Saturday, November 30, 2013

Just a few recent highlights

The High School of Language & Innovation has been up to a lot lately. Here are just a few highlights:

~A couple weeks ago, 51 juniors spent the school day at Columbia University's Lerner Hall at a college and jobs expo. Students learned about important things such as resume writing, interview skills, workplace attire, and questions to consider when choosing the right college or university.

~Students attended an in-school information session with folks from the Fire Department of New York (FDNY).

~About thirty students attended an after school information session with John Jay College.


Many more exciting opportunities are being planned for the coming weeks. Stay tuned for more!

Monday, November 18, 2013

For the over 900 who perished...

In remembrance of  the over 900 people, among them many children, who perished on this day--November 18, 1978--in the massacre in Jonestown, Guyana.


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/jonestown/


Friday, November 1, 2013

Teamwork is Paramount

Just before our staff team comes together for this Friday afternoon Common Planning, I have a bit of breathing room to send this dispatch. The key word on my mind now is one that is paramount to our school culture: Teamwork.

This is a cliche word in many places. Here it is lived to its fullest extent each day. It is an expectation for all of us here, students, teachers, and staff alike.

Unison Reading is well documented on our HSLI school website (languagehs.schoolwires.net). Another new team activity we began recently in social studies is Topic Teams. Students cooperate and learn interdependently as they complete curriculum-related tasks in historical studies.

Our staff personifies our message of teamwork by attending Common Planning meetings together daily--as an entire teaching staff. Additional school support staff join us occasionally in larger meetings. This has helped us build a strong foundation in which we all strive to remain on the same page. It is remarkable how much we achieve when we work together. For example, we have been having Barn Raising activities lately.

With a nod to our Amish brethern, we join together to raise the barn of classroom spaces. Rather than working individually, we join together in teams to ensure that each classroom is fully stocked and loaded with pre-determined supplies, "ladder of consequences" posters, work habits rubrics, etc.