A group of our six older students were part of a poetry class inspired by Amanda Gorman’s spectacular presentation of “The Hill We Climb” at President Joe Biden’s inauguration in January 2021. Gorman’s poem provided a natural extension for our year-long study of systemic racism in America. After reading Amanda Gorman’s poem, students were asked Read More >>
Archives for May 2021
Systemic Racism in Syracuse: Education
New School students, grades 4 – 8, were assigned to find the answer to a number of questions teachers posed relating to Education, Syracuse’s Police Department, Lead Poisoning, Housing and Health. Their findings were discussed with the class. After digesting all this information, the students were asked to generate questions they could pose to Common Council Read More >>
Short Story
From about mid-March to mid-April Misha, Sam, RJ, Stuart, and Jiyong participated in a short story unit where they further developed their writing skills and critically examined the parts of a short story and learned how to write one themselves. The unit started off with learning about where writer’s find their story inspiration or “seeds” Read More >>
Bill Peet Book Club
Over the past two months, the 8th graders participated in a book club where they read Bill Peet: An Autobiography. Some people may be familiar with the name Bill Peet because of his children’s books that he created including, The Wump World, Hubert’s Hair Raising-Adventure, and Ella. Before his success in children’s literature, Bill was Read More >>
Erie Canal
From mid-April to the beginning of May, the K-3 students embarked on a journey to learn about the Erie Canal. The unit began with discussions about the ways in which people and goods move from place to place today. After creating a list of how we move from place to place in 2021. We then Read More >>
Crow Drawings
After reading She’s Wearing a Bird on her Head we learned about the remarkable efforts of Minna Hall and Harriet Hemenway, two determined women activists who founded the Audubon Society to protect birds. Then we admired the extraordinary paintings by James Audubon. Now it was our turn. We examined a crow that has been perched Read More >>
Life
by Paul OttesonSecond semester science teacher for 7th and 8th grades Biology has been this year’s science focus for the older students, using the curriculum suggested by the Science Education for Public Understanding Program (SEPUP). It was my pleasure to join the teaching team for the second part of the year to take on Genetics, Read More >>
Poetry: Powerful Thoughts in Tiny Packages
Lucy Calkins inspired a poetry unit for our students in grades K-3. Starting in May, each week of this unit inspires children to consider a new “ingredient” or strategy. The unit began with experimenting with looking at ordinary things in a new way. Subsequent classes will explore looking at patterns in poetry, music, line breaks Read More >>
Local History
Each child at The New School was given a replica of an old postcard of a Syracuse scene. Postcards showed parks, downtown scenes, and places of interest such as Oakwood Cemetery. Using VTS (Visual Thinking Strategies) children were asked to look at the picture and describe what was happening, and what made them say that? Read More >>