Boxes of brightly colored flowers, glittery frames, heart shaped cards and excitement was carried through the doors of Cranford Hall in March. With the help of Jean Koenig, Director of Activities, an opportunity was given for high school students from the Cranford Achievement Program to visit the residents.
The students were treated to a historic tour of this landmark building. They listened to the account of how Cranford Hall, a castle like structure was originally owned by a wealthy silk merchant in 1924, before it was converted to a boarding house and then in 1964 a home for residents and staff.
Everyone was welcoming as the students entered the rooms mingling and chatting. While handmade crafts created by LEAP, CAMP and CAP were given to the men and women, they happily shared life stories with us. The residents were grateful and you could hear comments like “Are these flowers for me?” and “It’s nice that your school thought about us.”
The students at Lincoln School continue to serve the needs in the Cranford Community and in doing that learn the value of giving. The feeling that you made a difference is a powerful one. It left our students wanting more opportunities to serve. In a thank you note we received, Ms. Koenig said, “We hope you will come again and visit us.” You can bet we will be back.
“The world is not interested in what we do for a living. What they are interested in is what we have to offer freely - hope, strength, love and the power to make a difference!”
Sasha Azvedo - Entertainer
Fourth graders at Orange Avenue School in Cranford, rounded out their study of our fine state with their annual New Jersey Show. Students shared their knowledge about New Jersey’s geography, history, and culture with county jingles, Jersey Jeopardy trivia, and commercials highlighting popular tourist attractions. Congressman Leonard Lance attended the play and congratulated the students a job well done. He presented fourth grader, Alexis Brophy and Vice Principal, Carmela Colosimo with an American flag that has been flown over the U.S. Capitol.
By Joan Krov, Orange Avenue School
During the week of March 12, 2012, an observer at Orange Avenue School might have heard exclamations of “Awesome!” and “When can we do this again?” echoing through the halls. In a celebration of Read-Across-America, sixth graders in Mrs. Chandler, Mrs. Krov, and Mrs. Sandgran’s Language Arts classes worked with the third, fourth, and fifth graders in the classes of Ms. Curti, Ms. Bell, Ms. Hayeck, Mrs. Compton, Ms. Zambell, Mrs. Frayne, and Mrs. McLoughlin.
All students brought their favorite books with them and each was paired up with a partner. The children read to each other and even discussed reading strategies! The classrooms were abuzz with the sounds of children proudly sharing their knowledge and love of their favorite books with their elementary and middle school counterparts. The thickness of each book was worn as a badge of honor by the students as they flaunted their reading prowess.
An assortment of genre and a wide range of topics were represented in the books. The Harry Potter series was a popular choice, as well as Stargirl, Hugo Cabret, Junie B. Jones, Bone, Al Capone Does My Shirts, Ish, and Dot. As the time drew to a close, the middle schoolers protectively escorted their younger partners to their classrooms.
The following quotes represent the sixth graders’ reflections on this experience in the form of a “tweet.” :
Taylor6@oas: “I enjoyed sharing my love of reading with my third grade partner.”
Angelina6@oas: “It was really fun talking about some new books. They were very good readers!”
Julia6@oas: “I was so shocked that they were reading so fluently! I wish we could do this more often. It was so much fun!”
Laura6@oas: “This was a great way to get to know the younger grades better.”
Kelly6@oas: “It’s amazing to see them look at you and think they want to be like you. Wow! Let’s do it again!
Taylor6@oas:”It was a lot fun! I loved spreading the joy of reading.”
Lauren6@oas: “I love kids! This was an experience to remember. Also, listening to them read was awesome because they were so good! It’s showing young kids that the joy of reading will last for a lifetime!
Kelley6@oas: “I had an amazing time reading with the young, energetic third graders. I enjoyed listening to them read Chapter Books with such ease! I hope the sixth grade shares the love of reading with the younger grades again soon!
By Lisa Lesiak
In an effort to create school-wide enrichment opportunities for all students in Cranford, the Pathways to Excellence teachers organize “Brown Bag Lunch” sessions as an alternative to traditional recess. The goal for the Brown Bag Lunches is to aid students in discovering topics of interest. Guest speakers are invited to join the students during their lunch hour to share their knowledge and expertise on a particular topic. The topics are advertised to students and those interested, elect to participate in lieu of their usual recess activities. Following the presentation student feedback is forwarded to the classroom teacher and may be used for enrichment lessons or further exploration on a topic of interest.
Many community members, parents, and faculty members have helped to bring a variety of topics to our students. Some careers highlighted since the inception of the program include a sports announcer, an undercover agent, a professional dancer, a yoga instructor, a seeing eye dog trainer, a journalist, and an environmentalist, just to name a few. The goal for the Brown Bag Lunches is to aid students in discovering topics of interest. Ultimately, school-wide enrichment opportunities help students to nurture and develop their gifts and talents.
In a recent Brown Bag Lunch session at Orange Avenue School, 3rd, 4th and 5th graders learned about culinary arts and healthy snacking from two of our Seton Hall interns, Lauren and Alex. The elementary students enjoyed learning about the career of Lauren’s dad who was trained as a chef. Pictured here are the future chefs displaying big smiles after trying the homemade mango salsa prepared for the session.
If you have a career, hobby or special interest to share with our students, please contact Lisa Lesiak at lesiakli@cranfordschools.org or 908-709-6976 to make arrangements to be a presenter.
Help us continue to encourage our students to explore….discover….and learn!
By: Mr. Dionisio
Principal of Cranford High School
Research has consistently shown peer relationships to be one of the strongest influences on the behavior of others. This is especially true among our youth. What we know for sure is that peers have the ability to influence each other either positively or negatively. For years schools have been educating youth about the consequences of alcohol, tobacco and drug use and exercising abstinence. Harnessing the power of positive peer influence has proven to be a significant factor in shifting behavior as evidenced in our classroom on a daily basis. Peer pressure can be positive. It can encourage us to fundraise for a specific cause, clean up an area in our community, or stick to an exercise program as a new year’s resolution. How else might peer pressure act as a positive force?
We often think of peer influence in negative terms. Research in the past 20 years tells us to look at peer influence in a different way. Very often, people base their behavior on what they believe others are doing. This fact is not only true for adults, but for teens as well. In essence, teens will themselves behave in a manner that they believe their peers are behaving. For example, teens may be more likely to drink alcohol because they believe everyone is doing it. But what if their perception of what their peers are doing is wrong?
The social norms approach is different from other prevention programs because it highlights the positive decisions that students are already making. The social norm theory assumes that teen behavior is influenced by how other members of a social group behave and that our beliefs about what others are actually doing is usually incorrect.
In the next several weeks, we will be asking our students at Cranford High School to participate in a social norms survey. The primary purpose of this comprehensive and confidential survey,based on the social norms approach, is to learn about youth knowledge of, attitudes toward, and behaviors regarding alcohol, tobacco and other drug use. The survey was originated by Wesley
Perkins, Ph.D., a founder of the social norms approach used throughout the world. Social Norms projects are supported by the New Jersey Department of Education and aid school districts in fulfilling their obligation for Comprehensive Alcohol, Tobacco and other Drug Abuse Programs(N.J.A.C. 6A:16-3). The information obtained from the survey will assist our school in developing and sustaining a social norms program, with the goal of decreasing alcohol, tobacco and other drug use.
Parents will have an opportunity to review details regarding the project and grant permission for their child to participate in the social norms survey. All student responses will remain anonymous and confidential. Over the next several months, we will review and analyze survey data to identify positive statistics for our school messages and develop a media campaign to dispel misperceptions in coordination with all members of our community.
We know that parents have an enormous effect on the decisions their child makes and serve as positive role models and reliable sources of information. We look forward to working together with parents and the entire community to support our students. A social norms approach will allow us to better understand peer and personal attitudes and behaviors, shifting behavior away from any misperceptions. Our goal is to connect the gap between perception and reality and harness the power of positive peer influence.
The Pillars of Character from Livingston Avenue School
By Dineen Seeley, Principal of Livingston Avenue School
The Read Across America program is an annual national reading motivation and awareness initiative that calls for every child, in every community, to celebrate reading on March 2 - the birthday of beloved children’s author, Dr. Seuss.
It is our goal in the upcoming months at Livingston Avenue School to promote literacy awareness, not only among our students, but throughout the community. This February, we will be kicking off our Read Across America incentive program with a goal of reading 2,000 books as a school. Students will individually document their reading progress within their classroom, while committee members, Ms. Laura Straus, Ms. Lindsey Snyder and Mrs. Kristyn Gorman, document school progress. As students complete books, the opportunity to write a book review on a bookmark that will be hung on an interactive bulletin board will be made available. Students will also make recommendations to their peers as to what books they truly enjoyed reading to inspire our students to read a diverse collection of books.
On March 5th, we will kick off our school book drive which will help us not only to build classroom libraries, but also provide books to underprivileged and at risk children throughout New Jersey in order to support literacy skills and to encourage a love of reading. 1/3 of the books collected will be donated. Livingston Avenue School is eager to our goal of 2,000 books!
By Dineen Seeley, Livingston Avenue School Principal
Livingston Avenue School has welcomed the involvement of the Cranford Police Department in several programs this year. Detective Toy conducted a school-wide assembly to review student safety, underscoring the importance of students being aware of strangers and their surroundings. He also teamed up with the fourth graders to teach them about bicycle safety, including a three-part obstacle course for the children to maneuver. Detective Toy also scheduled meetings in each of the fifth grade classes to follow up on pedestrian safety.
Detective Vitale engaged the fifth graders in 10 weekly lessons to teach them about the dangers of drugs, alcohol, tobacco and violence through the award winning Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program (DARE) program. Each of the children wrote essays to reflect upon what they learned. Parents and guardians were invited to the culminating DARE graduation, where 2 children from each class read their essays aloud and all of the children shared their pledges to stay drug free to allow them to accomplish future goals.
Parent Literacy Volunteer Ann Lovrien works with second grade students at WAS.
By Judy Grogan and Jodi McCabe
Teaching kids to read stands at the center of what teachers do each day at Walnut Avenue School. It is an essential and challenging task that takes time, patience and an enormous amount of individual assistance and guidance.
The balanced literacy program employed in the Cranford Schools includes a component called Guided Reading that involves having students work in multiple small groups. This strategy provides for more individualized attention combined with frequent assessment to identify weaknesses and provide the necessary reteaching. Needless to say, managing a class during a Guided Reading session can be a challenging proposition for even the most experienced educators and having an aide to assist in monitoring children during Guided Reading sessions can only help to make these instructional periods more productive.
Over the past two years, teachers at Walnut Avenue School have explored the use of Parent Literacy Volunteers to assist with reading instruction. Recruited each year, these volunteers commit to providing a minimum of one to two hours per week. “The staff and I did some brain storming last year about how to provide our students with more individual attention during reading lessons,” explained Principal Angelo Paternoster. “We realized that a number of our parents had some experience working in school settings. Many had been educators before having children or were interested in pursuing teaching careers so it just seemed logical to take advantage of this skill set. We sent out a request for assistance via the PTA and quickly had a core of parent volunteers who were willing to undergo the background check required to work in the schools. Our teachers provided the requisite training and we were off and running”
First grade teacher Judy Grogan has been an enthusiastic supporter of the approach. “We use the volunteers in a variety of ways,” she says. “They are very helpful keeping kids focused and on task during Reading Center time. They can also be used to take individual students aside for one-to-one practice and reinforcement of skills.”
Fellow first grade teacher, Jodi McCabe, also gives the approach an enthusiastic review. “The volunteers have been a great addition to our program. Young children really respond to the extra attention. You really can’t have enough help in the primary grade classroom. The fact that so many of our volunteers have teaching experience made it even easier to implement an effective program.”
Ann Lovrien, a retired school administrator and WAS grandparent, has volunteered at the school for two years. In addition to supervising children in literacy centers, she can often be seen sitting with individual students practicing sight words or phonics skills. “Volunteering at Walnut Avenue School has been very satisfying experience for me. It is gratifying to watch children progress and grow as readers and I personally find it enjoyable.”
Principal Paternoster hopes to continue the program as long as willing and able volunteers come forward. “Using parent volunteers to enrich and support primary grade reading programs makes sense in a community like Cranford and I’m always interested in meeting and speaking to individuals who think they can help our children become independent readers.”
By Dennis McCaffery, Principal of Lincoln School
Students from Lincoln School had an opportunity to participate in a Service Learning Project on Wednesday, November 23, 2011. The project created a student awareness of childhood cancers and gave a feeling of hope and empathy to all those who participated. The students worked in organized groups to make blankets for children with cancer and other debilitating illnesses. The project was titled “Blankets of Love”.
Students were required to work cooperatively to make each blanket. First, they chose teammates and a leader. The leader of each group designated responsibilities to each member. Each group needed a person to measure the fabric, a person to cut the fabric, and four members to tie the fabric simultaneously.
The students worked together and made 18 fleece blankets. The blankets were delivered to the pediatric oncology units at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and The Carol Simon Cancer Center at Morristown Memorial Hospital in Morristown, New Jersey. All of the students expressed their feelings of accomplishment and pride for having had an opportunity to help someone else during the Thanksgiving season, especially an ill child.
By Angelique Eimer, Orange Avenue Scool
Students at Orange Avenue School in Cranford worked under the guidance of Ms. Brown to participate in a series of art lessons during the Week of Respect that put the power of words in the students hands, literally. The “artistic” intent of the lettering project was to have students explore and practice how to blend oil pastels on letters of their own design. But because artists use their work to communicate and often to inspire, her students were challenged to choose a word that would send a positive message to the viewer. So, as they learned of the unique properties of oil pastels and as they practiced making large and dramatic letters, their work, combined in one display, sent the message to our OAS students to “Accentuate the Positive!”
By Jessica Welch, Hillside Avenue School
In honor of the American Library Association’s Teen Read Week, on October, 20, 2011, Ms. Welch and Mr. Barto’s seventh grade Language Arts students at Hillside Avenue School invited their friends and relatives to come into the classroom and give a talk on their favorite book, poem or speech. Students prepared for the 8th annual Teen Read Day by baking their favorite goodies and artfully rearranging the classroom so that it was conducive to a café-style presentation.
In total, there were 28 presenters who spoke to the 7th grade English classes about a wide range of literary genres. After sharing a summary or excerpt from their selection, presenters spoke about how the text influenced their thinking in a profound way. Additionally, they discussed their enthusiasm and love for reading in general. Driving home the theme for the day, one guest said, “Some books are meant to be experienced and others merely read.”
One of the most notable speakers Mrs. Luba Fedash, a longtime Cranford resident, lived through Polish Nazi occupation. She shared her autobiography Blossoms on a Rooftop and prompted students to reflect on the idea that writing about their own lives is a worthwhile endeavor. Another distinguished guest was Hillside’s vice-principal, Mr. Marc Biunno, who read a poem written by one of his former students. Having been a Language Arts teacher, he pleasantly surprised students by telling them that his favorite thing to read is student writing; he encouraged them to work on finding their own personal voice through writing.
During the week following the presentations, students wrote thank you cards to the guest presenters. They were instructed to consider the following essential questions: How can we personalize each thank you card? And, how can we create a card that the presenter will want to hang on their refrigerator? They wrote drafts, made revisions, and decorated the cards with thoughtful images or drawings which were then mailed out to the presenters.
Overall, the event was deemed a whopping success by inspiring students to read for information, enjoyment, and personal growth.
By Kerry Rokicki, Orange Avenue School
Witches. Sea monsters. Clowns. Fairies. You name it and it seemed like the costume was there for the asking. That’s because the students atLincoln-Hubbard Elementary School in Summit knew their Cranford neighbors might need a little help this Halloween season after Hurricane Irene and the related flooding. In a gesture of community service and kindness, they collected and donated more than 100 costumes. The Orange Avenue School PTA then hosted a “shopping” event on October 19 for all OAS, BPS and BAS students affected by the storm. The students and their families had a wonderful time selecting from the great variety of costumes. “We are all really touched by this thoughtful gesture from a neighboring town,” said OAS PTA President Jodi Klimko. In conjunction with the event there was also a candy collection organized by town residents for Herning Avenue, an ever popular Trick-or-Treat destination. Special thanks to all those who donated sweet treats!
