This will be a short column (you should see Jill’s huge smile) as I am writing it on Wednesday morning before leaving on our 3-day trip with the graduates.  We are going to Ocean City, NJ at the kind invitation of Helen to stay at their summer house.

Yesterday we had a fantastic “English afternoon tea.”  The 9 graduates partnered up with younger classers (not mover-uppers) and 4 siblings and baked “fairy” cakes, scones and made egg salad and cucumber finger sandwiches.  We dressed for the occasion with hats and various attire deemed suitable for dining with bone china and embroidered table cloths.  Pictures will be on display next week!

Moving up week is going well and yesterday I heard many great excited comments about the “awesomeness” of classes being visited by mover-uppers.

Despite the rain, everyone is having a great time on the graduate trip.  I asked them each to tell me one word describing the trip so far and here is what they said, “smashing, fun, crashing, crunching, funny, giggling, fun for one day and tragic because I have to leave, and a great surprise.”  Don’t be alarmed by the crashing and crunching—the house next door is being demolished.  My quote is that the house is wonderful and Helen is a fantastic host.

I had great fun on Monday on the older class’ NY trip. Despite our previous apprehension about the weather, it turned out to be a perfect day for the activities planned.  Walking on the High Line in the morning was a real treat and it was fascinating to see the various plantings around the old train tracks, the sculptures and various art works such as “The High Line Zoo” that residents who live alongside the High Line had done for extra interest.  We also saw the building going on at the site which will become a huge visitors’ center.  After lunch on the High Line, the wind picked up and we went to Chelsea Markets to get warm and enjoy a hot drink before walking to the Reuben Museum where we had a delightfully informative guide. Dinner at the tiny Indian restaurant was another treat—delicious food and wonderful service including Indian Rice Pudding for dessert “on the house”.  We would definitely recommend Ghandi Café, 283 Bleeker St. to anyone in the village who wants a good Indian meal.  I was especially happy to chaperone on this trip because I did not manage any of the trips last year for various reasons and none of them earlier this year because I was focusing on working with the younger class.  We had a great group of chaperones, all of whom said they enjoyed their day and I want to say a special thank you to Xinyu who made it his personal mission to “chaperone” me as well as his group, insisting on carrying my backpack and checking to see if I was tired, needed to sit down and rest, etc. which was really kind, especially since I walked over 7 miles that day!  Also, thank you to Kim for helping out in the younger class while I was out.  And last but not least, thank you to Jay who takes lots of his personal time to plan all his trips down to the last detail and always provides a great day of fun and learning at a bargain price!

Yesterday I worked with the middle class.  I am reading the second book in the Mr. Gum series and we worked on haikus and illustrations about the characters in the book we had started last week and also thoroughly enjoyed reading further chapters in the book.

We had a very busy visitor day today, and we are doing well so far with enrollment for next year.  Some classes are close to full and we have several students visiting next week and several more scheduled to visit in May.

This week which actually began last Friday was varied, productive and rewarding.  On Friday we had a delightful and informative visit from Victor Ransome, an 88 year old Tuskegee Airman veteran who spoke to the older class.  Unfortunately I was unable to hear him speak as I had visiting parents.  I spent time with him and his wife at snack while they ate birthday cake provided by Rondi in celebration of Victor’s birthday and found we had a lot in common with regard to philosophy and educational goals.  We also share Lori Goldschmidt as a mutual friend since Victor worked with Lori’s husband Carl years ago at AT&T and also they are all members of the Unitarian Church with which we have many connections through parents.  A big thank you to Rondi for arranging his visit.

Also on Friday we had parents visiting whose daughters will be visiting in the middle and younger classes respectively after the break.

I finished reading War Horse to the older class this week and partly intrigued partly horrified them by telling them that I had learned that if an English horse died in the war the soldier had to take out all its teeth and take them back to England to prove that the horse had died not been sold.  We learned this from a postcard sent by my cousin in England showing a mosaic made from hundreds of horses’ teeth!  (Another thing to add to the list of bizarre things the English do.)  Talking of which Rachel has been doing a marathon of nail polishing and she did mine rainbow colors planning to add it to her list of “You’ll never guess what my elementary school principal did!” to share with her buddies when she goes to high school next year.

Also with a few older classers I worked on their essays on Of Mice and Men.  Melody is planning a yearbook to go out in June and Isabel organized a funeral for her fish attended by younger classers on Monday.  I also met with the graduates to discuss our ideas for moving up week in May.  We will plan activities outside of the older class to alleviate the pressure of numbers in that space and to give them some special activities as a group.

My session with the middle class this week was a follow up to the You’re a Bad Man Mr. Gum book collecting adjectives to describe characters and objects in the book writing a haiku about one of the charters and drawing pictures I plan to start reading the second book in the Mr. Gum series after the break.

Kathey, Jay and I had a meeting with Helen on Tuesday and discussed an end of the year music program as a culmination of the work she has been doing this year.  Helen is an amazingly creative person with lots of ideas and we are so appreciative of the time and energy she gives to us, not to mention her sunny, humorous nature.  Helen has always been and continues to be a very strong New School supporter.  This was evident with her input as a member of the building committee at yesterday’s meeting when she declared her mission was to get our addition build not only before her children graduate but in time for them to enjoy using it!  The building committee has only just reconvened since our 40^th anniversary in 2010 so Helen that’s quite a mission but definitely not Mission Impossible.  More about this in next week’s bulletin.

Finally, a huge thank you to everyone who responded so generously to my email about the illness of former New School parent and forever supporter, Alan.  I am always so moved at how much New Schoolers care about their “family” members and whenever I feel a bit discouraged by the world in general, this love always renews my faith.  Mick and I are seeing Alan tonight and I will give everyone an update in next week’s bulletin.  Please continue to keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

We had a very successful visitor morning yesterday with several parents interested in the younger class and who made plans to visit again in the classroom and/or have their children visit. I am always so proud of The New School kids on visitor days; the older ones give great tours which always receive favorable comments and the younger ones are very friendly and welcoming and love answering questions! I also appreciate input from parents who are around on Wednesday and join in the conversation. Visitors always appreciate hearing parents points of view.

I have finally met with all of my older class groups with regard to taking responsibility for monitoring themselves on class behavior during lunch and general rules during the day, and getting their ideas for management of this. These talks run the whole gamut from serious suggestions on conflict resolution that would impress U.N. delegates to what Jay calls “playing the puberty card” which often starts with “what’s the fuss, we’re all perfectly fine.” My plan to share the groups’ ideas and put some of them to action will have to wait until next week (due to absenteeism due to trips and sickness) as will my concluding the reading of War Horse. I asked for comments on the book today and had favorable reviews of the book, one liking it because it featured war and another because the story was told by the horse himself. One or two have borrowed the book to catch up on what they missed.

On Tuesday I worked with the middle class writing a group poem on wind for the beleaguered Literary Edition. It will go out before the spring break and I am looking at this delay as an opportunity for slower workers to add their gems of literature and art to the mix! (Note from Jill: That last sentence is part of the problem—there’s always something to add!)

It’s been fun having Kayla (2009 TNS grad) here for a couple of days this week. She has been doing improv and poetry with older classers and was interviewed today by the younger classers for the newspaper.

Finally a note about my purple nails which a few parents and several kids have commented on. I have only had my nails “done” twice in my life and the first doesn’t count because the nail polish was a pale, pearly pink—not exactly eye catching. So purple nails are quite dramatic for me and here are the three reasons: 1. They match my toes; 2. I love the poem, When I’m Old I Shall Wear Purple; 3. I am reading a book, How to Train a Wild Elephant- Simple Daily Mindfulness Practices and one is “Appreciate your hands” which suggests watching your hands when they are busy and at rest. One suggestion is to wear nail polish if you don’t usually do so. Believe me this past week I have been very mindful of my hands and so has Lily who likes anything bright or shiny. I think the worlds at the end of this exercise are worth repeating: When we observe our hands, they work in perfect harmony, complimenting one another and never hurting. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if pairs of people in the world could work together so well.