One Week To Go!
Its hard to believe we are one week away from the end of the most unexpected school year in our lifetime. We are here though. Remote learning has been an experience to say the least. Things have not always been as Halsey-riffic as we would have liked it to be but we tried our best with the cards that were dealt to us.It most certainly has been a learning experience for all of us. Lets check out some updates...
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Today is Juneteenth and it should be a national holiday. I suspect it will be soon as a legislation is being written to make it so. A few years too late but better late than never. So what is Juneteenth?
Juneteenth also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, and Liberation Day is an unofficial American holiday and an official Texas state holiday, celebrated annually on the 19th of June in the United States to commemorate Union army general Gordon Granger announcing federal orders in the city of Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, proclaiming that all slaves in Texas were now free. Although the Emancipation Proclamation had formally freed them almost two and a half years earlier and the American Civil War had largely ended with the defeat of the Confederate States in April, Texas was the most remote of the slave states, with a low presence of Union troops, so enforcement of the proclamation had been slow and inconsistent. |
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Attention all 8th graders and their families. Our 2019-2020 virtual graduation video will be posted on Monday, June 22nd, 2020 at 9:00am on the Halsey website: www.halsey157.org.
We will also be emailing the link to our 8th grade families.
Congratulations! |
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Take the Return to School 2020 Survey
All parents/guardians of students in grades 3-K through 12, and students in grades 6-12 are invited to take the survey.
CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE RETURN TO SCHOOL SURVEY
The survey is available in Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, English, French, Haitian Creole, Korean, Russian, Spanish, and Urdu.
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The plans for summer school have been released. Summer school will be done by remote learning. How do you know if you have to attend summer school? You will look at your report card and if the FINAL grade (not marking period 4) says:
“Needs Improvement” (N) - This means your teacher has recommended that you could use additional studying but it is not mandatory.
“Course in Progress” (NX) - This means you did finish the course and you must attend summer school to complete the course requirements.
· For elementary and middle school students who are required or recommended to attend summer school, the program will start one week earlier and will run from Monday, July 6 – Tuesday, August 11. There is no change to the duration or structure of the program.
· For high school students who are attending summer school, courses will also start one week earlier and will run from Monday, July 6 – Friday, August 14. There is no change to the duration or structure of this program either.
· For students with 12-month Individualized Education Plan (IEPs) services, there will be no change to the calendar. Our teachers start on Wednesday, July 1 and students are expected to participate from Thursday, July 2–Thursday, August 13.
For more information about summer school please visit the Department of Education's website by clicking HERE
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How about some Halsey History? The image below is from our showcase behind the welcome desk in the main lobby. That is a picture of Stephen A. Halsey and the actual shovel used to break ground when the school was first under construction over 70 years ago.
So who was Stephen A. Halsey?
Known as the “Father of Astoria,” Stephen Halsey was a wealthy fur trader who bought most of the land along the East River known as Hallet’s Cove.
He incorporated the village in 1839 and famously changed the name to Astoria, after his mentor and millionaire John Jacob Astor.
Halsey’s hope was that Astor would invest in the new community and while that never really happened, Halsey did lay out the streets, built infrastructure and promoted settlement in the village.
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Allow me to introduce you to the "Unofficial" Halsey Hairstylist Olivia Yaffe from class 825. In addition to being an amazing student, singer, dancer, and all around person, Olivia Yaffe is Halsey’s hairdresser. Olivia has been styling teachers’ hair since she came to Halsey. She has done Ms. Shikowitz’s hair for every chorus concert. Last year, Ms. Shikowitz asked Olivia to do her hair for her wedding. Olivia studied and practiced, and did an amazing job. It was a special and memorable moment for both Ms. Shikowitz and Olivia. Check out some more of Olivia’s work below of Ms. Shikowitz and Ms. Sussman.
What will we do without Olivia now that she is graduating? Wait a second...who is "we?" I'm bald! |
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Another great week of Halsey Nights.
We went live from Las Vinas Peruvian Restaurant and got to experience what its like for small businesses reopening with restrictions due to the pandemic.
Every table gets a plate of fried plantains on top of Peruvian corn. The plantains are so good and the dipping sauces just added to the yumminess, I dont think thats a word.
We were joined by Ms. Stillwell and her friend Gavin, former Halsey teacher Mrs. Jones, and we were honored to be joined by 8th grade student Freya Evanchik and her mom Monica. Freya and her mom are not pictured.
Mr. Zevon got to eat some amazing food too!! I had a dish called Lomo Saltado de Entrana - Wok seared skirt steak sauteed with onions, tomatoes, and cilantro. Served with rice.
We also got to watch Mark Astorga serve up an appetizer called Ceviche de Corvina - Diced sea trout marinated in fresh lime juice, with boiled potatoes, and Peruvian corn. It was the first time I have ever tried fish and let me tell you I was scared. I've always been turned off by seafood let alone a raw fish dish!! So I stepped up and gave it a taste and IT WAS AMAZING!!!! It did not have a salty taste at all. The lime flavoring was absolutely delicious. I went back for a few more bites but had to stop because I found out I was going to get to taste an original dessert created by Mark Astorga called Alfajores with dulce de leche ice cream - it was a cookie with ice cream and it had my mouth watering.
 
Thank you to Mrs. and Mr. Astorga for giving us behind the scenes access to this amazing restaurant and your experiences. We WILL be going back soon!!! Oh man it was sooooo sooooo good.
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Summer Camps : A lot of places are doing virtual summer camps but at a cost. Here are some FREE ones that were sent to us from the District Office to share :
- https://wideopenschool.org/
- https://www.varsitytutors.com/virtual-summer-camps
- https://camp.wonderopolis.org/
- https://www.metopera.org/discover/education/global-summer-camp/home/
- https://mocanomi.org/2020/05/virtual-summer-art-camps/ (waitlist now)
- seriousfun.org (doing virtual camps based on specific campsites)
- Practice makes perfect - virtual summer STEM camp that is for grades 3-8. I have attached the flyers to this email. Register by 6/19
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I had a chance to stop by Halsey really quickly to pick up some work I needed to bring home and the building is spotless. Our custodians have done an amazing job in cleaning the building from top to bottom. Every floor, wall, staircase, desk, chair etc...has been scrubbed clean. I even had the honor of running into this jabroni while I was there. Its always great to see the legendary Jimmy Schiano. He has been taking care of Halsey for over 15 years now.
One other thing I was pleasantly surprised to see was a beautiful work of art that "someone" hung in the first floor men's room in the main lobby. The Kramer is a work of art. He's a loathsome, offensive brut. Yet I cannot look away! Long Live The Kramer at Halsey!!!
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We did our final virtual Share Night/Talent Show of the school year too. Halsey is a performing arts school and sometimes we take for granted some of the amazing talent that our students have. We had 17 performances and of course I was blown away by their talent and courage to perform. Below is a video of the Riley family who performed Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da by the Beatles. Gabriel, wearing the Halsey shirt will be graduating Halsey this year but his brother sitting next to him will be coming in September.
Thank you to Ms. Shikowitz for always stepping up for the students of the Halsey community. |
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The Riley Family Singing Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.
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Ms. Shikowitz returns this week with the always inspirational song "Rise Up" by Andra Day. She performed the song during Share Night until her bootleg wifi cut out and we lost her after 1 minute of her beautiful voice. Its ok though because we have the full performance right here: |
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Rise Up
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This week I harvested some mustard greens. When the seeds are ready, I'll try to make some Halsey mustard. However, for the moment, the greens are the thing. Mustard greens are super-food-ish. They are related to kale and other super-foods. The leaves have a sharp, bitter taste when eaten raw.
You'll need:
Salt
Olive oil (grape seed oil works well too)
Garlic
Ginger
Red pepper flakes
Lime juice
(optional - tofu, roasted red pepper)
A large pot, a large pan (or wok), a cutting board, a sharp knife and about 15 minutes for prep and cook time.
I apologize for the lack of measurements. I cook by eye and "feel".
Boil a pot of well salted water.
Cook the mustard leaves in the boiling water for 2 to 3 minutes. Strain the leaves.
Slice the garlic into thin pieces and finely chop the ginger.
Heat the oil in the pan and add the garlic and ginger. Heat util the garlic begins to change color, then add the mustard greens (and tofu and red pepper, if using).
Once heated (less than a minute) add the red pepper flakes and lime juice.
Serve and devour immediately...before anyone else can get to it or you'll end up like me, having nothing to take a picture of for this post!
My bride, my parents and two of my three children agreed; it was good...that other rotten brat won't try a dang thing!
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Here is a great resource that was provided to us: Free Citizenship Classes Online! Click the picture below to enlarge and get all the information you need to register.
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