The Teunis G. Bergen Elementary Public School 9 80 Underhill Avenue, Brooklyn NY, 11238 718 638-3260 (phone) | 718 622-2961 (fax) Sandra D'Avilar, Principal Deborah Smith, Assistant Principal
We integrate social studies into our entire school curriculum while keeping city and state standards at the forefront of our instructional work. Our goal is to awaken our students’ sense of themselves and their surroundings as they make connections between content areas, ask deeper questions and challenge themselves to reach higher levels of understanding.
Our teachers work with staff developers each year to create essential questions for the social studies curriculum. These essential questions serve as the foundation for our inquiry-based instruction. Children learn to read and write through the workshop model process from Columbia University’s Teachers College which is followed on every grade level for continuity. Students read individually based on their own reading level and interest, they read in pairs, and they read together as an entire class. We encourage a culture of literacy by matching books to readers so that students are excited and motivated to set and reach their own reading goals. Students learn the writing process by first identifying a seed idea, then working to develop the idea through a structured drafting and editing process, and publishing their written work.
A classroom igloo project uses recycled materials to visualize mathmatical patterns.
Our math curriculum is hands-on which allows teachers to explain concepts through real-life examples and math games. Students learn number sense, operations, data collection, geometry, measurement and patterns, with an overall focus of problem-solving.
Our science curriculum focuses on children developing their awareness and curiosity about the natural and built worlds that surround them by using the scientific process. In our science lab, students investigate, and create and test their hypotheses through experiments.
Our physical education program provides many opportunities for our students to engage in health and fitness. For example, we utilize the Fitness Gram program, which is aligned to the state standards for vigor and health awareness, and has proven to be very child-centered and successful.
Teachers in each grade work collaboratively to shape a curriculum around essential questions that are rooted in the social studies standards and content, but applicable to areas across the curriculum. For example, second-grade classes exploring their local communities wonder, “How can we learn about ourselves by learning about our community?” Fifth-grade classes studying Westward Expansion consider the question, “How can change be both positive and negative?” This methodology challenges students to think critically and independently.
Academics
A proud writer shares her story in class.
We integrate social studies into our entire school curriculum while keeping city and state standards at the forefront of our instructional work. Our goal is to awaken our students’ sense of themselves and their surroundings as they make connections between content areas, ask deeper questions and challenge themselves to reach higher levels of understanding.
Our teachers work with staff developers each year to create essential questions for the social studies curriculum. These essential questions serve as the foundation for our inquiry-based instruction. Children learn to read and write through the workshop model process from Columbia University’s Teachers College which is followed on every grade level for continuity. Students read individually based on their own reading level and interest, they read in pairs, and they read together as an entire class. We encourage a culture of literacy by matching books to readers so that students are excited and motivated to set and reach their own reading goals. Students learn the writing process by first identifying a seed idea, then working to develop the idea through a structured drafting and editing process, and publishing their written work.
A classroom igloo project uses recycled materials to visualize mathmatical patterns.
Our math curriculum is hands-on which allows teachers to explain concepts through real-life examples and math games. Students learn number sense, operations, data collection, geometry, measurement and patterns, with an overall focus of problem-solving.
Our science curriculum focuses on children developing their awareness and curiosity about the natural and built worlds that surround them by using the scientific process. In our science lab, students investigate, and create and test their hypotheses through experiments.
Our physical education program provides many opportunities for our students to engage in health and fitness. For example, we utilize the Fitness Gram program, which is aligned to the state standards for vigor and health awareness, and has proven to be very child-centered and successful.
Teachers in each grade work collaboratively to shape a curriculum around essential questions that are rooted in the social studies standards and content, but applicable to areas across the curriculum. For example, second-grade classes exploring their local communities wonder, “How can we learn about ourselves by learning about our community?” Fifth-grade classes studying Westward Expansion consider the question, “How can change be both positive and negative?” This methodology challenges students to think critically and independently.