Dear Parents,
I wanted to take a moment to thank the JHS 194 Parent Teacher’s Association for supporting the numerous school initiatives this year, as well as give everyone an update on our progress as a school.
Reports of bullying, and the often tragic consequences it produces fill the nightly news reports and headlines. This is a national problem, and it is one that the faculty and staff of JHS 194 is fully committed to combating. The school has taken a number of steps to address this issue, and the PTA has supported us 100% in our efforts. We began our year with several prominent changes.
We replaced our 6th and 7th grade Home and Career classes with a course titled Overcoming Obstacles. This is a character building program focusing on strengthening the choices and decisions our students make. Our 6th and 7th grade weekly assemblies have been used to reinforce our Anti-bullying message, as well as provide an opportunity for guest speakers, like Lonnie Quinn, the Weatherman for CBS 2 to expand student horizons.
One of the most prevalent forms of bullying in a middle school is upperclassman picking on their younger peers. To prevent this, we re-organized the building before the start of the school year, assigning each grade its own floor and lunch period. This has dramatically cut down on the inter-grade bullying. In addition, each grade has a dedicated Pupil Personnel Team, consisting of an Assistant Principal, Guidance Counselor, and Dean. This team follows each grade from year to year and uses a collaborative and confidential approach to review and evaluate the needs of students who are not successful in their current educational program. The team examines why an individual student is demonstrating academic, behavioral, social or physical needs and then develops supportive strategies, plans and interventions to meet the needs of each child. They are also better able to coordinate both a disciplinary response for the aggressor, as well as a guidance approach to the victim of bullying incidents. This effort to counter bullying had its greatest expression back in January, with our Anti-Bullying Conference Day. We hosted four guest speakers, and devoted the entire day around bullying prevention, the dangers of technology, character building, and staying safe online and on the street. Once again, the PTA gave us their unmitigated support, without which we could not have crafted a day with such impact.
But the work goes far beyond just targeting the bullying behavior. One of the key elements to a successful middle school experience is the feeling of “belonging” to the school, where the students feel they are a part of something larger than themselves. We are not just educating students; we are forging the memories that will create the foundation of their character that they will draw upon in the years ahead. To that end, we have brought the CHAMPS athletic programs back into the school. This year we have offered volleyball, badminton, table tennis, and starting soon, golf. Our Physical Education classes culminated their basketball unit with a playoff competition in front of the entire school. Next year we intend to amplify the sports offerings to our students. We have also expanded the Student Government to include all three grades and allow all of our students to become active in the school and the larger community. During the most recent Parent Teacher conferences, the class representatives from the Student Government held a bake sale, and raised almost $500. Next year, we intend to expand student opportunities by offering a variety of extra-curricular clubs focused on community engagement.
At the end of the day, however, our primary purpose is to educate our students, and our greatest focus has been on the academics in the school. As a result of the Specialized High School Test Prep we ran, we had more students accepted into Stuyvesant High School than at any time in the last six years. This year we have introduced the Charlotte Danielson rubric for enhancing teacher performance. This is a four tiered system of evaluation that allows us to focus professional conversions with teachers on very specific areas for their improvement in the classroom. We have also begun work with the New York State Common Core Learning Standards in both Math and ELA. For the last two years, we have been sending our teachers to extensive training for the new standards. This has culminated in the creation of teacher generated units of study aligned to the Common Core. Math has been focusing on the solving of complex problems, while ELA has been focusing on supporting a claim with evidence from a text. In all of our classes, we have been focusing on improving not just the level of instruction students are receiving, but also in the quality of work the students produce. Thanks to a generous donation from the PTA, our Film & Video Production class now has a total of 18 high definition cameras for the students to begin applying the concepts and techniques they have been learning in the classroom.
So, on behalf of the faculty and staff of JHS 194, I would like to express my thanks for the tremendous work our parents do. Whether it is volunteering in the School Store, participating in fundraisers, or voting to gift our teachers with a “teacher’s choice” grant for classroom supplies, the PTA of JHS 194 has been the backbone of our school community. And now, they have generously offered this space on their website to conveniently communicate our efforts in improving the school.
As the year continues, I will continue to keep you all updated as to our progress, as well as the initiatives we will be implementing to drive JHS 194 forward into the future.
Sincerely,
Richard M. Garino
I wanted to take a moment to thank the JHS 194 Parent Teacher’s Association for supporting the numerous school initiatives this year, as well as give everyone an update on our progress as a school.
Reports of bullying, and the often tragic consequences it produces fill the nightly news reports and headlines. This is a national problem, and it is one that the faculty and staff of JHS 194 is fully committed to combating. The school has taken a number of steps to address this issue, and the PTA has supported us 100% in our efforts. We began our year with several prominent changes.
We replaced our 6th and 7th grade Home and Career classes with a course titled Overcoming Obstacles. This is a character building program focusing on strengthening the choices and decisions our students make. Our 6th and 7th grade weekly assemblies have been used to reinforce our Anti-bullying message, as well as provide an opportunity for guest speakers, like Lonnie Quinn, the Weatherman for CBS 2 to expand student horizons.
One of the most prevalent forms of bullying in a middle school is upperclassman picking on their younger peers. To prevent this, we re-organized the building before the start of the school year, assigning each grade its own floor and lunch period. This has dramatically cut down on the inter-grade bullying. In addition, each grade has a dedicated Pupil Personnel Team, consisting of an Assistant Principal, Guidance Counselor, and Dean. This team follows each grade from year to year and uses a collaborative and confidential approach to review and evaluate the needs of students who are not successful in their current educational program. The team examines why an individual student is demonstrating academic, behavioral, social or physical needs and then develops supportive strategies, plans and interventions to meet the needs of each child. They are also better able to coordinate both a disciplinary response for the aggressor, as well as a guidance approach to the victim of bullying incidents. This effort to counter bullying had its greatest expression back in January, with our Anti-Bullying Conference Day. We hosted four guest speakers, and devoted the entire day around bullying prevention, the dangers of technology, character building, and staying safe online and on the street. Once again, the PTA gave us their unmitigated support, without which we could not have crafted a day with such impact.
But the work goes far beyond just targeting the bullying behavior. One of the key elements to a successful middle school experience is the feeling of “belonging” to the school, where the students feel they are a part of something larger than themselves. We are not just educating students; we are forging the memories that will create the foundation of their character that they will draw upon in the years ahead. To that end, we have brought the CHAMPS athletic programs back into the school. This year we have offered volleyball, badminton, table tennis, and starting soon, golf. Our Physical Education classes culminated their basketball unit with a playoff competition in front of the entire school. Next year we intend to amplify the sports offerings to our students. We have also expanded the Student Government to include all three grades and allow all of our students to become active in the school and the larger community. During the most recent Parent Teacher conferences, the class representatives from the Student Government held a bake sale, and raised almost $500. Next year, we intend to expand student opportunities by offering a variety of extra-curricular clubs focused on community engagement.
At the end of the day, however, our primary purpose is to educate our students, and our greatest focus has been on the academics in the school. As a result of the Specialized High School Test Prep we ran, we had more students accepted into Stuyvesant High School than at any time in the last six years. This year we have introduced the Charlotte Danielson rubric for enhancing teacher performance. This is a four tiered system of evaluation that allows us to focus professional conversions with teachers on very specific areas for their improvement in the classroom. We have also begun work with the New York State Common Core Learning Standards in both Math and ELA. For the last two years, we have been sending our teachers to extensive training for the new standards. This has culminated in the creation of teacher generated units of study aligned to the Common Core. Math has been focusing on the solving of complex problems, while ELA has been focusing on supporting a claim with evidence from a text. In all of our classes, we have been focusing on improving not just the level of instruction students are receiving, but also in the quality of work the students produce. Thanks to a generous donation from the PTA, our Film & Video Production class now has a total of 18 high definition cameras for the students to begin applying the concepts and techniques they have been learning in the classroom.
So, on behalf of the faculty and staff of JHS 194, I would like to express my thanks for the tremendous work our parents do. Whether it is volunteering in the School Store, participating in fundraisers, or voting to gift our teachers with a “teacher’s choice” grant for classroom supplies, the PTA of JHS 194 has been the backbone of our school community. And now, they have generously offered this space on their website to conveniently communicate our efforts in improving the school.
As the year continues, I will continue to keep you all updated as to our progress, as well as the initiatives we will be implementing to drive JHS 194 forward into the future.
Sincerely,
Richard M. Garino
