April 2, 2012
Dear LoMA Family,
I’ve just finished reading a book called Subtractive Schooling and the Politics of Caring by Angela Valenzuela. The main argument of this book is that “caring” means something very different for students and teachers. When students think about whether or not their teachers care, they mean, “Do they care about me my life outside school? Do they care whether or not I learn in class?” When teachers think about caring, however, they usually think only in terms of their schoolwork. “Are my students completing their homework and behaving in class?” Neither viewpoint is right or wrong. The question is can we create a school where students care for their schoolwork as much a the teachers care for their students? I think we’re on the right track.
From what I see, the teachers at LoMa really do care a great deal about their students. They have told me how much they enjoy advisory because it gives them a chance to get to know their students. Every teacher gives up their free time to tutor students and works late trying to come up with interesting ways to teach that will make learning fun. Also, everyday LoMA’s faculty has lunch together to discuss how to help individual students. At these meetings each teacher brings up the names of students he or she is worried about and we all discuss ways to help that student succeed. Caring isn’t always what it seems though. For instance, sometimes the best way a teacher (or principal) shows caring is by disciplining students for actions that can hurt their learning or the school community.
On the other side, I’ve been impressed to see that most of the students at LoMa do seem to care about their school work. Students come in for tutoring, meet in study groups and are generally focused during class. The results seem to be good for the most part, as students have learned that the more they study, the more thoughtful they are in completing their homework, the more they pay attention in class the higher they will score. Unfortunately, some students are still learning how high school is different from middle school. Now that they are held to higher standards it may be more necessary to take school more seriously especially since colleges will see everything they do from now on.
For students who do care about school, but are not yet doing as well as they could be, LoMA’s teachers are willing to stay after school and come in early to tutor their students and help them complete their class work and homework. They will continue to search for interesting ways to teach material that students might not find so interesting, and they will continue to recognize that LoMA kids are more than just students. They have problems, successes and relationships outside of school that make them fascinating, wonderful people. Our teachers will do this not because they have to, but because they care.
Work Hard,
John Wenk March 26 Skateboarding starts again on the roof March 26-28 Library Closed April 6- April 15 Spring Break April 26 Talent Show
Dear LoMA Family,
Last week’s multicultural events – the concert and feast - were fantastic. The food for the feast was delicious and represented our students’ culinary diversity. The program of music and dance reflected a wide array of cultures and a high degree of talent and preparation. Before the events, I heard many students talk about how stressed they were about the time requirements it took to organize and rehearse, yet they pay-off was definitely worth it in the applause of the audience the filled stomachs and the tremendous sense of accomplishment earned by the LoMA team. Through all of the challenges of putting on two such complex events back to back, our students showed real drive. This Thursday and Friday when we distribute report cards during parent teacher conferences we’ll see who else has the drive to succeed. More than intelligence or ability, what makes students successful in school and adults successful in life is their drive for excellence, knowledge, positive change and supportive relationships. Without drive, there can be no attainment for you cannot attain what you do not pursue. In fact, what you pursue will determine the paths you travel, the people you associate with, the character you develop, and ultimately, what you do or don’t achieve. One way that we try to instill drive at LoMA is through goal-setting. While this is important, what happens after the goals are set is more important than the goals themselves. The drive to succeed must be intentional, focused and consistent in your drive. I fail students every semester who make half-hearted attempts to succeed. After failing for a marking period, they complete a handful of homework assignments, take better notes, and even show up for tutoring a few times. Ultimately, their drive wears out and they reclaim old, lazy habits. Without the drive to succeed, they will never make it. Knowing what not to pursue is just as important as knowing what to pursue. Nothing tells the world more about who a person is than what or who they pursue. After all, what you pursue is what you value. If you value your talent, then you’ll put hours into honing your craft every day. If you value your future, you’ll make school a priority. If you spend your afternoons watching TV, playing video games and texting, your values seem pretty superficial and unimportant. Put simply, you can talk all you’d like about your desire to be successful, but your actions will ultimately reveal what you truly value. To follow up on a previous email about a person with twisted values I wrote about a few weeks ago, Dharun Ravi, the former Rutgers student was found guilty of all charges last week. The judge will decide his sentence in a few weeks, but it’s looking as if he will face ten years of jail and deportation for spying on his roommate and committing bias crimes. After last weeks’ wonderful multicultural events, I hope that LoMA’s students will always continue to celebrate our diversity in such inspiring ways rather than use differences to mock one another.
Work Hard,
John Wenk March 26 3:00 Summer Programs Fair in room 238 March 29 5:45-7:45 Parent-Teacher Conferences March 30 1:00-3:00 Parent-Teacher Conferences April 6- April 15 Spring Break April 26 Talent Show March 19, 2012
Dear LoMA Family,
The marking period ends this Friday. Most of your grade is probably pretty set, but for many classes this last week may offer you the chance to move from a college-killing 75 to the magical 83 or from a 58 to a 65. Engrade should tell you just where you stand in your classes. If it doesn’t, ask you teachers after class today what your current grades are, and see if there is anything that you can do to get those extra points you need to meet your goals. Whether you are doing well or not probably depends on your classwork and homework. When I walk into classes, I can generally tell within a minute or two who is doing well based on a student’s body language and how much she is writing in her notebook. If a student has his head down, is looking around the room or has a blank page on his desk, I worry. I don’t see, of course, how the student is working at home, but I expect that the same kind of rule applies. If a student is completing her homework laying in bed, staring at a blank page and just trying to do the minimum, or less, that student is not nearly ready to complete the kind of independent work that college requires. Colleges only want students who have a proven record of being able to complete independent work. At LoMA, we know that completing the amount of independent work that we require may be a lot to ask students. Other students may be unfocused in class because they do not understand what is going on. That is why our caring teachers give up lunch, come in early and stay late to offer tutoring. Of course, most people come to tutoring if there’s something that they didn’t quite understand in class so that their teacher can explain it more clearly and specifically to them one-on-one or in a small group. There are plenty of other reasons, however, why you should come to tutoring
Because teachers want to teach, they really like it when students show that they care enough to come to tutoring. By going to tutoring, students can show their teachers what kind of students they really are, and maybe give their grades an extra boost during this pivotal week.
March 12, 2012
Dear LoMA Family,
Last semester when we took the freshmen to see Once at NYTW many of them were disappointed that at the end of the play the romantic lead couple never kissed and never got together. The plot of the story played with their expected narrative. After all when two people love and support each other so much, we expect that love will conquer all and the couple will live happily ever after … or at least get to kiss. Lately I have reading about how badly our brain needs to see the world in the form of cogent, cause and effect stories, even when these stories can be false. We especially like stories in which purely good heroes fight self-righteously against evil demons. When we tell these stories about our own lives, guess which character we usually play. We have such an incredible ability for self-deception in our own narratives that I expect that even Hitler considered himself a good man in his own personal narratives. These narratives always make sense because our brain has an unstoppable need to create simple cause and effect in these narratives from whatever data it sees. It’s amazing how we can’t help but to create a narrative to explain the relationship between any two facts. Jeremy Lin comes out of nowhere to challenge Michael Jordan’s record streak of 20-point games. Whitney Houston goes from being the greatest singer of her generation to a tragic figure. Even though we actually know very little about these people, our brain can’t help but look for cause and effect that completes a simplistic explanatory story with despite our lack of data. Once we have this story in our head, we will pick and choose the data we need to make it more convincing, and ignore any data that contradicts our narrative. These biases are no big deal when talking about celebrities, but can be damaging when they impact our own decisions. The narratives that we have about people who are close to us can be just as faulty as those we have about celebrities. I have seen plenty of people continue dating the wrong guy or girl, or keep unhealthy friendships because they have created a narrative about how great these people are. Family or real friends may try to help them to see the truth, but they will never be able to overcome a narrative that says, “but he really loves me,” or “they are the only ones who understand me.” The most dangerous narratives, however, are the ones we create about ourselves. For instance, every kid has a narrative about her performance as a student based on past history and biases. One may believe that she is a strong student who does not need to study in order to do well, or another that he is not good in math. Because he may have failed math in the past and attended tutoring a few times, he may have formed the narrative that “nothing will help.” If he would challenge his narrative by attending tutoring on a regular basis and completing his homework every night, he might see how faulty it is. Similarly, if another student believes that she does not need to study before tests because passing classes is good enough, she may be satisfied with mediocre grades until she starts getting college rejection notices. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, the real-life couple from Once, did actually kiss date after winning an Academy Award together. After three years, however, Hansard said they “broke up because neither of us were really enjoying it." What does that do to our narrative of true love? There is no way that we can live without our narratives; they are essential for understanding and making meaning in our life. The problem is that life is always messier and more confusing than simple narratives allow. People sometimes just make bad choices in relationships; with effort, everyone can be good at math; and relatively unknown Chinese-American basketball player can turn the NBA upside down. Don’t be afraid to challenge your narratives.
Work hard,
John Wenk
March 16 11:00-3:00 Freshman Trip to BMCC to hear St. Luke’s Orchestra March 22 6:00 Multicultural Show March 23 End of the marking period March 5, 2012
Dear LoMA Family,
Over our last vacation, I traveled to Beijing and Hong Kong. For years, I have been curious to explore China’s rich history and was impressed with its temples, palaces and, of course, The Great Wall. Even more interesting, however, was the chance to see the phenomenal economic and cultural changes that have been occurring in this nation of 1.2 billion people. For the last twenty years, since it has become more capitalist, China’s economy has been growing an amazing 10% a year; that’s much more than America’s 2-4% annual growth. As the charts on the back of this page indicate, this is not to say that China is about to pass us anytime soon because we started this period much richer than China. Even if China can keep up this growth rate, it will still take about 30 years to pass us. Nevertheless, the changes in a country that used to face starvation and extreme poverty are dramatic and fascinating. The most visible expression of China’s growth are the huge architectural projects they have recently been completed. In Beijing, the massive asymmetrical Olympic stadium, the titanium 400 foot domed performing arts center shaped like an egg floating in a pool and a twisting 70 story tall skyscraper all represent more exciting architecture than New York has built in my lifetime. In Hong Kong, the density and height of the skyscrapers dazzled me as did the wealth of high-end shopping. There were more Rolex dealers there than there are Starbucks here, and a whole mall just for Armani. China may not yet be able to design and build its own planes or cars, but in other areas, its technology is booming. Its trains travel at 200 miles per hour, and its subways are more efficient than ours. They don’t even have to take their metrocards out to use them - they just wave them their wallets over the turnstile and it opens. You can also use the metrocard the same way to make purchases at 7-Elevens and McDonalds. Yes, 7-Elevens and McDonalds. As the Chinese become richer, they seem to want to buy Western goods at Western Stores. American businesses such as Ford, Coca-Cola or Apple are booming in China. So is American culture. I went to one club that had a fabulous all-night Whitney tribute on the dance floor, our movies sell very well, and American dance companies tour there regularly. Beijing has a 100-acre gallery district full of works by artists trained in America who would be at home in a gallery on the LES or in Chelsea. This is why we should not fear China’s growing economy. As long as America is creating great artists, designers, and inventors, China will be eager to buy our products. Likewise, the 200,000 of them who come to America for college seem to recognize that our higher education system remains the best in the world. Nevertheless, the Chinese are working hard to catch up. The work ethic I saw there was amazing: construction workers building new subway lines through the night, sweatshops operating 24 hours-a-day, and students in school on Saturdays. The best of those students will travel here to compete with our kids for admission to our colleges so that they can make China as wealthy as America. We have a huge head start, but if we don’t stay on our game, we may find ourselves falling behind.
Work hard,
John Wenk
March 22 Multicultural Show March 23 End of the Marking Period
February 27, 2012
Dear LoMA Family,
Ian Parker wrote a fascinating article in The New Yorker magazine recently about the suicide of Tyler Clementi. As you may recall, Tyler was a freshmen at Rutgers University who committed suicide last year by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. The version of the story that came out at the time was that Tyler’s roommate Ravi secretly videotaped him having sex with another guy, posted it on-line and when a closeted Tyler discovered this, he jumped off the bridge. As is always true when bullying and feelings are involved, the truth is much more complex and should be a warning to everyone. The most obvious warning is to anyone who uses a keyboard, as social technology escalated the misunderstandings and hurt feelings that led to Tyler’s death. Parker was able to get access to the social network sites, emails, tweets, and text messages of the two boys, and published them in the article. More significantly, while the two young men had access to each other’s electronic messages, neither one of them seemed conscious that the other might be reading what he was posting. People have always been saying mean things to one another, but now, with the Internet, everything typed can become public, making words casually spoken hurtful and even deadly. Tyler’s postings reveal an alienated, lonely young man struggling with his sexuality. As he wrote on-line, he had recently come out to his parents and friends who mostly supported him. His roommate Ravi, a computer hacker, had (mis)read some of his posts and made a bunch of false assumptions about Tyler. Similarly, Tyler had access to Ravi’s social network sites and saw what Ravi was saying about him. While Ravi’s postings were not especially hateful, many of them were mean and hurtful to Tyler. He often used the word “gay” in a derogatory way and complained to friends that Tyler was a poor, gay social misfit. The press reports of the fateful video weren’t quite accurate either. When Tyler asked to have the room to himself, Ravi was upset and secretly turned on his computer camera from a room across the hall for a few minutes. He saw kissing but no sex; he never recorded the video and never posted it. He did, however, send out a tweet about them “groping” each other that ended with the line, “ewww.” Tyler was very upset when he surreptitiously read this tweet, and complained to his friends on websites that Ravi was in-turn surreptitiously reading. Two days later after another incident when Ravi tried, but failed, to catch Tyler on camera again, Tyler jumped from the bridge after posting a suicide note on his Facebook page. Within five minutes of that posting, Ravi (who may have seen the suicide note by then) sent Tyler a text using the sorry excuse of every bully that he was just having fun: “I’m sorry if you heard something distorted and disturbing, but I assure you all my actions were good natured…I’ve known you were gay and have no problem with it. I just suspected that you were shy about it, which is why I never broached the topic. I don’t want your freshman year to be ruined because of a petty misunderstanding. It’s adding to my guilt.” The saddest part of the article is that this last text seems to be the only genuine message between the two young men. Based on timestamps on their postings, Ravi and Tyler were often sitting next to one another in their dorm room as they were spying on each other and writing their friends about each other, but they never really spoke directly to each another. Imagine the difference if they had put their keyboards aside and had actually gotten to know one another. Instead, Tyler’s body was found washed up in Inwood Park a week later, and Ravi has been charged with invasion of privacy and bias intimidation. If found guilty, he can face 30 years in prison and, as he was born in India, deportation to a country he does not know. Social networking offers tremendous possibilities for finding and building friendships, but as this article so clearly demonstrates, its public nature can also lead to misunderstanding and pain if people aren’t careful. If you’d like to read the full article, Taisha and Ms. C. have copies.
Be careful,
John Wenk
March 2-4 Senior Trip March 22 Multicultural Show March 23 End of the Marking Period February 13, 2012 Dear LoMA Family,
I think that teenagers get too much of a bad rap from the media. Based on news reports and popular television shows and music, one would think that drug use, sex and alcohol abuse are rampant among self-destructive young people. Yet real research and my own observations over the past twenty years show a very different reality. Today, teens smoke, drink and have unprotected sex far less than they did when their parents and I were in high school. This may be one of the reasons why New York City’s high school graduation rate is at an all time high and teenage pregnancy is at an all-time low. The reasons for these changes may be complex, but the overall trend is indisputable. The best source for what American teens do is the University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future Study (MFS). For thirty-five years, these researchers have been surveying 50,000 American high school students about drug use and health. Students may lie, but there is no reason to believe that they lie any more now than they used to, and its results are generally confirmed by the results of other large surveys. As these researchers have been asking 50,000 students these questions over four decades, they certainly have a bigger picture than individual anecdotes do. And the picture looks pretty good. When I was in high school in 1980, the majority of my classmates seemed to get high regularly and nearly everyone I knew had at least tried cigarettes. The MFS confirms this saying that 60% of seniors reported trying pot and 10% smoked it daily. By last year, 40% reported that they had tried it and less than 6% smoked pot regularly. Abuse of illegal drugs besides pot has likewise dropped off from 43% to 25%. Cigarette use has dropped off even more dramatically nationally, from 32% to 17%. New York City’s teens are doing even better as only about 12% of them smoke today. As good as the news on cigarettes is, teens are doing even better in moving away from alcohol use. When I attended high school alcohol abuse was so bad, some students would regularly drink before school and the MFS reports that 70% of seniors drank regularly. Today, that percentage is 42. Despite all of MTV’s programming, it seems that rates of teenage sex are dropping even more significantly than drug use. In 1980, 50% of males and 35% of females reported having sex. Today, only about a quarter of each gender has reported having sex before they graduate. Even more importantly, the vast majority of teens (80% of boys and up to 92% of girls) are using condoms when they do have sex. The results of this are reflected in the lowest teen pregnancy rate in 30 years - 0.7%. All of this is not to say that there are no still significant problems with teen drug use, alcohol abuse and teenage sex. I’ve seen far too many LoMA students drop out or underachieve because marijuana smoking has made them lazy and apathetic about their studies. Likewise, I worry about how alcohol makes teens (and adults) do stupid things that can threaten their lives. AIDS may not be killing as many people as it used to, but it is still destroying lives. If we care about young people, we can’t be complacent about self-destructive behavior which is why we will continue to punish dangerous behavior and counsel our students to make better choices. Thankfully, in the twenty plus years that I have been teaching, I have been seeing increasing numbers of students make better choices, act more responsibly, and succeed in high school. Despite all of the negativity about teens, we need to remember that the great majority of our kids are making good choices.
Work hard,
John Wenk
February 13 12:00 Credit Plus. Students must attend today in room 338 with two contracts in order to earn back missing credits. February 20-24 Winter Break February 6, 2012 Dear LoMA Family,
Welcome back to the new semester. Regents Week went well, and many students ended the term with a bang. Once again, our juniors did outstanding work on the ELA Regents. Ninety percent of them passed, 75% scored high enough to be deemed “college ready” in writing and 35% of them scored over 85. Likewise, the ninth graders did a very nice job writing their essays on the global midterms, and the sophomores had solid results in all of their midterms. Their great writing, along with that of the juniors, was also exhibited in the LEAP Future Stage playwriting contest. I am also very proud of our seniors. Nearly all of them have passed all of their classes and are on track to graduate from LoMA in June. Even better, about a quarter of them have an A average. These seniors have been so successful because they have learned an important skill that many of our underclassmen are still struggling with – the ability to work independently. All of LoMA’s teachers have told me that the main reason students fail is that they do not complete their homework. If we were a school that cared less, we might just pass students when they do not complete their homework. Yet, we want our students to go to college and succeed in the kind of high-paying careers that require independent work. Most of our students are doing well in this respect, but students who fail multiple classes seem to need more assistance in learning how to work independently. To help these students we are starting a new program next Monday. Students who have failed three classes or more may recover two lost credits through a Credit Plus program in order to avoid being left back or attending summer school. These students can complete contracts for two classes through mandatory lunch time study hall everyday of the next term. If a student needs to make up more than two credits, she/he will still have to attend summer school and/or may still be left back. All of the advisors and Ms. Gordon have details of the program. Students who failed fewer than three classes can earn the opportunity to contract with teachers for credit recovery on their own time. They will have to do additional written work, which needs to be submitted and approved by me. Their failing grade will always remain on the transcript, but if they complete the contract, the new grade will give them credit for the class. I’d like to end by thanking everyone for their thoughtful responses to the surveys two weeks ago. The most common suggestions were that we increase the size of the girls’ bathroom and extend lunch. Based upon last week’s vote, we have reversed the girls and boys bathrooms as of today. Regarding the lunch issue, there were only handfuls of students who indicated that they preferred to stay late or come in early to make time for a longer lunch. Aside from these issues, the great majority of responses were very positive, and nearly every student wrote that LoMA’s staff shows that it cares through the tutoring and extracurricular activities. I agree and am glad to see that so many of our students appreciate all of the effort that LoMA’s team puts into their success. I know that I too appreciate working with the best faculty in New York City.
Work hard,
John Wenk
February 9 4:00-7:30 Valentine’s Day February 20-24 Winter Break
January 23, 2012 Dear LoMA Family,
One of the reasons that we give so many mid-terms halfway through the year is to prepare students for college life. In college, classes shut down at the end of every semester so that students can prepare for very long, arduous exams. At this time, college computer labs and the library will generally stay open 24 hours and serve coffee throughout the night so that students can spend hours and hours studying for each exam. We won’t be serving coffee here, but we do expect LoMA students to take their midterms just as seriously and get into the practice of spending hours making flashcards, reviewing entire notebooks and forming study groups. We’ll even have a special Monday tutoring time today to help you prepare for all of the studying you have to do. Be sure that before you leave today that you are clear about what exams you have and when to show up as there will be no make-ups.
With the semester coming to an end this week, this is a good time to reflect back on our school’s progress. So this week I’d like to turn the rest of the newsletter over to you so that you can tell me what you think of LoMA and how you are progressing this year. As always when you write, be thoughtful and include supporting details, as I and the whole staff take these surveys seriously.
Study hard,
John Wenk January 23-27 Regents Week January 30 Professional Development Day – No school for students!!! January 31 First day of new term How would you describe LoMA to a friend?
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______________________________________________________________________________ Describe two things that you like about LoMA and explain why.
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______________________________________________________________________________ What is a particular lesson or unit that you’ve studied in a class that you think was memorable or valuable? Why was it so positive for you?
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____________________________________________________________________________ What is the most important thing you have learned at LoMA, or how has LoMA changed you?
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Describe two things you would do to improve LoMA. Be realistic, For instance, if you want a longer lunch do you want to come in earlier or stay later.
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______________________________________________________________________________ How have the arts affected your learning, the way you think or what you think about?
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______________________________________________________________________________ Describe how have the extracurricular activities been positive or negative for you? Would you like any different activities? ______________________________________________________________________________
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What advice do you have that Mr. Wenk and/or your teachers could use to improve your experience at LoMA?
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January 9, 2012 Dear LoMA Family,
I recently read an article by Harvard psychology professor Daniel Gilbert about his research into what makes people happy. Many of his points rang true for me; how many of them do you agree with?
• Social contact is central to happiness. “We are by far the most social species on Earth,” says Gilbert. “If I wanted to predict your happiness, and I could know only one thing about you, I wouldn’t want to know your gender, religion, health, or income. I’d want to know about your social network – about your friends and family and the strength of the bonds with them.” • The quantity of good experiences is more important than the quality. “Someone who has a dozen mildly nice things happen each day is likely to be happier than somebody who has a single truly amazing thing happen,” says Gilbert. Saying hello to friends, a pleasant dinner with family, completing meaningful projects matter on a daily basis make a bigger difference in happiness than getting the occasional big gift. • One of the reasons for the point above is that we are incredibly resilient. When extremely positive or negative things happen, we may feel good or bad for a while, but pretty quickly we bounce back to our previous state. Think of how great it may have felt to open those Christmas gifts, and then how quickly they didn’t really matter to your general sense of happiness. • There are some basics to happiness. Gilbert says that “The main thing is to commit to some simple behaviors,” such as “meditating, exercising, getting enough sleep, and nurturing your social connections. Twice a week, write down three things you’re grateful for, and tell someone why. I know these sound like homilies from your grandmother. Well, your grandmother was smart.” • Practice altruism. There is a strong correlation between helping others and feeling good about oneself. Maybe this is the reason that NY Cares and Student Council are two of our most popular clubs. • Happiness differs more from moment to moment than it does from person to person. “This suggests that it’s not the stable conditions of our lives, such as where we live or whether we’re married, that are the principal drivers of happiness,” says researcher Matthew Killingsworth, who has tracked the happiness levels of 15,000 people in 83 countries via an iPhone app that asks them to say what they’re doing and rate their happiness at random moments during the week. “It could be the small, everyday things that count the most. It also suggests that happiness on the job or in school may depend more on our moment-to-moment experiences – our routine interactions with coworkers, the projects we’re involved in, our daily contributions – than on the stable conditions thought to promote happiness, such as a money.”
Stay connected, and be happy,
John Wenk January 10 and 12 3:45-5:45 Swim classes continue – See Mr. Colin for details January 16 Martin Luther King Day No School January 23 Last Day of Term Regular Day of School January 24-30 Regents Week
December 19, 2011 Dear LoMA Family,
The holidays are upon us: happy children singing carols, families decorating the perfect twelve-foot Christmas tree, and parties for each of the twelve nights. It’s a time of joy, peace and love…or not.
I hate to sound like the Grinch here, but something very unfortunate that veteran teachers have discovered long ago is that the holidays are actually a miserable time for many students. If the scene above describes your family that’s wonderful – nurture and appreciate it. For most students, and adults, however, ‘tis the season for stress, illness and disappointment. Most school records show that December is the month that has the most fights, illnesses, thefts and generally rude behavior. Holiday movies, commercials, television specials and advertisements conspire to show us idealistic images of people who buy cars for their loved ones, sing happily around the fireplace and receive loads of gifts. But when people have to face the reality that they can’t buy the best gifts for their friends, that the Xbox 360 may not be under their tree and that members of their family may miss Christmas dinner, it can lead to depression, anger and resentment.
Now here’s the sneaky part, they may not even know it. Very often we are not conscious of our deepest feelings. So part of us may be singing the carols with our friends and enjoying the shopping, cooking and eating, but at same time we may also be feeling left out from the even greater fun that we feel everyone else is enjoying. We don’t want to even admit that we’re not in on the fun, so we keep our depression and disappointment a secret, even (in a way) from ourselves. The real secret though is that the great majority of people are feeling the exact same way. The media and our culture hype them up so much that hardly any family can actually celebrate and buy enough to be truly satisfied. Do you want proof – look at the suspension records in any school for the month of December.
As long as we let advertising and media have power over us, we will always feel disappointment for not living up to some mythological ideal. However, if we focus on what we do have, maybe I think we will be better off. Despite all of the hype, I still love the holidays. It may not be ideal, but I love my family for what it is. I may not be able to buy all of my friends the most expensive gifts, but I try to get them the most thoughtful ones. This is the time of year for me to make time to renew friendships with cousins and acquaintances I do not see nearly enough. And I love singing to all of the corny carols, even if it is only to myself (no one else can bear to hear my singing).
The holidays can be the most magical, wonderful time of the year (we do get a week off from school!). But it’s OK if they’re just a good time with those we have. Either way, we need to be conscious of how we are feeling and share our love in our own unique ways.
Work Hard,
John Wenk December 24-January 2 Holiday Vacation January 3 and 5 3:45-5:45 Swim classes begin – See Mr. Colin for details
December 12, 2011 Dear LoMA Family,
Is it better to think fast or slow? Daniel Kahneman, a Noble Prize winning economist and psychologist has a surprising answer to this. He says that evolution has developed two different and independent systems of thinking in our brains. These two systems are usually complimentary, but in modern times, they sometimes come into conflict leading to poor decisions based on insufficient information. Centered on the lower part of the brain, System One is sometimes called the reptilian brain as it evolved before mammals came into existence. Based primarily on emotions such as fear, love and hatred, it is amazingly fast and allows us to recognize faces, speech and movement in a fraction of a second. This system would have been important in prehistoric times when humans had to react quickly to human and animal enemies. Back then, we would have had to rely on intuition and quick action based on string emotion. If we experienced the death of a friend from a snakebite once, we would react quickly and even violently every time we saw anything that even looks a little like a snake. In this situation, being wrong would be better than being slow to react. System One can lead to many positive reactions as well. It is why our heart beats so quickly when we see someone we love after a long absence, and it explains why we love some familiar melodies so much. The problem with System One, however, is that we don’t live in prehistoric times anymore and its instinctual, emotional way of reacting to threats can actually cause many problems in modern society. The same emotion that makes us instinctually jump from a snake can cause us to verbally or physically assault an innocent person we feel is a threat. When System One is in charge, we can become aggressively defensive. Even more pragmatically is how it can lead to tribalism, a dislike for those who are different from us. There was probably a time in prehistory when tribalism made sense; it was safest to trust people who looked more like our family members, but in modern America, this can form an instinctual basis for racism. Of course, we have evolved from such primitive times and developed a new system for thinking. System Two, or the mammalian brain, is much slower forming judgments based on conscious thinking and critical examination of evidence. It allows us to evaluate past actions and plan for the future. This higher order thinking allows us to understand how dangerous tribalism is in our multicultural society. It allows us to analyze and improve our relationships. System Two is what separates us from animals, allowing us to create and appreciate art and build civilizations. If System Two is so good for us, than why do we still have a System One? Kahneman suggests that it is because we remain lazy. System Two requires much more effort and energy than System One. The upper part of the human brain, where it takes place, is much larger than in any other animal and it requires a great deal of our blood flow. Emotionally reacting to the world by watching TV and playing video games is easy and feels good. Actually problem solving or creating something takes much more work, but that is what makes us fully human.
Work Hard,
John Wenk December 14 Freshmen trip to NYTW to see Once December 13th and 14th 4:00 Mandatory baseball team interest meeting in the auditorium December 24-January 2 Holiday Vacation December 12, 2011 Dear LoMA Family,
Is it better to think fast or slow? Daniel Kahneman, a Noble Prize winning economist and psychologist has a surprising answer to this. He says that evolution has developed two different and independent systems of thinking in our brains. These two systems are usually complimentary, but in modern times, they sometimes come into conflict leading to poor decisions based on insufficient information. Centered on the lower part of the brain, System One is sometimes called the reptilian brain as it evolved before mammals came into existence. Based primarily on emotions such as fear, love and hatred, it is amazingly fast and allows us to recognize faces, speech and movement in a fraction of a second. This system would have been important in prehistoric times when humans had to react quickly to human and animal enemies. Back then, we would have had to rely on intuition and quick action based on string emotion. If we experienced the death of a friend from a snakebite once, we would react quickly and even violently every time we saw anything that even looks a little like a snake. In this situation, being wrong would be better than being slow to react. System One can lead to many positive reactions as well. It is why our heart beats so quickly when we see someone we love after a long absence, and it explains why we love some familiar melodies so much. The problem with System One, however, is that we don’t live in prehistoric times anymore and its instinctual, emotional way of reacting to threats can actually cause many problems in modern society. The same emotion that makes us instinctually jump from a snake can cause us to verbally or physically assault an innocent person we feel is a threat. When System One is in charge, we can become aggressively defensive. Even more pragmatically is how it can lead to tribalism, a dislike for those who are different from us. There was probably a time in prehistory when tribalism made sense; it was safest to trust people who looked more like our family members, but in modern America, this can form an instinctual basis for racism. Of course, we have evolved from such primitive times and developed a new system for thinking. System Two, or the mammalian brain, is much slower forming judgments based on conscious thinking and critical examination of evidence. It allows us to evaluate past actions and plan for the future. This higher order thinking allows us to understand how dangerous tribalism is in our multicultural society. It allows us to analyze and improve our relationships. System Two is what separates us from animals, allowing us to create and appreciate art and build civilizations. If System Two is so good for us, than why do we still have a System One? Kahneman suggests that it is because we remain lazy. System Two requires much more effort and energy than System One. The upper part of the human brain, where it takes place, is much larger than in any other animal and it requires a great deal of our blood flow. Emotionally reacting to the world by watching TV and playing video games is easy and feels good. Actually problem solving or creating something takes much more work, but that is what makes us fully human.
Work Hard,
John Wenk December 14 Freshmen trip to NYTW to see Once December 13th and 14th 4:00 Mandatory baseball team interest meeting in the auditorium
Dear LoMA family,
It’s nothing new to say that life isn’t fair, what is new is that it is getting less and less fair, especially for people with less education. My dad never went to college, but he is a genius when it comes to fixing things. Forty years ago, after graduated high school, he went to a computer training school for a few months and got a good job fixing computers. For forty years, it paid him enough to buy a house and comfortably raise five kids. Now, that same job would require at least a bachelor’s degree and does not pay as well. This is happening in every profession as our economy is becoming more and more divided between those who go to college and those who don’t. Thirty years ago, the average college graduate made 38 percent more than the average high school graduate; now that figure has changed to 75 percent. By the time our students start working, college graduates will likely make twice as their peers who only graduated high school. The biggest causes for this change are the rising role of technology and globalization. The computers my father used to fix are cheaper, easier to use and more replaceable. Nowadays, people are more willing to throw things away rather than fix them. Evolving technology means that fewer people do jobs that used to be very labor intensive. For instance, the music, graphic design and the publishing fields have all laid off huge portions of their well-paid work force. On top of this, those same computers aren’t being made in the USA any more. Along with everything else, they are more likely to be made in China or another country where the labor is cheaper. Together, sophisticated technology and international trade has replaced millions decent-paying secretary, factory and farm jobs that will never come back. In their place, most of the new jobs, forty million of them, pay much less: sales clerks, cleaning jobs and restaurant staff. There’s nothing wrong with this work. I enjoyed my five years working in kitchens; it is just hard to raise a family on what they pay. As so many manual jobs disappear, profitable jobs in the new economy require more and more skills, especially those involving literacy, problem solving, creativity and teamwork. Clothes manufacturing may no longer provide millions of union jobs, but clothing design will provide thousands of college graduates high paying creative jobs. Televisions won’t ever be made in the American factories again, but television programs will provide work for the best writers and actors and health care and education jobs won’t go away, but salary levels will be determined by educational achievement. Our new globalized, hi-tech economy is ruthless in choosing winners and losers. Manual jobs like my father had are disappearing or paying less while the few rewarding jobs are requiring more education. We want LoMA to be a school for winners, which is why we need to constantly have a sense of urgency. It’s not fair, but without the 83 average, the options for our students are just very limited.
Work Hard,
John Wenk December 9 End of second marking period December 8 and 10 7:00 LoMATE Production of The Crucible December 14 1:00 Freshmen trip to NYTW to see Once
November 28, 2011
Dear LoMA family,
Have you ever noticed how some people always seem to be miserable, angry or frustrated? They seem constantly to be the victims of bad luck, unfair situations, and harassment from others. Other people always seem to be in more control over their lives; bad things may happen to them and get down, but they seem more resilient. I’ve seen some students so resilient that they can bounce back from all kinds of crises that would drive other students into depression. What makes the difference? Unsuccessful or unhappy people always seem to have dozens of reasons why bad things “happen to them.” They react to situations. They get bad grades and it’s because their teachers didn’t teach them; they get into fights and it’s because everyone is picking on them; they’re late to school and it’s the train’s fault. These people then nurse the anger and hostility towards others. As long as they can blame others, they don’t have to look inside of themselves and face the harsh truth that perhaps they need to change, that maybe they could have done things differently. It is all about protecting the ego. Proactive people, on the other hand, take action before a crisis arrives as opposed to reacting after problems form. They may have as much bad luck as reactive people, but they don’t make themselves victims. If the train is always late, then they leave home earlier; if they don’t feel that the teachers teach them in class, they go to tutoring, and if everyone is picking on them, then they improve their attitude. Of course, none of this is easy (if it was, then we would all be angels), but without the right attitude it isn’t even possible. If we think of ourselves as victims of circumstances instead of individuals who make choices that determine our lives, then we will just mope in self-righteous misery. Of course, to take charge of your life means you need to plan ahead for bad conditions. Of course, you can’t plan for everything, but you can foresee much of what will happen to you, especially in academics. For instance, you do know that exams will test how hard you’ve been working in your classes: the SAT will show how much math and reading you’ve done throughout your life; and if high paying jobs generally require significant reading and writing skills. As the saying goes, “failing to plan is planning to fail.” In considering how you plan for success in life, you can choose between proactively solving your problems or spending your life proving to people that you have a right to be miserable.
Be proactive,
John Wenk November 29 10:45 Sophomore Trip to St. Luke’s Orchestra at Hunter College December 1 8:00 Junior Trip to the Constitution Center in Philadelphia December 8 and 10 7:00 LoMATE Production of The Crucible December 14 1:00 Freshmen trip to NYTW to see Once
November 21, 2011
Dear LoMA Family,
Aside from the overeating, I think Thanksgiving is one of our healthiest holidays. It provides us a time and place to reflect on what we are thankful for. Here at LoMA we can give thanks for being part of a school that is so widely recognized for its excellence. We are one of only ten NYC high schools that has earned a score in the top 10% three years in a row on the school progress report; we are one of the few schools to be rated “highly developed” on our last Quality Review; and now we have received another very positive review from Insideschools.org. I don’t know if everyone realizes it, but most of the time when I walk into classrooms with guests in tow, they are there to see successful students at work. LoMA’s students are showing their success in so many ways this year: · In every class I visit, I am proud to see nearly every student hard at work. As the Insideschools.org review said, LoMA’s students are “uniformly engaged” in their work. · This engagement continues well after the regular school day ends. Tutoring sessions are packed with diligent, committed students, and our after school clubs seem more popular and productive than ever. · Student attendance and timeliness are the best they have been in years, demonstrating our students’ sense of responsibility. These good efforts of our students manifested themselves in the longest honor roll I can remember this marking period. One big reason for our students’ success is the work that LoMA’s teachers put into their creative lesson planning, professional lesson execution and dedicated tutoring sessions. I don’t think that students think very often about how much work it takes for teachers to plan interesting lessons. LoMA’s teachers don’t just repeat the same lessons year after year; they plan to together constantly to renew and refresh their lessons, and then stay after school for an hour tutoring, all because they care. That same caring is reflected in the work of all of LoMA’s support staff. For a school our size, we have a lot of counselors, paras, office staff, and school safety agents. More than in any other school I’ve worked in, all of these people are focused on ensuring that students can be successful in their academics. Beyond our school’s staff, I am thankful for all of the outside organizations who support our students. Edgies, Henry Street, NYTW, NYU, Open Road, NY Cares, and The Door all provide dedicated staff who provide fun, interesting programming that help our students become more responsible, committed, and caring. Of course, LoMA’s family includes our students’ parents, guardians, siblings, aunts, grandparents, and cousins. Working with Trece, they have become a huge support for our school as they fundraise, make recommendations on the School Leadership Team, and help plan special events like last week’s Open House. That Open House was attended by more than 300 people interested in joining our LoMA family. Our dancers and singers showed them just how talented LoMA students are and the seniors were friendly, spirited tour guides. Given the success of the evening, I expect that more than 1800 students will apply this year for one of 90 spots. To show our appreciation to the students and staff who have already gotten into our little school, we’ll celebrate at our annual Thanksgiving Feast this Tuesday at 4:00 pm. I’ll be making nine turkeys, two hams, and dozens of side dishes and desserts. New York Cares and Student Council will be serving the food and cleaning up, with the help of many staff. Please bring your families and join with us in thanksgiving.
Work Hard,
John Wenk November 22 4:00 LoMA’s Annual Thanksgiving Feast November 24 and 25 Thanksgiving Break November 29 Sophomore Trip to hear St. Luke’s Orchestra at Hunter College December 1 Junior Trip to the Constitution Center in Philadelphia
November 14, 2011 Dear LoMA Family,
Last week I saw one of my former PPAS students, Daniel Ulbricht, dancing on the stage at Columbia University. I wasn’t surprised. He has become one of the more famous dancers in New York, and last year, at the young age of 25, he was promoted to principal dancer at New York City Ballet making him one of the best dancers in one of the best dance companies in the world (and one of the best paid). I remember thinking when he took my tenth grade global class that he was a young man who had the discipline to make it. In fact, when I think back on my other students who have been successful and famous, the most important common trait that they all shared was self-discipline. Clyde Archer began ninth grade as a mediocre student and was overshadowed by another flashier dancer in the school who seemed to me to have more natural talent. Yet starting in tenth grade, Clyde began taking more dance classes and practiced longer hours at Alvin Ailey Dance School. At the same time, he also attended tutoring more often and began completing his homework more completely. The other student didn’t put in the same effort. I don’t know what became of him, but Clyde graduated from Julliard, one of the best dance colleges in the country, performed in Spain for a year before joining the Ailey Company as a principal dancer. He did miss PPAS’s graduation though; he was at the White House receiving an award for his talent and scholarship. Alicia Keys was Alicia Augello-Cook when I taught her. She was a passionate singer when I met her, but worked with the choral teacher after school almost everyday learning the basics – scales, theory, and history. She was so strong at this that when she was in eleventh grade she taught a music theory class to her peers. Also in eleventh grade she went to Rome to sing for the Pope. Some of us were worried that her grades would suffer when she missed school. I wasn’t concerned. Alicia never missed a homework assignment, was always an intellectual leader in class discussion and helped her fellow students. She is the only student for whom I have written two recommendations for thereby helping her get accepted into Columbia University with a scholarship. She did make it to her graduation – having the highest average in the class, she was the valedictorian and gave a magnificent speech. Ms. Schaller and I taught at PPAS for about eight years. Now, hardly a month goes by that we don’t see our students on the stage, in the movies, on television or in the paper. It is fascinating to me that virtually every one of them was a good student. Alicia, Clyde and Daniel may not be using all of the math, science and English that we taught them, but they have excelled in the more important things that we taught them – responsibility, punctuality, hard work and caring about what they do. If nothing else, school must teach students these values of self-discipline so that they can succeed on any stage they choose. After all, if a young person doesn’t learn how to control himself, then not only can’t he be a star, he can’t even be a responsible father, dependable worker or good friend. That is why at LoMA we make such a big deal about being on time, completing homework and paying attention in class. We want our students to care. And as they learn to care about their success, I expect to see many of my new students performing on the finest stages of the world.
Keep your focus,
John Wenk November 14-18 LoMA Spirit Week November 22 4:00 LoMA’s Annual Thanksgiving Feast November 24 and 25 Thanksgiving Break November 29 Sophomore Trip to hear St. Luke’s Orchestra at Hunter College December 1 Junior Trip to the Constitution Center in PhiladelphiauHH November 7, 2011
Dear LoMA Family,
A few weeks ago, I spoke about how the brain is like a muscle. No one is born with strong muscles, but the more effort we put into exercise and guided practice, the stronger we become. I remember in third grade when Mr. Colin and I tried lifting his big brother’s weights, I couldn’t even bench press the 45 pound bar. I felt so weak that I didn’t try again until I got to college. Then, when I started working out at the gym for the first time, I felt embarrassed over how little I could lift. It felt like everyone was looking at the big, fat kid who was a real wimp. Fortunately, I had a good trainer who showed me how to breathe while lifting, improved my form and varied the exercises. The pounds started coming off as I became stronger and more skilled. The brain muscle works the same way. New stuff may be difficult to learn at first and make us feel inadequate, but with perseverance and good coaching, we can get stronger and more adept. For your brain, your coaches are your teachers who can improve your ability to solve problems, read fluently and write cogently.
Without being sufficiently and regularly challenged, however, even strong muscles can atrophy. For example, now when I go to the gym I usually bench press 200 pounds. If I took the easy way and lifted just 150 pounds, however, I’d never improve because my muscles wouldn’t be challenged enough to grow. It’s the straining of the muscles that encourages their growth. This is where the famous maxim “no pain, no gain” comes from. At the same time, if I put 250 pounds on the bar, nothing would happen because I could not lift the weight. The right weight should be a little difficult, but not impossible to lift. In the same way, your brain requires constant challenges to grow. Tic tac toe used to be a challenge to you, but now you’re brain has gotten too strong for that. If the work is easy, it’s not going to lead to any increase in intelligence.
Reading, like all learning works the same way. During independent reading time students should be reading books that are a little challenging, but not frustrating to read. The book should also be enjoyable enough to motivate students to continue reading at home. Twenty minutes of reading a day is not enough to improve reading ability. Students need to get interested enough in their books that they continue reading them for at least an hour a day. It is only with this kind of practice that they will actually become stronger readers.
There’s one more interesting way that the brain is like a muscle. Muscles need rest and good nutrition to develop. Their growth doesn’t occur during the strain of exercise but overnight when the sleeping body transmits the nutrients of a healthy diet to the most worn muscles. Likewise, our brain cells grow while we are a sleep. This is why it is so important that adolescents with their intense body and brain development get just over eight hours of sleep a night, more than adults or younger children. It is also why it is so important that they eat plenty of the food that the cells need: vegetables, fruits and proteins.
Over the years, I have seen thousands of weak students become strong. I know it wasn’t easy for any of them – it required perseverance, smart choices, and guided practice. That’s why the more I see students struggle in their schoolwork, the prouder I am of them because I know how strong they’ll become.
Work Hard,
John Wenk
November 8 Election Day No school for students November 11 Veteran’s Day No school November 17 Parents’ Association meeting November 22 Thanksgiving Day Feast October 31, 2011
Dear LoMA Family,
Just as students received their report cards last week, LoMA also received it school progress report last Tuesday. I’m proud to report that we are now a “Triple A” school having received the city’s highest grade three years in a row. Even more significantly, we have ranked in the top 8% of all city schools all three years. This year we rank 26th out of 370 high schools. While we scored highly in every area, here are some of our accomplishments that I am especially proud of: · Our four-year graduation rate rose 7% last year, and our six-year graduation rate is an amazing 86%. · While the progress report doesn’t show this, 96% of our graduates were accepted into college last year and over 90% began college this fall. · As the city tabulates the scores, our students’ scores on the global regents last year were the tenth highest in the entire city, and the math Regents scores were nearly as high. On the English Regents, we were recognized for having so many students scoring over 75. · Our students are completing more Regents than nearly all of those in similar schools. · Our college preparatory course index, which indicates how much college level work our students are doing, is over twice as high as similar schools.
Of course, there are many great things happening at LoMA that are not reflected on the report card: · Extracurricular activities are more popular than ever. LoMATE, the dance troupe, cheerleading, chorus, and NY Cares are all at capacity, and many of the smaller clubs are doing wonderful things. · More students are and will be taking SAT prep classes this year than ever. · Tutoring sessions after school are full and productive. · Students are able to check their academic progress on Engrade in all of their classes. · The Halloween Dance in our new black box space was a huge hit. The LoMA Dance Company put on an electric performance, and everyone seemed to have a great time. It was well organized by the student council, and more staff helped chaperone than I can thank here, but you are all appreciated. · Students are taking their attendance and punctuality more seriously than ever. Our school-wide attendance rate is running close to 90%.
As good as we are doing as a school, many individual progress reports do not look nearly as good as LoMA’s. Too many students are failing multiple classes. Part of this marks the transitional period of the beginning of the school year as students are hit with the higher expectations of a new grade. As this marking period will be averaged in with the next two to form the transcript grade that colleges will see, these students need to now work twice as hard the rest of the term to raise these grades to get the 83 average they need for a four-year college.
Having looked at everyone’s report, I noticed that the most common comment next to failing grades is “poor/missing homework.” Many freshmen, in particular, seem to have been caught off guard by the greater homework expectations of high school. It’s taken them too long to realize that they will not pass without completing their homework every night. Now that they and everyone else sees how important homework and studying is, I expect to see much higher grades next time. Our school is earning straight “A”s, its students can too.
Work Hard,
John Wenk October 29 10:00-2:00 Laptop Fair in Auditorium:. $250 laptops available November 8 Election Day No school for students November 11 Veteran’s Day No school
October 24, 2011
Dear LoMA Family,
I made it all the way through my high school without ever really knowing how to study. I would usually take good notes in my classes, and the night before a test, I would read them over hope for the best. It was only in college when that I really learned how to study, and I saw my grades go from 70s to 90s. Now researchers are conducting experiments to see what works best. As in all things in life, they are finding that the more effort you put into studying, the more you get out of it.
Simply rereading one’s notes might be the easiest way to study, but it is the weakest way to actually remember anything. The reason why is that like a muscle, the brain remembers what it has to work at, and in the case of memorizing something, that usually means that it has retrieve it over and over again. Just as basketball drills or dance routines build muscle, retrieval practice is the way that the mind builds memory. You would never remember a phone number just by rereading it, you need practice using it over and over again (which is why we so rarely remember phone numbers in this cell phone age). Similarly, it is only by recalling information repeatedly that you are able to learn how to retrieve information. Here are several strategies of studying that can help you do this:
· Two-sided flashcards make remembering meanings of terms, rules and facts into a game. Just the making of flashcards can help you more than simply rereading your notes. · Cornell questions, named after the university that first used them, are similar to flashcards in that they get you to ask questions about your notes, and then check your notes again for accuracy. When you can answer all of your comprehensive Cornell questions, then you must know everything in your notes. · Creating graphic organizers like the frame, a Venn diagram, or T chart forces you to remember and reuse the information in a new way, which can help with recall. · Simply rewrite the parts of your notes that are most important to memorize. If you do this without looking at them, you are really forcing your mind to work. · Studying with a friend, especially in tutoring, can be effective, especially if you question one another.
Of course, improving retrieval only works if you have something to recall. If you do not take comprehensive notes and complete your homework you will simply have nothing to retrieve. Those who do work hard still need to study smart.
Work those brain muscles,
John Wenk
October 25 11:00 Representative from the United Nations speaks to sophomores October 27 5:45-8:00 Parent Teacher Conferences October 28 1:00-3:00 Parent Teacher Conferences October 28 Seward Park College Fair November 11 Veteran’s Day No school
October 17, 2011
Dear LoMA Family,
When I first began attending SUNY Cortland, my college, I hated it. The classes were no more interesting than my dull high school classes, my average was below normal and I left campus as soon as classes were over. In my second year, a friend of mine was visiting one of her professors after a sociology class we shared, and I went along. Meeting him in his office after class, I was surprised that this boring, nerdy teacher actually had a sense of humor and was interesting. In fact, when he started talking to us about the boring class we had just had, he even made the material more interesting. After that, I used to visit his office every week to talk about the books we were reading. I didn’t always agree with what he was teaching us – in fact I often argued with him about his theories – but I did begin to care about what he was teaching. As I started doing all of my readings (if only so I could argue with him more intelligently), my grades went up and so did my enjoyment of the class. By the next year, I was visiting every professor during his or her “office hours.” I often still found their classes boring, but I looked forward to when I could discuss the material with them individually, argue their ideas, and just get to know them as people. I, who had always tried to do as little homework as possible, was now completing extra readings and earning straight A’s. Instead of rushing to get out of college as quickly as possible with the minimum number of courses, I ended up staying in college for six and a half years and took so many extra classes that I graduated with two degrees. Now, twenty years later, I am still friends with some of my professors. When we were writing the plan for LoMA, I wanted to recreate this experience so that high school students could experience what I only learned in college. That is why every LoMA teacher keeps “office hours” or tutoring after school from Tuesday to Thursday. For most students the plan is working. I feel like we are really successful as a school when I see students working in small groups with their teachers after school because I know that this kind of learning is often more valuable than the learning that happens in a full classroom. In addition to understanding the material better, there are other reasons to go to tutoring:
I hope this last motivation does not affect many students. The first marking period ends Friday. Every student needs to check Engrade to see that they are on track to meet their goals. It may still be possible to raise your average simply by attending tutoring before then. I remember how embarrassed I was the first time I walked into a professor’s office to talk about the class. I also remember how it changed my entire outlook towards school.
Work hard,
John Wenk
October 19 6:30 Senior Dinner October 20 6:00 Parents’ Association Meeting October 21 Last Day of the First Marking Period
October 3, 2011
Dear LoMA Family,
One of my favorite courses in college was ethics, a philosophy class that studied what was right and wrong and how we know. While we all generally have a good general moral sense of what is right and wrong, too rarely do we take time to consider where these values come from and how good values can come into conflict. For instance, how do people resolve the moral dilemma that occurs when one has to decide between protecting a friend or telling the truth? According to Notre Dame’s sociologist Christian Smith, young people today are thinking about these issues less than previous generations. He has recently come out with a new book on the moral values of young people based on interviews with hundreds of young people around the country. The results were not promising. When asked to describe a moral dilemma they had faced, two-thirds of the young people either couldn’t answer the question or described problems that are not moral at all, like whether they could afford to rent a certain apartment or whether they had enough quarters to feed the meter at a parking spot. When asked about wrong or evil, they could generally agree that rape and murder are wrong. But, aside from these extreme cases, moral thinking didn’t enter the picture, even when considering things like drunken driving, cheating in school, or cheating on a partner. “I don’t really deal with right and wrong that often,” is how one interviewee naively put it. Whether they know so or not, these situations represent just some of the many moral decisions people make every day. I would guess that for our kids, most of these decisions involve honesty and treating others fairly. But even when we do something as mundane as deciding where they shop, we are making moral decisions. For instance, I stopped eating at McDonalds twenty-five years ago for reasons that were later made clear in the movie Supersize Me and began boycotting Target this week when I learned of its support for anti-gay organizations. Who we choose to support with our spending money has moral implications. In explaining how they make moral decisions, most of the young people Smith interviewed said that it was just a matter of individual taste. Their naïve responses ranged from “It’s personal,” to “It’s up to the individual. Who am I to say?” to “I would do what I thought made me happy or how I felt. I have no other way of knowing what to do but how I internally feel.” I would like to think that these people were not really so thoughtless. When my bicycle wheel was stolen last week, I was not saying that it was a “personal” decision of the thief or “who am I to say” that it was wrong. Stealing is wrong. Lying is wrong. Cheating is wrong. I know that the great majority of LoMA’s students are moral. They show this when they follow the rules, act honestly and take care of school property. Nevertheless, I think it is important that they give thought to what makes things moral and how to handle moral dilemmas when different values come into conflict. That is why we use The Book of Questions in advisories, and study oppression in English class and Supreme Court cases in history. LoMA students need to know that their actions have moral implications and that there is a very real difference between right and wrong.
Work hard,
John Wenk
October 4 6:30 Senior Parents’ Meeting October 10 Columbus Day No School
September 26, 2011
Dear LoMA Family,
I would never call a student smart. I think it as dangerous as it is inaccurate to look at intelligence in this “fixed” way. People who have studied intelligence find that is it malleable depending on effort and instruction. Even Einstein didn’t become Einstein until after he put in thousands of hours of study and experimentation. It’s the same for our students. They are good at the things they put the most effort into whether it is dance, basketball or reading, and will never succeed at things they don’t put effort into. The whole trick of education is motivating students to put in the effort to become smart. There have been hundreds of studies to show that smart is something one becomes rather than something that one is. One of my favorites was done by Stanford University professor Carol Dweck. She studied hundreds of New York City students who entered seventh grade with similar grades on math achievement exams. Over the next two years, she found that those who believed that intelligence could be developed by effort improved their scores significantly over a group with a fixed mind-set about intelligence, and this improvement became more significant over time. These students who thought they could learn math tried harder and performed better than those who believed the old, tired lie, “I’m just not good at math.” When asked about the difference, Dweck said that because the higher achieving group “believed that their intellect could be developed, they focused on learning, believed in effort and were resilient in the face of setbacks.” This resiliency is key because successful people tend to make just as many, if not more, mistakes than unsuccessful people. They just understand that mistakes are an opportunity for learning. It’s the people who are afraid of mistakes who never face up to them and thereby never learn how to improve. Instead, Dweck found that these people with a fixed belief in intelligence, “worried more about ‘looking’ smart than not making mistakes.” Tragically and ironically, they “thought that needing to make an effort to learn meant that they were stupid, and became discouraged or defensive in the face of setbacks.” Unfortunately, I’ve seen too much of this. The “smartest” students in the school are the ones who are most likely to go to tutoring, work hard on their homework and pay attention in class. The least successful students, who have the potential to be just as “smart” worry more about what other people think of their intelligence, expend huge efforts to hide their mistakes and act like they don’t care in order to cover for their insecurity. The good news is that Dweck found a way of changing the mindsets of these lowest achieving students. She taught one group of the low performing students about the malleability of the brain using the metaphor of a muscle - the more it’s used the stronger it becomes. These students immediately became more attentive in class, studied harder and completed more homework as their motivation increased. As a result, their scores began to rise as significantly as the group that always believed in the power of effort. I may never tell a student that he or she is smart, but I love complimenting a student for trying hard. I know that these students have the greatest potential for becoming smart and successful.
Work hard,
John Wenk
September 26 Extracurricular Activities begin September 29 and 30 Rosh Hashanah no school October 4 6:30 Senior Parents’ Meeting
September 19, 2011
Dear LoMA Family,
Last spring I finished my dissertation, a 300 page study of how social capital effects high school graduation rates. Social capital refers to the valuable relationships that people have that help them get what they want. For students this may include tutoring from a caring teacher to help pass a test, counseling services from a social worker to help with anger management, or college advising that could lead to scholarships. My thesis, which seems pretty obvious, was that schools where students report having rich, caring relationships with their peers and school staff have higher graduation rates. Of course, this proved to be true. The more interesting finding showed that the single biggest contributor to positive social capital was the level of student participation in extracurricular activities. My statistical analysis of every high school in the city showed that the more students participated in extracurricular activities, the more likely they were to feel connected to their peers and staff, attend a safe school, graduate and go to college. As a part of the study, I interviewed about two dozen LoMA graduates about social capital and their experiences at LoMA. Nearly all of them told inspiring stories about how staff and friends had guided, supported, and inspired them. What was most interesting was how they reported that they formed their most meaningful school-based relationships through extracurricular activities, and that the more intense the activity, the more intense the relationship. For instance, LoMATE, mentoring and internship showed up again and again as huge sources of social capital as these activities required so much time, effort and team problem solving. Only three students felt that they were graduating without having formed significant relationships. These were also the three who had done the least in participating in extracurricular activities. They regretted that they had not put more effort into extracurriculars as they felt ostracized from the LoMA family. This Wednesday, our 7th and 8th period classes will host our annual carousel of extracurricular activities so that advisors and community partners can visit classes to explain their programs. Students will remain in their 7th period classes through DEAR. Students will turn in their selection forms the next day to their advisors and begin attending on the following week. They do not need wait for approval. We require every student to participate in at least two afternoons of activities every week. We believe that doing so will make it more likely that our students will make friends, graduate, attend college and enjoy school, and now I have the evidence to prove it.
Get involved,
John Wenk
September 20 7th and 8th period Carousel of Extracurricular Activities Septmber 21 Extracurricular Activities forms due in to advisory September 26 Extracurricular Activities begin September 29 and 30 Rosh Hashanah no school
September 12, 2011
Dear LoMA Family,
This has been the smoothest start of the school year I can recall. Teachers, students, and our support team are all starting off well-prepared and there seem to be no major issues. Everyone is putting their best foot forward and making positive first impressions no matter what their histories have been. This opportunity for fresh starts is one of the things that I like about working in academia. In life outside of school, one rarely has the opportunity to reinvent oneself, but in school, where programs change every year, it is possible to make changes as each year begins. If a student was perceived to be unreliable, lazy, or rude in ninth grade, she’ll have almost all new teachers in tenth and can start anew. Since we don’t know anything about the middle school experiences of our ninth graders, it is even easier for them to leave behind a negative past and present themselves as responsible, hard working students. Now, as the school year gets started, students need to think about what they want their reputation to be because first impressions die hard. Just as students are judging how serious and caring their teachers are these first few weeks, their teachers are sizing up their students to see who is responsible, diligent and thoughtful. In this mutual period of judgment and evaluation, actions speak a lot louder than words. While almost everyone says the right things at first, teachers are watching how well students participate, complete homework and treat others respectfully. For instance, I had a young man this week who told me (and seemed to believe) that he was being respectful towards his teacher, but he had arrived late, lost his program card and had not completed his homework. He said that he was trying to prove that he was a better student than the year before, but I wasn’t believing him. On the other hand, I have seen many students turn things around when a new year starts. Everyone has the opportunity to demonstrate his or her maturity, responsibility, and caring all year, but only a short time to make a good first impression.
Work hard,
Mr. Wenk
September 15 6:00 Parents Association Meeting September 13 3:00-3:45 Tutoring begins for all classes September 20 2:00 Carousel of Extracurricular Activities September 26 Extracurricular Activities begin September 29 and 30 Rosh Hashanah no school
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