Good luck.

By Joyce Szuflita
Well, high school placement is likely to be a couple weeks late. Without confirmation, it seems like notices are probably going out on or around March 18. If you applied through MY SCHOOLS, you will likely be notified through MY SCHOOLS.

Here is the thing. Life is uncertain. You can prepare and calculate and hope. It is hard not to fall in love with one place or another, but you can’t engineer your placement. Your mission is to prepare your child (and yourself, cause you have worked hard for this!) There is no doubt that you will be disappointed for any number of reasons, possibly just because there has been so much effort and angst.

This is what I hope students will consider when they get their placement:

This school is all potential.
It will be what I make of it.
I don’t know those kids, but my new best friend for life is somewhere in that crowd.
My first love is probably in there too.
There will be a teacher that I will never forget in that building.
There will be some uncontrollable laughter.
There will be something that seemed nearly impossible that I will conquer.
I will likely be sorry to leave at the end of it all.

You can focus on what you desire, but you don’t always get it, and you might even be sorry if you did, because you would have missed the wonderful thing that appeared when you least expected it. Go out and find it.

Wordsworth for parents of all graduating students

By Joyce Szuflita
I heard a wonderful interview with Priscilla Gilman on Leonard Lopate's WNYC show yesterday. Her memoir is called "The Anti-Romantic Child" about her son with hyperlexia. It sounds like a terrific book, but I had a driveway moment (while parallel parking) when she read an excerpt from "Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" by William Wordsworth. Yesterday was my daughters' effective last day of high school. It is over. We did a good job; they did a good job. It is time to push them out of the nest with a brave face. So for all of you getting ready to leave the fours, 5th grade, 8th grade or 12th grade...

--That time is past,

And all its aching joys are now no more,

And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this

Faint I, nor mourn no murmur; other gifts

Have followed, for such loss, I would believe,

Abundant recompence.

SHSAT is looking for specialists

This is not new news but it seems to surprise a great number of people so I thought I would include the link to the very interesting article from The New York Times from Nov. 2005.

You will do better to play to your strengths on the SHSAT and if you have limited time or test prep funds it may be a significant piece of information for you.

tips from the audition/screened workshop

The Screened/Audition workshop for public high school choice at Brooklyn Tech this week was pretty short and sweet considering the weather and the wealth of subject matter. You can find the great, detailed audition advice as a pdf file under the July event date.

Here is the take away and some answers to interesting questions that I stayed to the bitter end to record:

The interview/audition panel is not trying to trick you. They are truly interested in you and what you have to present and they want to see your best and understand your interest or passion.

This is not American Idol or So You Think You Can Dance. You are auditioning for a conservatory not a production. They want to see technique or potential in anything you do. That means a pretty traditional approach.

• no costumes, props, feather boas, spangles, bare midriffs, ruffles or florals. Anything that distracts from you and your real talent is a turn off. Be modest and simple in your attire, and age appropriate in your prepared piece (no King Lear).

• no R&B, rock or pop tunes when you sing. If you are trying for musical theatre sing only classic Broadway (look to Rogers and Hammerstein, or Lerner and Lowe, etc., not the rock musicals)

• If you are trying for a vocal program, the same advice stands. If you can sing a song in a foreign language convincingly it is great. They are looking for long melodic lines to really hear your voice (rock and popular songs are more about the rhythm and that is not what they want).

• you can audition for different talents (instrumental, dance, art) and if you play more than one instrument you need to check with the school to see if you can audition on more than one.

• If you play a large instrument, bring your mouth piece, sticks, etc., they should have one that you can use (I would double check with the school though)

• instrumentalists: it is important for you to be able to read music. The sight reading will be important. It is not as crucial for a singer, but a plus.

• visual artists: if you do cartoons or graffiti or anime, you may include one example but they want to see how you handle formal elements, not style. Can you draw? handle color? experiment with materials? understand something about composition? If you don't have anything that shows that - start working on some pieces particularly for your portfolio.

• if you have 3D pieces you may include some photographs of them in your portfolio, but they should be clear and it helps if you put in something for scale (a ruler, a hand) and if you have large canvases and they can be rolled it is better to bring the originals than photos of them. 

• your portfolio doesn't need to be expensive, but it needs to protect your work and show that you respect it enough to keep it safe, neat and clean

• they are interested in an artist's process, bring your sketchbook or notebook if you keep one regularly

• take time to experience and talk about your art form. Practice talking about your artwork with someone. Think about the artists in your discipline that you admire and talk about why. Do you go to museums or galleries as an artist? Do you go to dance, or concerts or plays? Practice talking about how you feel about what you see and how it influences you.

• dancers: you may have real proficiency in salsa, African, tap, hip hop or other forms but ultimately you need to have some grounding in ballet and modern. If you don't have experience in the classical forms, you better start now.

• often the auditions overlap. Don't worry - let your guidance counselor know as soon as possible and the schools will accommodate with an alternate date. Do not try and audition at two schools on one day.

• it may be a long day. Bring water and a snack. Get a good night's sleep. Be professional and polite the minute you walk in the door (you never know when an auditioner is taking a break to go to the bathroom or walk around)

• Are the arts schools good academically? These programs all have AP and honors classes. These are not "easy" schools. Students are expected to go the extra mile and excel academically as they would in a regular program.

• take time at the High School Fair to ask how each school weighs the audition (at some schools they give more weight to academics than to the audition). Do they want you to show creativity or traditional technique? First, read each school's detailed audition instructions in the directory and then come with your specific questions to the fair.

test scores are only a small piece of the puzzle

How do you judge a school?  To start you can look at the test scores. These may come in the form of the School Progress Reports (the DOE's flawed number crunching), the more nuanced but not fool-proof Quality Reviews or the number rankings given by the national websites. The black and white reality of a simple number or letter ranking is that it predicts how well your child will be able to complete a standardized test, not the quality of their education. The scores are often clung to as a measure of quality by prospective parents, but the tests are scorned by parents whose children already attend school. Assessments need to be made and there has to some kind of accountability, but the richest learning doesn't happen within test prep and the score can be a smoke screen.

You can read reviews on insideschools, study the school's website and get individual parent comments on the list serves. You can tour the schools and stand outside at 2:45 for dismissal and eyeball the parents picking up their kids. All of these are pieces of the puzzle, but none of them will give you the the kind of information about the right school for your child except the school tour that you take with your own eyes.

If you are an informed consumer, armed with the test scores and comments by others, the tour should seal the deal or expose the school as a bad fit and be the biggest factor when deciding.  Even though many parents feel that there is safety in numbers (the most popular schools must be the "best") there are many quality programs laboring in obscurity (often with smaller class sizes). If you can tour several schools, you will start to see similarities and differences. Many of the differences will be comparing apples and oranges, an old building compared to a newer building, a variety of enrichment classes compared to a fabulous afterschool, etc.

Keep your mind open. Look for exciting classrooms instead of the highest test scores. Does what you see in the classroom make sense with the school's scores. Do they seem realistic? Is the work on the bulletin board suspiciously flawless or all the same? Remember to trust your instincts. There are no guarantees in life but it is very possible to get a wonderful public education in the NYC public schools.

Parents of NY Teens

I follow the neighborhood yahoo groups of parents of young children to answer questions about nursery and elementary school, but I occasionally yearn for a group of older parents. I need friends who will talk to me about tutors and teen break ups and how to handle the coed sleepover. I have been an avid member of the yahoo group, parentsofnyteens. It is smallish and chocked full of great parents that I actually know, who are funny and generous and very, very supportive.

Just two days ago, Rachel, the moderator, did us all a wonderful service and started the Parents of NY Teens blog where she is compiling information and resources that the yahoo group members have been supplying.

Now a place for us to go! - to find about the emotions and college tours and ...(a couple of months ago there was a lively discussion on the yahoo group about how to inform your son that it was time to take a shower). I recommend that you sign up for the group, and use the information on the blog early and often!

NUTS again

This was one of my earliest posts, but I went to parent teacher conferences last night and I think that it is still relevant.

I invented a new sport in my mind tonight. “In my mind” is my favorite kind of sport because I always win. I went to Parent/Teacher conferences at Murrow. We are blessed with a “Type A” perfectionist. I have nothing to complain to her teachers about and it is usually a 3-minute love fest. (Hey, I like my compliments cheap and often) The trick is to see all of the teachers in the 2 hours allotted. I need my teacher face time.

Let me explain the rules. You wait with hundreds of other parents in a giant shivering mass outside the school doors like it’s a Who concert with festival seating. (Imagine how those teachers feel, trapped inside with only an endless line of “issues” before them) If you are an “elite” NUTS player like myself, you have a list of teachers and room numbers coded by location. In a school the size of Murrow, this is key. You race to the farthest room, sign your name on the list outside the door and repeat on all lists in the near vicinity. Then you send your husband who is having trouble reading the map to sign up on other floors. (This may be a tactical error) If you are positioned outside the door when your name comes up on the list, you may go in and have your 3 minutes. If you arrive back to the classroom after your name has already been called you go to the end of the now endless list. The art of it is to fit in a couple of the less popular teachers between the majors. The team who finishes all their conferences in the least amount of time gets to go home and have a stiff drink.

10pts off for brow beating the poor student organizing the list outside the door.

5pts for doing the quick switch with the team right behind you on the list when you arrive just a minute too late.

2pts off for getting cornered by the candy sellers

10pts for giving them a $5 and not taking any candy

5pts for snagging a chair

10pts off for erasing names ahead of you on the list

10pts for visiting the phys ed. Teacher

Good Luck and may the GAMES BEGIN!

Sing is sung

We experienced the last "Sing" performance a couple of weeks ago and now that the all of the hubbub has died down, I can jot some musings. This is NOT a review for any "sophfrosh"s out there surfing the web.

"Sing" is an institution in many NYC High Schools. The grades (separately or as teams) write and perform an original musical sung to popular tunes and compete for artistic supremacy. It would not be an understatement to say that these events are loaded with the requisite angst of any lumbering musical comedy and the added pressure of beating the pants off of the seniors.

I had the pleasure of comparing the experience at two of the city's premiere "Sing" competitions. Murrow, Brooklyn's own little "broadWAY" and Stuyvesant, where I am told that in Tim Robbin's senior year they wrote their own music.

Both student bodies were bold and fearless, which as a Broadway professional myself, I found both horrifying and sweet. The sets were beautiful and free in a way that shocked me out of my smug professionalism. I wouldn't have attempted the giant paper mache' man-eating volcano. Really, really, I didn't think teenagers could paint like that. I am not being patronizing when I say that it had the gorgeous freedom of the best children's artwork; unself-conscious with explosive color. The really cool thing was how different the production styles of each school were. The kids at Murrow are Broadway kids. They know their power ballad and the importance of having the chorus "sing out Louise" They used their huge chorus of hundreds to fill the stage with elaborate dance numbers that were as aerobic as they were audible. Stuy on the other hand resembled the Sugar Plum Fairy's, dance of many nations from the "Nutcracker". They assembled clever stories that were a framework for the many, many multicultural vignettes. They say it isn't a Stuy "Sing" until you've seen the "Ballywood" number.

All of the productions had their good points, but I have to give special mention to the Stuy Seniors who did a classic production of a "Head vs. Heart" love story, literally... it takes place in a body... there was a guy playing the role of the Bladder. I knew that we were in for a treat during the first double helix, DNA dance number, soon to be followed by the four Hormones, in their leather jackets and da's singing doo op. My favorite character, after the aerobic pink Pair of Lungs and the Drunken Liver Ladies, was the Appendix wearing a giant "?" on his sweater. He took one for the team during the climactic Virus vs. White Blood Cell dance number. The attention to detail was impressive as my nerdy family observed, because during the dance whenever a virus attacked a cell, the cell would throw off this shirt representing the exploding of the cell wall. I didn't even know that happens, but they assured me that the biology was accurate.

Kudos to all involved. Go FRESH!

New Urban Team Sport (NUTS)

I invented a new sport in my mind tonight. “In my mind” is my favorite kind sport because I always win. I went to Parent/Teacher conferences at Murrow. We are blessed with a “Type A” perfectionist. I have nothing to complain to her teachers about and it is usually a 3-minute love fest. (Hey, I like my compliments cheap and often) The trick is to see all of the teachers in the 2 hours allotted. I need my teacher face time.

Let me explain the rules. You wait with hundreds of other parents in a giant shivering mass outside the school doors like it’s a Who concert with festival seating. (Imagine how those teachers feel, trapped inside with only an endless line of “issues” before them) If you are an “elite” NUTS player like myself, you have a list of teachers and room numbers coded by location. In a school the size of Murrow, this is key. You race to the farthest room, sign your name on the list outside the door and repeat on all lists in the near vicinity. Then you send your husband who is having trouble reading the map to sign up on other floors. (This may be a tactical error) If you are positioned outside the door when your name comes up on the list, you may go in and have your 3 minutes. If you arrive back to the classroom after your name has already been called you go to the end of the now endless list. The art of it is to fit in a couple of the less popular teachers between the majors. The team who finishes all their conferences in the least amount of time gets to go home and have a stiff drink.

10pts off for brow beating the poor student organizing the list outside the door.
5pts for doing the quick switch with the team right behind you on the list when you arrive just a minute too late.
2pts off for getting cornered by the candy sellers
10pts for giving them a $5 and not taking any candy
5pts for snagging a chair
10pts off for erasing names ahead of you on the list
10pts for visiting the phys ed. Teacher
Good Luck and may the GAMES BEGIN!