Inspirational keynotes, workshops and networking opportunities for educators, administrators, board members and stakeholders of network member schools will engage participants around design thinking, school change, board development, educational leadership, innovative technologies, contemporary ideas of Jewish pluralism, Israel curricula, modes of prayer education, special needs inclusion, early childhood education and more.
*Schedule subject to change.
Many people feel a tension between our particular Jewish dispositions and our sense of belonging to a more global universal entity. Yet these two positions do not need to be contradictory; they not only can coexist but can strengthen our own and our students' commitments to being both Jewish and human. Come study Jewish sources that probe the relationship between the particular and universal and discuss how a greater understanding of these complexities can make us better educators.
As Jewish Day Schools aspire to be inclusive communities for all Jewish children, this workshop will educate the participants about the character of inclusive communities, as it pertains to the nuances of gender diversity and variances. The sessions learning and activities will draw on secular and Jewish resources to give practical guidelines for creating a more inclusive classroom. Through discussion, role play and meaningful resources, participants will leave the workshop having had the opportunity to vet their own questions and gain a wealth of insight towards the tikkun of inclusion in their school.
The goals of this session are to educate and dispel myths about gender variance. The workshop will explore the values inherent in an inclusive community, and the stumbling blocks to inclusion. Participants will take away practical strategies for making a classroom and school more welcoming to this population.
In this hands on, minds-on workshop, educators can test drive some of the most innovative technology available today. Learn how the “can-do” attitude and cool tools of the global Maker Movement, plus tried and true project-based learning can revitalize learner-centered education. Technology like 3D printing, robotics, microcontrollers, sensors, wearable computers, conductive thread, glue, and paint offer affordable opportunities to engage students both in the classroom and in after-school programs. Learn how to make the case that “making” is not vocational or just “crafts” – but a deeply rich, rigorous, and academic experience that enhances all subjects and grade levels.
Goal: Learn how hard fun, design thinking, big ideas, and innovative technology for K-12 classrooms come alive with 3D printing, robots, programming, wearable computing, conductive paint, and more.
A soon to be published study of Israel education in day schools reveals what day schools can do to have greatest impact on how their students think and feel about Israel. 95 schools participated in this AVI CHAI Foundation funded study, which included a survey of 4,000 students and 400 teachers.
In our session, we’ll explore five ways that elementary, middle and high schools can transform their practices in the classroom and beyond so as to make the greatest difference in students’ lives. We’ll examine how student outcomes differ depending on who teaches about Israel, how they teach and even where the school is located. We’ll also explore how critical differentiated educational practices are for sub-populations of students.
Most Jewish day schools formerly believed that building an endowment sounded like a “nice to have.” That has changed with the focused efforts of AVI CHAI, PEJE, and the Jim Joseph Foundation promoting national endowment building programs for day schools. Today, many day schools understand what universities, hospitals, cultural institutions - and the rest of the independent school world - have long recognized: endowment funds play a critical role in the current and future viability of a mission-driven organization.
So, what does it take to succeed in raising endowment funds? PEJE recently evaluated the initial results of its signature endowment building program, Generations, which is funded in part by AVI CHAI and four community partners. The results show the key enablers and obstacles that day schools encounter in building endowments. Development professionals and Heads of School are invited to learn with PEJE’s Strategy Manager for Endowment and Legacy, Jill Goldenberg, and discover whether your school is ready to be successful in raising endowment funds. With the participation of Builders of Jewish Education in Los Angeles, we will use Generations LA schools as examples and help you learn how to prepare most effectively to begin your endowment efforts.
Experience a station-rotation model in order to deepen their understanding of personalized learning. Station activities include:
Personalized Learning has the potential to make school more relevant, engaging and effective for students. But it’s hard to know what it looks like and where we start. In this session you will experience personalized learning from a student perspective. During the experience, you will explore exemplars of schools that leverage Blended Learning as a way to personalize instruction. You will also participate in a classroom design activity and review cases of effective personalized models.
This session is intended for teachers, school leaders and those who actively support classroom instruction.
Grokking (rhymes with “rocking”) is to understand something or someone so well, it becomes second nature. Independent Jewish Day Schools rarely do that well enough, which impacts both admissions and development in dramatic fashions. The answer, of course, is grokking your targets. Through the use of the Marketing Synergy Cycle, you’ll have immediate takeaways no matter who you’re trying to reach.
*For day school board members and lay leaders only*
Goal:
To provide day school lay leaders with skills and tools for more effective board governance while building connections for ongoing sharing and interaction.
Pre-Work:
In order to better customize the Board Institute experience, we would appreciate it if you would take a few moments to answer this survey.
See a new e-book being published by the Jewish Funders Network and funded by The AVICHAI Foundation. This Greenbook is titled, “Jewish Day School Financial Sustainability and Affordability: A Guide for Funders,” and is similarly useful for day school board members.
Boards, like their organizations, change in their cycles from startup, to maturity, renewal and more. In all parts of this cycle boards should aspire to the highest levels of leadership. How does our strategic, fiduciary and generative engagement change through these cycles? In this interactive session we will touch upon many best practices of boards, including composition, engagement, board volunteerism, fundraising, term limits, ambassadorship, strategic planning and vision/mission focus. We will explore what bringing your Jewish values means to your Board leadership. And before we meet we will ask you to tell us your current challenges beforehand so that we can address them in the session. You will take away your next steps toward an even higher functioning and efficient board.
Orlee Turitz, RAVSAK
Explore how the world has changed to become a place where innovation is no longer optional but a required component of any organization, including schools. Yet we want to be sure we are not impulsively chasing the “shiny new thing” but are using innovation to achieve our school’s goals. We will talk about measured, mitigated risk and the process to embrace change with comfort.
(TBD)
Day schools are increasingly faced with the opportunities and challenges of serving a diverse group of learners, who have special educational needs. In this session we will explore the role of a Board in setting school policies as they relate to full educational inclusion. What considerations does a Board need to evaluate and plan for? How can a board balance approach financial and administrative concerns without overstepping their governance function?
Dr. Bruce Powell, New Community Jewish High School
One of the primary roles of a board is to support and evaluate their head of school. Despite the acknowledged necessity of the task, boards often find it difficult to effectively and appropriately provide the level of support a Head needs or the kind of helpful criticism that can allow them to do their jobs better. How does a board accomplish this task and how can our Jewish values guide us in how we conceive of this important relationship.
Want to meet some great colleagues and learn the subtle art of meeting up? Then attend the "JEDLAB Live" conversation. Come whether you post every day on the JEDLAB Facebook group, just stalk the conversations, or have never heard of JEDLAB before. Everyone's welcome! In true JEDLAB style, this meetup will turn the lens of inquiry onto itself as we explore how JEDLAB creates offline opportunities to enhance our members' knowledge base, build relationships between passionate Jewish education people, and increase collaboration across the field.
Join this conversation and learn how to get superb local people to engage with your group and create great conversation that starts before your meetup—and continues long after, without or without spending a cent (or just barely).
What are the different ways schools can support faculty and find ways to help them grow professionally? Explore how school leaders can create environments that encourage teachers to support and learn from each other, strengthening their school in the process. Examine the impact such a culture can have on faculty, and share practical ways we can implement these ideas.
By invitation for day school board members and community lay leaders
Discussion: Promoting Peoplehood: Do we all have to care about the same things?
Sea-Tac Room (Mechitzah Minyan)
Midway Room (Egalitarian Minyan)
Logan Room (Reform Minyan)
Perhaps the most pivotal relationship in a school today is the one between the Board and the Head. If schools really want to “move the needle” and galvanize change, the key rests with a healthy, dynamic and strategic Board/Head alliance. Yet sometimes this partnership is taken for granted – a key downfall in any healthy relationship. This powerful, interactive and multimedia workshop will provide Board members of day schools an understanding of this unique alliance and tools to ensure that the relationship between the Board and the Head continues to provide a strong foundation for leading change in schools.
Technology can open new possibilities for collaboration, engagement and differentiation in our schools. But with the ever-changing world of technological innovation can come pitfalls that can undermine even the best intentions. Learn how to craft strategic technology plans that align with your educational vision; explore what is meant by blended learning and understand its possibilities in a day school environment, and learn how educational technology innovations can help transform the learning environments in your schools.
Pre-Work:
Please take a look at the Google doc we’ve created for you with everything you need to know before you arrive. Please make sure to find the Prep Materials section and look through the resources the organizers and speakers have put together for you.
Request membership to our LinkedIn group exclusively for EdTech Deep Dive participants, where you will be able to connect with fellow participants before, during, and after the conference.
If you’re on Twitter, tweet alongside our conversations using the hashtags #DJLN #MTN2014 together.
Last but not least, please fill out a short survey to help us learn more about you, our audience, and in turn tailor our presentations to you.
Agenda:
10:30am: Competencies, Literacies and the Schools of Tomorrow (Conference Ballroom A)
Joan Getman, University of Southern California
How often have you been faced with the decision about whether to invest your and your students’ time, effort and funding in the latest hardware or software? This session will help you navigate this ever changing landscape, by describing key educational challenges and opportunities in alignment with potentially innovative technologies. We will also explore the 21st century capabilities students are expected to have while exposing the myths and realities of the “digital natives” in our classrooms. This session sets the stage for crafting a strategic plan that will help you and your students realize the educational benefits of technologies that are on the near and far horizons.
11:15am: Strategic Technology Planning for Education: It’s less about technology than you might think! (Conference Ballroom A)
Gary Hartstein, Digital JLearning
In this session we will focus on the questions to consider and processes to use when planning for the implementation of technology resources. Too often, schools buy iPads, computers and application subscriptions before thinking through how they will be used and supported, and how their effectiveness will be assessed. We will focus on a process where we identify academic needs that drive the hardware, software and infrastructure solutions we choose. We will also look at how to make this planning process dynamic and agile to insure any technology that is chosen for your school is purposefully selected because it aligns with academic needs.
12:00-12:30pm: (SOLE) Self-Organized Learning Environment: How To Reach the Visual, Auditory and Tactile Learner in Your Class (Concourse A)
Jaime Cohen, TannenbaumChat
In this session we will focus on how to engage the visual, auditory and tactile learner by creating a SOLE– a Self-Organized Learning Environment integrated with innovative educational technologies. We will take a look at a Grade 9 English unit awarded the top prize for a TED Education-sponsored contest called, "The Sole Challenge."
12:30-1:30pm: Lunch (Concourse A)
1:30-2:00pm: IGNITE Sessions (Concourse A)
How are schools using technology to meet their educational goals? In this session, a number of schools will use the IGNITE methodology to very briefly share what problem they were trying to solve, how they used technology to solve the problem and what lessons they learned.
2:15-3:00pm: Breakout Sessions (Participants will choose one to attend).
Sarah Blattner, Tamritz
What alternative approach to assessment can both tell the story of the learner and provide frequent and meaningful feedback for students? Explore digital badge learning as one innovative approach to learning that provides frequent feedback, scaffolds the learning experience and supports multiple learning pathways.
Saul Rube, Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit
Participants will experience an immersive introduction to the structure, purpose and benefits of becoming a Professional Learning Community. What are the Big Ideas? What are the “new Four Questions” (they’re not just for Passover anymore…)? Which successes and challenges can we anticipate and celebrate?
David Greenfield, EdD candidate, learning technologies, Pepperdine University
How do we teach creative problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration and innovation? How do we keep current with rapidly developing digital technologies for the classroom, and how can we guide students to construct knowledge in this context? This session will illustrate ways in which we can adapt agile development method strategies currently being used by many software developers into authentic learning experiences that provide Jewish students with needed 21st century skill sets.
3:15-4:00pm: Breakout Sessions (Participants will choose one to attend). (Repeat)
Sarah Blattner, Tamritz
What alternative approach to assessment can both tell the story of the learner and provide frequent and meaningful feedback for students? Explore digital badge learning as one innovative approach to learning that provides frequent feedback, scaffolds the learning experience and supports multiple learning pathways.
Saul Rube, Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit
Participants will experience an immersive introduction to the structure, purpose and benefits of becoming a Professional Learning Community. What are the Big Ideas? What are the “new Four Questions” (they’re not just for Passover anymore…)? Which successes and challenges can we anticipate and celebrate?
David Greenfield, EdD candidate, learning technologies, Pepperdine University
How do we teach creative problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration and innovation? How do we keep current with rapidly developing digital technologies for the classroom, and how can we guide students to construct knowledge in this context? This session will illustrate ways in which we can adapt agile development method strategies currently being used by many software developers into authentic learning experiences that provide Jewish students with needed 21st century skill sets.
4:00pm-5:00pm: Moving from Theory to Action: Practical action planning for the launch of a blended learning program (Concourse A)
Rebecca Tomasini, The Alvo Institute
Learn about the critical design and implementation steps, often overlooked, to launch a strong, scalable, sustainable twenty-first century learning program. Participants will learn how to conduct a readiness assessment, ask the critical “getting started” questions, use and develop a project plan, risk/mitigation plan with a collection of Alvo created templates designed to support the design and launch of a more personalized way of learning that includes a deep dive into “21st century skills.”
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Goal:
To gain exposure to the principles of Design Thinking and Immunity to Change in order to experience the mindsets and tools necessary to creatively navigate challenges and take advantage of opportunities in schools.
Summary:
In order to respond to the needs of today's Jewish students and their families, our schools need to create flexible and resonant learning environments. We will expose participants to a taste of two powerful methodologies: Design Thinking offers a set of mindsets and tools that can help schools be more creative, collaborative, and relevant in creating new opportunities for their student and parent bodies. Immunity to Change offers a perspective on why change is difficult, and how to navigate its various challenges. Acquire tools from these two realms to explore the challenges and opportunities of building a culture of distributed leadership and creative thinking in your schools.
PreWork:
Begin your learning with the following article, written by Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO, who encapsulates the fundamental principles of Design Thinking.
View a short video that demonstrates how Design Thinking mindsets are put into practice.
Do you have any questions you are thinking about? What problems are keeping you and your school up at night? Share some of your challenges or opportunities you are excited about here.Agenda:
10:30am: Welcome and Warm-Up
11:00am: Design Thinking– Mindsets and Tools for Creativity and Change
Design Thinking, as defined by Tim Brown, the president and CEO of Ideo, is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success. In this section of the day, participants will go through a full mini-design experience, and then unpack how the mindsets, tools, and methodologies can be applied to their work
12:30pm: Lunch
1:15pm: Using the Wisdom in the Room: Empathy interviewing and framing
Participants will explore the first two areas of the Design Thinking process more deeply, and will have the opportunity to interview each other, identify issues facing their schools, and frame challenges and opportunities
2:45pm: Break
3:00pm: Diagnosing the Self: Your role in the process
Using the Immunity to Change framework designed by Bob Kegan and Lisa Lahey, which helps individuals and systems identify competing commitments and overcome obstacles to change, participants will explore the role that their hopes and fears play in the process of creating change in their school environments
4:30pm: Wrap-Up5:00pm: Adjourn
Goal:
To address the growing gap between “Israel education” and Jewish education, and to help schools craft new approaches to integrating Israel across their curriculum and school cultures in a sophisticated manner.
Summary:
The State of Israel is central to the Jewish educational vision that our day schools strive to impart. But there are growing fissures and anxieties around the role of Israel in contemporary Jewish identity that are carrying over to the day school classroom, resulting in mounting concerns that it is difficult to teach Israel honestly, and that how we talk about Jewish values and texts must be different than how we talk about Israel and its complicated realities.
In this session, through a combination of study, reflections from the field, and applied conversations, we will explore how we might translate the core and complicated ideas of Israel into the pedagogical context of the day school. We will grapple as learners with some of Israel’s primary foundational texts in dialogue with classical Jewish texts and experiment with rethinking the Beit Midrash as a site of not just studying text but studying difficult questions. We will discuss the developmental challenges of how and when to introduce Israel’s complexity and its unanswered questions as the invitation into, or perhaps as the impediment to, building engagement with Israel as part of a thick Jewish identity. And we will explore together how we might begin to build an authentic, spiraling curriculum that imbues commitment to Israel within the framework of contemporary realities.
Pre-Work:
At the day school conference co-sponsored by RAVSAK and PARDES three years ago, research by Alex Pomson of Hebrew University made national Jewish news with the revelation that students were highly skeptical by what they perceived as the "selling" of Israel as part of their education.
To help prepare for the session, I encourage you to read Rabbi David Hartman's famous essay "Auschwitz or Sinai," written in the wake of the 1982 Lebanon War, in which he called on the State of Israel to rethink the core metaphors that signal its meaning to Jews and Judaism. Additionally, you may consider watching this interview between Rabbi Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi, part of the iEngage curriculum, which explores some of the broader implications of a contemporary Jewish conversation on power and powerlessness.
The material we will use in our sessions is largely derived from the Hartman Institute's iEngage Project, a research and educational initiative that seeks to reframe the meaning of the State of Israel for world Jewry through both its cutting-edge content and its diverse educational programs for leaders and change-agents.
Agenda:
10:30am-12:30pm: iEngage Beit Midrash: Power, Powerlessness, and The State of Israel
The State of Israel (and the American Jewish experience) offer a degree and quality of power in ways unprecedented in Jewish history. This manifests in a strong Jewish army, the possibility for a Jewishly-informed foreign policy, American Jewish political participation that signals a meaningful acceptance of Jews into American society, and a degree of confidence for Jews as political actors that is new. This experience also brings untold challenges, especially to the State of Israel, as it seeks to integrate this new experience of the world into a Jewish-values narrative that has much to say about the ethical use of such power, even as those traditions were rarely tested in practical reality.
Participants will engage in guided havruta to study some of Judaism’s foundational texts on the meaning of power and powerlessness, using our contemporary sensibilities as an entry point into our classical tradition. We will juxtapose these classical sources with some contemporary texts as well, hoping to consider in what ways this interplay of texts and traditions might be constructive – or at times destructive – to both how we think about the study of Jewish text, and how we think about mounting a thick Jewish Israel conversation.
12:30pm: Lunch Break (Lunch by Israel interest area)
1:30-3:00pm: Case-Studies: Power and Powerlessness in Practice
Moving from the conceptual to the “applied,” participants will break up into small facilitated groups to explore specific case-studies on the exercise of power in the modern State of Israel: Targeted Assassinations, Indirect Responsibility, Assymetrical Warfare. Each case-study will build on the foundational ideas laid out in the previous study session, but will also introduce contemporary realia and an additional set of texts – ancient and modern – for participants to consider. In these facilitated discussions participants will consider the utility of the text-study methodology in Jewish day schools for exploring current events, and in what ways a study-based approach facilitates productive and constructive dialogue and learning around Israel’s most vexing policy issues. The case studies will be an opportunity to experiment with a teaching methodology that reimagines the place of text study in Jewish day schools.
3:15-4:45pm: Translating from Theory to Practice: How can the iEngage approach inform the ways we teach about Israel? (Participants choose one to attend)
Participants will have the opportunity to choose a workshop led by academics and educators who are piloting this approach in teaching contemporary Israel. The workshops will look at year-long curricula and lesson plans to consider how this approach can work in a day school audience, what types of students are best suited for such a methodology, and how an approach such as this might also help position students more effectively for the college environment. The facilitators will both lead the discussion and introduce methodological and pedagogic thinking into the conversation, to integrate between content and process.
Rabbi Joshua Seth Ladon
This session will examine a specific difficulty I have encountered in the Israel class that I teach which is based on the iEngage curriculum. A serious discussion of power and powerlessness in the Israel narrative requires students who can think abstractly and critically. The process of helping students develop these skills has been challenging. In this session we will look at a couple of assignments which attempted to introduce students to critical theory and asked them to explore different facets of Jewish and Israeli culture through the lens of power and powerlessness. As part of this session, we will look at student work as well as brainstorm different ways of introducing this material.
Laura Sanders-Masset
Israel education in many instances has been reduced to teaching students answers to criticism they might encounter on their college campuses, an approach that not only fails to inspire students but one that also counters the critical thinking we strive to foster in them. This session uses a model lesson on the security fence to demonstrate how Israeli film and literature can spark the reluctant learner’s interest in Israel while allowing for the development of critical thought. We will begin with poetry and/or prose excerpts from Agi Mishol, Yehuda Amichai, Aharon Shabtai, and David Harris-Gershon plus a variety of film clips to examine the security fence from an experiential vantage, using the emotional impact of these voices to motivate further research into the actual causes and effects of the fence.
Rabbi Gordon Bernat-Kunin PhD
Based on student and parent learning at the Milken Community High School, this session will explore two large questions. What is the relationship between Jewish Education and Israel Education? How can Israel education problematize and inspire Jewish Education in America? How can integrated text study (Jewish Thought-AP Literature) connect theological and practical questions for Israel studies? Among the texts to be studied are selections from David Hartman, A.B. Yehoshua, Talmud, and Shakespeare.
4:45-5:00pm: Bringing it all Together: Closing Reflections
Participants will regroup to identify approaches and major takeaways to bringing these new methodologies and approaches back to their school and classrooms.
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Goal:
To help small schools develop approaches to secure a financially and academically stable future.
Description:
Schools with less than 150 students face unique challenges. Often located in demographically limited areas, these schools require creative solutions that mobilize the resources of the broader Jewish communities within which they are situated. Lay and professional leadership of small schools are invited to explore new approaches to fiscal management, creative recruitment solutions and innovative technological approaches to education. Through expert sessions, peer-networking and workshops, this track will help small schools move down the path to a more sustainable future.
(Please note that this deep dive will be primarily relevant to those schools that are situated outside of the major Jewish population centers).
Pre-Work:
Agenda:
Sunday
1:00-3:00pm: Opening Keynote and Session
3:30-5:00pm: Deep Dive Opening- Thinking Big About Small Schools (Grand Ballroom A)
Dr. Marc Kramer, RAVSAK
Perhaps one-third of all day schools in North America are “small schools” - schools with enrollment under 150 students, and many of these schools are located in small Jewish communities. Yet despite their size, the small Jewish day schools are key to the future of the Jewish communities in which they are found; they are led by some of the most talented lay and professional leaders; and they stand on the front lines in the fight against assimilation. Who are these schools? Who are their leaders? And what will it take to ensure a vibrant future for the small Jewish day schools? In this opening session, we will identify the framing challenges and opportunities facing small schools, meet one another, and begin the “deep dive” work of making small schools sustainable.
5:15-6:30pm: Plumb the Data - What We Know About Small Schools (Grand Ballroom A)
Dr. Amy Sales, Center for Modern Jewish Studies, Brandeis University
As Sherlock Holmes instructed, “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.” Our task is to apply our powers of reasoning to the future potential and challenge of the small Jewish day school. Proceeding in Holmesian fashion, we will examine data on the current status of these schools: What story do the data tell? How do they confirm or challenge our own perceptions and beliefs? What other clues should we be looking for?
6:30-7:00pm: Break
7:00-9:00pm: Conference Welcome Banquet
9:00-10:30pm: Small Schools Open Space (Westchester A Room)
Head of School, Rabbi Jeremy Winaker will facilitate a participant-directed “open space” session built around the topics of greatest interest to you. Come with thoughts, questions, concerns, and a willingness to listen - leave with innovative ideas, new answers, and a critical network of peers and allies.
Monday
7:00-10:00am: All Conference: Davening / Breakfast / Keynote
10:30-11:00am: Framing Session: Thinking big about small schools (Grand Ballroom A)
11:00am-12:30pm: Workshop, Block 1
Marilyn Chandler, Greensboro Jewish Federation & Mark Goldstein, Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley
The challenges faced by small Jewish day schools are felt as acutely by the federations which support them. How can federations and day schools enhance their relationships in ways that strengthen the partnership including resource development? How do we ensure the day school’s role as an anchor institution in a smaller Jewish community? What does it mean for a day school and federation to partner and collaborate?
Dr. Jack Wertheimer, The Jewish Theological Seminary
How does a day school manage when it is the only such school in town? And how do small-sized schools address their unique set of challenges? This workshop will build upon a case study of one such Ravsak school in Charlotte NC. Written by Josh Elkin, this case will prompt reflection and discussion about the necessary compromises different stakeholders have to make in order for the school to limit friction and function smoothly.
12:30-1:30pm: Networking Lunch, Sharing Success Stories- An Ideas Exchange (Grand Ballroom A, by table)
1:45-3:00pm: Workshops, Block 2
Betty Winn, RAVSAK
As schools struggle to recruit new students they often forget the importance of retaining current families. Looking at retention issues that affect small schools we will explore strategies to address them in concrete and proactive ways. Participants will identify issues relevant to their own schools and develop an action plan to take back to their schools. This session is for Heads of Schools and any school administrator.
Sam Chestnut, The Lippman School
The Lippman School, Akron, Ohio has created educational programs that have helped define its market niche, attracted new families, and strengthened school programs and enrollment for existing families. This cross-cultural model has invigorated not only the secular studies but also, and importantly, the Judaic experience for families and students. Beginning with this case study, this workshop will be a facilitated conversation for school leaders and board members to examine their own school and community to consider what opportunities might exist for school-wide educational initiatives with intentional marketable opportunities.
Amy Ament & Judy Rosenblatt, New Jewish Teacher Project
This session for school leaders will focus on how to leverage the talent you already have in your school by cultivating an environment of teaching and learning among your staff. We will explore numerous ways school leaders can develop the capacity of their teachers and offer meaningful, relevant professional development for their entire faculty, veteran and novice alike. Transform your school by uncovering the untapped potential and talent you already have.
3:00-3:15pm: Break
3:15-4:30pm: Workshop, Block 3
Dr. Harry Bloom, PEJE & Dr. Marc Kramer, RAVSAK
Small schools in small communities face the double-barreled challenge in recruiting board members of a more limited number of candidates and an increased amount of competition from other local organizations. How do small school boards become boards of choice, the highly appealing and highly productive boards that savvy philanthropic leaders want to join? Come prepared to learn and share successful strategies.
Dr. Leora Issacs, Isaacs Consulting LLC
Providing an immersive and intensive Jewish education is what day schools do and what communities need us do to… but what else do our communities need that we could provide? How can small day schools come to understand and meet the needs of communities in ways that expand the value proposition of the school and maybe even generate new income streams?
Adina Kanefield, Jewish Primary Day School of the Nation’s Capital / RAVSAK
How do you take your school's core values, channel them, and launch an annual campaign that stems from the heart of your school? How do you take the lessons you impart upon your students and inspire your community to make your school a philanthropic priority? This session will provide practical tactics and inspirational guidelines to help you create a culture of philanthropy at your school and a meaningful and successful annual campaign.
4:45-5:30pm: Concluding Session: Finding our footing, finding our voice- what can small schools do together? (Grand Ballroom A)
Cheryl Hirsch, Austin Jewish Academy (facilitator)
They say that leadership is a lonely practice, but does it have to be so? Each of our schools may be small, but together, we represent over 3,000 students in over 40 communities. What could we do it we did it together? This session will explore ways that the small schools and join forces on
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Goal:
To help day school educators and administrators explore effective educational practices for serving students with a variety of special learning needs and identify approaches to making their schools welcoming and inclusive of a range of students and families.
Description:
Day schools have often struggled to meet the educational needs of students who have a variety of learning disabilities and other social, emotional, behavioral or health challenges. Gain a deeper understanding of the range of students characterized as special needs; learn new approaches to special needs inclusion from both within the Jewish day school system and from other school systems; grapple with the administrative and financial obstacles that might seem daunting and begin to develop plans and strategies to become truly welcoming and inclusive institutions.
Pre-Work:
We would like to suggest a number of videos that you might want to watch, as well as some articles that we recommend you read before arriving.
1) Videos prepared by:
Carmel Academy, Greenwich, CT on their PALS program
The Shefa School, New York, NY, on their new school opening this coming Fall.
2) This TEDX video by Todd Rose: The Myth of Average
3) Videos by Rick Lavoi:
“Last one picked, first one picked on.”
Teacher’s Guide: http://www.ricklavoie.com/dos.pdf
4) Community Vision for Serving Students with Special Needs in Greater-Boston’s Jewish Day Schools
In addition, as an ongoing resource we wanted to share a number of website that our experts have found useful:
We are also starting a Reshet so that the learning that begins in this deep dive can continue after the conference. Reshets are RAVSAK’s peer-facilitated networked learning communities, which allow colleagues to post queries, share information, and collaborate. Please subscribe today by sending an email to: mailto:ReshetSpecialNeeds+subscribe@ravsak.org
By subscribing to ReshetSpecialNeeds you have subscribed to an email list-serv, but we hope and anticipate that this group will expand beyond email to webinars, video-chats and offline collaboration.
Agenda:
10:30am: Wrestling with Angels: Special needs and this moment in Jewish education (Grand Ballroom D)
Rabbi Shawn Fields-Meyer, Milken Community Schools
Torah is the starting place of all Jewish education. As we dive into the complexities of serving students with special needs, we will see that we are part of a long line of teachers, rabbis and community builders to wrestle with these issues. We will begin today’s journey by looking at parallels of our own challenges in the experiences of our ancient texts.
11:00am: Mapping the Journey: Where are you now and where do you want to be? (Grand Ballroom D)
Elana Naftalin-Kelman, Rosh Pina
Come experience best practices in inclusive education while keeping focused on your own schools inclusive practices. Through self-reflection, program evaluation and sharing resources we will review where each school is on its journey towards inclusion.
12:30pm: Lunch Break (Grand Ballroom D)
1:30-2:15 pm: Understanding the Realm of Special Needs (Grand Ballroom D)
Karen Lerner, The Prentice School
Participants will review a self-assessment checklist of multi-sensory teaching practices, designed for teacher use. After a brief overview of key special education terms, we will delve into what students with that designation might "look like/sound like" in a classroom. Teachers will participate in a self-assessment checklist of their multi-sensory teaching practices. Assistive technology tools and other supports designed to enhance the learning environment will be offered.
We will then enter into a discussion of what are the cognitive, behavioral and psychological student limitations a neuro-typical classroom can support and what to do if your school does not have these resources.
Finally, we will conclude with a brief mention of the importance that active memory plays in learning, but is compromised by students with such common issues as ADHD and relay some findings from our Brain Train research with CSUSB.
2:30-4:00pm: Breakout Sessions (Participants will choose one to attend).
Alan Oliff, Initiative for Day School Excellence, Combined Jewish Philanthropies
Successfully implementing the vision of inclusive Jewish day schools requires serious thinking about a number of issues including financial considerations and challenges. This interactive session will focus on several key questions: What impact will an increased number of students with special learning needs have on the faculty and school support systems? To what extent will there be the additional budgetary expenses? Who should pay for these? Should parents of students with special needs be responsible for paying for all, some, or none of the costs above the regular tuition? Are there resources (public, private, philanthropic) that could offset additional expenses? How can the community support schools to meet the vision? Explore these and other questions as the workshop leaders share their experience and encourage participant engagement.
Amy Bryman
This workshop will focus on identifying the unique needs of parents and children with special needs. Participants will gain an understanding of the experience of parents when a child has been diagnosed with a disability. The workshop will cover strategies for partnering with parents in order to maximize the day school environment for the child with special needs. Learning will be experiential, using research outcomes and qualitative examples, allowing participants to actively engage in this dynamic workshop.
Karen Lerner, The Prentice School
Beginning with a review of the admissions procedures needed to identify students with learning differences, we will explore the emotional climate of each school by having administrators complete a checklist. These findings will aid in determining if certain student deficits would be a good fit for a specific school.
Next, we will explore what teacher skills would be required to work with students who have learning issues, a spectrum diagnosis, ADHD and/or anxiety issues. We will also look at the topic of scheduling and how this can make or break a student's achievement. We will end with a brief overview of Common Core Standards and their potential problems for students with specific learning issues.
4:00pm: Break
4:15-5:00pm: Reflection and Next Steps: Individually and in small groups we will consider the next stops and potential destinations for your school’s journey and begin to map strategies for reaching them. (Grand Ballroom D)
Elana Naftalin-Kelman, Rosh Pina
Debbie Niderberg, Hidden Sparks
Alan Oliff, Initiative for Day School Excellence, Combined Jewish Philanthropies
Ilana Ruskay-Kidd, The Shefa School
(Facilitators to be confirmed)
Description:
Tefillah is undoubtedly one of the most challenging aspects in the life of a community day school, and few schools feel they have maximized their potential success in this area. Thankfully, this can change. Explore best practices in school prayer and examine how tefillah fits into the overall mission of your school. The session will serve as a collaborative space where teachers, administrators, those who fund day schools and others can share research and learn about new initiatives and successful models.
Pre-Work:
10:30am: Setting the Stage (Braniff Room)
This opening session will discuss challenges, define tefilah education and identify conditions needed to enhance a prayer experience.
11:10am: Aligning Vision and Reality (Part 1) (Braniff Room)
Schools often try to achieve multiple (and very different) goals in tefilah education, without providing the scaffolding necessary to succeed. In this session, we will explore, in small groups, what diverse goals demand in terms of time, place, staffing, etc. Representatives of schools with very specific and different goals will briefly present concrete examples.
12:30pm: Lunch- Challenges by Ages and Stages (Eastern Room)The lunch period will provide an opportunity for participants to join facilitated discussions addressing some of the unique challenges and innovative possibilities for different age groups (elementary, middle and high school).
1:45-3:00pm: Aligning Vision and Reality (Part 2) (Braniff Room)
Having explored the issues inherent in aligning vision and reality earlier in the day, participants will reflect individually and then work in havruta to explore the degree of alignment within their own schools and identify what steps need to be taken next.
3:00pm: Break
3:15-4:30 pm: Case Studies- Addressing Specific Challenges (Braniff and Eastern Rooms)
Schools share common challenges in tefilah education. Participants will choose from a number of specific topics and explore, by way of case studies, the depth of the challenge and what must be considered in order to move forward:
4:30pm: Wrap-Up and Next Steps
We will summarize the lessons learned from our deep dive, list the open questions, explain what participants can expect to receive in terms of follow-up, and discuss the extent to which the group may want to continue to “meet.”
Adina Kanefield, Jewish Primary Day School of the Nation’s Capital / RAVSAK
Have you thought about who should be serving on your board? Is your governance committee tasked with filling your board with good people or the right people? This workshop will help you identify the skills, demographics, and other qualities that will compose your board’s ideal matrix and will consider where you can find the right people and recruit them into your service.Dan Perla, The AVI CHAI Foundation & Tzivia Schwartz Getzug, Jewish Funders Network
This session is based on JFN’s recently released publication “A Funders Guide to Jewish Day School Financial Affordability and Sustainability”. The session will explore the pros and cons of the middle income programs which currently exist, both at the school-level as well as at the community level. The session will ask participants to consider the needs and objectives of their own schools and the context of both their schools and communities in creating and implementing a middle income tuition program.
Jonathan Cannon, Educannon Consulting
There are elements of school culture that are unique and understanding these can be complex and frustrating for lay leaders who are often familiar with other organizational cultures. Some aspects of this culture create a challenging environment for school change. However, there are opportunities to harness aspects of the culture in order to create positive energy. This session will explore some of these elements and explore how the board can play a supportive role in maximizing the success of the Head of School in this important context.
Gary Wexler, USC/Annenberg
Sacha Litman, Measuring Success
Often board members feel like their flying blind when it comes to decision making. Without boots in the classroom, it can be hard to know what actions to take to best serve your school’s needs. Discover the power of a data dashboard to inform strategic decision making and learn how to use carefully gathered facts and figures instead of anecdotes. Conduct a “back-of-the-envelope” exercise that demonstrates how to collect and organize your school’s data. To get the most out of this exercise, please bring budget information, enrollment figures, and survey data, if available.
Alex Sagan, JCDS Boston
Taking on the lead lay position in your school can seem daunting. There is nothing that can fully prepare you for stepping into these shoes. This session will examine some strategies for managing the work load, dealing with difficult personalities, making strategic decisions, delegating the tasks and using committees effectively.
Introduction from Dr. Marc Kramer, Executive Director, RAVSAK
As the pace of change accelerates, school trustees, especially those who work in the corporate world, can encounter real frustration. Convinced that innovation is vital, eager to help their schools change, they are often amazed by the resistance from faculty and the slow pace of implementation. Examine the unique features of schools that make them less “changeable,” and outline constructive ways to balance continuity and innovation.
Read an article by Rob Evans on "Why a School Doesn't Run or Change Like a Business."
Registrants are invited to join the main conference for Monday evening’s dinner and programming as well as for Tuesday’s conference programming.
Please see the conference schedule for the workshops and keynote offered on Tuesday.
Concourse B (Mechitzah Minyan)
Midway Room (Egalitarian Minyan)
Logan Room (Reform Minyan)
Learning today happens anywhere and anytime. Jewish Day Schools must keep pace with our increasingly connected, global landscape in order to prepare our students for the future. Explore essential elements of Connected learning, an education framework and approach to learning that is interest-driven, socially connected and grounded in academics. School administrators, professional development leaders and technology directors will consider how new media can be leveraged to support our students and faculty in relevant and accessible learning.
Goal: Participants will understand how to apply the connected learning framework and the role of new media in harnessing its essential elements for supporting relevant and accessible learning.
While connecting is easier today than it ever has been before, there’s more to connection than mastering tools. Effective connectors have networks that are both wide and deep; not only connected to a goal or purpose but interconnected among their members who are not just program participants, but active gears in the machinery of your school, program, organization or initiative. Each person represents access to an expanded network, and an expanded future audience to receive, absorb and redistribute your messages. In a future where reach seems infinite, how does your use of social media tools and communication strategies amplify your ability to share things that are important with the eagerly listening members of your current and future network?
Learn how to engage people from a point of meaning and value, deepen relationships and effectively mobilize your networks to share information as well as invite feedback.
“Pluralism” is often an assumption in community schools, but managing and honoring religious and cultural diversity within the school can be a challenge. Some schools intentionally strive to maintain pluralism as an ethic while others are pluralistic by default. Pluralism impacts school policies ranging from Jewish practice/values to curricular decisions and even budgetary priorities. How does your community day school function as a “pluralistic” institution in policy and in practice?
This session will seek to develop ways of thinking and practical tools for schools seeking to create new policies, as well as for those ready to conduct a "pluralism audit" to assess how pluralism in the school is being practiced in intentional and unintended ways. All school stakeholders are invited to participate, share their cases and questions, and contribute to the creation of a new template for school leaders to use to enhance school policy and practice with regard to the value of pluralism.
Using an action research approach day school leaders will investigate how "play" can be used as an inspiring process for professional and leadership development throughout the Jewish day school community. Activities focusing on direct solo play and cooperative play followed by exercises including journal writing, discussion, and photo analysis will illuminate how the play process can advance learning for adults and children. Participants will select and present artifacts from their investigation into play and translate them into action plans in collaboration with peers from other schools.
Heads of School, Principals, Board leaders, Jewish Studies directors, ECE directors and day school leaders ready to dive into an engaging exploration of "Play" will go home with new ideas for professional development, teacher learning and parent education that will strengthen the culture of the school.
Learn about, identify and develop key competencies for Judaic studies. Work with colleagues to reach consensus on the core disciplines and competencies that might define an educated Jewish student at ascending grade levels. In small groups, identify what knowledge, understanding and actions students would be expected to master in each discipline. Build templates that you can utilize and build on for your school.
Recruiting & Retaining 21st Century Jewish Families is designed for school teams (of Heads of School, Admission Directors, Marketing Communications Directors and Board members involved in school advocacy). Download the slides here.
Teams will learn from case studies of proven recruitment and retention strategies from the independent and Jewish day school worlds. They will have time to process and refine their learning with peers from other schools, and to begin to develop strategic action plans they can implement in their schools to gain market share and retain current students.
Goals:
The Hebrew at the Center Tool of “Goal Articulation” will be introduced. K-12 day school leadership and Hebrew teachers will consider their schools’ visions, mission statements and desired graduate profiles in the context of articulating explicit goals for Hebrew. Participants will begin the process of defining goals that will shape unit development and classroom lesson planning, leading to improved student outcomes.
Participants will begin to articulate effective Hebrew program goals specific to their schools’ mission statements.
Today’s children are living in an in an age marked by unprecedented access to entertainment and educational technology. How does this shape children’s social and intellectual development, and what can educators and parents do to support children’s healthy social and moral development and meaningful learning? By examining neuroimaging data from adults alongside creative and scientific works by children, Mary Helen Immordino-Yang will argue that the emotions felt in social relationships are central for development and learning. Neurobiologically, age appropriate skills and opportunities for rest, daydreaming and play, as well as for active reflection, may be essential to make culturally appropriate meaning and memories from educational and life experiences.
As teachers, we want each student to walk out of class each day knowing more than when s/he entered. How do we help students be accountable for their learning and how do we properly assess that they are meeting the learning goals? We will look at the “what, why and how” of formative assessment, providing the tools to assess that the group as a whole is learning and that individual students are not falling by the wayside.
Judaic and general studies teachers of grades 2-12 will come away with a variety of strategies to utilize in their classrooms. Participants will leave this session able to apply their newfound tools of formative assessment in their classrooms.
Part of Teachers' Professional Development Day.
In this interactive workshop, we’ll explore the connections between Judaism and STEM education with the goal of furthering your journey as a Day School Educator. We’ll challenge you to look at the classroom differently and learn with your students.
Participants will discover how they can integrate Jewish values, science, engineering, technology and math within their classrooms through an interactive, exciting and engaging discussion and hands-on experience. Part of Teachers' Professional Development Day.
