What a difference a year makes!

Cooke School and Institute Topping Off event

A year ago, Cooke School broke ground on the construction of a new, state-of-the-art school. Since that day, our dream of building a new, permanent home for our students is coming true. On March 14, 2019, exactly one year after we broke ground, we gathered to celebrate by hosting a Topping Off ceremony. With the final exterior beam in place, we’ll move on to construct the interior of the building. It’s an exciting time for Cooke!
To view a photo album from the Topping Off Celebration, click here.

Cooke’s Institute:
Delivering More Professional Development
than Ever Before!

Cooke Institute Director, Aliza Kushner at the 46th Annual Conference on Dyslexia and Related Learning Disabilities hosted by Everyone Reading.

Cooke Institute (CI) started the year as it always does, with a focus on our important mission to disseminate Cooke’s knowledge of best practices to address the diverse needs of students across New York City. We hit the ground running with a great representation at local and national venues.

Cooke Institute has an ongoing Special Education initiative in collaboration with the Archdiocese of New York. Through the initiative, Cooke provides on-site consultation and professional development workshops. CI consultants, Fran Dreyfus and Rebecca Bravo, presented workshops and some 10 trainings, including “Supporting the Struggling Writer” and “Using Technology to Support Students with Learning Differences,” led in collaboration with Cooke School’s Director of Educational Technology, Jessie Gardner.

Six faculty members from Cooke Academy presented “Literacy Lenses: Strengthening Literacy Instruction and Curricula for Students with Special Needs.” The star studded line-up of presenters included Cooke School’s Mary Clancy, Jessie Gardner, Cassandra Manzo, Stephanie Mesbah, Alyssa SooHoo and Beth Sullivan. This workshop was in conjunction with the New York State Association of Independent Schools.

Finally, Beth Carr, a CI consultant, presented a workshop, “Accessing Complex Texts” at the 46th Annual Conference on Dyslexia and Related Learning Disabilities hosted by Everyone Reading. Cooke Institute was represented among the conference venders, reaching hundreds of educators, advocates and parents over two days.

Stay tuned—there are more workshops in the works! Learn more about Cooke Institute, click here.

A Magical Musical

Join Cooke Academy for our very own musical rendition of Aladdin. All are welcome! Will Aladdin’s wish of marrying Princess Jasmine come true? Will the evil Jafar’s wish to be Sultan come true? Will the magical genie ever be free? Find out when you join Aladdin as he journeys through Agrabah with Abu his monkey, a magic carpet and many other colorful characters in Cooke’s production of Aladdin.

Showtimes: Sunday, April 7 at 4:00 PM and Tuesday, April 9 at 6:30 PM at St. Anthony’s Church, NYC. RSVP here.

Please Join Us!

By now, you’ve likely received your Food for Thought 2019 gala invitation or digital e-vite. This year’s event will shine a spotlight on our SKILLs students and alumni. We will unveil exciting new plans to expand services for these amazing young adults. You won’t want to miss our heartfelt tribute to Cooke’s president, Dr. Michael Termini, for his amazing contribution to Cooke!