Maintaining normalcy during these abnormal times is our goal. The schools are educating through online platforms. Many shuls are using Zoom to daven “together,” even if it’s not with a minyan. We are beginning to prepare for Pesach. Who hasn’t received numerous emails letting us know how important it is to keep a structure for ourselves and our children? Wake up at the same time every day; go to sleep at the same time. Make sure to get dressed as opposed to staying in pajamas all day. Try to get some fresh air and even squeeze in some exercise, if possible.

The leaders of the communities are stepping up to the plate. The schools are not just educating but trying to entertain as well. Giving some sense of school spirit in the absence of brick and mortar. The guidance departments are all on-call dealing with emotions ranging from boredom to fear to those going stir crazy. The memes and short videos that are being passed around are keeping our humor and taking the edge off of the otherwise stressful situation we are all in.

But our world is not the same. Pesach plans have been upended for many people. Programs canceled, travel plans not possible or sadly, grandparents that are too afraid to be with their own grandchildren for fear of getting sick. For many, milestones are celebrated in a very different way than expected. Brisim with barely a minyan. Becoming a bar or bat mitzvah acknowledged around the dining room table because the party was postponed or canceled. Weddings that are happening in backyards with immediate family only. Burials with minimal amount of people required to do the mitzvah and mourners being consoled via phone rather than the personal touch of a loving hand on the shoulder.

Then comes the Tehillim groups on behalf of those that only wish they were home bored. They are the ones struck with the virus and are feeling ill. They are the ones who are in the hospital, many in ICU, holding on to their lives, artificially breathing. They are the families of those in the hospital, hoping the virus will pass before their loved ones do. 

Then there are the amazing chesed organizations that are working overtime, helping those afflicted offering money, tele-counseling and any other services that could be done from afar. In times of trouble the best comes out in people, in us, in Klal Yisroel.

When will things get back to normal? We don’t know when. All we know is that we will return to normal eventually. But we need to make sure it’s a new normal. Let us maintain the togetherness that is occurring within families. Let us maintain the unity that is happening in communities across the globe. Let the appreciation for our institutions and their leadership live on. Let’s hold on to our new hierarchy of priorities where health and family are at the top. Let’s cherish our newfound appreciation for the ability to do mitzvot freely, to daven with a minyan and our realization that ein ‘od milvado--there is no other to rely on besides Hashem.

This, unfortunately, won’t happen on its own. Human nature is to slip back into our comfort zone, what we are used to, what was “normal.” It is our responsibility to harness the growth during this painful time and utilize all we have to make it the “new normal.”

If you know my father, Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, then you have probably heard the joke that he sleeps in a three-piece suit (as they say, “It’s funny ‘cause it’s true”). Which is why I never liked wearing suits. As far as rebellions go, there are far worse. As a head of school, I wear suits. But for a few years on Fridays (and sometimes other days), I would wear pants and a blazer, no tie. One winter Friday, my family drove into the city for a Shabbos Bar Mitzvah, dropped our things off at my parents and went straight to the Friday night portion of the festivities. I was one of a handful of men not wearing a suit and tie. Walking home from dinner, my father very gently said, “You know, Josh, you’re a head of school, a leader, I think you should wear a suit and tie.” The next morning over breakfast, my mother said very gently, “You know, Josh, I think you should wear suits and ties.” Since that Shabbos, I rarely don’t wear a suit and tie.  

Fast forward to today, under quarantine. As usual at this time of year, I started to “turn over my closet”--not from winter suits to spring suits, but from winter suits to no suits. Every day I wake up and put on a button-down shirt and jeans or other casual pants. That is how these few weeks have been in so many ways. Coronavirus moved my school. It hasn’t moved my cheese. Yet.

Like most of the world, we didn’t see this coming. (If you did, please let me know because I’d like to solicit you for our scholarship campaign). But we can adapt, we can enjoy (yes we can) and we can learn to expect and be ready and enjoy the next big change.

For most educators, it’s Just. So. Different. It’s the opposite of everything that brought us into this field. It’s not a field that lends itself to a remote, work-from-home setup. Students aren’t numbers on a screen. Teachers aren’t Powerpoint presentations. It’s personal. Even with the boundaries that are needed between adults and children, it’s still personal. It’s still about proximity and the ability to read expressions and body language and listen and be there. It’s still about forming deep bonds and connections. It’s not that every educator needs to be an extrovert, but every educator has to have a fundamental belief in people and a desire to interact with them in a meaningful way.

Now do that with your three young children running around, expected to be engaged in their own distance learning, at the same time that you’re supposed to be teaching your students or calling parents or donors. True, this may not have been the ideal time to potty train our almost 3-year-old, but my wife and I were terrified of the alternative (“you mean you were in the house for 90 days straight and your daughter isn’t potty trained?”). And don’t work in your bedroom for countless reasons. But what if your home doesn’t have an abundance of private areas?

It’s nice to be home with my kids. But now go explain to them why mommy and daddy are home but not able to play with them. That was never an issue when school was school.

And I sit in an office most of my day so my home office is different, but not as different as my teachers’ new classrooms.

And my Amazon packages with office supplies, that I have to leave outside, wear gloves, open the box as if I’m on the FBI Bomb Squad unit, come back into the house sweating, needing a shower let alone a hand washing.

And the list goes on and on. Everything has moved. 

And while a routine has set in after three weeks, it can turn on a dime. We thought we were good after two weeks, but then some cracks emerged. Not enough Zoom classes. The worksheets weren’t sophisticated enough. Too much paper having to be printed. Not enough specials. Too many specials. The day is too short. The day is too long. Other schools are doing such and such.

One clear lesson: Be proud of your accomplishments, but be nimble and humble so that you can continue to evolve.

Nechama Leibovitz’s explanation as to why the fifth phrase of redemption, ve-heiveti, “And I will bring you [to the land of Israel],” doesn’t warrant a fifth cup of wine is that the first four phrases came true--we left Egyptian slavery and became servants of God--but the fifth lasted only a short while and then we went into exile. Even the best plans have hiccups, the best roads to success take detours.

One of the values listed in the Westchester Day School mission statement is resilience, based on the verse in Micha, Ki nafalti kamti, “Though I have fallen, I will rise.” This experience isn’t a straight line. But that is ok. It will make everyone stronger in the end. If that is the only thing learned during this time, it will be the most important lesson any of us learn, let alone our students.

Enjoy the experience. How? Celebrate every success and win. Have a great day of learning? Enjoy. Have a great day of learning in one grade? Enjoy. Get a positive email from a parent? Enjoy. Make a good decision? Enjoy. Have a great class? Enjoy. See posts of kids doing acts of chesed at home? Enjoy. Watch teachers support each other in new and creative ways? Enjoy. See administrators do things that make you proud to call them colleagues? Enjoy. Witness teachers and administrators do everything they can possibly do to reinvent themselves? Enjoy. Sleep well? Enjoy. A day where your 3-year-old has no accidents? THROW A PARTY!

I cry all the time. This made me cry (from a WDS parent who is a public school teacher): “Just wanted to let you know that this afternoon while on a Zoom call with my entire grade team and my supervisor I brought them into my kitchen to watch my daughter complete her science experiment with Ms. Shapiro. You guys are doing such a great job and I wanted to show them how distance learning can be done correctly. Thank you for all your hard work!”

Enjoy.

And if this has taught us nothing but that change will find a way in somehow and the next time we won’t be as shocked, then we will have learned a valuable lesson.

And then there is perspective to help us handle the lows and celebrate the highs. Today I spoke to a friend whose father is on a ventilator, sedated, after testing positive for COVID19. He can’t go visit him. He can’t be with him. He can’t hold his hand. His father is alone. He has a 50/50 chance of coming off the ventilator, and even if he does he might have irreparable damage to some of his organs. He found out his father was intubated after the procedure. The doctors told him to be prepared to find out that his father’s condition could change for the worse.

That is real change. Ours, as disorienting as it is, will pass and we will be stronger as a result.

We pray for all those who are seriously ill at this time.

A few days ago, I went for a walk, just to get out of the house, and noticed that the trees in my neighborhood are blooming. How crazy that the earth is still acting like things are normal. My husband and I remembered the blessing we say when one sees blossoming fruit trees for the first time during the month of Nissan: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם שֶׁלֹּא חִסַּר בְּעוֹלָמוֹ כְּלוּם וּבָרָא בוֹ בְּרִיּוֹת טוֹבוֹת וְאִילָנוֹת טוֹבוֹת לֵהָנוֹת בָּהֶם בְּנֵי אָדָם. Blessed are You, L‑rd our G‑d, King of the universe, Who has made nothing lacking in His world, and created in it goodly creatures and goodly trees to give mankind pleasure.

Is nothing really lacking? Don't we often say the blessing of borei nefashot after we eat, where we thank G-d for the things that are “chaser” or missing (“borei nefashot rabot vechesronam”)? How can we thank G-d for both the lack and that we have it all? 

Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm has an amazing explanation: he calls this blessing of the spring, permission to create a “holy fiction.” For just a moment, almost like we are squinting and tilting our heads to the side, in that one moment in time, when we witness the amazing miracle of rebirth in the trees, our breath is taken away, and in that one moment, we create the “holy fiction” that everything really is perfect. The brachah gives us permission to see the holy and good even amidst the imperfections of the world, and certainly in the very imperfect time in which we find ourselves today.

I find myself coming back to the wisdom of Dr. Lamm again and again this season. I am inspired daily, even hourly, by the amazing dedication and love being poured into our students and schools by the educational leaders we are blessed to have. In any given moment, I find myself smiling and thanking G-d for sending the right people to us at this time, and in that way, and in so many ways, I find that I am surrounded by the Holy Fiction of the perfection of many, many mini-moments of glorious GOOD happening all around us. 

We enter in the season of our Redemption, with humility and prayer for health and safety for the world, and with the fervent prayer and wish that we are an even better community through this process and that we have grown from these moments of Holy Fiction to become even more who we are meant to become.

Torah thoughts to go: check out “pocket” divrei Torah here and please add your own!

Creativity in Quarantine
By Bethany Strulowitz

I think we can all agree that these past weeks have been nothing short of exhausting. The marathon days, the late nights, the endless calls to tech support, the communications to parents, the worry over our students’ well-being. All of this in addition to caring for our families and for ourselves make us all want to crawl into bed and forget Covid-19 ever reared its ugly head.

Nothing has forced us into a perpetual and endless state of intense and intensive professional development quite like the pandemic coronavirus. It has challenged us in ways quite possibly never before imagined as we have been forced to essentially create and design new schools and new classrooms overnight.

And yet.

I can’t help but think that this exhausting experience is handing us a gift. Patience. Persistence. Resilience. Flexibility. Self-compassion. The transformative power of a growth mindset.

We often talk about how to instill a growth mindset in our students because we intuitively know that fostering a growth mindset in our students is the key to developing an intrinsic motivation towards learning. Now, we are able to live our students’ experiences by practicing it for ourselves most intensely.

What are some attributes of a teacher with a growth mindset?

Take responsibility for improving teaching practices. Create a growth vision. Set attainable goals that objectively measure growth. It could mean learning how to use a breakout room in a Zoom session or checking in daily with the students in your class.

Actively seek learning opportunities and new challenges. Young children know that asking questions, expressing their innate curiosity, is the engine that drives learning. But somewhere along the way to adulthood, we learn to only ask questions when we don’t understand something, not when we are seeking to learn more. Kolb’s experiential learning cycle reminds us that, just as we encourage our students to explore, experiment, and problem solve, we should actively search for learning opportunities that will enable us to explore and experiment as well.

Take risks. In the words of noted research professor and author, Brene Brown, vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity, change, and joy. When we give ourselves permission to become vulnerable and try something new, we open a door to unimagined opportunities.

Celebrate failure. View setbacks as an opportunity to grow. That didn’t work. What could I try tomorrow? A key component in developing a growth mindset is building in time for self-reflection. Reflecting on what we learn from the process is almost more valuable than whether the new idea was a success or a failure. It may guide us to a new mountaintop with even more promising vistas.

Collaborate with others. Adam Grant argues that effective, efficient, and meaningful collaboration can be the single greatest predictor of success. Let’s find strength and inspiration in the successes of our colleagues.

Practice self-compassion. Recognize that we are doing the best we can. Acknowledge that tomorrow brings a new day with new opportunities and new lessons.

As we continue to unwrap the many layers of this uniquely transformative gift of a growth mindset, let us continue to look to each other for support, for strength, for guidance, and for kindness. We are in this together.

Bethany Strulowitz is the Director of Campus Life at Yeshivah of Flatbush Elementary School, and she is also the Chinuch Director and Camp Rebbetzin at NCSY Camp Maor. She is a doctoral candidate in Educational Leadership and Administration at Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education, and was a participant in the 2015-2016 YU Lead program.

Every teacher everywhere is lesson planning, or at least thinking about how they are lesson planning, throughout the summer. This past summer my lesson planning looked a little different than usual. I was going to a new school, and I was due for maternity leave in the second month of school. So I spent my summer considering how I was going to set the tone, to start off the year, so the students would know me, feel connected to me, feel supported by me even though I was in and out. 

Moving to virtual platforms this past week feels pretty similar to that experience. We are in completely new territory; we are all in and out. We don’t know how this is supposed to look like and how long it is going to last. And unlike my experience, where I had 2.5 months to plan for my expected leave, many of us had less than a week to get this up and running. So what did I learn from my expected leave that I can apply to what we are currently going through? How can we provide connection to our students during this unanticipated, unprecedented time?

Set the tone
This is what my first day of school looked like: I acted as if I didn't notice that I had a stomach that very evidently was about to pop! I ignored the fact that I only anticipated teaching for four weeks until I left them with a sub. I made those students feel that I was there for them and I was committed and I was setting the tone for my classroom. 

In a similar way, you can get up there on your online platform and set the tone. Don’t give away the secret that you have no idea how you are going to sustain this and you don’t know what is happening two days from now. You are assigning a test, but you have no idea what that’s going to look like and how the students are going to take the test virtually? Set the tone. Pretend you got this all under control. Don’t let the students feel your uncertainty; they have enough to worry about. Let them know that you got this taken care of, or at least, that you will have it taken care of. The tone is that you are here to stay, you know exactly what is going on, and you’re committed to seeing it through.

Give them something to remember you by
I was scared that my students were going to feel very unsettled with a sub-one month into the school year. So I made sure to spend lots of time going over procedures. I decided that the best use of my time was in setting up a classroom culture. Even though I knew the sub wasn’t and possibly couldn’t maintain my culture, I wanted to have a culture. I wanted the students to say things like, “That’s not how Mrs. A. does it!” I wanted to hear, “I wish we could do it Mrs. A’s way.” Yes, sorry to my sub (she’s a good friend of mine!), because I got them used to something knowing it couldn’t be sustained by her, but I did it because I was preparing them for when I got back. I was making sure that they felt grounded in our classroom culture. 

So do the same thing here. Your students are thrust into an unknown territory of online learning with different teachers, modalities, and all different methods. Make sure they understand what your class looks like, what the expectations are in your class, how YOU do things. Spend time setting up procedures; give them time to figure out the online platforms. Let them feel the style of the class. 

Remind them that you are a team
It was extremely frustrating for my students that I was leaving, and once I came back, they had difficulty with the fact that I had been absent. They needed to hear that I was there for them and that I was going to work through the frustrations with them. Now, especially, remind them of group goals and joint outcomes. You are a team learning to navigate learning together; make sure they feel that you are on the same team.

Include them in the process
As I mentioned, this was my first year in a new school. I needed to learn the ropes of how things were done in this 1:1 iPad school, something completely new to me. I let them in on this journey with me. “Teach me how to mirror my iPad, teach me how to do split screen,” “Sorry for the delay guys as I learn to utilize this app.” Setting the tone and pretending that I got this all together (as I explained in Step 1) only means that I don’t let them feel the stress that I feel with this uncertainty, but it does not mean that I am on my own here in this new territory. 

So too with all of us now. Yes, this is new, this is unfamiliar and there is going to be difficulty. Be open, be honest about it. Your students and their fellow generation Z’ers (or is generation Alpha’s) and their very tech-savvy minds will surprise you and surely help you out.

Now is a time to establish new connections with our students outside of the traditional settings. This is an unprecedented crisis: let’s help frame it for our students in a positive and responsible light. Let’s give them the structure and experience to learn in a healthy way so that through this platform, they can feel connected and secure. Maybe they’ll even get some learning in too!

Cultivating a positive staff culture is one of the most important responsibilities a Head of School holds. Staff culture, for better and for worse, will directly impact teachers’ job satisfaction and have consequences for their well-being. These feelings will inevitably transfer to their interactions and relationships with colleagues, students, their students’ parents, and beyond. I find myself spending a lot of time thinking about ways to ensure the staff culture at my school is the most positive and supportive that it can be. Here, I will present one of the most successful ways I’ve done this.

I was reading an article a few summers ago, likely sent by Jane Taubenfeld Cohen, about this very topic and the idea presented in the article struck me as fascinating and immediately I knew I wanted to try it. The idea was to write a user manual on oneself – a guide to help others understand us better and therefore work with us better. I knew that in order to be authentic, which is an essential practice to model when building a positive staff culture, I would have to write my own user manual before asking my staff to do it. It would require some soul searching and a lot of reflection, but since those are things I happen to love to do, I knew I would get a lot out of the process.

Using the article as a guide, I chose and adapted the prompts that I thought would be most useful in our school setting. As is often the case for me when I write something rather personal for work, I asked my husband and mother to read it and offer feedback. One of the most delightful unintended consequences of this process was the personal conversations this sparked with these two deeply important people in my life. When sharing this assignment with my staff, I was able to highlight this surprising benefit. As we approached one of my most favorite days of the year, the day my teachers return from summer break, I sent an email to describe the user manual I would be asking them to compose during the coming week of meetings and professional learning. I asked them to consider the six prompts I settled on when composing my own: my style, what I value, what causes me frustration, how best to communicate with me, how to help me, and what people misunderstand about me. In what turned out to be a scary and vulnerable act, I shared my user manual with my entire staff. In the email, I said:

“The reason I wrote this user manual is twofold. First, it provided me with a structure and process to communicate important information about myself to you. It was a way to clarify things for myself and to take them explicit. It was an exercise in leading out loud and in some ways, it is a vulnerable place to put myself. In the end, it is my hope and strong conviction that the content and process will contribute to a positive work environment for all of us. Second, it is an example of something I want you to create for yourselves and to share with your teams, with me, and others with whom you work closely. Again, it is my hope and strong conviction that the content and process will add to a positive work environment for all. It took me a few days to create mine, and I based it on someone else's example. It was an incredible process, one that required a lot of reflection. We will get this started on this over the course of our week together, but this kind of thing will evolve over the year.

My hope is that it will be very helpful to you in your work, especially in your collaborative work with others at school. My wish is that it will be instructional for you as a human and helpful to you in your life, in your relationships with others in your life, and most importantly for your relationship with yourself.”

What followed was the creation of a remarkable set of documents. I learned so much about my staff and responded to each of them with a set of reflections and in some cases additional questions relating to what they wrote. I helped them create protocols to review their manuals together as a team in safe and trusting ways. While many of them initially had a hard time composing their manuals, without exception, they all found it valuable and as a result changed, adapted, and enhanced the ways in which they collaborated, designed their classroom environments/schedules, and communicated with one another.

The following year, at the same time in August, I asked them to review their user manuals and offered the following task, “Reflect on what you have learned about yourself in the past year and revise your manual to reflect that learning.” They were asked to highlight these changes in the document, and once again, share it with their teams, with me, and others with whom they work closely. Of course, I met with any new staff to bring them up to speed and support them in writing their first user manual. Since the staff theme that year was “Teachers are superheroes” I added one more request. “Please add answers to the following two questions: What is your superpower? What is your Kryptonite*?

(* Kryptonite = Superman’s ultimate weakness, or anything that causes someone’s ultimate weakness. For our purposes, it doesn’t need to be ‘ultimate’ weakness and should be somehow relevant to your work environment.)”

The feedback I got from my staff about both iterations of this exercise was tremendous, and the manuals continue to be of great value. It is not uncommon to be sitting in a meeting and hear one person say to another "I remember from your user manual... and behave in a way that is respectful of whatever that person wrote. 

Many staff members echoed what I learned about the personal benefits after sharing it with loved ones. Among the reasons I believe this exercise was effective in shaping a positive staff culture is that it builds some of the most necessary ingredients – trust, authenticity, and proactive communication. I highly recommend you try it and I would be delighted to see how it goes. Email me and let me know!

What if our day schools were known for being incubators of talent? What might be possible if we carve out time and resources to ensure our schools are growing leaders from within in an intentional way? These are some of the questions Jewish day schools and yeshivas across the country are asking themselves as they look inward to solve a meaningful challenge in our field—the talent pipeline. How do we ensure we have developed the capacity of leaders within our schools and equipped them for success in their current roles and deepen their talent for their future contributions? 

In this week’s blog, we zoom in on four schools to take a deep dive into understanding how they are working to cultivate a culture of growth and develop internal talent: de Toledo High School, Jewish Education Center, Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School, and Pressman Academy.

One school asked themselves, what if instead of turning to outside experts to lead our professional development days within our schools, we turn to the talent within and identify ways in which our own staff can lead professional development and learn from one another. Dr. Erica Rothblum, Head of School at Pressman Academy, reflected: In an effort to give master teachers more leadership opportunities while staying in the classroom, we created Pressman Academies, which offer differentiated professional development for our faculty. Every semester we offer 4-6 different PD Academies, each crafted and taught by an expert teacher. Teachers opt into the session they want/need, which gives classroom teachers the opportunity for a more meaningful and strategic professional development experience. And, the sessions are run by master teachers, which gives leadership development opportunities to those staff members. Sessions offered this year have included "Classroom Structures, Routines & Expectations" taught by a fifth grade teacher, "Nonviolent Communication" taught by our middle school counselor and "Technology in the Classroom" taught by first grade teachers.

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At de Toledo High School, Head of School Mark Shpall walks the walk of living his school’s values. He shares: One of the defining features of de Toledo High School is our dedication to the culture that learning is a life-long enterprise. Just as our teachers and faculty model this for our students, we encourage faculty to lead by example with their peers. Therefore, whenever there is a leadership or pioneering opportunity, we encourage our faculty to apply and interview for the position before opening it up to outside candidates. Just as we know the quality of mentorship they have received, the faculty also gains confidence knowing that we trust and look towards them to grow our programs and continue living the values that define us.

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Milton Gottesman Day School of the Nation's Capital has embedded learning and growth into the way they learn and lead at their school. Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School models inspired leadership and intentional leadership development wherein students and faculty pursue opportunities for growth and excellence. Head of School Naomi Reem shared, We recognize the value of cultivating leaders internally and actively invest in the professional growth of teachers, instructional leaders, division directors, and the school’s leadership team. 

Professional development is achieved through internal and external training, partnerships within the Jewish community and in the educational sphere, support for advanced education, mentorship, team-based curricular development and programming, book clubs, and authentic opportunities for teachers to shape and develop our academic program. In practice, we see that good development is both self-directed and collaborative − because you need champions who will be responsible for shepherding initiatives and getting work done, and you need leaders who will train and collaborate with other faculty members on implementing these new initiatives. 

Milton has been able to thrive academically, in part, because we benefit from our team-based approach to leadership, and the infusion of ideas by team members at every level who bring forward best practices in the field and engaging new endeavors. The results are increased staff engagement, workforce stability, and teachers who serve as models of lifelong learning, plus innovation, energy, and refinements to the academic program. We are inspired every day by our talented, dedicated faculty and see the ways that professional growth, creativity, support, and joy interplay with passion, ideation, and leadership. Beyond the productive effects on our school, we believe that investing in our employees’ happiness and growth is helping create agents of change in Jewish education and future stewards of innovation in the field. 

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Rabbi Uzi Beer, Principal of the JEC Lower and Middle School, keeps inspiring leadership at the core of the Jewish Educational Center experience. While reflecting on how he achieves this, he reflected: Both for students and faculty, we strive to challenge, empower and inspire growth on many levels. It is through this environment that encourages dreaming and vulnerability and provides mentorship, goal setting, and real opportunities that we pride ourselves that many members of our leadership team have been promoted from within.

We look in every position and every department for growth opportunities. It is through constant investment in our team and potential leaders through programs offered by Federation of GMW, YouLead, Prizmah and JNTP among many others. It is through cultivating from within that we develop and foster a team that is more inherently dedicated to our school’s mission. We like to think of ourselves as a “teaching hospital” where every interaction is a learning experience and a teachable moment. In thinking about how to make a school great, Todd Whitacker states, it is through hiring great teachers or making your teachers great. We strive for both.

If you would like to learn more about ways to support staff learning from and with one another and to consider other methodologies you may use to leverage the expertise within your own school check out this article. We would love to learn about the ways in which your school is working to cultivate and deepen internal talent. Share your stories in our Reshet or reach out to us here.

by Debbie Akerman,  PhD., LCSW
Associate Director of Field Instruction
Wurzweiler School of Social Work Yeshiva University

Purim - Celebrate Safely…..
 
Of all of the Jewish holidays on the calendar, Purim for many represents one of the easiest and joyous days. With no deadlines of candle lighting and two or three days worth of meals to prepare, with no scrubbing and koshering needed, Purim is 24 hours of family, friends, exchange of delicious food and celebration. And there is where the problem may begin.

According to Chazal, we are supposed to drink until we cannot distinguish between blessed is Mordechai and cursed is Haman. With no specific amounts stated, this has led many to become inebriated from Purim night until after the Seudah the next night.

As a psychotherapist specializing in addiction and an orthodox Jew as well, I do not believe that Chazal or any part of the Torah would command us to do anything that would be unhealthy. The Chofetz Chaim in Biur Halacha-695:2 states that we are not required to come to a drunken state, but to rather celebrate in a manner that brings us closer to Hashem.

Addiction, whether behavioral or chemical is one of America’s most prevalent disease processes affecting more individuals than cancer, heart disease and stroke every year. The notion that this does not affect our community is false, and the Jewish community is now becoming more aware through the number of those addicted and public awareness that we are as affected as the general population.

A real danger of the Purim holiday is binge drinking. According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), “Binge drinking is the most common, costly, and deadly pattern of alcohol use in the United States.” Binge drinking elevates an individual’s blood alcohol concentration, (BAC) to 0.08 grams percent or above. The criteria for binge drinking is 5 or more drinks for men, and four or more drinks for women in about two hours. The majority of individuals (90 %) that binge drink are not alcohol dependent. A drink is defined as 12 oz of beer, five ounces of wine, 8 ounces of malt liquor, (like Smirnoff Ice)  or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits (whiskey, tequila, gin, run, or vodka).  I believe that if we begin to recollect of Purim holidays of the past, we may see in hindsight that many adults and teenagers would fit the criteria of binge drinking on Purim.

Binge drinking can lead to alcohol poisoning which is a serious and potentially deadly consequence of ingesting large amounts of alcohol in a short period of time. Alcohol poisoning floods the bloodstream with large amounts of alcohol and affects brain function that controls breathing, heart rate and temperature.  According to the Mayo Clinic, the signs of alcohol poisoning include confusion, vomiting, seizures, slow breathing, irregular breathing, blue-tinged or pale skin, low body temperature and passing out and not being able to be awakened.

It is imperative to note that an individual does not have to have all of the symptoms before seeking help. A person that is unconscious or can’t be roused is at risk of dying.

If alcohol poisoning is suspected, please call 911 for immediate help. Never assume that a person will just sleep it off. Alcohol poisoning can stop the gag reflex which will cause an individual to choke on their own vomit. Other old wife’s tales should be avoided at all costs.

1. Do not give the person coffee, as coffee is a further cause of dehydration.
2. Do not give food as the individual may choke due to an inability to swallow or a depressed gag reflex.
3. Do not administer any medications which will make the alcohol poisoning worse.
4. Do not induce vomiting, due to the slowed or absent gag reflex
5. Do not attempt to “walk it off” as the lack of coordination could lead to accidents /falls
6. Do not put a person in a cold shower to “sober up” as that can increase the hypothermia
7. DO NOT LET THE INDIVIDUAL SLEEP IT OFF
8. Do not leave the individual alone
9. Do not administer any more alcohol

Alcohol poisoning necessitates correct and prompt medical attention. Try to have as much information, (individuals age, weight, amount of alcohol consumed over what time period, any other medications or medical conditions). While waiting for help try to keep the individual conscious, keep the individual informed and in a sitting position. If the individual is unconscious, carefully roll them on their side with their arms over their head to prevent choking. Additionally, cover the individual with a blanket as the alcohol poisoning will likely make them feel cold.

It may feel difficult to call for help especially if the individual is underage. Not calling however may produce far more serious consequences.

This Purim, let us endeavor as a community to be educated and vigilant, preventing unnecessary pain and suffering. A Purim with markedly reduced or no alcohol related incidents would surely fulfill, “Layehudim Hayta Ora V’Simcha Sasson V’yikar…..”

Teachers tend to worry more about the silent student rather than the loquacious student. The student who constantly participates in class makes it clear, through their expressions, that they are either interested in the subject, interested in a higher grade, interested in themselves or all of the above. But the silent student remains a mystery that gives rise to a number of questions that do not readily get resolved, such as, does this student remain silent out of fear, anxiety, or indifference? Have I, as the teacher, created an atmosphere where my student is afraid to speak? And even if you directly ask the student why they don’t participate you might not receive a genuine answer, or at the very best, a cryptic one. A possible solution to the silence can be found in journaling.

Initially when I was exposed to the idea of journaling at an Ayeka (Soulful Educators) retreat I was skeptical. I had heard from various teachers at the retreat that by encouraging the students to journal on a regular basis, the students were more verbal (both in terms of quality and quantity), became clearer writers on their tests, more confident, more willing to take intellectual and creative risks and overall seemed more engaged with the material during classroom discussions. There are fundamentally two approaches when it comes to journaling in the class: 1. Teacher gives a prompt (or prompts) and the students write down their thoughts in reaction to the prompts or 2. Students write down whatever they are feeling, either with regards to the lesson, or past lessons, or how they relate to the text at hand. In other words, the students are either given a very specific type of question to react to, or they self-generate a question. Regardless of which one they choose, they write their thoughts down in a notebook specifically designated for their journal. After talking extensively to the senior educators at Ayeka and researching the benefits of journaling for students of all ages I decided to experiment with journaling with one of my classes, specifically my 11th grade Chumash class. I had chosen that class because I had several students who rarely participated in class but did very well on quizzes on tests. They clearly were learning the material, but for some reason they chose not to speak during class. 

For our first journal entry I employed the “Imagine the Better” prompt that Ayeka has developed. This approach has 4 parts: a. Self-assessment b. Imagine the better c. Obstacles that impede your development d. Self-advice. I adapted this for my Chumash class and wrote on the board the following: 

“Please assess yourself, on a scale of 1-10 (1 being the worst, and 10 being the best) with regards to your current relationship to God.” I then gave them one minute to write down a number.  

Then I wrote on the board "Imagine that number which you wrote down was two points higher. What would that look like with regards to your relationship with God?" I then gave the students three minutes to describe what that relationship with God would look like, and then I wrote down on the board, “What obstacles are preventing you from reaching those two points higher?” I then gave them 4 minutes to write down their answers. And then I wrote down 
the final question, “What small piece of advice can you give yourself right now to help you get to that higher number?”  I then gave them 5 minutes to write down their answers. After that, I broke them into groups of 3 or smaller to share their answers with their peers. And after that I asked anyone if they wanted to share their responses or share any surprises they heard. Inevitably, half the class raised their hands to share their responses, and they were all surprised to hear that their peers are struggling with the same things they are. I then offered them to type up their journals on google docs, and asked them to share it with me if they felt comfortable. I assumed that perhaps a quarter of my students would choose to share their journals with me.

When I arrived home later that night, out of 20 students, I had 18 journal entries to read. I had decided that I was not going to comment on grammar or syntax, or be critical in any way, shape or form. I decided that my comments were going to be positive, and I was going to find a way to praise each and every student. Though this took some time (admittedly I have shortened my comments as I now use journaling in all of my classes) it was worth it. Within two weeks of journaling in this class, every single person was participating in the classroom discussions multiple times. In fact, it became a common occurrence that the bell would ring in the middle of a student’s comment, that would inevitably lead to impromptu journal entries that night. 

Initially I thought it was the novelty that was exciting them to write, but I gradually realized that my students were enjoying an opportunity to discuss and analyze their ideas in a non-judgemental setting while receiving nothing but positive reinforcement regardless of what they had written or how they had written it. One student explained it in his journal as follows: 

[...]I realized that the beauty of journaling is that I can formulate my ideas and opinions along the way. Writing is like having a conversation with myself which just went along at its own pace. I didn’t start writing with preconceptions about what I was going to write but rather argued out my thoughts as I wrote them on paper. One aspect I really enjoy about journaling is the lack of constraints. I don’t have to follow a specific format and I have no reason to hold anything back. Often essays for school have to be orderly and formatted correctly but this sometimes causes me to leave arguments which might not fit appropriately. In contrast, when journaling I can do a “brain dump” of all my ideas in my head and then sort through them to come to an opinion. Also, often when I finish an essay I disagree with many of my arguments, and I end up submitting a paper I don’t fully support. I also find that for school many students write essays based on what they think the teacher wants to hear. One problem with writing essays like these is that you aren’t really formulating your own ideas and opinions, and are unwilling to change these opinions especially after starting to write the essay. High school students don’t feel that they have the time to rewrite entire essays even if they change their opinions about the topic. However, when journaling I feel I have the opportunity to simply continue writing my new ideas and argue with my past self. I think this is one reason why for the first time I found writing enjoyable. I often find writing too subjective because different teachers will have different opinions on what is good writing. Some prefer specific formats, others creative ideas. I also felt that at some level one could argue whatever he or she wanted since there was never a right answer which made me uncomfortable. I am more used to math problems in which although there are often many ways to reach an answer, there is a clear distinction between a right answer and a wrong answer. While writing my journal I don’t have to worry about a format or about a grade so I am free to write how and what I wish.

With his permission I was allowed to share his journal with fellow faculty members, administrators, Ayeka participants, and anyone else that I felt should hear his voice. He gave me carte blanche to share every aspect of his journal. And he wrote, like 90% of my students, on every conceivable subject ranging from the conflict of the Creation story with Evolution to his personal views on politics, reading and playing sports as a religious Jew in a non-Jewish setting. What was exciting for me was the fact that this particular student, who wrote over 35 pages in his journal, had rarely spoken for the first three months of the year. He was one of the quiet students sitting in the front row copiously taking down notes, though never verbalizing his thoughts. After his first set of journal entries, I began to see a change in his overall demeanor and participation in class. He became more enthusiastic, more verbal, speaking with more adjectives, and his writing became meaningful and poignant. I was sad to say goodbye to this class at the end of their junior year, as I knew I would not be teaching them for the following year. That sadness continued over the summer up until faculty orientation in August.  On the first day of faculty orientation I received several summer journal entries from this class. I thought for a minute that I might have assigned them a summer journal entry that I had forgotten about so I asked them if that is why they had taken the time to write additional entries.  I received many responses, but my favorite one was from the former quiet student who wrote,

At the very beginning, I wrote my journal for you, but now I write for my soul and my  mind and  share it with people who care about my soul and my mind. I plan on doing this for many years to come.

So now I employ journaling in all my classes, and whenever fatigue sets in after reading 30 journal entries and I want to go to sleep, I think of those precious words my quiet student wrote and I keep on reading.

7 days
12 schools
16 teacher visit teams 
1 great professional development experience

Together with Prizmah and many other day schools throughout the New York area, our faculty at the Yeshivah of Flatbush early childhood and lower school successfully completed our professional development project. As noted in my last article we had a number of goals to accomplish and our survey results demonstrated that indeed we were successful in many of those areas.

Rachel Levitt Klein Dratch and I worked together to design a meaningful professional development day for Friday, February 14th. The main goal of the sessions was for teachers to be active participants as teachers and learners. We wanted teachers to share reflections and learning from each other in addition to taking something they observed on their school visit and make it actionable. Another overarching goal was that the structure and strategies used for learning during the sessions were intended as models for designing learning in the classroom setting. A third goal was to connect the discussions to our ongoing themes this year at YoF which are fostering a growth mindset and implementing more engaging strategies in the classroom.  Finally, data from past surveys also showed a strong preference for the learning to be differentiated based on interest. The morning was designed with these important elements in mind.

The activities implemented met our goals. Teachers shared their learning from the experience through a gallery walk and a speed pairing activity. During the gallery walk, teachers each took a card and posted their takeaways from the visits on eight possible boards, delineated by topics including:

• Ways to find out what students know
• Ways to promote growth mindset
• Ways to teach a specific skill
• Great use of technology

This was followed by teachers taking a gallery walk and reading all the ideas on the boards. Afterwards, each teacher chose an idea which they would like to further explore.

This was followed by chavruta learning with sources about the spies that went to scout the land of Israel. Through guided questions, we applied lessons about being observers and reporters, like the spies, to our own school visits (we came back with positive reports!) Rachel then unpacked data collected from the teachers after the trip. Over 70 people responded. 26 teachers felt the overall experience was very good and 27 thought it was excellent. About 73% in total. Rachel then shared a few of the responses regarding the visit, the learning experience, and her own observations from the data. We grappled with the “balcony question” which was how did this experience impact you as a learner and teacher? All of the teachers experienced being a student again where someone else determined the style of learning, the schedule, and the information. “What did that feel like?“, Rachel asked, “and how will you view your own classroom and your student experience moving forward? What changes will you make to enhance that experience for your students?”

Speed pairing was next. We sat in two large circles facing each other while Rachel posed a few questions. One example was Something that I would like to try, based on what I experienced during this visit is . . . Teachers then answered the questions and had meaningful and engaging conversations.

Rachel summed up the morning with next steps for individual teachers and for grade-level teams. We are planning future grade-level meetings to discuss the visits and strategies teams would like to implement in their classrooms.

We are excited to report that we already received inquiries from some of the schools we visited. We hope to create a network and communities of schools and teachers who will open up their classrooms to share ideas and to learn from each other with the ultimate goal of increasing learning for all of our students.

Visit to Luria Academy (left) and to NSHA (right).