Weekly Email November 17, 2005

Dear all,

Upcoming events/attachments:

* From the LREI Parents Association Community Service Committee: Please see information about the current coat drive (donations can be brought through Friday to the 6th Avenue Lobby) and upcoming "Thanksgiving Drives and Activities."

* See the attached flyer for Monday's LREI Fall Spirit Game. Yes, the High School Principal, fashionably dressed as always, will be playing!

* A second reminder - please see the invitation to participate in VISIBILITY: Celebrating the Lesbian and Gay People We Love, coming February 13, 2006.

* Finally, we are going back to Apple Store SOHO! Come see the photography and films of twelfth grade artists on Wednesday, November 23rd, 6:30 PM, at 103 Prince Street (see the attached flyer).

High School doings:

* Honors Projects: The following letter was posted for all ninth, tenth and eleventh graders:

November 16, 2005

Dear Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Graders,

As last year, we will offer Honors Projects to our students in the ninth, tenth and eleventh grades (Seniors will, of course, spend their entire spring doing the Senior Project, a sort of Uber-Honors Project!). By electing to pursue an honors project, students challenge themselves above and beyond the requirements of the curriculum. Honors Projects will run according to the Oxford-Cambridge tutorial system, wherein students meet with teachers once per week to go over work that they have been doing largely on their own. The exact nature of the projects will be defined at least in part by the common interests of the students and teachers, but in all cases, a student who successfully completes an Honors Project will have done a work of considerable scholarship and/or art. Honors projects promote intellectual curiosity, independence, commitment, initiative and rigor. Successful completion of an honors project is entered on the official high school transcript. Honors Projects involve some kind of presentation at the end of the trimester.

In the Winter trimester, Honors Projects will be available to students in the following disciplines:

English
Creative Writing
Mathematics
Science
History
Visual Art
Technology/Graphic Arts/Animation

Students who are interested in pursuing such a project must be in good academic standing, and must write a letter of interest that suggests a possible topic for study and submit it to my office no later than 1:00 PM Tuesday, November 22nd. Students will be notified as soon as possible if their proposals have been accepted. Other subjects will be available in the Spring; depending on sign-ups, some proposed projects may be postponed until the Spring.

If you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to ask.

Sincerely,

Tony

* Parents of ninth graders: Please read the attached letter about the start of the Peer Leadership program.

* Some terrific assemblies: The High School, along with the eighth grade, was recently treated to civil rights lawyer and talk show host Ron Kuby discussing the Constitution and civil rights. Coming up - a student-run Hispanic Heritage assembly. Stay tuned for more updates ...

* Biology teacher: I am pleased to announce that we have hired Dan Levy to take on Bhawanie's classes for the remainder of the school year. Dan has a B.S. in Biochemistry from Drexel University and an M.A in Secondary Science Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. He taught most recently both 7th and 12th grade students at the Young Women’s Leadership School of East Harlem. All of the faculty and students - including those in the class he taught and those who met him at lunch - were impressed by his knowledge, his energy and his commitment to project- and inquiry-based education.

* Final exams/presentations: Trimester I will end with three days of final exams and presentations, Wednesday November 30 - Friday December 2, culminating in an arts assembly on Friday afternoon. On each day, students will be expected in at 8:45 AM.

All the best,

Tony

CALENDAR
November
* Wednesday 23 School closes at noon for Thanksgiving
* Tuesday 29 Last day of Trimester I classes
* Wednesday 30 Trimester I Exams/Presentations

December
* Thursday 1-Friday 2 Trimester I Exams/Presentations; End of Trimester I
* Monday 5 Trimester II begins
* Monday 5 - Friday 9 Book week

As always, please browse the web site at www.lrei.org. Also, note the links to the Middle and Lower School weekly emails on the right. Please take a look at what the students in the other two divisions are up to!

All attachments are in .pdf format. To view these files, please download Adobe Reader, if you do not already have it. Click on this link or paste it into your browser: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readermain.html.
If you are having trouble opening the attachments, go to http://www.lrei.org/weekly/ms/ to access the files.