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The second half of the school year is rushing by and it's almost time for Spring Break. Our students have been very busy, with the elementary and middle schools preparing for the statewide exams by taking interim tests, as well as some of our high school students taking ACT and SAT test prep. And we are all glad that the bus strike has ended! We also want to urge everyone to attend this month's PTA meeting to get more information about the new Common Core and what that will mean to your child's education at Renaissance.
Please read on to see what else has been happening at our school.....
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A Student's Viewpoint - Sporty Rensizzle
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Submitted by Wagner Mendoza 
As previous years have shown, the Rensizzle groups that have incorporated a type of "sporty" activity have been the most desired and presumably the most popular amongst the high school students here at The Renaissance Charter School. In the past, groups have incorporated different sports into Rensizzle Week, and we missed those groups during the Rensizzle week last November. Hearsay has spread that the students this year would be able to plan a Spring Rensizzle consisting of just sports. Although active Rensizzle groups have seemed to be among the most enjoyable, there always has to be a learning component or else we would be losing a productive week of knowledge-inducing activities. A few ideas for "sporty" rensizzle groups are, Cycling, a Sports Variety group, canoeing, rock climbing, tennis, and cross country running. In the upcoming weeks, the Sporty Rensizzle Group organization committee will be handing out surveys to receive ideas from all students throughout the high school.
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Featured Article: MIddle School Year End Trip - Camp Quinipet
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 The Middle School is once again planning a year-end trip on May 28th-30th for all 7th & 8th graders to beautiful Camp Quinipet and Retreat Center on Shelter Island (www.quinipet.org). This nature camp is an opportunity for your child to experience a different environment from the concrete jungle of New York City. It is a beautiful outdoor learning facility that will help your child discover and understand ecosystems and geology. Their program consists of a series of problem-solving activities designed to involve a group physically, mentally, and emotionally. There will be a low ropes course, rock climbing, kayaking, hiking, a talent show, and science labs related to the ecosystem. All these are aimed to realize individual potential through teamwork.
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Join Our 20th Anniversary
|  Turning 20 years old is a big birthday in the charter school world. Did you know that in 1992 when the call was put out for ideas for new schools, over 300 organizations and committees submitted their applications, and only 14 were accepted? And Renaissance was one of them!
Look forward to seeing you there!
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Elementary After School Artwork
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Maria Banol, director of the elementary after-school program, has been  inspiring her young charges to create some beautiful artwork. We wanted to share some photos with you:  Maria is doing a great job of creating original artwork, sewing, and drawings, mostly using donated and recycled materials. If you have anything that you can donate to the program, it would be greatly appreciated. The next time you are in the building, take a walk down the first floor corridor and look at some samples of our budding artists.  Future Artists |
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Dr. Suess turns 100 Years Old!
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 Our youngest readers celebrated the birthday of beloved children's author Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Suess. In Suhjin's kindergarten class, children watched a video about how Dr. Seuss became a children's book author and read more about him and his books in their Scholastic Magazine. They enjoyed reading some Dr. Seuss books and made hats like The Cat in The Hat, wi th all the '_at' family rhyming words!The K-5 reading students, along with Amanda's 7th grade reading students, celebrated Read Across America Day by having a reading celebration in honor of Dr. Seuss. The 5th and 7th grade students spent two weeks preparing for the celebration by choosing a Dr. Seuss book & practicing how to read aloud the book in fun, engaging ways. Students made their own "The Cat in the Hat" hats to wear at the party & learned about the life of Dr. Seuss-including that his real name is Theodor Geisel! The day of the celebration, the 5th and 7th grade students read in pairs to the K-3rd grade students. After doing the read aloud, the older students helped the younger students complete a writing activity that went along with the book. Once the students had shared their writing with the whole group, it was time to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday! The students sang 'happy birthday', and then ended their celebration with birthday cupcakes and some Seuss snacks-including "green eggs and ham"! Read Across America is celebrated every year on Dr. Seuss' birthday as a nationwide celebration of reading in schools.
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Spotlight On... Renaissance!
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Recently Renaissance was visited by
Indie Schools,an independent group that reviews NYC elementary, middle and high schools. We are happy to report that we made InsideSchools noteworthy overall list and noteworthy for serving special education students!
 After taking an extended tour through the school, and taking
many great photos, they have post ed a reference page about Renaissance on their website. Follow this link to read the post.
http://insideschools.org/elementary/browse/school/1318 You may also want to pass this along to friends and families so they can see what a great school we have! Renaissance was also recently chosen to be the site for filming of a commercial for the New York Charter Center. They think our school and our kids are great - and so do we!
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What's On Your Mind? School Safety
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At last month's PTA meeting Dennis Gereritz made a wonderfully detailed presentation about all the procedures that Renaissance is enforcing to ensure the safety of everyone in our building. Dennis has taken many FEMA based training sessions in safety and emergency protocol. This training will ensure that we are prepared for any type of emergency and can interact with government agencies to ensure the safety and well being of all.
Renaissance is one of a number of schools in a consortium which was awarded a grant from Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS). Principal Stacey Gauthier is Project Director. As Project Coordinator, Dennis has been attending many training sessions and working on building safety procedures that we must follow for various scenarios. One of the objectives of these training sessions are to help us create an Incident Command System. The ICS is a standardized, on-scene, all-hazards incident management approach that:
- Allows for the integration of facilities, equipment, personnel, procedures and communications operating within a common organizational structure.
- Enables a coordinated response among various jurisdictions and functional agencies, both public and private.
- Establishes common processes for planning and managing resources.
Renaissance must run 12 fire drills during the year, and we share our procedures and results with REMS and the other schools, in order to meet best practices. Recently,  your child may have told you that one afternoon the school had a practice "lockdown" drill. This required all classes to lock the doors, turn off the lights and for children to go to various safe spots in the room. While we realize these exercises may be uncomfortable for some, be assured that every precaution is being taken to make sure everyone feels safe, that the children know this is a drill, and that these drills are to ensure we are prepared for any type of emergency. Staff is also trained to respond to medical emergencies with the use of Epi Pens and CPR. Please visit the REMS website to learn more about this program http://rems.ed.gov/
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Cluster Updates
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Class 501 has taken a particular interest in studying drama as a genre. We thoroughly enjoyed reading both plays and graphic novels in our guided reading groups. We have decided to put on an adapted production of "Sitting Down for Dr. King: A One-Act Play" by Charles Ryder. We are currently doing an in-depth analysis of the characters in the play to help us understand more about the conflicts that arose in the 1960's, as well as empathize with real and imagined characters that struggled with segregation during this time. We will work with artists from the Metropolitan Opera Guild in April to create arias, work on staging and turn the play into a mini-opera. We are very excited about this unique opportunity!
Middle School:
~ Students had a great time on the annual M.S. ice skating trip on February 15th  ~ Renewed Peace Patrol - PP is now wearing a yellow reflector vest, making them more visible and ready to serve the MS community by maintaining peace and order in the middle school
~ Math Pi recitation contest - On Thursday,3/14, M.S. math classes held class and inter-class recitation of the pi numbers. Prices include pizza pies and math happy slips!
~ Students are looking forward to the upcoming M.S. bowling trip on April 26th
~ Forms are still available for the upcoming Camp Quinipet trip - see article above for more details
~ Here are our February Students of the Month. Congratulations to: |
February:
Citizenship
| Anna
Lorens |
Kilala Vincent
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Sakib Ahmed
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Kayla Shell
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High School
The High School Latin American carnival was a big success, with great food and a wonderful performance by our students:
 ~ Graduation Day has finally been set for Thursday, June 20th at the Louis B. Armstrong School. We will let you know of the exact start time as soon as we can. ~ The Seniors will be running a Carnival on March 22nd, from 6-8PM
~ Seniors are preparing for AP exams in May and Regents exams in June
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TRCS Sports Desk
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Basketball Season Coming to an end. In High School Basketball, c ongratulations are in order
for Coach Vinny and the HS Knights Basketball
team for having one of the best seasons in school history. They finished with a combined record 12-2 for the regular season, which tied them for the Queens B East Division. They were the number eleven seed out 42 teams that made PSAL B playoffs. They advanced to top sixteen, finally losing out to Newcomers by one point . High School girls finished the season on a 3-game winning streak. Recent wins include over Believe North 36-23, Excellence 26-6 and Innovation 26-6. Middle School boys finished the season with a loss vs Our World Neighborhood. Shout out to Noah Semple, who had 12 points and ten rebounds. Middle School girls finished the MSBL season tied for third place, but  fell short in the first round to I.S. 61. In Charter School League play they finished with a 6-3 record, which gives them the number 2 seed in the playoffs. They will play Kipp Academy on Friday at 5PM in a Semi- Final Game. Upcoming Sports MS Co-ed Soccer 4-6 basketball Club 6th grade Girls Basketball Team HS Baseball Team Volleyball Club HSG Softball Team
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|  Thanks to everyone who participated in the annual Mardi Gras party. The kids especially enjoyed all the music and dancing! Extra thanks to everyone who contributed great food for all to share!
Please don't miss next week's PTA meeting on
Tuesday, March 19th. the Renaissance School Management Team will be there to speak with us about the new Common Core adopted by the DOE.
PTA General Meetings  Tuesday, March 19 - 6:30pm Wednesday, April 17 - 6:30pm Thursday, May 16 - 6:30pm Garden Party - Wednesday, June 19 - 6:30pm |
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Upcoming Dates & Events
Spring Recess - March 25 th- April 1st (note we now return to school on Tuesday, April 2nd.
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Helpful Hints and Cool Links
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Check out the new link on the Parents page of our website called "Supporting Your Child."
(http://www.renaissancecharter.org/parents.html/support_child.com)
This page includes many helpful documents and resources to support your child both academically and emotionally, from experts in the field and our own staff. Currently, there are several documents (a few linked here) that will help you help your child, by understanding our discipline code, our commitment to an anti-bullying culture, and by understanding what our communication protocols and our philosophy of student counseling.
Also check out the NY Charter Center website to keep up-to-date with what is happening within the charter school community. Here is a link to their News Page, which has articles on state exams, new schools opening, and more:
http://www.nyccharterschools.org/news
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Make an investment in children, education and the future of our world. Safer, better-educated communities are great for business; they improve the quality of life for everyone. Renaissance's hard-working, high-achieving students strive to make that happen and with your help that goal is closer to being a reality: Please visit our website for more information, and lick on the red DONATE button on the bottom of each page: http://www.renaissancecharter.org/. Thank you!
Sincerely,
The Renaissance Charter School
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You can check out some pictures from previous trips by visiting the 