Walking Through the Open Door

It seems like only yesterday that Jaimee, Eliana, Maytal and I were on an airplane from Las Vegas to Jacksonville to begin this amazing experience of being part of the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School. And now, nearly four extraordinary years later, we know that my chapter in the story of our school will draw to a close at the end of this school year.

It was almost a year ago that I shared publicly that my next professional challenge was going to be the assumption of executive leadership for the Schechter Day School Network. I wrote at the time:

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.

At this time last year, it was assumed that I would complete my contract here at MJGDS, which would carry me through the 2015-2016 school year. I entered this year and spent most of it preparing for an additional year of transition. But because we had the opportunity to begin the search process early, we have been blessed to find someone worth bringing in sooner than later – my friend, colleague and mentor, Rabbi Jim Rogozen!

I am filled with mixed emotions!

I am excited about pursuing my next opportunity with Schechter. I am saddened to not finish my commitment to MJGDS. Honestly? I have not had very much time to process what is happening and have missed lots of opportunities to emotionally appreciate my final “this” and last “that”; my emotional transition will now be condensed to mere weeks. What I do know is that as the days begin draw down, I will find as I go about my regular routine that I will experience many moments of pride in what we have accomplished, sadness to say farewell to the many deep relationships I have formed with students, teachers, families and staff (at least in their present forms), but mostly gratitude for the opportunities we have been given here in Jacksonville…

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 will not expire when my contract does! In July 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. Now that the transition is actually happening, 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 to send my children to this amazing school.

I will have more to say about this transition – as I walk from that one open door to the next – my reflections on my time here, and more, once I’ve had more time to process. There is so much yet to accomplish in the Martin J. Gottlieb’s and Galinsky Academy’s bright future, but I when I do leave, it will be with the confidence that the chapter of this school’s history that we have written together will carry this school forward to the next chapters to be written in the many years to come. As it says in 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) I look forward to working closely with Rabbi Rogozen during this period of transition, but knowing him and our schools as I do, I know that in his capable hands we will only go from strength to strength.

Habits of Kindness: “Sharpen the Saw”

We introduced the LAST of our 7 Habits of Kindness this week at our monthly spirit day assembly!

When our school introduces a new Habit of Kindness, I take it upon myself to blog about the new Habit. (Last month was “Synergize“.) Beginning with the fifth Habit, we have been enlisting our Middle School to prepare and present the new Habit at a monthly spirit day assembly. (You can stay on top of all our Community of Kindness activities by checking out its blog.) They have been very creative! Each month’s introduction has typically come with a song or dance that tries to explain the Habit in a catchy way that will stick. Here’s what they came up with for “Sharpen the Saw”:

Here’s what it says from the “Leader in Me: 7 Habits for Kids” page:

Habit 7 — Sharpen The Saw

Balance Feels Best

I take care of my body by eating right, exercising and getting sleep. I spend time with family and friends. I learn in lots of ways and lots of places, not just at school. I find meaningful ways to help others.

You can see that our students reinterpreted the ways to “sharpen the saw” into being “Spiritually Fit”, “Mentally Fit”, and “Physically Fit”.

And we hopefully do our best to encourage all of those kinds of fitnesses in our school. Certainly being a Jewish day school provides plenty of opportunity for spiritual fitness, which is one of its many benefits. And unlike many or most public schools, we have managed to hold on to three-days-a-week PE, critical for fitness as childhood obesity continues to plague our youth. We do our best to offer healthy options with our hot lunch program, but do struggle with the amount of sugar and snacks that the many birthdays and holidays bring with them. This is something we plan to revisit next year.

Of course mental fitness goes along with schooling, but one advantage to being a leader in 21st century learning is that it provides tons of opportunity for kids to “learn in lots of easy and lots of places, not just at school”. We agree!

Part of my goal of blogging about the habits is not just to demonstrate how the school attempts to foster them, but to model my own attempts to foster them. So how am I doing?

Unfortunately, being a mourner has definitely enhanced and strengthened my spiritual fitness. This is something I blogged about recently with regard to my daily minyan attendance.

Mental fitness? If I reinterpret the language for children into workaday life, mental fitness here would mean that I find opportunities to learn outside what I am required to learn or think about to perform my job. For years (many years), my graduate work and my dissertation-writing were more than sufficient to ensure mental fitness. For the last couple of years? Outside of many robust games of Words with Friends, my mental fitness may be lacking! I love the opportunity Shabbat affords me to be with family and friends…they are also my only hours to read…would hate to have to choose between those two! And by the time my kids fall asleep on Friday nights..so have I. So I definitely need to “Be Proactive” and do some goal-setting for future mental fitness.

That leaves physical fitness…

So I recently had a birthday and with it, a physical. Now my wife and I share the same general practitioner and by the time my blood work had come back, my doctor decided to share it with her before sharing it with me. Which explains why I came home from work one day last week to find a variety of items awaiting me from a recent grocery trip:

Oatmeal. Tunafish. Whole grain bread. Fish Oil. Almonds.

So, apparently my meal plan from now until eternity is set! I will be eating oatmeal for breakfast, dry tunafish sandwiches for lunch, almonds for snacks and fish oil for supplements. I am two weeks in and hopefully soon I will adjust to the idea of never enjoying eating again…

In all seriousness, as someone who just lost a parent who waited (perhaps) too late to take diet and exercise seriously, I definitely am willing to sacrifice potato chips to live a long and healthy life. So, bring on the almonds!

Exercise. I do remember it. And I will absolutely “Put First Things First” and prioritize getting my tuchus out of my office chair at work and couch at home and in motion on a more regular basis.

That’s how I plan on sharpening my saw…how about you?

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…

What STILL no “Model Seder” this year?

This was originally published last year also the week prior our Passover activities. I have revised it slightly…

Regardless of whether the thought of not having a “model seder” to attend this year makes you happy or sad, let’s revisit the “model seder” and why we have changed up our Passover programming here at MJGDS.

What, exactly, is a “model seder” supposed to accomplish? Do we need to do one in each grade? And if not, are there other Passover experiences we can offer families that might be nice to experience as well?

At the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School, we had been pretty consistently offering pretty consistent-feeling model seders year after year for quite a while. Are they rehearsals for the main event? Are they just-in-case some families have no other Passover experience?

I admit that year before last I hit a bit of a “model seder” wall. I had my own two children’s to attend. And I had to make meaningful appearances at every other one in both the Preschool and the Day School. By the time we got to Passover itself, I really wasn’t in the mood for two more! I mean I love charoset, gefilte fish, and matzah as much as the next person…

We do believe in the “model seder”. The seder itself is amongst the most powerful pedagogies ever developed. Celebrating a holiday through reenactment is experiential education at its finest. We like it so much we have created them for Tu B’Shevat, Yom Ha’Atzmaut and holidays! And we do in the Jewish day school feel a certain pressure to provide Jewish experiences of holidays to ensure all our families have opportunities to participate. Hence, our monthly “All-School Kabbalat Shabbat” services and this year’s Purim celebration (we felt we needed to acknowledge Purim in school even though it fell on a weekend this year). Basically, outside of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we celebrate the entire Jewish calendar in school – whether they fall during school or not. So we were not going to get rid of Passover. But maybe we could provide a differentiated educational experience?

So the Jewish Studies Faculty and I met after that Passover to reflect and to plan, and we were pleased last year deliver a K-8 differentiated Passover experience for MJGDS students and families:

Kitah Gan: First “Model” Seder
Kitah Alef: First Hebrew “Model” Seder
Kitah Bet: Hebrew Passover Play
Kitah Gimmel: Historical Reenactment “Model” Seder
Kitot Daley & Hay: A Passover Experience
Kitot Vav – Chet: Lead Seder at Mt. Carmel in partnership with JFCS

Feedback from students, parents, and teachers last year was extremely positive and so next week we will try it again!

Each grade (or grade grouping) has its particular theme or experience (or both). Every student will have learned appropriate Passover material and each family will have a chance to have an appropriate Passover family experience. Hopefully, the differentiated experience will continue to give our students something new to look forward to each year…and give our parents and families (particularly those with multiple children) something different to experience with each child.

Looking forward to all the pre-Passover excitement coming soon!

edJEWcon FLA

Storify by
Jon Mitzmacher

Thu, Apr 03 2014 13:55:40

edJEWcon FLA

We took to Hochberg Prep in Miami this week for our next Regional edJEWcon – this one was about "Flipped Learning" with Dr. Marie Alcock. Thanks to the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School, the Schechter Network and CAJE-Miami for making it happen!

Allison @Allison35454450

Interested to learn about the Flipped Classroom tomorrow.
@edjewcon

Mon, Mar 31 2014 17:32:49

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Jon Mitzmacher @Jon_Mitzmacher

Excited to start #edJEWcon with @mariealcock @CAJEMiami @valeriemitrani @jlamberted @edtechworkshop @SchechterTweets #FlippedLearning

@SchechterTweets

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Tue, Apr 01 2014 05:04:48

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Marie Alcock @mariealcock

Looking forward to flipping classroom at #edjewcon @Hochberg

Tue, Apr 01 2014 05:45:02

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Diane Taub @ofmiceandkeys

So excited to be at edjewcon again! #edjewcon

Tue, Apr 01 2014 05:45:31

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aviva moshe @atmtweety

JSA is excited to join Edjewcon:-)

Tue, Apr 01 2014 05:55:53

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Ready for #edjewcon FL at @hochbergprep with @mariealcock Flipped Classroom 101 @SchechterTweets pic.twitter.com/KXnR1ap9Oa

edJEWcon @edjewcon

@SchechterTweets

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Tue, Apr 01 2014 05:59:08

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Aliza Kadish @ALeazy11277

#Edjewcon South Florida!! Let’s get flipped 🙂

Tue, Apr 01 2014 05:59:42

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CAJE Miami @CAJEMiami

With South Florida’s day school teachers at #edjewcon @CAJEMiami

Tue, Apr 01 2014 06:01:49

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Jane West Walsh @JaneWestWalsh

#edjewcon thrilled to finally be experiencing day school teacher learning EdJEWCon

Tue, Apr 01 2014 06:11:33

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Julie Lambert @jlamberted

The power of Flipped Classroom is @ meeting the needs of a wide array of students in a very limited time. @mariealcock #edjewcon @CAJEMiami

Tue, Apr 01 2014 06:16:19

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edJEWcon @edjewcon

Continue the conversation after today’s session. Join our new social network. http://edjewcon.spruz.com/ #edjewcon

Tue, Apr 01 2014 06:36:21

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We are #FlippedLearning with @mariealcock @HochbergP #edJEWcon @CAJEMiami @SchechterTweets pic.twitter.com/UgBfCiP1BM

Jon Mitzmacher @Jon_Mitzmacher

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Tue, Apr 01 2014 06:36:28

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Getting a crash course in #TodaysMeet @edjewcon with @mariealcock #PLN #jed21 pic.twitter.com/8MSEOg6fAU

Jon Mitzmacher @Jon_Mitzmacher

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Tue, Apr 01 2014 06:40:32

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edJEWcon @edjewcon

@jlamberted @CAJEMiami “covering” certainly doesn’t = learning! #edjewcon

Tue, Apr 01 2014 06:50:16

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Julie Lambert @jlamberted

Our classrooms are laboratories of education where students take responsibility for their learning- J. Bergmann & A. Sams #flipped #edjewcon

Tue, Apr 01 2014 06:59:24

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Jon Mitzmacher @Jon_Mitzmacher

“Producing the videos is the easy part. What you do with the extra time? That’s the hard part!” @mariealcock #edJEWcon #FlippedLearning

@valeriemitrani

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Tue, Apr 01 2014 07:09:09

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CAJE Miami @CAJEMiami

3 selfies: self motivation, self regulation, self assessment #edjewcon

Tue, Apr 01 2014 07:09:30

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edJEWcon @edjewcon

Need to ask WHAT are we assessing? What they learned or how fast they learned it? #edjewcon

Tue, Apr 01 2014 07:13:57

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edJEWcon @edjewcon

Grading needs to be: accurate, consistent, meaningful, and promote learning #edjewcon @mariealcock

@ALeazy11277

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Tue, Apr 01 2014 07:15:18

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Andrea Hernandez @edtechworkshop

@mariealcock suggests we separate grades for achievement (mastering standards), habits of mind & growth. #edjewcon

Tue, Apr 01 2014 07:18:48

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CAJE Miami @CAJEMiami

So glad wo welcome Dr Jane West Walsh @JaneWestWalsh to #edjewcon South Florida. Great to have PARDES represented.

Tue, Apr 01 2014 07:28:08

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Jon Mitzmacher @Jon_Mitzmacher

“Heterogenous grouping betters all students except the top 2% of the top 2%” @mariealcock #edJEWcon #FlippedLearning

Tue, Apr 01 2014 07:28:36

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Jon Mitzmacher @Jon_Mitzmacher

“Watching a video is not the same as participating in a flipped classroom. Students need to be trained.” @mariealcock #edJEWcon

Tue, Apr 01 2014 07:38:51

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#DifferentiatedProfessionalDevelopment @mariealcock @edjewcon @HochbergP @SchechterTweets @CAJEMiami #FlippedLearning pic.twitter.com/RznwpFHVMW

Jon Mitzmacher @Jon_Mitzmacher

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Tue, Apr 01 2014 08:31:56

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Jon Mitzmacher @Jon_Mitzmacher

Flipped learning does not replace deep learning; it creates space for it to happen in school with teacher guidance. @mariealcock #edJEWcon

@morehmichael

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Tue, Apr 01 2014 08:54:53

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Teachers practicing the flip @edjewcon with @mariealcock #FlippedLearning @CAJEMiami @SchechterTweets pic.twitter.com/6wf0M90RC4

Jon Mitzmacher @Jon_Mitzmacher

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Tue, Apr 01 2014 10:47:37

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CAJE Miami @CAJEMiami

More learning at #edjewcon around Flipped Learning for Mastery with Dr. Marie Alcock http://fb.me/7d5oShxGQ

Tue, Apr 01 2014 11:11:38

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Teachers from Jacobson Sinai explain their video process @edjewcon #FlippedLearning pic.twitter.com/CamDpNC69i

Jon Mitzmacher @Jon_Mitzmacher

@mariealcock

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Tue, Apr 01 2014 11:33:12

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A teacher from @HochbergP presents her @PowToon @edjewcon #FlippedLearning pic.twitter.com/k4Ng54vXvq

Jon Mitzmacher @Jon_Mitzmacher

@mariealcock

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Tue, Apr 01 2014 11:35:28

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Johannah Sohn @JohannahSohn

Remembering fondly my trip to #edjewcon – wishing I could be there this year!

Tue, Apr 01 2014 11:52:53

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Marie Alcock @mariealcock

Love the images, thank you!!! http://youtu.be/tBcZ0NiaMn8 #edjewcon @langwitches @HeidiHayesJacob #flippedlearning

Tue, Apr 01 2014 13:10:45

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Jon Mitzmacher @Jon_Mitzmacher

@israelconnect This year we had regional #edJEWconLA & #edJEWconFLA Next year? A full #edJEWcon @mjgds AND more regionals! Who’s next?

@israelconnect

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Wed, Apr 02 2014 07:36:47

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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 Schechter Difference: Minyan Matters

I am almost always the first car on the property each morning. This is not new. For the last nine years that I have been a Head of School at a Schechter – five years as founding head of the Solomon Schechter Day School of Las Vegas and the last four, here, at the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School – however early childcare was available…that’s when the Mitzmacher family arrives. My daughters since birth have had the pleasure of dining at school each morning at around 7:00 AM. (You’re welcome!) Why do I insist on arriving so early?

Based on the title of this blog post, you might think the answer is “minyan”. That I try each morning to get to work as early as possible so that I can attend daily morning services at the synagogues in which my schools have been housed.

Nope.

Despite the fact that minyan begins (here) at 7:10 AM, I had not been in the habit of rushing to drop off my girls to attend. Not that I never attended; I would attend sporadically on my own or to be present at school-related events. But my rush in the morning was really to take advantage of that magic hour of silence before teachers and students arrived. That was my hour to catch up on voicemail and email and to be ready to greet teachers and students at their arrival times. For many parents and students, seeing me in the carpool line each morning is my primary point of contact, one that I take very seriously for communication and community-building. So if I am being honest, when the minyan would be short the requisite ten and I was sent for, there were times when I either went begrudgingly or not at all.

And evening minyan?

Never.

Ironically, with all my talk of transparency and role modeling, there was always a disconnect between my schools’ expression of the value of daily prayer and my own personal practice.

“Do as I say, not as I do.”

That is not typically my leadership style, but when it has come to prayer that has been my unstated approach.

And I like prayer!

So much so that it is the focus of my teaching time in the school. I teach tefillah to Kitah Alef twice a week, to Kitah Zayin once a week, and teach a seminar about tefillah to Kitah Chet once a week as well. I love visiting all our minyanim and our monthly Kabbalat Shabbat service. We come each week to Shabbat services as a family and attend all Jewish holidays. So what’s going on?

I think it has to do with my initial visit to the University of Judaism (now American Jewish University) in the winter of 1994. I have shared about my religious upbringing before, but it is worth mentioning that that morning began with this thing called “minyan” and I can still feel the shock to my system I felt that morning as I watched peers participate in the first Hebrew (only) service I had ever experienced. It was also the first time I had ever seen tefillin. And that feeling of discomfort served both as the catalyst for the Jewish journey my life has taken since…and the roadblock to my daily minyan attendance.

Because, I still feel it each time I put on my tefillin. I still feel it each time I walk through the doors. I still feel it each time I am asked to lead. All those feelings of inadequacy or ignorance or fraudulence…they are still there. Despite all my years of education, my years of teaching, my years of leading those same prayers for children and teens – you put me in a room with 500 children and I am fine. 7:10 AM with 9 other adults? Terror.

And if that’s how I feel…imagine how the average parent in our schools feel.

I can.

And in a normal year, this would be the point in my blog post where I would transition into an educational and religious exposition of the value of prayer, linking it to why we engage our students in daily prayer and our aspirations for the outcomes. But for me this is not a normal year. Because my life changed forever almost eight months ago when I unexpectedly lost my father and with that change, my attitude about minyan has undergone a fundamental transformation.

I realize it is a cliche. The process of mourning often has this impact on people. But cliches are often built on a foundation of truth and one person’s cliche is another person’s life-changing experience and this has been mine. And since July, I have attended minyan each day in order to say Kaddish. Any my appreciation for those who ensure that there is, in fact, a minyan is unbounded. And it isn’t always easy to do…there are days we struggle to make ten. This is why my colleague Hazzan Holzer began a campaign this year at the Jacksonville Jewish Center called “Minyan Matters”.

It really does.

And this is the part that I do connect to our school and my newfound appreciation that as a Schechter school we value daily prayer. We value it not only because of the skills it provides them with so that they will never have to feel the discomfort and fear many of us experience as adults with prayer. We value it not only because we hope to inspire a lifelong love of prayer and future synagogue affiliation. We value it because part of what it means to be a community is to provide its members with opportunities to have its spiritual needs met. It is a blessing to have that opportunity with our children each day.

It is a blessing for me to have that opportunity each day as well.

And only by raising our children to appreciate this value can we be assured that when it is our turn in the circle of life to be the subject of someone else’s Kaddish that there will be a minayn in which it can be said.

That’s the Schechter Difference.

Habits of Kindness: “Synergize”

First of all, it is hard to believe that we are already introducing the SIXTH Habit, “Syngergize”, because there are only seven…where did all the time go!

When our school introduces a new Habit of Kindness, I take it upon myself to blog about the new Habit. (Last month was “Seek first to understand, then to be understood“.) Beginning with the fifth Habit, we have been enlisting our Middle School to prepare and present the new Habit at a monthly spirit day assembly. (You can stay on top of all our Community of Kindness activities by checking out its blog.) They have been very creative! Each month’s introduction has typically come with a song or dance that tries to explain the Habit in a catchy way that will stick. Here’s what they came up with for “Syngergize”:

I don’t have video so you will have to supply your own tune (hmmm…that could be a fun contest for the future), but I can assure you that it was appropriately catchy!

Here’s what it says from the “Leader in Me: 7 Habits for Kids” page:

Habit 6 — Synergize

Together Is Better

I value other people’s strengths and learn from them. I get along well with others, even people who are different than me. I work well in groups. I seek out other people’s ideas to solve problems because I know that by teaming with others we can create better solutions than anyone of us can alone. I am humble.

What I would like to do is take this line by line and offer a little midrash via hyperlink about why I think “synergize” has such great…ummm…synergy for a school like ours.

“I value other people’s strengths and learn from them.”

As we have documented our 21st century learning journey over the last four years, one thing that has consistently been borne true, has been that learning is no longer (if it ever was) about transferring knowledge from an adult to a child. One thing that I treasure about our school is the commitment our teachers have to lifelong learning and the willingness they have to learn not only from each other, but from their students.

“I get along well with others, even people who are different than me.”

Before we had chosen “Community of Kindness” as the initiative to ensure students feel welcome, protected, and loved within (and without) our walls, we had already made quite clear our desire to be an inclusive Jewish day school. Each student, of course, is different from every other student because each is unique. But we know that we – not just our school, but each of us – should be ultimately judged by how we treat “difference”.

“I work well in groups.”

One of the critical literacies for the 21st century is the ability to work well in “groups”. It is why we jumped early to adopt ideas from Alan November about the “digital learning farm” back in our earliest Skype-ortunities (thanks for the coinage Seth Carpenter!) we had students grouped to take ensure that everyone had a meaningful role to play and that students would have authentic opportunities to learn how to work together. It will be the rare job our students will grow up to perform, where working well with others will not be a key to success. It isn’t a skill you master in Kindergarten and then revisit in adulthood…it is an art form to be practiced daily so mastery ensues.

“I seek out other people’s ideas to solve problems because I know that by teaming with others we can create better solutions than anyone of us can alone.”

So unlike the above, which is ensuring that everyone on a team has unique role, here we really see collaboration in action; that by working with each other and learning from each other we will come up something better together than we could on our own. I cannot think of anything that reflects collaboration – between students, between students and teachers, and between schools and other organizations – better than our recently completed “Whack-A-Haman” project that reached its goal of 1,250 downloads ahead of Purim.

“I am humble.”

We teach our children that each is made in God’s image and that we ought to remember that when we interact with each other. Humility is critical to collaboration because it assumes an attitude that one does not know it all and that there is wisdom to be found in each and every one of us if we are only willing to look and to listen. One way we have embraced humility is in the transition from Parent-Teacher Conferences to Student-Led Conferences and from Teacher Observations to Teacher-Led Evaluations. In both cases we put the onus of responsibility on the learner to share growth rather than on the authority figure to ferret it out.

Next month we will finish up with “Sharpen the Saw”!

Jon’s #iJED Storify

Storify by
Jon Mitzmacher

Tue, Mar 04 2014 08:13:41

Jon’s #iJED Storify

This is my quick, rather unedited, Storify of #iJED14 using JUST MY Twitter. I encourage everyone to make and share THEIR Storify using all the social media you are comfortable with! Let the connectedness and collaboration continue!