School Wide Morning Meeting Message 2/11/19

Posted on February 11, 2019 by parents

February 11, 2019

Dear EVCS students,

Welcome back to the last week before our mid-winter break. It’s going to be an exciting week. This Thursday is not only Valentine’s Day – it is also the 100th day of school this year! We always like to take some time on the 100th day of school to not only give ourselves a pat on the back for making it to this important benchmark and reflect on how much we have grown and learned, but also to think about the number 100 – a very important number in our base-ten system.

Speaking of 100 – Did you know that our school building is over 100 years old? Like all old things, it needs to be taken care of and treated gently and with respect. We’ve been noticing that some areas of our school – in particular the student bathrooms on the 4th floor – have not been treated so well by our students recently. I am asking you to please try and do a better job of helping us to be the care takers of this old building so it can be around in another 100 years. Thanks!

Big thanks to the 4th grade for sharing and hosting this morning! Thanks as always to the SWMM house band, and thanks to everyone who came this morning and sang loud and proud!

Have a great day and a great week.

Love,

Bradley

BLM Special School Wide Morning Meeting Message 2/6/19

Posted on February 6, 2019 by parents

Dear EVCS students,

This week in cities all across the United States, schools are participating in the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action. EVCS is proud to be a part of this national event. Black Lives Matter is a movement that is working to create a world where Black people, and all people, are valued and treated equitably. Black Lives Matter continues the struggle of the Civil Rights Movement, because even though some things have changed over the years, Black people are still not always treated fairly.

EVCS is a school where Black lives matter, and this week we are taking the time to recognize this. Every day this week we will be thinking and talking about different guiding principles of the Black Lives Matter movement, and guests will be coming into your classrooms to read books that will shine a light on the Black Lives Matter at School principles. We hope this week will spark rich conversations between all the members of our EVCS community in and out of the classroom!

In just a moment we’re going to march around the community to tell our neighbors that at EVCS we believe that Black Lives Matter. It’s always important to say what you believe, and that’s what we’re going to do! Our message is simple – Black Lives Matter At School – and this is the exact message many schools around the country are also sharing with their communities this week, so that we can all stand together in solidarity.

Special thanks to our friends in the EVCS Marching Band Drum Line! Thanks as always to the SWMM house band. A very big thanks to all the members of our school’s Race and Equity Committee for helping to plan our week of action. And thanks to everyone who came this morning and sang loud and proud!

Have a great day and a great week.

Love,

Bradley

School Wide Morning Meeting Message 1/28/19

Posted on January 28, 2019 by parents

January 28, 2019

Dear EVCS Students,

Welcome back! The next few weeks are super busy, with lots of events coming up. Some are just for kids, some are for the whole family and some are just for the grown ups.

First, this Friday is Movie Night at EVCS! We have four movies for your to choose from – Big Hero 6, Kubo and the 2 Strings, Hotel Transylvania 3 and My Neighbor Totoro. If you want to come you need to RSVP on the school website. The money that is raised will go to help our 5rth graders go on their camping trip this spring.

Next week is Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action. You will be hearing more about this in your classrooms, and we will also have a special SWMM on Wednesday, followed by a march around the block led by our marching band drumline!

Next Tuesday February 5 school will be closed for the Lunar New Year. 2019 is the year of the pig in the Chinese calendar. Happy new year to all who celebrate.

Parents – we have two great workshops coming up very soon, and more to come later this winter. First, this Thursday morning we are having a workshop on Seesaw, assessment and feedback, at 8:30 in the art room. Then on Tuesday February 12 at 5:30 we are having a workshop where you will learn about our school’s approach to teaching and learning math. You are encouraged to bring your kids, as there will be an interactive element.

And please mark your calendars for two very fun events coming up for adults. On March 3rd we will have the 2nd annual District 1 Battle of the Family Bands at the Bowery Ballroom! And our annual spring gala is happening earlier this year, on April 6th at Performance Space New York. Both will be great events – I hope to see you all there.

Thanks to the fifth graders for sharing and hosting today and thanks, as always, to the amazing EVCS SWMM House Band! And thanks to everyone who joined us today and sang loud and proud. Have a great day.

Love,

Bradley

School Wide Morning Meeting Message 1/7/19

Posted on January 10, 2019 by parents

January 7, 2019

Dear EVCS Students,

Welcome to the first School-Wide Morning Meeting of 2019! In two weeks we will have a day off from school to observe Martin Luther King Day. Every year at this time I like to remember who Martin Luther King was, what he accomplished and why he was so important. Martin Luther King Jr. was a true hero of our country and someone who embodied all of our core values at EVCS.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement if the 1950’s and 1960’s. He fought to bring racial justice and equity to this country.

Martin Luther King Jr. lived during a time in America when people were treated very differently according to their skin color. Martin believed that all people should be treated kindly, fairly and equally, no matter what color skin they have. He fought very hard for civil rights in America, and he was a great leader who used non-violence to bring about change, social justice and racial equity. He was a great role model!

In two weeks when we have the day off from school, let’s all try to honor Martin Luther King Jr. in some way. I’d love to hear about how you choose to do it!

Thanks, as always, to the amazing EVCS SWMM House Band! And thanks to everyone who joined us today and sang loud and proud. Have a great day.

Love,

Bradley

School Wide Morning Meeting Message 11/27/2017

Posted on November 27, 2017 by parents

Dear EVCS students,

Welcome back! I hope you had a restful and fun holiday weekend with your families!

This year we have an extra focus on our core value of self awareness. Your teachers, your parents and I think it’s important that you strive to know yourselves, that you learn to reflect on your work, your words and your actions. We want you to always try to improve and do your personal best. One of the most important skills you can learn in elementary school is how to think about your thinking. There are three things you can do practice thinking about your thinking: Plan, reflect, and evaluate.

First, plan. This might mean making an outline, a mental map, or rehearsing what you are going to do in your mind before starting a task.

Then, reflect throughout each step of the task. Sometimes we may need to change our plans a little once we have started.

Finally, evaluate. Was this your best effort? What could you have done differently? What are your next

steps, or goals for the next time?

This year we are using a portfolio platform called Seesaw to help our students learn to think about their thinking, and become more self aware as learners. I’m looking forward to seeing how you use Seesaw to reflect on and evaluate your great work!

I want to make sure everyone knows – this Friday our school will be having a movie night for kids! We will be screening 4 different films: Sing, Boss Baby, Moana and a mix of short programs for our youngest students. There will be popcorn and other treats, and pajamas are encouraged. It’s a fund raiser for the Parents Association, but it’s also an opportunity for parents to go out for a few hours, so please consider signing up.

Let’s finish with our candle breathing exercise. On the first breath make a wish for yourself. On the second breath make a wish for someone you love. On the third breath make a wish for someone who needs some extra love today.

Thanks very much to the amazing EVCS SWMM House Band! And thanks to everyone who joined us today and sang loud and proud. Have a great day.

Love,

Bradley

School Wide Morning Meeting Message 11/13/2017

Posted on November 13, 2017 by parents

Dear EVCS Students,

Welcome back to another week! I hope you all stayed warm and cozy this weekend.

Our core value is social action.

Social action involves identifying things that are wrong in our world and then taking steps to make them better. One of the best ways we can make a difference in the world is by making an impact right here in our own community. Every year our school collects cans and boxes of food for our annual Harvest Festival. This food is donated to a local soup kitchen that helps to feed people in our neighborhood who don’t have enough to eat. This is a form of social action! When we visit the soup kitchen next week, please say a big “Thank you!” to the kind women and men who work there. They are also doing a kind of social action by preparing the donated food for our hungry neighbors.

Last week when students had a day off for Election Day, teachers came to school to learn new things together. One of the things we spent time exploring last Tuesday was breathing exercises and other things we can all do to help promote mindfulness, calm and focus in our classrooms. Before we all go up upstairs to get to work, let’s try one of these breathing exercises together! This one is called “Candle Breathing”.

Thanks very much to our 1st graders for hosting today! Thanks, as always to the amazing EVCS SWMM House Band! And thanks to everyone who joined us today and sang loud and proud. Have a great day.

Love,

Bradley

School Wide Morning Meeting Message 10/30/2017

Posted on October 30, 2017 by parents

Dear EVCS Students,

It was so much fun to see so many of you in your costumes on Saturday at our annual Fall Ball! Somehow the Fall Ball continues to get better and better every year, and it’s all thanks to the amazing parents of the East Village Community School. So much effort goes into this event, and I want to recognize some of the people who worked very hard to make it happen. So many parents volunteered their time, too many to name all of them, but it could not have happened without the following individuals: Sharon Blumenkranz, Marta Polo, Catharine Lyons, Marla Rosenthal, Pippa Barak, Anne Buovolo, Tazeen Raza, Julie Lansky, Crystal Perry, LaraLipof, Buzz Evers, Emily Goodman, Ron Bromberg, Gunti Singh, Cresta Kruger, Tristan Waldroop, Alessandra Carbone, and Nina Ablan. A Huge shout out to Erik Frank for the amazing Haunted Hallway, and to Hagit Schwartz and Noel Saltzman for orchestrating the entire event.
Continue reading →

School Wide Morning Meeting Message 10/16/2017

Posted on October 16, 2017 by parents

Dear EVCS Students,

Our core value is social action.

Just like we sang this morning in Free to Be you and Me, we are committed to doing all we can and making a change in the world. One way we can do that here at school every single day is by recycling, composting, and reducing the amount of trash we produce. You may have noticed that our cafeteria has three different bins to throw your garbage in. Different stuff belongs in each one and it’s really important that we all try our best to learn how to do it correctly.

There are separate bins for food scraps which are composted, recyclable materials such as plastic, metal and glass, liquids which are poured down the drain, and trash which ends up in a landfill. Our goal is to put as little trash as possible into the landfills!

Learning how to recycle our plastic, metal and paper, compost our food scraps, and reduce the amount of stuff that goes into landfills will make us better stewards of our planet.

My good friend Jacob Pearleman in the 3rd grade has also brought something to my attention that he is concerned about. Jacob has noticed that a lot of kids are throwing away perfectly good food! While we work to reduce the amount of garbage that goes into landfills let’s also please try to reduce our food waste. Thanks for looking out, Jacob.

Big thanks to our second grade hosts, to all of the parents who came this morning, to the SWMM house band, and thank you to everyone who sang loud and proud this morning. Have a great day and great week everyone.

Love,

Bradley

School Wide Morning Meeting Message 10/2/2017

Posted on October 4, 2017 by parents

Dear EVCS Students,

Welcome back! It’s great to be with all of you again for our second School-Wide Morning Meeting of the year. Our weeks get so busy, it’s really nice to spend this time, all of us together as one community, singing joyful songs and reflecting on our core values.

Last week we visited many of your classes with our school comfort dog, Lola. Give me a quiet thumbs up if we visited your class with Lola. If we haven’t visited with Lola yet, we will this week for sure! Lola really seems to love meeting all the students in our school, and I think she is starting to love her new job as EVCS comfort dog. Now, I have a request for all of you. You will see us with Lola in the hallways very often. We know you will want to say hi to Lola but we need to ask that you do that by waving a quiet hello. Please don’t leave your class line to pet Lola! Continue reading →

School Wide Morning Meeting Message 10/5/2015

Posted on October 6, 2015 by parents

Dear EVCS Students,

Welcome to School-wide morning meeting!

October’s Habit of Mind is persisting. When we persist we keep trying and don’t give up easily. When we persist while solving a problem, we think about which strategy will work best. If the strategy we start with doesn’t work, we know how to back up and try another. When things don’t work out like you expect them to right away it can be be very frustrating, but people who know how to persist have a high tolerance for frustration. People who persist understand that when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

The picture we associate with persisting is of a tall mountain, with a flag at the top, indicating that someone has succeeded In climbing it. This reminds us to stay focused on our goal and not give up when things get hard.

“I walk slowly, but I never walk backward.” – Abraham Lincoln

Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential.”

– Black Elk

“Satisfaction lies in the effort, not the attainment. Full effort is full victory.”

-Mahatma Gandhi

Do not think of today’s failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourself a difficult task but you will succeed if you persevere, and you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles.”

– Hellen Keller

All of the most successful people in history have had to apply persistence to achieve their goals. Another word for persistence is grit. Your teachers and I will be thinking and talking about persistence and grit throughout the month of October. Try practicing being gritty! I’m interested in hearing how it goes.

Have a fantastic day everyone!

Love,

Bradley