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SSDSA Updates
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February 18, 2011
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Dear April,
The 2011 North American Jewish Day School Conference and Exploring the Jewish Classroom of the Future
More than a dozen Schechter leaders were featured speakers at the recent North American Jewish Day School Conference which took place in Los Angeles earlier this month and attracted more than 600 lead professionals and lay people involved in Jewish day school leadership across the spectrum of Jewish practice.
The conference, widely followed by Jewish communal and educational leaders, addressed issues relevant to
a day school movement committed to transmitting knowledge, enhancing practice, ensuring a vibrant future and solidifying its place on the educational landscape.
Presenters examined issues and approaches changing the face and direction of Jewish day schools, from making special education a priority, to harnessing technology to enhance and strengthen curricula and classrooms, to maintaining financially sustainable institutions of quality.
The North American Jewish Day School Conference
was a joint initiative of the Solomon Schechter Day School Association, RAVSAK: The Jewish Community Day School Network, the Institute for University-School Partnership at Yeshiva University, and PARDeS: The Progressive Association of Reform Day Schools. This is the second year that the organizations, representing the arc of Jewish movements and educational approaches, joined to organize the conference and explore common issues.
The theme of the 2011 conference - The High Performance, High-Tech Jewish Day School of the Very Near Future - underscored how Jewish educational professionals are transforming their individual institutions, and the day school movement itself, into inclusive venues of educational quality and value utilizing proven, effective and emerging approaches.
"The future is by its nature something about which we can only speculate, but that limitation does not permit us to stand still," said Dr. Jane West Walsh, executive director of PARDeS, the Reform Day School organization. "We have an obligation to advance our thinking about what it means to teach and to learn such that our students are ready to face whatever the future has in store."
Four plenary sessions and nearly 70 sessions and workshops focused on provocative issues, ideas, challenges and opportunities facing Jewish educational leaders, and included the promises and pitfalls of Israel education, new technologies, philanthropic support, and education for students with special needs.
"At other conferences you are asked to focus on the here and now," said Dr. Elaine Shizgal Cohen, executive of the Solomon Schechter Day School Association. "At this conference we ask you to think about the there and then - the future of Jewish day school education and how it might be very different from school today."
"The themes we explored together speak volumes about the emerging priorities facing the day school world," said Dr. Marc Kramer, executive director of RAVSAK. "Whether to delve into questions about technology, to advance thinking about special education, to build bridges between early childhood education and day schools, to rethink thinking, or to ponder ways to make all of this affordable, the conference created a big tent for leadership. No matter what the future brings, it will take us, as the leaders of communities and builders of schools, to get the job done."
Attendance at the 2011 conference was up by about 20 percent from last year, and officials attributed the increase to the dynamic changes taking place within Jewish day schools and the conference as a venue for educators across practices to share approaches and learn together.
"The registration of hundreds of schools and organizational leaders for the second annual North American Jewish Day School Conference is testimony that our first gathering was a success and that convening the field focused on Jewish education is an integral part of our collective work," said Dr. Scott Goldberg, director of the Institute for University-School Partnership at the
Azrieli Graduate School of Yeshiva University.
The North American Jewish Day School Leadership Conference was sponsored by the AVI CHAI Foundation, the Center for Initiatives in Jewish Education,
The Covenant Foundation, ERB, the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education, The Kohelet Foundation and several anonymous funders.
More information about the conference,
which took place Feb. 6 to 8 in Los Angeles, is at http://www.jewishdayschoolconference.org.
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Gallery |
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Dr. Alex Pomson of the Melton Centre for Jewish Education at Hebrew University, was the featured speaker at the opening plenary session and gave a compelling and interactive presentation on the current
state of Israel education
in day schools.
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Conference participants at the opening plenary session of the 2011 North American Jewish Day School Conference. |
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Leaders of the four sponsoring organizations of the North American Jewish Day School Conference, from left: Dr. Marc Kramer of RAVSAK: The Jewish Community Day School Network; Dr. Elaine Shizgal Cohen of the Solomon Schechter Day School Association; Dr. Scott Goldberg of the Institute for University-School Partnership at the Azrieli Graduate School of Yeshiva University; and Dr. Jane West Walsh of PARDeS. |
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Students at the Valley Beth Shalom Day School (a Schechter school) demonstrate robotics at the day school conference. |
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Another young scientist from Valley Beth Shalom reveals his knowledge to impressed day school leaders exploring STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) education. |
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Deborah Grayson Riegel,
Head Coach a facilitator and consultant for the Schechter branding initiative at MyJewishCoach.com, leads a session exploring Appreciative Inquiry, an approach enabling organizations to leverage what's working well to bring about positive change and to communicate the value proposition of their organizations to stakeholders.
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Schechter Milestone Anniversaries | |
Mazal tov to the following member schools that celebrated or will celebrate special milestones in the life of their school community during this school year.
May they all continue to thrive and go from strength to strength!
40 years
Kadima Day School in West Hills, CA is celebrating its 40th Anniversary this year.
36 years
Hebrew Day School of Ann Arbor, MI is celebrating its 36th anniversary.
Event is March 13, 2011.
30 years
Solomon Schechter Day School of the Raritan Valley will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2011 (1981-2011).
Ann & Nate Levine Academy in Dallas, TX, marks its 30th Anniversary on April 25th 2010.
Krieger Schechter is celebrating its 30th year.
15 years
Solomon Schechter Day School of Albuquerque, NM is celebrating its 15th year this year.
10 years
Chicagoland HS in Deerfield, IL 10th anniversary year
(anniversary will be celebrated in the fall of 2011).
Gross Schechter Day School in Cleveland, OH is celebrating Rabbi Jim Rogozen's Chai (18th) anniversary year as Head of School.
The South Area Solomon Schechter Day School will join in a community tribute to Jane Taubenfeld Cohen, Founding Head of School, on May 22, who is stepping down after 22 years of visionary leadership. |
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RESOURCES
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Artist Gail Rosenbloom Kaplan has reached out to the Schechter Association to express her interest in serving as an artist in residence. She is an artist who is passionate in her mission to infuse the arts into educational curriculums. It is with the goal of Hiddur Mitzvah, to beautify the commandment that she offers mosaic workshops to schools and synagogues, giving students and families the opportunity to create heirloom Judaica, or Jewish Ceremonial Art, to use in family celebration of the holidays and traditions. She has also created the YadaYadaYad Judaica Art kits for students to design their own Yads to read Torah with. Community and museum installations can be seen on her website. Gail's contact info is on her website: www.gailrosenbloomkaplan.com
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COMING EVENTS FOR SCHOOL EDUCATORS
| | School schedules provide wonderful opportunities for teachers to engage in learning in a variety of summer institutes. Please share this information with the educators in your school who could benefit from these programs. |
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Lunch and Learn with Jen Glaser
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Philosophy for Children
Developing Classroom Communities of Inquiry
Dr. Jen Glaser, for Lunch and Learn
DATE HAS BEEN CHANGED
NEW DATE: Monday, April 11, 2011!
12:15pm-1:15pm
Berman Board Room
Light lunch will be served
Please RSVP by April 4 to Rachel Goldberg, ragoldberg@jtsa.edu
(if you already RSVP'd to the original date/time, please RE-SEND an RSVP for the new date.
The event date is MOVED!!)
"Do Apples Die?" Ursula has been thinking about the apple in her lunchbox, and wonders whether it is alive. 'No, it is not alive now,' she decides, 'but it was alive once.' However Ursula isn't satisfied. Taking a bite of the apple she thinks how fresh and juicy it is. She thinks of the seeds that are growing inside. They are alive, but is the apple? When did it die?
Adapted from Thinking Stories 1: philosophical Inquiry for Children
Philosophy begins with wonder - in seeing the mystery in things that we normally take for granted, or that we never stop to think about at all. Philosophy creates a space in which to reflect on fundamental mysteries and issues of importance - questions such as: What is friendship and fairness; what is truth; are their limits to God; what is the difference between good and right; what is a miracle; or what kind of life is worth living?
Abraham Heschel suggested that philosophy is 'the art of asking the right questions'. Questions, in turn, are invitations to inquiry. As Jewish educators I would argue that we have a sacred responsibility to create safe spaces for children to ask questions and to engage in such inquiry - whether they be the unsettling speculative questions of human existence or the questions that surface when our wonder is awakened anew toward everyday concepts and experiences..
Philosophy for Children is one approach to bringing philosophical inquiry into the classroom. As teachers, it offers us a way of engaging children of all ages with the 'big questions' in a collaborative and productive way. Philosophical inquiry taps children's natural curiosity and engages them in a search for meaning. It strengthens reasoning skills and dispositions. Witnessing children's capacity to think philosophically also challenges our views about the nature of childhood and about how children's thinking develops.
In this Lunch and Learn we will look at several selections of video that illustrate the 'cycle' of philosophical inquiry as it plays out within the philosophy for children approach in different contexts. The first selection illustrating the full 'cycle of inquiry' was prepared for Education Day in Israel in 2010 and shows third grade students engaged in philosophical inquiry at Issawiya Primary School for Girls in East Jerusalem (Arabic with English subtitles), the second selection of videos show Philosophical Inquiry with Bible, from sessions held in Synagogue Supplementary schools in Clevelend during March 2010.
Jen Glaser is senior faculty at the Mandel leadership Institute, and Co-director of the Israel Centre for Philosophy in Education - 'Philosophy for Life'. This year she is a visiting scholar at The Davidson School, JTSA, and Teachers College, Columbia University.
Please RSVP by April 4 to Rachel Goldberg, ragoldberg@jtsa.edu
Rachel Goldberg
Administrative Assistant to the Associate Dean
Wm. Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education
The Jewish Theological Seminary
3080 Broadway NY, NY 10027
Tel. 212-678-8000, ext. 8863
Fax 212-749-9085 |
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Ivriyon Hebrew Immersion Program
for Teachers in Day Schools
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Take a Giant Step Forward in Your Professional Development
Participate in the Ivriyon Hebrew Immersion Program for Teachers in Day Schools of All Affiliations
June 27 - July 22, 2011 on the campus of the Jewish Theological Seminary in
New York City
Tuition is free. Partial board is provided to all participants, out-of-towners received free accommodations. (Participants may be eligible to earn 6 graduate credits upon successful completion of Ivriyon.)
William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education and the Department of Hebrew Language at JTS are offering a unique opportunity in the summer of 2011 for 15 qualified day school teachers to enter a Hebrew immersion program geared for teaching Judaic studies (Limudei Kodesh) in grades K-12.
By participating in Ivriyon you will learn to:
· Create a Hebrew environment in your classroom
· Lead discussions in Hebrew with your students
· Write grammatically correct exercises and instructions
· Help students articulate ideas and feelings in Hebrew
· Develop your own classroom project entirely in Hebrew
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis until April 15, 2011.
For more information or to download an application, visit www.jtsa.edu/ivriyon, or email us at ivriyon@jtsa.edu
This program is partially subsidized by a grant from The AVI CHAI Foundation.
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Summer Institute
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Jewish Women's Archive
2011 Institute for Educators
July 10-14, 2011 | Waltham, MA
Join the Jewish Women's Archive for four days of intensive professional development designed to enrich your teaching with the stories of American Jewish lives, past and present. The 2011 Institute will focus on the role of Jews in the Civil Rights Movement in America.
Reminder: Application deadline is March 1, 2011
APPLY NOW
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As part of a group of Jewish educators from across the country, you will have the opportunity to work with leading scholars and master teachers to:
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I N V E S T I G A T E themes in Jewish women's history and the history of social movements in the U.S. E X A M I N E primary source documents and oral histories
E X P L O R E
multimedia resources, including JWA's new Living the Legacy social justice curriculum
D E V E L O P
strategies and concrete plans for using the material with students
The Institute is open to educators in a variety of formal and informal Jewish settings. Preference will be given to educators of students in grades 8-12.- Participants' expenses will be covered, including hotel, kosher meals, and up to $500 for travel.
HOW TO APPLY Go to jwa.org/institute to complete an application. Deadline is March 1, 2011.
QUESTIONS?
Call 617-383-6753 or email the JWA.
Click here to sign up for JWA's Education e-mail list.
The Institute is made possible by a generous grant from the Dorot Foundation. |
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LIVING THE LEGACY
The 2011 Institute for Educators will focus on Living the Legacy, a new collection of online resources that explores the role of Jews in the Civil Rights Movement.
Using a wealth of primary sources, Living the Legacy brings to life the compelling stories of Jewish women and men during the Civil Rights Movement. It encourages students to explore the challenges of social justice activism and to draw connections to their own lives.
Designed for grades 8-12 in formal and informal Jewish educational settings, Living the Legacy offers 16 flexible lesson plans accompanied by primary sources and traditional Jewish texts, all of which are available for free on JWA's website.
Living the Legacy was made possible in part by a grant from the Covenant Foundation.
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Elaine R.S. Cohen, EdD.
SSDSA Executive
Phone: 646-519-9211
E-mail: cohen@uscj.org
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