Transparency Files – Page 8 – A Floor, But Not a Ceiling

The Transparency Files: Annual Parent Survey

After making transparent the results of my own evaluation by both myself and my faculty, it is time to turn to our other annual survey: the Annual Parent Survey. [For comparison sake, you are welcome to explore last year’s reflection.]

I will try to highlight any trends I see over the years as well as indicate anything of import in this year’s survey.

The first trend is that this year more parents (32 vs 22 vs. 39 vs. 64) filled out surveys! This is the first time the number has gone up, although it is still a low number considering this represents the number of students whose parents filled them out. (Remember, it isn’t that 32 separate parents took the survey. It is the parents of 32 students (many of whom are siblings) who took the survey.

Possible explanations for ongoing low turnout?

Families could be thrilled with what’s going on. Families could be resigned that the results are not taken seriously enough to invest the time in. There could be a certain amount of apathy. Or perhaps we are not marketing the surveys enough.

Possible explanations for slightly higher turnout this year?

Families could be more satisfied or unsatisfied than last year. Families may believe that the results are taken seriously enough to invest the time in.

Regardless, we have the data we have, so in the spirit of hoping to learn from whatever there is to learn…let’s move on to the results.

This actually maps pretty well to last year’s distribution once you take into account class size. Let’s look at the BIG PICTURE:

The score is still promising, although a bit lower. On a scale of 1-10, our average score wound up being a 7.8. Last year we scored an 8.0. It is a fairly stable score – especially considering the sample – but definitely leaves us some room to grow. Let’s dig deeper.

[If you would like to see the full text of the questions, I need to refer you back to last year’s blog post. Our survey software changed and I cannot create a clean graph that has the full labels written out. For consistency sake, I like using the same survey each year, but we may revisit this in the future.]

When it comes to communication, we dipped down almost a full point in just about every category (except electronic communication). The biggest drop came in providing opportunities for parents to be involved in student learning (which was the highest improvement last year after having been the lowest one the prior year). Another decrease – and one that takes me by surprises – was in parent-teacher conferences, which this year saw us expand our Student-Led Conferences from Grades 4-5 to Grades 4-8. Feedback we received specific to those conferences was positive, so I would have imagined scoring better here. We will have to go back and be sure we are being clear in what our expectations are in the new format and whether we are meeting them. I am additionally disappointed considering our renewed emphasis on “Community of Kindness” that our sense of being welcoming dropped. I do wonder if this is a result of increased expectations, which should only stimulate us to reach higher. And one place to keep working appears to be ongoing communication about children’s academic status.

All in all, it is a disappointment to see us drop in this area and we will need to do our due diligence in reflecting and planning to do better. [I will have a thought at the end about what this all means in light of being in transition to a new head of school.]

I know it is a little crowded, so let me break down some of the highlights.

Let me unpack the non-subject specific areas first:

Very similar to above, everything is down about a point.
One category worth watching is homework. We have completely revised the homework guidelines and philosophy this year and I will be very curious to see how this changes in next year’s survey.

General Studies:

The big picture remains stable (as does our overall school satisfaction number).
Continue to be pleased with the impact of Singapore Math and look to see next year what the impact of expanded use of the Daily 5 will be.
The greatest jump up was in Science! I will attribute this having a first-time, full-time K-8 Science Instructor.
But there is still room to grow. Writing took a drop. Don’t know if this is connected to our iPad initiative and what the perception of that is on “writing”, but I do know that writing is a critical skill and we either need to do a better job hitting our writing benchmarks and/or we need to do a better job (as it says above) communicating to parents about what we are doing in this curricular area.

Jewish Studies, Resources and Extracurricular Activities:

Our marks in all these areas are up from last year! Perhaps the renewed commitment to Hebrew immersion has finally kicked in, but our Jewish Studies marks are way up and that is something to be proud of!
All our resources are up and even our extracurricular activities went up! We have had new offerings this year and hopefully they are something we can continue to build on.

So there you have it for 2013-2014!

Thanks to all the parents who took the time and care to fill out surveys. In addition to the multiple choice questions, there were opportunities for open-ended responses. They added an additional layer of depth; one which is difficult to summarize for a post like this. But please know that all comments will be shared with those they concern as we use this data to make enhancements and improvements headed into next year. This is especially true in a year of transition.

As I begin to work with Rabbi Rogozen to prepare for his assumption of this headship, my hope and my prayer is simple…

Everything that we already do well, I hope under Rabbi Rogozen’s leadership we continue to do and do even better. And in each area that we have room to grow, I hope with Rabbi Rogozen’s experience and expertise we grow and grow demonstrably. I will surely share my thoughts as my time here draws to a close about what we accomplished and experienced together while I was here. But as a returning parent and as someone who cares deeply about this school, my thoughts about the future could not be more clear – let it only be better and brighter than today…and I am confident that it will!

The Transparency Files: Evaluation of Self

How great was it to have everyone back after Passover Break! Super great! A school without students is just a building…it is good to be back and headed towards the home stretch! The final quarter of school has begun…

And so, I would like to begin my annual series of “Transparency Files” blog posts which begins with my own evaluation, soon moves to reveal the results of this year’s Parent Survey, follows with a discussion on this year’s standardized testing results and concludes with a conversation about next year’s faculty and schedule.

We are in that “evaluation” time of year! As Head of the Day School, I have the responsibility for performing the evaluation of staff and faculty each year. [As Head of Academy, I have the responsibility for performing evaluation of school heads each November.] Fittingly, they have an opportunity to do the same of me. Our annual Faculty Survey presents current teachers and staff with the opportunity to provide anonymous feedback of my performance as head of school. Please know that it is sent unedited to the Head Support & Evaluation Committee as part of their data collection for my evaluation.

If you want to see context, I invite you begin with last year’s blog post. This year’s self-evaluation is based on new goals for this year. You will not find a complete laundry list of my day to day responsibilities. Nor will you find my goals as Head of Academy. (I intend to reflect on my second year as Head of Galinsky Academy in an upcoming post.) Here, then, are selected components from my self-evaluation for the 2013-2014 MJGDS academic year:

Extend dedicated science instruction throughout the lower school of MJGDS.

Building upon one of our major accomplishments from last year was ensuring our students in the lower school (K-5) had the requisite amount of science instruction according national standards for science education. This year we hired our first-ever, full-time K-8 Science Instructor! Mrs. Jaffa has ably stepped into the shoes left behind by our long-time Middle School Science Teacher, Mrs. Burkhart, while beginning to create her own unique identity. And she has significantly raised the bar in our Lower School, ensuring that love of science begins at the youngest grades. “Science” is the “S” in “STEM” and we are pleased that it is becoming one of our strengths.

Whack-A-Haman

Our work with Jewish Interactive was a huge success! Students researched and gathered the Jewish content to be included in their game, developed a curriculum and learning objectives, scripted an instructional game design, and developed characters and graphics. Every step of the process was supported and guided by the team and educators at MJGDS and the Jewish Interactive team. We see this is an exciting new direction which ties together so much of what excites us about education – student ownership of learning, Jewish and General Studies integration, differentiated instruction, gaming theory, etc.

We hit our goal of over 1,000 downloads and are now dreaming new dreams!

Habits of Kindness

“Community of Kindness” made a great slogan and a lousy call to action. We all recognized the need to be more “kind” and to ensure that our community acted with increased “kindness” to all…but what exactly do you do?

The first strategic decision was to pull the initiative in-house (last year we worked in partnership with Jewish Family & Community Services) and give the position to a full-time employee with knowledge, experience and relationships that transcend the academy, and so we named Stephanie Teitelbaum as our Galinsky Academy Community of Kindness Coordinator.

To further answer that question and to provide us with a common vision, language and set of behaviors we turned to a well-researched set of habits, seven of them to be exact.

With a huge assist from Andrea Hernandez, who had been quietly encouraging this for at least five years, we went ahead and adopted and adapted The Leader in Me.

We began at Faculty Pre-Planning when we held a joint session of DuBow Preschool and Martin J. Gottlieb Day School Faculty introducing the big idea and how we plan to proceed. Teachers of similar ages and grades were led through brainstorming activities on how to incorporate the first two habits as it is our plan, beginning in September, to focus each month on one habit. [The Bernard and Alice Selevan Religious School and Makom Hebrew High came on board as they opened up.] We began introducing the “habit of the month” at assemblies led by our middle school students. Activities were grade and age appropriate and included stories, lessons and resources. Parents were able to find evidence of how the habits came to life on school websites, classroom blogs, and student blogfolios.

Student Advisory

This year at MJGDS, we implemented a new Advisory Program. Each student in Grades 4-8 was assigned a teacher or staff member to assist the student in achieving his/her academic and personal goals. The advisor is an advocate to address personal, spiritual, social, and academic issues for each child.

What are the benefits of a student advisor?

Advisory offers emotional support for students. Social networks at this age can be extremely difficult for children. The advisor will supply support in challenging social and academic situations. The advisor will also provide a system to help new students acclimate to our school.

The advisor is someone the student knows s/he can trust and talk to about his/her progress in school. Advisors will help promote self-esteem and security. The advisor will become an additional contact person for parents, increasing their involvement, which is linked to student achievement at all levels. Each advisor is responsible for particular students, and each student will report concerns to their assigned advisor.

Homework

We went through a thorough revision of our homework vision, philosophy, guidelines and are continuing an implementation conversation to ensure that what homework we do give is authentic, meaningful, and of appropriate length of time.

Those are just some highlights…as has been my custom, you will also get an honest look at my shortcomings when I incorporate data from the Faculty and Parent Surveys in upcoming posts. Additionally, I will be sharing the unedited version of my self-evaluation as well as the unedited version of their evaluation of me on our faculty ning. Hopefully it will spark further opportunities for conversation and growth.

The Transparency Files: Homework Wars III – Return of the Homework

You may recall that in Episode I, which came out 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.

In Episode II, which came out in late January, I blogged about the process our faculty had gone through to create a new philosophy and set of guidelines for homework at the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School:

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. 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 and I shared it in Episode II.

The final step in the process was and is, perhaps, the most important and complicated – implementation. Every teacher wants to and believes he or she is giving important and authentic homework. Every teacher wants to and believes he or she is giving homework of appropriate length and content. And yet…every teacher struggles to make those beliefs come true. What does it really mean for homework to be “authentic”? How can we be sure that the assignments we give are essential, necessary, meaningful and time-respectful?

Those questions we began to answer at our April Faculty Meeting. And in true MJGDS style, we utilized what is fast becoming a favorite pedagogy of ours: Speed Geeking! This time we selected five faculty representing different grades and different subjects who are experimenting with authentic homework and we “Homework Geeked”.

Like any “geeking” experience, it was both too quick and not quick enough. Faculty had enough time to get the basic idea from each Homework Geeker and to start to explore how that idea may or may not translate to their grade/subject, but not enough time for deeper engagement. We got to experience a range of ideas from badge learning for Lower School Math Enrichment to VoiceThread for Jewish Studies to flipped learning for Middle School Math to authentic reading as part of a Daily 5 philosophy (that we are going to extend school-wide next year) to family engagement for Kindergarten Social Studies.

And as we went around each table, there were a whole host of other great examples and ideas put on the table and shared. All faculty were asked to continue the conversation and the sharing on our Faculty Ning. Faculty were also asked to think about other ideas that go along with an implementation strategy such as…

How will teachers who share a grade communicate with each other about daily homework to ensure appropriate time management?
How will we coordinate quizzes, tests and other major projects that – along with daily homework – must not only pass the “authenticity” test, but must also be factored into appropriate time management?
How will we solicit feedback from students and parents to ensure that our time expectations are accurate?
How will communicate with parents so they will understand our homework philosophy, guidelines and implementation strategy in order to be the critical partners we need to achieve success?

As we head into the final quarter of the school year, answering these questions will hopefully bring peace to the “Homework Wars” and usher in a new age of “Homework Authenticity”! Stay tuned…

The Transparency Files: Budget is an Expression of Jewish Values

We have a saying here at Galinsky Academy: “If you really want to know what we value most, you only have to look in two places – the schedule and the budget.”

And it is true; there are no more valuable resources than our time and our money. How we decide to allocate them is, therefore, the truest test of our values. All the rest is commentary, as they say…

I have spent the last couple of months working with our school heads, the synagogue’s executive leadership, and a variety of lay committees on the 2014-2015 budget. It is as rigorous and exhaustive a process as it to be, because there is nothing more critical to our mission than ensuring the longterm financial viability of our Academy and its schools. We cannot provide the extraordinary secular and Jewish education that we do from age 1 to grade 12 in our Academy’s four schools – the DuBow Preschool, the Bernard and Alice Selevan Religious School, the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School, and Makom Hebrew High – if we become financially insoluble.

Why is it critical that there be a Galinsky Academy?

Ask them:

That video was created as part of this year’s L’dor V’dor Annual Campaign (LDVD). This is the magical time of year where we are both working hard to close this year’s campaign to fulfill our current budget expectations AND determining the expectations to satisfy next year’s budget with all it represents for our children and our community. Why give?

Well, that is one reason.

In an average year, endowments and tuition cover only 80% of the cost to provide each student’s education at Galinsky Academy. Annual giving provides the crucial margin of excellence that distinguishes education at the Galinsky Academy.

Here’s another:

The budget of Galinsky Academy essentially has four levers that matter: Tuition & Fundraising on the revenue side and Salaries & Scholarships on the expense side.

That’s the budget.

For our stakeholders, I can assure you that our budget has long been trimmed of fat. We spend as little as necessary without sacrificing the integrity of our schools and trying (but not always succeeding) our best to compensate our teachers as fairly as we can. As the economy’s impact took hold in our community, we have seen legitimate scholarship need skyrocket and have had to match it with increased fundraising to keep pace so that we do not have turn away students from families who desire a Galinsky Academy education and genuinely cannot afford the full tuition. All four of our schools have seen this rise in scholarship need and all four of our schools have benefited from LDVD funds to meet it (and at MJGDS a critical annual allocation from Federation).

Any other reasons annual giving is so important?

Here’s a few more:

LDVD will allow the Galinsky Academy to continue building upon several important priorities…

Supports the efforts of our teachers, providing them professional growth experiences and ever expanding resources and curriculum.
Provides students a chance to experience the integration of technology in the educational process and to understand its relevance to life in the 21st century.
Provides a “silent scholarship” for every student by supplementing tuition dollars to develop bold and inspiring programs.
Provides meaningful experiential learning and character-building opportunities both in the classroom and in the community.

If we treat our budget as the most honest expression of our Jewish values, then it is critical that the above and more find its way in to all the schools of Galinsky. As we approach the two-year anniversary of our Academy’s founding, perhaps it is worthwhile to remember who we named our Academy after and why…

Samuel and Esther Galinsky were, by all accounts, modest and unassuming members of the Jacksonville Jewish Center. They participated in synagogue life and were respected members of the congregation. They cared about Jewish education, but had no children of their own. They were, in many ways, like any other couple. When they died, their friends mourned their passing. And that should be the end of the story. But it isn’t. Because this ordinary couple did something extraordinary. With no fanfare and no notice, Samuel and Esther Galinsky left the Center amongst the most significant gifts it has ever received – $3 million. And it was given for one purpose – this childless couple gave their fortune to ensure that Jewish children would be able to have a Jewish education. Has there even been a more selfless gift? Have any people ever more embodied the idea of L’dor V’dor?

And so it is in the spirit of this gift – of that remarkable couple – that we officially announce the creation of what will forever now be known as “Galinsky Academy”.

To those who have given to help secure the Jewish future of Jacksonville, thank you. To those who have not yet given, but plan to, thank you in advance.

To those who typically do not give, but are capable…

Let this be the year you are counted. L’dor v’dor.

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!

The Transparency Files: Homework Wars

This is the 150th (!) blog post of “A Floor, But No Ceiling” and amazingly, to me, in a search of all my blog posts, I cannot find one that deals with “homework”. I guess denial is not just a river in Egypt…it is a river in Jacksonville, Florida!

Disclaimer: In addition to being the head of school, I am married to a public school teacher and am a parent of a 3rd Grader and an Kindergartner. “Homework Wars” do not describe my parental situation with homework. Whether that is a function of my children, their particular teachers, our particular family dynamic, or blind luck, I couldn’t say, but “homework” is not a daily or any other kind of struggle in my household. (Knock on keyboard.)

Why the disclaimer?

I guess because I want to be sensitive to any unconscious biases I may bring to the table in this conversation. We have excellent teachers who do not have children of their own. But I think it would be dishonest to suggest that lacking a parent’s perspective never has consequences for teachers who have not lived at home the impact of schooling. There are some things you can only learn through experience and if not through experience, through the willingness to learn from other’s experiences.

So I admit that as a parent, I am presently satisfied with the amount and the quality of homework being brought home by my children. That does not make it objectively true. As a head of school of a K-8, however, I am well familiar with concerns and complaints about both the amount and the quality of homework. And the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School is in an excellent position to tackle the subject…

Important Segue:

I have used this blog to document our school’s 21st century learning journey and all the associated initiatives we have taken on to get from there to here to the future. For anyone who has not been along for the ride, in celebration of my 150th blog post, here is my starter’s collection to be fully caught up with who we are and where we think we are going:

The MJGDS 21st Century Learning Journey in 13 Blog Posts

Transparency
Standardized Testing
edJEWcon
Inclusion
Financial Sustainability
Gaming Theory
Habits of Kindness
Reflective Practice
EdCamp
Learning Target
Second Language Acquisition
Experiential Education
Blogfolios

…here in year four of our work together.

It is reasonable to conclude that there are various philosophies about what the purpose of homework ought to be and that there is ample research to be found supporting just about them all. For our school, however, the conversation comes with a context. Considering who we are and what we believe to be true about teaching and learning, what ought to be the role of homework here?

Like all preceding vital conversations, this one has begun with our 21st Century Learning Team and will continue on with our teachers, parents and students before being concretized in final form.

What is our current policy?

We have a simple 10 minutes per grade level (outside of reading) formula for estimating the appropriate time it should take a typical student to complete his or her homework.

Part of the impetus for taking this on is that not only does that policy seem not to hold true often enough, it fails to address the why’s and what’s of homework. It only speaks to, “how much?” We can do better.

The purpose of the MJGDS Homework Policy, once re-imagined, will be 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 will need to address the purposes of homework, amount and frequency, and the responsibilities of teachers, students, parents, and administrators.

The MJGDS Homework Policy will be based on research regarding the correlation between homework and student achievement as well as best practices for homework.

Without having had all the conversations we will be having, I do think based on the conversations we have had, that there are philosophical conclusions consistent with who we are that we can put up front that will inform the policy once complete.

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. Homework will serve to deepen student learning and enhance understanding. Homework should be consistent with the school’s “Learning Target” and strive to incorporate creativity, critical thinking, authenticity, and student ownership.

We understand today’s busy schedules and demands on parent and student time. Most learning is done in school, but as is the case with our learning of a foreign language and learning to read, reasonable and age-appropriate practice and repetition is exceptionally beneficial in other certain subject areas.

There are also some commonsense practices we believe will help to 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.

…..it is on a consistent schedule. It can help busy students and parents remember to do assignments when they are consistent.

…..it is explicitly related to the classwork.

…..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.

This is not to suggest that we are not presently trying to live up to the above in our current practice. But it is to suggest that our written policy fails to provide teachers, parents or students with sufficient guidance to insure that all students in all grades are doing appropriate homework – appropriate quality, appropriate content and appropriate length.

As with every other initiative or project we undertake at MJGDS, our conversation and conclusions about homework will be done collaboratively and transparently. We look forward to our local conversations, to doing the work, and to sharing it out when done.

My First Twitter Cloud

Every now and again, I find it refreshing to focus my blog post around a visual image – sometimes it is a picture that explains better than any words I could choose about a powerful experience taking place in our school. But it sometimes is a word cloud. A “word cloud” takes any piece of written text and represents it graphically in a way which highlights frequently-used words. It is a fantastic device for visually summarizing the essence of a written text. Many of the programs that create word clouds allow you to enter a website, a blog, etc., and it will go ahead and create a word cloud visually summarizing which content mattered most over a bounded period of time.

I have used Wordle to create word clouds of this blog and analyzed the results.

I have used Tagxedo to create a word cloud of our Parent Handbook and analyzed the results.

Today, I want to use Tweet Cloud to create a word cloud of my Twitter feed.

Why?

Because I use Twitter exclusively for professional development and I am interested and seeing what it reveals about what I have been interested in since the beginning of this school year.

So…what does my Tweet Cloud (“t” is for “Twitter”) look like?

What do I notice?

“Habits” and “Kindness” are big ticket items. This reflects not just what we are doing internally about this, but what I have been reading professionally and asking my professional learning network about – the two primary things I use Twitter for.

What do you notice? Anything surprising you see? Anything surprising that you don’t see?

Next week, I am off to Camp Ramah Darom for our annual Middle School Retreat. The last few years I have been able to stay awake long enough on the Friday to edit my video and publish. I hope to do the same next week!

Shofar, So Good!

The very first thing we do at the beginning of each school year is gather together as a school community and celebrate the ceremony of Havdalah. Havdalah literally means “separation” and is the ceremony that marks the transition between Shabbat and the weekday. Because of its length (short), melody, and prominence in Jewish camping, Havdalah is a relatively popular ritual even with those who are less ritually observant. Part of what makes any ritual powerful is its ability to infuse the everyday with transcendent meaning. My small way to lend transcendence to the typical “Back to School” assembly is to use the power of Havdalah to help mark the transition between summer and the start of school.

And so this past Monday morning, the students and faculty of the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School marked the transition between the summer that was and the school year that is presently unfolding with a heartfelt Havdalah.

I told my faculty during “Pre-Planning Week” that I had never been this excited for the start of a school year in my 9 years as a head of school. All the work of the last three years combined with a cast of talented, dedicated, loving, enthusiastic returning and new teachers has led us to this point. We are as ready as we have ever been to deliver on the the promise of “a floor, but no ceiling”. And this first week has more than lived up to my expectations.

It has been wonderful to walk the school, to feel the positive energy oozing through the walls and see the smiling faces of our students and parents. As we say this time of year, “Shofar so good!”

Our newest faculty members are acquitting themselves with great aplomb and our returning teachers have plenty of new tricks up their sleeves to mix with their tried and true excellence. We are focused on ensuring that we take the time at the beginning of the year to create classroom communities of kindness under the leadership of our new Community of Kindness Coordinator Stephanie Teitelbaum. We are paying extra attention to lunch and recess to make sure the good work of the classroom teachers don’t full through the cracks of unstructured time.

The first week of our new 1:1 iPad program in Grades 4 & 5 has been a success (with the normal amount of confusion newness brings) and the addition of a full-time K-8 Science Teacher has already raised the bar for science education at MJGDS. And in my meetings with faculty to discuss their professional development plans for the year, I can see the impact their summer reading is already having on their practice.

Confession.

I don’t think I am alone in this, but I will admit that in the eight prior years of being a head of school, that whenever I had the time to do a school walk-through, in addition to all the positive things I was hoping to see…a part of me was always steeled for the possibility of the things I was hoping not to see. If a principal is honest, s/he knows which teachers s/he has concerns about, which students s/he is worried about, and, yes, which parents s/he has difficulty with. We don’t share that information with anyone, but in our hearts we know the score. And we go into each year optimistic that those problem areas will improve, but realistic that there will inevitably be fires to be put out.

I took my first walk-through of this school year yesterday.

I visited each classroom. I saw every facet of our curriculum. I saw each teacher. I saw every space. It took me about a half-hour before I could put my finger on what was different this time around. And then I realized that the small sinking feeling of the possibility of something going wrong that typically accompanies me on my walk-through’s was absent! Room after room, teacher after teacher, activity after activity, student after student…it all looked…like how it was supposed to. It has taken us four years, but it just might be possible that we have finally begun to become the school we have all worked so hard and with such positive energy to become!

I am no pollyanna. Things are going to go wrong during the course of the year. We will still have behaviors to correct, programs to improve, teachers to grow, parents to connect, lessons to be learned, and yes, probably a few fires (metaphorical ones this year!) to put out. But if the next thirty-nine weeks go as well this one, the 2013-2014 school year will, indeed, be a very special one.

To everything there is a season…

Life does move on…

A friend who came last week to pay a shivah call who had recently lost a parent of his own, shared with me that although you would think the goal of shivah is to provide the mourner with ample quiet time to grieve, reflect and reminisce; that, in fact, it is to exhaust the mourner to such a stark degree that any return to normalcy is welcome. I do not believe that explanation is sourced in Jewish tradition, but I do second the emotion.

And so I have returned to school, to work, to synagogue and to life. Return is bittersweet – I am glad to be home and welcome the opportunity for meaningful work to fill the void grief left behind. But it also makes it way too easy to forget that I am still grieving. I am embracing Jewish grieving rituals – continuing to wear the keriah after transitioning from the shivah to the sheloshim, attending minyan daily to recite the Mourner’s Kaddish, refraining from participating in overly social or joyous occasions, etc., – because they provide opportunities to remind me that I did, indeed, lose my father and to reflect upon all that that means. And after sheloshim comes the rest of a year of mourning…and I will explore how I intend to commemorate that phase when I enter it a few weeks hence. But now it is time to turn my attention back to matters at hand and what is at hand is the beginning of an exciting school year at the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School as faculty and staff prepare to return on Monday (!) for an action-packed “Pre-Planning Week”.

The Transparency Files: Pre-Planning Week

At the beginning of the summer, I blogged about our expectations and plans for faculty to use their summertime for professional growth. I blogged about my summer reading and how it has impacted my thinking heading into another year. In the spirit of transparency, I would like to share with you what we will be thinking about and working on next week – a week dedicated to ensuring the first day, week, month, etc., of the 2013-2014 school year is full of wonder, discovery, meaning and success for our students.

Here’s the scoop:

Monday, August 12th

9:30 – 10:00 AM Continental Breakfast & Welcome Activities

10:00 – 11:00 AM Team-Building Activities – The Transition Cafe

11:00 – 12:30 PM Work in Classrooms

12:30 – 2:00 PM PTA Preschool & Day School Lunch & Teambuilding

2:00 – 3:30 PM Lower School & Middle School Faculty Meetings

Tuesday, August 13th

8:45 – 9:00 AM IT

9:00 – 9:30 AM Student Advisory

9:30 – 11:30 AM “7 Habits”

11:30 – 12:30 PM Student Advisor Meeting & New Faculty IT

12:30 – 1:30 PM Lunch & Learn w/Rabbi Olitzky

1:30 – 2:00 PM HR w/ DuBow Preschool Faculty

2:00 – 3:30 PM Work in Classrooms

Wednesday, August 14th

8:30 – 9:30 AM Brunch & Learn w/Rabbi Lubliner

9:30 – 10:30 AM Summer Book Club Groups

10:30 – 11:30 AM “Square Peg” Alum & Mom

11:30 – 12:30 PM Lunch [JS Faculty Working Lunch]

12:30 – 3:00 PM Hebrew Faculty Webinar

12:30 – 3:30 PM Work in Classrooms

Thursday, August 15th

8:30 – 9:30 AM How to talk to parents about “Square Pegs”

9:30 – 10:15 AM “Wonder”

10:15 –12:00 PM Work in Classrooms / MS Faculty Meeting

12:00 – 1:00 PM Lunch

1:00 – 3:30 PM LS “Meet the Teachers” & MS Work in Classrooms

Friday, August 16th

8:00 – 9:00 AM Final Nuts & Bolts

8:30 – 11:45 AM Middle School Orientation

9:00 – 9:30 AM Final Fine Tuning

9:30 –12:00 PM Work in Classrooms

A few things jump out at me…

You can see that Square Pegs has taken on a life larger just one of the books from the Summer Book Club. A number of teachers and administrators have read it and we believe its message has great resonance for our school.

You can see our belief that the 7 Habits may provide a common language for students and teachers to continue our 21st century learning journey .

You can see in “Student Advisory” the first tangible fruit of having an in-house Community of Kindness Coordinator.

You can see our ongoing commitment to Jewish learning through our “lunch and learn’s”.

But more than anything, I hope you can see our dedication to lifelong learning, our desire to be our very best, our devotion to our craft, our love for children, our passion for education, our acknowledgement of our sacred responsibility to teach, our respect for the whole child, our emphasis on personalized learning, and our promise to deliver “a floor, but no ceiling” for each child we have been entrusted with.

I say it each year, but only because I sincerely mean it. This year is going to be our best year ever. And that is because of who comes walking through the door Monday morning.

Welcome back MJGDS Faculty & Staff.

When One Door Opens Another Door Opens

For those of you who are members of our local school, academy, synagogue or Jewish community and who read my blog regularly (and I thank you if you do!), you may be wondering why I have been so conspicuously silent about what has been known locally for an entire month – namely, my decision not to renew my contract when it expires in order for me to assume leadership of the Schechter Day School Network.

At the time, my desire was that the national announcement should be the place where people not living in Jacksonville should hear about it for the first time, but with that announcement still pending for another week or so and with leaks mounting on Facebook and Twitter, it no longer seems necessary to wait. Additionally, I have had a full month or so to process and reflect on this future transition and, thus, feel better able to share a little about how this decision is impacting my thinking and planning. [My focus, here, is on my current headship. I will have other opportunities and spaces to explore my thinking about Schechter, and when I do, I will be sure to link to them, but this blog is dedicated to my work here and now.]

First, let me take an opportunity to share what was sent to our stakeholders:

May 28, 2013

Dear Galinsky Academy Families and Members of the Jacksonville Jewish Center,

We are very fortunate to have Dr. Jon Mitzmacher leading our efforts toward achieving excellence in all of our Center schools. As he concludes his first year as Head of the Galinsky Academy, it is clear we are on the right track with a bright future that lies ahead.

In the spirit of transparency, Dr. Mitzmacher and the Schechter Day School Network Network (of which the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School is a member) have engaged in open and candid discussions with the Center’s leadership regarding the Schechter Network’s interest to retain Dr. Mitzmacher as their Executive Director upon the conclusion of his current contract, which would be July 1, 2015. Since this would be after Dr. Mitzmacher has fulfilled all of the obligations and duties of his current contract, it is with great appreciation that we are receiving a full two years notice of his future plans.

Dr. Mitzmacher has indicated his strong desire that he and his family remain in Jacksonville, as the Executive Director position does not require him to relocate in the immediate future. As a member of the Schechter Network, the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School will benefit greatly from having the “head of the network” living and working in our Jacksonville Jewish Community and his children attending the Galinsky Academy.

The Schechter Network has assured the Center of their strong desire to ensure a smooth transition for our Day School and the Galinsky Academy. According to Jane Taubenfeld Cohen, “The Martin J. Gottlieb Day School is a flagship school in our network. With a rich history of over 50 years, it is a shining example of what Day School education is all about. We are committed to the ongoing success and positive transition for the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School and in no way would we ever want to detract from the great strides the school has made in recent years. ”

Going forward, it is business as usual. We are very confident that Dr. Mitzmacher is extremely focused on the task at hand. He is committed to the ongoing success of the Jacksonville Jewish Center’s Galinsky Academy and the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School. We are fortunate to have him leading the way for the next two years.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Mitzmacher on being recognized as an outstanding educator and visionary in Jewish Education. It is this type of leadership that the Schechter Network desperately needs and will be of benefit to all member schools, including our own.

Regards,

Michael DuBow Alyse Nathans President VP of Education & Chair, Galinsky Academy Cabinet

One month later, I am still very grateful to Michael, Alyse, and all my other lay leaders for working with me and the Schechter Network as we prepared for, announced and now plan for a healthy and smooth transition. I continue to be inspired the by care and nurturance the Jacksonville Jewish Center provides its professional staff.

One month later, I am still very grateful to Schechter for working with me to re-imagine what leadership can look like in order to allow me to continue to live in this amazing community and send my children to this amazing school.

Typically opportunity requires you to close one door so that you may open the next. And sometimes, life is such that a door is closed for you and opportunity requires you to open the next. Rarely does one have an opportunity to reach for the next open door while the current door remains (in some ways) open! But that is the blessing the Schechter Network and the Jacksonville Jewish Center has afforded my family and we are humbled by it and grateful for it.

As I shared at our annual L’Dor V’dor event a week after the announcement was made,

Last year, I closed with one of my favorite quotes from the Mishnah: “Lo alecha ha’mlacha legmor…” – “It is not incumbent on you to finish the work, neither are you free to exempt yourself from it.” (Mishnah: Avot, 2.16). This year, those words – for me – are charged with new emotion as I prepare to transition over the next two years from my current position to my new position as head of the Schechter Day School Network, which was announced to our community this week. There is something very appropriate about this timing as it is only because of L’dor V’dor that we have been able to raise the bar at our schools and it is only because of the opportunity and support of this community that the Schechter Network took an interest in our school and in me. None of this happens for me if I had not been blessed to wind up in this nurturing and special place. My commitment to Galinsky Academy does not expire when my contract does. While I am the proud head of the of the Galinsky Academy and when I become the head of the Schechter Network, proud to call MJGDS one our flagship schools, I will remain inspired to do my part – with you – to carry this dream forward into the years ahead.

And so in addition to the typical summer planning one does as a head of school, I have begun thinking about what I need to do over the next couple of years to ensure that not only will the chapter of our school and academy’s history that I will have helped shape be as excellent as it can be, but – perhaps more importantly – that the next chapter continue and better the story. They say the most important leadership task is paving the future for what comes next…

I can assure you that I will never take a task more seriously.