Get Ready to Branch Out! April 1

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For The Future
by Wendell Berry

Planting trees early in spring,
we make a place for birds to sing
in time to come. How do we know?
They are singing here now.
There is no other guarantee
that singing will ever be.

City Parks
It’s time to find a piece of earth and put some roots down. Take advantage of Arbor Day on April 27th as an opportunity to make NYC and our little Earth a cleaner, greener place, by doing a few of these little things:

Find a Location
If you talk with the Parks Department (contact someone in your borough’s office), they might be willing to help you plant on school grounds or a neighborhood park! My students and I will be planting a park close to our school off the BQE to try and absorb some of those particulates that are giving our students asthma.

Get the Trees
If you join the National Arbor Day Foundation, you’ll get 10 free trees. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has a School Seedling Program and you can get free trees or shrubs from them too! Talk with the Parks Department to decide which variety is best for your location. You can request a street tree from the City, but that can take awhile.

Extend the Activity
The Arbor Day Foundation has a bunch of free materials for teachers. They also have great resources for kids. Leaf Miner is fun for any age. And “The Giving Tree” (HarperCollins) and “Miss Rumphius” (Barbara Cooney) are good lessons on victory over tribulation.

Get Famous
The NYSDEC has a National Arbor Day poster contest for fifth grade students.

Just enjoy getting your hands dirty!

ELA, or Every Latest Advance In Internet Assistance January 7

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It’s that time of year again, when elementary students in grades 3, 4 and 5 sharpen their number 2s for a timed “you better know it by now” test that can influence whether or not the NYC Board of Education thinks a student needs summer school, and if s/he will be ready to move onto the next grade. Here is a list of web sites where students can do some last-minute brushing-up on their test-taking skills:

  1. If you’ve taken the NYC Interim Assessment, the Princeton Review, check out your scores and take some practice tests. You’ll need your student ID and last name.
  2. The NYC Testing Program–the same as the one that authors your actual test–has unsecure tests you can use for practice.
  3. You can also get these same unsecure tests, and set them up so that you practice only what you need to at NYLearns.
  4. The Oswego City School District has a helpful site where you can take practice multiple choice questions, and review a test-taking guide for your grade. The answer key is great!

Students Tout TV for Learning English January 3

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Today my students recommended a slew of television programs that aid them in learning English. TV schedules are online. Here’s their skinny:

Cartoon Network’s Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends, My Gym Partner’s A Monkey, and Johnny Bravo

Nick’s SpongeBob SquarePants, The Fairly OddParents, and Dora the Explorer

PBS’s Miguel and Maya; Disney’s Go, Baby!

Discovery Channel

and National Geographic.