Category: Jewish Education

Constructing a Community of Kindness

I refer you back two blog posts, here, for the beginning of our story of trying to create a community of kindness in our schools and synagogue and here for the second installment of that story.  For other headlines and current events, of which there are many, you are welcome to look here.  For a bit of an update as to how we did this year in applying a “Purim Prescription for Pediatric Judaism”, you are welcome to click here (but be warned – you may never look at me the same way again!).  Next week’s blog post will  discuss this upcoming week’s FCIS Re-Accreditation.  I can neither blog weekly on our “Community of Kindness” initiatives nor cease blogging about it altogether.  It is important enough to garner regular attention, but is not the sole initiative of the school.  So, this week, I will enter a third installment of a trilogy of opening conversations on how we can begin to live up to our highest Jewish values.  But just because I may not refer back to it (in this blog at least) for a little while, surely does not mean it will fall onto the back-burnder.

I want to offer one update, one additional example from a student blogfolio, and a request for next steps.

Here is the update.  We finally (!) scored the bullying surveys we issued to students in both the Day School and the Center’s Religious School in Grades 5-8.  As with the prior two surveys, there may well be issues in how they were proctored and we cannot distinguish between students in either school.  BUT, we still do need some baseline data to build from and this is certainly better than the “no data” we had prior.  As with the Grades 2-4 survey, I would like to share some of the results with you and suggest what it might mean.

This was, like the other two surveys, more positive than not, but instructive.  Here is a chart which provides students a chance to describe how things are at school:

Now…we don’t know entirely if the Religious School students are indicating their experiences in Religious School (as was intended) or not.  But let’s assume, for the creation of this baseline that they have.  The chart indicates, somewhat similarly to the results from Grades 2-4, that physical bullying is not so much the issue.  However, unlike the results from Grades 2-4, by Grades 5-8 the primary cause for concern is not as much exclusion as it is teasing.  This is vital information as we plan programming to address our needs.  Bullying, in our setting, seems to take on different forms at different developmental levels.

On a happier note, students in these grades assessing their teachers, have indicated a fair degree of confidence in their willingness to help out:

Looking closer, we see that although the confidence level is high, the place it is less-high is in dealing with students teasing behind the teacher’s back.  This is very similar to what we saw in the last survey.  When teachers are aware and confronted with bad behavior…they act and act appropriately.  The issue is being sure that teachers are aware – and create an environment (say a community of kindness?) where students are comfortable being sure that they are aware.

Let’s hear from another student…this time Zoe M in Grade Four:

“Bullying is a huge problem. It happens all around the world. It makes people afraid to go to school. It makes people afraid to go out of their house. Bullying is when people make fun of others, threaten others, physically hurt others, and type mean things about others. Nobody likes to get bullied. However, people do it anyway. Most of the time a person bullies someone else is because there is a problem at the bully’s house. It is usually something personal, so the bully takes it out on others weaker than he or she  is. Bullies are usually cowards. They almost always have a gang that backs them up.  Otherwise, they would be too afraid.

There are a few types of bullying. Cyber-bullying is one type. Cyber-bullying is when people threaten you behind a computer or they hack into your e-mail. Cyber-bullying is  cowardly , because they are hiding their identity behind a computer so no-one will know it is them. People should not share passwords. That is usually how cyber-bullying starts. Cyber-bullying is very common.

Another type of bullying is threatening or physically hurting others. People threaten others when they want something, or when they just want to scare others. Some people physically hurt others for fun, just to see others cry. That is what makes people afraid to go out of their house. Once there was a boy who got bullied a lot. One day, he just couldn’t stand it so he committed suicide. That is one example of why people shouldn’t bully.

Bullying is very bad. People have to stop bullying. We can prevent it  by sticking up for others and ignoring bullies. I can help prevent bullies by sticking up for others.

 

Image Credits: Microsoft Clip Art”

Zoe identifies a crucial component to creating a community of kindness: the willingness to stand up for the victim and the realization that bystander-ism is sometimes as harmful as the bullying itself.

 

So…we have students blogging about bullying prevention.  We have clergy and teachers blogging and talking about bullying prevention.  We have students preparing their own 2-minute “Creating a Community of Kindness” videos that I look forward to sharing soon.  We have begun an important conversation.  But where do we go from here?  Here are just a few starting points:

  • Revise our Student & Family Handbooks to reflect both sides of our coin: swift and decisive discipline AND incentivizing caring and kind behaviors.
  • Professional Development
  • Parent Seminars
  • Peer-led activities & programs
  • Create a developmentally appropriate approach to bullying at each age and stage

Parents, students, teachers, community members, foundations, agencies – here or anywhere – whoever is passionate about this issue, please reach out to us with your ideas, your volunteerism, and your support.  In the spirit of transparency, we will continue to share our experiences here as we look forward to each day being better than the one before by creating a community of kindness one act at a time.

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Finally…in light of this week’s local tragedy, I wanted to share with you the blog post written by Dr. Barbara Hodges, Executive Director of the Florida Council of Independent Schools (FCIS) in honor of our fallen college Dale Regan:

TRIBUTE TO DALE REGAN

It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to one of our own, Dale Regan, who was the Head of School of Episcopal School of Jacksonville (ESJ) and the President of the Board of Directors of the Florida Council of Independent Schools (FCIS). As reported by the media, Dale was fatally wounded yesterday by a teacher, who had been dismissed; the teacher then turned the gun on himself. No other adults or students were involved or hurt.

So what do we do when someone we love and admire is so senselessly taken because of choices of another? I know what Dale would have done if she were in our position. She would have done what she always did; she would have reached out to comfort, to support, to lift up, and to unify the community. Dale was not only an exceptional educator and a courageous leader, but she also had a unique talent for connecting with others and meeting people where they were. So what are we going to do? We are going to follow the model that Dale beautifully unfolded for us.

We would like to invite all 157 FCIS schools to find a way in the next few days to remember Dale, realizing that our schools will respond to this tragedy in different ways. A suggestion from one of our heads was for all of us to join together at a set time for a moment of silence and remembrance. For those of you who would like to participate, we are setting aside Friday at 11 AM for a moment of silence and reflection as the Memorial Service will be starting on the ESJ campus in the Campion Courtyard in Jacksonville. As a matter of note, the memorial service is open to the public. In the days and weeks ahead, FCIS will continue to support the ESJ community and Dale’s family.

As I close this tribute to a special and dear friend, I want to share with you an Irish saying sent to me this morning by Joe McTighe, the Executive Director of the Council for American Private Education (CAPE); the saying was left to Joe and his family by his mother who died in 1996. Reminding me of Dale, it brought me great comfort, as I hope it will bring to you.

“Grieve not, nor speak of me with tears, but laugh and talk of me as though I were beside you. I loved you so; ‘twas Heaven here with you’.”

So, we are now called, as Dale would do – to comfort, to support, to lift up, and to unify our community. We hold Dale’s family, ESJ, and our FCIS family in our thoughts and prayers.

With great love,

Barbara Hodges

Cultivating a Community of Kindness

This is a busy, busy time!  Let me give a few headlines before picking up the thread of the conversation begun two weeks ago…

  • edJEWcon 5772.0 is officially closed and a waiting list has begun to fill!  Over 20 Jewish day schools from across North America and the ideological spectrum will be coming to the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School to collaborate and create.  Official press releases announcing the first edJEWcon cohort to come!  Thanks to the AVI CHAI Foundation for their generous support and to the Schechter Day School Network for its valuable assistance.
  • Our 50th Anniversary preparations are well underway!  Thanks to our extraordinary team of volunteers and professionals, we are preparing an event of a generation.  If you want to know more about this historic event, if you would like to volunteer, attend, or donate…please click here on our 50th Anniversary website.
  • Purim is coming!  Please click here for my blog post entitled “A Purim Prescription for Pediatric Judaism”.
  • Community University is coming on March 11th!  Click here for more information and to register.  I’ll be teaching a course this year called “Tiger Moms & Panda Dads? A Conversation about Jewish Parenting in the 21st Century”.
  • And finally, our school will go through its 5-year Florida Council of Independent Schools (FCIS) Re-Accreditation on March 11 – 13.  I’ll have more to say about this in an upcoming blog.

That’s a lot of headlines!

But now I want to pick up with the incredible responses that have come in since I blogged two weeks ago, here, about Creating a Community of Kindness.  It was picked up very quickly on Twitter and Facebook by other schools and foundations, which is a sign of how relevant and important this issue is.  But this initiative is not about garnering attention – it is about changing a culture.  And even though it will take time…it is beginning.

Here is some proof.

Rabbi Jesse Olitzky blogged about it here focusing on the importance of not only being reactive in issuing swift and decisive discipline when behaviors erupt, but being proactive in creating a community of kindness.  He also contributed a 2-minute video of his own:

But that’s not all!

Demonstrating that the entire Jacksonville Jewish Center is on board, we have our first contribution from the JJC Preschool, who have two amazing parents who wrote and preformed a play on the value of Gemilut Hasadim (acts of lovingkindness) for our preschool students this week:

But that’s not all either!

Better than anything the adults have done are the extraordinary blog posts our students have begun to write about this important topic. ( You can link to all our student blogfolios here.)  There are more than I can highlight here, but I want to acknowledge a couple of wonderfully written posts in my blog.  I urge you to comment directly to the students.  I am also issuing my “2-minute” challenge – I want our students to start creating their own 2-minute Community of Kindness videos and posting them to their blogfolios.  I will share them in future postings.

Here’s a terrific post from a fifth grader named Shoshana:

Things are happening.. but you might not know it.

Posted February 29th, 2012 by shoshanah

Has your child ever wanted to talk to you about someone bullying them, pushing them around, or calling them names? Well, the secret is revealed. Some children hide it from you, but yet they don’t know how to stop it. I am going to give all of the kids that have to deal with this some advice.

 Some children are sad when someone says something to you like ”You are so dumb!” or”Why did you say that! You made us loose!”. Others for reasons like they are feeling left out, or they are physically or mentally being bullied. Those are all reasons why. The problem is, if they don’t let a parent know, then they’ll just be bullied the whole year, or more. If an adult doesn’t know, then there is no way to deal with it, and it might just get worse.

A way to deal with this is by talking about it. Don’t keep it to yourself, if you do, the outcome will not be good. Stick up for yourself. You don’t needANYONE bossing you around, pushing you around, or saying things that insult you. You have courage in you, and don’t hide it. If something happens outside on the playground, don’t just stand there. You can tell a teacher. Go ahead!

If something happens to you when you are not with an adult, you might have a problem. Here’s an example. Lets say you are in the mall with your friends and you got dropped of, no adults you know, or no parents. Something happens to you, but you don’t know what to do. Look for a phone. If you don’t have a cell phone, then there should be one there. Call a parent, and ask if you can get picked up. Tell your friends that you aren’t feeling very well, wait for your Mom or Dad to call you back and tell you they’re outside. Tell them goodbye, and then go to your car. There are other ways that you can handle this situation. It depends what happens to you. If all they do is call you a name like “stupid”, then ignore it, or say that it hurt your feelings. If they bully you, that’s a WHOLE different situation.

I hope this advice helps for those of you who need it. Everyone else, I’m so glad that there is nothing wrong. I hope that the people who need advice take this into consideration, and I hope that the problems end, and peace is on earth. Parents, I hope that you will be able to see your children smile. Have a great day, and stay out of trouble!

 

Image credits:

Peace Sign http://www.flickr.com/photos/fredmikerudy/4885331980/

Kids hugging http://jamma.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2006/5

 

Pretty terrific, no?

Here is one from a fourth grader named Yoni:

lying is going very serious in most schools, especially public schools.  The types of bulling are physical bullying, teasing, and cyber bullying.  Physical bullying is when someone is trying to hit you, and  hurt you.  Teasing is when someone is trying to mock you (making fun of you).  Cyber bullying is when someone says something bad to you on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, or on your E-mail.  In third grade, our class learned when someone teases you, or cyber bullies you, you will remember it for the rest of your life.  If you cyber bully, you can get yourself in big trouble.

I got experience physical bullying, and was teased by some people, but I did not get cyber bullied yet.  When someone teases me I feel very sad.  When I got physical bullied I had no choice, but to just defend myself.  I really do not like people bullying each other.  When people are not bullying me, but bullying someone else, I feel miserable.  Without bullying kids get a much better life.  Some people are sensitive from teasing, and cyber bullying.  I am sometimes sensitive when someone teases me, even if it is just a silly joke.

When you are about to hit someone, tease someone, or type something mean online; think before you do that!  A bully starts when someone bullied them.  If you see a bully, you would usually not see them by themselves.  You would see them with other people, because a bully is not strong in the inside; but a bully tries to feel strong.  Some kids get bullied in all ways physical bullying, teasing, and cyber bullying.  If you do nothing, a bully can still be very mean to you.  If you tease someone, or cyber bully someone it is also making fun of G-D, because G-D is inside everyone.  You do not want to make fun of G-D, because G-D is infinite times stronger than anyone.  If someone bullied you an any type, you should go to someone that got bullied in the same type, so he, or she can tell you how to stop the bully.  If a pack of bullies are surrounding you, and you cannot run away you have to fight back.  My dad told me if that happens fight the the leader first, because if you defeat the leader the rest of the pack will get scared, and leave you alone.   Only fight when you have no choice.  Bullies usually bully kids that are lonely, because it will be easier to bully them.  If a pack of bullies are bothering you and your friends, you, and your friends can say, “Leave him, or her alone! ”   That is a way to stop bullies.  If someone bullies you, you can tell an adult you trust, especially your parents, or your older sibling.  You can be friends with a bully, and help the bully to think before he is about to bully someone.

That is all about how to stop bullying.  Bullying happens in a lot of places.  You can stop bullying.  You can tell the principal to make a no bully zone.  If you have any question ask me, and I will tell you.  If you follow the ways to stop bullying it will help you.  Bye!

Do not Bully!

 

This is just the beginning…we still have to finish scoring the bulk of our surveys and report back (it isn’t through lack of effort, they are a bear to score).  But in two weeks we have seen our Day School students, Center clergy, Preschool parents, just to name three different constituencies make their first contributions to making us a community of kindness.  I look forward to sharing more examples and to having more examples shared with us.  This is no quick fix, but a struggle to ensure the safety and health of our children in all our sacred spaces.  Let’s keep the momentum going!  Keep blogging, Tweeting, posting on Facebook, commenting on blogs, emailing, sharing, talking, learning and caring.  Each act of lovingkindness builds on the next until one day we’ve created culture of caring in which acts of intentional harm are not viable – the day we become a Community of Kindness

May that day be soon.

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Transparency in the “Abstract”

I blogged here about what the impact of my successful completion of my Ed.D. from JTS might mean for my work as a practicing Head of School.  What I did not do, at that time, is share my work.  That is because although I had technically earned the degree with a successful defense of my dissertation, I was required to make “minor revisions”.  Those revisions were made over Winter Break, submitted, and accepted.  The dissertation is complete.

The final step in the process, is having that dissertation “published”.  Doctoral dissertations are published through ProQuest/UMI Dissertation Publishing and when you submit your dissertation you are required to choose between “Traditional” and “Open” publication.  “Traditional” means that only your abstract is available to read or download – anyone wishing to access the entire dissertation would need to pay.  “Open” means that the entire dissertation is available for reading or download.  Our school’s attitude towards transparency might lead you to conclude that I would have opted for “Open”.  I did not.

I may change my mind, but because I am unsure as to whether or not I wish to see my research published in another form, I have opted – somewhat uncomfortably – for the “traditional” mode of publication.  I write this with all due hubris; I am quite confident that there is no line of people awaiting my dissertation’s publication.  And I am very aware of the mild hypocrisy involved with insisting my school’s “product” be completely open and transparent, but my own “product” reserved only for those who choose to pay.  So, as I said…I might change my mind.

However, in honor of my dissertation’s official publication, I will post here, its abstract and offer anyone who might actually wish to read it, the opportunity to email me directly.  I would be happy for anyone who might be interested in this topic to have a chance to take from it what value there is to be found.

Next week?  Updates on edJEWcon 5772.0 and the results of our first-ever survey on bullying and its impacts.

THE FOUNDING OF THE “ZION ACADEMY” DAY SCHOOL,

2002 – 2007

ABSTRACT

JON MITZMACHER

In this study, I examine the founding and first five years of the Zion Academy Day School, which was created in 2002 as a new Schechter Network Day School to serve as the third Jewish day school for the Jewish community of San Marino, a fast growing community located in the Southwestern region of the United States.

The questions I sought to answer through this study were how theories of educational leadership impacted the founding of the school, and how the head of school’s understanding and implementation of leadership theories impacted growth.

To answer these questions, I examined all minutes and published documents of the school, interviewed many of the key stakeholders connected to the school to learn about its history, mission, and changes over its first five years, and analyzed the personal journals and autoethnographic writing selections of the founding head of school (the researcher). I framed my research in the context of the relevant literature. First, I placed Zion Academy within the history and current state of Jewish day school education and San Marino within the history of emerging Jewish communities; I then examined my data through the lenses provided by the literature on educational leadership, institutional politics and organizational culture.

My analysis of the data addresses the reasons behind Zion Academy’s founding and examines how and why Zion Academy grew and emerged over its first five years.  I found that over the course of Zion Academy’s first five years that its vision and culture were largely determined by best practice as determined from the university and professional programs that provided credentials to its founding head of school.  I found that Zion Academy’s culture was profoundly shaped by its relationships to other schools and institutions in its local community. I also found that leadership sometimes required spurning best practice and that risk-taking may also contribute to successfully founding a new Jewish day school.

Notions from #NAJDSCONF 5772

This seems to be the weeks of sequels!  Last week, I revised my love of Wordle with a second-annual graphic summary of a year’s worth of blog posts (here).  I am still waiting for comments (hint, hint parents & teachers!) to see how comparing the first and second Wordles reveals anything about a shift in emphasis or direction.  I love hearing that someone is reading the blog…I really love when someone comments on the blog.

This week, I will try to creatively share and reflect on my experiences in Atlanta from which I just returned from the North American Jewish Day School Conference.  This year’s theme was “Current Landscapes, Changing Horizons” and you can read all about the conference and find links to presentations and materials from the conference, here.  You can check out all the official conference tweets, which includes links, photos and videos not on the website, here.

Coming on the heels of another reflective blog post about Jewish day school conference attendance (here), I don’t want to be repetitive.  I did a fair amount of tweeting from the conference, which you can check out, by either clicking above to follow me on Twitter, or by clicking, here.  And you will find pictures, videos and thoughts from the conference that I may not get to in this blog post.

I attended the conference with our school’s 21st Century Learning Coordinator Andrea Hernandez and we co-presented a session on the first day called “21st Century Learning in Jewish Day Schools – A Conversation”.  It was well attended and augured well for the rest of our conference experience.  If you would like to see the presentation, you can click here and scroll down to the entry entitled “NAJDS”.

On Day 2, I had the pleasure to be a part of a panel discussion hosted by DeLeT on the topic of “Teacher Leadership”.  The rest of that day was spent exclusively with the Schechter Day School Network.  Sitting next to Andrea, I was captivated by a new app she was using and I immediately purchased it and started playing with.  As she says on her blog post from the conference,

 I am trying to build fluency with my iPad, so I used the Corkulus app to take notes. Not only do I feel that the practice was good for my iPad fluency, I am happy with the notes that I am able to share, not only here on my blog, but I was able to email the notes to the person sitting next to me, as well as others who were not at the session.

I spent the rest of the conference playing with it and loving it!  So, for something different, here is my summary of Day 2 of the conference via Corkulous:

Depending on how you are viewing this, I realize it may be a little blurry (even after clicking on it).  If you cannot blow it up, and would like to see it (or if you have the app and want me to email it to you in format), please feel free and email me directly.  It includes thoughts from a text study, the new branding initiative for the Schechter Network and DeLeT.

On Day 3, I had the honor of playing a (very) small part in Michael Mino’s morning keynote.  I don’t have permission to share the presentation, but I can share my small part of it, which you can find here under the heading “Mobile Learning”.

I spent lots of time networking about edJEWcon!  I suspect we will be fully enrolled by the end of the month.  I look forward to announcing the schools and partners who will be joining us for this exciting opportunity.  Our thanks again to The AVI CHAI Foundation for their generous support.  Stay tuned!

I closed the conference by live blogging a fascinating session on Games-Based Learning facilitated by Barry Joseph.  Here is my Corkulous-produced live blog from the session:

We are in the process of exploring bringing gaming theory into our repertoire of 21st century skills and literacies.  We are engaged in serious conversation with a few thought-partners in this field and look to make some announcements of new initiatives soon.

After the conference ended, I stayed on for an extra night to participate in a board meeting for the Schechter Day School Network.  Despite all the negative press, the future for Schechter is quite optimistic.  We struggle, as all Jewish and private schools do, in a down economy and increased competition.  But we also offer a unique and valued product.  Good things are coming.

All in all, it was a wonderful opportunity to learn, share, reflect, connect, collaborate, present and feel the power of being with over 600 people who care deeply about securing the Jewish future.  I plan to bring the positive energy and innovative ideas I got from this year’s conference back to help secure our own school’s future.

But tonight I rest…

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21st Century Conference Attendance – One Head’s Meta Experience

I spent this past Sunday through Tuesday attending the Day School Leadership Training Institute’s (DSLTI) Alumni Retreat in West Palm Beach, Florida.  It was the first conference I have attended this season, with at least two more coming up.  I will be in Atlanta, GA in January attending (and presenting) at the North American Jewish Day School Conference and we will be hosting edJEWcon 5772.0, right here at our school in May.  There have been years, when in addition to those, there might be other Jewish or secular conferences in education I have attended or presented at.  That is, admittedly, a lot of time to be out of my school and (particularly in this economy) a lot financial resources being spent for me to attend theses conferences and retreats.  It raises the very legitimate question, “Is it worth it for the school to have you attend or present at all of these conferences”?  My teachers, parents, students, board members, donors, etc., all have a very legitimate right to ask what benefits come from this investment.

I had thought (prior to the retreat) about writing a blog post describing what I would learn from the DSLTI Retreat with suggestions of ways it might impact my practice.  But then I remembered that I am supposed be Mr. 21st Century Learning and couldn’t I employ another method for delivering that content?

So…my first order of business was to ensure that I captured my experience of the retreat utilizing 21st century technologies.  We quickly developed a Twitter #hashtag to organize a back-channel for the retreat; for us to comment, and collaborate, and – for me – to experiment with using Twitter for my own personal professional development.  Every time I would have written a note, or typed a note, I sent a tweet.  For those who already follow me on Twitter (and you can click on the “Follow” button on my blog if you’d like to), it provided them with a running live experience of who I was listening to, what I was thinking, what questions it raised, and some cases what I was seeing (as I attached pictures to my tweets using my iPhone).

Whether you have a Twitter account or not, you can review the entire #DSLTI Twitter feed simply by clicking here or by going to www.twitter.com and searching for “#DSLTI”.  (You will notice that the conversation has continued past the conference – which means it was and will be a meaningful professional development vehicle.)  But for a taste, I am going to simply show you my tweets from the retreat.  [Warning: I have given this to you as snapshots – NONE of the links will work.  You would have to get that from going directly to Twitter.]  This is one answer to the question of what the experience meant to me:

So besides tweeting from the retreat, I also took “notes”.  Using the “Note Taker HD” app on my iPad, I was able incorporate my hand-written notes, typed notes, and photos.  Again, it may not all be legible (I am a doctor now) and it all may not make sense because I wasn’t writing it for public display, I do think it is useful to show for two reasons.  One, as above, is to ensure no one thought I spent my time sipping drinks by the pool.  But, it is also to provide some meta-analysis about the experience of attending a conference and how 21st century learning has impacted my experience.  It may also stimulate some thought about whether we need to train teachers or students about how they can adapt new ways of “taking notes” in a 21st century learning context.  Here’s what I came up:

The third thing I did was enter each new book I was stimulated to buy onto my Shelfari page, which you can see to your right on my blog as a widget or by clicking here.

I came back front the retreat jazzed up about what I had learned, how I had learned, and how I hope to have my practice informed by new learning.  I hope this blog post does a fraction of any of those things for you!

And if you are interested in where #DSLTI goes from here?  Follow us on Twitter!

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Leap of Faith – The Sequel

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!

“We left as a school and came back as a family.”

Wow.

That’s all I can say.  We got back yesterday from our four-day Middle School Retreat and it was everything you could hope for in a Jewish informal educational experience. We had learning, games, athletics, prayer, social bonding, community building, hiking, zip lines, a campfire, and a friendship circle to boot.  It felt like we squeezed a summer’s session of camp into just four days…and we are all tired enough to prove it!

After having spent a good chunk of time, in between catching up with the rest of the school, putting together a video of our experience, I will let the video to the talking – for this week.  I will likely have more to say next week when I’ve had a chance to properly process and reflect.

The flip camera was held by lots of hands and so I apologize to parents and students that not everyone made it in – it is not a reflection of anything other than happenstance.  We will more than make up for it with the photos to be published on our website soon.  It is, I hope, a taste of why this retreat is such an important part of our middle school.  Our relationships are forever changed – for the good.  We will be able to do things within the walls of the classrooms that we never would have without having spent time together outside of them.

I am now going to go home and rest.

Jewish Holiday-Palooza!

How many Jewish holidays can we pack into a two and a half day school week?

Lots!

We are doing our best to pack both the authentic celebrations of holidays we are in school for (as you will see below) and foretastes of holidays to come like the mini-Simchat Torah celebration we will have later today (of which I will not have time to make a mini-movie of due to the half-day schedule).

If a picture is worth a 1000 words…hopefully, a couple of short movies of our students living the Judaism we teach in the classrooms outside their walls will a blog post make!  Here’s a brief look at our week.  Enjoy!

And the fun doesn’t end today!  We hope to see many families celebrating the holidays that are to come this week – especially Simchat Torah!  Don’t miss this opportunity to celebrate the gift of Torah – and to let your children see you enjoy the love of Judaism.

Monday?  Off on our Middle School Retreat!  I’ll blog all about it when I get back.

Chag sameach!

Marching with Fruits & Vegetables (5772 Remix)

We are deep into the holidays!  We have come out of Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur and headed straight into Sukkot.  It is amongst my favorite times of the year.

Not because we have a half-day and I have to sprint out of here to buy ingredients for cholent, finish my sukkah, and get ready for the holiday am I going to revise and update a blog post that I originally wrote last year here.  I am going to revise and update that blog post because I don’t know how to say what I want to say during this time of year any differently…and because I don’t imagine the issues it raises will markedly be different this year (but I am open to being wrong!).

So…without further adieu…

I love Sukkot!  Talk about “A Floor, But No Ceiling”!

This is absolutely my favorite holiday of the entire year.  There is nothing else like it on the Jewish Calendar – sitting outside in a sukkah you built yourself (which I actually did this year!), with handmade decorations from your children, enjoying good food with friends and family in the night air, the citrusy smell of etrog lingering and mixing with verdant lulav – this is experiential Judaism at its finest.

But here is a complicated truth: Even though our school will be closed on Thursday and Friday for Sukkot, it is reasonable to assume that the majority of our students will not be found in synagogue enjoying what is known as “The Season of our Rejoicing”.  But many or most were in synagogue last weekend for Yom Kippur.  So when it comes to “atoning” we have a full house, but for “rejoicing” we have empty seats?

If our children – if we – only experience the Judaism of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and not the Judaism of Sukkot, the simple truth is that we are not exposing them to the full range of beauty and joy our tradition has to offer.  So why, in fact, is this what typically happens?

I’m not entirely sure, but I think it has to do with the exotic nature of the holiday.  As someone who did not grow up celebrating this holiday, upon coming to synagogue as an adult and watching a congregation march in circles waving fruits and vegetables – well this was not the Judaism I knew!  Truth be told, there are surely pagan accretions to the way that we honor the harvest roots of this holiday which may seem alien to the typical prayerbook service.  But for me, that is precisely what makes it so unique, special and not-to-be-missed!

No one likes to feel uncomfortable and adults especially are wary of feeling uneducated or unprepared.  I know how I felt encountering Jewish ritual for the first time as an adult – it was scary.  I, however, was lucky.  I was pursuing a degree in Jewish education and, therefore, had all the support and resources I needed to learn and grow.  I realize that most adults coming at Jewish practice for the first time (or the first time in a while) are not so lucky.  The amount of “stuff” Judaism asks of us to do – building the sukkah with precise specifications, shaking the lulav and etrog in the proscribed way, chanting less-familiar prayers, coming to synagogue on unfamiliar days – can be overwhelming.

But don’t lose the forest through the trees…I’d simply ask you to consider this: When building your child’s library of Jewish memories, which memory feels more compelling and likely to resonate over time – sitting in starched clothes in sanctuary seats or relaxing with friends and family in an outdoor sukkah built with love and care?

You don’t have to choose just one, of course, that is the beauty of living a life of sacred time – there is a rhythm to the Jewish calendar, evocative and varied.  Come to synagogue for the High Holidays, to be sure.  But don’t miss out on Sukkot (or Simchat Torah or Shavuot or “Add Jewish Holiday Here”).  Let this Sukkot truly be the season of our great rejoicing.  I hope to see many students in synagogue this Sukkot.  I hope to see many parents push themselves out of their comfort zones and join the parade.  Pick up your fruit and vegetables and march with us in a circle.

Chag sameach.

It isn’t just good education; it’s good business.

I feel similarly to how many synagogue presidents must feel heading into Kol Nidre this evening as I prepare to write my first business blog nearing the eve of Yom Kippur!  The rationale is hardly the same.  Synagogues reserve Yom Kippur for their annual “High Holiday appeals” because this is the time they have the most people in the seats, not necessarily because the message of fundraising fits with the theme of atonement.  I do not presume that as families are preparing for the holiday that I will have a similarly huge burst in blog readership!

A personal note…

…apropos of the time of year.  Let me take this opportunity to offer my sincerest apologies to anyone whom I may have hurt or offended over the past year.  Let us forgive each other (and ourselves) for our all-too-human foibles and pledge to make this new (Jewish) year one of growth and community-building.

And now to the topic at hand…

I have been asked by our good friends at the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE) to become a guest blogger on the topic off  “How 21st century Jewish education is an issue of financial sustainability?”  First off, thanks to my new, good (and for now virtual) friend Ken Gordon, PEJE’s fantastic Social Media Manager for the opportunity!  I’m excited to wrestle with that question and share my thoughts with colleagues in the field.  [My posts with PEJE will appear here on their home page for blogs impacting the Jewish day school field.  I recommend the page for regular viewing or subscription if you are interested in the field.  I am cross-posting this first one in my own blog as a trial run.]

From PEJE’s 2009 strategic plan, they define “financial sustainability” as “increasing the resources available to schools and professionalizing the development capacity”.  This is part of PEJE’s overall shift in mission from an organization dedicated to growing the number of Jewish day schools to an organization dedicated to sustaining Jewish day schools.  (I’m oversimplifying a bit.)  So…how can being a 21st century Jewish day school increase resources and professionalize development capacity?

As I have been thinking about this question, my initial reaction is to try to avoid providing obvious answers.  If this is, however, to be my introductory blog post on this topic, I do want to share my initial thoughts on the subject because they may be crossing your minds as well.  This was my off-the-top-of-my-head response when Ken first asked me to blog on the topic:

…to me it fits very much with why we feel 21st century learning is so vital – with increased competition from Hebrew charter schools, independent schools, and suburban public schools AND a perilous economy – we have to brand Jewish day schools as being the kind of school most likely to provide a high-quality 21st century learning experience – that we are the future of SECULAR education because we are JEWISH.

Totally flips the script on prospective parents.  “Too Jewish?”  No such thing.  Parents looking for excellence in 21st century education should be more concerned with “Jewish enough?”

Now the truth is that I could not be more passionate about this idea.  Over the last year and change of my current headship, I have seen firsthand the power of 21st century learning in action and have been convinced that this is the only viable path forward for Jewish (particularly non-Orthodox) day schools.  To be financially sustainable really only (!) requires two consistent streams of revenue: tuition and fundraising.  You can only increase tuition revenue by adding students.  You can only add students if you have a great product.  So if embracing 21st century learning values increases the quality of your product, being such a school should drive enrollment and, thus, tuition revenue up.

And I absolutely believe this to be the case.  But as a philosophical concept, it doesn’t really answer the question.  Because all I’ve done is suggest that if you want your school to be really successful it should be a really good school.  You don’t need me to point that out.  The more interesting question, to me, is how being a 21st century Jewish learning institution impacts the business of schooling?  What I am interested in exploring through these occasional blog posts is how we can apply the pedagogies of 21st century learning to the managerial and business aspects of running a Jewish day school to ensure they maximize financial sustainability as defined above.

[Disclosure: I have been the head of two Jewish day schools owned and operated by synagogues.  Neither school has a dedicated “Development Director” or a “Business Manager” or a “Department of Institutional Advancement.”  Both schools outsource a fair amount of their business functions.  I do have an MBA from the American Jewish University, which has come in extraordinarily handy in light of those two prior sentences.  So the good and the bad is that I have, as a head of school, had a fair amount of experience doing development and business operations without a lot of the training.  I am particularly interested in seeing how development directors, business managers, fundraisers, etc., respond to the ideas I am proposing.]

What are the 21st century pedagogies I am suggesting be applied to the business of schooling?

Transparency, collaboration, technology, reflection, global connectedness, authenticity, and prosumerism (which I will define as the paradigm shift wherein the learner is the producer, not the consumer, of content.)

How can these ideas increase the sustainability of Jewish day schools?

Please lend your voice to the conversation – comment freely and often or email me directly ([email protected]) if you are still a bitsocial media shy.  With your feedback, I look forward to exploring these and other ideas at the nexus of 21st century learning and financial stewardship that will be focus of this yet-to-be-named blog to be published however-often!