Dear PS 107 Families,
Welcome to the 2023-24 school year! I hope that it has started off smoothly for you and your children. It certainly has for us as a school. As I’ve been visiting classrooms, the cafeteria, and our specialty classes (Art, Music, Science, PE, and Library), it’s clear that our students are so thrilled to be back at school, are quickly adjusting to their new classroom environments, and are making new friends – and reconnecting with old friends. It is truly a joy to see!
WELCOME NEW STAFF!
As many of you know, our beloved long-time Science teacher, Mr Tomsik, moved away from New York City over a year ago. Last year, Abby Roberts did a phenomenal job as a part-time Science teacher. This year, I’m thrilled to announce that we’ve been able to hire a full-time Science teacher so that our Science classes will return to their former frequency (twice a week in grades 3-5 and once a week in grade 2). Crystal Barnes has joined the PS 107 community from PS 676 in Red Hook. At PS 676, Crystal was not only a classroom teacher with a keen interest in Science, but also the lower grades Harbor Coach. She oversaw the Billion Oyster Project work at 676 and is excited to bring her love of Science and sustainability to PS 107!
This year, we were also able to hire a part-time Physical Education teacher who will be working with Diane DiTonno. Armando Perez will be splitting his time between PS 107 (Mondays/Tuesdays) and Brooklyn New School (Wednesdays-Fridays). Armando has been teaching PE and movement at BNS since 2019, and we’re thrilled to have him on our PE team at 107!
SETTLING IN
The initial weeks of school involve students getting to know one another, learning (and practicing) classroom routines, and building classroom community. All of this work, while not obviously academic in nature, pays enormous dividends across the school year. Students who internalize classroom routines and expectations and who feel connected to a community are able to be more engaged in learning.
CURRICULUM CONFERENCES
Please save the date for Curriculum Conferences, where you’ll learn more about your child’s classroom, as well as our speciality classes. They will be held on Thursday, September 21st via Zoom on the following schedule:
Specialty teachers roundtable presentation (Art, Music, Library, Physical Education, Science), 4:30-5:30 pm, Zoom link to come
Presentations for 3rd-5th grade classrooms, 5:30-6:30 pm, individual teachers will share Zoom links with families
Presentations for Kindergarten-2nd grade classrooms, 6:30-7:30 pm, individual teachers will share Zoom links with families
COMMUNICATIONS
As a reminder, because of NYC Public Schools (NYCPS) data privacy regulations, our staff will only be communicating via our @schools.nyc.gov email addresses this year. All teachers have provided these email addresses to you. Important school and district contacts are listed on the first page in our Parent Handbook. Unfortunately, Konstella is not an NYCPS-approved platform for school communication purposes (but is fine for PTA-related communications), so the school will be sending all schoolwide communication via Operoo this year. Messages come from “Operoo Administrator” (we wish this weren’t the case!), so please be sure that your spam filters do not send emails from Operoo to your junk folder.
Finally, if you have questions about school operations, policies, or procedures, be sure to check our Parent Handbook first. If you don’t see the answer there, feel free to reach out to your child’s teacher if it is classroom-specific or Nadia Benlarbi, Parent Coordinator, if you have more of a school-wide question, at nbenlarbi2@schools.nyc.gov. Please give our teachers 24-48 hours on work days to respond to emails. Teachers have very limited time to write and respond to emails during the school day, and, at 107, we strongly encourage all of our staff to have work-life balance so that they can be present, positive, and engaged with their students during the day.
Have a wonderful week!
Warmly,
Ms Joanna