted into 16 different countries where students
and their families celebrated the rich cultures represented. The
cafeteria served as a food tour around the world where visitors sampled
cuisine from Columbian coffee to Uzbekistani Plov! Bon Voyage!
IS 30 -
The school is proud to announce the staff and students raised
$2,400.00 for the American Heart Association. Special thanks to the
wonderful staff and students and to Ms. Guzman for her efforts in
arranging this event.
IS 259 -
The McKinley IS 259 Fractal Math Club in conjunction with Gallery 364
proudly presents The First Annual Fractal Art Show. The show will take
place at "Gallery 364" located at 364 72nd Street on Thursday,
February 16, 2012. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. with a short
presentation commencing at 7:00 p.m. Please join us!
The English teacher Mr. Buxton and the art teacher Mr. Karas are
among ten teachers who are receiving an award for educating our
students about the events of September 11, 2001. In addition, the
students paintings from the schools 911 mural, their writing, and their
recorded voices will be part of a long-term exhibit at Tribute WTC
Visitors Center demonstrating what N.Y. students know about 9/11.