January News

Over the past two years,the PreK has intentionally nurtured a culture of CARING. One of our core practices has been creating and gifting cards to people. This serves as a powerful venue for children to express gratitude, friendship, love and appreciation; values that children innately possess and we encourage. 

In honor of Earth day and the Jewish holiday of Tu B’Shvat, and inspired by the “Yarn Bombing” movement, the Grades 2-5 students at WBAIS wrapped trees on campus with old, discarded t-shirts. Yarn Bombing was initially almost exclusively about reclaiming and personalizing sterile or cold public places. It has since developed with groups graffiti knitting and crocheting worldwide.

The middle school students began planning their Outreach Projects outreach in November when they were shown a few videos of kids who had created amazing service projects to impact their communities.  They were given the challenge to come up with their own ideas. Students wrote proposals for different projects, and they were reviewed. Students then received the project ideas and ranked their choices for participation in a survey.  They formed new groups based on their interest in a project.  These groups were mixed groups--students of different grades and genders, based on a project that they were interested in.  Then the hard work began---organizing, fundraising, making phone calls, gathering materials, and working as a team to make their project happen.  We ended up with 9 different projects all connected to areas where our students wanted to help, and ended up with 8 different outreach events.

The students and staff spent the last week of January into February celebrating the diversity of the languages we speak here at WBAIS.  This year’s theme was “Language is My Garden” which was tied into the Jewish holiday of Tu Bishvat and Earth Day.

Every year WBAIS, just like every other schools around the world, organises Young Authors week where students get to meet an author and be a part of some fun workshops. This year the author that visited WBAIS was Marissa Moss who is a children’s author and has written over 60 books. I interviewed Ms. Ilana Locker, who provided me with all the information related to this event and I found it really interesting so I decided to share it with you all. 

Once given as a simple xeroxed packet of information, the 9th grade iSearch project in English class was the original independent study.

Years ago, when the 9th grade iSearch research project was compiled, it was an introductory research and writing exercise that incoming high schoolers were required to complete--on their own--over the course of a semester. The concept was to offer students the opportunity to explore a personal interest and begin building the skills that would develop over history classes and ultimately come to a brilliant finale with the Senior Project.

Today, the iSearch research project has taken on a life of its own.

Seniors in Middle East and Twentieth Century History Classes, taught by Ms. Marcus, finished the semester with high level analytical projects emphasizing critical thinking.

Each January and June,  at the close of the semester the multipurpose room is filled  wtih a flurry of excitement as seniors enrolled in Senior Project make ready to showcase  their final presentations in front of an audience of family, faculty and friends. Tensions are understandably high since students’ presentations are a culmination of their work in the semester and serve as the final exam. Audiences are supportive and proud of students’ accomplishments and become a community of learners as they are exposed to the research, claims and experiences that seniors select to share with them. But there is more.

Each senior assembles a digital portfolio that documents his or her journey through the course and it is here where they are encouraged to reflect upon the benchmarks they traversed and share their own thinking and conclusions about the process they followed, the disappointments or personal discoveries they made about themelves and the lessons learned that they will apply in the future. As a teacher, the Final Reflections that I read in the portfolios are “windows” that enable me to understand ever better the students and my work with them.

WBAIS students joined with other students from Greece in a conference sponsored by the Attica Zoo in Athens.

Allowing students a depth and breadth of experiences, as so many trip organizers in education do, is an attempt to get them see and perhaps better understand the world that they live in.  It is the friendships they make along the way, the ability to better cope with frustration, victory, bitter cold winds, or early morning wake-up calls.  

The WBAIS PTA is only half way into the year, yet it seems like we are just getting started! You know the saying, time flies when you're having fun! After very successful Halloween and Meet Santa events earlier this year, the PTA has switched gears and is busier than ever planning events for the second half of the school year!