Summercore Newsletter (4/1/2003) to All Alums

Good morning everyone ... it is April 1st and therefore time for another Summercore newsletter from New York City ... the sun is beginning to rise over the East River!

Topic 1: Red Sox are now in last Place
Topic 2: Summercore 2003 dates and postcards
Topic 3: The Boston Home Marathon on April 21
Topic 4: PI Day was March 14th ("Happy Pi Day")
Topic 5: Two More Web Sites from Lynne Schalman
Topic 6: Laptop One Day Workshop at Chapin

1) Up until yesterday, I was optimistic about the upcoming baseball season and thrilled that the Red Sox were tied for first place with the dreaded Yankees for all of March. But then what happens ... they lose to Tampa in the bottom of the ninth after Pedro Martinez pitches seven wonderful innings. Meanwhile, the Yankees win their home opener. This must be April fools day or something! I don't know how I am going to go to work today at Chapin.

2) All is well for us as we head into our 19th Summercore year. Our dates for Summercore 2003 are posted on our web site and include one week again at Shorecrest Preparatory School in Florida that is open to the public. If you have not received the Summercore 2003 postcard ("we mailed out several thousand a month ago") or would like more postcards to pass out to your faculty ("much appreciated obviously"), please indicate how many you want and send a quick note to us via summercore@chapin.edu .... please include your preferred snail mail address!
"Summercore in the City" is July 14-18 or July 21-25 (NYC)
"Summercore in the South" is Aug 4-8 (FL)

3) The Boston Marathon is coming up on April 21 and once again, we will be pushing our friends from the Boston Home with multiple sclerosis. I will be driving up from NYC that morning with some Chapin colleagues and students. You can read more about this via the link of http://gatornet.chapin.edu/bh and sponsor Colleen Powers or Dianne Connor whom some of you met via your Summercore experience ("they were the judges of the drawing contest for many of you"). If you are from the Boston area and want to join us on this wonderful day ("we do not walk the entire 26 miles"), let me know via bergen@chapin.edu and I will share more details with you ("we leave from Newton at 10:33am").

4) In case you forgot to celebrate PI day on March 14th, here is a poem that I wrote as I attempted to memorize the first 50 digits of PI. I made it through 43 digits
3.141592 653589 79323846 26433832 79502884 1971693
competing with my ninth graders at Chapin. I performed the poem with a bunch of Chapin 1st graders who were capable of "listening for the rhyming digit" and you can hear it via

PI Poem

It was truly a cognac moment and I plan on making this poem get a verse or two longer every year!

Roses are Red, Violets are blue
3.141592
PI is a number that is mighty fine
653589
Practice this often until it sticks
79323846
Practice when you swim since there's nothing else to do
26433832
Let no one ignorant of geometry enter this door
79502884
Numbers rule the universe, Pythagoras made the decree
1971693


5) And here are two more web sites from Lynne (ls@nobles.edu)

*** PBS.org ***

www.pbs.org




The Public Broadcasting System provides a wealth of resources for
teachers. First click on Programs A-Z to view a list of the websites
created to correspond to past PBS programs. These sites are usually
chockablock with multimedia, teaching resources, guides, and an
eye-boggling amount of interesting information.

*** The Curry School of Education at University of Virginia Webquest Page ***

Curry

There are many, many webquest collections on the web. Indeed, sometimes the number is overwhelming. But the webquests created by these UVA graduate students are consistently well-designed and thoughtful. Arranged by grade level, they are easy to browse, and a short description prevents unnecessary clicks. Many of the webquests are accompanied by helpful teacher guides. One of my personal favorites is a webquest on the novel The Chosen; check it out at
The Chosen

6) We are contemplating offering a one day Laptop Workshop at Chapin in August on August 13th and again on August 20th. This will be open to the public if it flies. Let me know if interested and I will send you details if and when we make this public.

That is it from me. Hope all is well with each and everyone of you. Lynne is moving down to NYC in mid June once she finishes up with her faculty training contracts with Nobles, Park and Thayer at the end of the academic year (http://www.summercore.com). Today is the first day of the ninth grade computer class at Chapin and so I am a little bit nervous. We are going to focus on MP3 topics and issues and would love to connect with students at other schools if you teach a similar age group. The Red Sox have a chance to get themselves out of the cellar today and I truly hope the New York Yankees lose their second game of the season today. On Sunday, I was at the Boston Home taking pictures of the 12 wheelers in anticipation of the April 21marathon. I told them that I had a special camera from New York City and that the shutter worked only when the words ("the Yankees S--k") came out of their mouth. They played along with me and so I got 12 wonderful pictures of them saying "the Yankees S--k" captured on film, ready to digitize for the web. There is one Yankees fan at the Boston Home named Bernie who constantly wears his Yankees hat. He was in shock at my actions but we get along pretty well. I told him that I am bringing up two colleagues from Chapin with me on April 21 and he will get to meet some serious Yankees fans on that day. Hopefully, the Red Sox will be ahead of the Yankees in the standings by then. Otherwise, Lynne and I will be off the bandwagon and ready for football season!

Take care and have a good April; my favorite early evening activity is taking a walk around the Central Park loop. I am thrilled that we now have 14 hour days again. As long as I avoid wearing anything associated with Boston sports, it is perfectly safe ;-)
Steve

Steve Bergen
CIO, The Chapin School (100 East End Avenue, New York, NY 10028)
e-mail: bergen@chapin.edu (until the Red Sox win the World Series)
favorite saying on fourth floor of The Chapin School: "Don't Be Afraid of Change"

"Summercore in the City" is July 14-18 or July 21-25 (NYC)
"Summercore in the South" is Aug 4-8 (FL)
see www.summercore.com for more details

p.s. we saw a fascinating tidbit on one of the listservs ... go to www.guidestar.org ... Enter your school in the search field ... You want form 990 / Schedule A ... Should be on about page 7 of form 990 ... It will show the top five salaries in your school ... Fred (Rye)