Our Blog
Fostering Independence
It’s a familiar situation for all of us: A child walks up to us with an unzipped jacket and asks for help getting it closed. Our response to this question is vitally important. Do we save the time and the energy and zip their jacket for them, or do we insist that the child do it themselves?
A History of Reimbursement: Accessing an EPIC Education
At EPIC, we are committed to empowering families to advocate for the needs of their children and seek reimbursement from the Department of Education for the full cost of our tuition. The origins of this reimbursement process date back to the 1960s, when frustrated parents formed advocacy groups to fight for the right to public education for their children with special needs.
Staying Calm: A Therapeutic Approach to Crisis De-Escalation
Parent University is a monthly Zoom series during which we empower families with relevant, research-proven best practices for supporting their children at home and beyond. On February 23rd, Head of School and Lead Teacher Katerina Watson facilitated EPIC’s 6th Parent University of the Year, which focused on the topic of Crisis Management and Therapeutic De-escalation.
Getting Ready for Fall 2020
This summer has been like nothing we’ve ever experienced, and I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling overwhelmed by the many uncertainties and unknowns looming ahead of us this fall. The anxiety that has been building throughout the ever-evolving pandemic is oftentimes crushing. So, during this time of so many restrictions and cannots, I wanted to take a moment to share some of the things you can do to prepare your child for the fall semester regardless of the learning model they’ll be adopting […]
Co-Regulation and Connection
I recently attended the Trauma Research Foundation’s Annual Trauma Conference, a three-day event jam-packed with research, workshops, and small group discussions, hosted virtually in response to the current COVID-19 crisis. This colloquium created space for people around the world to share their personal and professional experiences with trauma-work. One theme consistently discussed across a wide range of disciplines was the degree to which trauma affects a person’s neuroception, our subconscious system for detecting danger […]
Introducing the “I Lived It” Series
This year, as one portion of our newly-developing social studies curriculum, we’re doing something extra special for our students and our community. We are finding individuals who have lived through and experienced firsthand some of our most impactful moments in history and asking them to share their stories with us. Some of the events we’re covering are well-known history class staples, while others have been overshadowed by revisionism and whitewashing. We want to empower our students with opportunities to hear about their history from a variety of perspectives in order to approach the world with more empathy and information than any generation that has come before them [..]
How to Have a Safe, Healthy Summer in NYC
Summer is here! Usually this would mean that it’s time to go to our favorite amusement parks, crowded boardwalks, or vacation homes with extended family and friends. As we all know, this summer looks very different from those of the past. We probably shouldn’t be renting Citi Bikes or public paddle boats. We probably shouldn’t be heading to theaters and public pools. We probably shouldn’t take the subway to Coney Island or Rockaway Beach […]
Remote Relationships
As I write this, we’ve just wrapped up our remote learning journey. Over the past several months, the ways we learn, teach, and think have been flipped upside down. Students are experiencing brand new methods of learning as educators experiment with and incorporate new tools into their lessons. While fighting the distance, it quickly became clear that now was the time we needed to stay as connected and in-tune with one another as possible […]
Pride and You(th)
Pride Month 2020 is coming to a close, and there is, as always, much to celebrate. There is also much to mourn, including the lives of Riah Milton and Dominique “Rem’mie” Fells, two Black transgender women murdered on June 9. Riah Milton was a 25-year-old home health aide who studied at the University of Cincinnati. Dominique “Rem’mie” Fells was a 27-year-old dancer and artist who had dreams of returning to school to study fashion […]
Happy Juneteenth!
Happy Juneteenth! The history books glorify Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation for freeing the slaves, but in reality, this only applied to slaves who were on plantations close to Union borders. These slaves escaped their plantations and were...
The Educational Benefits of Roleplaying Games
As we head into the summer months, I wanted to take the time to share the benefits of roleplaying games as a fantastically fun and accessible way to continue your student’s social-emotional learning during the break!
Games are a phenomenal teaching tool in general, but roleplaying games offer a particularly customizable and rewarding experience for kids and adults alike […]
Teaching Students to Think Critically About Bias
Culturally responsive teaching is at the heart of our mission to be inclusive at EPIC Academy. And while we take many steps to implicitly create a sense of belonging within our walls (such as carefully constructing lesson materials to include a variety of perspectives and representation, teaching about a diverse array of historical figures, etc), we also understand the importance of teaching students to explicitly recognize bias from a young age […]