Maxine Handelman

Day schools and early childhood schools – it’s all about relationships.  A 2008 survey of non-Orthodox synagogue and JCC early childhood directors* revealed that while many EC directors are day school supporters, the day school community still has some work to do to insure healthy, supportive relationships with early childhood schools. The relationship between early childhood directors and the leadership of Jewish day schools is critical if families are to stay on the path of Jewish education. While there is no analysis of statistical significance, the survey does demonstrate that while in many locations this relationship is strong, there is still much room for improvement. Continue reading »

Jane Cohen

Creating a culture of teaching and learning in our schools seems like an obvious goal. After all, we are schools and teaching and learning is at the core of what we do. Cooki Levy and I were privileged to discuss these issues with leaders of Jewish schools across North America at our workshop at the conference in L. A. We were able to hear real life examples of ways leaders stay current with pedagogy, inspire teachers, reinforce teachers’ hard work, and partner with them to make a difference in the learning of their students.

There were so many questions that came up for us at the workshop. Many of those questions were about what it means to be an authentic leader, how to make a difference in culture when you are a new Head of School, and how this is different in a Jewish school with so many competing values. Continue reading »

Rabbi Mitchel Malkus

For the past decade, Pressman Academy students, parents, and faculty have benefitted from a unique practice known as Council. Council grew out of the Native American experience as a structured way for people to tell their own stories and to learn how to listen actively to others. Council is practiced in many cultures using different names. In our school we have used Council as the central social emotional educational tool for teaching a program we call Kesher that is essentially a Jewish human development course.

At the Conference, it was our intention to leave the participants with an interactive and informational ‘taste’ of Council. We began with a conversation about the ‘sage on the stage’ model of teaching in which the teacher is the ‘expert’ deliverer of knowledge with the student as a passive recipient. Council shifts this paradigm: the circle formation levels the hierarchy and responsibility is shared for the quality of the experience. Mapping Dialogue, (Bojer, Roehl, Knuth, Magner, 2008). This dialogic practice enables all participants, leaders included, the opportunity to see one another as storytellers of their lives. Continue reading »

Elaine Suchow

Hillel taught, “Do not separate yourself from your community”. In this interactive, practical session, participants learned how the community collaboration model of the NY/NJ/CT Tri-State Solomon Schechter Consortium achieved (and continues to achieve) success by working together towards common goals while engaging in their first initiative, a shared marketing and branding project. Wins include: strengthening relationships within and between schools, local agencies, and movement partners; clarifying the collective and individual brands of the participating schools; fortifying lay-professional partnerships; and receiving a $300,000 grant to develop a comprehensive marketing strategy. Participants were coached through a practical “Ten Commandments” for successful collaboration workshop, to help them consider their own future collaborative endeavors and learn how to navigate challenges along the way. Continue reading »

Jon Mitzmacher

It has been two week since I had the pleasure and honor to participate and present at this year’s North American Jewish Day School Conference [#NAJDS for those inclined to Twitter]. It was a wonderful conference from every perspective. As has been our experience at each conference our staff and I have had the privilege to present at or to host at our school, you come away invigorated at having met other trailblazers treading a similar path towards the future and excited by how far along that path you, in fact, are.

I presented on “21st Century Learning/Curriculum 21″ and how our school has committed institutionally to the paradigm shift we believe they represent. Technology plays a big role, but it really isn’t about the technology. Continue reading »

Kathryn Weil

This past summer I had the privilege to attend the Leadership: An Evolving Vision, a seminar at the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Principals’ Center. This week-long seminar provided the opportunity for me to learn from some of the premier educators and educational researchers in the country.

The AVI CHAI Foundation, a New York-based private foundation dedicated to promoting Jewish commitment, sponsored me along with nine other eligible day school principals from around the country to attend the seminar to help address the professional development needs of Jewish day schools. I relished the opportunity to meet with these fellow educators and discuss what we learned in a Jewish day school context. In addition, we were able to connect during meal times to discuss Hebrew language and Jewish studies curricula. Continue reading »

Session: Herb Tobin What schools do wrong with fundraising?:

How often are you out of your office? We don’t work hard enough. If you’re a fundraiser, the longest day of the year is Dec 31. Nonprofits…busiest time of the year are the last two weeks in December, first week in January. Development people should be the busiest possible the last week in December. (THAT’S WHEN A LOT OF SCHOOLS ARE CLOSED!)
DON’T SAY NO FOR DONORS! Don’t assume someone will decline your offer to get their help,make your ask and let them say yes or no.
DON’T SAY YOUR TUITION ONLY COVERS 80% OF YOUR COST. SAY THAT YOUR ADDITIONAL GIFT HELPS OTHER CHILDREN ATTEND THE SCHOOL.
Dialing for Dollars time (a participant made this suggestion): Directors of Development should be in the room with me when I make the calls. Like Fundfest or any phonings, the company helps motivate the callers.
95% of your money comes from 5% of the donors. How much time are you spending on your annual event, ad journal, etc? DISPROPORTIONATE! Not enough time spent on top.
Greatest opportunity cost is volunteers. USE volunteers properly. They should not be used to choose table linens, etc. if they are biomedical engineers that can create a fascinating program for your students. Don’t ask your parents to sell challah and wrapping paper (unless that is what they are passionate about doing!). Engage them in their areas of skill.
We often use a plug number: If the school doesn’t raise this, they are going to run a deficit. What is your ASPIRATIONAL GOAL? How much could you really raise if everything was going right. I know what I NEED to raise. What COULD I raise? Example, in Boston, hiigh tech, bio-tech, financial services are disproportionately in the hands of young Jewish people. Find them!

Session: Nurturing Neshamot: Practical approaches to educating toward spirituality

We want our grads to know how to participate actively in Jewish life and to want to do so. Use a depth approach to helping them to find meaning in delving into texts.
Spirituality comes from within and reaches out making connections with others, with the divine in the world, and with God. Yirat Shamayim.
Education tends to be about the intellect and about the academics. Yet, everything we do tends to be about emotions.
Our values influence our decision making. Our values are emotionally held ideas. If that is true, then, if we really need to educate kids emotions, and help them to make decisions out of Jewish concepts.
Slach Lanu Avinu Ke Chatanu …. opportunities to connect with social studies, conflict among people and the need for forgiveness.
FOSS (Science) materials: Go from mixtures and solids, to cooking, to what would happen if things didn’t melt, if things weren’t predictable and reliable? Go to ma-arive aravim (the cycle of reliability)
Tfillah Education; Biggest mistake teachers make is to expect to walk into a tfillah service and be able to daven. If you are in charge of tfillah it is not the best time for your personal davening. Think about the tfillah experience as a classroom. Just as you walk into a class at the beginning of the year, think about the lesson, the goal, the kids in front of you, etc. Dah lifnei mi atah omed. (KNOW THE KIDS!)

Session: Cyberbullying, cyberspace and the law (Winn, et al)

1. Consider a legal aid consortium in your region/state for JDS or independent schools. All schools are dealing with similar issues.
2. Make sure your handbooks and contracts are constantly updated to cover areas of social aggression, social networking, etc., that keep coming up. Your school policies can be upheld and/or scrutinized if brought to mediation or court.
3. All communications, personal and professional, on home computers or at school, are subject to discovery should you as an employee be named in a court proceeding. ALL.

I’m not a news junkie, but it would be hard to miss what happened right in our backyard in South Hadley. Bullying is by no means a new phenomenon; unfortunately, many of us can recall it from our childhoods. While I am proud to say that at LGA we have no extreme bullying cases, our students are not immune to the temptations of name-calling or taunting. All schools struggle with bullying. It is easy to be Monday-morning quarterbacks and say what we would do differently from South Hadley. While that case was extreme, we as a school community must behave proactively when it comes to how our students treat one and another. More important than the bullying is how we as educators and as a Jewish day school handle it. Continue reading »

Stan J. Beiner

The definition of a head of a Jewish day school has changed dramatically over time. To be successful these days, one must be able to oversee marketing and branding, fundraise, manage the budget, respond to pandemics, maintain personal relations with donors, parents, grandparents, and community leaders, blog, tweet, facebook, google, provide supervision, be visionary, make good hires and timely fires, foster leadership, communicate effectively, lower carbon footprints, lead davening, oversee curriculum development- both Judaic and General studies, stay on top of emerging educational trends, promote alumni relations, communicate well with students, promote positive faculty culture, solicit major gifts, and evaluate technological needs. Specialization is for insects. Continue reading »

Rabbi Shira Leibowitz, Ph.D.

A fourth grade science fair, fifth graders conversing in Hebrew during an Israeli lunch; a visit with fifth graders from a Yonkers public school largely comprised of students from Hispanic, dual-language backgrounds; preparations for our school Passover sedarim.

This only hints at the exciting happenings at Schechter Westchester, and at Schechter schools throughout the country … all in just one day.  Add the bustle of our hard-working maintenance crew keeping our generator up and running after a storm left public schools in our district closed, and you’ll see images of the meaningful life lessons that a Schechter education provides. Continue reading »