IN THE NEWS:
A note on quarantine teaching
Imagine raising 130 kids, but you're suddenly uprooted and forced to raise them from afar. You email them all, but they don’t allrespond. Support staff intervenes and finds some, but others are still missing. You teach the students you have, but how many are actually doing the work, you just don’t know.
You video call your children, but who will show up. You wonder about the kids who did all the work before but are MIA right now.
You make some calls: One child is trying to do all the work from an iPhone. Another has no technology at all. Another hasn't been feeling well, and another was admitted to the hospital. You listen to a mother cry as she details a death in the family.
I interacted with the students on YouTube Live because that way, they can't interrupt the lesson. They type questions and I teach. A parent really appreciated it. I did what I could despite my 6-year-old twins throwing fits in the background.
Teaching online is like teaching in class. Some kids do the work and some kids don't. Some kids check in everyday and others hide. At the end of the week, you get waves of homework back. At least the kids are working.
It was easier to reach the kids in school, but it's actually easier to teach them now. There are no students to interrupt your YouTube tutorial and you could mute kids on Zoom a feature we just don’t have when we teach in a classroom.
A wise principal once told me, 'You never want to get to a point where you're working hard and the students are hardly working."
Many students are working harder than ever now, but others have disappeared - and that's cause for concern. Teachers aren't just educators, and, admittingly, babysitters. We're also motivators, and that is what kids miss most. The kids miss the human interaction, but like everyone else, they must adjust.
Life can change drastically, instantly without warning. Students just have to learn to deal with massive change... that and do their homework at the same time.
John Castellano
English Teacher, Martin Van Buren High School
You video call your children, but who will show up. You wonder about the kids who did all the work before but are MIA right now.
You make some calls: One child is trying to do all the work from an iPhone. Another has no technology at all. Another hasn't been feeling well, and another was admitted to the hospital. You listen to a mother cry as she details a death in the family.
I interacted with the students on YouTube Live because that way, they can't interrupt the lesson. They type questions and I teach. A parent really appreciated it. I did what I could despite my 6-year-old twins throwing fits in the background.
Teaching online is like teaching in class. Some kids do the work and some kids don't. Some kids check in everyday and others hide. At the end of the week, you get waves of homework back. At least the kids are working.
It was easier to reach the kids in school, but it's actually easier to teach them now. There are no students to interrupt your YouTube tutorial and you could mute kids on Zoom a feature we just don’t have when we teach in a classroom.
A wise principal once told me, 'You never want to get to a point where you're working hard and the students are hardly working."
Many students are working harder than ever now, but others have disappeared - and that's cause for concern. Teachers aren't just educators, and, admittingly, babysitters. We're also motivators, and that is what kids miss most. The kids miss the human interaction, but like everyone else, they must adjust.
Life can change drastically, instantly without warning. Students just have to learn to deal with massive change... that and do their homework at the same time.
John Castellano
English Teacher, Martin Van Buren High School
Here's a short segment from the local news about our "Day In Space" event-where the kids got to talk to an astronaut while she was on the International Space Station. This was a unique opportunity, and MVB was the only high school selected to do this! Congrats to MVB and much thanks to Ms. Carol Wang for making this happen!
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Science Day at MVB- A Celebration
On Wednesday, March 20 Martin van Buren High School in Queens Village with have a day celebrating science. Science is always pushing into new frontiers and creating breakthroughs that impact and improve our daily lives on so many levels. We at MVB are on a mission to equip our students with the passion along with the tools and the skills to help REDEFINE THE FUTURE through exploring the many pathways of science.
The festivities will begin with the dedication of our new DNA/Biotechnology laboratory. This lab is a very special addition, featuring the capabilities that exposes our students to the forefront of medical research. We are immensely proud to have a state-of-the-art facility, courtesy of the efforts of Carol Wang, our AP bioscience teacher and the Alumni Alliance of MVB supported by the gracious generosity of the Casper family. As part of the dedication ceremony our honorees and guests will see our students in action performing experiments in the lab and presenting on their upcoming marine biology research program as participants in the University of Southern California/Wrigley Institute of Environmental Studies on Catalina Island.
Then we will have our MVBHS Hall of Fame induction ceremony, honoring two of our most accomplished Alumni, Marc Casper ’86 and Natalie Achong ‘85. They will be joining an already impressive roster of MVB alumni in our Hall of Fame including two Nobel Prize winners, Frank Wilczek, noted MIT physicist and Nobel prize recipient in 2004 and Alvin Roth, the 2012 winner of the Nobel prize in Economics.
Marc Casper is a President and Chief Executive Officer of Thermo Fisher Scientific. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc is the world leader in serving science, with revenues of more than $20 billion and approximately 70,000 employees globally. Its mission is to help customers accelerate life sciences research, solve complex analytical challenges, improve patient diagnostics, deliver medicines to market and increase laboratory productivity. It offers an unmatched combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and comprehensive services. Marc joined the company in 2001 and after a series of promotions became CEO in 2009.
He began his career at Bain & Company as a strategy consultant and later joined Bain Capital.
He serves on the Board of trustees of Brigham & Women's Hospital and Wesleyan University. He is also Vice Chairman of the U.S. - China Business Council and serves on the board of U.S. Bancorp and Zimmer Holdings . Marc received his Bachelor's degree in Economics from Wesleyan University. Later, he received an MBA with Honors from Harvard Business School.
Natalie, after graduating from Van Buren, was accepted to several Ivy League universities but instead enrolled in a prestigious, accelerated B.S./M.D. program at the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education at the City University of New York, which enabled her to become a doctor by age 22 — when most of her peers were just finishing college.
During her medical training, Achong solidified her commitment to social justice and public service. Although she had never before lived away from home, the then-20-year-old medical student initiated a protest that took her to the Deep South to work with teen mothers at a health clinic in the Mississippi Delta.
This experience convinced her that she could make a difference in the lives of young women by specializing in obstetrics and gynecology. Today, in addition to working full time as an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the Yale School of Medicine and as an attending physician at St. Vincent’s Medical Center, natalie has served as the president of the Connecticut society of the national medical association and their national board of trustees.
She also finds time for numerous nonclinical duties: volunteering at a health clinic, joining church-sponsored activities, publishing original research in peer-reviewed medical journals, and volunteering with overseas medical missions that have taken her to the Dominican Republic and Ghana, where she’s helped set up free clinics for local residents. Truly, a proud example of the impact our graduates are making on the world at large.
Joining our two inductees will be a guest speaker, Josh Levine, Chief Executive Officer of Accuray, a leading innovator and global producer of critical cancer radiaition therapy equipment. Josh will be sharing his inspiring story of growing up in New York.
Afterwards, our guests along with our principal Sam Sochet, will be meeting with our top students, the scholars of MVB, in an informal Q & A session discussing career options and opportunities in science and medicine.
The day will indeed be a celebration of both the rich accomplishments of two of Marin van Buren’s most notable alumni involved in science and medicine and the opportunities that lie ahead for our rich population of inquisitive students as they embark on their own futures.
On Wednesday, March 20 Martin van Buren High School in Queens Village with have a day celebrating science. Science is always pushing into new frontiers and creating breakthroughs that impact and improve our daily lives on so many levels. We at MVB are on a mission to equip our students with the passion along with the tools and the skills to help REDEFINE THE FUTURE through exploring the many pathways of science.
The festivities will begin with the dedication of our new DNA/Biotechnology laboratory. This lab is a very special addition, featuring the capabilities that exposes our students to the forefront of medical research. We are immensely proud to have a state-of-the-art facility, courtesy of the efforts of Carol Wang, our AP bioscience teacher and the Alumni Alliance of MVB supported by the gracious generosity of the Casper family. As part of the dedication ceremony our honorees and guests will see our students in action performing experiments in the lab and presenting on their upcoming marine biology research program as participants in the University of Southern California/Wrigley Institute of Environmental Studies on Catalina Island.
Then we will have our MVBHS Hall of Fame induction ceremony, honoring two of our most accomplished Alumni, Marc Casper ’86 and Natalie Achong ‘85. They will be joining an already impressive roster of MVB alumni in our Hall of Fame including two Nobel Prize winners, Frank Wilczek, noted MIT physicist and Nobel prize recipient in 2004 and Alvin Roth, the 2012 winner of the Nobel prize in Economics.
Marc Casper is a President and Chief Executive Officer of Thermo Fisher Scientific. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc is the world leader in serving science, with revenues of more than $20 billion and approximately 70,000 employees globally. Its mission is to help customers accelerate life sciences research, solve complex analytical challenges, improve patient diagnostics, deliver medicines to market and increase laboratory productivity. It offers an unmatched combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and comprehensive services. Marc joined the company in 2001 and after a series of promotions became CEO in 2009.
He began his career at Bain & Company as a strategy consultant and later joined Bain Capital.
He serves on the Board of trustees of Brigham & Women's Hospital and Wesleyan University. He is also Vice Chairman of the U.S. - China Business Council and serves on the board of U.S. Bancorp and Zimmer Holdings . Marc received his Bachelor's degree in Economics from Wesleyan University. Later, he received an MBA with Honors from Harvard Business School.
Natalie, after graduating from Van Buren, was accepted to several Ivy League universities but instead enrolled in a prestigious, accelerated B.S./M.D. program at the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education at the City University of New York, which enabled her to become a doctor by age 22 — when most of her peers were just finishing college.
During her medical training, Achong solidified her commitment to social justice and public service. Although she had never before lived away from home, the then-20-year-old medical student initiated a protest that took her to the Deep South to work with teen mothers at a health clinic in the Mississippi Delta.
This experience convinced her that she could make a difference in the lives of young women by specializing in obstetrics and gynecology. Today, in addition to working full time as an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the Yale School of Medicine and as an attending physician at St. Vincent’s Medical Center, natalie has served as the president of the Connecticut society of the national medical association and their national board of trustees.
She also finds time for numerous nonclinical duties: volunteering at a health clinic, joining church-sponsored activities, publishing original research in peer-reviewed medical journals, and volunteering with overseas medical missions that have taken her to the Dominican Republic and Ghana, where she’s helped set up free clinics for local residents. Truly, a proud example of the impact our graduates are making on the world at large.
Joining our two inductees will be a guest speaker, Josh Levine, Chief Executive Officer of Accuray, a leading innovator and global producer of critical cancer radiaition therapy equipment. Josh will be sharing his inspiring story of growing up in New York.
Afterwards, our guests along with our principal Sam Sochet, will be meeting with our top students, the scholars of MVB, in an informal Q & A session discussing career options and opportunities in science and medicine.
The day will indeed be a celebration of both the rich accomplishments of two of Marin van Buren’s most notable alumni involved in science and medicine and the opportunities that lie ahead for our rich population of inquisitive students as they embark on their own futures.
MVB has been featured in the news for the progress it has made. See the links below for some of the news items.
“I learned how powerful we can be when we stand together.”
Brandon Wong
Brandon Wong
“This event showed that students of all ages, no matter how young, can unite to fight for a cause we all believe in.” – Ann Gbollie
On March 24th, Principal Sam Sochet, faculty, and 38 students went down to Washington DC to protest gun violence.
