What a whirlwind the last few weeks have been!
I successfully avoided the blizzard that hit the Northeast weekend before last by skipping out a tad early from the Jewish Educators Assembly 59th Annual Conference. This conference, for Conservative Jewish educators, was titled “From Sinai to Cyberspace” and I had an opportunity to present on “21st Century Learning” to my colleagues. The whole conference was enriching and validating – it is always nice to see the excitement from your colleagues for the work you are doing. It was a positive experience all around. [Check out the Twitter feed from the conference here!]
I beat the snow and was rewarded by the unique opportunity to watch my Fourth & Fifth Grade students sing with Barry Manilow! How fantastic is this:
My reward? The flu!
And at the WORST possible time because I missed our Professional Day! Thank God we had done the prep work and one of our 21st Century Learning teachers, Andrea Hernandez, stepped in to facilitate a great day of reflection and collaboration for our teachers. The topic of the day was “Putting Your Cards On The Table”…which if it sounds familiar, was the topic of a prior blog post of mine. Teachers had their opportunity to reflect and share their personal educational philosophies as a means towards developing a consensus moving forward. Many teachers utilized our school’s ning as the vehicle for sharing.
The ning is a private, closed conversation, but I wanted to share with you my [edited] comments to the teachers from my “ning blog post” (confused yet!) because it will help you understand why it will have been well worth closing school for a day…
“Shalom Chevre!
I just spent the last hour reading through the blog posts many of you have put up about your own individual teaching philosophies and the comments that have been flowing back and forth. How wonderful it is to read your words and see your passion for children, for learning, and for this profession we have all chosen to dedicate our lives to! To say I wish I had been there, is an understatement. I was devastated to have missed it and indebted to Andrea for taking the lead on what from all accounts was a nourishing and meaningful day of reflection and sharing.
I take to the ning blog not to share my vision or philosophy of education because I have done so already on my professional blog. I take to the ning blog for the purpose of connecting some dots…
We have worked hard together these few months together, so hard, and it is both appreciated and making a real difference in the lives of our students and school.
Dot #1: Benchmarks & Standards
Our most tangible achievement has been the first drafting of “Benchmarks & Standards”. This is what we believe our children ought to learn/know/be able to do by the end of each year. Next steps? Pulling out strands (Mathematics, Science, etc.) and ensuring they truly flow vertically from Grades K-8.
Dot #2: Educational Philosophy
Beginning with our school’s mission statement, my initial blog post, and now with all your entries and comments, a consensus of sorts is forming. We believe in differentiated instruction. We believe in individualized attention. We believe in “A Floor, But No Ceiling”. We believe in the dignity of children. We believe in the dignity of teachers. We believe in building bridges with parents to form partnerships. We believe in depth over breadth. We believe a Jewish Day School can offer a rigorous, private school secular education through a 21st century mindset while still providing the highest-quality Jewish education available – all during one very action-packed school day!
Dot #3: TEXTBOOKS & CURRICULAR MATERIALS
Let’s connect some dots…
…we now know what we want to teach and we know how we (ideally) want to teach. We now have to decide which materials and books are the best ones to do this. Recognizing that no textbook is perfect and that ANY substantive change in curriculum is likely to REQUIRE teacher training, this is the time to have that conversation, do some research, and make…decisions.
The cards truly are on the table…and now they are waiting for you to pick them up and play a hand.
Kol tuv, Jon”
And so the next couple of months will continue our exciting adventure as we make sure that the books and materials we use in our school are the right ones to teach what we say we are teaching in the way we say we believe children learn best.
And we could all probably use an eighth day of the week to get it done!
I’m off to Los Angeles on Sunday for the North American Jewish Day School Conference. The topic for the conference is “The High Performance, High-Tech Jewish Day School of the (Very Near) Future” and I am thrilled that I will again have an opportunity to present on “21st Century Learning” and some of the exciting things we are doing here in our school. As always, I will do my best to tweet from the conference. I am taking fistfuls of echinacea so that when I get home from this conference, I’ll be right back at it!
Once again, Steven and I marvel at how you are able to so conversantly share through blogging what is happening in our wonderful school with those of us – parents, grandparents, supporters, interested educators – who are not in the classroom or building daily. It is a gift that you have as well as a gift that you give to us. Thank you!
Safe travels and stay healthy!