Picking up a bar of soap can be a simple task, or a complicated one, if you ask Briarcliff Middle School eighth grader Edmund Tsou. Together with his brother, Todd fifth grader Tristan, they have built a Rube Goldberg Machine that drops a bar of soap into your hand and the pair have entered the National Rube Goldberg Online Contest.

Many students are spending their downtime playing sports in their yards, throwing and catching baseballs. Students in Robert Iovino’s sixth grade science class at Briarcliff Middle School have been doing the same, but with a javelin and a discus. As part of their Ancient Greece Unit, they have been participating in the First-Ever Family Olympic Games, proving learning can be done through playtime. 

Daniel de Castro, this year’s Briarcliff High School’s Valedictorian, and Gil Halevi and Michael Tu, the Salutatorians, are three accomplished young men. We caught up with them to find out about the most important thing they have learned during their time at BHS, who their role models are, their secret to balancing it all and what advice they have for incoming BHS freshmen. 

Todd fourth grader teacher Shelly Graham is retiring this year so we caught up with her to find out about her most memorable moments and how she plans to stay (very) busy during retirement.

Now more than ever we are seeing the effects of social distancing in our world: there is less air pollution, the animals are out and about in many places and there is less food waste since more people are eating at home. Students in Dorene Tomaskovic’s first grade class have recently been learning about the three R’s and many created Earth Day-related projects at home.