L’hitraot…

Today is my last official day as Head of School at Krieger Schechter Day School. It has been three fulfilling years of being on a educational journey with all of you – students, teachers, parents and community members. Schools, while not infallible, are exciting laboratories for learning and exploration and Krieger Schechter is no exception. Our students are fortunate to be taught by some exceptional faculty and administrators who share a passion for teaching and learning. I feel privileged to have had this opportunity to work with many staff members and board members who care deeply both for their students and the school.

I’m looking forward to my new adventure in Boston where I will be consulting on a number of different projects focused around education and Jewish continuity. I am ready for a less frenetic pace of life (Does that ever really happen?) as we get settled into life in Massachusetts.

Many members of the community have been generous to my family and me. On behalf of Rebecca, Raviv and Danya, thank you for generously opening your hearts and homes to us. We are looking forward to maintaining the deep friendships that we have made and will always consider Baltimore a home for us to come back to.

While there is a lot to be quite proud of from the many initiatives that have taken place over these past three years, join me in reflecting on five of these initiatives that will leave a long-lasting impression on our school.

1) The creation of a “Vision of Good Teaching at Krieger Schechter” document – a educational continuum that has six standards with a number of specific elements within each standard. Each element contains descriptions of progress within that element, helping a teacher grow from beginning teacher to expert teacher in that particular area. The entire faculty was engaged with Dr. Vivian Troen from the Mandel Center at Brandeis University in an intensive 18 months of reflection as to our priorities as a faculty. Thank you to Andrea Kasper who helped lead different groups of faculty to design each standard. This document can be used with all faculty, both veteran and new, for growth and evaluation.

The six standards we designed were:

• Knowing Children As Learners
• Planning Instruction and Designing Learning Experiences for all students
• Engaging and Supporting All Students in Learning
• Assessing student learning
• Building a learning community rooted in Jewish experiences and values
• Developing as a professional educator

2) Develop Bo N’Daber: A social-emotional curriculum for KSDS – a fully developed scope & sequence and curricular lesson plan guide (K-8) that addresses the social-emotional needs of our students.  Under the leadership of Dr. Sharon Buck and Kristen Wavle, a team of administrators (myself, Shelley Hendler, Saundra Madoff, Robyn Blum, Wendy Gelber, Cheri Crow) spent the 2012-2013 school year creating a curriculum that could be used by all of our faculty. It was a great team to work with and we owe them our thanks for their stellar work on this project. In the Middle School, an advisory period each week is now used for Bo N’Daber work. In the Lower School, the first 15 minutes of every day is used for Bo N’Daber. Both General & Judaic studies teachers are engaged in the curriculum. The curriculum takes the best of national programs like Responsive Classroom and adds a decidedly Jewish aspect to it. Posters hang around the school with the monthly themes so that students and faculty are reminded of the month’s focus.  Sharon and Kristen spent countless hours researching and developing curriculum guides and materials for faculty members. Other schools have asked us to share with them the curriculum.

The monthly themes are:

September – Safe & Caring Community

October – My Support System

November – Emotions

December – Respecting Myself & Others

January – Being a Good Citizen

February – Teamwork

March – Conflict Resolution

April – The Power to Choose

May/June – Celebration of Self – Perseverance & Goal Setting

3) Introduction of Ta’am Shabbat at the end of the day on Fridays – allowing our students to separate the rest of the week and begin to get into Shabbat mode by welcoming Shabbat as a community.

Ta’am Shabbat was celebrated in many different forms at KSDS. Once a month, the entire school gathered by celebrating as a community. Different members of our school community would present during these gatherings. We also utilized this time to have school-wide Friend-to-Friend celebrations where cross-division programming would take place. Thank you to Robyn Blum, Josh Bender, and the countless faculty members at Krieger Schechter who have done incredible Judaics programming week after week all in the name of Ta’am Shabbat.

4) Elevating our annual campaign and successful participation in the Generations campaign.   In 2014-15, we had the most successful year for annual campaign in the history of the school, raising over $530,000 to support all of the vital programming. Over these past three years, a huge debt of gratitude goes to Alison Wielechowski, Sarah Fried, and Janine Frier who led a team of professionals and lay leaders to such great success. We are especially proud of the work of that we did on the national PEJE Generations program that will eventually bring in close to $3,000,000 more in endowment for Krieger Schechter. Donations have come both in the form of immediate cash to the endowment and as legacy gifts committed over time. Thanks for the tenacity of current parent and former board member, Randy Getz, who challenged our school to be a part of this valuable initiative. It is his deep caring for our school that propelled us to stay involved in the program.

5) Deepening our presence in greater Baltimore. As we all know, the best marketers for our school are happy students and parents. It’s this buzz that will continue to make KSDS strong. But that is only one aspect of marketing; we must also constantly be thinking about reaching out to those who don’t know we exist yet. Thanks to the Admissions/Marketing/Community Relations team of Ilene Wise, Liz Minkin Friedman, Lindsey Brook and Marisa Obuchowski, we have creatively gotten our name out to new segments of both the Jewish and greater Baltimore community. Whether it was our year-long thematic approach to service learning, holding parent and baby classes, or having a bar night for city families, this team has been open about bringing new ideas for engagement.

I would be remiss if I didn’t publicly thank Rabbi Ron Shulman and KSDS Board Chairs Mark Neustadt and Michele Brill for being strong advocates for the school these past three years. All three of them care deeply about Krieger Schechter.

I wish my colleague and friend, Rabbi Moshe Schwartz, hatzlacha as he assumes the headship at Krieger Schechter. His energy is boundless (and you thought I had a lot, just wait!) and he is excited to serve the school as its next leader.

The screenwriters from the movie, “Annie,” wrote, “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” It has been more than luck having these three years at Krieger Schechter; I know that I will continue to hear great things about this place because it is just that special.

L’Hitraot. (Until we meet again…)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Celebrating the Class of ’15

Last night, the KSDS Class of 2015 graduated from KSDS. Below is the speech, a few friends (former faculty members) surprised the graduates with some words of appreciation…

KSDS Class of 2015, Mazal Tov on your graduation from Krieger Schechter Day School. I’ve thought very long and hard about what I was going to say to you. I have struggled for weeks to put pen to paper. Rewrite after rewrite. This is my last graduation speech as Head of School, I want it to be really good. I was to inspire you and have you all say, “Zarch really motivated us to change the world.” And then it hit me, this day is not about any of that, I just want to say thank you.

I believe I can speak for the teachers when I say that we are so fortunate to have gotten to know you and to learn with you. Thank you!

Receiving and giving appreciation is something that I have learned to become better at .I love getting hand written thank you notes, it has always made me feel special. But even more than that, I love writing them. Picking the stationery, carefully using my penmanship, and then the thinking about what to write, making sure not to ingratiate myself but still sound authentic. So that’s all I want to say to you – thank you.

But just saying thank you is not enough, so I have composed a communal thank you note to you our students of the Class of 2015 and have written a personal note to each KSDS student this year.

Here goes…

Dear KSDS Graduate,

Thank you for being you! You sit in front of us ready to face the future. Prepared to move on. Crazy, right? Wasn’t it just last week that you were in Kindergarten learning the alphabet with Mrs. Schulman, Mrs. Muser, and Mrs. Melnick. Now, you are in 8th grade getting ready to start high school. We are asking you to take everything that has been comfortable and explore a larger world. I want to take this moment to say thank you for your hard work and dedication. Being a student in 2015 is really challenging. The many adults in your lives ask a lot from you and you have exceeded our expectations. We are impressed with the fortitude that you show on a daily basis in your work. We, teachers, try to connect with you in different ways. Mine was the morning greeting. Every morning I walk into Krieger Schechter and know that I will have time to interact with you and to continue to grow a relationship. The handshake. The fist bump. The Boker Tov. The insistence that we look each other in the eye. It was my way of connecting with you. Each and every single one of you, no matter how challenging things got for any of us, to start the day off with you has been a true blessing. I will cherish it. I wouldn’t change that feeling for anything. Your teachers have their own ways of connecting with you. There’s the slight smile from you when we ask you “is that a new pair of glasses?” or the laugh when we share the joke about last night’s baseball game (Even I can cheer for the Orioles) or the moment when we can say how proud we are of you for a job well done.  We want you to know that it was an authentic connection that we were striving to make with you.  Teachers know when you are happy and we can feel when something is just not right. You see, we adults, we are pretty intuitive. In a school environment like KSDS, it’s even easier to stay attuned to what is going on around us. That’s the beauty of this place.

Saundra Madoff – Your Jewish exploration began with “bah bah beh”, apples and honey, and for some of you “אורי כדורי”. Now that you have become more fluent Hebrew speakers, have studied תנ״ך as well as משנה, can daven comfortably anywhere in the world and have a growing love of Israel, your challenge, as you go out to explore this complicated  world of ours, is to not only remember who you are, but to make lifelong Jewish learning a part of your intellectual and social journey. נסיעה טובה

As the Head of School, one of my jobs has been to lead the faculty in thoughtfully and carefully defining what kind of student thrives at KSDS. You have taught us a lot about that as well and here’s the good news, there isn’t just one type or two or three, or even five or ten. Looking out at all of you, I see the potential for success in each of you. Just as so many students that have come before you have brilliantly succeeded. You are joining the ranks of some pretty spectacular people – trailblazers who have done some incredible work. You follow a long line of students who are making a difference in the world. You are the leaders and the doers. You make us love teaching.

Regina Puleo – When I was younger, books allowed me to travel in time or around the globe to settings I could never otherwise experience, like 1930’s Maycomb, Alabama, or to temporarily fly off to Neverlands that only existed on the page and in the imagination. But as I became older and wiser, I realized that the real explorations books offered were the ones that took place in my soul, leading me to question my values, relationships, my own place in the world. Class of 2015, thank you for sharing so many stories with me: those of fictional characters, and the real non-conformists you painstakingly researched, but most of all, your own. Wherever life leads, I hope you remain spunky characters with fiery convictions, eager to explore the reaches and depths that words, the world – and your own minds – have to offer.

Thank you for taking chances. We all do. Sometimes they were successful, sometimes not so much. Yet, you learned so much from the experience of trying. Failure is not the enemy and playing it safe is not always a sure thing.  How does one take risks in a safe environment? Comedian Danny Kaye once said, “Life is a big canvas; throw all the paint you can at it.” What will be your muse? What stamp will you leave on the world?

Hedy Goldstein – It’s biome day in third grade. There were several rooms set up as a biome. One was Israel, where you took a tour of the different biomes of the country another was the tundra where you made snow, and then there was the marine biome in my room. I challenged you to help me dissect a squid! Many of you squealed and moaned in fear! You put on your scientist’s gloves and discovered the three hearts and the ink sack which it used to protect itself from prey. You took off your gloves and realized it wasn’t so bad.  

You rose to my challenge to be a responsible scientist. May you continue on your journeys ahead taking many more challenges!  Thank you for taking mine!

Thank you for staying true to yourself! You have had many good moments at Krieger Schechter and you need to always keep them stored away in the front of your memory. This day “officially” culminates your student relationship with KSDS and for many of you, being in this building is the only schooling you have ever known. Are you nervous for what’s next? I sure was when I was your age. It doesn’t go away. The exhilarating feeling of something unknown. Dreaming about all the possibilities. Transitions can be tough but you have to move on as it is what has to happen. You have received a rich education from teachers who not only take their jobs seriously, they LOVE it. They have been blessed with students who truly are nourished when they are being challenged. You learned so many new things and yet, have so much still to learn.

Shelley Hendler – Throughout your Schechter experience, you have explored new territories and reached great heights.  From the land of the dinosaurs through the Chesapeake Bay and beyond, you have traveled through the 50 states and across the continents, with real stops in Philadelphia, New York, and Israel.  You had Shabbat dinners and Model Seders together and even experienced a dinner party in the likes of Judy Chicago.  Your discoveries through learning festivals, Shakespeare, and Jewish texts have led you through adventures and challenges beyond compare. Sharing a part of this journey with you has been both a privilege and a joy.  I hope that you are leaving KSDS with the confidence in yourselves, the strength of your skills and talents and the appreciation of the power of community.  Value the roots of your education here – explore possibilities with thoughtfulness, passion, and kindness, and success and happiness will follow. Wishing you the best as you continue along your new adventures.

Again, thank you for being you! Every day, we pass a mosaic in the synagogue hallway that says “The world exists only because of the innocent breath of school children.” Think about it, there is no reason to have school if there are no children to teach. I have either been a child or worked with children my entire life. I’m probably in good company with many faculty members in this room. Why do we do this everyday? It’s because of you. You are the product of our communal love and devotion.

On behalf of the entire faculty and staff, I’d like to wish you a life of exploration and adventure. Travel far. See the world. Finally, stay connected to the Jewish community – it needs you and you need it. Like many people in this room, you’ve been afforded a rich Jewish life and you have the tools to be the leaders of the community. Yes, there is an obligation there but I know that you will succeed. You are our future.

ALL –  Thank you for allowing us to get to know you. Stay in touch.

With much admiration,

Bil Zarch

There are some people I’d like to acknowledge in the room tonight. First, let me welcome my predecessor, Dr. Paul Schneider. It is Paul’s service and fortitude that brings us to this moment. Thank you, Paul. A source of great pride are the KSDS alumni. If you graduated from KSDS, please rise and let us acknowledge you. Next, I’d like to acknowledge those families whose youngest child will be graduating from Krieger Schechter tonight. I’d like to take note of one family in the class who has had a child at our school for the last 26 years – the Baraban-Goldblum family. Jay & Liba, please stand up. Your dedication to Jewish day school education and your many, many tuition dollars spent at KSDS speaks of your incredible devotion to our school, something that sometimes gets lost in today’s society. I joked with Liba on Tuesday morning as she was dropping off Asher for the last time, that we were going to rename it the Baraban driveway for all those tuition dollars, she quickly corrected me and said “No, the Baraban-Goldblum driveway.” Thank you, Jay & Liba.

Finally, over thirty years ago, there was a person who dreamt of a day school here at Chizuk Amuno. His foresight and commitment to ensuring the success of this school have been the reason we have flourished for so long. That person is Rabbi Joel Zaiman. Tonight, his grandson, Zachary, graduates with the Class of 2015 and he gets to kvell as both a founder and a grandparent. Thank you, Rabbi Zaiman for your perservance to ensure a strong Jewish community.

So with that, let’s say Yasher Koach and Mazal Tov to the wonderful class of 2015

 

Showing appreciation even when things are not perfect…

The other day I walked into a classroom at Krieger Schechter and saw something that I have witnessed many times before but this time it really sunk in. A student in a group of middle schoolers was giving a presentation by recounting a historic moment through story telling to her classmates. When she finished, everyone applauded politely, but then something really cool happened. A number of the students’ hands flew up in the air and began sharing appreciations for the job well done. Comments like, “I loved the way you got into the character” and “You taught me something new that I didn’t know.” and “I can tell you prepared really well for this.” Since I know this group of students fairly well and I know the social dynamics that can sometimes be pervasive in middle school, I was wholly impressed with the way all of that seemingly didn’t matter at that moment. They were supporting a classmate for a job well done.

It then struck me. How often do we really appreciate teachers? I mean I have always known and acknowledged how incredibly hard teaching is. Every day, I am in awe of the teaching that I have witnessed in the schools of which I have been a part. I daresay teaching is one of the hardest professions today. Even in the best of circumstances, the complexity that is involved with teaching in 2015 is something that should not be underestimated. We expect teachers to be superhuman with powers to work easily with the most complicated students. For some teachers (both new and veteran), their natural ability to connect makes this task easier but let’s be honest with one another, teaching is an imperfect profession. Hard to hear, harder to acknowledge. The question is are we OK with it being imperfect? And if so, how do we make sure that we are creating a safe environment for exploration?

One of my teachers, Dr. Sharon Feiman-Nemser, said the following “Learning to teach is a bigger job than universities, schools, experiences, or personal disposition can accomplish.” Sharon often makes the eloquent case that teaching is complicated and that it behooves school leadership to invest in the time that it takes to cultivate excellent teaching and learning in classrooms. We do that by clearly stating expectations, creating an atmosphere that allows for inquiry without repercussion AND giving teachers opportunities to learn from their colleagues.

Appreciation comes in many different forms. The above example that I give about the students is just one way to take the idea of appreciation and make it part of the everyday culture of a school. As educators, we have worked hard to help our students to understand that kindness is an ideal that we embrace as a community. This week as we celebrate teacher appreciation week and if your school is like mine, faculty is being showered (as they rightfully should be) with loads of perks, I hope that you will remember that sometimes the gift of giving the teachers the opportunity to be reflective practitioners is what they are truly searching for.

Thank you to all of the teachers in the schools that I have helped lead, who have made me a better educator. I know how hard all of you work to create stunning classroom communities for our students.

 

A blue-gray day…

There is not a cloud in the sky this morning. The vibrant blue sky is gorgeous. Yet, the day is deceiving. It’s a dark day here in Baltimore. The city that I have come to love for its gritty attitude and realness has become tarnished. In the three years that I have lived here, I have seen an exciting revitalization of a city that is doing great things. Often in the shadow of two bigger cities within two hours, Baltimore’s residents new and old are flocking to it because of its uniqueness, affordability and opportunity. I am an urban dweller. It’s where I feel alive. Baltimore makes me feel like I did when I first lived in Boston; opportunity exists and people are going to seize the moment and take pride in the place they call home.

Last night, we went to a restaurant to celebrate Danya’s birthday. As Raviv and I got out of the car, we witnessed 50 police cars with sirens flashing whizz by us. Raviv watched in awe stating to me “something bad must be happening, Abba,” silenced by the sight. At that moment, I didn’t know how to respond.

Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, “It is not enough for me to ask question; I want to know how to answer the one question that seems to encompass everything I face: What am I here for?” On our way home, I was listening to CNN on the radio. My six year old was listening intently and he started asking me questions. In a classroom situation, I would often applaud my students for their inquisitiveness. But as a parent, was I prepared to have this conversation and allow for the inevitable questions that would come? Would I be prepared to eloquently answer it or would I be a phony? I decided not to shy away from it. It’s complex and sticky. Yet, I hope he will look back at this interaction on this evening and say his father wasn’t afraid to tackle an important family ideal – something that back in my idealistic twenties, I would have embraced. One of the many reasons that we send our children to Jewish day school is that we want them to be able to empathize with others. In learning about perceived injustice, my child may be inspired to take action.

We talked about what was happening in another part of Baltimore as we drove home from a nice dinner. He started off with the normal question of “Am I safe?” and I reassured him that he was in good hands. The conversation then turned to a lot of questions about why this was happening.

Our family lives five miles away from Mondawmin Mall. Let’s put it in perspective, that is like walking 100 city north-south blocks in Manhattan. Some people walk that distance everyday. We have driven through Mondawmin before to visit the zoo or see friends who live in nearby Reservoir Hill. Mondawmin is another world. It is one that most of us won’t ever fully comprehend. Many residents struggle to make daily life function. A malaise of desperation sets in.

When I first moved here, I had no idea how to get around. Thankfully my GPS became my best friend. When we were visiting friends in a downtown neighborhood, the GPS took us the shortest way, which was right through some rough neighborhoods. It was my first realization that Baltimore is two cities living with one name. As a resident of the city with more “power,” how do I explain the inequity to my child and to the children of this school? And more importantly what is my obligation?

Before this weekend, it was an ideal that I thought about but didn’t see the priority of taking any action. This morning, I woke up to seeing a map of where the looting happened in Baltimore and saw that some of it happened within a mile and half of my home. I can’t turn a blind eye and say it is happening in the “other Baltimore.” It’s all around us and our call to action is to realize that we are stronger as one than we are divided.

In the end, I come back to another Heschel quote, “In a free society, some are guilty. But all are responsible.” As educators, our responsibility is to walk a tightrope with our students. This is a real challenge in today’s world since our society has become so sensitized that any opposing opinion draws harsh criticism. We need to portray a picture that is balanced and fair, understanding that our emotions can’t overtake us. The images that we see on television are emotionally charged and conjure up so much. We need to inspire understanding and appreciate that right now we are a city that is hurting; when we have this deep of a hurt, it takes a lot of time, education and effort to heal.

 

 

#IsupportKSDS – The Challenge of #GivingTuesday

Tomorrow is #GivingTuesday. It is hard not to know about this day and its impact on the philanthropic culture, but if you don’t, it is a day where we support causes personal to our hearts. It is an opportunity to support non-profits and charitable causes after the hustle and bustle of shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This year, we are excited to announce that a small group of alumni have given $5,000 in anticipation of Giving Tuesday. They, as well as everyone else here at KSDS, want to challenge the rest of the 900+ alumni to raise an additional $5,000 and help us hit our goal of $10,000 from alumni. This challenge starts tomorrow on #GivingTuesday.

For the rest of the community, our alumni parents, our current parents, and our faculty, we are participating in #GivingTuesday to continue to support the goals of our Annual Campaign. If you’ve already given to the Annual Campaign, thank you for your generous support. You can continue to help by spreading the word about #GivingTuesday through social media or word of mouth. If you haven’t yet made your gift, please consider making that gift tomorrow.

#IsupportKSDS because…First, as a parent, my child loves learning. Plain and simple. The faculty at KSDS have engaged him in ways that neither my wife or I could have imagined. This morning, he sprung out of bed ready to be back with his friends and teachers, regaling us with stories of what he was looking forward to on his first day back after the break. Second, as Head of School, I relish working with a team of educators that are passionate about teaching and learning. Every moment they are challenging themselves to even greater heights. Finally, as a community member, seeing an event like last Wednesday’s Day of Service made me realize how Jewish Day Schools uniquely set themselves apart from other schools. It was gratifying to see so many in our community take time to serve others in need. I support KSDS.

Tomorrow, we hope that you’ll send your own #IsupportKSDS to your friends and family. Post it on our Facebook page and share it to your own. Let’s imagine that every parent, alumni parent, and faculty member made a pledge or gave their Annual Appeal gift on #GivingTuesday. In addition, let’s imagine that every alumni gave $18 on #GivingTuesday. We would at least double our alumni match and be well on our way to achieving our Annual Campaign goal for the year. Please click here to join the #IsupportKSDS campaign.

Another Bonus Of A Schechter Education…

Service learning is a key aspect of a Schechter education that we all value. It is our mission to integrate meaningful service learning experiences for our students. Starting a year ago the Administrative Staff (AS) discussed what the day before Thanksgiving should look like for our students. Many schools tend to celebrate Thanksgiving in instinctive ways. KSDS is no exception. Yet, this year, we will be honoring the holiday a bit differently. Many thanks to Liz Minkin Friedman, Kim Glaun, Ashley Pressman, Karen Booth and the dozens of volunteers, the school is immersed in a morning of service.

This year, our theme is Honoring the Elderly. Our partners at Jewish Volunteer Connection (JVC) have helped us to think about meaningful yearlong initiatives to weave throughout our curriculum. We have planned this day so that it is fare more than a one-shot deal with little context for the bigger picture. It’s about having our students broaden their understanding. We want them to question and maybe they will be inspired by what they see and feel to take even greater action.

One example that comes to mind is when I worked with high school students. The school had built a relationship with another program that helped Jewish children with all different types of disabilities earn a Jewish education. The students at my school would volunteer to be one-on-one aides and shadow these students. During my tenure, there were a number of students who found their calling and chose careers working with special needs children. Many of them credit their work during high school as the main influence on their decision.

This morning, our building was buzzing. Middle school students were dispersed throughout the community. We had students at Weinberg House, Weinberg Garden & Terrace, and Myerberg Senior Center working together with senior residents on Thanksgiving related community service for other populations. A number of Middle Schoolers were outside at CHAI Housing helping weatherize and repair homes.

Our Lower School students did in-house projects that mostly centered around enhancing Thanksgiving celebrations for many different senior populations. Our Grade 4 students met with a Jewish veteran in our community and baked cookies for a number of veterans (and servicemen and women) for their Thanksgiving celebrations.

As is our practice at KSDS, we integrated the traditions of Thanksgiving at the end of our day with a Lower School sing along followed by refreshments. We are confident that students walked away having a fuller understanding of the meaning of Thanksgiving as we finished up our day today.

As you sit around your Thanksgiving table, ask your KSDS student one question: What does Thanksgiving mean to you? I am confident that their answer will add immeasurably to your holiday celebration.

KSDS Director of Community Outreach & Engagement, Liz Minkin Friedman and Grade 5 student, Ahuva, deliver treats to Weinberg residents.

Grade 2 students, Lielle & Jacob, making flowerpots for CHAI

 

 

Grade 3 students, Julian, David, and Brady making paper flowers to brighten up Thanksgiving meals for seniors

Grade 4 students, Jessie Pearl and Hannah, making cards and baking cookies for veterans.

Lena in Grade 1 making place mates for Meals on Wheels.

Kindergarteners caterpillars for Meals on Wheels menus…

Grade 6 students and parents help clean up around the CHAI Housing.

Middle Schoolers (Evan, Isabella, Ellie, Matt, Jacob, Allyson, Lara and Eli) playing bingo with the residents of Weinberg Gardens.

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here’s a note that arrived in my inbox just now:

“…Please share with your teachers and students how much the residents enjoyed the events of today.  The lunches went to the Helping Up Mission and I delivered the trays of sweets to the two Pikesville Fire Stations and to the Police.  Everyone commented on how delightful the students were.  They were helpful, respectful, lots of fun and very friendly.  It was a TERRIFIC morning that brought brightness and warmth to a nasty (weather) day.  We all look forward to connecting throughout the year.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Warm regards,

Cindy Zonies, Director of Resident Services/Weinberg Senior Living

Being A Super Planner

When I walk into a classroom, I can always tell which students are highly organized. Being meticulous about aspects of ones life is an important trait that we look to instill in all of our students. For some of us, it comes very naturally. We like to make lists. Our brains have the ability to compartmentalize facts and figures easily. For some others, it is an acquired trait. We learn mnemonic devices to help us become more organized. Through a lot of hard work, we find much success. And yet for some, being organized is such a difficult task that it stymies our ability to keep track of everything that is going on around us on a day-to-day basis.

More times than not, it is not black and white when it comes to being organized. As part of the leadership team at KSDS, I (along with my colleagues) must be highly resourceful when it comes to what it takes in running the many varied tasks of the school. One piece that we often think about is that independent schools including Jewish day schools must be constantly thinking about the future. Both professional and lay groups work together to think about the sustainability of our school. One key aspect of school feasibility that I have come to believe as one of the strongest (if not the strongest) is building a robust endowment. Endowments gives school financial support on a reliable schedule. It is both planful and thoughtful. By doing this we ensure a strong and bright future for the school that educates our children.

Krieger Schechter Day School has spent the past two and a half years engaged in a national endowment campaign called Generations. With the help of both local and national institutions like The Associated, the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE) and the Avichai Foundation, a number of professional and lay leaders here at KSDS have been afforded the resources and training to both make the case for endowment giving and to continue to build our own. (Krieger Schechter’s endowment fund currently sits at around $8,000,000.) There are two ways that we build our endowment. The first is through legacy giving and the second is through donors.

All of us have the ability to contribute even if we think we can’t. It is true that thinking about one’s death is not something that is pleasant. Yet, when we are thoughtful about the legacy we want to leave behind, we create a clear picture of our wishes. KSDS alumni parents, Janine and Rob Frier, have planned their legacy giving and have included Krieger Schechter in their estate planning. Throughout the years, the Friers’ generosity towards the school has been apparent in so many ways. They have stepped forward to lead the call for families who have deeply appreciated what Krieger Schechter has given their children by including KSDS in their legacy giving.

Our oldest alumni are in their mid to late 30’s. At this point, legacy giving is not on their radar. The Generations program spurred us on by thinking about how we can build our endowment today. I am thrilled to announce that we have received a $300,000 endowment gift from the David & Barbara B. Hirschhorn Foundation. Two of its board members are Sarah Shapiro and Debbie Vogelstein, who are sisters, with deep ties to our community. Sarah, an alumni parent and Debbie, a current and alumni parent and their husbands, value the exceptional education that their children have received. They know and believe that creating Jewish day schools that are affordable to as many people as possible is of the utmost importance. Their passion for Krieger Schechter convinced the entire foundation board as to what great value their endowment gift would make on our community.

These are two examples that demonstrate the importance that so many people have espoused to make sure that KSDS thrives. Finally, recently, Krieger Schechter lost a friend, Jerry Katz. In the early years of Krieger Schechter, Jerry was its strongest champion. Jerry was an alumni grandfather and loved KSDS. To quote Rabbi Shulman’s eulogy, “…In the earliest days of Krieger Schechter, Jerry provided important guidance and leadership. He was part of a team of lay leaders and Jewish educators who worked to mold the school into an excellent and thriving educational setting and a vital part of Jewish Baltimore. Hundreds of outstanding students, including Jerry’s grandchildren, Jordan and Alyson, are testimony to Jerry’s efforts as School Board Chair to stabilize the school’s finances and governance structure. For most of the school’s thirty plus years, Jerry provided wise counsel and heartfelt encouragement…”

It’s because of the dedication of people like Jerry that Krieger Schechter is the school it is today. For that we all say, THANK YOU!

For anyone who would like to set up a time to discuss endowment giving, Alison Wielechowski and/or I are available to meet with you.

Putting over 200 people in the room with cardboard…

Yesterday was KSDS’ 4th Annual STEAM Showcase and it was a pretty fantastic morning. Students and parents alike spent the morning immersed in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math sessions. Community members were the presenters and all came to teach their love.

The capstone program was something different this year. KSDS participated in the Cardboard Challenge. After months of collecting tons of cardboard, children and adults were let loose to create our own KSDS CITY. It was spectacular what was created.

KSDS CITY will be installed just for today so if you are in the area stop on by. Below are some pictures from the morning’s festivities. Thanks to Karen Booth, Wendy Gelber, Dick Manekin, and all of the presenters for all their hard work on pulling this day together.

Transportation was a big theme of the day!

KSDS CITY is thriving.

Every city needs a JCC.

The KSDS River. Note the bridge…

The Zarch Family Library!

David N. making sure the house is sound for habitation.

Nadia S. working on her car…

Parents and kids working together

Jacob B. thinking about his next steps…

The city is buzzing with activity.

“How do you put the iPad in the VCR?”

With a straight face and inquisitive look, that’s the question Raviv posed to me Wednesday night at dinner. Looking up from my food, I asked him to repeat his question; I thought I misheard him. And then he asked again in a different way, “How does the iPad work in a VCR? The hole isn’t big enough.” I had to check my calendar because I hadn’t heard the letters VCR put together in years. After further probing about why he chose to ask that question, it was revealed that Raviv and his classmates had spent the Investigations Lab block exploring the inside of a TV and VCR with Mr. Bender and Mrs. Pruitt.

The story as told to me goes like this:

Mr. Bender was walking by the classroom and saw some Kindergarten students with mini hammers, wrenches, and screwdrivers surrounding a TV. He saw that it was headed towards a demolition activity. He stepped in, inserting a few questions. “How is this put together? How did they build it? What do you think we can find inside?” Then they proceeded to talk about what tools were needed (bolts vs. screws, etc.) to get it open. They worked together to get it apart using tools safely. Once they got inside there was this loud “wow”. Then they started to look at the motherboard, the wiring, and tried to figure out what each piece was and what its job was.

The investigations that happened this week for the Kindergarten students allowed them to chart their own course with learning. I gather that many students (if not all) walked away with more questions than answers, and from a few conversations with other Kindergarten parents, many students came home wanting to investigate more about TVs, VCRs, and electronics. Raviv walked away fascinated by the topic. The teachers allowed all the students to not only probe but to dream. The messier Raviv comes home, the better his day. There are days he looks like all of his learning was thrown onto his clothing – that’s good. In many corners of KSDS, the creativity that our teachers put into their learning on a daily basis is astounding.

This engaging approach to learning is exactly what the Administrative Team had in mind as we started talking about the Science Showcase this past summer. We decided to think about the event differently to incorporate all aspects of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, & Math). We also wanted to allocate time for children to just imagine, design, collaborate, explore, and create.

In planning the STEAM Showcase, we were inspired by a short documentary called “Caine’s Arcade”. If you haven’t seen it yet, take a few minutes to watch it here. Through the work of this film, the Global Cardboard Challenge was created. It’s incredible to see what happens when a child stretches their imagination, and we are excited to take on the challenge this year.

We chose “Community” as our theme, and this is what we will be creating on Sunday, November 16 at KSDS. The Global Cardboard Challenge will allow students and families to dream about what elements of their community they want to see and the things we need to thrive as a society. We hope that you will join us for this fun-filled, engaging, and imaginative morning.

Both examples of learning that I have pointed out in this posting speak to one important focus of our core curriculum – collaboration, a skill that many educators believe to be essential for future success and growth. As students learn to negotiate, they become confident in their own abilities and stronger self advocates.

As they continue to dream, the possibilities are endless.

Vision 2015 Reality 5775

Summer time in a school environment is always valued and celebrated. While we know that the main focus of schools is to educate children, there is something about an empty building without students and teachers that gives us the chance to recharge our batteries and to delve deep and plan without the usual frenetic (albeit exciting) pace that we maintain during the rest of the year.

Administrators and teachers in our building engaged in many long conversations that allowed us to challenge ourselves to think about what education should look like in 2015. This past December, I authored my annual report for the school. In that report, I highlighted ten Capstone Aim Projects (CAP) that would be our focus over the following period of time. Our summer work was concentrated on this report. Throughout the year, I’ll be updating the progress that we are making in each area.

Here are three of the CAPs on which we have made progress.

CAP#3 – Continue to create the strongest bilingual school in greater Baltimore.

As we continue to build on our strong foundation in Hebrew language, we look to incorporate best practices in language learning. KSDS is putting a strong emphasis on professional development for our faculty. We are incorporating national foreign language standards from ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages).

HaMorah Dafna Tasch continues to lead the Middle School faculty and support their teaching of the NETA program. Dafna works with the administrators of NETA to continue to make our school a model for schools throughout the world.

In the Lower School, we have engaged two consultants to work with our faculty. Esty Gross, who has been trained in both NETA and Chaverim B’Ivrit, is a veteran faculty member of Milken Community Hebrew High School in Los Angeles. Esty came to work with our Lower School faculty two school years ago. They were inspired by her approach to the pedagogy of teaching foreign language. Esty will be on campus for a couple of three-day visits and also for videoconferences with our faculty on a regular basis. Esty works with teachers to enhance their lessons and to incorporate ACTFL standards. Current parent, Huppit Bartov Miller, is working with our Gan Judaics faculty to create a Hebrew immersion environment for our youngest students. Huppit comes to KSDS with a number of years of experience working with students in both Kindergarten and preschool. Together Dafna, Esty and Huppit create a unified approach for professional development in our Hebrew department.

CAP #4 – Develop an integrated technology plan.

After doing much research and having conversations with schools that have enviable technology plans and resources, we are in the midst of creating a K-8 scope and sequence in technology based on ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) standards. The scope & sequence are focused on six areas: Digital Citizenship; Programming (Creativity & Innovation); Critical Thinking (Problem solving & Decision making); Office Tools (Collaboration & Communication); Research & Information Fluency; Tech Concepts & Operations.

These ISTE standards have guided us in our thinking about what makes the most sense in technology education in 2014. We also thought about the specific needs of KSDS: the idea of developing skills, building positive attitudes towards technology and . Over the course of the year, you’ll be hearing more specifics about the technology scope and sequence. One of the most exciting things that I have learned through developing this body of work is the enormous amount of resources that that are available for our faculty and students. Many of these are free and expand our students’ technology experience in ways that we can’t fully realize.

CAP #10 – Make KSDS the “it” school when it comes to professional development of teachers.

Monday afternoons at 3:45 has become the time when our KSDS faculty can do the work that we sometimes take for granted in school environments – collaboration. While our faculty has always been an incredibly collegial group, as a community we have struggled to find times that worked for different departments to have deeper conversations. Last year, we began to hold faculty meetings on Monday afternoons. We did a lot of experimenting and received a lot of feedback from faculty as to what was working and what wasn’t. Based on that feedback, the ELT implemented a few tweaks to how meetings are run.

Both divisions now have committees (MS) and round tables (LS) that have been meeting to help plan and implement aspects of our program. A few topics that we will address are Technology, Day of Giving planning, Learning Festival, Author in Residence.

I have also commissioned a small group of teachers to join Robyn, Josh and me in what we are calling “Cabinet.” Five representatives from the KSDS faculty are meeting on a monthly basis to discuss how aspects of school life and professional development are integrated into the life of our school. For instance, the cabinet will give us feedback on a parent-teacher communications rubric that we will take the year to implement with our faculty.

We will continually look to find opportunities to increase the notion of faculty development as the year progresses.

Wishing you a Shanah Tovah

As we celebrate the sweetness of the new year, may all of us take this time to reflect on what is good with our school. I feel grateful to have this year to collaborate with our faculty and to continue the hard work that is in progress. It promises to be a great year!

Shanah Tovah u’Metukah v’ Gmar Chatima Tovah