Recently, Comsewogue School District was featured in two Newsday Articles, "Kennedy assassination, 60 years later: How Long Island schools named for JFK will mark anniversary" and "A lesser role for Regents exams gains support, but some worry about eroding graduation standards".
60th Anniversary of the John F. Kennedy Assassination
Below are some Comsewogue excerpts from the article found in Newsday. The full article can be found on Newsday's website (subscription required).
Declan McGuire, 13, an eighth-grader at John F. Kennedy Middle School in Port Jefferson Station, says the 35th president of the United States "means quite a bit to me, to be honest. He did so much for the country."
And when he walks into the school building that bears the former president's name, Declan added that "thinking about his name every day we go to school, it reminds us about all the things he did for us in the short period of time". Declan's classmate, Jack Salembier, 14, says he's talked about the former president with family members "since many were alive the day he was assassinated. … A lot of them were little children, but they did tell me a couple of them went into the city that day"; and saw that people were crying in the street."
Kennedy, who was sworn into office in 1961, was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963.
The Port Jefferson Station school, which is in the Comsewogue school district, will highlight some of Kennedy's best-known quotes, delving into their meaning and "using them to connect them to our current life and times," Superintendent Jennifer Quinn said. For example, she noted President Kennedy's emphasis on space exploration, the man on the moon achieved in 1969," and tying it into all of the things we have done as a result of that." Amanda Prinz, the school's principal, said teachers have created large poster boards with some of Kennedy's famous quotes that students will study on Tuesday, since there are no classes on the anniversary date itself, which is a parent-teacher conference day.
At the Port Jefferson Station middle school, displayed in its entryway are a magazine cover of Kennedy, his portrait and a bust of him.
Regents Examinations
Below are some Comsewogue excerpts from the article found in Newsday. The full article can be found on Newsday's website (subscription required).
In Comsewogue, which serves Port Jefferson Station, Superintendent Jennifer Quinn said the district began its project-based learning initiative in 2016. The program has expanded every year since, though it was disrupted by pandemic restrictions.
Students are “presenting their knowledge in other ways besides just traditional test taking,” Quinn said. “They're doing research projects, they're presenting oral projects, they're working with communities.” Fifth-graders studying ancient civilizations, for example, would research the topic and present to other classes on their grade level to share what they learned — as opposed to what used to be a more textbook-based approach, Boyle Road Elementary School Principal Nicole Sooknanan said.
In Comsewogue, which serves Port Jefferson Station, Superintendent Jennifer Quinn said the district began its project-based learning initiative in 2016. The program has expanded every year since, though it was disrupted by pandemic restrictions.
Students are “presenting their knowledge in other ways besides just traditional test-taking,” Quinn said. “They're doing research projects, they're presenting oral projects, they're working with communities.” Fifth-graders studying ancient civilizations, for example, would research the topic and present to other classes on their grade level to share what they learned — as opposed to what used to be a more textbook-based approach, Boyle Road Elementary School Principal Nicole Sooknanan said. In the past, “Students would read that chapter or that unit in the textbook, they may answer some comprehension questions and have a written paper test,” Sooknanan said. “This gives them other opportunities to demonstrate their understanding of the topic.”
At the high school, the approach included connecting students to industry leaders and embedding real-world applications into the classroom, in addition to preparing students for Regents exams, Comsewogue High School Principal Michael Mosca said.
“We're trying to make it so that they're not just getting knowledge for a test,” he said. “They are able to apply that knowledge. This way, it sticks with them more.”