The Lunar Alliance
In a collaborative effort to design and implement curricula that integrate science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM), the pre-kindergarten through fifth grade Jewish Community Day School of Rhode Island (JCDSRI) faculty has partnered with the Brown/RISD STEAM group, a student collaborative focused on the importance of interdisciplinary studies. In a recent cross-disciplinary unit, Brown/RISD STEAM students worked with JCDSRI fifth graders on an integrative study of the moon focusing on the relationship between the moon’s gravity and mass. Students also created clay models of the moon and earth based on mass to demonstrate a mathematical understanding of scale. This complemented students’ study of the moon in English Language Arts and Social Studies with their general studies teacher and the Jewish lunar calendar with their Judaic studies teacher. The collaboration that this project represents is remarkable: three schools, five areas of study and more.
Stubborn Hope: Memoir of an Urban Teacher
Recently, Carole Marshall, who taught at Hope High School for 17 years, published Stubborn Hope: Memoir of an Urban Teacher. Stubborn Hope presents portraits of students, classroom scenarios, reflections on effective teaching and a description of the corporate and political entities involved in testing. For those of us who want to understand the ways Common Core standards, high-stakes testing and other factors impact students, Ms. Marshall’s book is an invaluable resource. It also helps us better understand urban students and what they need to succeed. Stubborn Hope shines a light on the tension between dominant school reform agendas and the hopes and dreams of students at (and beyond) Hope High School. Stubborn Hope can be sampled or purchased online at smashwords.com or at Amazon’s Kindle store; it’s also available at Books on the Square in Wayland Square.
Bonjour, Monsieur Carpanèse
Jean-Yves Carpanèse, head of school at the Lycée Théodore Monod in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, has been named the second Head of School at the French-American School of Rhode Island (FASRI), an independent East Side school serving pre-Kindergarten through eighth graders with a dual language French-English curriculum. Mr. Carpanèse will succeed the School’s founder, Madame Dominique Velociter, French Legion of Honor recipient who has served as Head of School for 20 years. The French-American School of Rhode Island has grown during Madame Velociter’s tenure from a small bilingual program on the East Side of Providence to a vibrant, international community of students, educators and parents representing over 30 countries. Bienvenue à la Providence, Monsieur Carpanèse!