May 29, 2008

Dear Families:

On Wednesday June 4th we will host our annual Curriculum Expo. This is the evening when we get together to celebrate much of the wonderful work that our students in kindergarten and beyond have been doing at BNS and BCS. There will be poetry slams, social studies and science curriculum displays, music, art, and theatre. Classes will share their work from 5:00 on and it is important to check with individual teachers and grade levels to find out what time to be here. BNS classes share their work in the classrooms, while BCS turns the gym into a museum of learning and expression. We firmly believe that you and your children should take the time to visit other classrooms so you can see all of the incredible learning and energy throughout the building. Know too that in the next few weeks, many classes will continue to invite you in as they finish up other projects, which they will want to share with you.

We hope that you will join us this Friday evening at 7:00 at the annual Spring Fling. We will eat, buy from the Silent Auction, enjoy each other's company and take a moment to celebrate twenty years of BNS. We hope to be joined by some BNS alumni and alumni parents and look forward to seeing some old and familiar faces. It will be an opportunity to reflect on what we have accomplished and to enjoy all that is best at BNS and BCS.

This Spring Fling will give us the chance to hear from founding parents: Denise Alexander, Linda Ellman, and Mary Ann Laborda. Yes, Mary Ann, our very own kindergarten teacher, will join with others to remember the year 1987 when BNS began. 

We mention Mary Ann with mixed feelings as we join with her in celebrating twenty years of BNS, but also have to come to terms with her decision to move to Florida this summer so she can be with her family It is hard to imagine the Brooklyn New School without Mary Ann's essential presence. Back in 1987, Mary Ann was a parent and a paraprofessional devoted to making BNS the school that it is today. Mary Ann believed deeply in our vision : that BNS could be a school where children from different backgrounds and experiences came together to learn and that it could be a school where children were taught in heterogeneous groups through hands-on and experiential learning, allowing them to easily make meaning of the world. 

As a founding parent, Mary Ann understood this vision, and by becoming a paraprofessional, she began to make it real, not just as a mother, but as an educator. Mary Ann then went back to school herself, and eventually became a teacher. Today Mary Ann is our beloved kindergarten teacher and we know that many in this community are as devastated as we are to learn of Mary Ann's move to Florida.

We will miss Mary Ann's passion for learning and her love of all children, a love that emanates every day in her classroom. We will miss entering her world: a classroom in which children are able to take risks as they begin to discover the joys of the academic world through reading, writing, math and science investigations, and play. We will miss Mary Ann, a teacher who is always learning, who is open to new ideas and who, like her students, is able to try something new as she continues to perfect her craft.

Please join us tomorrow night as we celebrate twenty years of BNS and as we honor Mary Ann.

All for now, 

Anna and Alyce

Quotes of the Week:

Last week, Anna took the fifth grade children to recess in the playground. She was delighted to overhear Chinue Ellis, a student in Penina's class, yelling from the top of the jungle gym to her friends, "Watch out, watch out for the alligators." Later that same day, Anna was walking down the staircase and she came upon seventh grade student, Ashley Hernandez, talking to her friend. Ashley was saying in a concerned voice, "Watch out, watch out for the snake." Let's remember how much our ten, eleven and twelve year olds still want to play, imagine and have fun.

Dateline:

Friday 05.30.08 Spring Fling 7:00

Monday 06.02.08 Half Day

Monday 06.02.08 BNS Orientation for new Pre-K and grades one - five students

Monday 06.02.08 BNS SLT 5:30

Wednesday 06.04.08 BNS/BCS CURRICULUM NIGHT
Thursday 06.05.08 Staff development day - NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS

Friday 06.06.08 BNS BCS New Families Picnic 5:00
Monday 06.09.08 BNS BCS PTA 7:00

Tuesday 06.10.08 BNSBCS PTA 8:45 AM

Wednesday 06.11.08 Science Practice Regents: Grade 9-11

Thursday 06.12.08 Half Day

Thursday 06.12.08 BNS Orientation for New Kindergarten students

Friday 06.13.08 Fifth Grade Field Day

Friday 06.13.08 PTA 5K Run in Prospect Park 6:00

Monday 06.16.08 Last day of HS classes

Tuesday 06.17.08 HS Regents begin

Tuesday 06.17.08 BCS 8th Grade Bear Mountain Trip 7:30- 5:30
Tuesday 06.17.08 9:15AM - Integrated Algebra (all 9th, selected 10th and 11th)
Wednesday 06.18.08 9:15AM REGENTS - ELA Session One (all 11th)
Wednesday 06.18.08 1:15PM REGENTS - Global History (all 10th, select 11th)
Thursday 06.19.08 9:15AM REGENTS - ELA Session Two (all 11th)
Thursday 06.19.08 1:15PM REGENTS - Math A and Math B (some 10th and 11th)

Thursday 06.19.08 Second grade Tile Project Celebration PAAP

Thursday 06.19.08 CEC Meeting 7:00

Friday 06.20.08 9:15 AM REGENTS - US History and Government (all 11th)
Friday 06.20.08 9:15 AM REGENTS - RCT Math (select IEP)
Friday 06.20.08 1:15 PM REGENTS - Earth Science (all 10th, select 11th)

Friday 06.20.08 BNS Graduation

Tuesday 06.24.08 9:15AM REGENTS - Living Environment (all 9th, select 11th)
Tuesday 06.24.08 1:15PM REGENTS - Spanish (Spanish 3 and Native Speakers)
Tuesday 06.24.08 1:15PM REGENTS - RCT Global (select IEP)
Tuesday 06.24.08 8th grade graduation - 6:00 p.m.

Wednesday 06.25.08 BNS Field Day

Wednesday 06.25.08 BCS Dance

Thursday 06.26.08 Last day of school for students 

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Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies, 610 Henry Street, Brooklyn NY 11231

718.923.4750	Alyce Barr, Principal

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