The North Bellmore School District welcomes Dr. Lynn Coyle as the new principal of Park Avenue Elementary School. She brings 25 years of experience as an elementary teacher and administrator.

Most recently, Dr. Coyle was the associate principal of John Quincy Adams Primary School in Deer Park, which serves students in pre-K through second grade. After beginning her career in New York City, she was an elementary teacher for 19 years at Sherwood Elementary School in Islip. In 22 years in the classroom, she taught every grade from first through fifth.

A staunch believer in student voice and choice, Dr. Coyle created a leadership club during her time as a teacher in Islip, then launched a second grade student council in Deer Park, a club that focused on community service. She is also an advocate for social and emotional learning, noting that children need to be well supported so they can thrive and succeed academically.

As the school’s academic leader, Dr. Coyle wants to hit the ground running as she is already familiar with many of the programs that North Bellmore uses, particularly for literacy.

Dr. Coyle holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Dowling College, a master’s degree in special education from LIU Post and a doctorate in administration and leadership from St. John’s University. She now inspires the next generation of teachers as an adjunct professor at LIU Post in the graduate education program.

In joining the leadership team in North Bellmore, Dr. Coyle said she has received a warm welcome and is looking forward to meeting her students in September. One of her top priorities will be developing strong connections with children and their families, and her teachers and staff.

“Relationships are the foundation for everything, and North Bellmore embraces that,” she said. “I’m eager to bring my experience, dedication and vision to this position, and create a nurturing and challenging school environment. I want to make a positive, lasting impact on the Park Avenue School community.”

Date Added: 7/11/2024

As the small, spherical robots moved across desks, third graders watched with delight at Martin Avenue Elementary School in the North Bellmore School District. Their work with Ozobots in June was their culminating computer science lesson for the year.

The amazement came from their success at programming the Ozobots to perform different actions. Working with computer science teacher Michael Bevilacqua, children learned how the small robots are designed to follow a line, then react to color-coded sequences.

For the first activity, students had to fill in gaps in the line with combinations of red, green, blue and black squares that would direct the Ozobot to pause, spin and turn, among other movements. Children used a chart to find the correct color pattern. Mr. Bevilacqua taught them the difference between symmetrical and asymmetrical code, meaning that if a pattern wasn't the same backwards and forwards, students had to do it in the correct order based on which way the Ozobot was coming from.

After getting down the basics of Ozobot coding, they then got to make the programming decisions. In a game of bowling, six small pins were set up on a page, and students had to decide what color patterns to use so the robot would knock them all down.

Click here to view the A Coding Success at Martin Avenue slideshow.

Date Added: 7/5/2024

To close out their elementary careers, sixth graders in Alexis DeCapua’s class at Saw Mill Road Elementary School honed their research and presentation skills by creating passion projects.

Students could work independently or in a group to teach their classmates about a subject of personal interest. Topics included art, chess, Fortnite, the history of music, soccer and more. Each interactive presentation was created using Nearpod, which allowed students to view it either on the classroom’s electronic display board or their own iPads, where they could contribute their thoughts on a discussion board.

Ms. DeCapua said that students combined their own background knowledge on a topic along with additional research to create their presentations. Each group also used Canva to make a teaser poster for their slideshow.

Date Added: 7/1/2024