Family Newsletter - 1-6-25

• Our partnership with PRACTICE, a DOE approved vendor, provides free virtual tutoring for our students from home, Mondays through Fridays from 4-8 pm. The sessions last 30-45 minutes each. This program will continue through the spring and end on May 23rd.  If your child needs additional support with homework or projects, this is a great opportunity. Most especially, as we move towards unified mid-terms, state testing and regents' exams, your child can receive at home support with live virtual tutors who speak multiple languages and can cover all subject materials. 
  Booking a session is simple; click on this video link to see how to sign up. To take advantage of the extra support, please sign-up here: https://form.jotform.com/243126203427144
  See the attached flyers with a QR code and additional information. If you have any further questions, please contact your grade Assistant Principal.
• Tomorrow, January 7^th and Thursday, January 9th , our students will be taking their mid-year i-Ready Diagnostic exams in ELA and Math. The exams will be administered as whole school testing days, where students will be reporting to a specific testing room each day. All students have been made aware of their testing rooms today. If your child has headphones at home, please ensure that they bring them to school for testing tomorrow and Thursday. Thank you for cooperation.
• You may remember last year, that one of our art students’ work was chosen to be displayed and featured at the MTA Museum. Well, our art teachers did it again…they encouraged their students to enter another art contest, where Cavallaro students may have the opportunity to showcase their work on a city level if selected. The category was to create interesting art pieces depicting dogs around NYC. All artwork will be displayed at the Education booth at the AKC Meet the Breeds event January 25-26, 2025, for the public to view. The winning artwork will be matted and tagged and displayed at the Museum of the Dog in NYC for approximately one month. All finalists will receive a certificate and ribbon with their returned art, and the winners will receive a rosette and an Amazon gift card. Special thanks to Ms. Richman and Ms. Demiri, who encouraged their students to enter, modeling the importance of expanding their scope beyond our building to highlight their talents.
• As planned, the school construction authority began putting sidewalk structures up around the building as part of the roof and window replacement project, which will be in place for the next 2-3  years. During our project meeting this morning, I reminded them that EVERY sidewalk structure MUST have lighting to ensure safe travel during the early morning and late afternoon hours. They assured me that would be addressed by the end of the day today. They are scheduled to begin replacing classroom windows once all of the scaffolding is in place. They are required to provide me with a room schedule and timeline, so I can communicate that information to our school community for preparation and planning purposes. Please notify me with any issues or safety concerns you may have.
   
• T-Mobile’s Project 10Million - Instructions
  Eligible families can get free hotspots for home from T-Mobile. 
  T-Mobile is proud to partner with the NYCPS in joint efforts to continue to eliminate the Digital Divide in New York City. T-Mobile has a robust program, Project 10Million, that they are offering to all families who lack consistent internet connectivity at home for their K-12 students, and qualify for free-reduced lunch, SNAP, or EBT benefits. Please navigate to https://www.t-mobile.com/brand/project-10-million, click on “Apply now,” and fill out a brief form to receive a free 4G wireless hotspot device with 100GB of high speed data, free, annually for five years.
  If you need to find your student’s school to complete the form, please enter “NYC” in the School District box on the form. This will display four options. Please select ‘ NYC Chancellor’s Office #NY-300000010000’ .  You should then be able to locate the correct school in the School Name dropdown box by typing the first few letters of the school name. If the school is not listed for some reason, you can select ‘I do not see my school listed…’ and continue with the application process. Other free\affordable alternatives.
• On Tuesday, February 25th and Wednesday, February 26th, we will have the privilege of offering our families a free mobile eye exam service, Eye On Education.  Licensed Optometrists will give your child a comprehensive eye exam.  As part of this eye exam, they will be dilating your child’s eyes to check for proper eye health.
  Should their team of doctors determine that your child would benefit from eyeglasses, they will be provided to you at No Cost to you or our school.  To cover their administrative costs you will be required to provide your health insurance information, including your ID number, on the attached form. If you do not have insurance, your child will still be eligible for the eye exam.  This process will help fund the cost of the program and allows Eye On Education to provide professional eye care to New York City school children free of charge.
  Again, there are no out-of-pocket costs, no co-pays and no deductibles.  You will not receive a bill for their services.  If you are interested in having your child receive an eye exam from Eye On Education, please fill out the attached form and return it to the main office no later than February 14, 2025.  I encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to evaluate your child’s vision.
  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Ms. DiMatteo in the main office.
• We have purchased a new security desk in the Main Lobby – a well-deserved upgrade for our School Safety Team. They work very hard keeping us safe; from managing the multitude of visitors that come to our building each day and monitoring cameras, to de-escalating crisis and tending to our students’ needs. We are very proud of the work they do, and now they can be presented to those visiting our building with professionalism and style.

Academic Vocabulary Word of the Week: 

1/6/25 –  Challenge, Obstacle

Spanish: Desafío, obstáculo

Chinese: 挑戰、障礙

Russian: Вызов, Препятствие

Urdu: چیلنج، رکاوٹ

Social Emotional Focus Week 17:

6th Grade - Commitment: Explore commitment to family responsibilities; explore commitment to community service

7th Grade - Courage:  Understand courage in customer service; Reflect on daily acts of courage

8th Grade - Humbleness: Engage with real-life scenarios and practice humbleness (vignettes: ‘Employee of the
Month’ and ‘The Contest’)

Ms. Bender’s Quote of the Week:

“Not everybody can be famous, but everybody can be great because greatness is determined by service… You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love.” – Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.