A Good Match: The Class Placement Process

A teacher that understands your child…at least one friend in the class…kind peers who get along well with each other…an appropriate leveled group of children to work with for each subject area…an intellectually stimulating yet calm and nurturing environment… a balance of boys and girls… a manageable number of children needing more than an average amount of attention from the teachers… and perhaps the separation of some children who are not the best for each other – ah, the class placement process! It is by no means easy. And, it is of vital importance.

At this time of year, our serious, detailed planning for the coming academic year intensifies: curricular innovations, interviews for new faculty members, class schedules to optimize learning and yes, preparation for class placement. Typically, parents receive a letter from me at this time of year welcoming input into the class placement process, while at the same time reminding parents that we do not accept requests for particular teachers. In lieu of a letter, I am writing this blog post to support dialogue and understanding about our class placement process. We are committed to a good match for every child.

So how does the class placement process work?

Your child’s current grade level teachers, Dr. Wendy Haber our school psychologist, Jennifer Gensior our Student Support Chairperson, Ilanit Curi-Hoory our Assistant Principal and I meet multiple times over the course of approximately two months. As we begin, we remind ourselves of the importance of the task in which we are engaged, and of the respect that must be shown for every child, parent and teacher throughout the process.

Each child’s name is recorded on an index card coded with significant information: current class; gender; reading, math and Hebrew levels based on grade wide assessments; and degree of special attention required for any reason – enrichment and/or support, social/emotional, behavioral or health. We then place those index cards into groupings representing classes. Each child’s placement is evaluated to ensure the following:

• a teacher with whom we anticipate the child will work well
• a mix of students from throughout the grade and not just the child’s current class
• at least one friend
• an appropriate academic group for each subject area
• separation from particular children, if necessary

Additionally, we seek to ensure heterogeneous classes with students at a range of ability levels in all subject areas, a balance of girls and boys, a distribution of students needing greater than average attention for any reason, a distribution of students whose enthusiasm will help create an engaging learning environment, and the intangible of how we imagine each of these groups of students will gel as a community.

During the weeks that we work on class placement, teachers reflect constantly on their students’ placement, often coming to me worried that a particular child’s placement in a class is not right and needs to be changed. We continue to review the classes, child by child, to see that we meet as many criteria as we can. And finally, we ask our teachers, “would you want to teach this class?” When our current grade level teachers concur they would want to teach each of these classes for the upcoming year, we feel we have a good working draft.

While some might consider our work done at this point, there is another vital component to class placement:  parent voice. After we have completed our draft, we turn to letters from parents and notes from conversations parents have had with me. We do not accept requests for particular teachers, and if requests for teachers are made against our policy I do not  even share them with teachers for consideration.  We do embrace parent input concerning pertinent information about children that will be helpful in the placement process.

Why do we wait to include parent voice until after our first placement draft is complete?

Our own understanding of individual student needs and the needs of the grade community guide our process. We know our students, our classes and our grades well. We strive to do right by each and every child as well as by each class community and by the grade.  Parents can be confident that whether or not they write me a letter or share input with me verbally, we will assess every child’s placement  needs with great care and respect.

What happens as we review parent input?

Remarkably, in the vast majority of cases, I would venture to say close to 90%, we have placed children as parents requested prior to reviewing parent input. This demonstrates the care we take in placing each child, and our strong partnership with parents in understanding our children as we work together throughout the year.  When we have not met the criteria of a parent request, we reflect on the placement. At times, we stand by our placement as best for a particular child. In those cases, I make note of the rationale for the placement and am prepared to explain to a parent who calls to inquire. At other times, we acknowledge humbly that the parent has an important and different perspective, or has shared compelling information of which we were not aware. In those cases, we make changes.

So, what is a parent concerned about placement to do at this time of year? There are really two options:

1. Do nothing and rest assured that we are attending to the placement needs of all of our children with tremendous care.
2. Write a letter to me with pertinent input you want to share about the class placement process.  We must receive all placement information from parents by no later than Monday, April 16th immediately following the Passover break. Once we complete the placement process it is virtually impossible to revise given the plethora of criteria we are balancing.

Please do not  use the upcoming parent-teacher conferences to discuss placement. Teachers are not allowed to take parent placement requests; those must come directly to me.

Teachers are preparing diligently for conferences and have substantial information to share about this year. Parents are encouraged to come to conferences with questions and input into planning for the last quarter of our academic year. There is much learning and growing left for this year and while we look forward in planning for the future, we also remain grounded in the present.

I will be holding parent-principal conferences on parent-teacher conference days and other times for your convenience. Please know that parent-principal conferences are not primarily to discuss class placement, although that is a topic parents raise and you are welcome to share pertinent information with me at that time. Parent-teacher conferences are an opportunity to talk about ideas, insights and feedback parents have to share. They also provide a forum for parents to ask questions or share thoughts about innovations and shifts occurring in the school that are designed to enhance the quality of the educational experience of our students. I encourage you to come in and talk.

I welcome hearing from you.

 

Good to Great

Four positions for which we are planning promise to catapult our school forward, adding significant services to students and enabling us to support very good teachers to become great and great teachers to become even greater.

Positions:

Enrichment Specialist: An enrichment specialist whose role will be to support teachers to design enrichment experiences for students will join our department of student services. This educator will work directly with students who, based on assessment, demonstrate the need for enrichment or acceleration exceeding grade-level learning. The enrichment specialist will be able to teach students in their classrooms and, as needed, pull students out of class to provide an enriched curriculum. In addition, our enrichment specialist will serve as a coach to teachers, assisting us to design enrichment experiences that will challenge and nurture the talents and passions of all our students.

Singapore Math Coach: As we implement a Singapore math curriculum in the school, we will benefit from the “gold standard” of professional learning in curriculum implementation for our teachers – an outside expert providing five days of intensive training for teachers as well as a workshop for parents, alongside a full-time in-house coach to provide ongoing professional learning and training for our teachers.

Library/Media Specialist: Leading the process of shifting our magnificent library into a twenty-first century library/media center is vital to our efforts to prepare our students for success in our rapidly changing media-rich world. We will be welcoming a library/media specialist to our faculty who will support our students to develop research and media literacy skills. Our library and media specialist will also coach our classroom teachers in more skillful integration of research, media, and literacy skills into educational experiences in the classroom.

Educational Technology Coach: Technology in the twenty-first century can no longer be relegated to a lab, but must be infused within classroom experiences. An educational technology coach will provide students with a comprehensive technology curriculum in the lab, but even more significantly, will support teachers to infuse daily learning experiences with technology in order to enhance and improve the quality of learning at our school.

Coaching Team:

What do the four positions described above share? You got it! Each of these positions includes some form of instructional coaching for our teachers. Our enrichment specialist, Singapore math coach, library/media specialist, and educational technology coach will join Ann Berlstein, our science coach, and Hadassah Wrightman, our Hebrew coach to form a coaching team. Jen Gensior, Chair of our Student Support Department, will also work with coaches and will be providing additional instructional coaching support to our faculty in literacy and learning strategies.

These instructional coaches or “teachers of teachers” will enable us to support very good and great teachers to become even greater. That commitment to the ongoing learning of teachers, not via outside workshops but through job-embedded learning experiences and collaboration among peers, is at the essence of what distinguishes the very best schools today.

Over the course of the next several months you will learn more about our curriculum enhancements, our hiring processes, and our instructional coaching team. You’ll have opportunities to meet our instructional coaches and gain greater insight into our commitment to continue to improve the quality of learning for our students. Please share with us your questions, insights, and ideas.

The Way We Talk: Report Cards and Other Communications

cc licensed image shared by flicker user Kris Hoet

Over the course of the past week I’ve alternated between reading drafts of report cards and reading the book, How The Way We Talk Can Change The Way We Work: Seven Languages for Transformation, by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey. I must read the report cards, which will be e-mailed to parents on January 30; I choose to read the book. The heartfelt concern expressed by parents about communication with the school has prompted me to delve into this important topic. I have been conferring with colleagues and parents on how we communicate and I have been reading some carefully selected books on the topic of effective communication.

At first glance, reading hundreds of elementary school report cards and reading a nonfiction book on effective communication appear to have little in common. And yet, upon further reflection, the reading experiences have provided a valuable complement to each other.

Report cards in lower schools are communication tools between teachers and parents. In this concise format, teachers share information about a child’s academic and social progress. In the report cards soon to be e-mailed, parents will receive updates on children’s progress for each of the disciplines we teach, as well as for social behavior and study habits. There will be both a grade and a narrative for every section.

The grading key for academic areas is:

4 – Meets grade level expectations with excellence
3 – Meets grade level expectations
2 – Progressing toward grade level expectations
1 – Performing below grade level expectations

The grading key for social behavior and study habits is:

C – Consistent
O – Often
S – Sometimes

The narrative for each section will give parents a description of their children’s progress.

We admittedly struggle with the design of report cards and have not yet found a format with which we are satisfied. Our faculty worked collaboratively over a period of three months last year to improve our report cards. While we are quite proud of our efforts, we openly acknowledge that our report cards are still very much a work in progress. Teacher and parent input on what is effective and what is not will form the basis of our ongoing evaluation as we seek to make our report cards an ever more valuable tool for communicating student progress. In conversations with colleagues in lower schools throughout the country, we have found similar frustration with report cards. Painting a portrait of a child in the format of a report card, any of the formats we’ve had over the years, fails to do justice to the wonders of a child’s personality, growth, challenges, and accomplishments.  

Our faculty has been discussing parent communication, thinking deeply about How the Way We Talk With Parents Can Change the Way We Work With Students.  We are, and will continue to take feedback from parents on report cards, conferences and other opportunities to dialogue. Report cards, while necessary and deserved, are but one piece of our communication. Conferences are also a component of our communication. Perhaps most significant are the ongoing, less formal conversations between parents and teachers. Our faculty leaders are designing guidelines for teachers on a plethora of options for enhancing the quality of our relationships with parents. We are striving for more meaningful two-way dialogue allowing us to brainstorm and learn from each other’s perspectives in order better to meet the needs of our children.

An added bonus for parents: next year conferences in the fall will be held on half days. Children will be in school until noon and we will conference from 1:00 to 8:00 p.m., thus giving back two half days of school. We are determining when those conferences will be scheduled in concert with our reflections on the timing and number of report cards. Parent and faculty members have already offered numerous valuable suggestions and we continue to welcome input.

So, what’s a parent who wants more information to do?

Call us. E-mail us. Come in and meet with us. Comment on this blog post or our teachers’ webpages. Ask questions. Share insights. Let us know about your perspectives on your children, ways we can better partner with you, and ways to improve communications with parents school-wide. We are not only listening. We are actively learning, planning, and preparing.

It’s Not about the Gifts!

I hadn’t intended to blog about Chanukah this year since I tend to address hot issues for our parents, and Chanukah was not on the list of topics, or so I thought.

Just yesterday, two concerned families individually shared one potent message with which our school entirely agrees – it’s not about the gifts!

Families in our community choose to observe Chanukah in a wide range of ways and have varying perspectives on the place of gifts in our celebrations. Some believe strongly that gifts are out of place on Chanukah. Other families wish they could give gifts but are not financially able to or are stretching to provide modest gifts. Others enjoy the exchange of presents symbolizing the appreciation they feel for one another. We respect all approaches.  But most of all, we respect children and their sensitivities.

This year there have been some exuberant conversations among children describing their gifts. They have not meant to cause discomfort, yet inadvertently they have. Our teachers will be gently guiding classroom conversations away from gifts and towards other, substantive components of the celebration of Chanukah. I share this with our families so that as conversations about gifts arise, you consider speaking with your children about your perspectives on gift giving, support them to understand that different families have different customs, and help them to embrace your own practices.

It’s not about the gifts!  It’s about the values and teaching by doing and by example.

OK, it’s a little about the gifts – but in the spirit of Gemilut Chasidim (Social Action), it’s not what we receive, rather what we share.  Working with Westchester Jewish Community Services, our students and families filled requests of more than 140 children whose families cannot afford holiday presents. We provided gifts for the children of teen mothers who are going to school and seeking employment. We supplied presents for needy babies and elementary school age children through local community clinics.

In a modern twist on Chanukah, our fifth grade Hebrew classroom visited the Amit School in Meitar, Israel – a suburb of Beer Sheva in the south of Israel via Skype. Our students and their partner fifth graders in Meitar celebrated together: lighting the chanukiah (menorah) and singing Hebrew holiday songs. They played dreidle and with each spin asked one another questions about the holiday in Hebrew. Our children enjoyed celebrating with new Israeli friends, speaking with them exclusively in Hebrew, and nurturing Ahavat Yisrael (Love of Israel).

Each of the three school days during Chanukah we are joining together as a kehilah (community) with a joyous school-wide Tefilah U’Shmirat Mitzvot (Prayer and the Observance of Mitzvot) and a lighting of the chanukiah (menorah). Each day is dedicated to a different theme: light, heroism, and miracles.  Thursday evening we will enjoy a Chanukah dinner and celebration coordinated by our PTO.

Let’s not forget the arts. In the school’s front hall there is a display of creative chanukiyot (menorahs) designed and built at home by students as a means of self-expression through ritual art. Additionally, our choir has been singing each of the weekday evenings of Chanukah at the Ritz Carlton in downtown White Plains, bringing a love of Jewish music and celebration to the broader community. We even made it onto News 12 Westchester!

Did I leave out any of our core values? There is Talmud Torah (Love of Learning) – engaged, substantive learning in classes throughout the school about the meaning of Chanukah. With Kavod (respect), I end this post where I began – let us all strive together to support our children to be respectful of the range of perspectives in our community about gift giving and remember, whether or not we give gifts – it’s not about the gifts!

Chag Urim Sameach - Wishes for a joyous Chanukah celebration!

Where Are Those Report Cards?

You were waiting for those report cards and they never came. Not to worry, they’ll arrive. In response to thoughtful parent feedback on report cards, Lower School faculty spent several months last year conferring on the most effective ways to convey student progress to parents. Timing, as well as substance on the report cards has been changed as a result of our deliberation.

So, first, let us explain the timing.

Lower School is now organized as two semesters with semester report cards being e-mailed to you on January 30 and June 20. Mid-semester progress is being reported at our parent-teacher conferences in November and March.

Now, let us explain the substance.

Parents will receive information about student achievement in math, language arts, social studies science, tefilah, Jewish holidays, Hebrew, social behavior, and study habits. In each academic area there will be a scale from 1 – 4 assessing student achievement.

4 – Meets grade level expectations with excellence
3 – Meets grade level expectations
2 – Progressing toward grade level expectations
1 – Performing below grade level expectations

For social behavior and student habits scale will be:

C – Consistent
O – Often
S – Sometimes

In the current system, student grading will be based on clear grade-level expectations providing parents and students with helpful information and good data on progress and achievement.

Our report cards are a work in progress, revised this year based on input from parents and teachers. We look forward to continuing a dialogue on how best to communicate student progress and achievement in a way that is clear, supportive, and effective.  Keep your comments and input coming. We appreciate hearing from you!

Applying Science and Math in the Real World

“We don’t have science anymore,” one of our fourth graders nonchalantly explained to me as he jotted notes on a clipboard rating the appropriateness of various areas on our campus to plant tulips for Journey North, an international citizen science project collecting data on climate change. 

“Really?” I queried. “But what are we doing now?”

“We’re figuring out the best location to plant tulips,” he replied.

“And why are we doing that?” I questioned.

“To help scientists learn about climate change,” he confidently answered.

“Isn’t that science?” I asked.

“Not really,” he answered.

That brief dialogue has remained with me for the past month, the most potent of a series of conversations and queries, mostly with parents, but sometimes with students as well, about our science program.  There’s also been much conversation about Singapore Math, coming soon to our school. To engage actively in this vital dialogue about science and math, we invite you to an important science/math curriculum evening, December 14 at 7:30 p.m. Come learn about how we are restructuring our science and math programs to ensure rigor, depth, creativity, and critical thinking.

As a preview to our conversation on December 14, let me share with you our primary goals:

• to prepare all of our children to have the conceptual framework and skills they will need to excel in middle and high school science and math courses, and
• to gain understanding of the vital issues in science and math our children will face in the real world, in their daily lives as well as in college, graduate programs and the ever-changing workplace

How do we reach those goals? In science, we have designed a program with strong units providing the fundamental knowledge and critical skills Lower School students need in both biological and physical science.  These units are learned primarily in the classrooms with the general studies teachers, supported by our science specialist, Ann Berlstein.

Mrs. Berlstein brings science to life through hands-on learning experiences in our in-door science lab as well as our outdoor labs — walking trails, the butterfly garden, and the vegetable garden.  She also infuses our classrooms with science centers and investigative learning experiences.

Science is no longer a “special.”  In the past labs were not necessarily connected to our classroom studies. Now, they are vital components of our science units. In addition, as with Journey North, students engage as participants in pressing scientific  concerns of our day.

In math, we will be implementing Singapore Math, a curriculum we have chosen because of its intensive focus on the skills and conceptual understandings necessary for success in higher level math. A faculty task force is currently designing the most effective ways for us to implement this method.

For us, as a mission- and values-driven school, the goal of science and math classes in general, and for academics more broadly, is not for students to collect good grades (as much as we are proud of our students’ good grades) but rather to prepare our children for lives of contribution and meaning.

We look forward to seeing you at our math and science curriculum night – December 14 at 7:30 p.m.  In the meantime, don’t hesitate to share your insights and questions so we can better design the evening to address your interests.

Another Day Off? Whatever For?

Jewish holidays in October, parent-teacher conferences in November, and a professional learning day for teachers in December; what’s a parent to do with so many days off from school? Not only do we want our children in school and learning, but many of us also struggle with child care. It isn’t easy to juggle all these days off. We understand.

So, first answers to the question – why these days off from school? Second, some thoughts on what we can do as a kehilah (community) to craft the best school calendar we can, remembering that our calendar reflects our core values. We must observe the Jewish holidays. Parents and teachers must talk about our children’s learning as well as their social, emotional, and religious growth. Teachers must continue to learn so they are able to support our children.

Jewish Holidays
Yes, parents understand that as a Jewish school we will be closed on those Jewish holidays on which Jewish law prohibits work: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, the first two days of Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah (as well as Pesach and Shavuot later in the year). Some who do not observe the holidays (particularly a lesser known holiday like Shemini Atzeret) might wish there was school. Still, parents understand.

But Erev Chag (the day before the holiday)? Why must we be closed? Because holidays require preparation – sometimes cooking, sometimes building a sukkah, and other times traveling. We embrace the wide range of observance of our families and faculty and are committed to making it possible for those who need to prepare as a family to be able to do so. Parents should know that in past years we were also closed Hoshanah Rabah (the seventh day of Sukkot or Erev Shemini Atzeret) but now have a regular 2:00 p.m. Friday dismissal. We have celebrations in school for Hoshanah Rabah, an interesting day on which there are special customs. Yet, besides the customs connected to Hoshanah Rabah, there are not more preparations for Shemini Atzeret than for Shabbat. Consequently, we were able to fit in an extra day of school. We hope parents are pleased!

Parent-Teacher Conferences
Yes, parents understand and appreciate the opportunity to meet with our children’s teachers.  But, why are there two days of conferences instead of one? And, why aren’t there evening hours?  We must have parent-teacher conferences on two days so Judaic studies teachers can be at conferences for both of their classes. We know, in Kindergarten conferences could be on one day, but having a day of school only for Kindergarten and not the rest of the school raises numerous complications.

As for evening hours, we are working on it. We know that many parents are finding it ever more challenging to take time off from work. During the March conferences we have two half-days of school and then have conferences from 1:00 to 8:00 p.m.. We are considering a similar structure in the fall, with conferences from 1:00 to 8:00 p.m. on two consecutive Thursdays. Why Thursday? Teachers are exhausted from conferences and need the weekend to recoup. We would then have school on Veterans Day and hold Professional Learning Day on Election Day. We do not like having students in the building on Election Day as we are a polling place. Although the White Plains Police Department provides us with security, we still prefer not to have students in the building on a day when there are so many unfamiliar adults present. There are some other options being discussed for parent-teacher conferences and we will do our very best to accommodate parents’ needs.

What about technology? Can’t we Skype for conferences? Well, maybe. We don’t yet have webcams in most classrooms, however moving forward we would love to know parents’ thoughts on video conferencing.

Professional Learning Day
Quite simply, in order for students to learn, their teachers must continue to learn. On this upcoming professional learning day our general studies teachers will be learning about Singapore Math (coming soon to our school) and our Judaic studies teachers will be continuing training in our Hebrew literacy curriculum. There will be other vital activities such as exploring “learning walks” in which faculty will visit each other’s classrooms in order to improve their own skills. There will also be a range of faculty driven professional conversations on topics that directly impact student learning. The benefits of this time as an investment in the skills of our faculty are profound, enabling us to continue to improve the quality of our school. Not only schools, but successful organizations broadly, need to invest in professional learning in order to continually improve, maintain excellence in areas it exists, and address areas in which we must be doing better. To serve our students, we must address in serious, substantive ways, the learning of our faculty.

What About Those Snow Days?
If we face a difficult winter, there will likely be questions about the snow days. While officially it is Dr. Spiegel, with input from the school’s senior administration, who decides whether to call a snow day, in practicality, it is the bus companies who decide. If the bus companies believe it is not safe to drive, we really cannot run school. If we have more than five snow days, we will begin to add days on to the school year. Hopefully, we won’t face this challenge, but we want to be prepared.

Finally, we want to assure you that there is a rhythm to the year. We know what we must accomplish by the end and pace ourselves so that we get there.

Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Fighting Hunger and Sharing Our Blessings: Because Giving Away Our Halloween Candy Just Isn’t Enough

Halloween has come and gone. To trick-or-treat or not to trick-or-treat is no longer the question. Our community’s enthusiastic reaction to last week’s blog post Is October Anything Other Than, Well, Monday? was evidence that trick-or-treating was never the question, not really. Our more profound underlying conversation is how to help our children incorporate into their identities our multiple roles as Jews, Americans, and citizens of a diverse world, embracing core values to guide us throughout our lives.

This Friday, at our Veterans Day commemorations, we will send off the bountiful collection of candy we have gathered to share with our troops. It’s an impressive amount of sugar! The colorful piles of candy show us in the most concrete of ways how together we transformed Halloween into an opportunity to do Hadavar Hanachon – The Right Thing; but it’s not enough.

And so, we immediately turn our attention toward Thanksgiving and our year-long campaign to fight hunger. Our leaders in this important endeavor are the fifth-grade volunteers to our Lower School Student Council. They give up a full lunch and recess period weekly and engage in follow-up work during the week, coordinating gemilut chasidim (social action) programming for our school.

Each day in our lunchroom between now and Thanksgiving, Student Council members will introduce Birkat Hamazon (the prayer after meals) by either sharing insight into the meaning of Birkat Hamazon or by offering information about hunger  locally, nationally, or globally. Learning however, while essential, is also not enough. We must act.

To that end, Student Council will set up boxes in the lunchroom and encourage our students to place in those boxes donations of non-perishable foods. They will also prominently display a large jar in the lunchroom and motivate our students to bring in tzedakah money to be placed in that jar and used to help the hungry.

Unlike Halloween, as a school we are not at all ambivalent about Thanksgiving. We celebrate this distinctly American holiday as our own, with joy and gratitude; but, this year will be different. We’ll forego the cranberry cobbler and corn bread treats, as well as the song festival focused on the theme of thankfulness for what we have, and instead transform Thanksgiving preparations at school into an opportunity to do Hadavar Hanachon – the Right Thing.

Our Student Council is reaching out to representatives from a number of organizations dedicated to fighting hunger. These special people, who will be honored guests at our Thanksgiving assembly, have committed their lives to helping the hungry; some focusing their efforts right here in Westchester, others serving the hungry within the Jewish community, and still others who address problems of hunger globally. They will speak to our students about their work, accept our gratitude for their tremendous contributions, and take with them the food and tzedakah money we are collecting to distribute among those who need it.

How can our families help? Provide opportunities at home for children to give what they can: portions of their allowance, money received as birthday gifts, or money earned for chores around the house. Consider giving students the option of foregoing desserts or other non-essential food treats and using the money instead to help the hungry, either bringing the money in or purchasing non-perishable food items with it to donate. The amount is not what matters. What is essential is that together we support our children to develop the habits of helping others, recognizing that it is not enough to count our blessings: we must share them.

And so, let the preparations for Thanksgiving begin. Without any guilt or remorse, enjoy creatively dreaming up luscious menus and savoring thoughts of travel to be with family. Just add into your preparations some attention to providing for the needs of others. Our Student Council is proud to help.

Is October 31 Anything Other Than, Well, Monday?

In the past, we have not acknowledged Halloween at all in school, simply pretending that we had never heard of it. 

Yes, some of our teachers have some years given less homework on October 31 because students might be “busy.” And yes, some of our students have struggled with peers going trick-or-treating when they do not. 

Although at school we ignored the event, our silence did not change the fact that families have different perspectives concerning Halloween and students know it.   

One year, our fifth grade teachers mentioned that it is possible families might have some extra candy lying around and asked students to bring it in to donate to a local soup kitchen for goody bags to give out to children at the soup kitchen’s annual Thanksgiving feast. We donated our candy, without indicating that we had any clue why families just might have more sweets at home than usual.

Not to worry – there will be no costumes, candy or celebratory parades. We respect enormously those families who do not participate in Halloween celebrations because they are troubled by the pagan origins of a night on which the boundaries between living and dead were believed to have overlapped. We similarly respect those families concerned about the connection to the Christian holy days of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. And, we respect those families disturbed by the reference in the phrase “trick or treat” to malicious “tricks” played on homeowners if treats are not distributed.

At the same time, we understand the neighborly community-building feel other families enjoy on Halloween. And we embrace the spirit of sharing our blessings with others, not only giving food to those who are hungry - a major focus for our student government this year, but also sharing our extra indulgences (i.e., candy) widely. Halloween’s roots are at least partly a harvest festival, with some similarities in spirit to Sukkot and Thanksgiving.

This year, without celebrating or even discussing Halloween at school, we openly admit that we are not sequestered. We know that October 31 is Halloween. We know that conversations have taken place between parents and children about whether and how each family will react to this day: allowing trick or treating, giving out candy to neighborhood children, both, or neither. Regardless of our differing perspectives on Halloween, many of us will have extra candy at home. And, as a school, we are committed to the core value of gemilut chasidim (social action).

Got Candy?
Let’s transform the day into an opportunity to do Hadavar Hanachon – The Right Thing! We will encourage our students to donate at least a portion of those excess treats to people who are very deserving: our troops in Afganistan. If you are among those families who either go out for the evening or simply close the shades and dim the lights on Halloween eve, you can still encourage your child to share tasty snacks you may have at home with our troops. 

So, bring in your candy and snacks. Leave them in the bins at the front doors of the main building. We will send them to our troops with notes thanking them for their service to our country.

It’s a small gemilut chesed project, demonstrating gratitude for the blessings we enjoy and recognizing our responsibility to give to others. While modest in scope, it is a project that empowers us to begin to take focus off whether or not we trick or treat to how we together help others. There will be larger gemilut chasidim projects to come as our student leadership focuses our attention on the dramatic problem of hunger locally, nationally, and globally. In the coming weeks, you’ll hear much more.

Meanwhile think not of what candy you will get or not get: think instead of what you can share.

I’ll Tweet You: How Social Media Is Connecting Us With the World and Each Other

I was a guest speaker yesterday about Judaism in Mr. Clark’s seventh grade world religion class in a public school in Indiana. Joining me was my colleague Rabbi Akevy Greenblatt, principal of an Orthodox Jewish Day School in Memphis, Tennessee. Nope, Rabbi Greenblatt, and I didn’t fly out to Indiana. We merely took ½ hour out of our day and communicated with some middle school students who had questions about Judaism via Adobe Connect, a free web conferencing tool.

How did it happen that we were invited to Mr. Clark’s seventh grade? Brett Clark, Rabbi Greenblatt and I, along with many other principals and teachers from throughout the country and throughout the world have been study partners on Twitter. No, it’s not traditional Jewish learning in which we sit together face-to-face with a text, engaged in animated argument over the text’s meaning. Yet, we do stretch each other’s thinking. We share articles and blogs worth reading, ask each other questions, brainstorm, and engage in conversations about improving the quality of education in our schools.

Later in the day I tweeted Mrs. Roman’s second grade in Phoenix, Arizona from Mrs. Perten’s second grade right here in Westchester, New York. Mrs. Perten’s class was learning about the desert and creating canyons out of sand. Thinking Mrs. Roman’s class in Arizona just might have some first-hand knowledge of deserts and canyons, we asked what they could share with us. They replied with informative answers to our question.

At the end of the day, I set up our Lower School Twitter account. You can follow us now @SWestchesterLS to find out about interesting learning experiences in which our students are involved. You can also follow our K-12 Twitter account @SWestchester for updates and information about our school. We will be very pleased to set up some workshops for parents to get you started on Twitter. Let us know if that will be helpful.

But, there’s even more. I started the day early speaking with Israel Connect, an organization connecting Israeli schools with Jewish schools throughout the world, about partnering our fifth grade with a fifth grade in a school in Israel. More projects are in the works including one that will connect our Kindergarten with another kindergarten, and one that will form a connection between our Student Council and the student government of a lower school in Atlanta, Georgia. Stay tuned!

It’s a small world. We can now utilize more technological tools to connect to so many from whom we have so much to learn! We can also connect more easily to one another. Stay close by reading this blog, friending us on facebook, following us on twitter and reading our teacher web pages.

And, not to worry – face-to-face communication will be enhanced, not diminished. Social media adds; it does not take the place of our in-person connection. So, paradoxically, I end a blog on social media encouraging you to sign up with Brianne Gioio in our office for a face-to-face parent-principal conference with me on our parent-teacher conference days. It will be an opportunity to share anything on your mind; or simply to spend some time getting to know each other better. Attend our first coffee on Wednesday, November 2 where we will share information on our new literacy programs in both English and Hebrew. Make time to volunteer or just to visit.

We want to see you on blogs, web pages, Facebook, and Twitter. We also want to see you right here, face to face.

See you soon and see you often!