3 Jan 2023
Pic of the Week

Upcoming:   Reenrollment packages will be arriving early in the New Year!  We sincerely hope you realize that there is no education like a Progressive School education–richer and more mind expanding self-created curriculum, values at every level, close personal contact, growth of the whole person!

We welcome 7th grader Kane Bradley to our school family this week.

Theme news updated!:  We are experimenting within our Science Theme in many growing ways:

  1. Created new online science courses, made by Progressive School teachers through a grant from Hofstra University and Voya,
    1. Met with Hofstra-they want to co-brand our courses and market them in Nassau County first in the Spring of 2023–then possibly nationwide
    2. Hofstra is now previewing our course content for distribution
    3. Courses are set to go online in March of 2023
  2. Add new Science software subscription GIZMOS for grades 2-8.  Gizmos is also being used for Math instruction!
  3. Created new Science Club
  4. Reorganizing school science curriculum K-8 to avoid overlap
  5. Uploading Science Units to Canvas for future years’ reference
    1. Staff Development Day training for creating Science Unit Plans for Canvas
  6. Staff Development Day devoted to Science Curriculum
  7. The school has acquired the following new science materials:  Dash Coding Robots from Wonder Workshop, MaKey MaKey kits, LittleBits kits, and Merge Cubes
  8. Training to expand science to include school’s Neohumanist Philosophy
    1. This training begins with introducing SCALE as an important part of every science unit.  We use simulations, models, metaphors to illustrate both cosmic scale and micro-scale.  Scale is about trying to understand size, time, distance, and numbers related to the topic that is being studied.  For example, in studying the rock cycle we need to grasp the speed of geologic time as it relates to the human sense of time passage.
    2. The second point for aligning science instruction with Neohumanism is called SYSTEMIC NATURE.  Instead of just learning isolated facts about a particular topic, we should come to understand that there is a system for everything in the universe.  While studying any part or aspect of that universe in science, we should understand that the topic being studied is a part of a larger system, and that that system is in turn in connected to other systems.  Ultimately, we can learn to understand where and how all these systems fit together within the cosmological system
    3. The third point for our revised science instruction is PERSPECTIVE.  We are going to cultivate the habit of looking at a topic from the perspective of the topic being studied, not always just from our human perspective.  Any study of the Earth requires us to look at the world from the timeline of Earth’s life.  A study of any animal means to look at the facts from the animal’s point of view.  Embedded in PERSPECTIVE is the right to live.  Beings have existential value to themselves and others.  Studying from only a human perspective, we tend to judge everything ONLY according to its utilitarian value.  Not only is this unfair, it is arrogant, as our minds and knowledge are not broad enough to judge the value, the wholistic interactions, or the necessity of other beings.

Week at a glance:

Monday: School closed for New Year’s Day
Tuesday: Welcome Back!  Final Stem Club
Wednesday: Pizza Day
Thursday:
Friday: Breakfast Band

Best Links:  The online interactive calendar has daily updates of everything going on at school.

See the latest happenings in ART CLASSES.

Recorder Music for students studying recorder at school.

Messages:  ABSENCES:  Please let us know immediately why your child is absent, especially if it involves any suspected contagious illness such as FLU, STREP THROAT, COVID, etc.

Review:  School was closed last week, though we did receive 2 state grants, and 2 large personal donations!  We hope this will be enough to fund a new artificial turf volleyball court!