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September 24, 2011 By admin

APP.com / 9.24.10

Holmdel students get a chance to float their stuff at Waterfront Park

by Jennifer Bradshaw

In a pinch, empty orange juice cartons and Seltzer bottles will make a seaworthy vessel.

On Friday, the students of the New School in Holmdel took to the water at Bayshore Waterfront Park in Port Monmouth for their annual “Boat Day.”

The students tested out six boats they built themselves out of the bottles and cartons, milk jugs, duct tape and cardboard.

The event is a tradition for the K-8 private alternative school, going on for nearly 20 years.

Students build boats in different themes each year and take them into the water to ultimately see if their designs are viable.

Rebekah Chilvers, a teacher at the school said the year’s academic theme was “Music and Movement,” resulting in boats that looked like a keyboard, a stage, a guitar and the “Jackson Squid,” as in the late pop singer Michael Jackson.

The bay didn’t have a wave in sight to the delight of the group, who were able to take their boats far out into the water with the help of parent volunteers.

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Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: bay, cardboard, designed by kids, duct tape, juice cartons, milk cartons, musical boat designs, plastic bottles, plastic wrap, recyclable boats, recycling, seaworthy, Seltzer bottles, Spy House beach, The New School of Monmouth County, waterfront park

March 11, 2011 By admin

Holmdel Patch / 3.11.11

Life After Graduation from the New School of Monmouth County

High schoolers returned March 10 to the Holmdel alternative school to share their experiences

by Holly Garguilo

Over 50 people squeezed into the second floor of the New School of Monmouth County for Graduate Night on March 10, giving current families and prosepctive families a chance to see how this alternative school prepares students for the future.

The New School, founded by current director Susan Chilvers, bases their education model on the Montessori system where students learn at their own pace, explore areas of interest to them, and receive a more individualized curriculum. The only testing comes in the form of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS), which is necessary for high school placement.

But how do these students from the small alternative schoolhouse fare when they transfer to mainstream high schools? Eighteen graduates now attending high school came back to answer that question.

“My friends in high school think one bad grade makes them bad at something,” said Varun Kambhampati, a freshman at High Tech High School in Lincroft. “Because of the New School, I learned to look at what I did wrong, know I can do better, and realize that one grade doesn’t quantify my intelligence.”

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Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: alumni, conflict resolution, grades, graduate night, graduates, high school, High Tech High, intellectual curiousity, ITBS, MAST, testing, The New School of Monmouth County

January 25, 2011 By admin

APP.com / 1.25.11

The New School of Holmdel’s Creations on Migration

by Jennifer Bradshaw

The New School, a K-8 ungraded, alternative school has always been a source of unique lessons and student projects and their latest undertaking is no exception.

The school’s “Older Class” (grades 6-8) are working on an ongoing project about migration, as part of the school’s year-long theme of “Music and Movement.”

The school picks a theme at the beginning of each year and designs their lessons and activities keeping with that theme, including class trips, plays, reading materials and projects. Last year’s theme was history.

For the migration project, the class watched National Geographic’s “Planet Earth’ series and picked animals to base their projects on, elaborating on what each animal eats, their physical makeup, and how they migrate, whether it be for mating or food.

Haley Vallone, 11, based her project on the Pronghorn, a peculiar creature that does not have any living relatives left, she said.
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Filed Under: Blog

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