Three Partners in an Effective School Environment

This is a post that I wrote last year as part of an initiative to create a better Home-School Partnership.
I thought it was appropriate to post on my Judaic Studies blog tonight as we come together for Parent Orientation. After all it is through events like tonight and others through out the year that we build this important partnership between home and school.

In “Ethics of Our Fathers” it states that there are 3 partners in creating man; Father, Mother and G-D. I tell my Teachers there needs to be three partners in a child’s educations; School (Admin + Teachers), Parents, and Students. If I would draw a diagram it would look like this:



All of the circles need to overlap and be on the same page if you will for this partnership to be effective.

How do we achieve this?

The first key is that all parties need to be able to listen and hear the concerns of one another. Listening isn’t enough. We need to listen and really understand where the other person is coming from and take their concerns seriously.

In real estate they say “Location Location Location”. In Parent school relations they say “Communication, communication, communication. I believe with open lines and true two way communication many problems could be averted if we are proactive and just communicate. We need to communicate in a way the fits the needs of each individual. For some email may be great, while others may prefer a phone call, and some may need a face to face meeting. I do think teachers should communicate with their students as well and the students need to have a clear understanding of the teacher’s expectations.

Finally I believe there needs to be involvement. Students need to be involved in their own learning and teachers need to involve and get input from parents.

Bottom line we all want what is best for our Children/ Students and if we work with that goal and keep these few keys in mind I think we can have an effective partnership and an effective school and learning environment for our children.

This post was originally written for the “Creating A Home-School Partnership Wallwisher initiative by @Thanks2Teachers

Looking Back To Look Forward

This year we are focusing on 21st Century Learning. For many myself included while this is exciting it can also be scary. What does it mean is it something new? Do I need to change the way I have taught for x years. To be honest some of the answers are Yes, but 21st Century learning is not new. The terms may be somewhat new the focus maybe new the ideas aren’t. As Rabbi Perl showed during in-service there are many examples of critical thinking and questioning found in the Talmud, which are key skills that we talk about when we talk about 21st Century learning. I also read today the following in Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sack’s book, “To Heal a Fractured World”. Rabbi Sacks shares the following facts about Janusz Korczak who was Polish physician in the early 1900’s. :
“Early in his career, he was drawn to the plight of underprivileged children. He had revolutionary ideas about the young. He believed in trusting them and giving them responsibilities. He got them to produce their own newspaper, the first children’s newspaper in Poland. He turned schools into self governing communities…..
He used to say Children have the right to be taken seriously…”

Some very 21st Century ideas.

Yes today because of technology and our global economy and this new world we live in there is more of a focus on what we call 21st Century learning and it needs to be the norm rather than the exception but it is not something new.
It also not a term or tools we use but rather a mindset of learning that is predicated on what Carol Dweck calls a “Growth Mindset”. A mindset that pushes our children to question and take risks and where when we take those risks we tell our students it is ok to try and fail as long as that failure leads to success. It is also about the skills of critical thinking, questioning, investigating, collaborating, and being creative.

Therefore perhaps as we look forward we to take a moment a look back and understand that while the terms and methods may be new but the mindset and skills have been around do a long time.


Looking forward to year of risk taking and growth!

Rabbi Greenblatt