Janet Glass and Ericka Collado

Diciendo Adiós y Hola en Español

(Saying Goodbye and Hello in Spanish)

28 years ago Janet visited the Middle School as a mother looking for a school for her two very talented daughters, Jessie and Laura, accomplished students who not only were stars at D-E but went on to Harvard and to Brown respectively. In the process she applied for an opening for a Middle School Dean position, which she got. Janet went on to teach Spanish in the Upper School, including the AP classes. For 19 years, she arranged and managed our Japanese Exchange Program with the Okayama Hakuryo School in Okayama Japan. We know her for her model FLES (Foreign Language in Elementary) program in our Lower School. In addition to teaching our third through fifth graders, since 1999 she has taught Spanish Children's Literature, Foreign Language Teaching Methodology and Theories of Second Language Acquisition at the graduate and undergraduate levels at Fairleigh Dickinson, New Jersey City University and the Rutgers World Languages Institute. She is also a regular speaker on foreign language teaching at the national level, and in 2008 she was honored as the National Foreign Language Teacher of the Year. Next year Janet will continue to teach teachers and to spend time with her grandson, which will not leave her enough time to teach in the Lower School.


However, we are very fortunate to have hired Ericka Collado to replace Janet. She has a Masters of Arts in World Languages and has taught for 10 years in the West Orange, NJ school system. Like Janet, not only does she come with the highest recommendations, but she, too, teaches teachers at Baruch College and is involved at the state and national level as a member of the writing team for the World Languages in the NJ Model Curriculum project and the committee responsible for vetting the standards for the Initial Teacher Preparation for World Language.

We wish both Janet and Ericka the very best for next year!

Making a Good Investment

It all started with the first-graders' Earth Day campus clean-up project. In addition to the five bulging bags of garbage from around the campus, one of the students found a single dollar bill. The obvious question was, what to do with the dollar. By itself, it wasn't enough to accomplish much of anything. However, through discussion students decided that they wanted to add to the dollar by raising more money to help to accomplish something that would make the world better.

As they had just begun a unit of studies of oceans, and the warm weather turned to thoughts of swimming at the beach, they decided to find an organization dedicated to keeping our shorelines clean. Some research led to choosing Clean Ocean Action, a nonprofit that helps local beaches in New York and New Jersey. Now this is where the problem-solving begins and the story starts to get interesting for me personally.

I was fine with having students raise money by going home and asking parents to contribute to the cause for doing work around the house. In fact already they raised over $122 dollars! 

But, oh no, that was not enough. Someone had the bright idea of asking if there could be a dunk tank at the Lower School Spring Festival on Sunday, May 19th. A relative I have who is part of the first-grade team "volunteered" that I would participate in the dunking as an additional means of fundraising. That was an offer I could not refuse, so I will hope for warm sunny weather, sort of like having a surprise "trip" to the beach.

I want to thank our first graders for cleaning up our campus and using that experience as a spring board to make a positive impact on the world outside of D-E.

Below is a video made by a group of third graders who are concerned about out environment. It was shown as part of their assembly presentation.

The Third Grade Took a Trip to Museum Village

Last Thursday the third grade classes went on a trip to Museum Village in Monroe, NY. The purpose of this trip was to view the Mastodon skeleton and the display of local rocks and minerals. The museum is a small living history museum with people depicting life in the 19th century. Children saw people making brooms and pottery and made their own dip candle. They met some farm animals and explored exhibits of farm tools. One student commented “Wow! Back then they had to even make the tools to make the horseshoes!” While the weather didn't cooperate and there was a deluge of rain, the children also learned how to make the best of conditions that were not perfect. Fortunately our parent chaperones set a wonderful example for them and rose to the challenge themselves! Many thanks to all the parents who came back a bit soggy!

Senior arts students and kindergartners collaborated.

The classroom environment
sketched by Upper School students
and filled in by kindergartners

The Kindergarten Zoo and Senior Art Students 

A wonderful artistic collaboration took place this spring between the advanced senior art students and the kindergarten classes. This week, several Upper School student artists visited the 'Zoo' where they were delighted to hear facts about the animals as well as meet their collaborators to see the results of their shared artistic work. The Upper School students sketched out large animals from all over the world. The kindergartners added color, details and environments for the animals to roam within their classroom.

For more pictures click here to go to the D-E Visual Arts Blog.

Grandparents Visited the Preschool and Kindergarten

Summer Math

As summer swiftly approaches, it is important for parents to plan how their children can continue to improve their developing academic skills. Shortly there will be a list of  books for summer reading that are proven to capture the imagination of students at each grade level. Trips to the library or the bookstore are an important part of getting ready for summer. 

From Cecily Gottling, our mathematics specialist, below are several links to math related websites that may help students to maintain, even advance, their mathematics skills in fun and engaging ways over the summer. For current third through fifth graders, we want to remind them and their parents that their online subscription to ALEKS is good right through the summer months!

www.summerskills.com    
(Workbook Each book covers only one level,$20 per book)
www.ixl.com                   

(Singapore Math-aligned web-based tutoring  subscription: monthly $9.95, year-long $79.95)

www.dreamboxlearning.com
(Common Core State Standards-aligned, adapts the problems presented based on student responses given, multiple levels available. Has a free trial, then monthly $12.95 or 6 mos. at $59.95)

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At What Age Should Sex Education Begin?

A very thoughtful article from the New York Times, was recommended by Dr. Niles, our Lower School psychologist, that explores at what age sex education should begin. Click here to read.