Dear Ms. Tina: Reflections on an email from an Alumna, Class of 2012

Hi Ms. Tina!

I miss you so much! I'm sorry that I haven't been in touch. Over winter break I had an internship and had to rush back to school, but I would like to let you know that I got accepted into The School For Field Studies! I'm going to Bhutan to work in the Himalayan forests for a month in the summer. (http://www.fieldstudies.org/bhutan) I can't thank you enough for writing me a letter of recommendation. I really appreciate you and think about you and New Roots often. Please tell everyone I said hello and I promise I'll see you soon.

Sincerely and with Love,

Niaome Hickman
Wells College sophmore and scholarship recipient
New Roots Class of 2012

Dear Niaome,

Wow, I am so, so excited about your internship!  What an incredible experience to spend a whole month in Bhutan.  The School for Field Studies is lucky to have you.  I can’t wait to hear about your good work and learning.

This latest adventure of yours makes me think about how many times I’ve admired your courage in taking risks and venturing into unknown territory – beginning with your decision to be a founding student at New Roots.  Another was when you stepped into the spotlight to speak about your New Roots experience to the Ithaca City School District Board of Education two years ago.  You were really, really nervous – and so brave to speak what was in your heart and mind!  I have thought of you in those moments when my own heart is pounding and my voice is shaking, and follow your lead.

I can’t wait to see you in person – be sure to let me know when you’re in town.

Yours, 

Ms. Tina

Three High Schools, One Merry Band of Players

William Shakespeare’s Star Wars:  Verily, a New Hope

A Tale of a Merry Band of Players from Three High Schools

Last Thursday and Friday at the Lehman Alternative Community School’s Black Box Theater, students from New Roots Charter School, Ithaca High School, and Lehman Alternative Community School put on a fine production of William Shakespeare’s Star Wars: Verily, a New Hope.  I was fortunate to have a front-row seat in a sold-out crowd on Friday!

Directed by New Roots Charter School senior Kai Haskins, the play by Ian Doescher is indeed an “intimidating masterpiece,” to quote the Director’s Notes, “from the hidden puns and pop culture allusions to the diligent translation of Star Wars text into iambic pentameter.”   An unapologetic English lit major in graduate school, I was thoroughly delighted – and I agree completely with Kai that it is an amazing and wonderful thing that such a merry band of high school players would want to spend so many weekends perfecting such heady and good-spirited fun with Elizabethan-inspired 

 word play.

The Real World, The Real Test

Academic rigor, higher-order thinking and real-world application go hand in hand at New Roots Charter School.  David Streib’s Contemporary Science and Technology I (CST I) class’s recent “quiz” provides an inspiring case in point.

David’s students have been learning about light, optics, and how the interactions between light and materials drive technological innovation.  As an assessment of their learning on this topic – a “quiz” -- students had to develop a demonstration that showcased a property of light, or of light/material interaction.

Then, the real test:  they had to present their demonstration (with a visual aid) and explain its relationship to light and optics to students at the Beverly J. Martin Elementary School.   It was a great assessment of their learning, David said, because “as I tell my students, you know you really understand something if you can explain it to someone else.”

The New Roots Story, In a Nutshell

If I could capture the New Roots story in a single day, the day would be Wednesday, January 8.

Last Wednesday, one fourth of our student body got on a fleet of buses to Albany to see history in the making at the Anti-Fracking and Renewable Energy Rally held during Governor Cuomo’s State of the State address.

Video footage captured by chaperones show students in the circle surrounding Mohawk and Seneca people drumming and performing traditional dances.  Students heard impassioned speeches by citizen activists like scientist and author Dr. Sandra Steingraber.  They felt first-hand the power of song to unite thousands of people, as happened in the Civil Rights movement.  History was alive and in the making at those moments, and our students were there to witness –and experience – those moments first hand.