Greetings Fashion
Families from your Principal, Daryl Blank.
We have 6 weeks of classes left
before Regents examinations as the school year winds down. Make sure your children know this and
appreciate the importance of finishing the school year strong. The second marking period has ended and we
are in the last marking period of the school year. Counselors will be programming students for
summer school based on marking period 2 grades.
Students must understand the grades that they receive in June will be
the ones that colleges will see. Students
will be receiving their report cards this Friday, May 4.
We should be very excited as we have
two more student showcases this week – these are great moments for our students
– the ones that they will remember about their HSFI years!
Our Entrepreneurship Showcase where our business students have
been working on business plans that focus on Sustainability and Social Responsibility
is on Tuesday, May 1 from 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm in the school lobby.
Our Senior Art Show that showcases
our Graphics & Illustration students opens on Friday, May 4 at 4:00
pm. Our entire lobby will be decorated
with these amazing pieces of art beginning on Friday.
Our public Fashion Show that
showcases our Fashion Design students is on Friday, May 11. There will be two shows – one at 5:00 pm and
one at 7:00 pm. Tickets sold before the
show will be $5 and tickets sold at the door will be $7. All money raised from ticket sales will be
reinvested in our fashion design program for next year’s show. Tickets are available online at our HSFI
Webstore from April 25th thru May 9th. Tickets will be sold in the school lobby starting
May 4th.
As always, our window displays will
reflect the amazing work that our Visual Merchandising students do on a daily
basis.
I know we are knee-deep in the
2017-18 school year, but we as a school community need to begin thinking about
next year. I wanted to share with you a promising school practice that
has proved successful in the Chicago school system and is now coming to NYC –
it is called Quiet Time. Quiet Time allows an entire school
community (students and staff) to take exactly what it says – some Quiet Time
in the form of meditation and mindfulness exercises during the school day, once
in the morning and once in the afternoon. The research on Quiet Time and the impact of meditation and mindfulness exercises
on a school and student outcomes – the results are impressive:
□ ↓ Decreases student stress levels,
anxiety and depression
□ ↑ Improved emotional regulation,
decision-making and attention with students
□ ↓ Decreases dropout rates in
schools
□ ↑ Improves school graduation rates
and student grades
□ ↑ Increases College Acceptance
rates for students
Here is a brief video where students
and staff from the Bronx High School
For Law and Community Service here in NYC speak about Quiet Time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MUwkC8bd4o
Here is a brief video where students
and staff from Chicago public schools speak about Quiet Time - https://app.frame.io/f/3548939c-30e3-40b0-a1ea-4258b36122b1
The research is very
impressive. Please take a couple of minutes to watch the videos. Quiet Time would nicely fit into what we already do at
HSFI with our commitment to Social Emotional Learning through our partnership
with Yale University, Restorative Justice and our belief that emotions matter.
It would be great to hear from you
about what you think about Quiet Time – you can email me at dblank@schools.nyc.gov or through
Jupiter Grades or you can call me at (212) 255-1235 ext. 8191 or you can fill
out this Google survey:
Thank you!
