We reopened this week! On Monday we opened our doors at 60 Macdougal St. to students! The first three days were filled with learning and fun! We hope you enjoy THIS VIDEO of teachers preparing the building and the students first days of in-person programming. (Shout out to Jen Dinney for the video!) We haven't forgotten about our incredible remote students! We continue to focus our programming on meeting the academic, vocational and social-emotional needs of our young adults! We will be working to create more opportunities for remote and in-person students to have interactions with one another. TRAVEL ADVISORY Travel during the holidays this year is a complicated matter. As you know from previous emails and webinars, visiting a state that is on the Travel Advisory list due to Covid-19 may require you and your child to quarantine. Please review the new guidelines provided below: Effective Wednesday, November 4th, Governor Cuomo has updated the travel restrictions for NY allowing out of state travels to "test out" of the mandatory 14 day quarantine. Cooke School and Institute will adhere to the following guidelines. Any family traveling to a state listed on the travel advisory must fill out THIS FORM from the state. This pertains to any traveler coming to New York State from out of state, exempting the contiguous states, the new guidelines for travelers to test-out of the mandatory 14-day quarantine are below:
If your child is attending in-person schooling please note the following: While Cooke has been able to accommodate most requests for remote and live learning, we may not be able to do so if you choose to visit a restricted state and must quarantine upon return. Thus, your child may be unable to attend remote while in quarantine. This may impact your tuition reimbursement as well. Please be in touch if you are planning to visit a state on the Travel Advisory list. Keeping everyone safe is our number one priority. Your cooperation is most appreciated. Thank you!! Center on Culture, Race & Equity (CCRE) This year the Center on Culture, Race & Equity (CCRE) at Bank Street College of Education will be partnering with Cooke School to co-develop professional learning around the topics of culture, race, and equity. The first part of our partnership involves an Equity Snapshot, which is a tool CCRE uses to capture the current strengths, challenges, and resources in a school community around equity. We gather this data mostly through interviews, classroom observations, and questionnaires, including a questionnaire for parents/caregivers. HERE is information about the questionnaire. HERE is a link to the questionnaire, as well as a PDF of the questionnaire. We look forward to your feedback! Reopening...Closing...Reopening, life during a pandemic! On Monday, we welcomed all returning students for in-person learning. It was great to see students back together. During our first week, many students felt nostalgic entering their old high school and seeing familiar classrooms and faces. We also reviewed the new safety protocols, including wearing our masks, practicing social distancing, frequently using hand sanitizer, staying in our pods, using the front stairway to go up and the back stairway to go down, using pod specific restrooms, etc. At times, the new safety protocols were challenging; however, everyone persevered and exhibited resilience adjusting to these new measures. Unfortunately, our in-person learning reverted back online Thursday, due again to the pandemic. But there’s good news! On Monday, November, 23 in-person learning will resume at 60 MacDougal street. This week has highlighted something important. It’s clear there are many things out of our control, and we need to remain flexible. We are a resilient bunch, and we will overcome these challenges and be reunited again. News from Nurse Liz! With Thanksgiving coming up, staying safe and using precautions against transmitting Covid-19 is more important than ever. "With a fall surge of coronavirus infections gripping the U.S., many Americans are forgoing tradition and getting creative with celebrations." (Eyewitness News Nov. 2020) The CDC is recommending celebrating Thanksgiving with only members of your household. If you do decide to celebrate with people outside of your household, there are some guidelines to follow, that can help keep you safe:
For more information, click on the link for traveling, hosting and attending gatherings, and more here: www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/holidays.html Thanksgiving Fun at Transitions!On the morning of Wednesday November, 25th Cooke Transitions remote and in-person students will host a Thanksgiving Celebration. The celebration will look a little different this year! Students will work on a collaborative art project in the days leading up to 11/25, and have the chance to enjoy each other’s creations through a group viewing of a slideshow presentation. The presentation will be presented via Zoom and give students learning remotely and in person the chance to see each other! Students will also participate in Kudos where the focus will be giving compliments and saying nice things to each other--we believe this will be a fun and meaningful way to head into the Thanksgiving break. Students will be dismissed at noon on 11/25. More details to follow! Updated Cooke Travel AdvisoryTravel during the holidays this year is a complicated matter. As you know from previous emails and webinars, visiting a state that is on the Travel Advisory list due to Covid-19 may require you and your child to quarantine. Please review the new guidelines provided below: Effective Wednesday, November 4th, Governor Cuomo has updated the travel restrictions for NY allowing out of state travels to "test out" of the mandatory 14 day quarantine. Cooke School and Institute will adhere to the following guidelines. This pertains to any traveler coming to New York State from out of state, exempting the contiguous states, the new guidelines for travelers to test-out of the mandatory 14-day quarantine are below:
Keeping everyone safe is our number one priority. Your cooperation is most appreciated. Thank you!! Cooke Transitions VotersVirtual Family Conferences This week we had a high turnout of students, families and faculty coming together for the important purpose of sharing and collaborating. Prior to conferences, Transitions students spent time in classes reflecting on their strengths and goals in preparation for their meeting. Thank you to our families for your continued partnership! TRANSITION TEAM NEWS
Community Conversations with St. John's UniversityEarlier this week, Milk and Baldwin cohorts participated in a discussion led by Careina Yard, a film maker and college professor at St. Johns University. Careina Yard led a discussion on what it means to have a community by examining different community activist organizations in New York City and Minnesota. Students were broken up into small groups, and explored the community organization they were assigned to, viewed informational videos, learned about how each community promotes connection, and how each community find solutions to address local and global issues. Lastly, students went back into the main Zoom space to discuss what they learned in their groups, and share their thoughts and comments. Check out the organizations we learned about below!
Halloween Dance Fun! We had a great turnout at the Halloween Dance last Friday, where we saw witches, superheroes and crazy hair! We hope that you had a great time dancing, playing games and making art! |
Cooke
|