A Floor, But Not a Ceiling

The Impact of a Teen Israel Experience

This Sunday is Community University!

Community University is an annual day of learning for the Jewish Community of Jacksonville, cosponsored by the Jewish Federation of Jacksonville and the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School and in conjunction with local synagogues and agencies. Once created as a day of parallel learning for MJGDS parents, Community University (known until recently as “Family University” now serves as day of learning for the entire Jewish community, with programs for all ages and stages. [Online registration for Community University is now closed, but you are still welcome and encouraged to join us! Same-day registration is permitted.] The theme this year is “iNDEPENDENCE, iDEAS, and iNNOVATION: Israel on the Cutting Edge”. All our programming: Preschool, Elementary, Middle and High School AND Adult Learning will have Israel at the center as we celebrate Israel’s 65th birthday.

In addition to having responsibility for planning the youth education component, I have found an opportunity each year to teach adults. This year, I am offering the following:

The Impact of a Teen Israel Experience

With so many Jewish teens traveling to Israel, what happens when they return? Are there lasting impacts? This session will provide data and conversation for those who are considering sending their teens to Israel, parents who have teens who have spent time in Israel, and anyone who is passionate about Israel education. What can our local Jacksonville Jewish Community do to support teens who return from Israel experiences? Let’s discuss!

This topic is personal to me and that’s why I wanted to spend a few minutes reflecting on. Because like a lot of Jews of my generation, a teen Israel experience (along with camp) was a crucial step on my Jewish journey. It also was my very first job in Jewish education.

I first went to Israel in 1988 as part of our local Federation’s teen tour. It was an extraordinary experience and I met friends that summer that I am still close with today. I returned to Israel in 1992 as part of a NFTY in Israel summer experience. I unfortunately decided to pose in the awkward position you find me in the lower, righthand corner of this picture. Yes, my hair is shoulder-length. And yes, sadly, I am wear socks with sandals.

My very first job in Jewish education was working for the Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Los Angles (BJE-LA) running teen programs, paramount of which was the LA Summer-in-Israel Ulpan. I cannot provide a link to the program because, unfortunately, it no longer exists, but for many years it was a signature summer-in-Israel program combining the regular touring experiences of other trips with an actual Hebrew ulpan for which students received high school and college credit. I spent the summers of 1997 and 1998 leading this trip and having an opportunity to provide teens with the experiences I had been blessed to have as a teen myself.

The power of the teen Isreal experience is real. Here’s excellent proof (Spoiler Alert: I will be showing this trigger video at Community University):

A 2011 study conducted by Ramie Arian and sponsored by the iCenter indicated the following:

Roughly 11,000 teens traveled to Israel in 2010 – almost the same number that participated in peer-trips to Israel in the late 1990s. One difference, however, is that over 130 agencies took teens to Israel in 2010.
The majority of teens traveled with youth organizations, middle schools, high schools, community trips and camps.
The mifgash is becoming a normative part of the teen Israel travel experience, with a few select groups extending it to the full length of their programs.

Based on two iCenter convenings of 30 teen Israel trip stakeholders, the following was underscored:

An experience in Israel must be seen as an essential component of Jewish Education. Ideally, students participate in multiple Israel Experiences over time.
The Israel Experience is most impactful as part of a Jewish Educational continuum (pre- and post-trip programming).
Teen years are critical from a developmental perspective to help form identity and relationships.

So what happens when teens return?

This is what I plan to discuss at Community University! But if you aren’t able to attend (or would rather attend someone else’s session!), I welcome your feedback in the comments.

This is NOT a hypothetical question! My Master’s Thesis for my MBA at the University of Judaism was a strategic plan for the creation of a program we created at the BJE called “IsraelPlus” – a program that continued the experience back home, found a place to channel the positive energy and excitement teens typically return home with, kept the Israel education and advocacy alive, and bridged the gap between the teen Israel experience and university. Of course, the lack of hyperlink indicates that that program, too, no longer exists, but it was a worthwhile attempt and it did morph into other important programs that still survive.

So I really mean it…what should our Jewish community do for teens returning from peak Israel experiences to ensure that enthusiasm for Israel doesn’t fade when summer does?

C-U@C-U!

Getting Ready for edJEWcon 5773.1

Who was the smart guy who didn’t build a travel day into this year’s Passover Break?

This guy!

It has been quite a short week recovering from Passover and preparing for a tremendous amount of important events and programs to bring us from now through the end of another terrific year at the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School. We are engaged in annual parent and faculty surveys. We are finalizing financial aid decisions. We have many important and exciting Jewish holidays to celebrate and experience. Our Middle School is off next week to Washington, D.C. We will have standardized testing to analyze and disseminate. We will have a graduation. We have our annual L’Dor V’Dor spring event (save the date coming soon!). We have a faculty to hire and new students to enroll. We have a gaming project to embark upon and we are just opening up our K-2 digital portfolios to sit alongside our existing 3-8 blogfolios.

Needless to say, there is plenty to do!

And smack dab in the middle of it all comes edJEWcon 5773.1!

Thanks again to the generosity of the AVI CHAI Foundation and the support of the Schechter Day School Network we will again welcome over 100 participants representing schools, agencies, foundations and universities from all over North American and Israel who are coming to Jacksonville, Florida to learn, reflect, share and co-create the future of Jewish day school education. Want to get excited? Check this out.

Want to get excited if you are not a Jewish educator, but care about education?

Even with the difficulty in scheduling between Jewish holidays, we are thrilled to not only have great turnout, but we have changed the conference from last year to this in a few important ways:

Requests for presentation were offered and we received back more than enough high-quality proposals to allow edJEWcon to be a conference by the field for the field.
We have built in reflection and collaboration to ensure the conference is simply the beginning of an ongoing conversation about teaching and learning.
We closed school on the Monday so that our faculty can more fully participate and benefit from the conference.
We have expanded our outreach to ensure that Chris Lehmann’s Keynote: “Building School 2.0 Creating the Schools We Need” is well attended by our local school community as well our larger Jewish and educational community here in Jacksonville.
Working with DSLTI, we will have a post-edJEWcon experience focused on leading cultural change in a 21st century learning organization facilitated by Jonathan Cannon.

So much gratitude and thanks goes to our 21st Century Learning Team who does the bulk of the conference preparation. Thanks to all the students, teachers, parents and stakeholders at the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School whose hard work allows us to host an edJEWcon. Extra thanks to those MJGDS teachers who are presenting this year! Much thanks to Karin Hallett and Silvia Tolisano for innumerable hours of work. Extra special thanks to Andrea Hernandez who steers the ship and who will very deservingly be giving the opening keynote.

We have a lot of work to do over the next three weeks to ensure edJEWcon’s success. But it is inspiring to know that the future of Jewish education is happening now…and it is happening here.

Stay tuned!

A Pre-Passover Prezi Premiere – Jews in Film!

In my role as head of Galinsky Academy, I had an opportunity to teach an evening of our MAKOM Hebrew High a few weeks back. I was given free range on topic and format and so I decided to use my 90 minutes to learn a new skill to teach about a personal passion.

The new skill was to learn how to use Prezi. As it says on their home page,

Prezi is a presentation tool that helps you organize and share your ideas.

It is somewhat like PowerPoint, but has added features and components. I’ve watched other teachers use it, but never learned how. So subbing for MAKOM gave me a great opportunity to try to figure it out. I have a lot more to learn, but I LOVED it!

My personal passion? Movies. I love movies. And although I haven’t had as much occasion to watch them like I did before having children, I do love them so. I have an eclectic taste and a particular sense of humor…which you will see below.

So, I took my passion for film and my experiment with Prezi and created a Prezi entitled “Jews in Film” – a totally biased survey of great Jewish films from 1927 to 2007. It is completely arbitrary based on my own tastes. Almost all the clips are PG and below…and the ones that are not have been edited. It should be safe watching for high school and up.

Most of the embedded videos are from YouTube and, therefore, don’t always play as intended. I watched it last this afternoon, so hopefully all the links are still intact.

Every now and again I think it is healthy to be a little more revealing and a little less pedantic. I have plenty of opportunity to share deep thoughts about important issues of the day…sometimes I just want to play! Especially on the Friday before Passover Break!

See you at the movies!

Setting Limits: Jewish Approaches to Parental Discipline

As far back as the time of the Mishnah, we have been faced with the challenge of setting limits for our teens and children. Archeologists have unearthed clay tablets, dating back more than six thousand years, that describe how the adults of the ancient Babylonian community were completely confounded by the behavior of their children.

Clearly, this is an old and familiar problem!

Great teachers remind us that our children’s behavior often may reflect more about us than about them. Children raised in a household permeated with tension, manipulation, dishonesty, distrust, or depression may act high-strung, deceitful, morose, uncaring, rebellious, unsure, listless, inattentive, or angry. A classic rabbinic parable tells of a man who opened a perfumery in a marketplace frequented by prostitutes and unsavory businesspeople. One day, the man caught his son in the company of prostitutes and in the midst of a deceitful business deal. Incensed, he began to shout insults and threats at his son. Finally, one of the merchants retaliated by asking the man what he expected his son to do and who he expected his son to become when he placed these influences in his environment.

Do you deal with conflict by exploding, pouting, surrendering, bullying or ignoring? Well, if you do, chances are that your children will study your responses acutely and imitate them consciously or unconsciously. As Saadia ben Joseph, the tenth-century gaon of the academy in Sura, Babylonia, observed: “Little children do not learn to lie until they are taught to do so.” Similarly, it is often the case that little children do not rant and rave, yell and scream, hit and pound, ignore and flee, or bully and bluster unless significant people in their lives do the same.

The Hebrew word for parents is horim, which comes from the Hebrew word hora’ah or instruction. We are the ones who gently guide our children to proper behavior by demonstrating it for them consistently and persistently. We are the ones who teach our children about appropriate responses to disappointment, threats, challenges, and provocation as much by our actions as by our instruction.

The Jewish approach to discipline advises us never to shame a child or attack his or her character. We are challenged to teach our children that particular behaviors, words, and attitudes are inappropriate, immoral, unjust, or unacceptable while at the same time showing them love, patience, and sensitivity. Guidance and instruction are best achieved in a relationship. If we hold them, hug them, and honor them as human beings in the eternal process of becoming, we manifest the divine, supernal qualities of compassion and wisdom that sustain Creation even when flawed. We become our children’s models and mentors and by our example and influence, contribute to the world’s blessings and our children’s health and wholeness.

What? No “model seder” this year?!

Regardless of whether the thought of not having a “model seder” to attend this year makes you happy or sad, it is time to revisit the “model seder”. What, exactly, is it 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 have been pretty consistently offering pretty consistent-feeling model seders 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 last year I hit a bit of a “model seder” wall. I had my own children’s to attend in both Preschool and Day School. And I had to make meaningful appearances at all of them. 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 Shushan Purim (even though we lack walls, we felt we needed to acknowledge Purim in school even though it fell on a weekend this year). Outside of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we celebrate the entire Jewish calendar in school – whether they fall during school or not. So we are not going to get rid of Passover. But maybe we can provide a differentiated educational experience?

The Jewish Studies Faculty and I met last spring after Passover to reflect and again this fall to plan, and we are pleased to share our plan for 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

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 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!

Postscripts:

We finished (except for makeups) our standardized testing this week! Click here for last year’s results and background information on our approach to testing.
We will soon be issuing our annual Parent Survey. Click here for last year’s results.

A Trip Around the MJGDS Blogosphere

You know what? Enough about me!

How about this week, we take a trip through the MJGDS Blogosphere and kvell about some of the excellent projects our students and teachers are engaged in. Perhaps it is too much to expect folk to check all the blogs all the time – especially if they are not parents in a particular class. So allow me to serve as your tour guide this week and visit some highlights…

From the Grade Three Classroom Blog (click here):

Champions of Kindness – Documentary

Posted on February 27, 2013

Our community of kindness documentary is all about kindness here at MJGDS. We made it because we decided that we should show everyone examples of kindness. We want to share it so everyone could learn a little more about how we can be kind. We made it by videoing members of our class interviewing, showing kindness, and seeing what natural kindness looks like.

We – the MJGDS 3rd Graders – made this video documentary. It’s called The Champions of Kindness.

Enjoy!
–Julia

From the Kindergarten Classroom Blog (click here):

Posted on February 25, 2013

Our unit about “Let’s Explore: Where will our adventures take us?” takes us to “a little girl’s adventures” this week. This week’s book is Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Valeri Gorbachev.

We will be discussing the characters and settings of this book and many others and comparing and contrasting a variety of versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears throughout the week. We will even be skyping with another school in Brazil and listening to their version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We will also continue to learn about the concepts of two letters that blend to make an initial and final sound, the short vowel ‘u’, and the blending of sounds to make words, among other phonics skills.

Later on that week from Brazil:

From the MJGDS Website (click here):

From the Fourth Grade Classroom Blog (click here):

From the Art Blog (click here):

Posted on February 27, 2013

Third graders are art critics! They looked and discussed, with their classmates, paintings by Romero Britto and…..

These are a few of their comments:

These paintings are about:

“These paintings are about flowers and vases at home.” -Julia

“Pattern and cubism, colors, flowers and vases.”- Sage

“Pop art.” – Gabe

“Cubism, Pop Art and Flowers.”- Jack

“Flowers and vases.”- Benjamin

What do these painting have in common?

“They both have a lot of colors and patterns.”- Allie

“These paintings have patterns and colors and shapes that are the same!”- Nahila

My favorite part of the painting is:

“The detail and color.”- Abigail

These paintings make me feel:

“Happy”- Lial

“Silly”- Samantha

“Happy and joyful”- Isa

“Modern”- Jake

From a Middle School Math Blog (click here):

From a Middle School Student (Brianna G.) Blogfolio (click here):

On Friday the 15th we were invited to the Bolles Auditorium to see the play “Bully.” The invitation was extended by the author, who also was the actor in his one person play. What made this particular invitation unique was that he actually went to our school when he was younger. The play is not based from his experience while attending our school; as they did not have a Middle School then. As a current Middle School student, I could truly relate to the play, as it centered on the author’s personal experiences, feelings, and emotions from his Middle School years.

When he was in Middle School he was made to feel like an outsider, not a part of the ‘in crowd.’ He got bullied a lot. There were 4 kinds of bullies that he referred to: the ring master, the snake, the worm and the boot. Once someone spit in his face and another time a person kicked him. When he got the courage to tell the gym teacher, he didn’t believe him, and he felt worse. He questioned himself and as his insecurity increased he began to believe the words that others said about him. The ‘ticks’ he started having from being nervous and anxious just added another reason people picked on. He stressed to us that words stick with you and he gave some advice on ways to beat a bully. Like ignoring the bully by not showing on the outside how the bully is making you feel. There are still times now when he feels insecure and wonders if what the bully said is true.

What I liked about the play was it was based off the writer’s personal experience. He was bullied way more than I ever knew was possible. I know what it’s like to be bullied, and what it’s like to be the bully. Neither makes you feel good. After seeing the play, I made a goal with myself to not be the bully. Even though I am making a great effort to be nice, people are not so accepting that I am trying to change. I think it was the best play I ever have seen, because it was very emotional. He did impressions, and they were good. The point is, he was inspiring and I really enjoyed his play.

Wow, right!

And if that isn’t enough awesomeness…check out these links:

http://mjgds.org/classrooms/kindergarten/2013/02/24/nouns-are-all-over-our-classroom/

http://jewishinteractive.net/site/announcement-competition-winners-february-2013/

http://www.mjgds.org/21stcenturylearning/?p=967

http://www.mjgds.org/21stcenturylearning/

We have a lot to be proud of at the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School…and I couldn’t be prouder to work here and have my children learn here. With enrollment steadily coming in, our plans for the future are to go from strength to strength!

A Purim Prescription for Pediatric Judaism – A 5773 Remix

When we think about Purim as parents, we probably think most about this: What shall I dress my children as this year for Purim? But in a hopefully growing number of families, including ours, the question isn’t what are we going to dress our children as for Purim. In our family, we ask ourselves what are we going to dress as for Purim?

I would wager a bet that no more than 10-15% of families attending Purim services and/or carnivals this year will come in costume. Why?

The phenomenon is often referred to as “pedicatric Judaism” and I find that Purim is its paradigmatic Jewish holiday. I recently Googled “pediatric Judaism” to see who should get credit for its coinage and the best I could come up with was the following from a Reform Judaism Magazine article:

Why, then, the emphasis on what Rabbi Larry Hoffman, professor at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, calls “pediatric Judaism”? “We have planned for our children only,” he wrote in 1996. “In our understandable anxiety to pass on Judaism as their heritage, we have neglected its spiritual resources for adults, leaving ourselves with no adequate notion of how we too might draw sustenance from our faith as we grow up and grow older.”

That sounds about right. Far too often, even those who are the most engaged – the ones who do affiliate with synagogues and do try to provide their children with Jewish educational experiences – we work to ensure our children experience and participate, but neglect to include ourselves.

When as a graduate student in Los Angeles, I first attended a synagogue in which adults participated in Jewish holiday celebrations as adults – active, joyous and engaged – it was almost surreal. This was not a Judaism for children – costume contests, parades, pony rides and candy (although that may all have been there as well) – but a Judaism that adults took seriously for themselves. They were not lining the walls watching the children within; they were celebrating the joy of being Jewish for themselves.

What’s the danger of “pediatric Judaism”? For me it is the perpetuation of the idea that being Jewish, or perhaps more accurately doing Jewish, is something that is only for children. We are our children’s most powerful role models and teachers and they are surely paying attention. When they can see that we take something seriously, it is a signal to them that they ought to as well. Children learn how to be an adult by watching our adult behaviors. We understand this as parents and so we think carefully about how we behave in front of our children, what kind of language we use, and what kind of values we express and try to live by. So, too, it is with being a Jewish adult. Our children are looking to us to see what adult Jews do and it presents us with a big opportunity and a huge responsibility.

I don’t wish to pile on parents. Jewish schools and institutions play a part as well. If Rabbi Hoffman is correct that adult Jews do not see in Judaism a resource to find their spiritual needs met, we have to be willing to ask the difficult question of why? What programs, classes, experiences, outreach, etc., have we not successfully offered or facilitated that have led to this situation?

We will all need to do more if we are ever to cure ourselves of pediatric Judaism. In our schools and our synagogues, we need to reach out to parents and provide them with the support, education, experiences and love they will need to find the courage to try on new ideas and behaviors. We will need to present a Judaism worthy of the education and sophistication of our parents. Luckily, Judaism contains within it all that and more.

One example of taking our adult population more seriously at the Jacksonville Jewish Center? This year’s “Purim Unmasked” (click here) is a concrete attempt to reach the needs of adult Jews – an evening celebration sans children to celebrate the joy of being Jewish! We are hopeful for a strong turnout.

Proof us adults can let our hair down come Purim time?

So this year…what are you going to be for Purim? Don’t let your children have all the fun…and don’t let them think that the fun of Purim is only for them!

And if you live here in Jacksonville and are looking for a place to celebrate…join us!

This Cannot Be Done Without You

No Wordle’s. No iPads. No blogfolios. No SmartBoards. No Skype’s. No 21st Century Learning. Not even 20th Century Learning. No amount of global connectedness or educational technology will make this happen. And, it appears, no amount of money, seminars, interventions, blog posts, or acts of discipline can will it into existence.