Goals for Jewish Education (for that matter Education in general.)

The inspiration and ideas for this post came from a speech given by Rabbi Shai Finkelstein, Senior Rabbi of Baron Hirsch Synagogue.

When we talk about education we most often talk about schools, and yes Jewish Day School and sending Jewish children to Jewish Day Schools is very important. However education covers a lot more than what we would call formal education. There’s informal education which one receives through youth groups, summer camps, Synagogue attendance, and what a child receives at home from his parents.

Using this broader idea of education, what should be our goals?

1. Students need to be engaged and learning needs to be fun and at the same time it needs to be intellectual stimulating as well. However when talking about Jewish education we need to find a way to bring it to life and make it real. We need to see the Amoraim (Rabbis from the Talmud) as if they are in the classroom with us. It is not just some type of medieval study but rather a living Torah that applies today
2. This leads to number two. It needs to be something that we internalize and becomes part of our lives. What we are studying and learning is not just an intellectual pursuit but rather must become part of our lives.
3. What we learn must be real and internalized so that when we are not in school, or when we begin to start families of our own we have the ability to become the teachers and pass it on to the next generation.

How is this accomplished? Our Rabbis gave us a clue when they said that being respectful (a mentch) comes before the learning of Torah. Meaning that if one wants to learn and internalize his learning he first must work on his character and behavior. In other words you need to practice what you preach.

Now that many students have finished their formal education until August or September we need to remember that learning and following the Mitzvoth (commandments) are not something that is just for the 10 months of the school year but rather 24/7/365.
We as teachers and parents need to lead by example showing that our commitment to learning and to our Judaism is something that is year round.
Hopefully if we can practice what we preach and are proper role models we can accomplish our goals and empower our students and children to be the future Jewish leaders.

Reflection vs. Retrospection

picture: noupe.com

As we come to the end of a school year many of the tweets and blog posts that I have seen talk about reflections and looking at our past accomplishments and looking forward as well. To be honest when I hear the word reflection the image that comes to my mind is that of looking in a mirror and seeing my own reflection. Yes there are other definitions for the word (one of them being careful thought, especially the process of reconsidering previous actions). But for me I still have that image of the mirror. Therefore at this time of year do I want to see look at see who I am now who is that person in the mirror or do I want to see how far that person has grown. Perhaps more importantly do I want to see the student that stands before me now or how much he has grown. To be honest I think we need to do both. We need to celebrate our successes and accomplishments and celebrate who we have become and the person that stands before us now, and we need to know and realize how much we have grown. Therefore another word comes to mind and that is Retrospection. That means that we think about or review past events especially from a new perspective or with new information.
We need to realize that we are not the same person that we were in September nor are our students the same and therefore as we look back we need to look back based on our new perspective , so that we can appreciate how far we have come and also understand how much more we all can grow.
So as we end the year let us look back on the past in retrospect, let us reflect and celebrate the present, and let us look forward with renewed energy towards the future.

In Honor of Teacher Appreciation Week

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week. As a parent and an administrator, I have a tremendous amount of Hakarat Hatov ( Thanks )for all that our teachers do on a daily basis on behalf of our students. We are privileged to have such an outstanding faculty who care so much for their students and our school.

I would like to share you my memories of a teacher who made a difference in my life and I believe he had a lot to do with who I am today. It was my ninth grade Rebbe ( Teacher)in HAFTR, Rabbi Tzvi Bajnon, who today is the Principal of Yeshiva Ketana of Long Island.

Rabbi Bajnon not only was a great teacher but he truly cared and he showed us that he cared. Some of us , myself included, wanted extra learning so Rabbi Bajnon, who lived in Brooklyn, came in half an hour early every day to learn with a few of us before davening( morning prayers) . I remember spending shabbos at his house on more than one occasion, and was even invited to one of his children’s weddings. I still speak with Rabbi Bajnon, admittedly not as often as I would like, but I still have a kesher ( connection)with him today. In fact I called him to tell him that I was writing this article and to express my personal Hakarat Hatov( thanks). Rabbi Bajnon taught me Gemara, Chumash, and Math during my four years of high school, and while I don’t remember every detail of what we learned or even what Mesechta we learned, I continue to feel a strong connection to him and admire him greatly. He made a significant impression on me because of the type of role model he was and because he cared about his students in and out of the classroom.

I recently tweeted that teachers often teach more outside the classroom than inside the classroom.

Rabbi Bajnon thank you for helping me become the educator I am today.

As we remember our teachers and the teachers of our children, let’s remember that what makes a teacher special is not always the content of their daily classroom instruction or how much we learned in their class about a specific topic, but how they helped shape our lives.

What Do We Focus On

Justin Tarte (@justintarte) tweeted the following: RT @edteck: Observing a Classroom? Watch the Students, Not the Teacher - http://bit.ly/de5OHN
This reminded me of a story that I often tell my teachers. I heard the story many years ago at a Principals conference.
A teacher wanted to submit a video of one his lesson to an organization that at the time was awarding $10,000 to the teacher of the year. He gave the video to his mentor to look at and for feedback. The mentor watched it and to be honest he wasn't very impressed and he said to himself perhaps I am tired and maybe I need to watch it at a different time. So he waits a few days and still nothing too exciting. He decides that he can't call his former student now teacher back he will just have to wait for him to call. And so after a few days he calls and asks so what did you think. Before his mentor could answer the teacher who was so excited said wasn't it great how I moved around the room and wasn't it skillful how I Incorporated material for the visual and the oratory learning and so on. Then it clicked with the mentor. When the teacher watched the video he watched himself but when the mentor watched it he was looking at the class and the students and saw a completely different picture.
Moral of the story we need to remember that we the teachers are not the focus but that we must be always focused on our students.
My quick thoughts
Akevy

Plant A Seed and Watch it Grow

Last week someone tweeted the following “Plant a seed and watch it grow”. The tweet had a link. The tweet got my interest as an elementary school principal and teacher. I assumed it was a catchy title about children so I clicked on the link. To my utter amazement it was actually a link about planting seeds.
However the idea was still stuck on my head. In reality that is what we do as elementary school teachers we plant the seeds now and we nurture them, water them and feed them so that they will grow. So times this growth can take many years. I remember when I reconnected with a former student some 15 years after I taught her in fourth grade (I am not that old) that one of the reasons she went into teaching was because of the feeling she got in my class. If we are lucky we can the see growth sooner. Over the past few weeks I have had the privilege to see amazing growth in the students in my school. From their Science Fair projects, preparing questions for skyping with another school, in class presentations, the level of their Hebrew language skills, or the major music production that the First through Fourth graders did, all of it showed how much they have grown.
This past weekend talk show host Michael Medved was a scholar-in-residence at one of the local synagogues and he said one of the problems with Television media is that “If it bleeds it leads’, meaning we focus on the negative. Sometimes in education as well we focus or only hear about how bad things are and all that is wrong. Yes there are things that we need to change but there are also many great things.

I am luck that I get to not only plant and help nurture those seeds I am also able to watch them grow.

Teacher Evaluation and Teacher Professional Development

There has been a lot of discussion on Twitter about this concept. I would like to thank @justintarte for taking the lead on this discussion.

Here are some of my quick thoughts:

1. We need to change the culture- Too often teacher evaluations have been seen by teachers as being a very top down process.The Principal evaluates the teacher, fills out a checklist without any type of conversation or follow up. If one of the ideas and skills we need to be promoting as 21st century schools is that of collaboration then the evaluation process must be a collaborative one consisting of several conversations between the teacher and the administrator.
2.The goal of any effective evaluation process or P.D.program must be teacher growth. We as educational leaders should want to see our teachers grow and help them maximize their potential.Therefore the process is not one of “Got You” but rather one of facilitating growth. One of the qualities we need to have as educational leaders is that of humility and we should want to see our teachers succeed.
3. We need to differentiate the process to meet the needs of the individual teacher. A one size fits all professional development plan doesn’t work.Teachers need to feel that the process is worthwhile and meaningful to them.

I will admit that I am in a private school and don’t have the same mandates that many of my colleagues have with regard to the evaluation process and the necessary paper work that is often associated with it.

However I would suggest that to create a culture of learning and growing, we as the educational leaders need to set the example. We need to create an environment that people are comfortable with taking risks and one that leads to growth and not teacher frustration and burnout.

A Personal Message: Please Join Me

Editors Note: I know that I am preaching to the choir since most people that read this are on Twitter already.

In the past week much has been made of the fact that as an Orthodox Jewish Educator living in Memphis TN. that I have over 1,300 followers on Twitter. Yes I am still amazed and humbled by this fact and at times when I am asked why people follow me I have a tough time answering.
However when I am asked why I tweet or what I tweet about the answer is easy. I tell people I mostly tweet about education and leadership and through my exposure on Twitter I have grown as an educator. I have created a group on the EDUPLN web site (edupln.com) for Judaic Studies teachers, I have joined and presented for Connected Principles, and most importantly I have developed an amazing PLN.
The message I have to my fellow educators is join me on this amazing journey. Get a Twitter account, follow other educators, join the EDUPLN,and start a blog. The sky is the limit and the wealth of knowledge out there is amazing. Why reinvent the wheel if it has been done already. I read an article yesterday in which @NMHSPrincipal is mentioned and tells how teachers in his school are sharing and asking for lesson plans via twitter. How cool is that!
There are many great things about Twitter; the sense of collaboration, friendship, and an overall safe environment where taking risks is encouraged. However the greatest thing is a sense of sharing and humility. People are willing to share ideas with others. Too often teachers and administrators seek honor and credit and therefore lack the trait of humility and are unwilling to share. If the 21st Century is the time that we need to focus on people skills and leadership as expressed in the books “Curriculum 21” and “The Leader In Me”, and if the right brain will truly rule with traits like empathy as mentioned in Daniel Pink’s book “A Whole New Mind” then we as educators need to model these traits and I believe sharing ideas and working together with others is a great place to start and that is the culture that exists on Twitter.

There are definitely issues with how Social Media should be used but in my honest opinion if the culture created by educators and leaders on Twitter was modeled in our schools we would be well on the way to educating the future leaders of 21st Century.