hafersn@riveredgeschools.org
Caribou Contests, a math competition I piloted last year with K and 1, is ceasing their operations, as per an email I received from them very recently. While we weren't participating as a school this year, I was going to recommend their site and various contests as something worthwhile for parents and children to investigate if they were interested.
Visit the MATH CONTESTS menu option above for the registration, calendars and dates/deadlines for this year's math contests. There are new options this year!
G&T/Enrichment classes will not begin until mid-October, as a general guideline. While we do have access to NJSLA assessments from last spring, many other assessments used in our process won't be completed until the end of the September. Please recognize that we always aim to do a thorough, fair and accurate job. This process takes time to review and assess students for our TIER III and II programs. We move as quickly as we can without sacrificing quality and thoroughness. Updates will be posted here with more specific timeframes and dates.
There is a NEW TAB on this site called ELA CONTESTS! We are very excited to bring back the SCRIPPS National Spelling Bee this year. We will be posting more information on that page as we get it but wanted to let you know to watch for updates.
Kindergarten G&T and Enrichment will begin in January this year. While this was also a similar timeframe last year, it is now official for our program. We have discussed and pondered this grade level at great length over the last two years. For many good reasons, it is best to delay their program until we can accurately review our newest students and get to know them better. In the interim, I will be pushing into Kindergarten classes throughout the fall. I look forward to meeting these new members of our school community.
I am thrilled to be starting another year teaching in River Edge at both Cherry Hill and Roosevelt Schools. I have taught the Math CREATE and Capstone classes, coached the Odyssey of the Mind teams, hosted a math club and coordinated the Gifted and Talented program. I sponsor March MATHness which I launched to encourage a month of math fun. I also have taught Math Enrichment and love to share puzzles and brain teasers! In 2023-24, we launched our new tiered G&T programming along with a new name for CREATE ==> REignite.
I graduated from Bucknell University with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics with dual Concentrations in Operations Research and Computer Science. I began my professional life in technology, designing and developing systems for JP Morgan in NYC in their Corporate Finance and Financial Division. I received my MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University before changing careers to education. I began teaching math at Bergen Community College, substituted for many years in Wyckoff, Ridgewood, and the Ramapo/Indian Hills School districts and taught both 7th grade science and 8th grade algebra. I am the proud mother of triplet girls who graduated from college, two from the University of Michigan and one from Villanova University. I also tutor and taught a math PRAXIS prep course at Bergen Community College.
I am excited about this opportunity with G&T Enrichment because I love math and challenging problems and am thrilled to share my love of math with your children. I’m passionate about the subject and its related skills of problem solving and critical thinking. Students who persevere and learn to work through math problems learn valuable skills and self confidence that are transferable to many other subjects and areas in life. We will explore all kinds of challenges, not just math related, in our enrichment classes but logic, problem solving will be the backbone of them all!