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Talk About Success

admin — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 17:02:42 +0000

The Middle School Debate Team had an incredibly productive Saturday morning, afternoon, and evening, as they laboriously debated four challenging topics against the steep competition that New York City has to offer. Topics included: Abolish standardized testing; The “Occupy Wall Street” protests cause more harm than good; Civics classes should require students to watch presidential and primary debates on TV; The United States should adopt a carbon emissions cap-and-trade system; and NATO’s recent campaigns in Libya are morally justified. After several weeks of practice and preparation, the debaters ended Saturday proudly, with one of their teams—Caitlin, Rory and Daphne —placing 9th out of about 35 teams and one of their peers—Rory—placing in the top 20 of over 100 students who participated. Possibly, the most important thing that came out of Saturday was the students’ acknowledgement that they are making great strides in progress, but there is much more work to be done. Congratulations to our debaters!!

Barnes and Noble Bookfair

admin — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:40:08 +0000

Barnes and Noble Bookfair On Saturday, November 19th, students, parents and teachers gathered together at Barnes and Noble bookstore in Bayside for a PTA fundraiser. Teachers and families shopped happily with proceeds benefiting Garden School.

The teachers of grades 1-3 led story hour. Ms Sarran read Caps for Sale while her mother interpreted the story into American Sign Language. Ms Ingravalla read aloud Miss Nelson is Missing as the students made predictions. Ms Renner set a purpose for reading the humorous Thanksgiving story The Ugly Duckling.

The day was a great showing of school spirit with many proudly wearing Garden School t-shirts. Thank you to the PTA for organizing a wonderful fundraiser. If you missed the event you can order online from Saturday, November 19 to Thursday, November 24th. Use the ID number 10560100 at Barnes and Noble Bookfairs and a portion of your purchase will benefit Garden School.

Debate @ Garden!!

admin — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 14:44:33 +0000

On Saturday, October 22nd, the 6 members of the new Garden School Middle School debate team joined students from a variety of other New York City schools to compete in the first Metropolitan Debate League meet of the year at Hunter College High School.

Teams received the topics in advance but were not told if they would support or oppose each assertion – whether each team would be in the “opposition” or “proposition”—until 15 minutes before the debate. The assertions this time were “Alcohol should be banned at sporting events,” “Students rather than principals should determine student punishments” and “Free speech should not protect hate speech.” Our two teams participated in three debates each, and the students received individual instructive review and constructive criticism from each judge. Competition aside, it was a great learning experience for our novice debaters, particularly watching our debaters use their new criticisms to become better throughout the debates.

This debate was the first of six to be held this year and was our team’s first chance to compete. But it comes at the end of 4 weeks of practice – 3 hours per week – and research that the students did at home. The team’s advisors, Mr. Burgoyne and Mr. Kruczek, have worked with the students and encouraged them to do independent work as well.

Over 100 students participated in the debate, and two Garden students earned special recognition. Caitlin (8) came in 9th overall and Daphne (6) placed 5th in the area of Best Individual Speaker. Congratulations to Caitlin, Daphne, Rory, Jonathan, Henry and Hilary – our great debaters and winners all! The Middle School Debate team, with their advisors, showing their “game faces.”

A Night at the Museum!!!! (Literally!!)

admin — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:59:01 +0000

Campers at the Garden Summer Program experienced “A Night at the Museum” first-hand. On Saturday, July 23 twenty-eight campers ages 9 to 13 and their chaperones had an unforgettable sleepover experience at the American Museum of Natural History. The evening began with an awe inspiring IMAX film entitled, Sea Rex: Journey to a Prehistoric World. Then, as the doors closed and the lights dimmed, campers were armed with flashlights to begin their nocturnal adventure; finding themselves in the Hall of the North American Mammals, then climbing down stairs to the Age of the Dinosaurs and finally turning in for the night beneath the 94 foot long blue whale.

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Make a Splash!! Become a Lifeguard!!

admin — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:58:52 +0000

Become a Red Cross Certified Lifeguard at Garden School. We are administering the course, which is 40-45 hours in duration, beginning Monday, August 22 through Friday, August 26 from 8am to 4pm. Students must be at least 15 years of age and pass a skills evaluation the first day of the course. Call for details….

Summer Camp Program

admin — Mon, 23 May 2011 11:10:03 +0000

It’s never too early to start planning for a great summer experience, and, in fact, the Garden School Summer Program team has already begun to do just that! New and exciting activities are being specialized for the needs of campers of all ages, from the junior FAST programs to our Teen Travel Program for our most curious and adventurous teen campers. New trips and destinations have become part of the ever-growing Teen Travel program. Please see our brochure for further details.

Way to go, Garden!!!!

admin — Wed, 18 May 2011 21:21:39 +0000

Congratulations to Garden School’s Varsity Tennis Team for becoming the “Co-Champions” of the 2011 I.S.A.L. “Big Apple Conference” Varsity Tennis League! The season ended in a three-way tie for first place between Garden School, Lycee Francais and The Dwight School.

On Monday, May 16th , Garden faced off against Lycee Francais in the championship match, and lost by a score of 4-1. Still, Garden brought home a Runner-Up tournament plaque and the “Championship Trophy” which we will share with Lycee Francais and The Dwight School. Additionally, the Garden School Tennis Team will receive our first ever banner to be hung proudly in the gymnasium, as part of the awards ceremony on June 3rd.

Way to go, Garden!!

Lower Division Merit Exam

admin — Mon, 02 May 2011 01:20:36 +0000

On May 21, 2011 Garden School will introduce its first Lower Division Merit Scholarship exam, for students currently enrolled in Grades 1-4. The test will act as a complement to Garden’s Merit Scholarship Exam for students in Grades 5-9, which has been in place for more than a decade.

Awards can range from 25%-100% and students will keep their scholarships through the Fifth Grade, when they become eligible to sit for the November Merit Scholarship Exam. The Lower Division Merit Scholarship Exam will be offered on Saturday, May 21 and applications must be received by 5pm on Wednesday, May 18 in order to be considered.

Students and families are expected to arrive at Garden School at 8:30am for a brief orientation before the exam. Tours of the school will be available while students are testing and the day’s program is expected to end by noon. Results of the scholarship will be available by May 26th. Click here to download Lower Division Merit Exam Application

Pi Day

admin — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 23:38:12 +0000

On Pi Day, March 14, 2011, the 6th graders visited the office of Drs. David and Gregory Chudnovsky at Polytechnic Institute of New York University.

The visit began with a discussion led by a fellow of the university, Tom Morgan. The students explored math and computers through music. The correlation between music and motion as transmitted to voltage in order to render that music as vibration on a speaker cone. They manipulated the number of vibrations in 17.2 seconds of Paul Mc Cartney’s voice in an Auto-Tune program which, in turn, varied the sound. The results sent the students laughing and reminiscing about the Chipmunks!

The exploration extended to an image of jellybeans and its manipulation with numbers. The students blurred the image by taking the average of the colors around a particular point on the image. Conversely they were able to sharpen the image as it became pixelated. One student was curious about negative values on the RGB (Red – Green – Blue) scale. So the values in the program were simply negated with one click. The colors were inverted; the shadows become the highlights and vice versa. As a result, the halo effect was produced!

Lastly, the discussion was related to the work of the Drs. David and Gregory Chudnovsky as it pertains to the famous tapestries, “The Hunt of the Unicorn.” which hang in the Cloisters Museum and Gardens. The 6th graders visited the museum earlier in the month and were told to pay close attention the size and details of the tapestries in anticipation of this trip. The supercomputer, which the brothers built to solve the problem of digitally recreating an image of this immense (and variable) work of art, was in the room for all to see. Now that’s a computer!

Finally the students were each given Intel chips from the M-0 Computers of 30 years ago as souvenirs. The students scrutinized these chips and came up with a modern and practical application of this outdated chip. They named it “The Chomb – the chip that serves as a comb!”

• For more information on Dr. Chudnovsky’s work on the Unicorn tapestries, visit the link http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/chudnovsky-math.html

Garden School Donates Winter Clothing to “Common Ground”

admin — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 19:42:07 +0000

Each winter, Garden School students organize a hat, scarf and glove drive for a local organization. This year, Common Ground was fortunate enough to be the recipient of their hard work and generosity. The students leading the drive were Julia Mckenna, Gaetano Butera, Sera Butera and Maddy Rosen.

Common Ground’s mission is to end homelessness through innovative programs that transform people, buildings, and entire communities. Over the last 20 years, Common Ground has grown into one of the largest providers of supportive housing in the United States.

On February, 15th, the students visited The Andrews and distributed 50 hats, 45 scarves and 90 pairs of gloves to the tenants. Common Ground is very grateful to Garden School for thinking of their tenants and working hard to bring them so many warm hats, scarves and gloves.