The Calhoun Chronicle, Winter 2012

school news

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pare nts associat io n n ews

PA Celebrates Our Talented Artists with Annual Holiday Crafts Fair What becomes a tradition? Well, maybe this is it!

After many starts and stops, we’re now into the third year of the Holiday Crafts Fair, hosted in early December by the Parents Association. The Crafts Fair puts the spotlight on the talented artists in our community—teacher/administrators, parents, students, grandparents and alumnae/i —while giving them a way to display and sell their works of art. This year, there were 25 participating artists representing every possible constituency in our Calhoun community—and some very appreciative holiday shoppers.

(Above, left) Jonathan Beane and Ron Rey; (above, right, L—R) Kyoko Honma, PA co-president Andrea Booth and PMCC co-chair Valerie Valentine

PMCC Changes Name, Plans Spring Activities PMCC, a committee of the Parents Association, is keeping its acronym but has changed its official name to Parents for Multicultural Conversations to better reflect its mission and constituency outreach. The group’s former name was Parents of Multicultural Children.

According to co-chairs Valerie Valentine and Kim Burgess, committee members agreed that while PMCC has always been inclusive, it wasn’t clear from its name that the committee and its activities are for all parents who are interested in discussing topics related to diversity and multiculturalism.

PMCC was established as a Parents Association committee in 2002, with four main goals:

to be a community-building organization; to organize educational and social activities that celebrate the many cultures that enrich Calhoun’s diverse community; to welcome new families to Calhoun; and to support and encourage Calhoun’s multicultural student groups and activities.

Spring activities include the Annual Potluck Dinner on April 16 for current and incoming families, the Parent Book Club Discussion on May 8, and the PMCC End-of-Year Celebration on May 31, which features the Upper School’s jazz ensemble. For more information on PMCC, its events and how to get involved, go to www.calhoun.org/pmcc.

CCA Hosts Coastal Clean-up

When she’s not counseling Upper School students, Francesca Canin is busy crafting her line of ceramic bowls, plates and mugs.

Calhoun Summer Camps There’s still time to sign up!

SummerCare: 4s-1st Calhoun Summer Theater: 4th-7th Jazz Workshop: 9th-12th www.calhoun.org/summercamps

More than 50 people showed up for a Riverside Park coastal clean-up on a cold, rainy Saturday in early November. Results of the trash pickup were recorded and reported to the EPA. Many thanks to Debbie Havas Aronson ’79, Community Service Director; Heather Sasaki-Parker, chair of the PA’s Calhoun Community in Action committee (CCA), who organized the event; and all the kids and parents who came out for the day!

Winter 2012

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school news

Harvest Festival 2011: Too Much Stuff?

The 2011 Harvest Festival, held on the day before Thanksgiving, focused on this year’s theme, Too Much Stuff? Is Less More? Consumerism in Today’s Society. A host of activities were designed to increase awareness of issues related to consumerism and the three R’s: reduce, reuse and recycle. Students and teachers joined forces in cross-grade “family groups” to participate in hands-on art projects and to reflect on ways to reduce consumption. There was also a screening of films made by students in every division, all focused on an aspect of the yearly theme. Harvest Festival activities continued at 74th Street, where the younger children showed off their “reuseum” and “recycled box playground.”

Even parents got into the act at Harvest Festival! In addition to volunteering at various activity stations, the Parents Association’s Calhoun Community in Action committee (CCA) hosted a project that encouraged students to think about their buying habits. Worksheets asked: “What did you buy in the past week? Why did you buy it? What did you do with it? How did you feel when you bought it? So?” Some honest answers emerged. One student reflected and wrote, “Do I really need this?” Touché!

LS/74th St. students created a “reuseum” in the theater, where they displayed art made out of recycled materials. Older students served as both guides and “tourists.” Kindergarteners Noah Horsington and Anani Beane played a game with senior Rebecca Lansbury.

One of the most popular stations at Harvest Festival involved making working clocks out of used LPs and discarded board game and puzzle pieces. (Of course, this also prompted a lesson for some students about what LPs are!)

Fourth grader Avalon Scarola shows off her new clock.

Proving the age-old theory that kids love playing with cardboard boxes—maybe more than the toys that come in them—one of the favorite spots at 74th Street was a mazelike area in the gym that featured recycled cardboard. First grader Nyla Crespo built a tower.

The environmentally-minded music group Bash the Trash performed a special concert for Harvest Festival–goers, with instruments made of recycled materials. Bash the Trash combines science, music and environmental awareness through performance, educational programming and social initiatives. Calhoun students had a chance to create their own instruments out of discarded items.

school news

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faculty newsmak er s

In the Spotlight

MS math teachers Phil Bender and Kristin Bozymowski attended the October confer-

US art teacher Chris Garcia was selected to be a November artist for 365 Days of Print, an online exhibit that features works of art inspired by the newspaper as object. Check it out: www.365daysofprint.com.

ence for the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics. Kristin and Phil sat in on a number of sessions focused on teaching strategies for Middle School math, new technology, and the use of manipulatives (such as colored tiles, geoboards, dice and playing cards).

Daniel Ercilla (LS Spanish), Victor Lin (US music), Keira Rogers (MS Assistant Director and humanities teacher), Eric Chapman (MS Director) and David Smith (Director of Development) represented Calhoun at the 2011 National Association of Independent School’s People of Color Conference (PoCC), held this past December in Philadelphia.

PoCC’s programming supports people of color as they pursue strategies for success and leadership in independent schools.

Francesco Filiaci (US biology), Danny Isquith (US math), Ellen Kwon (US English), Marco Sanchez (MS social studies), Amanda Smith (first grade) and Anthony Yacobellis (LS math) attended the national Progressive Education Network (PEN) conference held in Chicago this past November, where US Director Jen de Forest served as a presenter on the topic “The Progressive Education Tradition.”

While taking advantage of a full weekend of talks and workshops, participants interacted with hundreds of progressive educators from around the country. “Having spent over a decade teaching at Calhoun, I think I know what ‘progressive education’ means,” says Francesco. “But it’s fascinating to interact with other educators and see what they’re doing in their schools. It helped me define my own answer to the question ‘What is progressive education?’”

Danny Isquith (US math), Amanda Smith (first grade), Ellen Kwon (US English), Jen de Forest (US director) and Francesco Filiaci (US biology).

Missing from photo: Marco Sanchez (MS social studies), Anthony Yacobellis (LS math)

Joan Gillman (MS science) had a busy fall! In November, she attended the National Science Teachers Association convention in Hartford, CT, to present a workshop called “Progressive Education and Interdisciplinary Curriculums Go Hand in Hand.” Says Joan, “It was wonderful to talk about Calhoun’s philosophy and showcase the type of work we do here in the Middle School.” Then Joan attended the convention of the Science Teachers Association of New York State (STANYS) in Rochester, NY, where she gave a workshop entitled “An Action Research Project in Astronomy.” The subject of the workshop, which was published as an article in the fall issue of the STANYS Science Teachers Bulletin, is based on work Joan does each year with her fifth and sixth grade science students.

Jenny Han, Library Assistant, was a featured speaker at the November conference of the National Council of Teachers of English. The theme of her talk was “My Story, Your Story, Our Story: Cultural Connections & Issues in Children’s Literature.”

LS music teacher Pablo Provencio attended the American Orff-Schulwerk Association Professional Development Conference in Pittsburgh this past November. Over the course of three days, he attended workshops and master classes, including one about the work of Pittsburgh’s own Mr. Rogers. “I met with colleagues from around the world, and learned more about specific techniques in recorder, drums, xylophones and movement,” notes Pablo. “It is already paying off with my second, third and fourth grade recorder musicians, who are tuning to one another as never before!”

Josephine Salvador, Director of School & Society, has been lending her expertise this year as a member of the New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS) Professional Development Committee. Josephine is also serving on the faculty for the NYSAIS Beginning Teachers Institute, which offered a three-day workshop in October to new teachers and those new to independent schools.

Sabrina Spiegel and Alyssa Viglietta attended the MS and US Health Educator meeting hosted in November by the New York State Association of Independent Schools.

Brian Coogan (MS/US instrumental music) attended the New York State School Music Association conference in Rochester this past December.

Jason Tebbe, a new Upper School history teacher this year, presented a paper this fall in Louisville, KY, at the German Studies Association’s annual conference. The paper, “Excursions on the ‘Middle Sea’: Germans Cruising the Mediterranean,” explores the beginnings of pleasure cruises to the Mediterranean from the 1890s through the 1920s. “In my research, I found that tourists tended to use the cruise to create a sense of Western identity by denigrating people in southern Europe and the Middle East, seeing them as inferiors,” says Jason. “By the 1920s, this changed somewhat; people began taking the cruises for their luxuriousness.” Jason looks forward to bringing his travel accounts to his world history class on Modern Europe, “as a way for students to think about how we create ideas about other people.”

When he’s not working as counselor and life-issues teacher for Calhoun’s Lower 81st and MS students, Michael Worth is leading parenting groups for fathers. “You can’t drop a hat in the country and not find a mothers’ group,” said Michael in a profile about him that appeared in the Newark Star-Ledger (June 18, 2011). “But dads are on their own, feeling the same way. They feel incompetent and are asking the same questions.” Michael often lends his expertise to Parent Educational Forums sponsored by the Parents Association.

Winter 2012