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.

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!

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!

“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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

One teacher skipped out of Open School Night practically singing, “I love my job! I love our parents!” Another happily shared at the end of the evening, “We have the best parents ever! Everybody is so supportive! What a great night!” Throughout the school, teachers are happily abuzz about how appreciative and thoughtful our parents have been at Open School Nights and in conversations over the course of the past several weeks since school began. We love our parents! This brief note is filled with much emotion, expressing gratitude from the entire Lower School faculty to our parents for opening the year with a poignant, positive sense of partnership and community. From all of us, thank you! It is really good to be back!

“Do you watch House?” Jennifer Gensior, chair of our Student Services Department asked as we approached each other in the hall last week.

“Yes,” I replied, “at least until recently when the show has focused less on solving medical problems and more on Dr. House’s ever more outlandish personal problems.”

“Me too,” Jen replied. “I’ve just had an ‘ah-hah’ moment. Can I share it with you?” 

“Of course,” I smiled.

Dr. Gregory House is the disagreeable but genius diagnostician played by Hugh Laurie on the TV series House, MD. Dr. House takes on the most difficult cases. His patients’ do not present with typical symptoms nor do they respond to treatments in anticipated ways. Yet, rather than becoming frustrated, House delights in the challenges presented by the unique and the unusual. He doesn’t blame his patients for not responding positively to conventional medical treatments. Instead, he looks for an explanation and an approach that will work. House doesn’t begin with text book medical solutions, he begins with patients.

We won’t claim House’s genius, but we will share humble pride in being warmer, friendlier, and less self-absorbed. Still, we are in many ways, quite a lot like House. We don’t begin with text book educational solutions. We begin with students and delight in finding approaches that make a positive impact.

It is true. Our student support model is different this year. We no longer have one resource room. Instead, we have numerous satellite resource rooms in which students can learn with teachers individually or in small groups. We no longer have co-teachers scheduled to be in particular classes. Instead, our special education and our enrichment teachers are assigned to particular students and have the authority, accountability, and flexibility to determine what our students need. This may mean one-on-one or small group instruction in one of our resource rooms; push in support within the regular classroom, consulting with general and Judaic studies teachers to facilitate improved instructional techniques to support students’ needs within the classroom, or a flexible combination of approaches.

So, what is a parent or teacher to do when a child appears to need something different than the majority of students in class? Talk to each other, raise questions, share insights, and explore possibilities. Don’t be dismayed, but rather, like House, delight in the challenge together – parents, educators, and most of all, students. And, what is a parent or teacher to do when a child is responding well to classroom instruction? Talk to each other, raise questions, share insights, and explore possibilities. Don’t be shy, but rather, unlike House, reach out to develop strong relationships – parents, educators, and most of all students.

It is true. Our student support model is different this year, and, we are very proud!