I wrote a blog post last year after returning from our school’s second annual Middle School Retreat (my first with the school) at Camp Ramah Darom in Georgia, entitled “Leap of Faith” (you can read it here). One of the great 21st century learning pedagogies is the gift of reflection. And one of the gifts of living by a school calendar (which, parenthetically, is equally true of the Jewish calendar) is that it often gives you the chance to experience and re-experience similar events on a yearly basis. And so now after having had a week or so to reflect on this year’s Middle School Retreat, I wanted to spend a little time unpacking this most powerful of experiences.
[You may wish to reread my most recent blog post here and/or check out the brief video we made of it here for a taste of those experiences.]
The other advantage of having taken an additional week or two to share my thoughts is that I am not writing in the feverish afterglow of the experience. We’ve come down from the high, but the carryover effect carries on. And that’s what it is really all about isn’t it? Transferability? The magic bullet of all successful informal educational experiences is how well they transfer back into “real life”. Sure it is amazing, the best-time-of-my-life when you are in the middle of gorgeous scenery flying down the zip-line. But is it still amazing back in the science lab?
Yup.
Or at least so far. We have work to do to nourish the spark from the retreat and keep the flame lit through the peaks and valleys of a school year. But when I walk the halls and see our Middle School students, I can see the bonds born from horseback and hikes remain intact. Similar to the positive impact on athletics in the small middle school (you can read that blog post here), our ability to create community is vital to our continued success. We are not sixth graders, seventh graders and eighth graders…we are a middle school. We are not just students, teachers and administrators…we are a family.
Final note: If you are an MJGDS middle school family reading this, you may be wondering what the big deal is with the Schnupencup. If you are someone who has been a student, camper, teacher, staff, or participant in just about anything I have done in Jewish education since 1989…I hope you are smiling. If you have no idea what I am talking about…it is just a matter of time!
Fingers up!
