A Floor, But Not a Ceiling

A (Very) Transparent Thanksgiving

I have learned a lot of important lessons over the last month. One of those lessons? It is very easy to espouse “transparency” as a value when things are going well and/or when the issues are simple and non-controversial. It is another thing altogether when things are more complex, risky and deeply personal. As a complicated episode in my professional life has played out over the last few weeks, I have felt compromised between my professional desire for transparency and my personal desire for privacy. I have struggled with the decision about whether or not it was appropriate to utilize this “professional” blog – property of the school, not the person – to discuss events which have had a profound impact on not just me, but my family. With the episode (thankfully) resolved, it just did not seem right to pretend that it never happened (by its absence in my primary vehicle for reflective practice, this blog).

[I realize that although the primary audience for this blog was and is the school family, there is an extended readership who may or may not be interested in some of its content. I try to manage those potential audiences through how I do (or don’t) promote the blog via social media. Another side-effect of “transparency”? If the boundaries were semi-permeable before, they sometimes feel as if they have disappeared altogether. I’m not sure this is a good thing, but it feels like the truth.]

The facts are relatively straightforward and have been public knowledge since November 1st. An unanticipated opportunity to compete as a finalist for the headship of Sinai Akiba Academy in Los Angeles, CA resulted in my exercise of an opt-out clause in my current contract. My wife and I went to LA for our finalist visit and returned to Jacksonville. After meeting with my lay leadership here, I withdrew my candidacy for the position at Sinai Akiba and have renewed my commitment to remain here at MJGDS.

It seems so simple when you write it like that!

Both institutions handled this delicate situation with tremendous grace and with incredible transparency. A series of public meetings here in Jacksonville with all concerned constituencies (parents, faculty, boards, etc.) resulted in the formation of a search committee charged with seeking out my replacement (since closed). My candidacy in Los Angeles was a matter of public record on the school’s website and my finalist visit was conducted openly as all such visits are.

Needless to say, the situation left me (and my family) rather exposed on all sides. That it was self-imposed did little to dull the piercing spotlight the month of November has brought to us. Again, let me clear. The choices were mine. The responsibility for them was mine. And the situation could not have been handled any more professionally or compassionately by everyone. But I would be lying if I suggested that it also was not deeply and personally stressful. It was, in fact, agonizing.

As I said to the search committee for Sinai Academy when I withdrew…

“…I write to officially notify you of my decision to renew my commitment here in Jacksonville, thus withdrawing my candidacy from Sinai Akiba. I thank you all for your hospitality, your warm welcome, and the opportunity to have been a finalist. I am confident with lay leaders like yourself and the high quality of your other candidates that only bright days lay ahead for Sinai Akiba. I look forward to following your success and working with your next head as a fellow Schechter colleague.

Thank you again for the time and care you put into my candidacy.”

I have nothing, but positive things to say about Sinai Akiba Academy. We met lovely people during our visit and our desire for their continued success is genuine. But our decision and our future is here – at the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School, the Jacksonville Jewish Center and in Jacksonville, Florida. And for that we are thankful.

We have barely begun to write a chapter in the book of the life of this remarkable school which turns 50 this spring. The idea of leaving so much exciting work undone certainly contributed to my professional desire to continue as head of this school. It has been a dynamic and satisfying year and a half since we came here, but the “job” of becoming the school we wish to be is hardly “done” (if such a thing in an organic learning organization could ever be accomplished)! We have so many exciting projects in the near and long-term future. [I don’t want to use this post to re-list all the initiatives and ideas that are in progress or fomenting. A quick scroll through this blog or our school’s website provides a thorough recap.] I couldn’t imagine not being part of them. And I am thankful that I don’t have to.

But more than the work are the people…

…as I wrote to my teachers last week:

“As we enter into a holiday week, let me take a moment to express my gratitude to all of you for the opportunity to be part of this team. As you know, it has been a topsy-turvy few weeks for me (and for everyone) as events unfolded, but it is with genuine humility that I tell you that a most significant factor in wanting to remain here is the opportunity to continue to work together to make this the finest, most innovative, highest-quality school it can possibly be. I come to work each day excited about what we can accomplish together. I am thrilled to have the chance to continue this journey with you and look forward to brighter and brighter days ahead.”

And I gladly extend those thoughts to this entire community – parents, students, colleagues, communal partners, etc.

So as we head into Thanksgiving tomorrow…let me express how joyously thankful I am for the blessings in my life: The blessing of a healthy family. The blessing of a caring community. The blessing of blossoming friendships. The blessing of fulfilling work. The blessing of committed and generous lay leaders and volunteers. The blessing of extraordinary colleagues. The blessing of dedicated and talented staff and faculty. The blessing to have an opportunity to work each and every day with others to ensure a Jewish future. The blessing to feel one’s roots dig a little deeper into sacred ground.

For these blessings and more, I am thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving.

edJEWcon 5772.0 – Ride the Wave!

It has been a topsy-turvy week in the life! I have a lot to be thankful for and will make that the subject of next week’s blog post. The benefit of rest and reflection will hopefully render me more articulate on the topic than I currently feel capable of.

In the meanwhile, let me thank those heads of school, foundation partners, researchers, and colleagues in the field for their continued interest and support for edJEWcon! Your emails, tweets, Facebook comments, etc., has helped spark the fire and fuel the applications.

Check out the trailer here:

If you are interested in edJEWcon 5772.0 and want to learn more…click here. If you are ready to apply while spots still are open…click here. We are working on creating additional tracks and opportunities for those of y’all who are not part of school teams, but want to be part of the experience.

Our team is in conversation with many interested parties these days and exciting new ventures are brewing! I have no choice, but to leave that as the simple tease it is. As ideas become realities, we will have much to share in the upcoming weeks and months. But the snowball is cresting the hilltop…and the educational revolution is underway. We look forward to playing our part and learning from those walking down the road with us.

Leap of Faith – The Sequel

I wrote a blog post last year after returning from our school’s second annual Middle School Retreat (my first with the school) at Camp Ramah Darom in Georgia, entitled “Leap of Faith” (you can read it here). One of the great 21st century learning pedagogies is the gift of reflection. And one of the gifts of living by a school calendar (which, parenthetically, is equally true of the Jewish calendar) is that it often gives you the chance to experience and re-experience similar events on a yearly basis. And so now after having had a week or so to reflect on this year’s Middle School Retreat, I wanted to spend a little time unpacking this most powerful of experiences.

[You may wish to reread my most recent blog post here and/or check out the brief video we made of it here for a taste of those experiences.]

The other advantage of having taken an additional week or two to share my thoughts is that I am not writing in the feverish afterglow of the experience. We’ve come down from the high, but the carryover effect carries on. And that’s what it is really all about isn’t it? Transferability? The magic bullet of all successful informal educational experiences is how well they transfer back into “real life”. Sure it is amazing, the best-time-of-my-life when you are in the middle of gorgeous scenery flying down the zip-line. But is it still amazing back in the science lab?

Yup.

Or at least so far. We have work to do to nourish the spark from the retreat and keep the flame lit through the peaks and valleys of a school year. But when I walk the halls and see our Middle School students, I can see the bonds born from horseback and hikes remain intact. Similar to the positive impact on athletics in the small middle school (you can read that blog post here), our ability to create community is vital to our continued success. We are not sixth graders, seventh graders and eighth graders…we are a middle school. We are not just students, teachers and administrators…we are a family.

Final note: If you are an MJGDS middle school family reading this, you may be wondering what the big deal is with the Schnupencup. If you are someone who has been a student, camper, teacher, staff, or participant in just about anything I have done in Jewish education since 1989…I hope you are smiling. If you have no idea what I am talking about…it is just a matter of time!

Fingers up!

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

Wow.

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

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

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

I am now going to go home and rest.

Jewish Holiday-Palooza!

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

Lots!

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

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

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

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

Chag sameach!

Marching with Fruits & Vegetables (5772 Remix)

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

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

So…without further adieu…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chag sameach.

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

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

A personal note…

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

And now to the topic at hand…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We’ve Got Spirit!

Yesterday morning, my first grader, Eliana, woke up early to come into our room to make extra sure that we had remembered to put her MJGDS Marlins shirt in her day-of-the-week clothes organizer because she had to wear it for spirit day.

Each time I passed her in the hallway, she reminded me that I was to get her out of aftercare in time for her to watch the big game.

When I came to pick her up in aftercare to walk her over to the gym, she (and her 3-year old sister) was so excited she flew out of the room.

Eliana had never seen, nor probably heard, of “volleyball” prior to yesterday’s first home game in school history. Didn’t matter a whit. She had spirit.

And she was not alone! We had an overwhelming amount of students, parents, alumni and supporters in attendance to share in history. We won the first (of three) game and as we drew closer to the clinching point, you would have thought we were about to win the Final Four, not the first game of a girls middle school volleyball match!

I blogged last week, here, about the value of athletics in the (small) Jewish day school after our first road game. The energy yesterday afternoon, however, took things to exponential levels. It really proves the point; in terms of rallying school spirit, it is really hard to top athletics. And school spirit is not insignificant. It is not as important as academic achievement, inculcating Jewish values, and developing character. But in terms of that intangible “something” that gives you pride in being part of something larger than yourself and encourages you to want your children to be part of something special? It is hard to put your finger on it, but you can kind of tell when you’ve got it or when you don’t. And heading into another sweet Jewish new year…we’ve got it!

In other updates, we went live this week with edJEWcon and our first application from another Schechter Network Day School came in within the first few hours! We have been utilizing our social media and with the Network’s social media roll-out to begin soon, the buzz on the event will only continue to grow. (For continuing updates on the conference, click here. For background information on edJEWcon, click here.) So when it comes to 21st century learning, MJGDS certainly has spirit as well.

Heading into Rosh Hashanah this evening feels this year to me like slipping into a comfortable, warm bath. I have a wonderful opportunity to put workaday concerns aside and concentrate on making meaningful use of the gifts of time, family and friends. After relying on the kindness of the community last year, Jaimee and I are blessed to be able to open up our home to new friends this year. We are looking forward to days of communal meals, honest reflection and creating Jewish memories to carry us forward into 5772.

From my family to yours, let me wish everyone the sweetest of new Jewish years…

Shanah tova u’metukah,

Jon, Jaimee, Eliana & Maytal

Why athletics matter (more) in small schools

Let’s begin with a hearty “Mazel tov” to Coach Jared Goldman and the MJGDS Lady Marlins Volleyball team on their historic first match this past week at Hendricks Middle School! (Check out this article in our local news here!)

Our school turns fifty years old this year and this was the very first athletic adventure we have ever embarked on. The final score mattered not a whit (and, yes, we did score points as well) – the excitement from the student-athletes, their parents, alumni, and supporters who packed the tiny parking lot and bleacher seats was palpable and meaningful. Our girls did their best and will only perform better as they grow more experienced and practiced in their sport. [Local plug: First home game in MJGDS history takes place in the gym on Tuesday, September 27th at 4:30 PM. Wear your Marlins gear and come out to support our team!]

So as one of my favorite sports shows would ask, is launching middle school athletics at our K-8 Schechter Day School a “big deal, little deal, or no deal at all?”

Big deal!

First let’s look at it from the perspective of the participants. Let me quote (liberally) from “Co-Curricular Physical Activity and Sport Programs for Middle School Students: A Position Statement by the National Association for Sporty and Physical Education’s (NASPE) Middle and Secondary School Physical Education Council (MASSPEC).” [That is a mouthful! You can read the entire position statement here.]:

“All students should be encouraged to participate in such after-school programs regardless of their ability and prior experience with organized sports. The primary purposes of these programs are to provide opportunities for students to:

improve self-esteem and feelings of competence through positive interactions with their peers and adults
acquire new skills and refine those previously learned
learn to function effectively as members of a team or group
improve personal health and fitness levels
to have fun and enjoy physical activity”

Those all sound like things we would like to see for our middle school students, no?

But beyond the benefits to the participants there are significant benefits to our school and our community worth mentioning.

Athletics are vitally important to our ability to maintain and grow a healthy middle school. They demonstrate to ourselves and our parents that we are capable of providing the kinds of experiences one ought to find at the middle school level. And that includes the opportunity to play, cheer and support athletics. (I thought our alumni were as, or more, excited about the volleyball game than the players or their parents!)

Jewish Day Schools – especially the small or midsize ones – have a lot to get done. We have to offer 100% the secular academic programs of local independent and/or suburban public schools. We have to offer the highest-quality Jewish studies program available. We have to offer all the resources of well-rounded schools – Art, Music, Library, 21st Century Learning, P.E., etc. AND we also have to offer athletics, the school play, the yearbook, TV production, and all the other extracurriculars.

Fair?

Doesn’t matter. It isn’t a choice. Non-orthodox day schools heading into middle (and high) school face enormous attrition challenges. We have to find the “torah” of volleyball as we do the “torah” of math (not to mention the “torah” of the actual Torah). We, at our school, have dipped our first toe in the water. It certainly isn’t easy finding sports we have a critical mass to compete in, but based on the energy it has brought to our school and our community it was well worth it.

We may not be hanging any championship banners from our gym any time soon. But we will be adding great spirit and community-building to our school when we host the first home game in the school’s 50 year history next week.

Go Marlins!

Jon’s #NoOfficeDay – The Results Show

You can read, here, all about the history and reasons for the #NoOfficeDay I took this week at our school.

So…how was it?

It was super fun!

So much fun that I was telling someone that evening that I didn’t want to go back to work the next day because I knew I’d have to make it Jon’s #OfficeDayToMakeUpForNoOfficeDay!

But it was well worth it! It was so great to spend the day where the real action is – in the classrooms and hallways and lunch rooms and parking lots. Will it have the desired carryover? I am really going to try. If your budget is the most honest reflection of your values, than your schedule has to be a close second. It is time to put my time where my mouth is.

This is the finished product – Jon’s #NoOfficeDay – The Movie! Thanks to Talie Zaifert, our Admissions & Marketing Director, for the iMovie tutorial. My goal was to use this opportunity, not only to get out of the office, but to role model the attempt to master new 21st century learning tools. This was my first attempt at using a Flip camera (hence the horrible camerawork) and using iMovie – so all mistakes belong to me alone.

Thanks to all the other agencies and school leaders for inspiring me to join them outside the office!

Enjoy! (And you might want to take a motion sickness pill…)