Birdhouse Benefit - PTA Arts Benefit on May 20th!

A Musical Revue Featuring Our Tal-ented NEST+m Teachers and Staff: • Jillian Fletcher (MS Theater Teacher) • Joshua Goldstein (4th Grade Teacher) • David Salyers (LS Music Teacher) • Bobby Durand (Custodian) • Pieter Voor-hees (MS Music Teacher) • Sarah Wolff (MS Music Teacher)

Parents and Teacher Artists…Including Lead Singer of a Rock Band, Professional Comedians, Professional Musicians, and Seasoned Performers and Veterans of Many Professional Stages: • Lyndon Achee • Taunglea Ambroise • Alexis Bronkovic • Olivia Billeci • Scott Ethier • Miranda Gordon • Sam Greenfield • Hope Landry • Kristen Persinos Barbara Singer • Rana Strazza • Samantha Wil-liams • Will Wood

With a Supporting Cast of NEST+m Students: • Madison Ambroise • Lily Bender • Tasheen Bennett • Clarisa Carillo • Travis Davis • Eloise Esseks • Audrey Gordon • Joyce Ho • Kaeta Jarkow • Macy McGrail • Daniela Morgan • Cate Pederson • Joelle Parness • Nia Powell

• Dr. Olga Livanis, Principal, NEST+m • Jared Rosoff, AP Lower School • Brendan Alfieri , AP Supervision• Julia Cunningham, AP of Organization • Tina Yu, AP Upper School

NEST+m, New York City Department of Education, 111 Columbia Street, New York, NY 10002 Tel (212) 677-5190 Fax (212) 260-8124 • www.nestmk12.net

Three Exciting Events Coming Your Way Courtesy of the PTA!• Harry Potter Trip! Toss around a quaffle and check out Harry’s original wand and glasses at HARRY POTTER:THE EXHIB-IT at Discovery Times Square, an interac-tive display of more than 200 original props and costumes from your favorite wizards! The NEST+m PTA is organizing a trip to the exhibit on Monday, June 13, at 1:30 pm (school will be dismissed at 11:30 that day).Ticket information to fol-low shortly.All children must attend with a chaperone (adults can chaperone as large a group of kids as they can handle). More info on how to purchase tickets will be send out soon! • Mets Game! The PTA has 47 tickets avail-able for the METS vs Pirates game on Tuesday, May 31st at 7:10pm. The seats are in Section 129 and are $45. Let’s go Mets! Ticket info coming soon!• Rye Playland! There is no school on Thursday, June 9th, so the PTA has ar-ranged a trip to Rye Playland! Tickets are $30 for unlimited rides and $5.00 for spectator tickets. Busing will be available for $15.00 per person. The Park is open

NEST+m May 2011Volume 5, Issue 8

Monthly News

from 10am to 4pm. The bus will pick up in front of Washington Irving High School (40 Irving Place) at 9am, with departure at 9:15am. The bus will depart Rye Playland at 4pm. Ticket info coming soon! NEST+m K-3 Chess Team Wins!Our fabulous NEST+m K-3 Chess Team won First Place at the National Elementary Chess Championship in Dallas, TX. You will soon see plaques and a huge trophy that is taller than some of the players! Furthermore, three NEST+m team mem-bers tied for 20th place in the individual K-3 competition, each winning five out of seven games: Maury Ahram (3rd Grade), Jeffrey Ro-driguez (3rd Grade), and Mario Tutuncu-Macias (2nd Grade). All three received individual trophies for their performance. NEST+m was also well represented by Aidan Ahram (2nd Grade), Alex Harris (2nd Grade), Kyle Miller (2nd Grade), Julian Tutuncu-Macias (6th Grade), and Jonathan Waldorf (Kindergarten). As research shows, chess has tremendous academic benefits for students, and this huge win shows just how promising our students are. Hopefully more students in

different grades will become part of the chess team because NEST+m has the potential to be a chess powerhouse!

The NEST+m K-3 National Chess Champions!

From the Producers of ANNIE…Please Join Us for a Special Evening of Entertainment

In Support of the Arts at NEST+mFriday, May 20th, 2011 at 7 PM

• Jasmyne Roberts • Madison Roberts • Carli Seigelstein • Isabella Serrano • Riley Sexton • Mavis Simpson-Ernst • Mia Slate • Madeline Slater • Julia Sperling • Fina Strazza • Nixie Strazza • Emily van de Kieft • Lexy van de Kieft • Sadie VokesThere’s More!

Beginning at 6 PM, a selection of fabu-

lous art created by NEST+m students will be available for sale in the lobby! Tickets are $20 each and are available online at birdhouse.tix.com All proceeds from the evening will be used to support the arts at NEST+m, and specifically will help us with immediately needed auditorium upgrades. See you there!

NEST+m MONTHLY NEWS Volume 5, Issue 8 May 2011

From Dr. Livanis, Principal

Dear NEST+m Families:The 5th Annual NESTfest, our annual

student talent show featuring students of all ages, was wonderful! The voices, the dancing, the musicality and our students’ instrumental adroitness amaze me every year.

Even though this school year is quickly nearing its end, there is still so much we have to celebrate! On Friday, May 20th at 7 pm, we will showcase the talents of our faculty and parents, with a supporting cast of Lower School students currently in-volved in arts at NEST+m. The purpose of the benefit is to raise funds for immediate upgrades to the auditorium (e.g. drapes, lighting, sound). We hope you can attend!

In June, we will celebrate our 5th and 8th Grade Graduations and our Com-mencement of 126 seniors (our largest 12th grade class to date)! While the 5th Grade Graduation, scheduled for Friday, June 24th, will take place at NEST+m, for the first time ever our 8th Grade Gradu-ation and 12th grade Commencement ceremony be off-site in an 800 seat audi-torium, to ensure adequate seating for all families – plus air conditioning. Those two ceremonies will take place at the Hunter College Brookdale Science Campus located at 1st Avenue and 25th Street. The Commencement is scheduled to begin at 11am and the 8th Grade Graduation at 2 pm. The two speakers for the Commence-ment ceremony are Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and Yale Prof. of Engineering Ainissa Ramirez.

Thank you for your generous support of the School Supplies-a-Breeze Program for the 2010-2011 school year. Your contribu-tions helped supply our students and their teachers with much needed classroom ma-terials. With your help, teachers were able to purchase what was needed to create and enrich a successful learning environ-ment for our students. For the 2010 – 2011 school year, 500 of 623 families con-tributed $150 or less towards the School Supplies –a-Breeze Program. That is over 80% participation. Great work! Please see the chart below for detailed fundraising and spending for 2010-2011.

The School Supplies –a-Breeze collec-tion for the upcoming 2011-2012 school will begin soon. In order to meet the class-room supply needs for the coming school year, each family is asked to contribute

$120 per student to the School Supplies-a-Breeze program. This is less than the amount suggested for last year’s collec-tion. The amount was reduced in response to these difficult economic times, so as not to place a hardship on any families. Stu-dents participating in the School Supplies –a –Breeze program will receive their stu-dent planner and a PE shirt. The additional funds will be used, as always, to purchase classroom supplies. More information will follow regarding the procedures for making your contribution.

At the Lower School Coffee, I also introduced Greg Farrell, a six-year veteran of NEST+m who is to become an Interim Acting Assistant Principal come Septem-ber to head the Lower School. Everyone acknowledged the great job Mr. Rosoff has done and will do until the end of this school year as he prepares to move into the APO Julia Cunningham’s office while she is on maternity leave. Thank you for welcoming Mr. Farrell into his proposed new position. I feel confident in his ability to follow the fine example set this year by Mr. Rosoff.

New curriculum for school year 2011-12 includes Robotics in the 7th grade and the addition of several Advanced Place-ment classes for Upper School students: Studio Art, Statistics, Government, Economics, Chemistry, and Environmental Science. Please note that co- or prerequi-sites apply.

The 2011-12 Summer Session for our incoming 6th and 9th grade students will

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LETTER FROM Dr. Livanisbegin on July 5th. This program is de-signed to introduce students to NEST+m not familiar with our school while building math and writing skills. The incoming 9th graders who participate in the programs will also take a few Upper School courses related to graduation requirements. If the incoming students can attend the 7-week, Monday-Thursday, 8:30am-12 noon- program, it would be great, but it is not mandatory and we understand that many families have already made other plans for the summer.

As you know, we are expecting our school budget to be cut next year, but we have not yet received it, and therefore cannot know the details. I will keep you updated regarding the budget details as they become available.

Finally, I want to thank the many parents who contributed funds towards the renovation and technology upgrade of our Library. As the plans are finalized and more funding is secured, we will update you on our next steps and progress. We are also currently awaiting the Borough President’s response to our application for a technology upgrade grant for our com-puter room (Rm. 301) and four Middle School classrooms.

Please join me in always placing the academic experience of children first. O. Livanis

Middle School Math Team:Thirty students from grades sixth, seventh,

and eighth will participate in a Manhattan-wide math tournament at the Armory on 168th St on Saturday, May 14th. This is NEST+m’s first time participating and looks to be an exciting event for all involved. Congratulations to the eighth grade math team who placed first place in the nation in the Pythagorean division of the Continental Math League. This was our first time earning this honor, and it is quite an achievement. Special congratulations to eighth grader, Gideon Leeper who placed first place among all eighth graders in the nation in the same division. Female students who participated in the AMC 10 or AMC 12, can apply for the “Math Prize for Girls” competition at MIT this September by visiting mathprize.atfoundation.org and entering their score. Please see Ms. Berger if you need further information.Upper School Acknowledgements & Achievements

Congratulations to the following NEST+m students: Travis Davis and Nicholas Gordon were selected by the National Achievement Schol-arship Program, which honors academically talented African American High School students. They were both among approxi-

mately 4,700 highest-scoring participants on the 2010 PSAT/NMSQT. Andrea Jacoby and Elizabeth Page met the requirement to enter the 2012 National Merit Scholarship Program. By obtaining a selection index score of 202 or above, each of them is among the 50, 000 highest scoring participants out of 1.5 million students across the country. Senior Andrea Jacoby Achieves Perfect Score on the 2011 National Latin Exam

Only 568 students out of over 137,000 who participated world-wide attained this distinc-tion. Congratulations, Andrea!

France-Germany International Trip

NEST+m Upper School Students Enjoy Spring Break in Europe

Newsletter Message Lower School : School Supplies –a- Breeze Program

Dear Lower School Families,

Thank you for your generous support of the School Supplies-a-Breeze Program for the

2010-2011 school year. Your contributions helped to supply our students and their teachers

with much needed classroom materials. With your help, teachers were able to purchase what is

needed to create and enrich a successful learning environment for our students. For the 2010 –

2011 school year, 500 out of 623 families contributed $150 or less towards the School Supplies

–a-Breeze Program. That is over 80% participation. Great work! Please see the chart below for

detailed fundraising and spending for 2010-2011.

The School Supplies –a-Breeze collection for the upcoming 2011-2012 school will begin

soon. In order to meet the classroom supply needs for the coming school year, each family is

asked contribute $120 per student to the School Supplies-a-Breeze program. This is less than

the amount suggested for last year’s collection. The amount was reduced in response to these

difficult economic times, as not to place a hardship on any families. Students participating in the

School Supplies –a –Breeze program will receive their student planner and a PE shirt. The

additional funds are used towards purchasing classroom supplies. More information will follow

regarding the procedures for making your contribution.

School Supplies a Breeze 2010 – 2011 Breakdown

Total 2010-2011 Contribution from Families + 74205.00

Student Planners Expense - 1890.00

Classroom Supplies Expense – Materials Distributed to All

Classrooms

- 9922.51

Art Materials and Musical Instruments - 5292.13

Allocation to Classroom and Specialty Teachers for Supplies - 52580.00

Surplus for Purchasing Supplies in Advance for Next Year = 4520.36

NEST+m MONTHLY NEWS Volume 5, Issue 8 May 2011

From Jared RosoffLower School AP

Dear Lower School Families:

Spring, that harbinger of the end of the school year, is well underway and those snowstorms are but a distant memory … and I know our students are looking forward to the summer. However there is still much to be done before the end of the year: • May 31st - The Spring Cluster Celebra-tion; Kindergarten through 2nd Grade – 9:00am – 9:30am • May 31st - The Spring Cluster Celebra-tion; 3rd through 5th Grade - 10:00am – 10:30am • May 27th - 4 & 5th Grade Music Celebration • June 1st – 2nd & 3rd Grade Music Celebration • June 1st , 2nd and 3rd – New York State 4th Grade Science exam • June 2nd – Kindergarten & 1st Grade Music Celebration • June 6th – Half Day of School – Dismissal at 11:30am • June 9th – No school; Chancellors Pro-fessional Development Day for Teachers •June 13th – Half Day of School – Dismissal at 11:30am (Please note the

change in date) • June 14th – 2nd Grade New Amsterdam Study • June 28th – Last Day of School

Be assured that as new celebrations and events are planned, I will email the dates home to families via Schoolhub.

Looking back at some of our Lower School’s recent achievements, I would like to extend my congratulations to the NEST+m chess team for becoming the National Champions at the 2011 National Elementary Chess Tournament. Well done!

I also want to congratulate all the students in grades three through five for completing the New York State exams in both English Language Arts and Math-ematics. I know that the teachers did an amazing job preparing the students for the exams, including the new formats and new timing. I’m very proud of our students and anticipate wonderful results! Next is the New York Science exam for our 4th grade students.

Rain prevented our track meets from taking place twice, but we were finally able to have our own NEST+m track meet this past Friday, May 6th at the East River Park. The timing could not have been better. Our students were tired after three days of New York State English Language Arts exams, and we are therefore very grateful to Andy, our Lower School Physi-cal Education teacher, who organized the first ever NEST+m only track meet for grades three through five. We had beauti-ful weather and the students had a great time. Next is the District 1 Championship

Track Meet on May 9th and I wish the best of luck to all participating students!

Please remind your child to swipe his/her ID card everyday at the scan station ei-ther at the Columbia Street entrance (if he/she takes the school bus) or at the Lower School entrance. Students who swipe their ID card after 8:20am will be marked late. There is a five dollar charge to replace a lost ID card. New ID cards are printed by Mr. Chen whose office is located next to the Library.

If your child is in 5th grade, remember that we are having a summer program at NEST+m for all incoming 6th grade students. If you are interested, please contact Mr. Alfieri, the Middle School As-sistant Principal or Ms. Chen, the Middle School Guidance Counselor. The program will run four days a week from 8:30am until 12:30pm and start in July and end in August.

Finally I thank all the students, parents and teachers for making this a wonder-ful school year! Getting to know all the Lower School students (I really tried to remember all the names), parents and faculty was truly an amazing experience! I look forward to next year and seeing all the smiling faces in the hallway – and of course all those cupcakes on birthdays!

If you would like to contact me, please either call me in my office or send me an email at jrosoff@schools.nyc.gov – or you can always find me in the morning by the bell in the courtyard. Have a great spring! Jared Rosoff

UPDATE FROM Lower School

Faculty provided the following descriptions of cur-rent coursework:

KindergartenOur tree study is underway! The kin-

dergartners are having the opportunity to observe trees and plants, learn the parts and functions of both, and conduct several tree related science experiments. This is even carried into Art! (See below). In Math, our students have been reviewing work done throughout the year, before moving on to double digit numbers. In so far as Writing is concerned, we recom-mend that in order to support what is done in class you continue to remind your child to work neatly, use capitals, periods, and finger spaces.

First GradeAfter celebrating our wonderful (and

tasty!) bread study, our first graders are looking forward to our next thematic unit, the Author Study. In this study, the chil-dren will be creating their own published realistic fiction using a given author’s style of writing. Each class will focus on one author, as follows: Ladan’s class-

Robert Munsch; Katherine’s class- Kevin Henkes; Amy’s class- Mem Fox; Aurora’s class- Laura Numeroff; Hae Jung’s class- Ezra Jack Keats. In Science, students are learning about solids and liquids. They have compared different solid objects to see how they are similar or different, built structures using various solid materials, and studied different liquids and their properties. Here are few ways to help your child in math:

• Skip count by 3, 4, 5, and 6’s (don’t forget to skip count down as well)

• Master addition and subtraction facts up to 20 (mastery= automatic re-sponse)

• Telling time (on the hour, half past, quarter after)

• Counting coins and bills

Second GradeSecond graders have been working

hard while learning about the history of New Amsterdam. They have learned about trading between the Dutch and Native Americans, the geography of New Amsterdam, the architecture of houses and buildings, as well as the origin of Wall

Street and Canal Street. They even created overland maps to show how New Amster-dam changed after the Dutch arrived. To further illustrate the subject, our students visited the Wyckoff Farmhouse Museum in Brooklyn which is an authentic Dutch Farmhouse, built during the 17th century. At this museum, they made sachets that were used as perfume or potpourri dur-ing that time period. Our second grade historians will continue their study with a walking tour of downtown Manhattan this month. In addition, our students have become experts on fractions and will be learning all about time and capacity (liters, gallons, quarts, pints and cups). As for Reading and Writing Workshop, second graders have been introduced to the histor-ical fiction genre. Some classes will work on activities based on their read-aloud and others will create their own historical fiction stories that will take place during the 17th century! As always, second grad-ers have been practicing strategies taught in class to help them become confident readers and authors. In Science, students have continued learning about balance and motion by discussing and creating objects

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NEST+m MONTHLY NEWS Volume 5, Issue 8 May 2011

learning with their families. Stay tuned for the date and time of our next Family Celebration.

Fifth GradeFifth grade teachers and students are

very grateful to David Grier and the rest of the staff at the NYU Physics and Chem-istry Labs for welcoming us for another year and, of course, for all the yummy pizza. The enthusiasm and excitement for science that these trips generate is really inspiring and we appreciate the hospitality and commitment to our student scientists. On another note, although we were disap-pointed by all the canceled track meets, we really appreciate Andy’s and Ms. Youn-glove’s dedication and effort to attempt to reschedule and to set up an alternative meet just for NEST+m. Congratulations to all our fifth grade track stars!

The past few months have been full of hard work in preparation for the NYS ELA and Math exams and we are look-ing forward to all the excitement the last two months of school have in store for us. Please check Schoolhub for the final list of celebration dates for Music, Latin America Study and Clusters! We are also looking forward to our Camp Mason trip (June 6th-8th ) and, of course, graduation which will be held on Friday, June 24th at 9:00 am followed by a celebration party that evening. Lastly, if you have not done so already please check the posting on Schoolhub for the summer school acad-emy for incoming sixth grade students and apply as soon as possible. This program is for ALL students and is designed to help transition new and returning NEST+m students to Middle School and prepare them for increasingly rigorous academ-ics. Participation is highly encouraged. As always the fifth grade team thanks the PTA and parents for their generosity and support.

ArtKindergarteners have looked at artwork

inspired by all types of trees! They have looked at the myriad shapes and lines found in trees to create paintings and col-lages. They have also read “A Tree named Steve” by Alan Zweibel, which is about how trees can be part of our lives.

First graders read “Rose’s Garden” by Peter Reynolds and were so inspired by the story that they created paintings and collages of what they love to do in the springtime. We will be connecting with the various author studies to create mini books of our own!

Second graders will soon examine and discuss the architecture of various types of windmills inspired by our New Amster-dam study.

Third graders explored how to create

3-D paper sculptures with enclosures. The knowledge from their geometry unit was put into practice in order to create paper prisms, pyramids, cones, and cylinders. This exercise will help us as we create sculptures incorporating various 3-D forms.

Fourth graders read “Sandy’s Circus” a fun and whimsical story about Alexan-der Calder’s artistic journey. Using wire, corks, fabric, and buttons, we are creating 3-D story scenes complete with imagina-tive characters and settings.

Fifth graders will enter a collage unit and learn photomontage techniques to create large scale pieces that address their feelings toward a social issue.

One last note…. Congratulations to fifth grader, Rachel Salem, on her artistic achievements! After entering a unique poster design in the NYCDOE’s Fitness Poster contest, Rachel won $500 for our school’s Physical Education program! Thanks, Rachel!

Chess/Technology Big news! We are incorporating tech-

nology in first and second grade Chess, and chess in third grade Technology!

I recently created accounts for first and second grade students at chesskid.com. As a result, there now exists a NEST+m chess club, where all students at NEST+m are friends. Chesskid.com en-ables students to play chess with students from around the world. I have recently played chess with students from Ukraine, Japan, and Mexico. Students can play synchronously, live chess, or asynchro-nously, online chess. Furthermore, they can complete chess puzzles, watch chess videos, and read chess articles. All first and second grade students have had an opportunity to use computers to login and play chess, since I have distributed user-names and passwords to them. I am asking that all first and second grade students play chess on chesskid.com twice a week, for forty-five minutes at home. In class I will continue to use computers for chess. Using computers enables me to differenti-ate instruction and engage more students in playing chess … and kids are learning valuable skills at the same time, such as: how to troubleshoot a computer when the Internet is not working, how to use an In-ternet browser, how to log into an account and then log off it, how to use a web site to learn, how to safely and appropriately socialize online.

Kids have been extremely excited about using the computers and playing online, especially the girls. Chesskid.com has been so popular with the students that I have created accounts for the third grade students! I will start distributing user-names and passwords to them next week.

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that prove the theories of how an object balances and how an object moves. Please stay tuned for the announcement of the date for our New Amsterdam study that will take place in June!

Third GradeThird Graders are spending time

reviewing ELA and Math strategies and skills to prepare for their first round of State Exams. We have been working quite intensely, but the practice has provided great self-confidence! Once the tests are over, we will be focusing on a Geography project in which each student will choose a country to research in order to create a travel brochure. We will be providing class time to review our students’ research, note-taking and organization, and writ-ing skills. This should help to solidify their strengths with respect to content and mechanics. We will work on poetry during Writing and incorporate it into our Geography study as well. In addition, over the next few weeks we will be conclud-ing our science investigations in the Force and Motion unit, using the wedge and the screw. In late May, students will be bringing home a take-home science test. In Math, we will be returning to our Singa-pore Math 3B book in order to focus on capacity and weight.

Fourth GradeThis month, when you walk into any

fourth grade classroom, you will find wires, bulbs, batteries and switches; evidence that we are charging ahead with our unit on electricity. Students will build and compare simple and parallel circuits and identify materials that are conductors and insulators. Furthermore, they will learn how to draw schematic diagrams to represent an electric circuit. In Social Studies, students are researching battles of the American Revolution and presenting their findings to their classmates. We are discussing concepts such as the mean-ing of freedom and seeing the American Revolution from the perspective of both, the Americans and the British. In Reading, fourth graders will participate in liter-ary circles and discuss books that have a social issue as a theme. Students will use the strategies that they learned all year to connect with their books and compre-hend them. They will have opportunities to discuss the books with their peers in a small group setting. In order to foster small group conversation, they will prac-tice strategies such as asking open-ended questions, note-taking, providing relevant feedback, maintaining discussion on the topic and taking turns. In Math, students will continue to prepare for the New York State test and then study volume. Finally, fourth graders are excited to celebrate their

UPDATE FROM Lower School

NEST+m MONTHLY NEWS Volume 5, Issue 8 May 2011

Special Spring Music Events (Not open to parents or the public)

• Wednesday, May 25 - 3rd Grade “Link Up” trip to Carnegie Hall

• Thursday, May 26 - 5th Grade Music Memory Team City-Wide Competi-tion at the Skirball Center

• Spring Music Celebration Dates SOME DATES HAVE CHANGED

DUE TO SCHEDULING CONFLICTS• Friday, May 27 - 9 am 4th & 5th

Grade Music Celebration (New date)• Wednesday, June 1 - 2nd/3rd Grade

Music Celebration• Thursday, June 2 - K/1st Grade

Celebration (New date)

Lower School Chorus ConcertCheck my website calendar for a

complete listing of school music activi-ties along with my personal and profes-sional performing calendar. The date of our Lower School Chorus concert was not confirmed at the time this article was submitted but should occur during the 2nd or 3rd week in June.

Physical EducationWell, we have had a pretty rainy track

season so far with more rainouts than ac-tual track meets. Our final open meet will take place on Friday, May 6th. Then, on May 9th, the District 1 Finals for selected students will take place at the 6th St Track. Manhattan Finals will follow on May 26th at Icahn Stadium and finally the City Fi-nals on June 4th at Icahn Stadium as well. If you have any questions about the track series, please do not hesitate to email me.

In other news, the NYRR’s Jamboree is coming up on May 15. This is a great opportunity for all K-5 students to try out different track and field events. Many NEST+m students usually attend and it is a fun and exciting event for all. This event will take place at Icahn Stadium.

Second graders, save the date! June 24th will be the second grade field day at the Verizon track. More details to come...

Also, a final reminder that if your child is missing any rewards from his/her Jum-prope for Heart fundraising, please let me know ASAP.

to turn ordinary movement like walking, running and skipping into something ex-traordinary. They have also been learning how to roll and slide like a dancer using the principle of “Fall and Recovery.” Next they will take apply these skills to the for-mations and constructs Paul Taylor used in “Esplanade” to create their own quintets and septets.

Fifth graders have been learning about the life and work of Martha Graham. They are working on the concepts of “shape and flow” and “contract and release.”

MusicThe most current information about

Lower School music and chorus may always be found on the Specials E-board at nestmspecials.eboard.com and on my website at http://www.teacherweb.com/ny/nestm/david.

As we enter our spring season of con-certs, recitals and celebrations, please re-member your role as an audience member. Performers deserve our undivided atten-tion and respect. Remember: You are part of the concert. In order to make a concert enjoyable for everyone, here are some tips to remember:

• Once you have been seated, be alert to activity on the stage as performers take their places. No one should need to “shush” you or announce that it is time to be quiet. If you are attentive, it will be obvious.

• Never stand or move around while music is being performed. It distracts listeners as well as the performers. Leave the auditorium or return to your seat only during applause between numbers.

• It is impolite to talk or even whisper while the music is being performed. Listeners and performers are also distracted by sounds from programs, candy wrappers, jewelry, cell phones and other objects. Remain still, silence electronic equipment, and be thoughtful of others by talking or making sounds only between num-bers.

• If you must cough or sneeze while the music is being performed, always try to muffle the sound with a tissue or handkerchief. Wait until the piece is finished if possible.

• Watch the conductor when the music stops to decide whether to applaud. Some musical works have several parts or movements, and the audience is expected to applaud only after all movements have been performed. If the conductor’s arms are in the air, do not applaud! When the entire piece is over, the conductor’s body will relax and arms will fall to the sides.

During preferred activity time, third grade students will have the option to play chess online.

As a teacher on chesskid.com, I am able to see when students login. Students have been playing chess on the weekends and in the evenings! Please help me sup-port students logging into chesskid.com, and playing chess. Combining chess and technology into one class, is representa-tive of the type of technology programs I would like to create at NEST+m. If you have any questions about chesskid.com, please email me at: jmackey2@schools.nyc.gov. I will be happy to send out user-names and passwords as often as you need them.

In kindergarten, students are learn-ing about check and checkmate. Fourth and fifth grade students are finishing their iLife movies and will start presenting their movies next week.

I would like to thank Juliana Zinger, Andrew Morgan, and Jeff Chen for getting our bandwidth increased from 5 MBPS to 20 MBPS, getting our wireless network upgraded, and fixing the computers in the Lower School laptop cart. When I came to NEST+m maybe 13-14 laptops could con-nect to the Internet at once. Now all the computers in the laptop cart can connect to the Internet at the same time. Since all the computers can connect to the Internet, I am able to create a much better chess and technology program, e.g., using chesskid.com. Thank you everyone for your help and support!

DanceIn April, kindergarten students found

the movement words in a series of poems about insects and danced the pathways, tempos, levels and actions of Mayflies, Inch Worms, Beetles and Treehoppers. This month, kindergarteners are learning about Movement Stories – fictional adven-tures that allow the students the chance to follow a story using their bodies and not their voices.

First graders are using their knowledge of the parts of speech combined with their knowledge of how movement can tell a story to create a series of “Mad Lib” dances. Removing all the verbs from a story - and a few nouns - students brain-storm the verbs they would like to recreate as a dance in order to randomly replace the ones already in the story!

Second graders are hard at work cho-reographing their Fairy Tale Dances! Look for the save the date for our “Once Upon A Time” celebration coming soon.

Third graders will be exploring the Folk Dances of a specific continent in preparation for their Geography celebra-tion coming in June.

Fourth graders have been learning how

UPDATE FROM Lower School

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NEST+m MONTHLY NEWS Volume 5, Issue 8 May 2011

Faculty provided the following descriptions of current coursework:

Sixth GradeMs. Fletcher’s Literacy students

are beginning an examination of the themes recurrent in fairytales. Through this process, they will be refining their writing and comprehension skills. The students will read 3-5 fairytales of their choice, complete Reader Re-sponses to access the tales at a deep level, and compare and synthesize their findings. The themes the students discover within these fairytales will be carried into the development of their original class plays in Theater class.

Ms. Fletcher’s Theater students are currently presenting original scenes which they wrote using American Manuscript Format. The students wrote the scripts, blocked the scenes, and are now performing them for their peers. These scenes were developed for characters that the students created and for whom the students designed sets and costumes.

Joanna’s ELA class has been work-ing on in-depth poetry unit. By the end of the unit, we will have studied rhythm, rhyme, haiku, narrative po-etry, found poetry, poems of address, and nature-inspired poems, among others. The poets we will read include Mary Oliver, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Roald Dahl, William Carlos Williams, Ernest Thayer, Garrison Keillor and Edward Lear. Students will conclude the unit by compiling poetry antholo-gies with original, annotated poems.

Sixth graders are also starting the unit on animal behavior in Science class. The students will learn what constitutes intelligence and how ani-mals express their intelligence through videos, class readings, and research. They will discover the qualities ani-mals have that show they can learn and understand.

Our students have just completed our Egypt unit. They’ve learned about how the pyramids were built and how and why the Egyptians lived as they did. Now, we are continuing our ex-

6

plorations by moving east to China. Feter le printemps! Our Middle

School French classes are celebrating Spring. Sixth graders are continuing to learn about common sports, activities and pastimes and sharing their favor-ites.

Ms. Hopenwasser’s Grade Six Studio Art classes are in the midst of their Impressionistic Painting proj-ect that explores outdoor scenes and landscapes while experimenting with brushstrokes and shimmering light. Students studied color theory and the Impressionism movement and looked at works by Claude Monet and Georg-es Seurat.

Seventh GradeSeventh Grade English has been

preparing for the New York State ELA since we returned from the April break. We look forward to completing the exam on May 4th and beginning The Crucible.

In Math class, students have been working hard, using the Kaplan books

UPDATE FROM Middle School

UPDATE FROM Middle School

FromBrendan AlfieriMiddle School AP

Dear Middle School Families,During the month of May students

have been studying hard and preparing for New York State Exams in ELA and Math. Over the course of the year students in the Middle School have taken several Acuity exams which mirror the State exams and act as predictors for those tests. Students in grades sixth through eighth take NYS Exams in ELA and Math. At the end of June, seventh and eighth grade students in select courses will take NYS Regents ex-ams in Math and Science. Please encour-age studying at home for these exams as they are important for college admission and are required for High School gradua-tion.

The eighth grade trip to Washington D.C. is scheduled for Monday, May 16th - Wednesday, May 18th. I know they are

looking forward to the trip. And yet, it is not the only event taking place dur-ing this busy month. Students are also preparing for their Spring Music Recital which will also take place later this month. The Middle School Spring Art Exhibi-tion reception will be held on May 12th, 2011 from 4:00–5:30 pm in the third floor gallery walk. Come celebrate and view some of the exemplary work from select students in grades six, seven and eight! Do not forget to mark your calendars for next month: Eighth grade graduation will take place on Monday, June 27th, 2010 be-tween 2:00 and 4:00 PM at the Brookdale Health and Science Campus of Hunter College located at 425 E. 25 St.

We have received the results of the eighth grade high school admissions. A total of 34.5% of NEST+m Middle School students will be attending the Upper School at NEST+m. This is an increase in retention rate from previous years. The same amount of NEST+m students will attend Stuyvesant High School. The remaining 31% of students will attend Bronx Science, Brooklyn Tech, La Guar-dia, Staten Island Tech, Bard, Beacon, Townshend Harris, and private schools. I wish the best of luck to all students as they enter High School.

The administration has been planning new courses for next year. We are pleased to have the opportunity to offer Robot-ics in the Middle School. We also plan on continuing to offer Physics to select students in the eighth grade. This is an important step forward, as expanding the Science curriculum to offer advanced courses and the addition of Robotics will strengthen the Science and Technol-ogy curriculum offered to students in the Middle School at NEST+m.

Keep in mind that a very important asset for Middle School students is the cultivation of organizational skills, i.e., remembering assignments, and keeping track of appointments, etc. We encourage parents to be our partners in this endeavor by checking their child’s planner on a daily basis for school-related information.

As always I can be reached through email, if you have any questions or concerns. My email is Balfier@schools.nyc.gov I can also be reached by phone at 212-677-3192.

Sincerely,

Brendan Alfieri Middle School Assistant Principal

instructed to create their own fashion magazine, develop a line of clothing, and present some of their designs in class. Students had the opportunity to “strut their stuff on the catwalk” in room 335 while their peers read aloud their designs and onlookers cheered. A great time was had by all! Students will now begin to prepare for their June Proficiency-Like exam sched-uled for Monday, June 20th at 9:15 am. Mr. Caba will begin conducting French oral exams in class on Monday, 23 May 2011. Students will receive a schedule detailing their specific ap-pointments. The month of May will be dedicated to completing the French curriculum and preparing students for the upcoming State exam. It should be noted that this exam will serve as the final exam for the semester.

In Ms. Svihla’s Art Studio, eighth grade student artists have finished their drawings and are starting to build their Oaxacan sculptures! Students are learning to use papier-mâché to strengthen and smooth their sculp-tures. This project is based on tradi-tional Oaxacan folk art. Please remind your child to bring a smock or a large shirt to wear during class while we are working with papier-mâché, gesso, and acrylic paint.

Physical EducationMs. Younglove’s sixth grade class is

involved in a Basketball unit, starting 3 on 3 tournaments. The next unit will focus on Track and Field

Ms. Younglove’s eighth grade class-es are in the middle of the ballroom dance unit including the following dances: Merengue, Fox-trot, Swing, Rumba, Tango and Salsa.

Saby Antao’s sixth and seventh grade classes are focusing on team sport unit and cardiovascular fitness.

Spring Athletics: Check out NEST+m website for the schedules. Come support the spring athletics! Co-Ed Track and Field, Softball, Baseball, Badminton Club.

Upcoming Events: 6th-8th Grade Field Day; Middle

School Athletic Banquet.

by William Golding and were busy preparing for the ELA exam which took place on May 3rd and 4th. Stu-dents will now complete an extension project through which they will create a parody of a scene from the novel either on video or using the computer program, Comic Life. Furthermore, they will be beginning the memoir, Night, by Elie Wiesel by the end of the month.

Students in Math have been brush-ing up their algebra skills in prepara-tion for the Math State test scheduled to take place on May 11th-12th. Students will then return their focus to preparing for the Geometry Regents exam to be held on Thursday, June 23rd. Students should be proud of all that they have accomplished this year in math class.

In Social Studies we have just finished the unit on World War II. We have now begun to study the Cold War. Also, our trip to Washington D.C is right around the corner. We are looking forward to a fun three days in D.C.!

The Earth Science students have been studying the elements that create and classify weather. Students can now watch a weather report and read the fronts and storm tracks. Using this weather information, the students are now looking at what factors create a climate - deserts, tundras, mediter-ranean areas, savannahs, temperate areas, and tropical forests, to name just a few. The students have prepared some wonderful posters on extreme weather and on climates found around the world. They will be on display in the classroom as well as in the hall-ways of the Middle School. The Earth Science Regents Exam will take place on June 17. Now is the time for stu-dents to really begin to study material from the beginning of the school year. Regents review classes will be held af-ter school in the coming weeks. Notice to be posted on Eboard.

Students in Mr. Caba’s eighth grade French class displayed their designing and modeling talents during the “PRO-JET Runway” fashion show in class on Friday, April 15th. Students were

NEST+m MONTHLY NEWS Volume 5, Issue 8 May 2011

UPDATE FROM Middle School

7

to prepare for the State test which will take place on May 11th and 12th. We have covered all the material neces-sary in order to be prepared for the test, and will be moving on to Regents material quickly thereafter. We will be finishing up our polynomials and quadratics unit, and then we will move on to radical expressions.

In Social Studies we are well into our new unit “Nationalism, Sectional-ism, and the Age of Jackson.” Students have learned that the United States emerged from the War of 1812 with greater confidence that contributed to a new foreign policy, the Monroe Doctrine. Students examined several visual representations of the Mon-roe Doctrine and created their own political cartoons based on the Monroe Doctrine. We are currently examin-ing Andrew Jackson, a controversial, yet colorful and significant figure in American History. The students are being asked to consider the following question: “Should Andrew Jackson be on the twenty dollar bill?” Fol-lowing class discussion of this ques-tion, students will be responsible for formulating their position into a 1 ½ page essay.

Chad’s Living Environment class finished the Genetics Unit and started reviewing the topic when they came back from Break, to ensure that the material has been clearly understood. This coming week we will be do-ing a fun DNA Codon Activity with Fruit Loops and string. We will then be moving into the next unit, Charles Darwin and the History of Evolution. The NYS Regents Exam will take place on Tuesday, June 21st in the morning. We will be working hard to cover all the material above and be-yond what is expected as we approach the big day.

Feter le printemps! Our Middle School French classes are celebrat-ing Spring, and seventh graders are hungry for their next unit on food and markets.

Eighth GradeStudents in Greg’s ELA classes

have finished reading Lord of the Flies

Tina Yu, Upper School AP

Dear NEST+m Families,I hope everyone enjoyed Spring Re-

cess. Taking into account that there were only 14 school days in April, we sure had a busy month! Our Upper school Coffee on Tuesday, April 5th was quite informa-tive. Our College Liaison, Cathy Santiago and Upper School Guidance Counselor Stephanie had a college planning infor-mation session for parents. Ms. San-tiago also distributed a college planning handbook.

On April 7th-9th, the Upper School presented its Spring Musical, Bye Bye Birdie. The cast and crew did a spectacu-lar job! A special thank-you to the faculty members, musicians, students and parents who dedicated countless hours of their time to make this all possible…

• Amanda Rowell-Stage Director, Joe D’Amico-Technical Director, Steven Brown-Musical Director

• Orchestra: Dennis Nelson-Assistant Music Director/Pianist, Hui Cox-Guitar, Norman Edwards-Drums, Jim Centeno-Percussion, Lino Gomez-Bass Guitar, Vanessa Snowden-Violin, Nioka Work-man-Cello, Doug Harris-Clarinet/Tenor Sax, Don Echoles-Alto Sax, Kathy Iwan-usa-Bass Clarinet/Baritone, Erik Plaza-Trumpet, Clifton Anderson-Trombone

NEST+m MONTHLY NEWS Volume 5, Issue 8 May 2011

8

UPDATE FROM Upper School• Crew: Jules Chaveco-Stage Manager,

Brandon Crespo-Assistant Stage Man-ager, Anna Saliwon-Costumes, Andrew Cribb-Photography, Simi Mahtani-Posters/Flyers/T-shirtsd/Playbill, Claudia Musumeci-Publicity, Lisa Seale Cruz- Playbill

• Cast: Gabriel Arrieta-Albert Peter-son, Armoni Boone-Randolph MacAfee, Akeem Bridgeman-Conrad Birdie, Arqui-medes Estrella-Harry MacAfee, Elaine Johnson-Deborah Sue, Warren John-son- Harvey Johnson/The Mayor, Sarah Karpati-Mrs. MacAfee/The Mayor’s Wife, Larissa Klaus-Rose Alvarez, Maia Moore-Penelope Ann/Alice, Nichole Musumeci-Kim MacAfee, Elizabeth Page- Mrs. Mae Peterson, Sofia Rivera Perez-Nancy, Claritza Quezada-Nancy/Sad Girl/Gloria Rasputin, Alexander Riabov-Ed Sullivan, Leonel Sosa-Hugo Peabody, Jenice Lyla Wlaford-Ursula Merkle, Omar Youssef-Charles F. Made

During the April 11th and April 12th assemblies, the Upper School students had the opportunity to learn about how to create a more positive school environ-ment. NYPD Youth Officer Perez and School Safety Agents made a presenta-tion on many topics including cyberbul-lying.

Additionally, during the Spring Re-cess, two international trips took place. Ms. Pirker and Ms. Bruno accompanied the first group of NEST+m students as they visited France, Switzerland and Germany. The second group of students, accompanied by Ms. Lendzian, Ms. Younglove, Mr. Sullivan and Ms. Wolff visited France and Spain. The students in both groups had a great time touring the countries and practicing their language

skills. This year’s NESTFest had five acts

from the Upper School, a new record! The acts included: Stephen Koh - hand whistling, Brandon Crespo & Jules Al-verio Chaveco - guitar/drumming, Imani Hall - singing orginal song, Anupam Ku-mar -- singing Indian folk song & guitar, Noriyo Onishi - violin solo.

With the end of the school year quickly approaching, please keep in mind that May 13th is the end of the second marking period and that only one mark-ing period remains in the Spring Semes-ter. Please encourage your child to attend tutoring as the AP Examinations will take place from Wednesday, May 4th through Monday, May 16th and the NYS Regents examinations will be administered from Wednesday, June 15th through Friday, June 24th. Please review the Regents examination schedule in this month’s SLT Newsletter.

May is packed with wonderful events. The Upper school Red Cross Club is sponsoring a fundraiser to help the Red Cross and CDC vaccinate African vil-lages against measles. Pins will be on sale for $1. Actress Amanda Peet will be here on Monday, May 9th with a presen-tation for the Middle School and Upper School students. She will also visit a Lower School class the same day. Please keep your eyes and ears open for these announcements.

Best, Tina Yu

Faculty provided the following descriptions of cur-rent coursework:

In Advanced Studio Art, we are finishing our narrative paintings inspired by Frida Kahlo. Students are learning various paint-ing techniques such as dry brush, glaze, and stippling. These works are painted on canvas panel with acrylic paint. The paint-ings are based on personal experiences from each student’s life with a strong focus on symbolism.

The AP Biology examination is right around the corner. Students are practicing for the AP test with sample AP Biology exams and we are focusing on an in depth review in preparation for the exam on May 9th. One major concept that students are working on is the Basic Principles of Animal Form and Function. Students are learning how feedback control loops maintain the internal environment in many animals and how these homeostatic pro-

cesses for thermoregulation involve form, function, and behavior.

AP English Language and Composition students have continued to practice sharp-ening their essay-writing and rhetorical-analysis tools for the AP exam that will take place on May 11, 2011 (please arrive at 7:30 am). Results indicate that students have improved significantly on their analytical and synthesis essays; there is room yet for improvement on the read-ing section, where students are expected to identify the functions and rhetori-cal impact of key sections of given text excerpts. To assist in this process, we have spent the end of the semester dividing our time between further analyses of rhetorical content in a variety of non-fiction texts. Practice more we must, and learn the rhe-torical elements of language we will, all in time for NEST+m’s AP English Language students, once again, to perform admirably on the exam.

Senior AP English Literature and Composition students are eagerly - and a bit nervously - anticipating the AP Exam set for Thursday, May 5. They are review-ing the literature they have studied in High School; they are practicing previous AP Exam multiple choice sections and they are thinking critically about the complex relationships among themes, structures, and literary elements of their favorite works. They have worked hard and will appreciate the effort when they face the three-hour exam next week.

Students in AP Psychology have just completed their final unit in social psy-chology. During their final unit, students learned about fundamental attribution errors and theories on conformity, com-pliance and obedience. AP Psychology students will be taking the exam in AP Psychology on May 2nd, 2011.

Students in AP Spanish have success-fully completed the curriculum for the AP

NEST+m MONTHLY NEWS Volume 5, Issue 8 May 2011

UPDATE FROM Upper School

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Spanish Language exam. The AP exam will take place on Tuesday, May 3rd 2011 at 8 am in room 333. For the remaining portion of the academic year, students will work on a literature component comprised of the Spanish Civil War and the military dictatorships in Latin America. Students will explore the causes, struggles, and out-comes of these tumultuous times through literature and film. Their final project for the year will be based on this unit of study and will entail a class presentation in June.

Students in Mr. Gold’s AP World History are preparing for their upcoming AP Exam by reviewing the components of successful essay-writing, familiariz-ing themselves with what efficient time management looks like on the exam, and clarifying any content-related issues. Students are using AP review books and in-class activities to hone their abilities with regard to identifying point of view, analyzing changes over time, and mak-ing cross-cultural comparisons. Students and teachers are excited for the upcoming opportunities presented by the AP Exam in May and the Regents in June.

In Mr. Zucchero’s AP World History students are preparing for the 2011 AP exam in World History by studying the changes and continuities that have taken place throughout world history. In addition we have conducted a series of compara-tive studies from each of the major eras. We have compared the development of Japanese and European feudal systems and also more contemporary examples such as the socioeconomic and political systems of the Ottoman, Russian and Qing empires from 1800 – 1870.

Ms. Quintanilla’s Ballroom Dance class is in its fourth successful semester and has expanded its dance styles far beyond tra-ditional Ballroom Dances. Besides being exposed to the Cha-Cha, Salsa, Merengue, Swing, Rumba, American Tango, and the Waltz; students have been exposed to non-traditional Ballroom Dance styles such as Bachata, Argentine Tango and Cumbia.

Students in Calculus Applications have completed their study of optimization and related rates, and have moved on to analyzing the area under curves. After ex-perimenting with Riemann sums, they are now exploring the power of the indefinite integral.

In our Chemistry classes, we are cur-rently studying the chemistry of organic compounds. This is an exciting topic because it is extremely relevant to the students’ lives, since we find organic compounds in almost all the medicines we take. In addition, organic compounds are the key ingredients to many products that are used by the students, including hair gel, deodorant and cosmetics. As the Chemistry Regents Examination exam

draws nearer, we will be covering our last topic, nuclear chemistry. This too should be very interesting to the students, as we will be considering the recent nuclear disaster in Japan.

Seniors in Principles of Economics have just completed a unit in taxation and the American labor market. Students examined the conditions for economic ef-ficiency, using the marginal social benefit and marginal social cost principle, and the ways in which externalities, public goods and the market distribution of income create market failures even in competitive free-market economies.

Students in Ms. Alonso’s Forensics class are learning about the composition of blood and the use of blood and blood-spatter analysis in Forensics. Students are conducting labs to determine the blood type of a sample of blood in order to be able to narrow down a group of suspects. We have also discussed the genetics of blood types and have used this information to solve paternity cases. Next week, stu-dents will conduct a blood-spatter analysis with the means of lines of convergence and by studying the satellites and spikes in a blood drop pattern.

“Let’s sing in French!” – Second year French students, FF4, recently completed recording their French music videos dur-ing the Spring Break. After completing a brief music unit in class on French music from around the world, students were instructed to select a song of their choice and work in groups to film their own ver-sion of a music video. The lovely weather and the amazing sites New York City has to offer served as the perfect backdrop for technologically savvy students to show-case their directing skills. Vive la chanson francophone!

In Geometry, students will be study-ing and analyzing characteristics and properties of three-dimensional geometric shapes. Spatial reasoning and problem solving skills will be developed, such as surface area and volume. Chapter proj-ect “The place is packed” will explore package design and uncover some of the reasons for the shapes that manufacturers have chosen. Students will be instructed to design and construct their own pack-age and analyze how spatial sense and business go hand in hand to determine the shapes of things we use every day. The highly successful “Problem of the Week” Geometry competition will include four new problems, such as “Circular Tangrams”,” The Gothic Window”, ”The Intersecting Circles”, and “The Two Cres-cents”. The best work will be posted on the Bulletin Board.

Back in March, all of Mr. Yee’s Latin Level 1 and Level 2 students took part in the National Latin Exam. This nationwide

competition is sponsored by the Ameri-can Classical League for every level of Latin. We have the results and 42 students, over 72% of our Latin students, won some form of commendation. The 4 Gold Medal Summa Cum Laude winners are Jassiel Ferrer, Garrett Ho, Andrea Jacoby and Steven Mulvey. The 11 Silver Medal Maxima Laude winners are Jasmine Carrero, Bernadette Deron, Shi Li Liang, Daniel Liu, Victoria Louison, Kuba Maj, Manny Rodriguez, Edeline Sanchez, Alex Siryj, Nancy Tang and Jennifer Zhu. The 14 Bronze Magna Cum Laude winners are Amber Burrell, Franshesca Castillo, Zoe Diaz, Marielis Galan, Joseph Guer-rero, Kamil Kojs, David Li, Billy Liang, Jia Wen Liu, Atdhe Mavraj, Mateo Myers, Monika Moscicka, Andrea Ng, and Jessica Radoncic. The 14 Cum Laude Certificate winners are Oscar Acosta, Nelson Alex-ander, Mario Fuentes, Lizzy Garcia, John Huang, Samantha Kienemund, Virginia Lai, Cheng Lin, Yasin Mekkaoui, Ray-mond Quach, Britni Sapp, Sofia Rivera Perez, Daniel Steinbrecher, and Jade Su. A special certificate was issued to Gold Medal winner Andrea Jacoby for obtaining a perfect score. Congratulations!

Students in Upper School Living Environment are currently immersed in the study of ecology and evolution, after which they will move onto the last topic in the curriculum (and perhaps, the most im-portant topic of the year): Human impact on the environment. In preparation for the final diagnostic, students in Mr. Papa-gayo’s sections formed groups and created lesson plans aimed at reviewing various topics from throughout the year. They then taught these lessons to their peers. This course culminates in a June Regents Exam. It is imperative that students have completed all labs to be eligible to take the exam. Lab make-ups are scheduled for May 23rd-June 3rd. The laboratory make-up schedule will be sent out via Daedalus.

In the tradition of Euripides, Aeschylus and Aristophanes, Mythology students will be recreating elements from the Dionysian Drama Festival. Students will be writing their own Greek Drama, choosing from the genre of comedy or tragedy. The final project will be a performance of their original play to be judged by a panel of teachers.

Students in Mr. Longwell-Stevens’ Introduction to Philosophy course have continued their forays into questions of Ethics (theories of appropriate behavior). By the time this newsletter goes to print, we will have run a philosophical gauntlet from Aristotle’s ideas on matter, to those of Peter Singer and “speciesism.” We are gearing up for the final semester project: a philosophical analysis of a topic, issue, question, or philosophical framework of

free media coverage of positions for all candidates on a uniform set of issues. Stu-dents have developed an awareness of the increasing role of money when it comes to running for office, election outcomes and how unfettered corporate giving can influ-ence policymaking.

Ms. Wood’s Global History Freshmen recently worked in teams to create a Time Machine Travel Guide to the Inca, Aztec or Mayan civilization. Their creative work is quite outstanding! They consid-ered varied aspects, such as: best times to travel (how to avoid famine or warfare?), important aspects of geography, economy, city development, technology, key to the civilization’s social structure and the role of religion. Students are completing their study of the expansion of the Muslim world (Ottomans, Mughals), before ending their year with the Renaissance, Reforma-tion and Age of Exploration.

In Russian we took a little language break to discuss Easter and the traditions relating to it. We even enjoyed the taste of ‘maslenitsa’ by sampling ‘blini’, a Russian crepe with its traditional topping of sour cream and jam.

Integrated Algebra classes are wrapping up the unit on Radicals. Students learned to express radicals in simplest form and perform operations with them. Next, we will learn to simplify rational expressions and solve rational equations. With just two units to go, the end of year is upon us! If you have not yet purchased a graphing cal-culator for your student, please do so! As soon as we finish the curriculum we will begin reviewing for the Regents exam. This year’s Integrated Algebra Regents will be given on Thursday, June 16th at 1:00pm.

Our European trip to France, Switzer-land, Liechtenstein and Germany: Finally on April 15th, we were able to leave for our trip to Europe. First stop was in Paris, were we enjoyed ordering cafe au lait, crepes and sandwiches au fromage, visiting the Cathédrale Notre-Dame, the Louvre, seeing the Eiffel Tower from close by, strolling along the Seine and simply listening to French people. From Paris, we took a long bus ride over Beaune in Burgundy to see the French countryside, finally arriving in Hutwil, which is about one hour away from Luzern. The next day we not only visited the beautiful town of Luzern, but also ‘climb’ Mount Pilatus and look over a beautiful pan-orama of the Alps. After Luzern, the bus took us over Liechtenstein and Austria to Neuschwanstein, where we hiked up to the fairy-tale castle of Ludwig II of Bavaria. Was he really crazy or just overly roman-tic? We spent the night in Munich, where we visited the city center the next morning and in the afternoon Dachau, the memorial

each student’s choice. More news will fol-low as the projects develop.

Precalculus students have completed their study of trigonometry, which culmi-nated with projects exploring the use of trigonometric functions to model real-life problems. Their creatively illustrated proj-ects can be seen outside room 365. The class has moved on to the study of linear programming, in which objective func-tions are maximized or minimized, subject to constraining equations. Students will be using this technique to explore problems in microeconomics.

Mr. Yee’s Publications class has completed work on the The Journey, the NEST+m 2011 Yearbook and is wrapping up production of the Spring Issue of The Scoop, the Upper School newspaper. For the remainder of the semester, students will work on their own recorded newscast and practice their writing skills by com-posing their own biography, set in 2021.

Students in Mr. Sullivan’s Robotics class have finished building their basic robots, and are calibrating the software commands to get accurate movement and rotation out of their robots. This will culminate in a choreographed robot dance! Then, they will start implementing bumper switches and sensors to get more dynamic autonomous motion from our machines, eventually allowing their robots to solve simple mazes.

Students in Spanish 6 recently com-pleted a unit on the Spanish subjunctive mood. As a final project, students watched “Pan’s Labyrinth” in class in order to compare the realms of reality and fantasy. At present, students will be working on the passive voice and degrees of compari-son before beginning their review for the Spanish Comprehensive Regents exam to be held in June 2011.

In Studio Art 1, we are continuing to work on our pointillism self-portraits. Students have finished their pointillism worksheets and are moving on to drawing their self-portraits. Once the line drawing is complete, they will apply value with small points (pointillism) using pen and ink as their medium.

Ms. Wood’s Government Seniors just finished analyzing the U.S.’s system of financing presidential campaigns and questioning the proper role of money in a democracy. Students created brochures that advocate for their ideal system of campaign finance, using data from a recent election as contextual evidence. Students showed their findings and debated how political contenders should present their messages fairly. Several components of an ideal system that received support from students included caps on spending, equal spending by all candidates funded by a non-partisan corporate tax, and required

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of the concentration camp. However, it was not only the sights that were interest-ing. We also got to know how relaxed and nice Europeans are, how well we speak the languages (we can always get what we want) and how easy it is to get along in these cities. Amazing weather, sunshine and warm temperatures made our trip per-fect. The only question we have right now is: where are we going next?

In German 2, after practicing for the trip to Europe we are now learning the past tense, so we can express our-selves even better. It is not as difficult as it seems, as long as we know how to conjugate. We also finally found out how we can name the parts of the body, so now we can even tell the doctor, or Ms Pirker, what hurts.

In German 4, we are learning about the passive voice. This means that we are switching the emphasis from ourselves to the object of the sentence. How can it get even more complicated than it already was?

The German AP exam is approaching very fast, so we are getting ready with one last round of tutoring on Tuesdays, so that we definitely know how to use the tape recorder.

There are six more weeks to go before the Regents for French 6, so we are focus-ing on reviewing: tenses, adjective agree-ment, vocabulary etc. The speaking part will start as early as May 18th, so please make sure everybody knows what day to go. Tutoring is still going on Thursdays (ninth period, room 365). The focus is first on speaking, next on writing. Please attend!

The French AP exam is almost upon us, so review and more reviewing is on the schedule for the next few days. After the exam, we will be reading, watching movies, listening to French songs, com-mercials etc. It will be a little bit more fun than only grammar.

Upcoming Events• Senior Prom – Friday, May 20th• Upper School Spring Art Exhibit -

Wednesday, June 8th from 4-6pm• Upper School Awards Assembly –

Monday, June 13th • NYS Regents Examinations –

Wednesday, June 15th – Friday, June 24th

• Upper School Graduation – Monday, June 27th at 11am

Late Breaking News: NEST+m Wins District 1 Track & Field Championship!Congratulations to these 3-5th grade students who won the District 1 Track & Field

Championship! Many of our competitors qualified to compete at the Manhattan Borough Track & Field Championships on May 26. Go NEST+m!!! Many thanks to PE teachers Andy Spinello and Holly Younglove for all their work and support for this event!

The University of the State of New York THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

Office of Assessment Policy, Development and Administration Albany, New York 12234

DRA

EXAMINATION SCHEDULE: JUNE 2011 Students must verify with their schools the exact times that they are to report for their State examinations.

June15

WEDNESDAY

June16

THURSDAY

June17

FRIDAY

June20

MONDAY

June21

TUESDAY

June22

WEDNESDAY

June23

THURSDAY

June24

FRIDAY

9:15 a.m. 9:15 a.m. 9:15 a.m. 9:15 a.m. 9:15 a.m. 9:15 a.m. 9:15 a.m.

RE in Global History & Geography

RE in U.S. History & Government

Comprehensive English

RCT in Global Studies*

LivingEnvironment

Comprehensive Regents Examinations French Italian Spanish

Geometry

RCT in Writing

Rating Day

1:15 p.m. 1:15 p.m. 1:15 p.m. 1:15 p.m. 1:15 p.m. 1:15 p.m.

Physical Setting/Physics

RCT in Science*

Integrated Algebra

Physical Setting/ Earth Science

RCT in Reading Algebra 2/ Trigonometry

RCT in U.S. History & Government*

Physical Setting/ Chemistry

RCT in Mathematics*

Uniform Admission Deadlines

Morning Examinations 10:00 a.m.

Afternoon Examinations 2:00 p.m.

* Available in Restricted Form only. Each copy of a restricted test is numbered and sealed in its own envelope and must be returned, whether used or unused, to the Department at the end of the examination period.

(6-08-2100) 97-14788

NEST+m MONTHLY NEWS Volume 5, Issue 8 May 2011

11

PTA NEWSA special PTA meeting is scheduled for May 12th, at 8:30 am in the Dining Hall, and the regular meeting will be held on May 24th, at 8:30 am.

Health Committee For the past eight years the health

committee has worked very hard to get processed food (including processed meat products) out of our cafeteria and bring in new, healthier ingredients and recipes. We have developed a good relationship with SchoolFoods and the cafeteria staff which has enabled us to make more significant changes than most schools. We meet with them every month to go over the menu, discuss new recipes/ingredients, etc. Given the cost per meal allowed by the DOE ($1.06) and the new ingredient approval process, making it all work is a challenge. Fortunately, we do get some help supple-menting the cost of approved ingredients such as olive oil (instead of the processed soy oil that was used) and organic white beans from the PTA. We also have dedi-cated parent volunteers in the cafeteria on Wednesdays (only one day/wk has been approved) to help serve the salad bar on burrito day. Our kids are taking many more fresh vegetables than they used to and as our sampling days in the cafeteria have shown, they are also increasingly receptive to trying new foods. We are very encouraged.

Gala Update & Online AuctionThe Gala Committee is incred-

ibly proud to announce that this year’s Gala &Auction reaped $150,000 for NEST+m!The fun is not over though. Loads of donations came in after the dead-line and we have cooked up some special treats for those of you who didn’t get a chance to bid at the big event.

Outbid on the LS Ice Cream Social? Here’s your second chance:

http://www.biddingforgood.com/auc-tion/item/Item.action?id=132864069

Do you know someone who might want to rub elbows with Sports Illustrated swimsuit models? Try winning these pass-es to the 2012 launch party in LasVegas:

http://www.biddingforgood.com/auc-tion/item/Item.action?id=132863449

You can also buy a BoatTote commem-orating the 10th anniversary of NEST+m or make a donation, just because. New items will be added every few days be-tween now and May 10,when the auction ends.There’s something for everyone, even YOU! So log on and support our school now.Elections for PTA Executive Board -- Please Consider Nominating Yourself!

Please consider running for a position on the PTA Executive Board for the 2011-

2012 school year. Each May, parents elect volunteer nominees to the PTA Executive Board for the following school year. There are more than a dozen positions on the Executive Committee. All positions are for a one year term.

The existence of a strong, active PTA in a school can make a huge difference, and the PTA Executive Board plays a criti-cal role in the vitality of the PTA. Please consider serving the school in this critical function. Responsibilities of PTA Execu-tive Board members include attending both the monthly general PTA meeting as well as a monthly Executive Board meet-ing, and then serving in whatever capacity is dictated by the position to which they are elected. You are encouraged to review the PTA Bylaws (which are posted on the NEST+m SchoolHub and available in the PTA Office) for very brief descriptions of the positions, to stop by the PTA office for more information, and to contact the Nominating Committee by email (nom-comm@nestmail.org) to help answer any questions.

Call for Nominations of Candidates for the 2011-2012 NEST+m PTA Executive Board

The Nominating Committee is current-ly accepting nominations for the following positions on the 2011-2012 NEST+m PTA Executive Board:

• President or Co-Presidents• Executive Vice-President• Treasurer• Assistant Treasurer• Vice President or Co-VPs of Upper

School• Vice President or Co-VPs of Middle

School• Vice President or Co-VPs of Lower

School• Recording Secretary or Co-Recording

Secretaries• Corresponding Secretary • Vice President or Co-VP’s of

Fundraising• Vice President or Co-VP’s of

Communication• Vice President or Co-VP’s of

Volunteers, Class Parents and Committees

• Vice President of Grants• Vice President of Afterschool

Please note candidates must run indi-vidually for the following positions: Ex-ecutive VP, Treasurer, Assistant Treasurer, Corresponding Secretary, VP Grants and VP After School. For the other positions, candidates may run as a team with some-

Easy Ways to Support NEST+m!

Bookmark and share these links: • Amazon School Rewards Program

http://amzn.to/Nestamzn• GoodShop.com • We earn $ from over 1,300 online stores

when you shop using http://bit.ly/Nestbuy

• Download our Goodshop.com and GoodSearch.com toolbar http://bit.ly Nesttoolbar

• Earn a Penny for NEST every time you search the Internet:

http://bit.ly/Nestquest• NY International

Children’s Film Festival Select ‘NEST+m’ from drop-down menu (year round!) http://bit.ly/Nestfilm

• Enroll your Target Red Card to Benefit NEST http://bit.ly/Nesttarget

• Give directly to our Annual Fund; Consider a recurring donation http://bit.ly/Nestfund

one else. The elections will occur on Thursday,

May 24th during the regularly-scheduled PTA meeting. Nominees do not need to be present to win. The term of office shall be from July 1st, 2011 through June 30th, 2012. Officers shall be elected for a one-year term beginning July 1st.

Eligibility for office is limited to parents, legally appointed guardians, step-parents, foster parents or persons in paren-tal relation to children currently attending the school and who are not employed at NEST+m.

To submit a nomination, please provide the following in writing: the name, phone number and email address of the person you are nominating (you or a friend), as well as the title of the position for which the person is being nominated. Please submit such written nomination either via email to nomcomm@nestmail.org or put it in the Nominating Committee mailbox in the Main Office at school. The Nomi-nating Committee will then contact the nominees in writing to ask them whether they accept the nomination. The nominat-ing period will close on May 24th during the PTA meeting, right after nominations have been taken from the floor.

The ballot box will open during the PTA meeting on Thursday, May 24th, as soon as the ballots are prepared after any final nominations are made from the floor. Nominees will have a brief opportunity to introduce themselves at the beginning of the PTA meeting on May 24th, prior to the actual election. If you have any questions, you can reach the Nominating Committee at nomcomm@nestmail.org.

NEST+m MONTHLY NEWS Volume 5, Issue 8 May 2011

Calendar of EventsMay 12 - MS Spring Art Exhibition; 4:00–5:30pm May 9 - Track & Field District Finals Grades 3–5May 12 - Special PTA Meeting @ 8:30am; MS Spring Art Exhibition; 4–5:30pmMay 20 - Parent/Teacher Musical Review @ 7:00pm; Senior PromMay 24 - PTA Meeting & Elections; 8:30amMay 27 - Rapid Dismissal; no afterschool activitiesMay 30 - Memorial Day; no schoolJune 6 - Half day, dismissal at 11:30amJune 8 - US Spring Art Exhibit, 4:00-6:00pmJune 9 - Chancellor’s Conference Day; no schoolJune 13 - Half day, dismissal at 11:30 am; US Awards AssemblyJune 15-June 24 - Regents ExaminationsJune 27 - US Graduation, 11:00am

COLLEGE LIAISON: Cathy Santiago CSantiago7@schools.nyc.gov

PRINCIPAL: Dr. Olga Livanis, OLivani@schools.nyc.gov

LOWER SCHOOL AP: Jared Rosoff JRosoff@schools.nyc.gov MIDDLE SCHOOL AP: Brendan Alfieri BAlfier@schools.nyc.gov UPPER SCHOOL AP: Tina Yu TYu@schools.nyc.gov AP of ORGANIZATION: Julia Cunningham JCunningham6@schools.nyc.gov

DEANS OF STUDENTS: Jose Martinez-Elias JMartinez-Elias@schools.nyc.govSuzanne Lendzian SLendzian@schools.nyc.gov

PTA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: executivecommittee@nestmail.org SLT Representatives: slt@nestmail.org

Important ContactsMAIN OFFICE: TEL (212) 677-5190 FAX (212) 260-8124 PUPIL SERVICES: Marcy Duran, Main Office(347) 563-5305 TRANSPORTATION & ATTENDANCE: Cecilia Buktenica, Main Office K-8 PARENT COORDINATOR: Marcy Duran (347) 563-5305 MRios22@schools.nyc.gov

GUIDANCE COUNSELORS / ADMISSIONS: Lower School: Sarah Liogys SLiogys@schools.nyc.gov Middle School: Melissa Chen MHuangchen@schools.nyc.gov Upper School: Stephanie GlasgallSGlasgall@schools nyc.gov

Katherine SilvaKSilva@schools.nyc.gov

Please keep us informed of school-wide items for inclusion in upcoming newsletters by emailing us at: executivecommittee@nestmail.org Please excuse any errors, omissions or oversights.

NEST+m111 Columbia StreetNew York, NY 10002