East Side High School

Newark surprises its 2017 Teacher of the Year

NEWARK — Walk into Brian Klasner’s classroom and odds are, you won’t find him sitting at his desk or lecturing at the front — he’ll be among his students.

On Tuesday, when a dozen school administrators, members of the media and fellow colleagues surprised Klasner to crown him Newark’s Teacher of the Year, he was sitting near the back of the room with a group of students.

“These are my parents guys,” Klasner, 29, said as he stood up to greet Schools Superintendent Christopher Cerf and his parents, Lisa and Joe Klasner.

“It’s validation of years of people telling me ‘No, you can’t do this,’ ‘No, that doesn’t work, use a textbook, don’t break the mold,'” said Klasner, a social studies teacher at East Side High. “I’ve always had these ideas and I’ve pushed as much as I could.”

Students sit in groups peering over iPads and talk about the internships they’ve landed at the East Orange Animal Hospital or as a physical education instructor. Their business cards are displayed along a wall.

“Coming from elementary school for me, it was difficult to adjust to high school,” said junior Romaine Johnson, 16. “He was always there for me and making sure I was on the right track … if it looks like if you have a bad day, he’ll say a pointed joke and just brighten your day.”

“Other teachers won’t take time out of their day to help you even with your personal issues,” said student Destiny Diaz, 16. “We’re learning in a different way.”

Diaz said the Klasner is always finding new ways to learn through technology. She looked around the room and said, “I don’t even know where the textbooks are.”

Klasner’s classroom is coated in posters of history icons like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., but also quirky images like a photo of a viral cat meme with the words “Mr. Klasner’s caring face.”

“I can never see myself sleeping in his class,” Johnson said — partly because Klasner will draw on your face with a dry-erase marker if you do, Diaz added.

Students say Klasner is always making jokes and showing funny pictures. The classroom Smart Board on Tuesday was projecting a picture of a baby elephant.

“If you’re singing a song, he’ll ask who sings it and say, ‘Let’s keep it that way,'” Johnson added.

Klasner was chosen from a pool of 22 other educators who were nominated by their principals. A graduate of Quinnipiac University, Klasner has taught for seven years and leads the school’s first Comic Book Club.

“This is a tremendous honor and a very well deserved one. We are incredibly impressed,” Superintendent Cerf said.

Klasner is an advisor for the school’s Big Picture Learning program, a national model that challenges traditional forms of schooling and lets students to take control of their learning through practical applications, such as internships.

The Big Picture academy enrolls 110 students at East Side and requires every student complete an internship.

“You don’t need a textbook to teach,” said Klasner who has taught at East Side for four years. “I also want to take them outside of the school, outside of class. Every one of my students has a business card, everyone has a resume, everyone has a cover letter, everyone has interviewed … there’s great traditional teachers, but I’ve been supported with every one of my crazy ideas.”

Source: By Karen Yi | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

NPS Honors East Side High School Teacher Brian Klasner as Newark Teacher of the Year

Klasner brings innovative strategies into his classroom, ensuring students develop critical 21st century skills through project-based learning

 

Brian Klasner was honored by Superintendent Christopher D. Cerf, administrators, fellow teachers, students, and family members on Tuesday, being presented with the 2017 “Newark Teacher of the Year” award at East Side Big Picture Academy.
Brian Klasner was honored by Superintendent Christopher D. Cerf, administrators, fellow teachers, students, and family members on Tuesday, being presented with the 2017 “Newark Teacher of the Year” award at East Side Big Picture Academy.

[Newark, NJ – May 09, 2017] – Newark Public Schools (NPS) honored Brian Klasner as “Newark Teacher of the Year” today at East Side High School, with a surprise visit from NPS Superintendent Christopher D. Cerf and other district leaders who presented him with an award for his exceptional teaching abilities and the impact he has made on his students. Klasner was chosen from a pool of approximately 22 finalists who were each nominated by their school principal. Each nominee was selected by their principal based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to a teacher’s effectiveness in classroom instruction, strong commitment to professional development and collaboration, and innovation and leadership across the school community.

“I’m proud to have the opportunity to present this year’s ‘Newark Teacher of the Year’ award to Mr. Klasner, a transformational classroom leader at Newark’s East Side High School,” said Superintendent Cerf. “Mr. Klasner’s classroom rigor, innovative instructional strategies, and endless commitment to each of his students exemplifies what’s necessary in every classroom to ensure a high-quality, 21st century education for all of our students.”

Mr. Klasner currently teaches world history and financial literacy to ninth and twelfth graders at East Side Big Picture Academy (ESBPA), a student-centered learning academy within East Side High School. In his classroom, he focuses on providing students with a depth of content knowledge while challenging students to showcase their subject mastery through project-based assessments. A Google Education App expert, he routinely utilizes technology in his classroom to support 21st century learning and collaboration among students. Mr. Klasner has earned a “Highly Effective Teacher” rating for two years in a row, embodying the qualities of a nurturing and rigorous 21st century educator.

“Mr. Klasner’s passion for education and dedication to our school community is having a profound impact on students, families, and teachers across East Side High School,” said Dr. Mario Santos, Principal at East Side High School. “We are incredibly grateful for his countless contributions to our students and families, as he continues to cultivate a 21st century learning environment that is providing our students with the skills necessary to be prepared for college and career success.”

At ESBPA, which enrolls approximately 100 students from grades 9 to 12, students are required to complete an internship over the course of the school year. Students work with their advisor to find an internship that lines up with their interests and develop an interdisciplinary project that they will complete at their individual internship site. This year, Mr. Klasner secured 15 internships for his advisees at a wide-range of companies and organizations, such as NBC Studios, Mount Sinai Hospital, Oliver Street and NJ Regional Day Schools, Trenton Planetarium, East Orange Animal Shelter, and My Brother’s Keeper Program, among others, while also helping other advisors find internship opportunities for their students. Every week, Mr. Klasner travels to his students’ internship locations to support them on their personalized interdisciplinary projects.

In addition to his strong performance in the classroom, Mr. Klasner dedicates his time to expanding access to extra-curricular activities for his students, leading the ESHS 1st Comic Book Club. He also routinely leads workshops for his colleagues at ESHS Professional Development days.

A graduate of the School of Education at Quinnipiac University and a Teach for America alumnus, Mr. Klasner is in his seventh year of teaching and has taught at ESBPA for the past four years. He was inspired to enter the field of education by his mother, who was a career educator, and has made it his life’s mission to make a difference in children’s lives.

“I am very honored to receive the Teacher of the Year Award,” said Brian Klasner. “The method I use for teaching can be done by any teacher – it works because it engages students in a way that encourages them to push boundaries, use innovation, push the big picture, focus on projects, and interest-based and real world learning.”

Each of the 22 NPS teachers nominated by their respective principal for the 2016-2017 “Newark Teacher of the Year” award will be recognized for their impact at the 2017 Breakfast Celebration for Teachers of The Year at Robert Treat Hotel on Friday, June 2.

Three East Side High School Seniors Accept Full Basketball Scholarships For Fall 2017


6-foot-4 Newark East Side senior Elijah Olaniyi has decided to attend DI Stony Brook University on a full basketball scholarship. Elijah is a 4 year varsity player who finished with 928 Career points. He will play for coach Jeff Boals in the American East Conference.

6-foot-10 Newark East Side senior Darnell Brodie has decided to attend DI Seton Hall University on a full basketball scholarship. Darnell is a 3 year varsity player who is a fierce rebounder down low. He will play for coach Kevin Willard in the Big East Conference.

6-foot-3 Newark East Side senior Amadu Benbow has decided to attend DII JC Raritan Valley Community College on a full basketball scholarship. Amadu is a 3 year varsity player who is the quintessential team player who will sacrifice for his team. He will play for coach Kevin Ryan in the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Region XIX and the Garden State Athletic Conference.

All-Newark State Championship Final Renews City Pride for Football

By Matthew Stanmyre | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com on December 01, 2016 7:30 AM

Weequahic quarterback Tymen Sampson (2) is stacked up by Shabazz linebacker Jahsim Gordon (50) in Thursday’s high school football Soul Bowl showdown at Untermann Field in Newark. Weequahic outscored Shabazz for a 22-8 victory. 11/24/2016 (Steve Hockstein | For NJ Advance Media)tory. 11/24/2016 (Steve Hockstein | For NJ Advance Media)

The 2008 and 2009 seasons were some of the darkest times for Newark high school football. Those years, none of the city’s six public schools that play the sport finished with a winning record, and all combined the teams won just 33 games against 87 losses.

Interest in football was plummeting, athletes were opting for other sports and promising players were flooding to private schools outside of Newark, coaches say.

But change was coming.

In 2010, Darnell Grant took over as head coach at Shabazz High, where the program had gone 7-33 the previous four seasons. The next year, Brian Logan moved over to Weequahic High, inheriting a team that was 16-23 over the four years before.

Since the changes, the football teams at Shabazz and Weequahic have made astounding turnarounds, combining for a 95-48 record, seven trips to the state sectional title game and one elusive state championship.

And now, Newark’s football resurgence has reached a crescendo with Shabazz and Weequahic meeting in Saturday morning’s North Jersey, Section 2, Group 1 state championship game at Kean University after both teams steamrolled through the bracket and trounced opponents by an average of 31 points.

“It’s a testimony to my staff and a testimony to Brian’s staff to be able to build something here where people say that you can’t,” Grant said. “Both of us, that’s the biggest legacy: Building programs and building consistent winners with consistent success.”

Even more incredible, Shabazz and Weequahic both are located in Newark’s South Ward, where the schools are among New Jersey’s most historic — and bitter — rivals. In an unusual twist, the teams also faced off a week ago in their annual Thanksgiving Day matchup dubbed “The Soul Bowl,” where Weequahic prevailed, 22-8.

Newark’s football renaissance even has Mayor Ras Baraka — who will honor both coaches Thursday morning during a ceremony at City Hall — following along closely.

“It absolutely has a great impact in city pride,” Baraka said in a phone interview with NJ Advance Media. “It improves the program, gets people interested in the school, makes a lot of young people want to try out and play football, which is very beneficial because of the discipline and structure of playing on a football team. It goes a long way in the community. It unites parents, it unites whole blocks.”

Baraka, who served as principal of Newark Central High before becoming Mayor, also said having winning programs such as Shabazz and Weequahic helps infuse the student bodies with positive reinforcement.

“It gives them pride, a feeling of success, accomplishment, of being a part of an organization that’s winning, the team effort,” said Baraka, who also formerly served as a vice principal at Weequahic. “It just lifts the entire morale of the student body population and gives them a reason to want to come to school, a reason to be in the school.”

The climb to the top at Shabazz and Weequahic came quickly under Grant and Logan, respectively. Grant moved over from nearby Irvington High, where he had built the Blue Knights into a state power, seeing the potential to resurrect a once-proud Shabazz program that had fallen on hard times but had strong facilities and a beautiful stadium.

In seven seasons, Grant has led Shabazz to three state title game appearances, including a North 2, Group 1 state championship crown in 2014 – the first in school history.

Logan, meanwhile, captured one of Newark’s four overall state football titles since 1974 as head coach at West Side High in 2007, but seized the opportunity to take over his alma mater at Weequahic.

His Indians teams have been nothing short of dominant, winning nine games or more four times and making the state finals three years in a row from 2011 to 2013 but falling short each time.

Logan said the success at both schools is a product of Grant and himself “being more than just an average football coach in the suburbs.”

“It’s a 12-month a year job for us,” said Logan, who also credited his staff for his team’s success. “Football season can’t end and we go home and take a break. It doesn’t work like that with us. You have to constantly know what your players are doing, try to do the best you can to monitor them. When they know somebody’s concerned about them, they’re going to do every effort to try to do right.”

Other Newark schools also are having success in football. Barringer went 8-2 in 2015, Central finished 7-3 in 2014 and West Side was 7-3 in 2013.

East Side, however, has never made the playoffs and finished 0-10 this season.

“We play good football in Newark,” Logan said. “We have just as much talent as anybody around the state.”

The success at Shabazz and Weequahic is even impacting the youth level, where coaches say Newark kids are eager to play football again. This fall, several Pop Warner teams such as the Brick City Lions, Southeast Stallions and Central Ward Blue Devils have qualified for national and regional championship tournaments.

“A ton of kids after this week are going to want to flood to Shabazz and Weequahic just to get that opportunity that these guys are having on the big stage,” said Al Hillman, coach of the Stallions. “The kids feel like, ‘I can actually play on this field and do this.’”

Newarkers say the only downside to Saturday’s championship game is that one of the teams will lose.

The good news? With Grant and Logan leading the charge, Newark’s football future appears bright.

“It would be cool for Newark to have an opportunity to get two titles,” Grant said. “But at the end of the day, Newark’s going to have a champ no matter what this year and that’s a good thing.”

Matthew Stanmyre may be reached at mstanmyre@nullnjadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattStanmyre.

Newark East Side Boys Soccer Thrives on Diversity on Way to Historic Season

Richard Greco | Send an Email | Follow Richard on Twitter | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com | View the story online | Follow NJ.COM on Facebook

Tucked away in the outskirts of one of New Jersey’s most perilous cities for teens, a growing soccer power at Newark East Side hit its stride in 2016, beating heavily favored Seton Hall Prep for its first Essex County Tournament title since 1978.

But before East Side could even dream about hoisting the county tournament trophy, the team, which features players from six different countries, some of whom speak only their native tongue, needed to break language and cultural barriers and become united.

That process began in preseason.

Head coach Jose Periera, who speaks English and Portuguese, separated players into three working groups based on the language they spoke. Each group was led by a senior captain. Kevin Avila worked with the Spanish speaking players, Lucas Moraes with the Portuguese speaking players and Tiago Da Costa, although he is fluent in Portuguese as well, with the players that speak English.

“We all separate in our groups and we all translate,” said Avila, who moved from Ecuador when he was seven. “It’s our job to translate things that coach says like what time practice is and things like that.”

While the groups were being assigned, two of East Side’s players were absent – Walter Hernandez and Jonatas Barbosa Periera. The two strikers spent the preseason working jobs to help support their families.

Hernandez moved from Honduras to Newark in September of 2015 and was not a member of the team until this season.

After getting acclimated with living in the United States, Hernandez reached out to Coach Periera for a chance to join the team.

“Last year I was moving to a new country so I didn’t really know how to adjust or how to become part of the team and talk to the coach,” Hernandez said through a translator.

“This year I had the courage to talk to him because my cousin had a good relationship with the coach so that helped me a lot,” he added, referring to Jose Salinas, East Side’s JV goalkeeper in 2015.

Once school started, Hernandez cut down his hours working with his uncle delivering construction materials, allowing him to take on a more prominent role for East Side. But he still needed to earn his starting spot.

It didn’t take long for the senior forward to have his name penciled into the starting lineup. He recorded his first varsity goal in East Side’s season opening 1-0 win over Livingston. His first hat trick came just a few games later when the Red Raiders beat Columbia, 4-0. Hernandez never cooled off and led East Side with 20 goals in his first and only high school season.

“Walter wasn’t with us in preseason,” team captain Avila said. “I heard other players saying, ‘Walter, Walter’ a lot, but I had never met him. When he came to the first practice during the season I was like, ‘Wow this guy has a lot of talent.’ I was surprised because I wasn’t expecting him to be this good.”

Barbosa Pereira was the other player absent in preseason; he was also headed for star status. The senior was a regular on last year’s varsity squad and his desire to be part of the team, despite having to work, was as evident as ever during preseason.

In the summer, Barbosa Pereira reported for work at Pao da Vida Bakery on Oliver Street in Newark at 5:30 in the morning and got out at 2:30. That didn’t stop him from reporting to East Side’s afternoon practices at 3:30.

“It’s a very hard balance between school, work and soccer,” said Barbosa Pereira, who had nine goals and eights assists in 2016. “I go to school, I work, I practice and I train to prepare myself for the future. It’s hard. I have to work for my family. I have to help support my mother and my family.”

The long days took their toll and his coach could tell.

“I noticed that Jonatas was exhausted,” Coach Pereira said. “We had an a.m. practice that he’d miss, but he’d be at the afternoon practices. He was sluggish because he was so exhausted.”

Coach Periera understood what his players were going through because he went through similar circumstances in his life. The East Side alum moved to America from Portugal when he was 11, excelled with the Red Raiders from 1994-1998, and was the first person in his family to go to college.

“When I tell them that I was the first one in my family to go to college, they might look at me and say, ‘that could be me,’” said Coach Periera, who became head coach six years ago. “I tell them that it’s not easy, but when times get tough, to use use your family and friends to help pick you up…I want to be a difference maker for them because other people were difference makers in my life.”

The coach is not the only person looking to be a difference maker. The atmosphere at East Side encourages students to help their peers, especially ones that are new to the country. East Side’s soccer players take that attitude to heart and are willing to take struggling teammates under their wing and help them without being asked to do so.

“That’s just part of our nature,” Da Costa said. “Since we all come from different countries, we all have been taken under someone’s wing by somebody that was older than us. It’s natural behavior to do that because it’s the right thing to do.”

As new students begin to see the similarities between themselves and their peers, East Side becomes less intimidating and they begin to get involved with the school’s programs; in this case with one of the top soccer teams in the state.

“We have our 2,000 students, so it could be very intimidating coming from another country and not speaking the language,” Coach Pereira said. “Then when you start to look around and a lot of students speak your language whether that is Spanish or Portuguese – when you join the team, now you are going to realize that some of those people are your classmates. Now it’s encouraging them to get active and be part of something.”

Once these players became part of East Side’s soccer team, a magical run followed. They not only claimed the ECT championship, but added a sixth straight Newark Public Schools title to finish one of the school’s most successful seasons, despite falling to Bridgewater-Raritan in the North 2, Group 4 semifinals, with a 17-2-1 record.

While the accolades proved how good this team was on the field, overcoming the barriers they faced in 2016 showed how close it became off the field. Whether players were from Honduras, El Salvador, Portugal, Ecuador, Brazil or even tiny Cape Verde, off the West African coast, once they put on a Red Raiders jersey, they were part of a family.

“It’s fun having all these guys from different countries,” Da Costa said. “You get to learn their cultures and get to be a part of it. We’ll come home from a win and we’ll be playing Spanish music and all be dancing with the Spanish kids. Then we’ll play Brazilian music and be dancing with the Brazilian kids. It’s just fun to get along with everyone.”

No. 6 Newark East Side defeats No. 1 Seton Hall Prep for first ECT title since 1978

Richard Greco | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com | View the story online
newarkeastsidewinsecttournament

Box Score
Newark East Side 4
Seton Hall Prep 0
[Montclair, NJ] Thirty-eight years passed since Newark East Side played for an Essex County Tournament championship and the Red Raiders weren’t going to let the opportunity slip away.

Behind goals from seniors Tiago Da Costa, Kevin Avila and Walter Hernandez, and junior Maicol Jumbo Pardo, second-seeded Newark East Side, No. 6 in the NJ.com Top 20, defeated top-seeded Seton Hall Prep, the No. 1 in the state, 4-0, in the Essex County Tournament championship at Montclair State University on Sunday.

The title was East Side’s first since defeating Vailsburg in PKs 5-4 in 1978. The victory was also the first time that the Newark Public school defeated Seton Hall Prep since Jose Pereira took over the program six years ago.

“It’s been a long time coming and a lot of hard work,” Pereira said. “They believed and that’s what it comes down to. Often times kids from Newark get overlooked and they are just the same as everyone else. Their hard work and perseverance paid off in the biggest game of their young lives.”

Da Costa got the scoring started in the the 30th minute when he put a feed from junior Thiago Duarte just inside the near post to give East Side a 1-0 lead.

“It started with Tiago (Da Costa) making that run,” Pereira said. “He is not a right back he’s a midfielder, but as a captain he does what ever it takes to get there.”

East Side built on its momentum two minutes into the second half when Hernandez sent a cross past a diving Jumbo Pardo and onto the waiting head of Avila, who beat beat Seton Hall Prep keeper Liam Bertrand – four saves – to put the Red Raiders ahead 2-0.

“It’s a great thing. It’s a great experience,” Avila said. “I’ve never played in a game like this in my life. This is actually my first game that has been so intense. As being a captain, I wanted to take this title. My three years being on varsity, we made it to the semis, but we never made it this far. The boys worked so hard in practice. The boys worked so hard during the game. I told them before this game started, ‘Hey everyone give 110-percent.’ We did it and we’re champs.”

Hernandez and Jumbo Pardo provided insurance goals in the final 10 minutes. Hernandez put home a rebound following a shot from Jonatas Barbos Pereira in the 71st minute and Jumbo Pardo sent a strike inside the far post on a breakaway to increase East Side’s lead to four goals.

Eric Silva Lopes was East Side’s rock between the pipes and made eight saves to record his fifth shutout of the year.

In preseason we saw right away (how good we were),” Silva Lopes said. “We felt good, the way that we were playing. We played well. That’s all that matters.”