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.
Habits of Kindness: “Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood.”
“Man was endowed with two ears and one tongue, that he may listen more than speak.” – Hasdai, Ben HaMelekh veHaNazir, ca. 1230, chapter 26
We introduced Habit #5 this week at our monthly “Habits of Kindness” assembly: “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Our 8th Graders introduced the habit through skits and song and the essence of the habit seems to boil down to the ability to be a deep, active, empathetic listener. Therefore, many of the activities we will engage in this month will be to educate and encourage our students (and our teachers and our parents) to practice the skills of being better listeners.
This is actually something I blogged about a long time ago with regard to thinking through how we prepare our teachers for challenging conversations with parents. More recently, however, it is a topic that I actually have had the privilege of teaching to exceptional leaders in the day school school field through a program called YU Lead (part of the Yeshiva University Institute for University-School Partnership). It is the second year I have taught this module and each time, I have used similar prompts to facilitate fascinating conversations.
So what I thought I would do to inspire conversation here is to share the prompts and see what it…prompts!
The part that I want to share here was the part that was the most impactful to the students and was borrowed completely from a professional development session we did here with our faculty with Dr. Elliott Rosenbaum in preparation for an early round of Parent-Teacher Conferences in which he showed us the following examples of ineffective and effective communication:
This led, with our faculty, to a very productive conversation about listening that opened our eyes (or I guess, ears!) to a better way of interacting with the parents in our school.
When I use it for YU Lead, I ask the following question:
Compare and contrast “The Ineffective Physician” and “The Effective Physician”. What can we learn about the art of communicating difficult truths?
And to be fair, I ask the school people to read an article from a parent’s perspective called, “Help! I Can’t Talk to My Child’s Teacher!” by Domeniek Harris.
And then I ask the following questions:
- What new ideas about parent-school partnerships has this conversation raised for you?
- How will these new ideas impact your current practice?
- What new ideas about parent communication has this conversation raised for you?
And I then spend the rest of the week, mediating a conversation between these rising professionals on these topics and wherever these topics take us…
So…I invite you to check out the clips, read the article, and share how you think our school – its teachers, students and parents – can do a better job to embody the habit of “seek first to understand, then to be understood”!
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 21st 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
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!
Habits of Kindness: “Think Win-Win”
This time we will let our 8th Grade introduce this month’s habit:
Like others of the 7 Habits, I am struck by the paradox of simplicity the habits create. “Think win-win” seems so simple, right? Yes, there are developmental examples where that not might be the case (thinking of my 5 and 8 year-old daughters) and, yes, there are issues that perhaps are not so easily resolved with two winners (someone has to win the basketball game). But as a philosophy? Sure – of course things are best if we viewed challenges as opportunities for everyone to win, not with an inevitable outcome of a winner and a loser. We might not always achieve a full “win-win”, but striving towards it will always yield a kinder result than “winner-takes-all”.
So instead of using this blog to highlight a personal or professional “win-win” of my own, I want to make a brief comment on the power of transferability utilizing the Habits of Kindness between home and school…
Our leadership team is presently reading The Leader in Me, which is the book that helps
schools begin the journey of bringing the 7 Habits into the school. And as we have been reading, we are realizing the broader impacts, particularly the opportunity to strengthen the relationship between school and home. From Chapter 3,
“…observe that the same principles and approach being taught at these schools can also be taught at home. One of the great things about the leadership approach is what it is doing to enhance the parent-school partnership. For starters, it is bringing more parents into the schools to volunteer and support school and classroom activities. But even more important is what is occurring as students apply the principles to their daily tasks and behaviors at home. In other words, it is not just teachers who are reporting better behaviors and reduced discipline issues. Parents are reporting the same kinds of positive results. This is particularly true in families where parents have come to know the principles for themselves and have made conscious efforts to reinforce and teach them…If you are a parent, I promise that if you open your mind to it, you will have endless ideas of how you can apply what these educators are doing to your home.”
Excerpt From: Stephen R. Covey. “The Leader in Me.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/NPFVw.l
Now that we are a few months in, I do actually see – as a parent – my children beginning to use the language. Eliana will say that she is “being proactive” or that she is “putting first things first” which has definitely allowed her to be better organized. Because we are currently working on “think win-win”, I am hopeful it will have a spillover to our family because I think this attitude could only help siblings navigate the everyday challenges of sharing time, people and stuff in a busy 21st century family.
I have shown examples from our school of how we are putting the Habits of Kindness into effect…
…if you are a parent at MJGDS or Galinsky Academy and you are seeing the impact at home, please offer a quality comment!
…if you are a parent or educator at another school who utilize the 7 Habits, please share your experiences with us so we can continue to improve our implementation here!
We’ll keep sharing our successes and struggles…and if you keep offering advice and feedback…well we just might achieve a “win-win” of our own!
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!
Go to the Principal’s Office! You’ve Been “Caught Being Kind”!
Yesterday was a milestone “Community of Kindness” day at the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School. I had the distinct pleasure of speaking with two parents of students who had been sent to the principal’s office because they had been caught in the act of being kind.
We had our monthly faculty meeting earlier in the week and I reminded teachers that although I have often requested students be sent to me for committing acts of good behavior, no one had taken me up on it! Perhaps I had not explained myself well enough; perhaps people thought I hadn’t really meant it; or perhaps we had not yet evolved past the reactive putting out of behavioral fires to the proactive inspiration of behavioral lovingkindness. For whatever reason, something must have struck a cord because yesterday two different teachers referred students to my office who had been “caught being kind”.
The first referral came early in the day. A lower school boy had performed above and beyond during Art and so a note came down to my office letting me know. The teacher had to scribble over our typical referral note which only has a way for teachers to indicate misbehavior. Noticing that was a useful wakeup call. If we are going to take it seriously, then we have to institutionalize it. If we use referral notes for misbehavior…maybe we need referral notes for kind behavior.
How often to principals or heads of school get to call parents with good news?
I can assure you based on the parent’s reaction that the correct answer is, “Not often enough!”
If each time the school calls it is to inform the parent that their child has misbehaved (or is sick or forgot their lunch), one imagines that when the phone rings and the school’s phone number comes up in the “caller ID”, the parent is not exactly excited to pick up. But if just every now and again we are calling to let them know how proud we are of their child?
The second referral came near the end of the day from a Middle School Math Teacher. I received a note that a student in her class had acted with “extreme kindness” towards another student in the class. I managed to catch the student in carpool to shake his hand and let him know how proud I was of him before he headed home.
If every time you were sent to the “principal’s office” it was because you were in trouble, you probably wouldn’t want to be hanging out in that part of the building. And if a principal only spent his or her time with students referred for misbehavior, there would be a significant gap in relationships. That handshake in the parking lot meant as much to me as it did to the student I can assure you…
From our Fifth Grade:
“Caught Being Kind”
In 5th grade, we have two student “kindness ambassadors.” This is a job students for which students apply and receive a salary. The jobs switch approximately once a month.
Currently, our Kindness Ambassadors are Jagger and Jeremy, and they are doing a great job noticing kindness, as well as alerting teachers to issues so they can be nipped in the bud.
Here are two “caught being kind” photos taken and shared with me by the Kindness Ambassadors.
raising hand before speaking
Helping
As part of developing a spirit of leadership in our school as part of incorporating the 7 Habits, how wonderful would it be if each of our students – and our parent and teachers – held the additional title of “Kindness Ambassador”!
So I look forward to more students being sent to my office for the right reasons, to ensuring we focus on positively rewarding kind behavior as much, if not more, than applying consequences to unkind behavior, and that when the phone rings in the home of an MJGDS parent and the school comes up in the “caller ID” that the emotion it triggers is excitement and not dread. Pick up the phone when we call…your child may have been caught in the act of being kind!
Habits of Kindness: “Put First Things First”
It is a new month at the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School and that means…a new Habit!
Habits of Kindness has become our shorthand for how we are utilizing the “7 Habits” to approach our “Community of Kindness” initiative. As part of the first Habit, “Be Proactive”, I blogged about my commitment to blog each month about that month’s Habit and we spent August & September on the first Habit. October had us spending time on the second Habit, “Beginning With End in Mind”, and like many of our teachers and students, I created my own personal mission statement. (For ongoing information about our “Community of Kindness” program, please visit its blog…or even better, subscribe to it!)
November and December has us exploring the third Habit, “Put First Things First”.
There are 525,600 minutes in one year. However, when you consider that approximately 175,200 minutes of that time will be spent sleeping, 16,425 minutes spent eating, and if you’re a student, 72,000 minutes spent in school, you have less than half that total to spend on the rest of your life. Therefore, it is essential to do the important things first—if you leave them until last, you might run out of time.
You know how something is so obvious that you dismiss it?
That’s how I feel about this habit.
You have likely heard that song and/or seen that video numerous times in the past and you know that the moral of the story is to remember that your big rocks are your family and friends and to not get bogged down in the sands of workaholism.
So why did I get to work yesterday at 7:00 AM and come home at 9:15 PM?
Why do so many of us struggle with finding balance when we know where our true priorities lie?
I don’t have an answer…but I do have an opportunity! It just so happens that the theme of this year’s Day School Leadership Training Institute (DSLTI) Alumni Retreat – which is this Sunday-Tuesday – is on issues of health and wellness. I welcome the opportunity to share and reflect with colleagues about how we try to keep ourselves spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically prepared to passionately pursue our profession while remaining loving and present spouses, partners, parents, children and friends.
I look forward to updating this post next week.
And in the meanwhile, feel free to share your secrets via a quality comment on this blog!
UPDATED 12/13/13
I wish I could say I came back with a secret success to wellness. But I did come back with a commitment to take my wellness more seriously and that the only way to do that is to schedule wellness into my day. Exercise, sleep, eating well…we all know these are among the keys to wellness. Making them a priority is the trick. Here’s hoping when I re-read this blog post in a few months that I have put my time where my words are!
There is a November Dilemma: Thankful for the “Schechter Difference”
It has been too long since I have written about the “Schechter Difference”.
The Martin J. Gottlieb Day School is a proud member of the Schechter Day School Network. And because we write about what that means in our handbook, and even have a picture of Solomon Schechter on our walls, I assume that many, if not, most of our parents are aware that as a Schechter school, we adhere to the norms and practices of the Conservative Movement when it comes to how Judaism is lived in our school. I am less confident, however, that some, if any, of our parents could speak more affirmatively about what the impact of being a Schechter school has on the overall educational philosophy of our school and educational impact on our students. I am less confident, for example, that they realize that much of what our school does and stands for: 21st century learning, Hebrew language immersion, Community of Kindness, Zionism, etc., etc., come as a direct result of what I like to think of as the “Schechter Difference”.
And the once-in-a-lifetime confluence of Thanksgiving and Chanukah, presents an opportunity to see the Schechter Difference in action. Not so much on Thursday…but on “Black Friday”. Because the ease with which we conflate “Thanksgiving” and “Chanukah” into “Thanksgivakkah” provides an opportunity to refine our understanding of what it means to have an “integrated curriculum” and makes it fair to ask if the dissonance between our shared cultural heritages does, indeed, produce a November Dilemma.
What does it mean to have an “integrated curriculum” and what does the “Schechter Difference” have to say about it?
Let’s define our terms.
I have always felt it useful to think of this in terms of a dialectic between the two poles of the most common attitude taken towards curricular integration and that is to be “rejectionist”. A “rejectionist” attitude simply rejects one part of the curriculum when conflict arises. If there is a conflict between, for example, what “Science” and “Torah” say, it is clear that one is authoritative and that resolves the conflict. Whether it is the General Studies or the Jewish Studies that is viewed as authoritative depends, of course, on the school.
Other prevailing attitudes towards integration include “Judaizing” – the felt need to apply a Jewish view to every general studies topic otherwise risk students will view general studies as the more relevant – and a new attitude, not prevalent during the beginnings of the day school movement, which one could call “assimilationist”—where Jewish studies as defined in the school’s mission clearly takes a backseat to the general and any clash between values is left unmentioned and unexplored.
Thanksgiving provides us with a much better “dilemma” to see the “Schechter Difference” in action than Christmas does because regardless of which attitude a
Jewish day school takes, it almost surely isn’t going to integrate the ideas and values of Christmas into its curriculum. Thanksgiving, however, especially if you take a hard look at the phenomenon of “Black Friday” and American consumerism, allows us to see how complicated integration can be. Consumerism with its focus on individual material attainment is not consonant with Jewish values. So what is a Jewish day school to do with that aspect of Chanukah in today’s America?
Being “Jewish” and being “American” is not the same thing. However proud we legitimately ought to be of both our identities, we are not being intellectually honest if we claim they are identical and never in conflict. Please keep in mind that the choice not to choose between is itself a choice. Celebrating the consumerist aspects of Chanukah without acknowledging their conflict with Jewish values is to claim that such a conflict does not exist.
The “Schechter Difference” is that we are neither rejectionist nor assimilationist. Nor do we feel so threatened by general society that we have to make everything Jewish. We strive to be interactionist—our philosophy which can be seen in everything from our mitzvah trips to our blogfolios—seeks to allow the Jewish and the general to interact naturally as it does in the real world. We believe guiding our students through authentic interactions is what will produce serious, committed, affiliated, literate and involved Jews capable of succeeding in a modern world.
So, please, celebrate the historical and secular significance of Thanksgiving with food, football, and gratitude. And please, celebrate the historical and religious significance of Chanukah with joy, festivity, and yes, presents. But this and every year, let’s not forget our Jewish values of tzedakah (charity) and kehillah (community). Along with your normal gift-giving, consider donating a night or two of your family’s celebration to those less fortunate. Our Middle School focuses on “Turkey Tuesday” – where we go out into the community and deliver turkeys to families in need – not “Black Friday”. By doing so we send a powerful message that there are times when our Jewish values command us to set aside the values of secular culture and that not only is that okay, but sometimes it is both necessary and appropriate.
That’s the Schechter Difference.
Happy Turkey Day & Chanukah from my family to yours!