Picture: jewishdayschoolconference.org
This past week I had the opportunity to attend the North
American Day School Conference together with over 1,000 educators spanning the
entire spectrum of Jewish Day Schools .
Networking with colleagues from all over the world was a fantastic experience.
The real work begins now that I have returned to OCA. Here at Ohr Chadash we must build a sense of
community within our faculty and stakeholders. Together we can build a progressive
school by setting goals and creating an
action plan to implement the themes and ideas I bring home from these
conferences into a reality.
The theme of the conference was “Learning to Lead and
Leading to Learn”. This catchy phrase
boils down to the following central themes:
·
There needs to be a
paradigm shift in education away from just imparting information to one where
we insure that our students are inquisitive, innovative, critical thinkers, and
collaborate with their peers.
·
We must create a culture
where students and teachers are willing to take risks and learn from our
failures.
·
Teachers must be forced to
examine their curriculum to ensure they are not only teaching, but IMPACTING their students.
Creating a 21st Century
curriculum takes time. This should not scare us, nor prevent us from digging in
our heels and starting to work. However,
we can’t simply snap our fingers and see the changes appear before our eyes.
So what next for us at OCA?
·
We are committed to be
growing and learning together. We all
must understand that this is a process that requires buy-in from everyone. We are in the process of creating parent, faculty, and student surveys
to learn from your valuable feedback.
·
We are working with both professional
and lay leaders to create a 3-5 year strategic plan with measurable timelines,
milestones and goals .
·
We are working with Avi
Chai and the Alvo Foundation to incorporate and pilot blended learning
initiatives and utilize technology in the R.I.G.H.T. way.
·
The faculty and staff will
be carefully and critically examining the curriculum to incorporate essential 21st
Century skills into our classrooms
·
We will be collaborating closely
with other schools around the country to learn from our shared experiences and create
a sustainable blended learning
environment
I am excited about this journey, and I ask that the faculty,
parents and students actively
participate by supporting OCA. We must be willing to take risks and we must
not fear the possibility of failures. We
must work together as a community – whether by volunteering your time on the
board, committees, PTA or other projects to help insure Ohr Chadash’s success
and long term future.
ALL ABOARD!!!
