UPED Students at the NY Liberty Game

Stick with Ms. T. Hall and Ms. Brathwaite if you want to go places (such as Madison Square Garden). Looks like they had lots of fun!

Class 271 at Prospect Park

Thank you Ms. T. Hall for developing the partnership with the Urban Park Rangers which resulted in this awesome theme-related expeditionary learning event.

UPED Community Outreach Project #1

Selected seventh and eighth grade Academy of UPED students visited the Flatlands Family Residence today. The facility provides an array of services to displaced women and children in the East New York/Canarsie area.

The students read essays and poems and donated food and toys to those in need. Reporters from the Canarsie Courier were in attendance. The students were accompanied by Ms. T. Hall and Ms. Brathwaite. Here they are in their T-shirts at the facility.


I spoke to the students when they returned and asked them a few questions. It was clear that they were sincerely touched by the experience, especially given this time of year and the implications for holiday celebrations. Most students expressed gratitude for what they have and stated that it was an eye-opening opportunity which would allow them to be more appreciative of their blessings.



Congratulations to the Eighth Grade Team for being the first to complete their community service project! Still to come: The Sixth Graders' coat drive and the Seventh Graders' food drive.

Meet the Urban Park Rangers!

Thanks a million to Ms. T. Hall for organizing the demonstration and informational session today with the Urban Park Rangers in conjunction with Mayor Bloomberg's Million Trees Initiative. The Park Rangers were very knowledgeable and we all learned a lot. Ms. Leesang and Mr. Cooper should be proud of the students' ability to explain photosynthesis in great detail. This is evidence of the impact of instruction that is enduring and meaningful.

Shout out to classes 271 and 272 for being a great audience. I sat in with class 271 period 4 and I must say that I was very impressed with their level of questioning and genuine interest in the project. As a culminating activity, students in the 270's will visit and then compare and contrast Canarsie Park and Prospect Park.

Academy II Celebrates Earth Day by Planting a Tree

[OK, this post is SO late but hey, better late than never. I've been extremely busy.]

Sixth, seventh and eighth grade students in Isaac Bildersee Intermediate School’s Academy of Urban Planning and Environmental Design planted a white oak (Quercus alba) tree on East 82nd Street on Tuesday, April 28, 2009. It was the first major theme-related project in which students participated since 2007 when students visited the intended Atlantic Yards site in downtown Brooklyn. Ms. Treena Hall, an English language arts teacher, applied for a free sapling from the John Browne Nursery in collaboration with New York City’s Million Trees Initiative. In addition to Principal Alex Fralin, Assistant Principal Dennis Herring, Jr. and Parent, Rae Phillips, in attendance was Ms. Julia Bove, Executive Officer of Instruction for the Integrated Curriculum and Instruction learning support organization. The weather was perfect as custodian Bernie Young assisted the students with digging the hole properly and generously watering the newly planted tree. The students, who wore “Go Green” t-shirts that they designed, rounded out the ceremony with readings of essays and poems that memorialized the significance of Earth Day.


Much gratitude to Ms. Treena Hall for spearheading this endeavor. It's quite a chore to put something like this together and still deliver the instruction of the regular curriculum. Thanks to all the students who wrote poems and essays and read them during the ceremony. Thanks to the guys of class 281 who dug the hole. Big shout out to Bernie for helping us with the water.

At first, we were told by the John Browne nursery that we weren't going to receive the tree because they never received our application by fax. Then the tree was surprisingly delivered the day after Earth Day. It looked like a plant. Thanks to all the rain we've had recently, the tree has sprouted several huge leaves although it hasn't grown in height yet. Ms. T. Hall will take pictures of the tree each month and display the images on her blog. So stop by the library to check out the bulletin board with student work and pictures and then visit right outside exits 9 & 10 and check out the Academy II tree! (Thanks, Ms. T. Hall for the pictures).