The Transparency Files: MJGDS Learning Target

I blogged last week, here, about tomorrow’s exciting MJGDS EdCamp!  We are very excited for our day of learning and I will hopefully write a bonus blog next week reflecting and sharing the experience.  Since I will be unable to write tomorrow, I did want to take some here to preview (in a major exclusive!) the debut of our new MJGDS Learning Target and what it will mean for our teachers and students moving forward.

As I wrote last week, the final part of the day will be spent unveiling our new learning “target”.  Inspired by Jim Knight’s book “Unmistakable Impact“,  a committee of teachers and administrators have been working to put in writing a one-page “target” which describes how we believe teaching and learning ought to look at our school. That committee has been meeting for a few months and will be presenting the target to the full faculty as the culminating activity for our Professional Day.

For those looking to hear Jim Knight describe and define school learning targets, I invite you to click this link (I don’t have permission to embed this video in my post), here, go to 33:26 of the video and watch for about 8 minutes.

To read another school’s journey towards developing a learning target, I encourage you to check out this blog post, here.

The goal of tomorrow’s “target conversation” is for those faculty who worked on the committee to present their work to their colleagues.  We want out teachers to have a fuller understanding of what exactly the target consists of and what comes next.  In order to do that, we are going to have a very structured conversation, which in our school means the use of a formal protocol.  The reason why I prefer to use a formal protocol is that it ensures full and equal participation.  It also ensures that the conversation is structured and stays on track.

The last two “whip-around questions” of the protocol will begin the conversation about next steps.  Because the presentation of the target is the beginning of a conversation, not an end.  Everything we do must now be revisited in light of the target.  Workgroups, task forces, committees – call it whatever you like, should organically bubble up asking questions about everything from curriculum mapping to faculty evaluation to student assessment to “bring your own device” to professional development/instructional coaching to scheduling and everything else in between.

Obviously, I may have priorities of my own, which I will make transparent in due time, but for this conversation I will be satisfied if teachers walk away with a meaningful understanding of the target and that it necessarily requires next steps be taken.

So…wanna see the new MJGDS Learning Target?  With great thanks to Cathy Toglia, Judy Reppert, Shelly Zavon, Stephanie Teitelbaum, Karen Hallett, Andrea Hernandez and Silvia Tolisano, I am pleased to share it below:

We have a separate document providing detailing each cog in greater detail, which I will be happy to share upon request.  We are very excited to clarify what teaching and learning at the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School ought to look like and to make it transparent to all our stakeholders.

Tomorrow we bring it to life!

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. View all posts by Jon Mitzmacher