The Board of Education will hold a business meeting on Thursday, Aug. 22 at 8 p.m. All community members are invited to attend.

 

The Board of Education will hold a special business meeting on Thursday, Aug. 15. The Board will call the meeting to order and move immediately to executive session to discuss confidential personnel matters at 7 p.m.
 

Teams of second graders at Timber Point recently worked to open temporary class stores at “Ms. Mercurio's Market” during their unit on money.

The students began by choosing store names, organizing their store rules and displaying the rules on store banners, which were then hung up in preparation for the next phase of the project. After they finished the planning phase of their store, they visited the “warehouse” to decide which items they wanted to sell at each store. Each team member was responsible for paying teacher Patrice Mercurio for every item, using their own real coins brought from home.

Next, the children set up their stores with the items they purchased at the warehouse and took turns shopping at the various stores in the market. They needed to pay for their purchases, using real money, and the store vendors counted the coins to make sure that they were using the correct amount. The coins were then returned to each child by the next day.

“It was a fun day and I believe that all the children learned some true life skills during this lesson,” Mercurio said.

The student council at JFK recently coordinated a Crayola ColorCycle program, with students and teachers collecting used markers rather than sending them to landfills.

The ColorCycle program has repurposed more than 70 tons of expended markers in North America since 2013, utilizing advanced plastic conversion technologies to create wax compounds for asphalt and roofing shingles as well as to generate electricity for heating homes, cooking food and powering vehicles.

Inspired by conversations with Class of 2010 alumna Samantha Daley, high school English teacher Gregory Kguloian developed an Accountable Independent Reading program for his sophomore class.

“Talking with Samantha gave me the opportunity to revisit the way my class assignments have been delivered, received and remembered by students,” Kguloian said. “I want to help the students in my class see that the lessons they learn are designed to connect to and build their awareness of the world around them, and to prepare them for success as they transition into the next grade. I also want each young person to know that it isn’t only educators who can inspire and motivate their pupils. Teachers can also be influenced by their students.”

In this AIR unit, each student chose their own young adult book of more than 200 pages to read, took detailed notes in a reading journal and then shared interesting information that they learned with their classroom peers via verbal reviews.

“I think the books we read recently in this program are better than the earlier ones,” said student Kristina Fiumara. “With this unit, we branched out and learned what our interests are, not just what we are supposed to read for school.”