NEST+m, New York City Department of Education 111 Columbia Street New York, New York 10002 Tel (212) 677-5190 Fax (212) 260-8124

www.nestmk12.net

Monthly News Volume 4, Issue 4 January 2010

Dr. Olga Livanis, Principal, NEST+m Deonne Martin, AP Organization Sandy Miller, AP Lower School Jared Rosoff, AP Middle School Tina Yu, AP Upper School

Upper School Ranked 64th Best High School in the Nation! Let’s all congratulate the faculty, students and administration of the NEST+m Upper School, for having ranked 64th (Gold Medal) out of 100 top high schools in the country for 2010 by U.S. News & World Report! U.S. News and World Report ranks high schools based first on how well they prepare their students, especially minority and disadvantaged students, based on Advanced Placement test scores. More than 21,000 public high schools across the country were evaluated to come up with the Top 100. To see the complete list of schools (and to watch an inspiring video about NEST+m produced by our own students and art teacher Monica Hopenwasser), go to www.usnews.com/education/high-schools.

5th Grade Ballroom Dancers Win

Silver Medal! The entire 5

th grade wowed their families and friends on

December 3rd when they performed numerous ballroom dances at a lively evening dance concert. Then, on December 14

th, 10 of

the 5th grade students (who had faced stiff competition during

auditions for the NEST+m Ballroom Dance Team) competed against 7 other schools in Manhattan, and won a brilliant Silver Medal for their performances. Our team captains were Lily Fremaux and Liam O’Conner, and the team members were: Grace Garcia & Charlie Papadopoulos - Merengue Owen Lombardi & Rebecca Seow - Fox Trot Cassie Greenfield & Paul Pianin- Rumba Theodora Terazzini & Julius Rees - Tango Arun Massand & Nuriel Leve - Swing Congratulations to the Ballroom Dance Team and all of the 5

th

graders for their impressive dancing skills, and to our Lower School Dance teacher Hetty King!

Nine Seats Earned in the 2010 All-

County Middle School Music

Festival! Congratulations to the students who have been accepted into the first All-County Middle School Music Festival! It is an honor to have so many talented musicians from our school recognized and selected to participate in this event. Those students are: Andrew Chin – Percussion; Shelby Joy Cole – Tenor Saxophone; Nicholas Dunston – Trombone; Lily Olson – Clarinet; Minhaj Rahman – Bass Clarinet; Vera Rees – Baritone Horn; Gabby Sokan – Flute; Nina Svirsky – Trumpet; Isabelle Wojciechowski – Oboe The concert takes place at 3pm on Saturday, February 6

th, 2010.

Long Island City High School will host the Festival; they are located at: 1430 Broadway, Long Island City NY 11106. Tickets are available at the door. See Pieter Voorhees for further details. Please join us for what promises to be a special concert!

National Chess Champions! The NEST+m 2

nd Grade Team that participated in the K-12

National Scholastic Chess Championship in Dallas, Texas in mid-December are the new 2

nd Grade National Chess

Champions! Our victorious team included 2nd

graders Elena Morgan, Jeffery Rodriguez, Maury Ahram, Bo Nordberg, Tej Telymonde, Alan Fandrich and Pyke Turnbow, who were accompanied by our extraordinary Lower School Chess teacher Zach Vine. Interestingly, of the top six 2

nd grade

teams, five were from NYC (including Dalton, Hunter, Columbia Grammar Prep and PS 6). The NEST+m 1

st Grade Team also played brilliantly, and are

now ranked 3rd in the nation! The 1

st Grade Team included

Kyle Miller, Aidan Parker, Gerald Lynch, Mario Tutuncu-Macias and Ewon Suh. The other NYC schools whose 1

st

grade teams placed in the Top 10 were Dalton (#1), Hunter (#4) and PS 41 (#8). Huge congrats to Zach and all of our amazing students who represented NEST+m in such a spectacular fashion!

Updated & Improved School

Web Site To Be Launched This

Month! We are very pleased to announce that after much effort, the school web site (www.nestmk12.net) has been re-designed, updated, and vastly improved and will be launched mid-month. We hope you enjoy the enhancements. We look forward to your feedback!

From Dr. Olga Livanis,

Principal, NEST+m Dear NEST+m Families:

Welcome back from the Winter Recess! I hope you and your family had a relaxing and wonderful time together. Yes, we are indeed pleased to be ranked by U.S. News and World Report as one of the Top 100 High Schools in the U.S.! Congratulations to the students, administrators and faculty for all that they do. We are also pleased that our Gold Medal ranking this year is ten places higher than our last Gold Medal ranking, demonstrating what hard and focused work can do! Please join me in congratulating Zach Vine, our chess teacher, and the 1st and 2nd grade students who attended the K-12 Grade Level National Championships in early December. Our 2

nd Grade Team is

now the National Grade Level Chess Champion, and our 1st Grade Team came in 3rd nationally! I am also very pleased to announce that we are on the verge of launching the new NEST+m web site. The URL is the same, www.nestmk12.net . We expect to launch by mid-month, so be sure to check it out! I am very grateful to Sherry Davis and Mark Alhadeff for their efforts on behalf of this web site, as well as Marisa Cohen and her team of writers. Although we are still adding information to the site, you will notice immediately the vast improvement over the current site. Thanks to all who have helped! A big Thank You also goes to the PTA Health Committee which includes Michelle Luhan, Cindy Wu, Cynthia Stremba and the rest of their team for spearheading the improvements to Faculty Dining Hall, and to the PTA for providing the necessary funds. A great lunch was hosted for the teachers in December to celebrate the renovations. I have many parents to thank so please join me on Friday January 22 at 8:30 am at the Annual PTA-sponsored Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast. It's time again to pause and make time to appreciate each and every parent/caregiver who has volunteered in a class, chaperoned a field trip or given their time to the PTA this school year. It is because of parents who are generous with their time and energy that our school continues to succeed. If you are one of those parents I do hope to see you at the celebratory breakfast. Dr. Vincent Pereira, a chemistry teacher and the Research Coordinator for the past 4 years, has been offered an impressive District-wide position on Long Island, so his last day at NEST+m was on December 23rd. While it is difficult to fill a teaching position mid-year, we are pleased that Colby Chiauzzi has agreed to take on the responsibility as our new Research Coordinator and is, at this writing, with two of our students at the Astronomy Conference in Washington DC. As for the two classes Dr. Pereira leaves behind, they will be picked up by Assistant Principal Tina Yu and myself for the remainder of the fall term and then by Carla McGregor starting Feb. 2nd, the first day of the spring term. Upper School parents and students, please bear in mind that regularly-scheduled classes end on January 22nd. Regents Week follows from Jan. 26-29, during which only students who are taking a Regents exam should report to take their exams. School is not in session for Upper School students on February 1. Classes for Upper School students resume on Feb. 2nd, the first day of the spring term.

Construction news remains the same: we are still on schedule. The slow-down due to the drop in temperature was expected and factored into the project’s time line. I will keep you posted on any new developments. Healthy and Happy New Year, O. Livanis

Special SLT Election A Success Congratulations and welcome to parent Joan Doscher, who was elected as a Middle School parent representative to the School Leadership Team (SLT) on December 10 at a Special Election. Joan was elected to complete the term of former parent representative Anjun Rau, who resigned due to professional commitments. Thanks to the other parents who ran for the position, to Lynn Johnston who chaired the Nominating Committee for the Special Election, and to the parents who attended and voted at the Special Election.

Time to Order Yearbooks! For the best price on the 2009-2010 K-12 NEST+m Yearbook, now is the time to order. Many people were disappointed last year when they missed the ordering deadline and we ran out of yearbooks, so don’t delay! Quick reminder to 8

th and 12

th graders who paid their

graduation dues: you will be receiving a yearbook automatically, so you should NOT place an order online. To order a 2009-2010 Yearbook, go to www.myyear.com. The pricing is as follows (plus a convenience fee of $1.85 per purchase):

Yearbooks ordered by Jan. 29, 2010: $45 (basic) $50 (personalized)

Yearbooks ordered between Jan. 30- Feb. 28, 2010:

$50 (basic) $55 (personalized) Yearbooks ordered between March 1-23, 2010: $55 (basic)

Yearbooks cannot be personalized if ordered after Feb. 28. After March 23, 2010, yearbooks will only be available for purchase on a limited, first-come, first-serve basis post-delivery in June, and will be $60 (cash only). Please consider placing an ad in the yearbook as well! Whether a Business Ad, a Friends and Family Ad or a single-line Message Ad, the advertisements support our Yearbook and are always greatly appreciated by the recipients! The deadline to submit any ad is March 23. Don’t forget to celebrate your class/teacher with a creative personalized ad! Please note that Business Ads and single-line Message Ads should be ordered through the PTA, not online. Production of the yearbook has begun. If you have class pictures or large group pictures from the current school year that you would like considered for inclusion in the yearbook, please contact faculty advisor Jonathan Yee at JYee3@schools.nyc.gov.

Second Dose H1N1 For all students 9 years old and under who received the H1N1 vaccine at NEST+m in December, the 2nd dose of the vaccine will be administered on Friday, January 8, 2010. If your 9-and-under child received the first dose but you do not want them to receive the 2nd dose, please contact School Nurse Amy McGreevy at mcgreevya@nestmk12.net or on 212-677-5190 ext. 2512.

From Sandy Miller,

Lower School AP Dear Lower School Families: The month of December was so exciting with the wonderful celebrations in the kindergarten through 4

th grade classrooms. It was

great seeing so many parents celebrating the hard work that went into each one of these units of study. I am very pleased to report that our newest work in literacy has been generating a lot of enthusiasm and learning. Many children are now taking books home from their classroom libraries to further their reading practice and many children are working very hard in their Readers’ Notebooks to improve the quality of their written responses to literature. In order to provide additional support for our literacy program, we have hired a staff developer to work in the K-2 classrooms. I will continue to provide support for the literacy work in the 3

rd through 5

th grades.

The K-5 NEST+m’s Book of the Month for December brought about a lot of excitement, rich conversation, and thoughtful responses, which will soon be displayed on a special bulletin board, designated for this purpose, near the main office. Almost every day, students stopped me in the hall or the cafeteria to comment on Thank you, Mr. Falker The K-5 NEST+m’s Book of the Month for January will surely produce some great responses as well. A few dates to make note of for the month of January are:

• January 13th will be the Clusters’ Celebration

• January 18th is Dr. Martin Luther King day -there will be no

school • February 26th will be a school wide blood drive, for which

Lower School parents will be invited to participate

Even though students are once again allowed to celebrate their birthdays with cupcakes, I would like to encourage everyone to continue to celebrate birthdays by donating a new book to the classroom library’s Birthday Book Club collection. This will help to bring more literature into our classrooms and also provide a lasting memory of your child’s special day. Thank you very much for your continued support. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to email me at smiller112@schools.nyc.gov. I wish you and your family health and happiness throughout the new year. Sincerely, Sandy Miller

Cluster Celebrations Lower School parents/caregivers are warmly invited on January 13, 2010, to celebrate the accomplishments of all of the students in the Enirchment Clusters. The celebrations for the K-2 grade Clusters will be from 9-9:30 am, and the celebrations for the 3-5 grade Clusters will be from 9:30-10 am. We look forward to seeing you then!

LOWER SCHOOL INFORMATION

K-5 NEST+m’s

Book of the Month

Horace and Morris but mostly Dolores by James Howe Horace and Morris but mostly Dolores, by James Howe, is a charming, humorous, brightly executed book that focuses its readers, in a light-hearted way, on such important issues as friendship and peer pressure. The story is about three mice (two boys and a girl) that are the best of friends, until one day the boy mice decide to join a boys-only club, because “a boy mouse must do what a boy mouse must do.” Dolores finds herself left out. As the plot progresses, these three learn it is more important to do what they like and with whom, rather than what others say they are supposed to do. As the second half of our school year begins and friendships form and reform amongst our students, it becomes ever more important to emphasize the need for sensitivity, as feelings of exclusion can be very hurtful. Further, it is imperative that we, as educators, stress, even with our youngest students, the beauty of being independent thinkers and leaders rather than followers. Additional themes to discuss are gender expectations and what it can mean to “be in a club.” In terms of literacy, this book provides numerous opportunities, across the grade levels, to explore character, sequencing, cause and effect, point of view, themes and moral dilemma, predicting outcome, and the use of humor to get a message across. Further, this book also affords opportunities to teach word families, rhyming, alliteration, the use of italics, ellipses, varying fonts and other techniques that authors use. There can also be talk around a key question, such as – Why mice?

Our grade level teams have provided the following updates on each of the Lower School grades:

The kindergarten students wrapped up the Me and My Family Study and had a great celebration to conclude the study. Thank you to all of the families and friends who made the celebration such a fun event. In January we will embark on our new study, animals! The kindergarteners will learn about the similarities and differences among mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds, fish, and insects. We will do science experiments, art projects, and go on several field trips during this exciting study.

In math, the kindergarteners have started to do subtraction with one digit numbers. It is important for students to begin to develop fluency with simple addition and subtraction sentences. The kindergarten classes will continue to do sprints and activities to help students learn their addition and subtraction facts. If your child is struggling with one digit addition and subtraction facts, flash cards may be a helpful addition to your child’s daily homework routine.

The first graders finished their Transportation Study with a great celebration in December. The students showed off all they learned over the months, integrating their knowledge from all of the trips, math, writing and art projects. Thanks to Hetty for a great transportation dance performance and to Christina for the beautiful artwork. Be sure to re-read your child's journey story. This is a piece of writing they took through the writing process, from brainstorming at home, to planning in class, drafting and editing with classmates and publishing! In math, students have been working on multiplication, division and time. We are beginning to revisit regrouping in January, so please continue

The 5th grade students are embarking on a journey through the life

of a main character in their realistic fiction independent reading books. Throughout our reading workshop, students have been introduced to many strategies that will enable them to learn all about their main character’s likes and dislikes, the problems that they face, how they react to their problems and how to make inferences about their character. This will help their reading comprehension as well as assist them to move up reading levels.

The authors of 5th grade have been creating personal narratives

about a tiny moment in their life. As a mentor text, we studied the “Book of the Month” (Thank you, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco). This story helped us understand the elements of a personal narrative and gave us direction pertaining to how we would like our own narratives to develop.

The 5th grade Scientists are at it again! After learning about how

crucial it is to develop a precise procedure based on our sandwich cookie experiment, the scientists are now taking upon another challenge. This challenge is the Whirligig Experiment. Students will experiment how to make the whirligig on the back of the cereal box fall slower than it currently does. They will be studying about mass, matter, gravity, and air resistance. They will be conducting various iterations in order to figure out the best way to create a whirligig that falls at the slowest rate.

Art: Kindergarten artists are working on paintings inspired by their favorite winter activities. We read Keats’ “The Snowy Day” to gain some ideas from Peter! In a few weeks, we will begin working on projects related to the animal study. 1

st grade artists will begin an

artist study on Van Gogh. We will specifically look at his paintings inspired by wheat fields, as this is a great connection with their upcoming “Bread” study.

2nd

grade artists will begin an artist study on Romare Bearden, connecting with their “Communities” unit. 3

rd grade artists are off to

the Guggenheim this week to view the Kandinsky show. Before the break, we discussed his life and artistic process. We also engaged in a music response painting exploration. Our artist study will continue for a few more weeks. 4th Grade Artists will begin a unit touching upon the sculptural qualities of clay and wire. 5th Grade Artists completed their self-portrait paintings with high praise from their peers and teachers. It was exciting to see the paintings develop each week. This week they will complete written reflections based on their work. Soon, we will begin to study the Inuit and begin brainstorming for the 3d village!

Chess/Technology: Beginning this month, Zachary Vine will begin teaching computer technology in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades. Among the topics to be covered are typing, the structure of a computer, word processing, conducting research online, and much, much more. Zachary will be using the Lower School's MAC laptop station in every 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classroom, ensuring that each week of computer technology instruction is hands on, where every student in the classroom gets to work on their own personal computer. Students who already have a great deal of computer skills will be challenged to increase the scope and depth of their knowledge by working with more advanced software applications. More details are to follow...

Dance: Kindergarten dancers have learned how to make a “movement sentence” by combining an action, a level in space and a pathway to travel on. Having identified and experienced these key movement elements, they are now ready to apply this knowledge to their study of animals.

First grade completed their Transportation Dances and shared them with friends and family in the NEST+m Theater as the opening event to their classroom celebrations. They will continue to explore how movement can tell a story through a study of “Peter and the

practicing your math facts at home. Also, we will be studying money soon so save up your coins! Looking forward to launching our new bread study in 2010!

The 2nd graders have completed their Central Park study and the

celebration was a huge success! We are now embarking on a new study on communities. They will be learning about urban, rural and suburban communities. They will be comparing life between these three communities. In Math, we have studied fractions and time and we will be working on capacity and graphs. Discuss with your child the different containers you might have in your household (i.e. milk cartons=1 gallon/half gallon; liter bottles, etc.) In Science, they added clay and silt to their list of rock sizes and they will learn about how the seven sizes of rocks are used in the world around them.

Starting in January, the 2nd

graders will begin taking home their independent reading books that they are reading in class. They will continue to read this book at home for their nightly reading. These books will be on their reading level only. They will take them home in “book baggies” and will be expected to return them to school on a daily basis.

The third grade culminated their Native American study with a celebration to showcase all the students’ work. We want to thank all the third graders for their hard work and their parents for all their support to help make this study such a success. We will begin our exciting geography study. We will begin by working closely with the atlas, looking and comparing different types of maps. Students will also learn all about different landforms and bodies of water, and willl even be creating their own model of an archipelago! Although our Physics of Sound unit is over, we will be going to the Physics lab at NYU this month to participate in more sound activities. In class, we will be starting our Force and Motion unit. The third graders will learn all about simple machines through many hands-on investigations. We have begun our reading journals. This has been an excellent way for the students to keep a record of all the books they're reading. In addition, it gives them the opportunity to think and write about the text through a critical eye. Lastly, students have been working hard to master their multiplication and division facts. They are becoming experts in long division as well! Our next unit in math is money.

Fourth graders are off to an active start to the New Year. In science we are exploring changes to the earth that have occurred over millions of years! Our inquiries will cover topics such as drifting continents, plate tectonics and ocean floor spreading. In math, we continue our work in geometry with activities involving the characteristics of parallel and perpendicular lines. Following an enriching and deep study of the Pilgrims, we will continue to learn about our early history. Our next study will focus on the early development and growth of North America. Our study will be supplemented with field trips to sites that offer students an opportunity to see what life was like in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Fourth graders will also immerse themselves deeper into reading by exploring books through the lens of a character. Our next unit in reading will explore topics such as character traits, motivations and growth. Exploring stories through a character study will also enable students to pursue their own ideas about character development across different books. Fourth graders will also integrate what they learn in their character study to their writing. While revising their stories, fourth graders will explore developing the characters in their personal narratives. So it seems, with all that we have planned, that January is poised to be another learning enriched month.

Wolf.” Children will explore the characters through movement and continue to experience how dancers use their bodies and not their voices to tell stories and create meaning.

Second grade is in the final phase of their “Ballet Tales” residency with the New York City Ballet. Having traveled to Lincoln Center twice – once to see a lecture demonstration on ballet and second to see a matinee of the Nutcracker they will now create their own Fairy Tale Dances using the ballet movement vocabulary they have been learning in dance class. A special thanks to the PTA for funding the purchase of moveable ballet Barres – these have made our ballet unit so much richer!

Third grade continues to explore the world of Folk Dance. Having learned two Israeli Folk Dances (“The Hora” and the “Mayim Mayim”) and an American Contra Dance (the “Virginia Reel”), they are now focusing on an even more challenging dance, the “Pata Pata” from South Africa. We are still hoping that parents will come forward to share a dance from their country of origin!

Fourth graders have almost completed their choreography projects using the “Language of Dance” to both read and write their dances using the “LOD” movement symbols. In January we will welcome the Merce Cunningham Dance Company for the third year running for a 9 week residency focusing on dance making and technology. Students will experience “Dance Forms” (a dance-making software) and work on the schools laptops to create their own dances.

Fifth graders completed their unit on Ballroom dancing with a great evening celebration of reflections, dancing, eating and celebrating. They have already shifted gears and turned their feet to the world of Hip-Hop dance and culture. They will learn a basic vocabulary of movements, focus on dancing to the beat and getting familiar with the art of improvisation as they create their own moves and develop their style!

Music: This year there will be one series of Lower School Concerts near the end of the year rather than the two concert series we have presented in the past. They will occur near the end of April or the beginning of May. Several factors contributed to this decision, but it was primarily based on the growth of our school and exciting developments in the Lower School Music program.

Our 1st and 3rd graders now partner with Carnegie Hall in year-long programs that require most of our class time. First grade “Musical Explorers” study six New York City performers from a variety of cultures before hearing them perform live at Carnegie Hall. We heard our first three artists in November, and it was a concert to remember! The websites for Rolando, Joe and Qian Yi are linked in the “First Grade” section of my website at http://www.teacherweb.com/ny/nestm/david. We will attend the second concert in April.

Third graders in the “LinkUP!” program are learning to play the recorder while studying the compositional techniques of some contemporary musical pieces such as Steve Reich’s “Clapping Music” and Terry Riley’s “In C”. Examples of that music are linked in the “Third Grade” section of my website. Eliminating the Winter Concert provides time to fully engage in these explorations while allowing other grades to more fully realize the curriculum I am trying to implement at NEST+M.

Third, fourth and fifth graders who desire additional performance opportunities may participate in our new Lower School Chorus which meets after school on Wednesdays and Thursdays. We have a very small group this year because many students were already committed to other activities when the chorus began in October. However, these talented and dedicated founding members are

making beautiful music that will be showcased in an after-school concert near the end of the school year. I am looking for additional performance opportunities around the city this spring. Students may join the chorus until February, then all positions are closed. You may print the two required forms from the “Documents” section of my website or request them from me in writing. A few of our songs (performed by other artists) may be heard in the “Chorus” section of my website.

Physical Education: With the Kindergarten students, we are working on the simple understanding of how to improve fitness, coordination, and locomotor skills with day-to-day activity. Students focus on sharing and caring for each other through cooperative games and activities. In every class, the children stretch, run, and exercise. In the upcoming months, students are going to be introduced to games that emphasize particular locomotor movements and/or skills.

With the students in 1st -3rd grades, we worked on basic soccer

skills before the winter recess. They included dribbling, passing, shooting, goal-tending, and throw-in's. Now that the students feel confident in their skills, we are putting them to the test by having soccer scrimmages. The classes are broken into three teams. Each team plays for six minutes and then get a three minute break. They are really starting to get a great grasp on the game and are having fun!

With students in 4th and 5th grades, we are now going into competitive soccer games that everyone gets involved in, after going into the basics of soccer before the break. Depending on how much gym space is available, we sometimes have full court games that get very exciting. The students are very enthusiastic and are excited to tell me if they play soccer outside of school. We make sure everyone in participating and, more importantly, having fun and staying active.

Spanish: Kindergarten students are launching their study of los animales! We’ll be talking about our animales favoritos (favorite animals) y donde viven los animales (where the animals live). First graders are reviewing días de la semana (days of the week), and learning months of the year and seasons in Spanish. With these frigid temperatures, we’ll also be reviewing weather expressions! Second grade is reviewing numbers 0-50, skip counting, and doing some math problems in Spanish. Towards the end of the month, we’ll be starting to write and talk about “mi comunidad” in conjunction with their classroom study of communities. ¿Qué hora es? Third and fourth grade students are counting to 100 and will begin learning to tell time in Spanish this month! Fifth grade students are continuing to study Spanish grammar. Conjugation patterns of the present tense for the verb “ser” with all the pronouns and their uses are being introduced.

Lands End Orders

When ordering clothing with a logo from Lands End, remember to specify whether you want the logo with the school name (the traditional school logo) or if you want the new administration crest. Also, please remember that red and black are now permitted colors.

Middle School Winter Music & Arts

Festival The NEST+m Middle School Winter Music and Arts Festival is just around the corner. Please join us on Wednesday evening, January 27th, 2010, for our first concert and art exhibition of the year. We will celebrate with performances by the Sixth grade band, the Seventh grade band, the Eighth grade band, and the MS jazz band. Each group will perform three to four pieces of music that showcase their particular accomplishments. We are proud of all the bands and look forward to their participation in this wonderful event. In addition, exemplary student artwork from grades six, seven and eight will be displayed in the Gallery Walk on the third floor outside the auditorium, as well as in the entryway by security to be celebrated by all. Come out and show your support for the great arts programming here at NEST+m!

High School Applications All high school applications are in. The next phase of the high school articulation process is the Specialized Round Results, which is scheduled for early February. At that time, students who took the SHSAT and/or auditioned for LaGuardia will receive their high school results in school. For students that did not take the SHSAT and/or audition for LaGuardia, they will receive their high school decision letter in March during the Main Round.

Current Coursework The following descriptions of current coursework have been provided by the faculty: Art: Ms. Monica Hopenwasser's Sixth grade Studio Art classes continue to develop their art aesthetic and vocabulary by learning methods to create depth in their artwork. In December through January, students will work on landscape drawings that emphasize depth, value and texture to create an understanding of 3-dimensional space on a 2-dimensional surface. Seventh grade Studio Art classes recently wrapped up a lesson on observational drawing and will further explore depth by learning one and two point perspective drawing techniques by designing a room interior. Eighth grade student artists (sections 8D, 8E, 8F) are making excellent progress on their collage mosaics. Their New York City inspired portraits are created by adhering small pieces of magazine paper to news board. Congratulations Studio Art 8 on your amazing work! English Language Arts: The Sixth Grade ELA students completed their unit on structured writing, in which they wrote persuasive essays and structured poems. In January we will be starting a unit on Nonfiction. Students will choose and research any topic of their interest. We will be working with Jennifer Wolk, our school librarian, to use online databases and identify features of nonfiction. In addition, we will discuss the genres of nonfiction and how to determine the reliability of secondary sources. Seventh grade English students will be completing John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men in the upcoming weeks. While reading this novella, they have been developing their analysis of characters, studying literary devices, and author's craft. Writing in this unit has included: literary analysis, poems inspired by Robert Burns and William Carlos Williams, and short story writing inspired by John Steinbeck's descriptive writing and dialogue. Eighth grade classes are finishing their "Writing the City" project. Students are producing magazines or video diaries with their original poetry, vignettes, and reviews focused on New York City.

Middle School Information

From Jared Rosoff,

Middle School AP Dear Middle School Families: As the month of February approaches and the school year hits the half-way mark, the Middle School students still have a lot of hard work ahead of them. Students in grades 7 and 8 will not only take the New York state exams, but also the regents in math and science. The regents will be administered in June near the end of the school year. The New York State English Language Arts exam will be administered on Monday, April 26 through Wednesday, April 28 and the New York State Math exam will be administered on Wednesday, May 5 through Friday, May 7 for students in grades 6, 7, and 8. I know that the teachers have been preparing the students for the exam using such tools as the Acuity system and after-school tutoring sessions. Even though the New York State Middle School exams are finished, the 7

th graders will take the

Integrated Algebra regents and the 8th graders will take the

Geometry regents. The 7th graders will also take the Living

Environment regents and the 8th graders will take the Earth

science. 8th graders will also take the New York State Social

Studies exam on Monday, June 14 and Tuesday, June 15. The second report card was distributed to the students on Friday, December 11

th. Please keep in mind that the third report card will

be distributed at the beginning of February. The report cards are distributed to the students in afternoon official class. This report card will again contain number grades, like the second marking period. Even though parent – teacher conferences do not happen again until March, please do not hesitate to contact the teachers regarding your child’s progress in their classes. I want to compliment all the Middle School students whose performance in the school play over the course of December 18

th

and 19th was truly amazing. It was great to see the NEST+m

community come together for this great annual event. I also want to thank Mr. D’Amico and Ms. Fletcher for all the hard work they put into these performances. Once again I want to report on the wonderful clubs and teams we have in the Middle School this winter. The boys and girls basketball teams are in full swing and will be competing against other Manhattan Middle Schools. Be on the look out for Ms. Youngloves Physical Fitness Club that will start up again this winter. And finally the Middle School Ping-Pong Team, one of the most popular in the Middle School, has started up again and is looking forward to another great season. I look forward to seeing all the Middle School parents at the monthly coffees. If you need you contact me, please feel free to call or email at jrosoff@schools.nyc.gov. Sincerely, Jared Rosoff

Many students went out into the city over Winter Recess to record video, take photos or conduct interviews for this project. In January, all classes will be reading the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Literacy, theater and school play: Ms. Fletcher's Sixth grade Theater students are exploring the elements of a scene. They have already mastered the concept of using an objective and obstacle to create conflict and dramatic tension. Moving forward, they will begin to work with switching tactics in order to consistently work toward an objective in a scene. They will be working, for the first time, with scripts and will have the opportunity to write their own short scenes. Ms. Fletcher's Literacy classes are focusing on building vocabulary using context clues and word parts. They are also continuing to practice using the habits of good readers in responding to their independent reading books and other texts. The students are also focusing on how to incorporate supporting detail into their writing. Ms. Fletcher and Mr. D'Amico would like to thank the students, faculty, staff, and families that came out to see Seeds of Suspicion and Eurydice. The student-actors, crew, and stage-manager pulled together two very professional, polished, impressive productions. Responses from the audience have been overwhelmingly encouraging and positive! Congratulations to all involved, and keep an ear out for future theatrical events! French students at all levels are making excellent progress in speaking, listening, reading and writing. Sixth graders will be working on a unit on school and activities and Seventh graders are looking forward to our unit about food and Cafe culture in France. Eighth and 9th graders are doing an excellent job deepening and broadening their understanding of the language. We're all looking forward to integrating more technology into our classroom and exploring the many authentic resources through the internet, as projectors and computers become available this semester. Mandarin: Sixth grade Mandarin classes have recently finished the “Greetings” unit. The next topic will be “Family Members.” The students will be able to express what family members they have. Seventh grade Mandarin classes are continuing the topic “What do you like doing?” They are learning how to describe their actions. This includes how to say whether or not they are “good”, “bad”, “fast”, or “slow” at doing something. Based on our previous unit, each “Mandarin” Eighth Grader created a wonderful booklet that describes activities that occur in each of the “Four Seasons”. Great job Eighth Graders! Next, we will move on to the topic “Directions.” We will be learning how to ask and give directions. We will also be able to express whether someplace is “near” or “far”. Math: In the Sixth grade math class, the students have recently learned how to solve speed word problems. They used the speed diagrams to approach the questions and the DUST acronym to help them remember the formulas. Also, the E-Percentages Mini Project turned out to be a fun and creative way to finish the percentages unit. Students created an email to a person of their choice where they explained how to solve a few percentage word problems. They realized that it can be challenging to describe a mathematical solution in writing. They put a lot of effort into their final posters to make them really outstanding! In addition, we just concluded reviewing how to add, subtract and multiply fractions. We look forward to starting the New Year with the new unit on division of fractions. In Seventh grade math, we have finished making our function machines, which turned out quite well. The Seventh grade teachers as well as Mr. Rosoff voted for the best function machines, and the winning function machines were the toilet in 7EF, Wall-E in 7IJ, the Tootsie Roll Machine in 7AB, the cow in 7CD, and the Jukebox in 7GH. The overall winning function machine was in

Jukebox in 7GH. The overall winning function machine was in class 7GH which was the coin function machine made by Mika J., Vivian H., Sophia M., Jonathan C., and Molly M. Congratulations!! We are now working on probability, and will be continuing through it for the first few weeks of January. The Eighth grade math class has begun a unit on the trigonometry and properties of the right triangle, and will be followed by a unit on special properties of quadrilaterals. We passed the halfway part of the text, and have learned a lot in the first half of this year and look forward to the next few months of new geometry topics. Math Team: The second Continental Math League meet has finished and NEST+m is off to a competitive start among the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth grade levels across both the state and country. The Sixth grade perfect papers belong to: Calvin Lee and Henry Du; the Eighth grade perfect papers belong to: Shani Hargil, Aviv Hargil, Sam Morris, Anthony Chau, and Joyce Koltisko. There were no perfect Seventh grade papers this time, but the top scores belong to Gordon Yang, Dylan Li, Anya Hargil, Justin Strauss, Jonathan Evans, Annique Wong, and Isaiah Yim. Congratulations to all students! Music: Sixth grade students have completed three songs for the winter concert. Now that most of the musical details have been addressed, students will spend the next few weeks learning concert and stage etiquette, and how to perform in a large group setting. It is quite a different experience playing with 150 students simultaneously instead of the usual class of 25 to 30. Come see for yourself at the NEST+m Winter Music and Arts Festival! Seventh grade students are in the last stages of music preparation for the winter concert. They have four pieces that have truly challenged them this semester. In some selections, the challenge is a very fast tempo, in others, dramatic dynamic contrasts are the focus. All of the songs have at least one new musical element that has made these students more sensitive and competent musicians. Their hard work will be evident at the winter concert. Eighth grade students in Andy Lagrimas' Music Appreciation class have been exploring the concept of program music, or music that expresses images, ideas, and places without lyrics. Using Vivaldi's masterpiece The Four Seasons as a guide, students composed and performed on the keyboard their own four-movement suites that depicted the seasons. Creative titles from these pieces included: "Summer's Requiem", "Falling Leaves", "Frozen Dreams", and "Twirly Bird". The class will now venture into their study of opera and musical theatre, comparing and contrasting Puccini's La Boheme with Jonathan Larson's RENT. Science: Sixth grade science students have been learning about the Earth and earth structures. The students finished the topic of weather and climate, and are now studying about the earth's surface and interior. Students will understand what causes the Earth's plates to move and what geological activities happen at plate boundaries. The Seventh grade Living Environment class has been studying the human body. Before winter break, we learned about the digestive, circulatory, and respiratory systems. During the month of January, we are going to discuss the excretory, nervous, endocrine and immune systems. In addition, we are designing and illustrating books about cellular respiration. The Eighth grade Earth Science class finished Rocks and Minerals before the break. The students had an opportunity to create characters and write stories based on their understanding of the Rock Cycle. The class is moving onto the topics of Weathering and Erosion which will include erosional agents such as wind, glaciers, running water, and gravity. The students will be assigned a topic in a group and prepare a presentation that they will give to the class. The presentation will include working in the computer lab, working in groups in the class, researching topics at home, and will include a poster and a presentation in front of the class.

Social Studies: Seventh grade Social Studies we have just completed the unit "Road to the American Revolution" and have begun our unit on the Revolutionary War. To begin the unit, each class pretended to be the First Continental Congress and drafted their own resolves. Afterwards we examined the actual Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress and saw how similar they were to each class's resolves. We also just finished viewing episode two of the PBS documentary Liberty! The American Revolution. In January, we will continue examining the Revolutionary War and will be viewing the film The Patriot. Students will be responsible for carefully viewing the film, noting any historical accuracies and inaccuracies and will write their own critiques of the film. In Eighth Grade, the class has recently finished the Age of Imperialism, where students looked at the motives and specific events that led to America becoming a colonial power. It was a very controversial topic and students did a great job debating the pros and cons of Imperialism both for America as well as for the rest of the world. We are now starting World War I and we are viewing it through multiple lenses. Before Christmas break we focused on the European point of view and did a project on the movie “All Quiet on the Western Front”. After the break we are looking at the United States’ involvement both at home and abroad. The students will be creating their own propaganda poster with the goal of getting support for different aspects of the war. This is an exciting time for social studies. Spanish: Don't be alarmed if the Sixth graders are counting non-stop. That's only because they are learning the numbers in Spanish. Go ahead, test their math skills in Spanish! You may be surprised! You might hear the Seventh graders talk even more about themselves now that they now how to conjugate ar, er and ir verbs in Spanish. Eighth graders might be telling you what they want in Spanish lately. That is because they are learning to express what they would like (me gustaria esto; me gustaria lo otro. - I would like this; I would like that). Don't be surprised to hear Me gustaria ir a Hawaii este verano (I would like to go to Hawaii this summer). Yo como hamburguesas (I eat burgers). Yo leo muchos libros(I read lots of books). Yo hablo mucho (I talk a lot). Web Design: Seventh and Eighth grade Web Design classes are doing presentations. Each student is to chose an html topic and present to the class. Some students have already finished and did a great job on it. SETSS: In December, SETSS students worked on organizing their time over the holidays. All too often homework is put off until the last day of break. We focused on dividing the work into manageable portions to complete each day so students could enjoy the holidays without the stress of deadlines bogging them down. One strategy is the creation of a homework schedule. Each day has a designated time blocked off for homework, this way students can see what they need to do and enjoy their time off!

MS Guidance Counseling: A bullying-proofing performance for NEST+m Lower and Middle Schools On Tuesday, January 26, Soren Bennick's Power of One comes to NEST+m! This is a series of skits presented by actors who use boxes, colors, and masks to vividly portray what bullying is, what can be done about it, and how every child has the power of one, the power to report bullying when they see it. The Power of One:

• Explains the roles in bullying: Bully, Target, and Bystander • Shows vivid examples of different types of bullying:

Physical, Verbal, Exclusion, and Cyber bullying • Alerts children that Targets need help and intervention • Encourages students not to be bystanders • Emphasizes the need for individual action to make the

community a safer, better place • Refers children to parents, adults, and teachers for further

assistance and instruction

Middle School Student of the Month:

Congratulations to the following MS Students: OCTOBER Grade 6: Calvin Lee, Thalia Richter, Julia King Grade 7: Anjelika Amog, Rocky Harwood, Huwon Kim Grade 8: Sabrina Gonzalez, Aviv Hargil, Maia Ezratty NOVEMBER Grade 6: Michael Rivera, Elisa Zhang, Sophie Steinman-Gordon Grade 7: Owen Smith, Isaiah Yim, Karen Marks Grade 8: Sara Elmakawy, Sofie Hecht, Nicolas Yehya

Middle School Athletics For the first time, our Table Tennis team, coached by Mr. Farrell, will be participating in a competitive league. Keep an eye out for the team schedule which will be posted on the school web site shortly. Our Ice Skating Club and our Martial Arts Club will each start later this month. Details to be posted shortly. The Track and Field season will start at the end of January. Both our Girls and Boys Basketball teams are in the midst of their seasons. The competition is very tough but the NEST+m Eagles are having a fun season learning new basketball skills and formations. The MS Boys and Girls Basketball teams are making tremendous progress after four games this season. The early games have been competitive and both teams are increasing their skills and teamwork through persistent practice. Players are continuing to work hard and everyone involved is optimistic about all the games coming up in January.

Keep an Eye Out for CandyGram &

FlowerGram Order Forms The Annual K-8 Valentine's Day Candygram-Flowergram Sale will take place in February. Be on the lookout for sales tables and notices about dates to purchase your candygram-flowergram for your special NEST+m Valentine!

UPPER SCHOOL INFORMATION

From Tina Yu

Upper School AP

Dear NEST+m Families, I hope that everyone had a restful winter break and was able to enjoy some quality time with their loved ones. Some of you may have had the opportunity to watch the Times Square New Year’s Eve on television and may have recognized NEST+m senior Andre Gardiner. Andre and eleven other NYCDOE High School students from each of the twelve NYC Public Schools to be ranked in the top 100 in the nation by US News and World Report joined Mayor Bloomberg to push the button during the ball drop. NEST+m ranked #64 in the country. Congratulations to all the members of the NEST+m community on this fabulous accomplishment! As we return from the restful break it is important to keep in mind that January is a busy time of the school year. Here are a few reminders…

• It is never too early to begin planning to finance your child’s college education. All parents of Upper School students are invited to attend College Finance Night on January 5

th from

5:30pm – 7pm in the Auditorium. Michael Turner from the NYS Higher Education Services Corporation is the guest speaker. Additionally, NEST+m College Liaison, Cathy Santiago will make a presentation about College Savings Plans. Thank you to Ms. Santiago for organizing this event.

• Finals for the Fall Semester and the administration of the January 2010 NYS Regents examinations are just around the corner. Finals will be administered in Elective and Advanced Placement classes during the week of January 11

th while Regents bound classes will be given during the

week of January 18th. • The January 2010 administration of the NYS Regents

examinations will take place from January 26th – January

29th.

• Lab reports are due for all Regents bound Science courses the week of January 25

th. In an effort to make certain that

all NEST+m students fulfill their NYS laboratory requirement in order to gain eligibility to take their science Regents examination this June, the second and final laboratory make-up week for the Fall Semester is scheduled for the week of January 18

th. Please contact your child’s science

teacher for more information. • The Upper School Coffeehouse Concert will be on

Wednesday January 13 at 6 pm in the NEST+m Cafeteria. It will directly follow the Upper School Coffee meeting with the administration. This concert will feature students in Jazz Band, Chorus, and Jazz Combo, as well as student soloists. We hope all Upper School students and families can attend this free event. Please contact music teacher Sarah Wolff (swolff4@schools.nyc.gov) for more information.

Academics are not the only factor in making certain NEST+m graduates responsible young citizens. In keeping with the theme of giving, many of the Upper School students participated in charitable efforts during the last weeks of 2009. An update of these charitable efforts follows.

• The National Honor Society appreciates all the coats donated for its first "Coat Drive." We hope to make this an annual activity. NHS is also beginning a tutoring program called "Tutors on Demand" through which NHS members will provide tutoring for students who request it. For more information, please email English Chair, Mary Delle Stelzer at mstelzer@schools.nyc.gov.

• The Upper School Club, Ms. Quintanilla and the Heart to Heart Charity Project collected 7 huge bags of toys during their “Toys for Tots” Drive. At the Student Government Assembly on December 23

rd, Dr. Pereira selected the

winning raffle ticket. The winner of the IPOD touch was senior, Ashley Nova.

I would like to extend my warmest wishes to you and your families for a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year! Regards, Tina Yu

Upper School Spring Musical The Upper School Spring Musical production of Stephen Sondheim's Tony-winning Into the Woods is now underway! It is being directed by Andy Lagrimas and Amanda Rowell, with choreography by Hetty King and technical direction by Joe D'Amico. This year's show features a stellar cast of 19 students from grades 9-12: seniors Anja Watt, Jannina Londono, Will Engel, Alex Friedman, Jiayi Lin, Elizabeth Paluch, Ella Strauss, and Marielle Kapel-Combier; juniors Nichole Musumeci and Adinah Dancyger; sophomores Gabriel Arrieta, Claritza Quezada, Maia Moore, Erin Simone Wells, Elizabeth Page, Christopher Owens, and Kitson Smith; and freshmen Patrick Pagan and Caleb Li. In addition, junior Bernadette Deron returns as Stage Manager and Assistant Stage Manager is junior Emma Bass. Into the Woods intertwines the plots of several Brothers Grimm fairy tales and follows them further to explore the consequences of the characters' wishes and quests. The main characters are taken from the stories of Little Red Ridinghood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel, and Cinderella, and others. The show also includes references to several other well-known tales and holds special meaning for all ages, children to adults. The show will have three performances from Thursday, April 22 to Saturday, April 24. Following the sold-out success run of last year's You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, the cast and crew are confident that Into the Woods will be another terrific production. Mark the dates on your calendars now!

College Acceptances Congratulations to four of our Upper School seniors who were accepted as part of the Early Decision process to Brown University, Carlton College, Syracuse University and Trinity College! We look forward to celebrating more great news as the college acceptance process rolls forward.

Game Night A Success Many thanks to the Upper School students and parents who volunteered at the PTA Game Night on December 6, including parent Co-Chairs Ellen Whirley and Deb Funkhouser, and game-buyer extraordinaire Jill Neiberg. There was a great turn-out and it seemed everyone was having a good time. Thanks to all who supported this PTA event!

Wingspan Afterschool Program Club Wingspan at NEST+m is ready for 2010! We are looking forward to the end-of-semester Showcase, featuring all of our talented Wingspan students. The showcase will be the final week of the semester, January 25th – 29th; please ask the Site Directors, Michael and Rachel, for more details. In addition, Spring semester begins February 1st! By now you should have received the spring schedules, and a full list of class descriptions are available on our website, www.wingspanarts.org. Online registration makes enrolling for your favorite classes easy. Here’s to a great new year with Club Wingspan!

Box Tops This is a wonderful and easy fundraising resource for NEST+m. We all shop for groceries. Now these shopping trips can be turned into money for our school! Please look for the Box Tops logo on hundreds of products, clip them and batch them in groups of 25, 50, 100 - whatever number works. Then send them to the PTA via backpack mail or drop them off at the PTA office, Attention: Noeline Cuker. It's that easy! For more information go to: http://www.boxtops4education.com

NESTStrings Our very own NESTStrings Afterschool Program has grown to include Violin, Cello and Student Classical Ensemble! Students from 1st - 5th grades are participating in classes taught by Professional, and Post Graduate Teacher/Musicians from around the world! For their last class of this semester, students will be performing for their families in classroom 'Salons'. Classes for Kindergarten NESTers and other continuing and new students will begin again mid January 2010. For more information, you may contact our Artistic Director, Miho Zaitsu at cellodeco@gmail.com, or our Parent Coordinators, Yvette Ortiz yortiz101@gmail.com, & Rachel Leinweber rbleinweber@yahoo.com for any questions you may have!

SchoolHubSchoolHubSchoolHubSchoolHub If you have not signed up for SchoolHub, please do so as soon as possible. This is the easiest way to keep up-to-date with what is happening at school as well as what is going on in your child's classroom as the PTA, teachers and administration use SchoolHub to communicate with NEST+M families. To sign up please use the link: http://nestm.ourschoolhub.com/users/signup If you have any questions or are experiencing problems with SchoolHub, please email vpcommunications@nestmail.org

Help Needed for Valentine’s Day Bake

Sale The PTA Valentine’s Bake Sale will be held on Thursday Feb. 11. At the Halloween Bake Sale, we ran out of baked goods long before the last students had arrived, so we need lots more cupcakes, brownies and cookies for the Bake Sale in February. In fact, we need at least 2,000 baked goods given the number of students in the building and many students like to buy more than one item. We also need parent volunteers to help sell the goods on Feb. 11, so please contact vpfundraising@nestmail.org if you have an hour or more free on Feb. 11 to help. Thank you!

A Page from the NEST+m Parent Teacher Association

PTA General Fund Update

Hooray for NEST+m families (and the SchoolHub donation button)! The holidays brought an additional $35,000 into the PTA General Fund, with many matching gifts extending parents' generosity. Just in time for new year expenditures, regarding which you will receive a more detailed report in the near term, since it's only logical that you know where your money goes. It is also wonderful to see Middle and Upper School families ramp up their contributions. We are in this together, after all! Thank you to all the families that gave, and to the families that have not yet done so: PLEASE GIVE. Just press the magic button!

Join Our Ice Skating Party! We can't think of a better way to reconnect with friends after a long winter break than to meet up at the NEST+m PTA Skating Party at Central Park's Wollman Rink this Saturday, January 9, from 10am to noon. We’ve decided to extend the bargain price of just $17 a person, which includes entry, skate rental, private tent, and a few special treats. Send your check to the PTA office by Thursday, January 7. See you there!

Gala Donations Needed Now is the time to start soliciting donations of fabulous restaurant and spa gift certificates, theater tickets, designer items and vacation packages! The NEST+m PTA Gala and Silent Auction will be held on May 12, 2010, and with many other public schools already out soliciting donations, we all need to start asking for donations to ensure that our biggest fundraiser of the year is a success! To see donations that have already started coming in, and to get an idea what items will be available in the online portion of the Auction, go to the Gala’s great blog: wwwnestmgala.blogspot.com. For questions, email: gala@nestmail.org. Copies of all the Gala forms (donor letter and donation contract) are available for download on the Gala page of SchoolHub as well as from the Gala blog. The donor form is also included in this newsletter. Good luck donation hunting!

Dear Edwina Theater Fundraiser The NEST+m PTA has bought out the theater for a performance of Dear Edwina on Friday, February 5

th at 4:00 pm. Ticket order forms

have been sent home via backpack the first week of January, and are also available on SchoolHub. Invite your family and friends to join us at this very special fun event! For a nominal extra fee ($5 per child), your child can be picked up by bus from school on Feb. 5 and taken to the theater for the show. Parents/caregivers can then pick the child up from the theater after the show. We hope you can join us!

Edwina Spoonapple would do just about anything to be a part of the Kalamazoo Advice-a-palooza Festival. While her siblings both have proof “up on the fridge” of their accomplishments, poor Edwina has nothing. When a talent scout from the festival visits her hometown of Paw Paw, Michigan, she trots out her musical advice giving shows live from the family garage in hopes of finding her place in the spotlight.

http://www.dearedwina.com

Next PTA Meeting The next General PTA meeting is scheduled for January 21st at 6:00pm in the Dining Hall. Child care will be available, as well as pizza and drinks for the children. We hope to see you there!

More Notes from the NEST+m PTA

New York City Department of Education

111 Columbia Street New York, NY 10002

.

ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED

IMPORTANT CONTACTS

MAIN OFFICE: (212) 677-5190, FAX (212) 260-8124

ATTENDANCE: Erica Rodriguez & Aneetha Wills, Main Office

PUPIL ACCOUNTING: Sadiya Bilal, Main Office

TRANSPORTATION: Cecilia Buktenica, Main Office

PARENT COORDINATOR: Marcy Rios, (347) 563-5305 mrios22@schools.nyc.gov

GUIDANCE COUNSELORS / ADMISSIONS: LOWER SCHOOL Sarah Liogys SLiogys@schools.nyc.gov

MIDDLE SCHOOL Melissa Chen mhuangchen@schools.nyc.gov

UPPER SCHOOL Stephanie Glasgall sglasgall@schools.nyc.gov

Damien Wade Dwade4@schools.nyc.gov

COLLEGE LIASON: Cathy Santiago csantiago7@schools.nyc.gov

DEAN OF STUDENTS: Brendan Alfieri Balfier@schools.nyc.gov

PRINCIPAL: Dr. Olga Livanis, OLivani@schools.nyc.gov

LOWER SCHOOL AP: Ms. Sandra Miller, smiller112@schools.nyc.gov

MIDDLE SCHOOL AP: Mr. Jared Rosoff, JRosoff@schools.nyc.gov

UPPER SCHOOL AP: Ms. Tina Yu, tyu@schools.nyc.gov

PTA Executive Committee: executivecommittee@nestmail.org

SLT Representatives: slt@nestmail.org

NEWSLETTER STAFF: SLT@NESTMAIL.ORG

Please keep us informed of school-wide items for inclusion in upcoming

newsletters. Thanks to all who contributed. Please excuse any errors,

omissions or oversights.

Welcome Back!

CAL ENDAR H I GHL I GHTS

January 2010

Thursday Jan. 7: NY Knicks PE Fundraiser

Saturday Jan. 9: Ice Skating PTA Event Woolman Rink 10-12

Monday Jan. 11: PTA Executive Committee Mtg. 8:20 am

Wednesday Jan. 13: Middle School Parents Coffee 8:30 am

Wednesday Jan. 13: Lower School Cluster Celebrations

K-2: 9-9:30 am

3-5: 9:30-10 am

Wednesday Jan. 13: Upper School Parents Coffee 5:30 pm

Wednesday Jan. 13: Upper School Coffeehouse Concert 6 pm

Friday Jan. 15: Lower School Parents Coffee 8:30 am

Tuesday Jan. 19: SLT Meeting 4:30 pm

Thursday Jan. 21: PTA Meeting 6 pm

Friday Jan. 22: Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast 8:30 am

Jan. 26-Jan. 29: Regents Week for Upper School students

Wednesday Jan. 27: Middle School Winter Music & Arts

Festival

Friday Jan. 29: Early Bird Yearbook Deadline

Monday Feb. 1: NO SCHOOL for Upper School students only