Photo courtesy of the New York Times

Today’s New York Times shows an article focused on Glen Rock’s new engineering in elementary schools program.

Check it out!

Quoted from the article:

Here in Glen Rock, where students have long excelled at math and science, administrators and teachers decided to incorporate engineering into the elementary grades to connect classroom learning to real life, as well as to instill social skills like collaboration and cooperation that are valued in the work force, said Kathleen Regan, the curriculum director.

Fantastic to see our top-notch education system featured so prominently in a (inter)national publication such as the NYT. Congratulations to all involved.

Pool season is a great way for all of us to mix and mingle and see each other in significantly less clothing than we do at the train station, bus stop and Kilroy’s. In addition, our kids can play together again without the artificial boundaries of their class rosters. Overall it’s a fun time for everyone involved. Not to mention that the pool itself is truly a fantastic facility.

Compared to Ridgewood and Fair Lawn’s sand-bottom “lakes,” the Glen Rock pool is clear, clean and beautiful. The facilities are relatively modern and water temp, surprisingly, is always comfortable. Finally, the physical separation of the kiddie pool leaves the unnaturally warm waters frequented by the under 5 set completely autonomous thus making the adult section of the pool, relatively free of anything that shouldn’t be in there.

Enjoy pool season and make sure your kids get those swim lessons.

There are lots of sites with information on what’s on the ballot, what the budget is and where to vote. Here are a few:

The Glen Rock School site

NorthJersey.com has a breakdown of the budget

Now get out there and vote!

Courtesy of NorthJersey.com

This story was so good, it couldn’t NOT be posted here on GlenRockParent.com. Alexandra Mendelsohn, an 8th grader at Glen Rock Middle School, won an essay contest sponsored by Samsung in the process earning her school $50,000 worth of audio/visual equipment and software. Congratulations to Alexandra, her family and the students and staff of Glen Rock Middle School!

Her essay focused on how technology can help education in schools – in 100 words or less. It can be seen in its entirety here:

http://middleschool.glenrocknj.org

Alexandra’s essay won in a combination judging/voting process ultimately triumphing as a result of its quality and content.

Congrats again. The full story can be found here.

As parents we’re often asked to assist our children in their learning and scholastic activities because of the enhanced bond, interaction and learning experience it creates however the projects our kids are asked to complete are typically within their capabilities. The experience becomes one of helping, teaching and bonding. Recently, however, a group project was assigned to a set of first graders. The project involved elements relating to the real and political world, choices to be made about external organizations and financial commitments. This project was outside the capabilities of 4 first graders.

Fantastic and wondrous as they are, there is no way a group of first graders can get organized, pick a topic and execute on a vision. In addition, simply creating some kind of group dynamic – leaders, doers, etc, which would come naturally in the adult world – is completely lost on these children (through no fault of their own – they’re simply too young). So where does this end up? It ends up directly in the parents’ laps. This group project for first graders now becomes a multi-weekend project for the parents of these kids. Again, reiterating how fantastic it is to spend time helping your child with their homework, this went way beyond.

The project, ultimately, was organized, conceived, planned and almost entirely executed by the adults. Why? Because the children simply are too young to have the skills to pull something like this off outside of school time. Placing these kinds of commitments, indirectly, on the parents adds to the thousands of commitments we already make for our children. Also, the benefit for the students gets lost. They’re too young to get group organization dynamics. They’re too young to conceptualize a bigger vision and are simply not capable of pulling off the full endeavor.

We are all committed to the education of our children. We will do what it takes to ensure their success but it’s critical that the work assigned to them meets their capabilities (or is a bit of stretch). Otherwise the work ends up executed by the parents and the children learn nothing.

Have your kids had group projects assigned to them? In what grade? What was your experience?

Regardless of what your profession, hobbies or interests are, there is likely a group here in town that’s meeting on that very topic. Here are just a few examples:

Glen Rock Fan Page on Facebook – connect with folks on Facebook who live here now and who used to live here.

Glen Rock Network on LinkedIn – professionals live right here in “the Rock.” Reach out and connect.

Glen Rock Triathlon Club – the premiere group for triathletes in Northern NJ.

Glen Rock Newcomers and Neighbors – new in town? want to reconnect with folks here? This is the group to join.

MOMS Club of Glen Rock – stay at home moms unite! This group helps you get to know each other and do fun things together.

There are many informal (read: without a web site) groups of folks that get together who share common interests, professions or other traits. Getting in touch with people on the networks mentioned above and asking some questions should easily lead you to those folks as well.

What have we missed? Add it in the comments.

We’d like to start a monthly feature where we highlight one extraordinary Glen Rock parent. Each month we’ll profile someone who you, our readers, feel should get the spotlight. They don’t have to be doing anything unusually remarkable or amazing – just being good parents (in our community). At this time we’d like to solicit nominations for the inaugural post – February’s Glen Rock Parent of the Month.

Who do you know that deserves the spotlight? You can put suggestions in the comments below or email info@glenrockparent.com to submit your nomination directly. All nominations must be in by January 31, 2010.

She continues to reassure that these will not be the sole thing our children’s science grades will reflect.

I have to admit I was a bit nervous when I had my daughter stick it in my face yelling “Sign it!” This email helped a lot. Did you guys see the assessment? What did you think?