"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better."

Albert Einstein

Have a Wonderful December Break!

Our mascot's first snowfall of the season.
Photo courtesy of Michael Rodenbush

The Power of Collaborative Performance

The parents of two of our students shared their jazz vocals and instrumentals with the Lower School during an assembly at which they performed holiday songs with a flavor of jazz. Everyone was invited to join in during the performance. 

Performing together at the Spring Concert

The Spring Concert and Art Show for second, third and fourth graders, the Valentine's Day concerts for kindergarten and first-graders and, of course, the fifth
grade opera always remind me of the tremendous power of performance. The amount of excitement, engagement, ownership and pride could not be higher. 

The Fifth-Grade Opera

Most of us remember being motivated in our schooling primarily by grading and the emphasis on individual test achievement. But if we think deeply about the proudest and most memorable school experiences, it is likely that they were connected to shared performance opportunities of some kind. They may have involved competition on an athletic team or representing the school in debate or other academic competition. They could have involved music, dance, theater or a presentation sharing at an assembly or in class in front of peers.

Middle School drummers (many of whom were exposed to
 African drumming as fifth-graders) lead the Lower School in a
West African dance.

Among the highly valued experiences of my own children were those motivated by strong interests, most often shared by a group of peers, culminating in a presentation or performance of some kind and rarely driven primarily by grades. One son, who was a co-captain of our football team, may have been most proud of being a prime motivator, with the help of several of his teammates, in getting D-E’s first a cappela group started. Another son took great pride in a challenging Senior Focus project that was tightly coordinated, including the final presentation, with the projects of two of his friends. The motivation of one of our daughters competing athletically at a national level was driven by her love of being a team member and leader. Our youngest was compelled to work in a Ghanaian village school that she had been introduced to as part of her seventh grade social studies. She shared her accomplishments in a video that she created for a final presentation.

Our third- through fifth-grade chorus

The activities that most motivate our own Lower School students include not only the examples mentioned above, but also assembly presentations, informal engineering competitions, shared gardening, recycling and composting projects, original math games presentations and countless small, medium and large performances and presentations for parents. For most students, the reality that a presentation or performance opportunity lies ahead is a far more powerful motivator than just the prospect of a grade, and is one of the factors that persuades our school to hold off on formal grading until the middle of seventh grade.

Fourth-graders help one another make books
to hold their writing.

Kindergartners work together to build their masterpieces.

In my years at D-E one of my favorite performances are those of the Middle and Upper School bells classes. Although I enjoy the bells music, it is knowing the participants and seeing how they respond that is most interesting. You see, most often students are scheduled into bells, not because it is a first choice or even an interest, but because they need to have an arts class, and there is room. With that said, it is very clear to everyone that there is a concert performance at the end of the semester. Even though it is not a strong common interest that has brought the group of 16 to 18 students together, the realization that they do not want to embarrass themselves at the performance (In bells, an individual misstep stands out more than in an orchestra.) provides a powerful individual and a shared urgency to work closely together. It is my belief that, in spite of the inevitable rocky start that I suspect characterizes the beginning of the bells experience for many, by the end, it is remembered fondly by most as an unexpectedly powerful shared experience. In the same way, most alumni at one of the boarding schools I worked at rated their required shared work on dish or cleaning crews as the most positive memorable experiences.

It is clear that there is tremendous power in working together for a shared purpose. It is also clear that we need to prepare our students and our children for a future that will increasingly value shared outcomes over individual achievement. 

All the third-graders collaborated to run a Lower School-wide Pajama Drive to collect
pajamas for group homes, shelters and orphanages.  The result
(the equivalent of a performance) was the collection of 133 pajamas!

More Examples of Third-Grade Singapore Math Problem-Solving
Notice the bar modeling and the number sentences with the unknown represented by a box which builds the foundation for algebraic thinking. All the problems engage and have meaning for students of this age. Many more examples can be found on the bulletin board outside the third grade classrooms.

D-E First -through Fifth-Graders Recently Participated in the National Hour of Code Initiative

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First-graders working on a programming problem
 on their iPads

Click here to hear President Obama describe the importance of teaching all students about the power of "coding" (computer programming and iterative problem-solving). All first- through fifth graders are exposed to a variety programming experiences, often using the MIT developed Scratch programming language. Also students are introduced to robotics in grades three though five.

Below you can click on two examples of fifth graders' projects completed during a single class.

Example one - Example two

You will see a screen that looks like this. Click on the green flag to run the program and the blue button to see the coding that went into the project. 

The Explorers Winter 2014 registration 'deadline' is Friday, December 20th. 

You should have received the brochure in your child's backpack.  The brochure is also available as a PDF download at: www.d-e.org/lower. 

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December Break Activities

The December break allows some time for students and parents to do things together that there may not be time for during the normal course of a hectic week. Here are some ideas:

1. Explore the MIT Scratch site mentioned above. You can download the program for free for the Windows and Mac platform or you can develop Scratch programs on line through your browser.
2. Have your kindergartner through second grader show you Dream Box, the game-like adaptive online mathematics program that they have begun to use. Click here to read the letter that was sent home earlier about how to access the site.
3. Have your third through fifth-grader show you their adaptive online math program, ALEKs. They know how to log in. Make sure to have them show you their "Pie."

The WordMasters Challenge for Fourth-Grade Students Will Begin in January!

The WordMasters Challenge is a learning experience that encourages growth in vocabulary and verbal reasoning by helping students learn to think both analytically and metaphorically.  Students engage in learning experiences and activities and eventually compete in the WordMasters Challenge which challenges students to complete analogies based on relationships among words they have learned.

We are piloting the WordMasters Challenge for fourth-grade students. WordMasters will meet every Thursday for eight weeks starting January 16^th.  The class will run from 3:30 to 4:30 and will be taught by Mrs. Sienicki and Ms. Abramson. A nominal fee of $5 per child goes towards purchasing materials and enrolling in the program.

All fourth-grade students are invited to join us in the new and exciting experience! If your child would like to participate, please complete the form and return along with $5 to Mrs. Rullo.

And til then, have a happy and peaceful winter break!

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An interesting article for fathers from the Huffington Post - Nearly 25 Years of Fathering and All I've got are these 3 Lousy Tips by parenting columnist, Jim Higley.

Second-grade art.

There is a new Mrs. Milbauer's Musical Moments Blog Post

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Seniors Sara Ragi, Shereen Al-Sawwaf and Rafaela Vasquez would like to remind the D-E community about:

The 3rd Annual Gently Used Musical Instrument & Accessory Drive

All instruments are donated to Renaissance Youth Center in the Bronx.
Drop off: Lower School lobby though January. Click here to see a full description of the program.