Balance vs Culture

Photo: www.enerchilaser.com -

As part of the Harvard Principals Institute I attended  we needed to share one of the biggest leadership challenges. There are many that we all had and we all had very similar ones but the biggest one for me is trying to create a balance between being open and supportive while at the same time being firm at times and having those difficult conversations. As I look back on my first year in my current position I had this balance to contend with, the Ying and then there was the Yang in  creating a faculty culture of trust, openness and not micro managing. Coming into the position from what I heard the creating this culture was very important. I believe I was successful, one teacher commented that I was easy to talk to since I always had an open door and was open and honest with her. 

However I lost sight of the balance. In an effort to build trust I did away with lesson plans, following the advice of a mentor of mine who  said that  you need to trust the teachers to be professional in the classroom and if you can't trust them then they shouldn't be working for you. I also want to get the teachers to think more about their own learning and what they do in the classroom and not just write down what they had hoped to accomplish. Therefore , I tried faculty reflections but that didn't work. The bottom line was that I swung the pendulum too far and I only focused on one area of faculty culture and lost sight of the balance needed .  

Reflections From Harvard ( Part One)

I had the opportunity thanks to a grant from the Avi Chai foundation to attend the Harvard Principles institute; Leadership an Evolving Vision ( LEV ) from July 7-14. I hope to blog more about the specific things I learned and takeaways from the individual sessions in future blogs but I wanted to write my general reflections with  this opening blog. 

The words that first come to mind are amazing, wow, once in a lifetime. That is what I felt like being there for the week surrounded by top educators from around the world as well as some amazing educators as part of the Avi Chai group. The other amazing and at the same time humbling experience was to actually learn from the experts in the field. We heard from leading experts like Kim Marshall, Robert Kegan, Liz City, and many others. 

So what made this so special? 

First of all Harvard built into the program a day of project adventure which focused on team building and the importance of creating this type of culture of trust in our schools and organizations. Harvard divided us up into small groups and we had a chance to debrief and learn  and share daily with our small group. However what made that group of educators come together and form a bond was our experience at project Adventure. In my school group alone there were two other Jewish Day school educators two Principals from New Zealand, One from Australia and one from Paraguay. We also covered elementary school, high school, and both public and private schools. I would say a pretty diverse group. However after a day at Project Adventure and the subsequent small group discussions we all became friends. I would be hard pressed to say that without this Harvard Institute I would have come to meet these other amazing educators from such diverse backgrounds. 

That brings me to the next point  DIVERSITY. This was an international group from very diverse backgrounds and we all came together with a common goal of trying to improve our own leadership style as well as improving our schools. As an Orthodox Jew who is a Sabbath observer and keeps the Kosher Dietary laws you may think that a conference like this would be somewhat difficult. On the contrary thanks to Harvard and Avi Chai things were done so seamlessly with regard to meals and Sabbath Observance that it wasn't even an issue. Not only wasn't it an issue but I was never made to feel different or that I couldn't fully participate and gain from the program. 

Finally there was time to defrief on two levels to take the things we learned and make them more practical. The first opportunity was with our Harvard small group. We came together for  over an hour each day to reflect on that day's lecture and share our major takeaways and ideas of how we can take what we learned and bring it back to our schools. On most days I came up with to take away and then after hearing the group I came up with two or three more things that I wanted to work on. In the evenings our Avi Chai group met to debrief and see how what we learned can directly affect the Jewish culture within our schools. Here too I came away with so many ideas. 

Overall  it is a must for any educational leader. The biggest and perhaps most important thing that I learned is that while we may come from vastly different backgrounds and even cultures not only do we all have the very similar goals but we are all struggling and dealing with very similar problems. I think it easy for us to get caught up in this feeling that we are the only ones dealing with this problem or that this is a problem for private school and not public, or we are facing these challenges in the US but other countries aren't dealing with this. Harvard taught me that those notions are false and that we can truly learn from everyone. 

Now the real work begins with taking what I learned and bring it to life for me personally and professionally 

Stay tuned as the adventure continues. 

Blended Learning is About Meeting The Needs of All of Our Students

This post was written for our school newsletter 

This week OCA hosted a visit from members of the TheAlvo Institute.  One of the leading blended learning design firms in the Nation, and currently works with over 45 Jewish Day Schools through the Jewish Education Project.Through a generous grant from the Avi Chai Foundation, the The Alvo Institute will be working with OCA over the next year to develop a blended learning pilot program in support of OCA’ s vision to provide rigorous and supportive instruction to help all students thrive.  We believe that blending traditional instruction with the very best of technology enhanced and data driven practices will help us realize this vision.

According to the Innosight Institute, a primer think tank looking to apply innovation to education, blended learning is “a formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through online delivery of content and instruction with some element of student control over time, place, path and/or pace.” We will be working with the team at Alvo to pilot and define what blended learning will look at Ohr Chadash.

Blended learning is an educational approach that combines of teacher driven instruction and online learning.  To properly differentiate, we need to truly understand each student and tailor the blended learning program according to their needs.

Rebecca Tomasini, the Founder and CEO of The Alvo Institute, believes that, “Blended Learning brings together the best from traditional instruction together with the most relevant and appropriate online and technology-supported instructional innovations to create a variety of integrated instructional experiences. In a blended model, teachers and students make decisions about a student’s instructional experiences based on close and regular analysis of real time student data.”

According to the Avi Chai Foundation, blended learning makes individualization and differentiation easier, faster to implement and more cost-effective”( PEJE : “According To His Way: Blended Learning “;a white paper about how Jewish Day Schools are using blended learning)

In addition to traditional curriculum, online resources can open up many new instructional opportunities that otherwise could not be offered in a smaller school such as OCA. For example, we are working with the organization BonyimB’Yachad to offer a course in music appreciation to our 6^th and 7^th grade girls once a week. If this pilot is successful we are looking at expand into other creative and interesting opportunities for next year.

While taking on a new project like blended learning is both exciting and overwhelming, this educational approach is the means by which OCA will meet the needs of all of our students and enhance the education at OCA.

AN UNBROKEN CHAIN

This post was originally written for our weekly school newsletter

Over the past few years, the national Jewish press  has been focused on the issue of Jewish day school sustainability and the importance of Jewish day schools to the future of American Jewry.  A  recent national survey of Orthodox Jewish day schools are showing a growth rate of less than a 2% growth while Conservative day Schools have been continuously declining over the last few years.

As a professional in this field, I can relate to you multiple studies and provide you with a plethora of data as to why Jewish Day School education is important.  Instead, I would like to describe to you a moving scene which illustrates the importance of Jewish day school sustainability.

My wife and I recently attended the wedding of a child  of our close friends . At the Chuppah the Chatan’s great grandmother was escorted down the aisle by another great-grandson.  This women, a Holocaust survivor, was beaming with joy, as she reflected on the path her life life took to be present at this wonderful Simcha.   We were honored to be guests during Shabbat Sheva Berachot, and on Friday night, 15-20 of this woman’s  great-grandchildren lined up in age order to receive brachot from her son-in-law , their grandfather.  All of these children are currently in Jewish day schools and Yeshivot. This is a clear demonstration of how Jewish education provides that chain that links one generation to the next.

Pesach magnifies this concept better than any other holiday. Jews from all over the world, from every generation, with varied backgrounds and skills will sit down together at a Pesach Seder and perform the same traditions that have been passed down from generation to generation.  How has this tradition been sustained throughout time?  What lessons can Pesach  teach us about sustaining the fabric of our Jewish society?

Not only do we bring generations and families together, but  the question/answer structure of the seder allows us to celebrate individual talents that together  create a community of learners. This is a perfect example of a differentiated  learning..  No matter if you are the wise son, the wicked son, or even the simple son, all are welcomed to the seder and encouraged to contribute and participate.

Differentiated learning does not only occur at the Pesach Seder.  Here at Ohr Chadash we are committed to incorporate a  differentiated and blended learning approach to education.  We are looking to create more opportunities for gifted learning and differentiation together with our current Learning Center staff.  The staff at Ohr Chadash are striving to create an environment and culture that focuses on the individual needs and talents of all of our students,  which together will define our school community.  I strongly believe that this approach will provide OCA with long term sustainability and success.

Wishing you and your family a Chag Kasher V’Sameach 

I Went to a Conference- Now What?

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 21^st 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 21^st 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!!!

"ED TECH" vs "EDUCATION"

Picture courtesy of bu.edu

As many of you may know,  I am active on twitter.  I recently saw a tweet requesting that the educational community no longer refer to educational technology as “Ed Tech”, but rather just “education”. I completely agree with this sentiment since technology is not something extraneous to education.  If used in the proper way, technology , it should be PART of education Just as we go about our everyday life utilizing technology to enhance access to our surroundings, so too technology, if used in the proper way, should be improving our children’s education.

@AngelaMaires a noted educator and author offers the following acronym to highlight how technology should be used in the RIGHT way.

R-Real: Technology must make the learning real

I-Impact: Technology must have an impact on our students

G-Global:Technology allows learning to be global and reach beyond  the classroom walls

H-Honor: Technology allows our children to be passionate about their learning

T- Talent: Technology allows students who may struggle with traditional academic approaches to show their true talent and shine

Below are some of the ways  that technology is being used at OCA in this RIGHT way  to advance and improve our student’s education:

1. Learning is not confined to the classroom, but students connect to the outside world in ways never before possible. Our 4th grade did a mystery geography skype with a school in Denver and our 5th graders participated in an online Hebrew class with teachers in Israel. 
2. Not only do student connect to the world, but they  experience things through technology which would not be possible otherwise. Imagine exploring the surface of the moon through your web browser, swimming to the bottom of the ocean, or exploring the Beit Hamikdash- Our 3rd grade did a webquest about Native Americans and will collaborate and develop projects based on their Internet research. Mrs. Taragin has created a Edmodo group called "Native Americans" which each student has joined so each student can easily access websites  they  identified  to do their research. 
3. Technology allows for opens lines of communication between administration, teachers, parents, and students. 
4. Multimedia can enrich the overall learning experience.  Our math curriculum provides the students with  hands on, interactive math lessons.  Students record themselves reading as they read a story on the iPad downloaded on  "audionote", student replays and judge themselves whether or not they used expression and  how long it took them to read. After listening to the recording, students reread the paragraph and try to beat their initial time 
5. Technology allows students to publish their work rather than just handing in a report. Our 5th graders published their own auto biographies and our 2nd grade  created a "Homophone Pictionary" in Publisher. To do this, the children merge language arts skills on homophones with hands on computer skills.
6. Technology allows students to take ownership of their learning and individualize their learning goals 
7. Technology is a fundamental component of our world and our children are learning the relevant 21st Century skills to help them become contributing members of society.
8. Technology also allows children to engage in important traditional lessons such as increased collaboration and  creativity.  A prime example are the voice threads and Prezis that our Middle School  girls use in both Judaic and General studies. Our children focus on evaluating ideas, analyzing data and comparing different  opinions in a respectful way.  

The usage of technology the within the classroom for the hype and excitement is not the educational philosophy of OCA.  Our primary focus is to ensure the well being of our students, to maximize our children’s learning, teach them to respect their peers  and to expose them  to the wonders of the world in which we live.  We must remember that technology is simply a means to that goal. 

My Quick Thoughts and Reflections on Why School by Will Richardson

This is my first post for 2013 and the 100th post since I started blogging. As we look at moving education forward  I thought that this was a most appropriate post to recognize these two milestones. I wrote this article for our weekly school newsletter.

I hope everyone had a chance to relax and rejuvenate a bit over the break. In addition to  relaxing I tried to catch up on some reading, and  I read a book by Will Richardson entitled Why School.

There has been much chatter over Twitter about this book, and, as a progressive, “out-of-the box” educator, this buzz got my attention and I am certainly glad I was able to find time to read this book. While I may not agree with everything Will Richardson writes, it definitely left an impression on me.  . I would like to share some memorable quotes from the book that are relevant to the  students, teachers and parents of OCA.

“Stephen Downes(a Canadian education researcher) says, “We have to stop thinking of an education as something that is delivered to us and instead see it as something we create for ourselves”

“A recent IBM survey of CEO’s asked them to name the most crucial factors for future success, and their answers had nothing to do with SAT scores or AP tests. Instead they cited creativity and managing the growing complexity of the world”

“In this new narrative, learning ceases to focus on consuming information and knowledge that’s no longer scarce (The author does believe knowing basic facts and the building blocks of reading and writing are critical). Instead it is about asking questions, working with others to find the answers…It’s about developing the kinds of habits and disposition that deep, lifelong learners need to succeed…”

“Tony Wagner recently said. “There’s no competitive advantage to knowing more than the person sitting next to you….What the world cares about is what can you do with what you know…” “And I’d add the world cares that you keep learning”

“ I believe there remains a great deal of value in the idea of school as a placed our kids go to learn with others, inspired by caring adults to pursue mastery and expertise……What doesn’t work is our educations system’s stubborn focus on delivering a curriculum that’s growing increasingly irrelevant and outdated…”

“Remaking assessments starts with this: Stop asking questions on tests that can be answered by a Google search”

“Herbert Gerjuoy predicts that the illiterate of the 21^st Century will not be those that cannot reads and write. The illiterate will be those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

 “We have to stop delivering the curriculum to the kids. We have to start discovering it with them.”

“…The adults in the room need to be learners first and teachers second”

“In the end the “Why school” question comes down to somewhat of a larger one of what we want for our kids….. I ask parents this all the time and not surprisingly the first answer on their lips is not “I want them to be good test takers”. Nor is it “I want them to know a lot of stuff”. What I hear instead are things like this: “I want them to love learning, I want them to be able to solve real problems, and I want them to be independent thinkers”

The ideas and concerns brought up in this book is a conversation that may revolutionize Jewish education, and needs to be discussed openly among our educators and parents. Therefore I would propose that OCA  establish a Parent Action Committee that provides a forum in a constructive manner to discuss new educational and school related issues. More details as to the role of such a committee and appropriate guidelines to follow.

Secondly, it would be fun to model innovative learning to our children.  What better way then by establishing a monthly Parent Book Club – details to follow as well.

Please email me if you are interested in helping establish a monthly book club or a Parent Action Committee

Shabbat Shalom  

Akevy