SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

This is a paid announcement from the Hebrew Learning Academy Charter School, a public elementary school in Community District 22, 1340 East 29th Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11210.

HLA is now recruiting students for the 2013-14 Academic Year!

75 kindergarten spaces available with limited space
through fifth grade!

Hebrew Language Academy Charter School
 A Public Elementary School in Community District 22

located at 1340 East 29th Street • Brooklyn, NY 11210 • 718-377-7200

ALL ARE WELCOME!!

Apply for your child NOW!

• Open Houses Scheduled every Tuesday!
• HLA is a dual language public school with rigorous academic instruction in grades
• Grades K through 5: Hebrew and English Language Instruction, Enriched Math for High Performing Students
• Israeli Culture and History, Chess Instruction, Community Service
• Two Teachers in Each Class
• Extended School Day and School Year

IMPORTANT DATES!!

• Application is due April 1, 2013
• Lottery will be held on April 11, 2013
• Opening Day for Students will be in August 2013

Please visit our website to download an application at WWW.HLACHARTERSCHOOL.ORG

APPLY TODAY!!

Hebrew Language Academy Charter School – A Public Elementary School in Community District 22, 1340 East 29th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11210, (718) 377-7200

The above is a paid announcement by The Hebrew Language Academy Charter School. Sheepshead Bites has not verified the claims made in this advertisement. If you own a business and would like to announce a special offer to tens of thousands of locals, e-mail us at advertising [at] sheepsheadbites [dot] com.

This is a paid announcement from the Thinking Tree Learning Center, located at 2620 East 18th Street, 2nd Floor, Office #2, Brooklyn, NY 11235.

Thinking Tree Learning Center has come to Sheepshead Bay!

With a focus on education and success, backed by New York State-certified teachers, Thinking Tree is the right place for your child.

All curricula are based on the New York State Department of Education requirements. We formulate a customized curriculum for each child based on their weaknesses and strengths. We prepare your child for the city and state standardized exams.

We also have tutoring services to improve your child’s performance and help them exceed expectations as a student. We provide a fun learning environment for children and use positive reinforcement to enhance the child’s desire to learn.

Schedule your child for a free assessment today!

We are also having a Spring Recess mini-camp from March 27 to April 2. Children will participate in fun activities, trips, sports, and homework completion for any assignments due after the break. For more information, visit Thinking Tree’s website.

Thinking Tree Learning Center, 2620 East 18th Street, 2nd Floor, Office #2; (718)-872-6767.

The above is a paid announcement by Thinking Tree Learning Center. Sheepshead Bites has not verified the claims made in this advertisement. If you own a business and would like to announce a special offer to tens of thousands of locals, e-mail us at advertising [at] sheepsheadbites [dot] com.

Hurricane Sandy has created a miserable month for thousands of Southern Brooklynites. Homes were flooded, cars were destroyed, jobs were lost, and scores are still left without heat and power. While adults everywhere have been reeling from all the damage they have incurred, their children are also paying a heavy emotional price.

According to an article in the New York Daily News, children all across Coney Island, Brighton Beach, and Red Hook, living in homes without power, heat, and hot water, have become anxious, depressed, and frightened due to the radical change in their lives, and wondering when or if their misery will end.

Normally when the snow comes, it brings great elation to children everywhere, but not when they have been absent heat or power for over a week with no relief in site.

“I don’t want to live in my house anymore. I am scared. I don’t want to come back. We are literally right by the water,” told Janasia Chambers, 12, to the Daily News, “When it was snowing, it was scary.”

The Daily News cites child psychology experts who describe how fear and depression grow in children deprived of simple things we all take for granted like warm showers, fresh clean clothes, and the ability to play video games.

“The longer this persists, the more of a lasting impact it will have on kids. It will make them more fearful and more anxious,” said Alan Hilfer to the News, “[its like] a prison sentence.”

P.S. 253 in Brighton Beach (Source: Google Maps)

New York City has worked hard to reopen all public schools as quickly as possible since Hurricane Sandy battered them with flooding, blackouts, and damaged heaters and equipment, but progress has finally taken a significant step forward in recent days.

For the first time this week, students were finally able to return to their actual schools, as opposed to the replacement transfer schools located in other districts, and attendance has surged to over 90 percent according to a story by NY1. That is a massive increase for a school like Brighton Beach’s own P.S. 253, for which only 12 percent of students showed up at their temporary location in Flatbush.

Part of the problem with the temporary locations set up by the city was the lack of reliable transportation. Many parents had no access to cars or the subways in the weeks following the storm, and a citywide school bus shortage limited the amount available pickup sites.

Even in areas where the regular schools have not reopened, like for Coney Island’s P.S. 188, a return to normal school bus service yesterday helped the replacement location at P.S. 281 in Bensonhurst receive an 80 percent attendance rate. While bus service has increased, so has the chaos that ensued for parents and children trying to figure out a way to navigate to their new destinations.

“A bunch of kids screaming, a little girl screaming,” said one student to NY1. “It was confusing.”

Crowding, chaos, and confusion aside, the return to normal attendance numbers is an encouraging sign for students of Southern Brooklyn looking for any kind of normalcy.

Source: richiebits/Flickr

Our friends over at the South Marine Park branch of TD Bank (2944 Gravesend Neck Road, near Nostrand Avenue and Avenue U) informed us of a fun family event local branches are organizing tomorrow: free pumpkin painting for Halloween.

“Paint a pumpkin and take it with you!” the flier claims. The event – and the pumpkins – are free of charge.

Head to the Gravesend Neck Road branch – or one of the other branches listed below – tomorrow, October 26, between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. to join the party. This is a rain or shine event.

The local TD Bank branches participating are:

• South Marine Park - 2944 Gravesend Neck Road
• Avenue U – 1602 Avenue U
• Kings Highway – 1122-1126 Kings Highway
• Midwood – 1104 Avenue J

If you’ve been on Gravesend Neck Road near East 14th Street in the past month, you may have noticed that the area is looking a lot more colorful thanks to some love from locals.

Several over-sized flower pots sporting shrubs and flowers debuted on the road in mid-June after neighbors on East 14th Street had enough of the area’s gritty appearance.

Julia Chernova and other residents of the block applied for and received a $1,000 from Citizen’s Committee for New York City’s Love Your Block grant, a city program to empower neighborhoods at the grassroots level to take things into their own hands.

With money in hand, they bought the planters,  flowers, and soil, as well as tree guards for their block on East 14th Street, between Avenue X and Gravesend Neck Road, Chernova told Sheepshead Bites.

This is the same group of residents who, along with the block’s civic-minded kids, worked hard to clean up their street, turning unused tree wells into mini gardens in April 2011. It wasn’t long before some heartless passerby damaged their hand-painted “Don’t Litter” signs, but that was fixed up right quick, and the kids were honored by local pols for their efforts.

This, folks, is how you take care of your community!

Steiner (Source: brandonsteiner.com)

Daily News’ source for all things Brooklyn, Denis Hamill, has got a heartwarming Father’s Day tale for all of us to learn a little kindnessfrom.

A Native American teenager, who never knew his biological father, celebrated Father’s Day with his surrogate father from Gravesend, who helped transform the quality of the teenager’s life over the past two years.

Eighteen-year-old Keith Martinez grew up on a poor and corrupt Indian reservation in South Dakota, where he lived with seven other boys in a cardboard trailer. He was sent to Scarsdale to live with Brandon Steiner after he was chosen to participate in his school’s STEP program, or Student Transfer Education Program.

Steiner was raised in Brooklyn, and grew up living on the corner of Ocean Parkway and Kings Highway. He is a noted sports collectibles expert.

From the moment Martinez arrived at the doorstep of Steiner’s home two years ago, Steiner has worked to assist Martinez in every way possible. When he learned that Martinez was struggling academically, Steiner hired private tutors. Steiner forced Martinez to focus on his education before other extracurricular activities, such as football. He also took him to various places in the city, such as Yankee Stadium and Citi Field, to teach him about life.

Steiner definitely placed Martinez on the road to success. Martinez graduated from Scarsdale High School with a high SAT score and a 3.72 GPA, according to the Daily News. He received 14 college scholarships to several colleges, some of which were extremely prestigious and selective. Martinez, who feels forever indebted to Steiner, expressed his appreciation by celebrating father’s day with Steiner in Manhattan.

“I was raised by a stepfather, but Brandon has become like another father to me,” Martinez said to the Daily News. “So I will tell him that I’ll always appreciate everything he’s done for me. On the reservation, we support ourselves running a concession stand, selling soda and candy. Now I’ll major in business and marketing at Villanova University, and someday go back to Pine Ridge to build a great company that can provide jobs and services for my people. That’s my dream. And one thing that Brandon has taught me is that dreams can come true.”

Fans reach out to touch Judy Garland during her historic 1961 performance at Carnegie Hall. It is possible that one of those people near the front of the stage is my Mom. Source: Biography.com

BETWEEN THE LINES: All these years after her passing, I still think of my Mom, especially on Mother’s Day. I can’t send her a greeting card, so this remembrance will have to suffice.

When the commercials for sales and deals start popping up on television, days before Mother’s Day, I tune them out since they don’t concern me.

My mother died on December 24, 1998. It was Christmas Eve. For the last 14 years, even though I never observed Christmas — because I’m Jewish — Christmas Eve is a time of recollection, not celebration.

For that matter, so is Mother’s Day. Other than thinking about her and sending a silent message on the second Sunday in May, ever since the first one, five months after she died at age 76, its impact fades with each passing year.

Continue Reading »

We all got a little bruised up for our daring escapades as children; adults are there to prevent worse when we don't know better. (Source: sugarsnaptastic/Flickr)

BETWEEN THE LINES: In the aftermath of the death of the 12-year-old Brownsville boy who was crushed to death last Sunday when he got stuck in an ascending automatic parking lot gate, everyone’s been quick to point the finger in blame.

Some residents of the project where the incident occurred hold the management responsible due to the lack of recreational facilities on the property. Some criticized the mentality left over from the pop cultural craze known as Jackass, where daring — reckless seems more appropriate — people performed stupid and dangerous stunts just to get fleeting attention on Facebook or YouTube.

For those who may not know, Jackass was a popular MTV reality show for three seasons. It ended a decade ago, yet spawned three movies, a web site and a bunch of controversy, including condemnation by Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman after a teenager from his state got severely burned. MTV responded by programming the series after 10 p.m., when its youngest viewers were supposed to be fast asleep.

You can imagine how effective that was, knowing from personal experience that when youngsters, especially teenagers, are prohibited from participating in an activity, they routinely attempt to elude the ban.

This tragedy triggered a memory of a personal Jackass moment from my youth, which, thankfully, did not end in tragedy.

Continue Reading »

This is a paid announcement from Brainy Academy, a new educational institution on Sheepshead Bay Road that is holding two open houses this weekend.

Brainy Academy offers unique enrichment classes and intensive tutoring for children ages 3 to 16.

At Brainy Academy, we teach children to take learning to the next level using innovative educational methods, emphasizes independence, freedom within limits, and respect for a child’s natural psychological development to cultivate a superior learning experience for every pupil, and to get them into elite schools.

Among the advanced learning techniques Brainy Academy uses, are:

• English and Math classes for children ages 3 to 6. Kids learn to read, write, do mathematics and prepare for the New York City gifted and talented test (OLSAT).  Classes are two hours each and can be attended up to twice a week. Children learn under the guidance of a professional Montessori teacher in a small group setting.
• Lego® Education enrichment classes, in which children ages 6 to 14 learn science, math and computer programming.  Students create machines using products specifically made by the Lego® Company for the educational environment.  Older students create and program sophisticated robots. Classes focus on developing the student’s ability to think logically, build up a strong scientific knowledge base and prepare for entry into elite junior high schools and high schools.
• Intensive tutoring classes are available to help students score that elusive “4” on New York State Math and ELA tests.  Success on the standardized tests ensures the best chance possible for entry into elite schools.
• Lego®-based birthday parties are here! Themes include Star Wars®, Harry Potter®, Pirates of the Caribbean® and much more.  All birthday parties include the use of our adults-only 1,000 square foot terrace.

Visit our open house on Saturday, March 3, and Sunday, March 4, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
We are conveniently located at 1733 Sheepshead Bay Road, 4^th Floor
(Across the street from Bally’s)

Call (347) 450 3123 for more information.

The above is a paid announcement. Sheepshead Bites has not verified the claims made in this advertisement. If you own a business and would like to announce a special offer to tens of thousands of locals, e-mail us at advertising [at] sheepsheadbites [dot] com.