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Housecleaning

It seems reasonable that since we are in the season of housecleaning in order to get ready for Passover, I would take care of some housecleaning of my own by providing updates on important activities:

We have successfully completed this year’s standardized testing!  Congrats to all our students and teachers for getting all those bubbles bubbled in properly with #2 pencils! We eagerly await our results and using those results to improve.  For a thorough review out how our school treats the testing process, please click here.

For useful suggestions on preparing to facilitate or participate in an active, engaging Passover Seder experience, please click here.

Still awaiting our official FCIS (Florida Council of Independent Schools) report to share with y’all…

Cannot be more excited for next week’s “No Office Day – Part II: The Student-Principal Swap” taking place on Wednesday!  The idea was the subject of last week’s blog post, here, and the reflection will hopefully be the subject of next week’s.

edJEWcon has officially been born!  We had our first webinar yesterday with all 21 school teams and a webinar for our 13 patterning agencies is coming soon.  It was so extraordinary see this dream become a reality and the excitement for the conference was (and is) palpable.  The website for edJEWcon has really taken off and, in the spirit of transparency, you can relive the webinar on the site, see the expanded list of schools, read up on the speakers, etc.  The temptation for hyperbole is strong within me, but it is hard not to hope that this might be a game-changing event – for the field and for our school.

Final piece of housecleaning…the Task Force for Creating an “Academy” at the Jacksonville Jewish Center (click here for background) officially wrapped up its yearlong project last night!  Although the governing principles and strategic plans still have a few more votes to pass through, the basic structure for the launch of the new Galinsky Academy on July 1, 2012 is in place.  Here is the scoop (from an article in the March 2012 Jacksonville Jewish News):

The Jacksonville Jewish Center is please to announce the launch of The Galinsky Academy.

The Academy is named for Samuel and Esther Galinsky, of blessed memory, who gave the largest gift of Jewish education in the history of the Jacksonville Jewish Center.

The Academy will bring together, under one umbrella, all of the school of the Jacksonville Jewish Center.

The JJC Preschool, the Bernard and Alice Selevan Religious School, the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School and the Makom Hebrew High will work together under Academy Head, Dr. Jon Mitzmacher to fulfill the mission of offering the highest-quality Jewish educational experience for children from “Shalom Baby” through high school graduation.  By leveraging the resources of all four schools, parents can feel confident that their children will benefit from the most cutting-edge Jewish educational programming available.

Bruce Horovitz, former executive director of the Center said, “The Galinsky gift was very significant on so many levels.  It was certainly never on our radar and came as a complete surprise.  The fact that Samuel and Esther Galinsky, who had no children of their own, would choose to make an everlasting impact on Jewish education speaks volumes.  The gift came at a time of enormous need for the JJC schools and allowed the Center to continue and even expand our educational initiatives. The Galinsky gift continues to have a major impact on Jewish education, and we are forever grateful for their kindness and generosity to the entire Jewish community.”

Esther Galinsky contributed to a multitude of charitable organizations.  Because of her modest nature, her charitable giving went mostly unrecognized in her lifetime.

When she was homebound, in her later years, she especially enjoyed the periodic visits from the Day School students on their mitzvah trips.

Dr. Mitzmacher said, “Galinsky Academy will be a salad bowl, not a melting pot, of 21st century Jewish education.  Each school will retain its unique brand and structure while benefiting from the expertise of the others.”

For the more visual-minded, you can get a taste of the values we hope Galinsky Academy will inculcate in its students by enjoying this Wordle from an early visioning exercise:

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Taking #NoOfficeDay to the next level…get ready for a #PrincipalStudentSwap

It has been a tremendously exciting couple of weeks!

I had hoped last week to blog about our successful FCIS (Florida Council of Independent Schools) Five-Year Re-Accreditation visit, which took place on March 12th & 13th, but the week got away from me.  ‘Tis the busy season, what with standardized testing, re-enrollments, report cards, parent-teacher conferences and model seders to squeeze in before Passover Break.  And I am still going to save that blog post for a later date because I would like to be able to quote and share parts of it with you.

Spoiler Alert.

We came through with flying colors!  We have only a very few number of record-keeping issues to clean up and we should have our first-ever “clean report”!  In fact, two areas that the school was flagged for during our last evaluation have been transformed from “violations” to “commendations”.  The first was in the area of professional development.  The second, which should serve as an inspiration to all those schools still fretting about taking first 21st century steps, is to know that six years ago the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School was flagged for being a technological wasteland.  Yes, the school that will bring to the field next month edJEWcon – the first significant conference on 21st century learning and Jewish day school – was, just six years ago so far behind in technology that it constituted a violation.  Speaking of edJEWcon, anyone within shouting distance of Jacksonville is invited to hear our major keynote:

But more on FCIS accreditation and edJEWcon in upcoming posts.

I want to focus this blog post on linking together two great initiatives from this year into one brand-new idea.

On Wednesday, March 4th, I will be taking “No Office Day” to the next level by officially swapping places with Shoshana H. in Grade Five.  Shoshana will be “Principal for a Day” and I will be “Student for a Day”.

What did Shoshana H. do to earn this reward?  She created our first student-made, 2-minute “Community of Kindness” video, called “Being Nice”.

You can tell her what a great job she did yourself, by visiting and commenting on her blog, here.  (Please do.)

Now it was her idea to be “Principal for a Day”, not mine.  But since it has been so long since my last (and only) “No Office Day” this seemed like a great opportunity to tie some threads together.  The purpose of having regular “No Office Days” is to get principals unchained from their computers, untethered from their meetings, unleashed from their desks and out into classrooms.  [You can click here for my original blog on the idea and here for my blog on the experience itself.]

Here is what Shoshana and I have worked out so far for our swap:

  • She will come dressed as principal; I will come dressed in uniform.
  • She will greet families at the door; I will be on Safety Patrol.
  • She will visit classrooms during the day; I will be in Grade Five.
  • She will join me at our weekly Staff Meeting.
  • She will lead Grade One Tefillah (one of my regular duties).

We will both wield Flip cameras to document our days in each other shoes and will both blog about our experiences, including our video diaries.

So in one fail swoop, I get to reward a student for taking the initiative in helping our school develop its Community of Kindness AND experience a twist on No Office Day.

Talk about a win-win!

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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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Creating a Community of Kindness

We have been engaged in a yearlong investigation into how to address the difficult issue of bullying in our school and in all the schools of our synagogue.  I explained the rationale and the plan here in September in a blog post entitled “Sticks and Stones”.  The mantle was taken up by Rabbi Jesse Olitzky in a powerful blog post here, entitled “Sacred Space is Safe Space”.  The next step in the process was performing an institutional assessment for all students in our schools in Grades 2-12.

We surveyed students in Grades 2- 4 in both the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School and the Bernard & Alice Selevan Religious School, using a pencil and paper instrument chosen particularly for that grade range.  A series of questions about verbal, physical and emotional acts experienced by students and performed by students were asked to measure the degree to which our students feel safe and protected.  Questions were also asked about faculty and staff to measure the degree to which students feel their teachers are available and prepared to act on their behalves.

It is not a perfect survey and it was not proctored perfectly.  It is, however, a starting point.  Issuing the survey on a yearly basis should give us something to measure the degree to which we are succeeding in changing the culture of our schools.  I would like to share just two results from the survey to start the conversation.

By the by, the schools graded out well.  Although, it is difficult to suggest that any degree of failure is acceptable.  The area where students self-reported the greatest degree of negative behaviors came not in the physical or the verbal.  It came in peer exclusion.

This graph reports that 35% of students in Grades 2-4 in both schools feel they have been purposely been excluded by their peers.  No other area of the survey scored anywhere near this high.  This is an indication, to me, that when it comes obvious acts of harm – we are largely successful (although complete elimination is required).  However, when it comes to the much more subtle, but equally painful act of social exclusion, we have work to do.  Let’s add context by examining students’ perceptions of their teachers.

Again, the percentages look good.  The overwhelming response is that by and large students believe their teachers are available to help and support.  However, the fact that we have ANY students who believe their teachers would NEVER be there to help is unacceptable to us.  It is not a perfect survey and I am sure there are margins of error included.  But when it comes to creating a safe and sacred space for our children there can be no margin of error.

And so the difficult work of institutional change moves forward.  (Results from the other surveys are forthcoming.)

Based on the data (not merely this survey, but disciplinary records, communication with parents, teachers, students, clergy, etc.) we believe we have to change the conversation. “Anti-bullying” (to us) means that we wait for bullying behaviors to take place and then act appropriately when they do.  That is a defensive posture that admits these behaviors are inevitable and the goal is damage control.  We can do better.

We need to build and grow a Community of Kindness.  Instead of waiting for something bad to happen and respond, we need to go on the offensive with an all-out assault of lovingkindness.  We need to recognize that only by becoming a community of kindness can we truly eliminate bullying and hurtful behavior within our walls.

This is much harder to achieve, but there are no quick fixes.  All the surveys, assemblies, and teacher trainings in the world cannot get us there by themselves.  On that all the research agrees.  We are going to have to do the hard work of changing the culture one student, one teacher, one family, one act at a time.  It is just as much the work of the office staff as it is the National Junior Honor Society.  It has to happen on Sunday mornings in the Religious School carpool line and on Wednesday afternoons in the Day School lunchroom.

I am issuing a call to all my colleagues in the field: We have established “Communities of Practice” (CoP’s) for just about every aspect of running a school – Development, Admissions, Educational Technology, etc., in order to share and grow best practice.  I think in an age where the click of a button can do irreparable harm, we would be well-served with a CoP for Kindness.  Where better than in Jewish schools to ensure students a culture built on kindness?

We will be creating a series of 2-minute videos on this topic to stimulate conversation and begin the movement.  I encourage parents, teachers, clergy, community members, colleagues and friends to make your own and share.  There’s nothing more important and there’s no reason to wait.  It begins now.

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#What Matters Most

These are heady times for our school.  The inevitable anxiety and excitement of the open enrollment period.  The gathering rush of a 50th Anniversary weekend.  The powerful reflection through impending re-accreditation.  The tidal wave that is becoming edJEWcon.

I write a lot.

And when I do, I tend to use lots of words. This is not so very different from how I speak.

And I speak a lot.

A lot of my speaking comes with the position and some of it from my natural proclivity to be wordy.  (Anyone familiar with this blog or with me is likely nodding their head.)

One side effect of producing so many words – and between conversations, emails, blogs, letters, etc. I put out into the universe a lot of words – is that you run the risk of losing the forest of what matters most through trees of verbiage.

The blogging platform lends itself to endless writing for those so inclined.  One interesting (and almost poetic) byproduct of Twitter is that it forces a 140-character structure onto the writer.  As someone who cannot text in anything less than complete words, sentences, proper capitalization, grammar, etc., Twitter becomes an exercise in self-discipline.  I almost never get the first or second tweet to fit the space and I wind up having to edit and edit to get a thought down to its essence.

With two liminal rites of passage to celebrate this weekend (our annual Kindergarten Shabbat Service & Dinner on Friday and our First Grade Consecration on Shabbat) in the heart of all the planning for the major events to come, I want to take a moment and engage in what I hope will be a collaborative exercise.  Beginning here, I am going to encourage y’all to express #WhatMattersMost about @MJGDS and @JewishDaySchool.

[I am putting it “Twitter-speak”  both for those who already utilize Twitter AND to use Twitter to solicit responses.  I am going to offer some of my own thoughts here.  I am also going to tweet out the request.  And I encourage you to add your own 140-character suggestions either on Twitter using the #WhatMattersMost OR as comments to this blog post.  I will update the post with responses I receive (both from our school and the field) from Twitter.]

#WhatMattersMost @MJGDS from @Jon_Mitzmacher

Each child deserves a floor, but no ceiling…

No one will know your child better or work harder for their success than we will.

We may not get it right the first time, but we will partner with parents until we do.

The audience for student work was once the teacher; now it is the world.

21st Century Learning is not a slogan, it is a revolution.

The future of education is happening at a Jewish day school.

Having a child with special needs should never

preclude an inclusionary Jewish day school education.

A parent should never have to choose between the

best secular education and Jewish day school.

We are proud of our graduates, not because of what they

know and what they can do, but because of who they are.

 

Your turn!

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Quality Comments

I spend about an hour each Friday morning commenting on our student’s blogfolios.  Having begun last year with our Middle School, we now have active student blogfolios for students in Grades 3-8.  [You can click here to access the ones for students in Grades 5-8.]  I start at the beginning and make my way through as many as I can.  During that hour, I can see which spelling words are being emphasized in a particular grade.  I can see which kinds of writing forms and mechanics are being introduced.  I learn which holidays (secular and Jewish) are being prepared for, celebrated or commemorated.  I see samples of their best work across the curricula.

But what I enjoy seeing the most is the range of creativity and differentiation that expresses itself through their aesthetic design, the features they choose to include (and leave out), and the voluntary writing.

This is what we talk about when we focus (not obsessively!) on students’ ability to create meaningful work.  It isn’t just about motivation – we can imagine that more easily.  But when you look closer, it really is about doing their best work and reflecting about it.  Look at how much time they spend editing.  Look at how they share peer feedback, revise, collaborate, publish and reflect.

Seriously.  Look at it.  Take whatever time you would have spent reading my typically wordy and repetitive post and not only read one of their posts…post a comment!  It brings them such joy…pick a few at random and make their day.  Just click here and begin!

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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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Wordle Up – The Sequel

Please click here for my blog post about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Jewish community.

I’m off on Sunday for the North American Jewish Day School Conference in Atlanta!  (Click here for my reflections on last year’s conference.)  I am one of many official live-blogger’s for the conference, so please look for posts next week.  You can also follow the action on Twitter.  You can follow me @Jon_Mitzmacher or the conference @najdsconf.  I will share an overall reflective blog post on the experience afterwards.

My first Wordle appeared as a means to summarize my blog post and appeared about a year ago:

I thought it would be a fun way to see what the “State of the School” is by comparing the above Wordle to the one below, which is based on this year’s collections of blogs:

Interesting hmmmm?  What do you think it reveals (if anything) about our priorities this school year?  Please comment!

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