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Uncommon Schools
E-Newsletter |
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Issue 08
April 2008 |
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Uncommon Schools Lottery Night
Rahsaan, a giggly four-year-old, comes bounding down the stairs of the auditorium of Excellence Charter School on the evening of the school’s annual lottery. Clutching an open bag of Mini Oreos in one hand and a Mini Oreo in the other, he chomps noisily on the cookie, the only audible noise in the auditorium save for Principal Jabali Sawicki’s reading of students’ names and the occasional murmur of a baby.
He finds his mother in the third to last row and makes his way past stone-faced adults, one muttering quietly to herself “praise be to Jesus, praise be to Jesus,” to plop himself down in his mother’s lap. Just as he does so, he sputters up chocolate cookie crumbles and erupts with “Mama! They just said my first name!” She lets out a sigh, and, clutching him to her, she rocks her son back and forth, pausing before whispering to him, “Yes, sweetie, I know. I heard it too, baby.”
The annual lottery day for New York City charter schools fell on April 3 this year, meaning that five schools in the Uncommon Schools network held lotteries on a single night: Excellence Charter School, Kings Collegiate Charter School, Leadership Preparatory Charter School, Williamsburg Collegiate Charter School, and Bedford Stuyvesant Collegiate Charter School...
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Bedford Stuyvesant Collegiate: Welcome!
In March, SUNY approved the charter for Uncommon's fifth Brooklyn school. Principal Mabel Lajes-Guiteras, a stellar literacy teacher and current literacy chair at Boston Preparatory Charter School, and Director of Operations Melissa D'Agostino, a former NYC Teaching Fellow who is completing her MBA at Columbia University, will lead the school. They are working with Managing Director Brett Peiser to put the finishing touches on the middle school, which will open in August 2008 to 81 fifth-graders. Congratulations and welcome to the Uncommon network!
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Wordplay: Principal Max Koltuv closes the thirty million word gap
On a day in early March, a harbinger of spring in the city, Cartier Rodriguez, a second-grader at Leadership Preparatory Charter School, walks up the alleyway to his school’s entrance and sticks out a hand to greet his principal, Max Koltuv.
“Cartier, do you think it will be warm for the next few days?” asks Koltuv. The three-and-a-half footer nods enthusiastically before walking through the school’s entrance.
Koltuv turns to a visitor and explains, sotto voce, “Cartier wants to be a meteorologist when he grows up. He is a devotee of The Weather Channel. He can always tell me if a front is coming in.”
Koltuv then continues to shake the hand of each elementary-schooler who attends his school, offering tidbits of information as they walk by. He greets the two sets of identical twins in his kindergarten class (Lashana...
Click here to read more...
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One Percent Solution: Homework
The school day for the four and-five-year-olds at North Star Elementary runs longer than the average American workday. The students arrive at school by 7:30 a.m., and the buses do not arrive to pick them up until 4 p.m. In addition, the kindergarteners take home an hour of homework each night.
For students who need, on average, ten hours of sleep, these youngsters get less than two hours of free time each night, factoring in time spent commuting and a half hour for dinner. But Principal Julie Jackson believes that engaging homework, properly assigned and graded, is one of the keys to long term academic success. She is joined by the other leaders at Uncommon Schools in her belief.
Last November, New York City Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr., upset that he could no longer spend time with his own daughters due to their homework burden, urged the city to adopt a “ten-minute rule” (ten minutes of homework per grade level). The chatter about homework built in op-eds and online education forums.
When asked about this, Principal Julie Trott of Williamsburg Collegiate Charter School, which ranked number one out of the 1,200 public schools graded by the New York City Department of Education last year, echoed the sentiment of all Uncommon schools: “We’re trying to have students improve one-and-a-half or two grades per year. It's impossible for this to happen in the school day."
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Join Our Team. Change History.
Hear how we do it. We know that without great teachers and leaders, little else matters. On April 16th, hear how their involvement with students helps close the achievement gap. To find out more click here.
See how we do it. On April 22nd, visit True North Rochester Prep, in Rochester, NY. To find out more click here.
Change History. Uncommon Schools is always looking for talented teachers, leaders, and builders to help us close the achievement gap.
To learn more, visit www.uncommonschools.org or contact our Recruitment team at recruitment@uncommonschools.org |
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