For her National History Day project on runway fashion, S reached out to Professor Shawn Grain Carter of the Fashion Institute of Technology. When she cold-emailed Professor Carter asking for an interview, she didn't expect this luxury fashion powerhouse to not just say yes but agree to come to Forge for the interview Professor Carter is a legendary retail trailblazer. She served as a Vice President for Macy's (where she helped launch macys.com) and a frequent expert analyst for CNN and Good Morning America. She also helped launch Bergdorf Goodman’s famous luxury home division and was a Senior Buyer for Bloomingdale’s. Despite her global schedule, she took the time to sit down with a student simply because they took the initiative to reach out. Thank you, Professor Carter, for your incredible generosity and for showing Forge students that you can just do things.

For her research on penicillin, A reached out via cold email to infectious disease specialist Dr Brad Spellberg He responded and she interviewed him last week 2 takeaways from this 1. People are good and want to help 2. You can just do things (Sorry the audio isn’t great. That’s our fault)

Never a shortage of volunteers to show work on the board in math class

Building trucks to understand the 1st and 2nd laws of thermodynamics Making learning about potential energy, kinetic energy and friction hands-on

Even other species are trying to get into Forge

Huh-knee Bah-jers (clap-clap, clap-clap-clap) Art for center court of the gym has arrived Looks dope Or in gen alpha, it looks tuff Just in case, it may (or may not) be some of these too: Sigma, rizzy, has aura, skibidi

The chess robot has arrived The interest in playing against it has been very high so another student is now working on a reservation app so students can sign up for it Love to see it.

It's always Go time Guides and students alike trying to learn this ancient strategy game during break

Yesterday, the Livingston Mayor (Mayor Shawn Klein) and Councilman Anthony came by Forge and took students' questions for 45 mins. Students asked about their biggest challenges and most ambitious projects leading Livingston. They also asked them for advice on how they might solve issues they've encountered in their own community - whether it be speeding cars on streets to broken sidewalks to inaccessible playing fields. The big takeaway from the event is that you have power to change things no matter what your age.

Data gathering from the student-built animal trackers continues

Bedazzling sneakers is a new snacktime activity that has organically popped up Some conversations also had about whether this could be a business, i.e. bedazzling others sneakers WDYT? Would you buy a bedazzling service?

A breakdown of the animal trackers the team has built and what they’re observing and the data they’re tracking Once they know what kind if visitors we have in the area, they will figure out how to protect or deter them so that whatever we plant in the garden remains safe

3 tableaus from improv Can you guess the story? They did a great job so this one should be easy BTW, a tableau is a silent, frozen physical picture created by one or more actors to visually capture a specific moment

The Forge Prep uniform decision captured When admitted, students kept asking if Forge has uniforms So we said, you decide That culiminated in this town hall Their persuasive speeches brought together their work on (1) claim, evidence, reasoning (CER), (2) pathos, logos, ethos, (3) cost modeling and much more. People often report being more afraid of public speaking than death 😳, but Forge students will get lots of reps and soon enough, they’ll be able to own any room they walk into Are you surprised by what they decided? Our team was.

You better get this one These are 3 tableaus from a famous book that our students enacted Do you recognize the book? For reference: A tableau in improv is a silent, frozen physical picture created by performers to represent a specific moment, relationship, or setting in a story You better get this one

Chess and now Go are proving popular at lunchtime

Our 5th to 8th graders have resumes You're thinking: "What the heck?" Here's why As you start a school, you learn the absolute crazy amount of stuff schools have to buy And so instead of buying everything from others, we're letting students run & operate some of those businesses including: * photo day * yearbook * our merch store But to get on the 3-4 person teams that run these businesses, students have to create a resume, apply and interview Resume examples below They're excited (and nervous) for the process and the prospect of running a complete business with Forge as the 1st customer If they run it well, they also share in the profits

Forge students will not be part of this troubling national statistic... This is why we focus on building their reading muscle and stamina by allowing them to read things that give them joy and which they choose Once we observe that, we can find other adjacent genres or types of books to expand the types of subjects & genres they read But it starts with actually enjoying reading This stat is a national tragedy

G & A break down the acid vs base lab tests they ran for garden soil testing