21st Century Learning – Page 11 – A Floor, But Not a Ceiling

MJGDS Got Game II – “Whack-a-Haman” – Now Please Get It Too!

[Quick note about last week’s post covering edJEWcon LA: The decision to take edJEWcon on the road this year as regional mini-conferences was jointly made between the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School and the Schechter Day School Network out of recognition that the dual national Jewish day school conference schedule made it impossible to hold a third-annual full edJEWcon here in Jacksonville. In order to keep the brand and the learning alive – and out of responses from across the nation – we decided to take the show on the road. By continuing to provide the highest quality 21st century professional development to Jewish day schools throughout North America, we have simply widened the scope of what edJEWcon might be in the future. There may be a full edJEWcon in Jacksonville in 2015 as well as other regional mini-edJEWcon’s. But what last week demonstrated and what April 1st will demonstrate at edJEWcon FLA, is that the desire for what edJEWcon has to offer the field remains intact and the need for edJEWcon to grow and thrive remains significant. We’ll keep you posted on the future of edJEWcon and if it winds up coming to a neighborhood near you soon!]

In December of 2012, I blogged about an amazing new project we were launching at our school:

We are pleased to announce that Jewish Interactive will be embarking on a joint project with the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School of Jacksonville, Florida, where students will be designing from the ground up an educational Purim video game. Jewish Interactive will actually build the software, to be released in advance of next Purim for use in their current network to more than 50 elementary schools around the world.

In this jointly planned and executed cross-curricular project, MJGDS students will first learn about the software development cycle and form project teams, each receiving a specific role, e.g.:

 Project manager

 Content expert

 Instructional designer

 Gaming expert

 Graphic artist

 Programmer

 Animator

 Sound effects

Students will research and gather the Jewish content to be included in their game, develop a curriculum and learning objectives, script an instructional game design, and develop characters and graphics. Every step of the process will be supported and guided by the team and educators at MJGDS and the Jewish Interactive team.

The MJGDS team has been a leader of innovation and entrepreneurship in the field, and a strong voice of change and advancement, most noticeably through their edJEWcon initiative, a conference for Jewish schools and institutions on 21st century teaching and learning, and the cross-curricular use of technology in their own school, sharing Jewish Interactive’s vision.

Jewish Interactive is thrilled to embark on this joint initiative with MJGDS and to pioneer the involvement of students at the very core of the learning experience.

And it is with great pride that just over a year later, we can share the following post from the Jewish Interactive website:

Whack-a-Haman is an international collaboration between Jewish Interactive (based in South Africa, UK and Israel) and Martin J Gottlieb Jewish Day School (Jacksonville, Florida).

The students designed the game and its assets under the guidance of Jewish Interactive and their teacher. Jewish Interactive produced the game.

Download and play this game on your computer now.

MJGDS Team

MJGDS teacher/director: Mrs. Gutterman
Project Manager: Casey B.
Quality Control: Sarah C.
Art Director: Sarah S.
Art Team: Talya P. and Lily H.
Audio Engineer: Sydney T.
Photographer: Noah R.

A special thanks to sixth grade for coming up with the questions:

Benjamin C., Elior L., Gil S., Itamar L., Jamie B., Jolie W., Rebecca B., Zachary S. and Zoe M.

Follow the MJGDS blog describing their progress here.

JI Team

With thanks to the JI team for mentoring and believing in the talent of young adults and for their individual roles:

Instructional designer and production management: Corinne Ossendryver
Programmer and game mechanics: David Komer
Graphics: Rachel Silke
Curriculum development: Chana Kanzen
Content approval: Rabbi Johnny Solomon
JI Director: Nicole Newfield

Jewish Interactive presented Skype lessons to the middle school students on:

Purim
Lesson plans and education
Instructional design of games
Audio
Graphic design
Basic programming
Marketing and budgeting

Thank you to all the students who submitted game ideas and we look forward to collaborating and producing them in the future.

Thank you to Jon Mitzmacher and Andrea Hernandez, Corinne Ossendryver, Chana Kanzen and Nicole Newfield for initiating this project and to Shana Gutterman for making it happen.

Or to see how our students’ wrote about it:

I cannot be more proud of the results! And I am pleased that Shana Gutterman has been asked to present alongside Jewish Interactive at next week’s iJED conference in New York to share with the field the amazing work she and the students have done.

I cannot think of a project that brings together everything we have been learning, talking and trying to do here at MJGDS these last four years than this amazing project. I hope you download the game. I hope you go onto to the students’ blogfolios and let them know how incredible their project was.

This is this thing called “21st century learning” in full flower. This is the future of Jewish education. And this is just the beginning…

UPDATE: This just came from the good folk at Jewish Interactive…

Dear Team

Mazeltov on the release of the first Jewish Game made by kids, for kids. This is truly a ground breaking project. It is very rare that a collaboration is so seamless, so mutually productive and enjoyable. Well done to everyone who worked on it to make it happen. I am proud to be part of a dynamic team that believes so strongly in the power of our children, who hears what they need and helps facilitate their process of learning. Often people talk about doing projects but they often don’t happen – even for legitimate reasons.

Everyone on this team has given of their personal time to make this a success. I appreciate all the intellect, guidance, out-the -box thinking and for being ‘YES’ people who find ways to do things. I pray that our learning will help empower many other teachers and young students to have such a positive learning experience and that the App ‘Whack-A – Haman” inspires many schools , families and kids.

Shana and Corinne and David and Rochi – you were the real push to actually make it happen. Jon thank you for making it happen . To the following kids:

Project Manager: Casey B.
Quality Control: Sarah C.
Art Director: Sarah S.
Art Team: Talya P. and Lily H.
Audio Engineer: Sydney T.
Photographer: Noah R.

Benjamin C., Elior L., Gil S., Itamar L., Jamie B., Jolie W., Rebecca B., Zachary S. and Zoe M.

Message to Kids : Thank you for being part our time. We have been honoured to work with you as colleagues. You guys have talent and we will watch you as you grow and develop over the years . We believe in you and know you all going to do big things in this world to make it a good place for us all. We look forward to more projects with the whole school.

Shalom and thank you from Jerusalem,

Nicky

•••

Nicky Newfield
Director, Jewish Interactive

Mobile +27 82 307 4691
Email [email protected]

edJEWcon LA

[View the story “edJEWcon LA” on Storify]

DIY Mah Tovu Spaces

One of my joys as head of school (for real!) is that I teach a weekly Tefillah class to Seventh Grade. Because as everyone knows, there is nothing that seventh graders enjoy more first thing in the morning than an opportunity to learn and explore prayer with their principal!

This is the second year I have taught this class (I also teach Tefillah to Grade One twice a week and have a weekly seminar with Grade Eight), and I have tried to make sure that my pedagogy is in line with our learning target despite my limited exposure (and planning time). I don’t always succeed, but I think it is important to talk the talk and not leave it up to the rest of the faculty to walk the walk.

A couple of weeks ago, after completing a unit, I thought it would be interesting for our students to design their own prayer spaces. We had been studying “Mah Tovu” – a prayer which comes early in the morning service (traditionally on the way into synagogue) – and discussing the blessing of having synagogues and sanctuaries and places in which we are encouraged to connect with our spiritual selves. I was curious to see what environment our students felt encourages spirituality and so, without time to prep, they were given one brief period to design their own personal “Mah Tovu” space using whatever medium they liked and to email it to me by the end of the period.

Almost each student chose Pixie as their medium and you can see for yourself what some of them designed:

Do you see any common themes?

Do you see anything that surprises you?

How would you design your own prayer space?

I look forward to more integration between 21st century learning and Tefillah and welcome suggestions from those of you who are doing this work in your schools and synagogues. I am going to spend some time thinking about what my Mah Tovu space would look like and when I’ve designed it, I’ll update this blog post.

The Transparency Files: Homework Wars II – The Homework Strikes Back

In late November, I blogged about what was then a pending conversation our faculty was going to have in order to revisit and realign our school’s homework philosophy with our learning target. In that post, I suggested some likely ideas that I imagined would make their way in based on all the work we have done these last few years making our beliefs about teaching and learning more explicit.

We introduced the project at the December Faculty Meeting in a really interesting way. One member of our 21st Century Learning Team, randomly went onto class blogs and picked homework assignments that were then presented to the faculty to open the meeting. The question was then asked: “How long do you think this assignment ought to take the ‘typical’ students in this grade?”

The results were clarifying to say the least. Just about each assignment – regardless of grade level or subject – was estimated to take anywhere between 5-40 minutes!

So if our own teachers couldn’t agree about how long an assignment ought to take our students to complete, imagine how our parents and students feel!

This was a great introduction into a conversation about revising and articulating our school’s homework philosophy. Unlike other decisions in our school, I made it clear to faculty that although they would have input, the ultimate decision would be mine. [In our school we peg decisions on a hierarchy of decision-making. Some decisions they make with my input. Some decisions I make with their input. Some decisions require consensus. Some decisions are made democratically. And so on. I find it helpful to make this transparent to teachers so expectations are clear and there are no unnecessarily hurt feelings.] They were given the month to provide me with feedback to a draft similar to that which was in my blog on this issue. I was then to report back at our January Faculty Meeting what the new “MJGDS Homework Philosophy & Guidelines” were to be.

And so I did.

The following was disseminated to our faculty last week…

MJGDS Homework Philosophy & Guidelines

I. Introduction

II. Philosophy

III. General Homework Principles

IV. Homework Guidelines in Elementary Grades

V. Homework Guidelines in Middle School Grades

VI. Characteristics of Effective Homework Practice

VII. Parent, Student, Teacher, and Administration responsibilities

VIII. Implementation Strategy [To Be Created]

I. Introduction

The purpose of the MJGDS Homework Policy is to provide guidelines for teachers, provide for consistency through the grades, and to educate parents who have questions about homework. A school policy regarding homework, along with clear expectations for teachers as to what constitutes good homework, can help to strengthen the benefits of homework for student learning.

This policy addresses the purposes of homework, amount and frequency, and the responsibilities of teachers, students, parents, and administrators.

The MJGDS Homework Policy is based on research regarding the correlation between homework and student achievement as well as best practices for homework.

II. Philosophy

The philosophy at the Martin J Gottlieb Day School regarding K-8 homework is that homework should only be assigned that is meaningful, purposeful, and appropriate. Most learning will take place during the school day (accept when utilizing an explicitly “flipped pedagogy”. Homework will serve to deepen student learning and enhance understanding. Homework should be consistent with the schools “Learning Target” and strive to incorporate creativity, critical thinking, authenticity, and student ownership.

Legitimate academic purposes for homework include:

practicing a skill or process that students can do independently but not fluently,
elaborating on information that has been addressed in class to deepen students’ knowledge,
enabling students to finish classwork that they were unable to complete in class, and
providing opportunities for students to explore topics of their own interest.

Non-academic purposes for homework, particularly in K-3, include:

developing better study habits and skills,
developing independent problem-solving skills and better time organization, and
greater parental appreciation of, and involvement in, schooling.

We understand today’s busy schedules and demands on parent and student time. Most learning is done in school, but like learning a foreign language or learning to read, reasonable and age-appropriate practice and repetition is exceptionally beneficial in certain subject areas. We also recognize that in a 21^st century learning institution the barriers between bounded times and spaces for learning are ever-shifting and, so, we remain flexible to new ways to provide our students with authentic opportunities to learn and to explore.
III. General Homework Guidelines for all Grade Levels

Homework is never to be used to teach a new skill (with the exception of explicitly “flipped pedagogy”).
Teachers are not required to assign homework.
Homework should not exceed more than 10 minutes per grade level per night for the average student (not including reading).
Homework should be purposeful and meaningful to students. Legitimate purposes for homework include practicing a skill or process that students can do independently but not fluently, elaborating on information that has been addressed in class to deepen students’ knowledge, and providing opportunities for students to explore topics of their own interest.
Reading is an integral part of learning and is a consistent part of homework.
Practicing second-language skills is consistent part of homework in a bilingual school.
Homework will reflect the accommodations and modifications of curriculum that is stated in a student’s modified program.
Assigning homework over holidays is highly discouraged.

IV. Homework Guidelines in Elementary Grades (K-5)

In elementary grades, with the exception of reading and being read to, there is little proven correlation between homework and achievement.

In the primary grades (K-3), homework should consist primarily of reading plus a limited number of independent exercises to reinforce previously taught basic skills.
Except for reading, homework at the elementary level should not be assigned over weekends, holidays, or extended school breaks.
At the upper grades (4-5), homework consists of completing, practicing, preparing, or extending core academic skills and is designed to build independent study habits.
Long-term assignments should be limited in number and duration. Project based assignments should primarily be undertaken and completed in the classroom. These tasks should not require significant assistance from parents or costly materials. These assignments should include clear checkpoints to monitor progress toward completion.

V. Homework Guidelines in Middle School Grades (6-8)

Homework should be assigned during the school week on a regular basis.
Teachers should coordinate scheduling of tests and projects.
Long-term assignments at the middle grades should be limited in number and duration. These assignments should include clear checkpoints to monitor progress toward completion. All deadlines must be posted on the class blog.
When assigning group projects, teachers should allow in-class collaboration time with specific tasks to be completed independently; however, these tasks should not require significant assistance from parents or costly materials.
Except for reading, homework at the middle school level should not be assigned over weekends, holidays, or extended school breaks.
Bear in mind that middle school students preparing for their b’nei mitzvot are spending 10 minutes per night during the year leading up to their b’nei mitzvot and more than that in the month prior.

VI. Characteristics of Effective Homework
This section addresses practices to help increase the benefits of homework while minimizing potential problems. Homework is more effective when…

the purpose of the homework assignment is clear. Students should leave the classroom with a clear understanding of what they are being asked to do and how to do it.
it does not discourage and frustrate students. Students should be familiar with the concepts and material (unless it is taught in an explicitly “flipped” pedagogy, i.e. Math).
it is on a consistent schedule. It can help busy students and parents remember to do assignments when they are consistent. (Of course, it must be necessary and not just because “it’s Wednesday”.)
it is explicitly related to the class-work.
it is engaging and creative.
part of the homework is done in class.
it is authentic.
feedback is given. Follow-up is necessary to address any comprehension issues that may arise.
it is differentiated.
it reviews past concepts to help retention over the course of the year.

VII. Responsibilities

Students are responsible for:

ensuring understanding of the homework and asking for clarification or help when needed
regularly completing assigned homework in a timely manner
managing time by staying focused, on task, and planning effectively for long term projects
bringing home all necessary materials
putting forth their best effort to produce quality work
completing or making up missed assignments and tests if required by the teacher.

Parents/Guardians are responsible for:

being an advocate for their child, while encouraging the child to advocate for himself/herself
encouraging reading at all grade levels
providing an appropriate environment, including necessary supplies, for homework to be done
providing a healthy balance between homework, extra and co-curricular activities, and family commitments
contacting the teacher if their child is not consistently able to do the homework by himself/herself within the time guidelines, or if challenges or questions arise

Teachers are responsible for:

sharing expectations for homework with students and parents early in the school year
designing homework assignments that clearly articulate their purpose and expected outcome, allowing for student questions and planning
providing timely feedback to students
ensuring any homework assigned is directly related to the classroom instruction and consists of clear, purposeful, and authentic activities
assigning homework that is appropriate and differentiated as needed
teaching the skills necessary for the students to complete the homework and become successful independent learners
being careful not to assign too much homework or homework that frustrates or discourages the students

Administrators are responsible for:

monitoring homework quality and quantity
communicating homework expectations with parents

VI. Implementation Strategies

And this section was – and still is blank.

Why?

Because this is the hard part! It is easy (ish) to write out a philosophy and guidelines. Putting it into practice in a way that is consistent and clear to all? That is hard work!

This is why we spent the last hour of our amazing Professional Day last Friday (after our EdCamp) meeting by division (Lower School General Studies, Lower School Jewish Studies & Middle School) to begin to develop an implementation strategy. Our goal is to finalize that implementation strategy in time for it to be included in all Parent Handbooks for the 2014-2015 school year. The conversations so far have been especially rich and I am looking forward to seeing how the project comes to conclusion.

Watch this space…

Live Blog of MJGDS EdCamp 2014

Welcome to our Second Annual Martin J. Gottlieb Day School EdCamp!

You can review what an “EdCamp” is and relive last year’s “Live Blog of MJGDS EdCamp” if you would like extra context…

…when we entered the Library today:

9:00 Blank Board

9:30 EdCamp is Ready!

Session #1

Task Authenticity

The conversation is centered around our Learning Target’s domain of “Task” and defining what “authentic task” really is and how it looks in our classrooms. There is consensus that this is amongst the most significant challenges of our target. Some subjects may lend themselves to greater authenticity than others, but it is a challenge all teachers of all subjects of all grades have. For example, our Middle School Mitzvah Trips – each Friday our Middle School students go out into the community to do social action in lieu of their Jewish Studies block – provide authentic opportunities to put what they learn academically in Jewish Studies into practice in an authentic, real-world way.

What about 1st Grade Math?

What about 5th Grade Social Studies?

I hate to leave the convesation, but I am anxious to see what is going in the other sessions!

Session #2

Math Games

One of our Middle School Math Teachers shared examples of games that she has made – digital and hands-on – that work for her in the classroom. And after she shared her examples, teachers had an opportunity to make their own games for the classroom!

One great outtake – she shared her firsthand experience of growing a Professional Learning Network via Twitter thanks to her coach and is encouraging her colleagues to do the same. Hooray Instructional Coaching! Hooray Amplification!

Session #3

Tiny Tap for General and Jewish Studies

This is being facilitated by our Jewish Studies Coordinator! What a wonderful example of 21st century learning not being bound to any part of the curriculum! Our Jewish Studies Faculty has come a long way and I am so proud that many of our EdCamp facilitators today are JS Faculty presenting to GS Faculty about how to incorporate 21st century learning pedagogy.

Our first round went by so fast! Time for a quick break and then it will be time to begin the second round…

10:20 AM

Session #4

Bringing Out the Best

Our Middle School Vice Principal is using our example of caring who our students are outside of school, to start a conversation about how to bring out the best in our students. The common denominator in well-behaved students? Parents who expect well-behaved children!

How can we build a true Community of Kindness when we only have control over what happens in school? How do we provide parent education to help increase healthy school-parent relationships?

One place to start? ALL teachers and staff have to share similar high expectations for student behavior and the school has to be willing apply adequate consequences and incentives for student behavior.

How do we do that when all our students share so many different teachers?

Session #5

Readers Theater

Our First Grade General Studies Teacher (an alumna of the school!) is sharing the concept of preparing students to better integrate public speaking skills and drama into Language Arts instruction. What I like about this conversation – besides the topic – is that the audience is made up our Assistant Teachers. Assistant Teachers in our school may not have lead teaching responsibilities, but they are qualified teachers who contribute so much to our ability to personalize learning.

Where does she get resources? From a blog she follows, by Skyping with other teachers…another example of using social media to develop a Professional Learning Network!

Session #6

SMART Board

Who is teaching? Our 2nd/4th Grade Jewish Studies Teacher! Again, a Jewish Studies teacher sharing 21st century learning pedagogy with General Studies colleagues. They are sharing SMART Board games that they have made and other tricks and subtleties of using the SMART Board for instruction. Another great conversation!

Can the second round be ending already! Time flies when you are learning from your colleagues! One more rest break and on to the third and final round…

Session #7

Behavior Consistency

Not a direct follow-up to Session #4, but connected. What I like about this conversation is that it is being facilitated by one of our Assistant Teachers, who is an experienced teacher in her own right, but by sharing the perspective of an assistant, it will hopefully help us be consistent across subjects, between classes, in the lunchroom, on the playground, etc.

This conversation is trying to dig deeper into recognizing the source of children’s behavior it helps figure out how to correct it.

Teachers are expressing the need to see our school evolve into a more consistent program of behavior management. Building on a “Caught Being Kind” with real carrots…I think this session and this topic will have real legs post-EdCamp.

Session #8

There was supposed to be a “Session #8”, but the beauty of an EdCamp is that people “vote with their feet”. And their feet have spoken! Only two teachers turned out for Session #8 and they decided to have the conversation during free time and joined one of the other two sessions…

Session #9

Integrating Centers with the Daily 5

A very popular session because we have made the decision after piloting the Daily 5 for two years that we plan to adopt it as our Language Arts philosophy for the Lower School.

Our Grade 2 General Studies Teacher, who is one of the teachers who piloted the program, is leading the session. We have a range of teachers in the room, some who have been piloting it also, some who will be responsible for it soon.

One great outtake: We have Jewish Studies Teachers in the room. Why? Because they want to see if there are principles from the Daily 5 that might apply to Jewish Studies. No one prompted or suggested that to them…it comes from them. I love that about where our faculty culture has evolved to…

…can MJGDS EdCamp really be over for 2014?

Sadly, yes. But another great year, another great set of conversations, another great opportunity to learn from each other, and time will tell which conversations will lead to changes or improvements or initiatives for the school.

But experience teaches that it surely will!

The Transparency Files: Teacher-Led Evaluation

We are into the second year utilizing our school’s new learning target. I blogged last year, as part of “The Transparency Files,” about why and how we created the target and how it would guide important decisions about how the school runs, what programs the school invests in, and about anything and everything central to questions of teaching and learning. And so far it has. Our decision to move to a 1:1 BYOiPad pilot for Grades 4 & 5, helps move us closer to the target. Creating a “Community of Kindness” position and utilizing the 7 Habits to develop the program, helps move us closer to the target. Our work in Middle School, developing a new app that will become commercially available in time for Purim, helps move us closer to the target. Our decision to expand the use of “Student-Led Conferences” to Grades 4-8, helps moves up closer to the target. Our move to Singapore Math, expansion of the Daily 5, use of blogfolios, our current conversation about homework, increasing the amount of immersion in our teaching of Hebrew – all of these decisions are framed by whether or not it will bring us closer to the target. That’s the power of having a clear and shared vision for what teaching and learning ought to look like in our school.

So it should have been so surprise that when it came time to re-imagine what teacher evaluation ought to look like…we looked to the target to guide us.

We realized last year that with the success of student-led conferences, that we are actually treating our students with greater ownership of their evaluation process that we were our teachers! If our students are supposed to own their learning, then our teachers ought to own their professional growth. And if our students can collect artifacts of their growth, organize them on their blogfolios, reflect on their growth and present to their teachers and parents…

And so we charged our faculty to form a “Teacher Evaluation Committee” to re-imagine the evaluation process for teachers and what they came up with is our new “Teacher-Led Evaluation”. It reflects what we believe is the most authentic way for teachers (and teaching assistants) to document, reflect and share their professional growth while still allowing for the accountability necessary to ensure expectations are met. In the spirit of transparency, I would like to share the process and briefly reflect on how it working out so far…

This is what teachers received a couple of months back:

Dear Faculty:

For the fall evaluation, please schedule an appointment with Jon before Winter break. You will need the following:

A completed self-evaluation packet (checklist plus narrative)

Be prepared to discuss your self-evaluation with Jon

Not required at this time: A presentation, artifacts, a video-recorded lesson or peer observation

For the spring evaluation, please schedule an appointment with Jon in April. You will need the following:

A completed self-evaluation checklist (narrative not required)

A presentation aligned with the Learning Target documenting your professional growth during this school year in a format of your choice, including the following:

Artifacts to show evidence of growth

A reflection of your video-recorded lesson

A reflection of your peer observation

Goals: Where do I go from here?

Be prepared to discuss your self-evaluation with Jon

Teacher Evaluation Committee

The self-evaluation comes straight from the target:

And the narrative prompt:

Please reflect in writing on your growth as a teacher at this point in time. Your reflection should be directly related to the Learning Target. Make sure to address your professional development goals and offer an evaluation of your progress to date. Also consider the following questions: What are my successes? Is there room for improvement? Do I have artifacts as evidence of my learning? What tools or resources do I need to continue my professional growth on the Learning Target continuum?

I have made my way through about a half to two-thirds of the faculty and I am enjoying it immensely. The conversations have been more focused on growth and less focused on what I (or others) feel is lacking. The conversations are led by teachers who are experts in who they are and not guided by me who, in the past, would have to play detective in order to have what to present. The artifacts are fabulous, the discussions are rich and – most importantly – what teachers are working on is astounding.

The accountability is still there – teachers are required to demonstrate growth in areas mutually agreed upon by them and me – but the shift in emphasis has brought a shift in attitude that brought a level of professional development we have never seen before.

All in all, this first go around has been a true success. I can’t wait to see the fuller presentations in the spring and see how much more growth there is to come!

The Transparency Files: Homework Wars

This is the 150th (!) blog post of “A Floor, But No Ceiling” and amazingly, to me, in a search of all my blog posts, I cannot find one that deals with “homework”. I guess denial is not just a river in Egypt…it is a river in Jacksonville, Florida!

Disclaimer: In addition to being the head of school, I am married to a public school teacher and am a parent of a 3rd Grader and an Kindergartner. “Homework Wars” do not describe my parental situation with homework. Whether that is a function of my children, their particular teachers, our particular family dynamic, or blind luck, I couldn’t say, but “homework” is not a daily or any other kind of struggle in my household. (Knock on keyboard.)

Why the disclaimer?

I guess because I want to be sensitive to any unconscious biases I may bring to the table in this conversation. We have excellent teachers who do not have children of their own. But I think it would be dishonest to suggest that lacking a parent’s perspective never has consequences for teachers who have not lived at home the impact of schooling. There are some things you can only learn through experience and if not through experience, through the willingness to learn from other’s experiences.

So I admit that as a parent, I am presently satisfied with the amount and the quality of homework being brought home by my children. That does not make it objectively true. As a head of school of a K-8, however, I am well familiar with concerns and complaints about both the amount and the quality of homework. And the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School is in an excellent position to tackle the subject…

Important Segue:

I have used this blog to document our school’s 21st century learning journey and all the associated initiatives we have taken on to get from there to here to the future. For anyone who has not been along for the ride, in celebration of my 150th blog post, here is my starter’s collection to be fully caught up with who we are and where we think we are going:

The MJGDS 21st Century Learning Journey in 13 Blog Posts

Transparency
Standardized Testing
edJEWcon
Inclusion
Financial Sustainability
Gaming Theory
Habits of Kindness
Reflective Practice
EdCamp
Learning Target
Second Language Acquisition
Experiential Education
Blogfolios

…here in year four of our work together.

It is reasonable to conclude that there are various philosophies about what the purpose of homework ought to be and that there is ample research to be found supporting just about them all. For our school, however, the conversation comes with a context. Considering who we are and what we believe to be true about teaching and learning, what ought to be the role of homework here?

Like all preceding vital conversations, this one has begun with our 21st Century Learning Team and will continue on with our teachers, parents and students before being concretized in final form.

What is our current policy?

We have a simple 10 minutes per grade level (outside of reading) formula for estimating the appropriate time it should take a typical student to complete his or her homework.

Part of the impetus for taking this on is that not only does that policy seem not to hold true often enough, it fails to address the why’s and what’s of homework. It only speaks to, “how much?” We can do better.

The purpose of the MJGDS Homework Policy, once re-imagined, will be to provide guidelines for teachers, provide for consistency through the grades, and to educate parents who have questions about homework. A school policy regarding homework, along with clear expectations for teachers as to what constitutes good homework, can help to strengthen the benefits of homework for student learning.

This policy will need to address the purposes of homework, amount and frequency, and the responsibilities of teachers, students, parents, and administrators.

The MJGDS Homework Policy will be based on research regarding the correlation between homework and student achievement as well as best practices for homework.

Without having had all the conversations we will be having, I do think based on the conversations we have had, that there are philosophical conclusions consistent with who we are that we can put up front that will inform the policy once complete.

The philosophy at the Martin J Gottlieb Day School regarding K-8 homework is that homework should only be assigned that is meaningful, purposeful, and appropriate. Homework will serve to deepen student learning and enhance understanding. Homework should be consistent with the school’s “Learning Target” and strive to incorporate creativity, critical thinking, authenticity, and student ownership.

We understand today’s busy schedules and demands on parent and student time. Most learning is done in school, but as is the case with our learning of a foreign language and learning to read, reasonable and age-appropriate practice and repetition is exceptionally beneficial in other certain subject areas.

There are also some commonsense practices we believe will help to increase the benefits of homework while minimizing potential problems. Homework is more effective when:

…..the purpose of the homework assignment is clear. Students should leave the classroom with a clear understanding of what they are being asked to do and how to do it.

…..it does not discourage and frustrate students. Students should be familiar with the concepts and material.

…..it is on a consistent schedule. It can help busy students and parents remember to do assignments when they are consistent.

…..it is explicitly related to the classwork.

…..it is engaging and creative.

…..part of the homework is done in class.

…..it is authentic.

…..feedback is given. Follow-up is necessary to address any comprehension issues that may arise.

…..it is differentiated.

…..it reviews past concepts to help retention over the course of the year.

This is not to suggest that we are not presently trying to live up to the above in our current practice. But it is to suggest that our written policy fails to provide teachers, parents or students with sufficient guidance to insure that all students in all grades are doing appropriate homework – appropriate quality, appropriate content and appropriate length.

As with every other initiative or project we undertake at MJGDS, our conversation and conclusions about homework will be done collaboratively and transparently. We look forward to our local conversations, to doing the work, and to sharing it out when done.

Martin J. Gottlieb Day School Middle School Retreat 2013 Part II – the iMovie

My First Twitter Cloud

Every now and again, I find it refreshing to focus my blog post around a visual image – sometimes it is a picture that explains better than any words I could choose about a powerful experience taking place in our school. But it sometimes is a word cloud. A “word cloud” takes any piece of written text and represents it graphically in a way which highlights frequently-used words. It is a fantastic device for visually summarizing the essence of a written text. Many of the programs that create word clouds allow you to enter a website, a blog, etc., and it will go ahead and create a word cloud visually summarizing which content mattered most over a bounded period of time.

I have used Wordle to create word clouds of this blog and analyzed the results.

I have used Tagxedo to create a word cloud of our Parent Handbook and analyzed the results.

Today, I want to use Tweet Cloud to create a word cloud of my Twitter feed.

Why?

Because I use Twitter exclusively for professional development and I am interested and seeing what it reveals about what I have been interested in since the beginning of this school year.

So…what does my Tweet Cloud (“t” is for “Twitter”) look like?

What do I notice?

“Habits” and “Kindness” are big ticket items. This reflects not just what we are doing internally about this, but what I have been reading professionally and asking my professional learning network about – the two primary things I use Twitter for.

What do you notice? Anything surprising you see? Anything surprising that you don’t see?

Next week, I am off to Camp Ramah Darom for our annual Middle School Retreat. The last few years I have been able to stay awake long enough on the Friday to edit my video and publish. I hope to do the same next week!

Another Trip Around the MJGDS Blogosphere

It is that time again!

How about this week we take a trip through the MJGDS Blogosphere and kvell about some of the excellent projects our students and teachers are engaged in. Perhaps it is too much to expect folk to check all the blogs all the time – especially if they are not parents in a particular class AND with our new website still under construction. So allow me to serve as your tour guide this week and visit some highlights…

From Our Kindergarten Blog:

Our Latest Creation – A Book!

In conjunction with our literacy program, we have been discussing “settings” for books by comparing one book to another. In this case, we discussed the various settings of the “Miss Bindergarten” series books. Each student created the setting for his/her imaginary Miss Bindergarten book! We have compiled all of these “settings” into our 1st ebook.

Check out our latest creation:

Miss Bindergarten

If you own an iPad or iPhone, you can download the epub file and directly drop it into your iTunes library. Once you sync your device with iTunes, you are able to read our book.

If you are reading this post on your iPad, simply click on the epub link and choose to open in iBook.

If you do not have a device to read our eBook, you can download the pdf Where Is Miss Bindergarten? , but the children’s voices will not be audible.

From our Community of Kindness Blog:

Advisory Lunch Groups

Advisory lunch bunch groups have started. The feedback from the advisors and the students has been extremely positive! While discussing how they have become more proactive this year, one student expressed that he does his homework FIRST when he gets home from school. He said he hasn’t been late on any assignments this year, which he explained is a HUGE accomplishment for him! WOW!

Most classes have started to talk about Begin with the end in mind, the second habit. During October, the classes will be working on class mission statements and developing personal goals for each child.

The middle school students wrote down the things that they have started doing this year to be more proactive….

From our Fifth Grade Blog:

New Jobs for Kids

This week in fifth grade there are….. New Jobs for Kids! Mrs. Hernandez looked at our applications online. After she looked, she picked which person deserved which job. I got Official Scribe (by the way, I am Arin). Emily and Zach got Documentarian. Ariella, Eliana, and Josh are the Global Connectors. Ayden is Librarian. Elad and Griffith are the Researchers, and Evan and Jagger are the Kindness Ambassadors. Mrs. Hernandez hasn’t figured out who the graphic designers are yet.

Now I’ll explain what all the jobs mean. Official Scribe writes the blog posts, takes notes, and really anything that has to do with writing. Documentarian is taking pictures and videos. The documentarians send me some of the pictures they take so that I can put them in the posts. Global connectors will tweet, put our Skype calls on our map and a lot more. Librarian puts some of the new words that we learn on our word wall, updates what we are reading on the wall, and straightens the books. The designers will sometimes draw visual notes and will do other design projects. Researchers look things up when we have questions. Kindness ambassadors make sure everyone is being kind to one another and don’t leave anyone out.

Meanwhile, we have been reading Out of My Mind. We are now on chapter twelve. We just read about how Melody went into a “normal” classroom. To her a “normal” classroom is a classroom with kids that don’t have disabilities. She got to sit with one of the only nice kids in that class. She sat next to a girl named Rose every Wednesday. Now she can’t go to sleep on Tuesday nights because she’s so excited.

On whole different note, we have picture day today. We took a whole-school picture, a class picture and individual pictures. Earlier today we had a school picture. Everyone was smushed into one little area. The photographer had to take a picture when no one was really ready. I wonder if that picture will be good.

Well, have a great Friday! Have a great weekend and Shabbat Shalom!

photos and photo collage by Emily

From our Third Grade Blog:

Skypportunity… a job they’ve never heard of…

It’s a mystery indeed!

She has patients…

they are not sick…

she is not a doctor or nurse…nor does she work at a hospital…

her patients are women only…

when she is working she has to be on call 24 hours a day…

3rd graders worked SO hard to figure out this mystery…

but it just wasn’t on their radar… but they will learn about the long history of midwifery while studying the Torah with Morah Liat!

SHE IS A MIDWIFE!

Special thanks to Sharon Schmidt, a Florida Licensed Midwife and a Certified Professional Midwife at Fruitful Vine Birth Center for this Skypportunity!

From our Art Blog:

First Grade

Color wheel art project from criscoart.blogspot.com

Amazing stuff, no?

Why not more from Jewish Studies Teachers? Why nothing from Middle School? Why nothing from our student blogfolios?

Got to leave something for the next tour!