Author: Jon Mitzmacher

Dr. Jon Mitzmacher is the Head of the Ottawa Jewish Community School. Jon is studying to be a rabbi at the Academy for Jewish Religion and is on the faculty of the Day School Leadership Training Institute (DSLTI) as a mentor. He was most recently the VP of Innovation for Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools. He is the former Executive Director of the Schechter Day School Network. He is also the former head of the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School, a K-8 Solomon Schechter, located in Jacksonville, FL, and part of the Jacksonville Jewish Center. He was the founding head of the Solomon Schechter Day School of Las Vegas. Jon has worked in all aspects of Jewish Education from camping to congregations and everything in between.

“You know I’m going to be like him”

My father had a stroke Thursday night.

We got the phone call early Friday morning on our way up to pick up our oldest daughter, Eliana, from Camp Ramah Darom. (I blogged two weeks ago about camping and the power of experiential learning. Suffice it to say that her one-week “taste” delivered on all accounts.) By the time my mother called, he had successfully had surgery to remove the clot from his right brain and was recovering in ICU. After much conversation and thought, we decided that I should continue the trip as planned through Sunday and that instead of driving back with my family that I would fly out to Las Vegas on Monday morning.

Which I did.

When I arrived Monday to the hospital, they had just hours earlier removed the tubes for breathing and feeding. I had missed the very worst, but what I had was bad enough.

My parent’s 44th wedding anniversary is tomorrow and my father’s 71st birthday is weeks away. He will, thank God, be here to celebrate both.

First the status report. He suffered a classic “right brain – left side” stroke. This means that physically his left side is at risk for deficit and that emotionally his personality is at risk for irritability and unfiltered-ness. Luckily he was already pretty irritable and unfiltered, so I feel good about his recovery to full “Mitzmacher”.

He has made a remarkable recovery these last few days. He is eating. He is sitting up. He has begun walking. He has use of his left leg, arm, hand, etc. He can speak and he sounds more and more like himself each day. He has all his memories intact. He knows who everybody is, knows what is going on in the world, and when awake fully lucid. His vision out of his left eye is slowly coming back and, if it does not come back all the way, and that is the worst that comes out of this, a blessing it shall surely be.

I flew back on the red-eye Wednesday evening and as of this writing, he continues to make good progress, with the inevitable setbacks that come with his age and with the significance of the trauma he has suffered. I am planning my next trip out to visit and hope that their next trip to us will be Thanksgiving and that we will by then truly have a lot to be thankful for.

I am writing this blog post, in part, because life required me to share this event with enough people that I wanted to take advantage of this vehicle to provide some sort of update and to thank all the people that have (and all the people who now will) reached out to me, my Mom, and our family with their well wishes, thoughts, prayers [my father’s Hebrew name for healing prayers is Mikhael ben Esther] and offers for help. It has been overwhelming and overwhelmingly appreciated. We will inevitably forget to include someone in this thanks and hopefully this will provide us with blanket coverage.

But I am also writing this blog post because it is impossible not to be impacted by this kind of experience. Because there is nothing more clarifying than experiencing family pain. There is nothing like watching your parents’ love to remind you to cherish the love you are lucky to have. There is nothing like watching your parents’ vulnerability to encourage you to treasure your children.

To say much more will push me into cliche. I have nothing to offer by way of wisdom that others more wise have not already said. I simply pray that as a result of this unplanned and unwelcome reminder of life’s fragility that I will be a better husband, a better father, a better friend, and a better educator.

And I am grateful to still have a chance to be a better son.

Square Holes

This series aired on CBS in 1982-1983…so you may or may not recall its glorious one-year run, documenting the real life adventures of two “square pegs” entering their high school years. I was thinking about the show (and its awesome theme song by The Waitresses) as I have recently finished one of my summer reading books from our Faculty Summer Book Club:

Book Club- Square Peg In the seventh grade, Todd Rose was suspended—not for the first time—for throwing six stink bombs at the blackboard, where his art teacher stood with his back to the class. At eighteen, he was a high school dropout, stocking shelves at a department store for $4.25 an hour. Today, Rose is a faculty member at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Square Peg illuminates the struggles of millions of bright young children—and their frustrated parents and teachers—who are stuck in a one-size-fits-all school system that fails to approach the student as an individual. Rose shares his own incredible journey from troubled childhood to Harvard, seamlessly integrating cutting-edge research in neuroscience and psychology along with advances in the field of education, to ultimately provide a roadmap for parents and teachers of kids who are the casualties of America’s antiquated school system.

With a distinguished blend of humor, humility, and practical advice for nurturing children who are a poor fit in conventional schools, Square Peg is a game-changing manifesto that provides groundbreaking insight into how we can get the most out of all the students in our classrooms, and why today’s dropouts could be tomorrow’s innovators.

There is a lot to appreciate about this book. It is very easy to read. The human story is compelling. The research findings have impact. The implications for schooling are motivating. But the common thread I am finding as I interact on our faculty ning with other teachers who are reading the book, is that we are constantly thinking about who have been and who continue to be our “square pegs” and how good a job we have (or have not) done serving their needs. Do schools have a responsibility to be “square holes” for their “square pegs” and, if so, how can we truly differentiate in ways that meet all students’ needs? Is it by embracing 21st century learning – which the book clearly indicates is a likely possibility – and, if so, what does it look like on the ground?

One great feature of the book is that it is not just the story of a “square peg” who overcame the odds and went on to be a great success…it is that he has dedicated himself to the very thing that was his greatest obstacle – education (schooling).

I was not a “square peg” – at least not academically. My learning style is built for education. And I would guess that many, if not most teachers and educational administrators were good fits and, thus, good at school. We were round pegs who found round holes. We are now responsible for all shapes of pegs…

The other connecting point was bullying…that square pegs are frequent targets for bullying and that no one can learn – especially those for whom it is hardest to learn via conventional means – when preoccupied with one’s health and safety.

So…inclusive schooling, differentiation, educational technology, 21st century learning and communities of kindness…sounds like an excellent Jewish day school! Hopefully ours!

For (a whole lot) more about the neuroscience informing Dr. Rose’s work, please do check this out:

As we round the bend towards school beginning (!), I am pleased to announce that we are indeed fully staffed. I have already blogged about the structure and makeup of our lead administrative and faculty, but allow me to announce the final group:

Second Grade General Studies Assistant Teacher: Dee Ann Wulbern
Third Grade General Studies Assistant Teacher: Emma Boette
Fourth Grade General Studies Assistant Teacher: Joni Shmunes
Fifth Grade General Studies Assistant Teacher: Michelle Lewis
Jewish Studies Assistant Teacher: Shosh Orgad

Ms. Wulbern is an experienced public school teacher working her way back after having paused to raise a family. Ms. Boette has worked in our Preschool and recently graduated with her degree in education. Mrs. Shmunes has worked at the Center for years and years and was recently honored by the Center for her excellence in teaching. Ms. Lewis is a new teacher who is also new to our community. Morah Shosh was on my faculty in Las Vegas who, by happenstance, recently relocated to Jacksonville.

So…we are fully staffed and fully excited (at least I am!) to report back on August 12th for Faculty Pre-Planning (during which we may very well invite a successful former square peg to share his or her experiences and their impact with our teachers).

For now? Enjoying the present and looking forward to the future…

Why Experiential Education Matters

How is it possible that this guy…

…is old enough to be taking his soon-to-be 8 year-old daughter to her first Jewish summer camp experience on Monday?

I don’t know either.

But somehow life happened and Eliana and I are off on Monday to Atlanta, Georgia where I will hand her off to the good people at Camp Ramah Darom for her one-week “taste”.

As we have been dutifully putting her name in and on everything she owns, I have naturally grown nostalgic thinking about my own experiences. The impact of Jewish camping on me is indescribable and undeniable. It is not hyperbole to suggest that I am neither the Jewish person nor the Jewish professional am I today without having spent my formative years as a camper and staff person at a variety of Jewish summer camps and on numerous Israel experiences. There have been lots of studies documenting the tremendous power of informal Jewish education or experiential education.

Timing, as always, is everything.

As I am living through this family transition, here at the Jacksonville Jewish Center we are going through a directly related professional transition – namely welcoming Ezra Flom, our new Director of Experiential Education. As it says in the article introducing him (pg. 12),

The Center understands that meaningful, formal classroom educational experiences are essential, but recognizes that for many, it is the experiential educational moments that occur in camp and youth group settings that leave a lasting impact. With that in mind, the Center has hired Ezra Flom as its first Director of Experiential Education.

As the director, Ezra will spend his time working with the Center’s youth groups, Camp Ki Tov summer day camp, and scouting programs.

I have blogged about some of the pedagogical implications of experiential education for Jewish day school in the past. I think in many ways there are confluences between “21st century learning” and “experiential education” – the most important of which, to me, is an emphasis on authenticity. Students learn best when engaged in tasks they perceive to have real-world meaning. That can be building a real game or mitzvah trips that make the work a better place. It can take place within the walls of a school or out in the world. As an academy housed at a synagogue, we have unique opportunities to not only “learn Jewish” but “do Jewish”. We don’t just learn about Shabbat; we experience Shabbat. We don’t just learn about tikkun olam/social action; we go out and fix our community. We don’t just go to school; we go to camp and youth group.

Most importantly we encourage our student to be their authentic Jewish selves as they carry their experiences from context to context. To me that why experiential education matters. It brings with the promise of making real what, in some cases, can only be simulated or sampled within the walls of a classroom. Those are often the most important experiences of all…

And so as I am presently feeling the impending impact my daughter’s first taste of Jewish camping will have on her and on our family, and as I think back on the impact my experiential educational experiences have had on me, I look forward to working with Ezra to re-imagine the walls and boundaries within our academy so that we may provide our students and their families the full richness of what Jewish living has to offer.

When One Door Opens Another Door Opens

For those of you who are members of our local school, academy, synagogue or Jewish community and who read my blog regularly (and I thank you if you do!), you may be wondering why I have been so conspicuously silent about what has been known locally for an entire month – namely, my decision not to renew my contract when it expires in order for me to assume leadership of the Schechter Day School Network.

At the time, my desire was that the national announcement should be the place where people not living in Jacksonville should hear about it for the first time, but with that announcement still pending for another week or so and with leaks mounting on Facebook and Twitter, it no longer seems necessary to wait. Additionally, I have had a full month or so to process and reflect on this future transition and, thus, feel better able to share a little about how this decision is impacting my thinking and planning. [My focus, here, is on my current headship. I will have other opportunities and spaces to explore my thinking about Schechter, and when I do, I will be sure to link to them, but this blog is dedicated to my work here and now.]

First, let me take an opportunity to share what was sent to our stakeholders:

May 28, 2013

Dear Galinsky Academy Families and Members of the Jacksonville Jewish Center,

We are very fortunate to have Dr. Jon Mitzmacher leading our efforts toward achieving excellence in all of our Center schools. As he concludes his first year as Head of the Galinsky Academy, it is clear we are on the right track with a bright future that lies ahead.

In the spirit of transparency, Dr. Mitzmacher and the Schechter Day School Network Network (of which the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School is a member) have engaged in open and candid discussions with the Center’s leadership regarding the Schechter Network’s interest to retain Dr. Mitzmacher as their Executive Director upon the conclusion of his current contract, which would be July 1, 2015. Since this would be after Dr. Mitzmacher has fulfilled all of the obligations and duties of his current contract, it is with great appreciation that we are receiving a full two years notice of his future plans.

Dr. Mitzmacher has indicated his strong desire that he and his family remain in Jacksonville, as the Executive Director position does not require him to relocate in the immediate future. As a member of the Schechter Network, the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School will benefit greatly from having the “head of the network” living and working in our Jacksonville Jewish Community and his children attending the Galinsky Academy.

The Schechter Network has assured the Center of their strong desire to ensure a smooth transition for our Day School and the Galinsky Academy. According to Jane Taubenfeld Cohen, “The Martin J. Gottlieb Day School is a flagship school in our network. With a rich history of over 50 years, it is a shining example of what Day School education is all about. We are committed to the ongoing success and positive transition for the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School and in no way would we ever want to detract from the great strides the school has made in recent years. ”

Going forward, it is business as usual. We are very confident that Dr. Mitzmacher is extremely focused on the task at hand. He is committed to the ongoing success of the Jacksonville Jewish Center’s Galinsky Academy and the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School. We are fortunate to have him leading the way for the next two years.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Mitzmacher on being recognized as an outstanding educator and visionary in Jewish Education. It is this type of leadership that the Schechter Network desperately needs and will be of benefit to all member schools, including our own.

Regards,

Michael DuBow Alyse Nathans President VP of Education & Chair, Galinsky Academy Cabinet

One month later, I am still very grateful to Michael, Alyse, and all my other lay leaders for working with me and the Schechter Network as we prepared for, announced and now plan for a healthy and smooth transition. I continue to be inspired the by care and nurturance the Jacksonville Jewish Center provides its professional staff.

One month later, I am still very grateful to Schechter for working with me to re-imagine what leadership can look like in order to allow me to continue to live in this amazing community and send my children to this amazing school.

Typically opportunity requires you to close one door so that you may open the next. And sometimes, life is such that a door is closed for you and opportunity requires you to open the next. Rarely does one have an opportunity to reach for the next open door while the current door remains (in some ways) open! But that is the blessing the Schechter Network and the Jacksonville Jewish Center has afforded my family and we are humbled by it and grateful for it.

As I shared at our annual L’Dor V’dor event a week after the announcement was made,

Last year, I closed with one of my favorite quotes from the Mishnah: “Lo alecha ha’mlacha legmor…” – “It is not incumbent on you to finish the work, neither are you free to exempt yourself from it.” (Mishnah: Avot, 2.16). This year, those words – for me – are charged with new emotion as I prepare to transition over the next two years from my current position to my new position as head of the Schechter Day School Network, which was announced to our community this week. There is something very appropriate about this timing as it is only because of L’dor V’dor that we have been able to raise the bar at our schools and it is only because of the opportunity and support of this community that the Schechter Network took an interest in our school and in me. None of this happens for me if I had not been blessed to wind up in this nurturing and special place. My commitment to Galinsky Academy does not expire when my contract does. While I am the proud head of the of the Galinsky Academy and when I become the head of the Schechter Network, proud to call MJGDS one our flagship schools, I will remain inspired to do my part – with you – to carry this dream forward into the years ahead.

And so in addition to the typical summer planning one does as a head of school, I have begun thinking about what I need to do over the next couple of years to ensure that not only will the chapter of our school and academy’s history that I will have helped shape be as excellent as it can be, but – perhaps more importantly – that the next chapter continue and better the story. They say the most important leadership task is paving the future for what comes next…

I can assure you that I will never take a task more seriously.

Pre-Pre-Planning

So this is what our building looks like on the very first day after school lets out…

We may be missing two key ingredients – students and parents – but we still have one key ingredient…teachers!

Our 2012-2013 Faculty & Staff are spending this Friday cleaning, boxing and otherwise wrapping up their responsibilities for this terrific school year that was. But here at the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School we don’t just disappear into summer…on Monday, the 2013-2014 Faculty & Staff will report for two days of important “Pre-Pre-Planning”. We will spend two days together planting the seeds that will bloom this August into an amazing 2013-2014 school year.

Let’s take a look at what we’ll be doing:

Monday, June 17th

9:00 AM Opening Activities

9:30 AM “Pre-Flection”

11:00 AM Summer Book Club

12:00 PM Reinvigorating “Community of Kindness”

12:30 PM Team Planning/Working Lunch

2:00 PM Spiritual Check-in

3:00 PM Wrap

Tuesday, June 18th

9:00 AM The K-5 iPad Classroom & Middle School Planning & Collaboration

11:30 AM Faculty Speek-Geeking

12:30 PM Lunch

1:30 PM Accelerated Reader & Jewish Studies Faculty Meeting

3:00 PM Wrap

The goal of “Pre-Pre-Planning” is to allow faculty to best utilize their summer “vacations” [Yes, teachers do in fact work year round!] for professional growth towards our school’s learning target. It is both a time to dream and a time to plan. One item that we are bringing back from last year is the Summer Book Club. I think it is nice for parents and students to know what books we think are important enough to ask our faculty to read over the summer (they all choose at least one). When we meet together next at our August Pre-Planning, we will share with each other what we learned and how we think it will impact our practice. What will we be reading this summer?

Connected from the Start: Global Learning in the Primary Grades by Kathy Cassidy

In her new book, Connected from the Start: Global Learning in the Primary Grades, primary teacher Kathy Cassidy makes a compelling case for connecting our youngest students to the world, using the transformative power of Internet tools and technologies. Her well-balanced text presents both the rationale for connecting students “from the start” and the how-to details and examples teachers need to involve children in grades K-3 in using blogs, Twitter, Skype and other social media to become true global learners.

Dream Class: How To Transform Any Group Of Students Into The Class You’ve Always Wanted by Michael Linsin

In Dream Class, you will learn the 15 keys that make the greatest difference in the classroom and exactly how to implement those keys simply and effectively. The goal is for you to become an extraordinarily effective teacher. Written from the unique perspective that everything you do affects classroom management, Dream Class will help you create the class you’ve always wanted and enable you to become a happier, calmer, and more confident teacher.

The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything by Ken Robinson

The Element is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion. When people arrive at the Element, they feel most themselves and most inspired and achieve at their highest levels. With a wry sense of humor, Ken Robinson looks at the conditions that enable us to find ourselves in the Element and those that stifle that possibility. Drawing on the stories of a wide range of people, including Paul McCartney, Matt Groening, Richard Branson, Arianna Huffington, and Bart Conner, he shows that age and occupation are no barrier and that this is the essential strategy for transforming education, business, and communities in the twenty-first century.

A breakthrough book about talent, passion, and achievement from one of the world’s leading thinkers on creativity and self-fulfillment.

Choice Words: How Our Language Affects Children’s Learning by Peter H. Johnston

In productive classrooms, teachers don’t just teach children skills: they build emotionally and relationally healthy learning communities. Teachers create intellectual environments that produce not only technically competent students, but also caring, secure, actively literate human beings.

Choice Words shows how teachers accomplish this using their most powerful teaching tool: language. Throughout, Peter Johnston provides examples of apparently ordinary words, phrases, and uses of language that are pivotal in the orchestration of the classroom. Grounded in a study by accomplished literacy teachers, the book demonstrates how the things we say (and don’t say) have surprising consequences for what children learn and for who they become as literate people. Through language, children learn how to become strategic thinkers, not merely learning the literacy strategies. In addition, Johnston examines the complex learning that teachers produce in classrooms that is hard to name and thus is not recognized by tests, by policy-makers, by the general public, and often by teachers themselves, yet is vitally important.

Square Peg: My Story and What It Means for Raising Innovators, Visionaries, and Out-of-the-Box Thinkers by L. Todd Rose

In the seventh grade, Todd Rose was suspended—not for the first time—for throwing six stink bombs at the blackboard, where his art teacher stood with his back to the class. At eighteen, he was a high school dropout, stocking shelves at a department store for $4.25 an hour. Today, Rose is a faculty member at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Happy Start-to-Summer! Feel free to read along with us!

The Transparency Files: MJGDS 2013-2014 Faculty, Part II

It is hard to believe that we are headed into our last week of school! (At least for our students that haven’t already left for Camp Ramah Darom – a schedule quirk we have addressed for the future.) We had a beautiful graduation yesterday evening; I shared with our graduates what I believe to be true of all our students – that we are much prouder of who they are becoming than any accomplishment they have achieved.

Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown visits the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School

So now our attention turns from the wonderful year that was to the wonderful year that will be, the 2013-2014 school year.

Last week, in Part I, I identified the teachers who we are saying goodbye to and began to identify the structure and personnel that will make up next year’s faculty. This week, I want to highlight a few additional and connected decisions, and then simply lay out the entire faculty and staff with however many openings we have left to fill.

The first is connected to the decisions we announced last week. Namely, if Silvia Tolisano is headed international and Andrea Hernandez is headed into the classroom…who will constitute our 21st Century Learning Team? Here, we are pleased to announce that we have expanded the roles of three of our outstanding teachers so that they will be able to provide the coaching and resources necessary to keep us moving forward. Karin Hallet, our amazing Library & Media Specialist, will now go full time. Shana Gutterman, our amazing Art Teacher, will now go full time and brings extraordinary 21st century learning skills to our team. They join Stephanie Teitelbaum, as discussed last week, in her new expanded role as heading up our “Community of Kindness” initiative, to create a dynamic and innovative 21st century learning team prepared to pick up the baton and move us forward. And, with Andrea in our building and Silvia a mouse-click away, we will always have our original “dream team” available for support and advice.

The second is both a staffing and a programmatic change. With both Mrs. Burkhart and Mrs. Kagan retiring, we found ourselves with the opportunity to re-imagine what science education could look like at MJGDS and are pleased to announce the hiring of Mrs. Karianne Jaffa are our first-ever K-8 Science Instructor! Mrs. Jaffa is an experienced Middle School Science Teacher who, since moving to Jacksonville, has taught in St. Johns County since 2006. She will not only teach in our Middle School, but our Lower School as well, helping us deliver on the promise we made last year to expand and upgrade science education for all our students.

The third is to make two more faculty hire announcements which will finalize our entire lead teaching team for the next school year. (I am presently searching for four assistant teachers, but expect to fill them in the weeks ahead. Resumes look promising and interviews have begun). Mrs. Amy McClure will be joining the Middle School Math Team. Mrs. McClure currently teaches in our DuBow Preschool, but is an experienced Middle School Math Teacher, having taught Middle School Math here in Jacksonville for over five years. Mr. Evan Susman will be joining us as our new Music Teacher. Mrs. Jeanine Hoff, our current Music Teacher, has taken full-time work at the Jewish Federation of Jacksonville and we wish her all the best in her new venture. Mr. Susman is an accomplished musician and teacher who brings song-leading expertise to MJGDS.

With all the announcements and explanations out of the way, it is my pleasure to introduce the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School 2013-2014 Faculty & Staff:

Lower School General Studies Faculty

Kindergarten: Mrs. Arlene Yegelwel & Mrs. Carla Bernard
First Grade: Ms. Pamela Lewis & Mrs. Shannon McVearry
Second Grade: Ms. Amy Stein & (A second teacher to be hired soon!)
Third Grade: Mr. Seth Carpenter & (A second teacher to be hired soon!)
Fourth Grade/Fifth Grade Language Arts: Mrs. Andrea Hernandez & (A second teacher to be hired soon!)
Fourth Grade/Fifth Grade Mathematics & Social Studies: Mrs. Shelly Zavon & (A second teacher to be hired soon!)

Lower School Jewish Studies Faculty

Kitah Gan: Morah Edith (Ita) Horovitz
Kitah Alef: Morah Robin (Rachel) Morris & Morah Hannah Bendit
Kitah Bet: Morah Rivka Cohen
Kitah Gimmel: Morah Liat Walker
Kitah Dalet: Morah Rivka Cohen
Kitah Hay: Morah Liat Walker

Kitah Bet-Gimmel Resource Teacher: Morah Rivkah Ohayon
Kitah Dalet-Hay Resource Teacher: Morah Mazal Spalter
JS Assistant Teacher: Morah Ilana Manasse

Middle School Faculty

Science: Mrs. Karianne Jaffa
Social Studies: Mrs. Judy Reppert
Language Arts: Mrs. Stephanie Teitelbaum
Middle School Mathematics: Mrs. Lauren Resnick & Mrs. Amy McClure
Hebrew: Morah Rivka Ohayon
Rabbinics: Morah Edith (Ita) Horovitz
Bible: Rabbi Jonathan Lubliner, Rabbi Jesse Olitzky, & Hazzan Holzer

Resource Teachers

Science: Mrs. Karianne Jaffa
Music: Mr. Evan Susman
Art: Mrs. Shana Gutterman
PE: Coach Jared Goldman
Jewish Music & Tefillah: Hazzan Jesse Holzer

21st Century Learning Team

Library & Media Specialist: Mrs. Karin Hallett
Visual Literacy Specialist: Mrs. Shana Gutterman
Community of Kindness Coordinator: Mrs. Stephanie Teitelbaum
Technology Coordinator: Mrs. Kim Glasgal

MJGDS Administrative Team

Administrative Assistant: Ms. Valerie Santiago
Executive Assistant: Mrs. Robyn Waring
Admissions & Marketing Director: Mrs. Talie Zaifert
Middle School Vice-Principal: Mrs. Edith Horovitz
Head of School: Dr. Jon Mitzmacher

The Transparency Files: MJGDS 2013-2014 Faculty, Part I

It has been a VERY busy week!

We were very proud to honor Liat Walker this week at our annual PTA Teacher Appreciation Dinner with the Jacksonville Jewish Center’s Men’s Club Martin J. Gottlieb Brit Hinukh Award, “given each Spring to one Teacher in the Center schools who best represents the life commitment necessary to bring a quality learning experience to Jewish children.” It was a well-deserved honor and a fun evening.

I am very appreciative of all the kind words and warm wishes I have received about my future plans. I have been thinking and reflecting about it all week and when I am ready, I will share my thoughts and feelings here in this space.

This weekend we are celebrating our annual L’dor V’dor event – this year honoring our retiring Youth Director, Gayle Bailys with a special Shabbat morning service and a Sunday event during which she will receive the 2013 Rabbi David Gaffney Leadership in Education Award. We are looking forward to an incredible weekend!

In the spirit of transparency, because we are a small community prone to well-meaning whispers and whatnot, I decided to split my my annual “Transparency Files” blog post with next year’s faculty assignments into two parts because I do want to make transparent a few issues of import that have become final and public this week.

As you may have already heard, MJGDS will be saying goodbye to a few veteran teachers this year. We have already publicly acknowledged that Silvia Tolisano, Susan Burkhart, Deb Kuhr and Jo-Ann Kagan will be leaving at the end of this school year. We are also saying goodbye to Cathleen Toglia, Marissa Tolisano, Megan DiMarco and Sara Luettchau. Each has contributed much to our school and each will be missed.

We have filled almost all the lead positions and are working to fill the assistant positions as well. I will lay out the entire new structure and composition of the faculty once it is complete, hopefully next week. But suffice it to say, that this has presented us with an opportunity to re-imagine our entire staffing structure in order to best meet our school’s needs. And I would like to take this opportunity to share a few key changes.

Stephanie Teitelbaum will be moving to the Middle School where she will become our new Middle School Language Arts Teacher. Having successfully introduced elements of the Daily 5 in Grades 4 & 5, as well as important advances in how to integrate 21st century learning into language arts instruction, she will now stabilize and secure excellence in Language Arts instruction for our Middle School. In addition to her new teaching responsibilities, she will join our 21st century learning team, providing coaching and support to our faculty, focusing primarily on our “Community of Kindness” initiative. We are confident that this is an important long-term decision which will benefit our entire school community.

When faced with the task of replacing Mrs. Teitelbaum, we were very cognizant of the high expectations she has left us with, as well as the new expectations we have created for pioneering 1:1 iPad usage in class. This is why, after having reviewed a number of resumes and having met with select candidates, we decided that the only way we could responsibly fill the position was to transition Andrea Hernandez back to the classroom where her successful career began. We have the Daily 5 because Mrs. Hernandez brought it to our school. We have become a leader in 21st century learning because Mrs. Hernandez pioneered the path. We would not be ready to go 1:1 with iPads if not for her expertise. If we can’t have Mrs. Teitelbaum, who better to jump in than the teacher who has been coaching her?

Mrs. Hernandez, having been a highly successful classroom teacher prior to coming to MJGDS, is very excited about returning to the classroom and being able to work more directly with students and parents to implement the creative and innovative programs she has been introducing through our faculty these last years. She is also excited to partner with Mrs. Zavon in this different structure, having worked with her as a coach.

These decisions have only become clear and final this week and this is the first opportunity I have had to share them publicly. I recognize that change – even positive change – can cause anxiety and that parents may have questions. I welcome those questions. Please feel free to email, call or drop in. We want you to be as excited about these changes as we are.

And we will share the rest of our faculty news next week.

As mentioned last week, we have now tallied the winners of our first (annual?) “Journey Through the Jewish Holidays” and would like to take this space to congratulate them. We will be handing out the Adventure Landing passes next week and the Jaguars tickets next fall.

We hope this incentive program was meaningful for the families who participated and, perhaps, could inspire more families to participate in the future. We would very much like to have your feedback on this program and whether or not it inspired your family.

The following students attended 5 out of the 10 days school was closed during the Pilgrimage Festivals (Sukkot, Passover and Shavuot) and will receive a free pass to Adventure Landing:

Kitah Gan: Morgan N.
Kitah Alef: Lily D., George S., Jacob M. & Maya L.
Kitah Bet: Aleeya S. & Saylor S.
Kitah Gimmel: Samantha L. & Isa Z.
Kitah Dalet: Samantha Z. & Arin N.

The following students attended 8 out of the 10 days (including 1 day of each holiday) and will receive a free pass to Adventure Landing and 2 free Jaguars Tickets:

Kitah Gan: Zach H. & Sadie H.
Kitah Alef: Hallel S., Lucy G. & Evan W.
Kitah Bet: Eva G., May A., Moses J., Daisy H., Alon S., Ariel O., Anna F., Eliana M. & Yisrael A.
Kitah Gimmel: Lial A. & Benjamin D.
Kitah Dalet: Elad O., Zach M. & Eliana J.
Kitah Hay: Elior L., Itamar L. & Benjamin C.
Middle School: Jake G., Josh F., Lily H., Max M. & Ryan M.

Congratulations to all! (And if there are any errors, please do let us know!)

The Transparency Files Bonus Edition: Head of Academy Self-Evaluation

First a little housecleaning…

Thanks very much to EJewishPhilanthropy for publishing this week an article I wrote entitled, If We Can Do It, So Can You! One Small School’s Journey to the Center of 21st Century Learning. And thanks to everyone who commented, tweeted, liked or otherwise made mention. It is a great credit to the faculty and staff of the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School that edJEWcon was born from our pioneering work. And it is an even greater credit to our stakeholders for giving us the trust, space and resources to do it!

Our “Journey Through the Jewish Holidays” was completed on Shavuot. We are in the process of tallying the data and look forward to announcing the names of students who earned prizes for excellence in synagogue attendance as well how and when those prizes will be given out. There is no question that it had some impact – especially on Sukkot. We had increased attendance and, as a result, increased programming on these special holidays. It takes time to change culture, so we will evaluate this year and decide whether or not to continue, expand, tweak or adjust this program for next year. We would love feedback from parents as to whether or not these kinds of incentives are meaningful for you and your children.

We are not only finishing up the school year at MJGDS, but celebrating the successful close to the first year of Galinsky Academy! Here are some of the big accomplishments from Year One:

Creation of “Community of Kindness” Initiative – although there is LOTS more work to do, we did take important first steps. I will have an important update on this in the next few weeks!
Extension of 21st Century Learning to all Academy Schools.
Consolidation of LDVD Annual Campaign & hiring a Development Director.
Establishing clear and consistent Parent Communication vehicles.
Branding Initiative for the Academy and all its Schools.
Rebranding of DuBow Preschool
Better integration between Academy and the Center/between our educators and our clergy.

In the ongoing spirit of transparency, I would like to share my self-evaluation of my first year serving as “Head of Academy”:

As Head of Academy, I have the responsibility for performing evaluation of school heads each November. I also have responsibility for all Academy governance, marketing, budget and development activities. Much of my work in these areas has been led by the Three-Year Strategic Plans that govern all the standing committees and communities of the Academy: Preschool, Religious School/Makom, Day School, Budget & Finance, Development, Marketing, Committee on Trustees, and Head Support & Evaluation.

We have had tremendous success with governance. All of our committees and communities have been profiled and we have begun to address gaps as we finish the process of fleshing out all the committees and communities for the next two years. Strong chairs are in place as well strategic plans, governing principles, and a strong Committee on Trustees to manage the system.

Goal: In 2012-2013, I attended each meeting of each committee, community, Cabinet and JJC Board. While it was a necessary and worthwhile investment to get off the ground, it is not healthy (for anyone) for the big picture. I will be looking to strategically draw back next year so that I may place my time and energy in other areas of need.

We have professionalized our budget oversight and completely revised our Financial Aid process.

Goals:

Feedback from committees requires us to ensure all committee members are aware of how the budget works and are updated more frequently throughout the year.
I would like to find ways to move the financial aid process up a couple of months so that we can assess our maximal need before drafting our budget and to ensure that the process can be as compassionate and customer-friendly as possible.

We have dramatically increased annual giving through our L’Dor V’Dor Annual Campaign for Galinsky Academy.

Goals:

With a new Development Director we have an opportunity to better steward donors, maximize the Head of Academy’s role in development, motivate volunteers, etc., and create new benchmarks for annual giving.
Explore all aspects of development beyond annual giving, including endowments, capital giving, naming opportunities and planned giving.
Work to pool Admissions and Development to maximize strengths and opportunities – move towards an “Advancement” model.

We have spent 2012-2013 on a Branding Initiative for the Academy. We have created all new collateral, a new brochure, and an MJGDS curriculum guide and are finishing up on new websites. We developed a new social media strategy and employed parent ambassadors. Besides what has already been stated about admissions, one goal for next year is to ensure our new marketing plan comes to life.

The most significant challenge of this new position is assuming responsibility for the supervision of the heads of the other schools that make up the academy, one goal for next year is to create an assessment tool that measures the impact of leadership on the schools including how to factor in all the variables that determine whether a school is “successful” – especially when the normal variables don’t apply.

Overall, I believe it has been a very successful first year with a whole new paradigm. There is a lot of work to do and a long road ahead. Our strategic plan provides a roadmap. I look forward to coaching and mentoring from the Head Support & Evaluation Committee, and to working with all our lay leaders, senior leadership of the Center, my fellow school heads, colleagues and the entire faculty and staff of Galinsky Academy to help get us there.

The Transparency Files: Standardized Testing

This is our third year of publishing the “Grade Equivalent Scores” for the Iowa Test of Basic Skills or ITBS – the standardized test we take annually at the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School. We did not have comparison data the first year we published results. I also blogged that year about our overall philosophy regarding the proper context for standardized testing. Last year we able for the first time to graph out comparison data and provided an analysis of our findings.

There was, and continues to be, some confusion about the proper understanding of what a “grade equivalent score” is and, more importantly, is not. I am happy to refer you to a thorough explanation, but if you want the quick summary:

Grade-equivalent scores attempt to show at what grade level and month your child is functioning. However, grade-equivalent scores are not able to show this. Let me use an example to illustrate this. In reading comprehension, your son scored a 7.3 grade equivalent. The seven represents the grade level while the 3 represents the month. 7.3 would represent the seventh grade, third month, which is December. The reason it is the third month is because September is zero, October is one, etc. It is not true though that your son is functioning at the seventh grade level since he was never tested on seventh grade material. He was only tested on fifth grade material. That’s why the grade-equivalent scores should not be used to decide at what grade level a students is functioning.

This year, I blogged about our firm belief that “reflection leads to achievement”. In that post, I attempt to peg our pioneering work in 21st century learning to academic success. All the blogging, reflecting, technology, project-based learning, flipped classrooms, etc., we not only do because we believe it leads to the best outcomes…we do it because it does lead to the best outcomes.

We do not believe that standardized test scores represent the only, nor surely the best, evidence for academic success. Our goal continues to be providing each student with a “floor, but no ceiling” representing each student’s maximum success. Our best outcome is still producing students who become lifelong learners.

But I also don’t want to undersell the objective evidence that shows that the work we are doing here does in fact lead to tangible success!

Our graduates the last three years have successfully placed into the high school programs of their choice. Each one had a different ceiling – they are all different – but working with them, their families and their teachers, we successfully transitioned them all to the schools and programs they qualified for.

And for three years running, despite all the qualifications and caveats, our ITBS scores continue to demonstrate excellence. Excellence within the grades and between them. And let’s be clear, this academic excellence comes with an inclusive admissions process.

That’s the headline…let’s look more closely at the story.

First up is “Language”.

Remember…in order to track a class you have to compare 2012 to 2013. For example, in 2012, the Language Grade Equivalent of Average for Grade Two was 3.4. In 2013, those kids are now in Grade Three and scored 4.9. That class “grew” 1.5 from last year to this. (Also, the scale stops at 13…it is the highest score available.)

The positive, of course, is that each grade is functioning at an extremely high level! There are dips up and down, but when both the averages and the diversity level is high, it hard to find much to point to. One data point to explore is that although most classes grew at least one grade equivalency, Grades One and Two did not. They still have high averages, but this is worth looking at further. This is also the benefit of not teaching to the test…it can sometimes uncover gaps in curriculum or teaching.

Let’s move onto “Reading”.

Here the news is all positive! Each class grew at least one grade equivalency (technically Grade One grew .9) and all are functioning at very high levels. One possible influence that we will be looking to track is the growing impact of the Daily Five, which we began piloting in Grades 4 & 5, but also had influence on other grades.

Let’s take a look at “Math”.

Again, the overwhelming news is positive. This marks the second year we are using Singapore Math, the first year for a few of our teachers, and the first year of departmentalization in Grades Four & Five. The only trend worth noting is the relatively flat growth in the youngest grades. The grade averages, even in those grades, are appropriately high and the class averages still show growth. It is the rate of growth we will need to explore. It could be that our students are covering more than the curriculum in Kindergarten – where the curriculum is the most sparse – and it takes until Grades Two or Three before the curriculum jumps. [NOTE: It takes a lot of courage for teachers to work under this level of transparency.] We have noted in the past that the curriculum tends to start out slow and build…and if that is the case, we may need to think about how to supplement in Kindergarten and Grade One.

To sum up, despite our focus on individual growth, our average growth continues to significantly outpace national percentiles and grade equivalency scores. Does “reflection lead to achievement” at MJGDS? Does being a 21st century learning pioneer translate into high academic success?

Three years in a row may not be conclusive, but it carries weight.

As with last year, all receiving teachers will have prior years’ data and be charged with making the next year even better. They have been up to the task these last three years and we look forward to more learning, more growth and more excellence in the year to come.

The Transparency Files: Annual Parent Survey

After making transparent the results of my own evaluation by both myself and my faculty, it is time to turn to our other annual survey: the Annual Parent Survey. [For comparison sake, you are welcome to explore last year’s reflection.]

I will try to highlight any trends I see over the years as well as indicate anything of import in this year’s survey.

The first trend is that each year far fewer parents (22 vs. 39 vs. 64) filled out surveys!

Possible explanations?

Families could be thrilled with what’s going on. Families could be resigned that the results are not taken seriously enough to invest the time in. There could be a certain amount of apathy. Or perhaps we are not marketing the surveys enough.

Regardless, the lower the rate, the possibility of strong validity is reduced. But in the spirit of hoping to learn from whatever there is to learn…let’s move on to the results.

This is more even than last year, but still skewed a bit towards the younger grades, as expected in school surveys. Let’s look at the BIG PICTURE:

The score is still promising. On a scale of 1-10, our average score wound up being an 8.0 Last year we scored an 8.3. The year prior we scored 7.7. It is a fairly stable score – especially considering the sample – but still leaves us some room to grow. Let’s dig deeper.

When it comes to communication, we continue to have high marks. Each one has gone up (except the first, which is virtually the same)! The biggest jumps come in providing opportunities for parents to be involved in student learning (which was the lowest one the prior year). Hopefully this indicates growth on our part from what we learned. Another big jump was in parent-teacher conferences, which I would like to attribute to our piloting Student-Led Conferences. I am pleased that the biggest jump came in front office attitude, and I have shared that pleasure with those people. The place to keep working appears to be ongoing communication about children’s academic status, which could be a concern about our current system in the Middle School or lack of a system in the Lower School.

I know it is a little crowded, so let me break down some of the highlights.

Let me unpack the non-subject specific areas first:

Most important increase! The education offered at our school is high quality: 8.4 vs. 8.28 (last year) vs. 7.72 (the year before last year)
EVERY category in this section is up – most importantly questions that deal with “teaching in different styles”, “teaching to different levels” and “satisfied…(with) individual attention”. All these categories blend with “21st century learning”.

General Studies:

The big picture is great! The OVERALL rating has gone to 8.3 from last year’s 7.97 from the prior year’s 7.19. That is a trend in the right direction.
Based on that it makes sense that all General Studies scores are up from last year, with one exception. The impact of Singapore Math continues to positively impact as does, we hope, the influence of the Daily Five on Language Arts.
But there is still room to grow. Science took a drop – and that is despite dedicating time and an instructor in the Lower School for the first time. It is impossible to know because of how the survey is done whether or not to attribute the drop to dissatisfaction in Grades K-2 (where there is time, but no teacher), Grades 3-5 (where there is time and a new position), or Middle School (which is the same). Regardless, this is something very important for us to explore. There is no “21st century learning” without high-quality Science instruction.

Jewish Studies, Resources and Extracurricular Activities:

The marks in these areas are, again, all slightly down from last year. Not dramatically so, but still noticeable. With renewed emphasis on language immersion, we really do believe our program is stronger, but for whatever reason it has not translated to parent satisfaction (at least from the sample). It is possible that we have set a higher bar and the distance from it is now more noticeable. We have pledged to post more video of our students engaged in authentic Hebrew speech and this will hopefully contribute to higher marks in the years to come.
Our weakest area has consistently been “After School Activities”. It is hard to know if this is a referendum on the quality of what we do offer or on the quantity of what we do not offer. We have added more club sports and a Chess Club on top of an Enhanced Kindergarten Program and partnership with the JCA. We might wish to do some parent surveys to unpack this one more fully.

So there you have it for 2012-2013!

Thanks to all the parents who took the time and care to fill out surveys. In addition to the multiple choice questions, there were opportunities for open-ended responses. They added an additional layer of depth; one which is difficult to summarize for a post like this. But please know that all comments will be shared with those they concern as we use this data to make enhancements and improvements headed into next year. By the by, we are very pleased with how well satisfied our parents are with how the school is going…but be assured, just like with everything else, we expect to see growth and progress in a school where there is “a floor, but no ceiling”.