School News

The Bronxville campus is very excited to welcome Linda Wu to the math department. Linda holds a Ph.D. in Mathematical Economics and has worked as a mathematician for many years, specializing in solving real-world problems with mathematical solutions and explaining complicated mathematical concepts in an easily understandable manner. Linda previously taught undergraduate students at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she received the Excellent Teaching Prize. In addition to her professional pursuits, she is a devoted mother with 2e children and an active volunteer at a nonprofit organization Parent Children Education Club (PCE), dedicated to promoting emotional intelligence in parenting. Linda writes, “My education philosophy is simple: every child deserves to be seen, heard and understood. I advocate for nurturing their strengths, equipping them with skills to overcome challenges, and providing opportunities for them to flourish.” Welcome, Linda!

Students on all three campuses kicked off our first FlexFriday of the school year with an exploration of FlexSchool’s incredible array of creative electives. Here’s just a sampling: Music Composition, Improv, Cooking, Character Design, Gardening, Puppetry, Board Gaming, Cinematography, Woodworking, Logic Puzzles, Philosophy and Debate, Astrology, Fashion Design, Creative Writing, Crafts & Modeling, and more!

• Watching Painted Lady caterpillars create a chrysalis
• Learning foundations of art including sculpture and painting
• Considering the philosophical conundrum of how to treat zombies
• Forming foundational understandings of video game design 
• Setting the scene and creating characters in Novel Writing
• Sundaes and sprinklers on our last day in Berkeley Heights

Students donned waders and set off into the water with collection nets at the Great Swamp Wildlife Refuge, in a continuation of this special FlexFriday series that began with a workshop in January. Students worked as a team to gather and identify the species they found and categorize them into pollution-tolerant, pollution-sensitive, and pollution-intolerant groups. Then they assessed their findings to determine what parameters might be affecting biodiversity and macroinvertebrate life. 

FlexSchool admissions coordinator Jen Madsen dedicates countless hours of her personal time to advocating for the needs of the 2e community. Last week, Jen traveled to Capitol Hill to advocate for increased federal funding for gifted and talented education through demonstration programs and research for underrepresented students including Black, ELL, low-income, rural, and students with disabilities. Left: Jen with Johns Hopkins University Prof. Jonathan Plucker and Rep. Rosa DeLauro. Right: Jen with Rep. Tom Kean.