Ever had a tough moment with a student and worried about whether or how to loop in their parents? But now think about all the fabulous moments you’ve had with students. Have you told parents about those moments either? In March, the Jewish Placemaking Accelerator participants took a hard look at parent communication – why it’s important, how to do…
Tag: accelerator
The Process of Creating Culture
What do we want people to associate with when they think of our schools? How do we want them to feel when they leave the building? In February, the Jewish Placemaking Accelerator participants took the starting steps toward wrangling with the current culture at their respective institutions and imagining and planning for what it could be. What five words describe…
Jewish Placemaking in Every Class
Whether we like it or not, COVID has forced educators to think outside the traditional classroom to bring students together for community building and learning. And it’s been hard work! We opened our January Jewish Placemaking Accelerator Seminar by asking participants to brainstorm some of the challenges and opportunities presented by a variety of learning spaces: indoors, outdoors, shared, and…
Being the Change We Want to See in Our Schools
What do you think of when you imagine change? Chaos? Growth? Improvement? Discomfort? Stress? Resistance? Excitement? Change is personal and always accompanied by some amount of loss, which can make it really tough! In our January Jewish Placemaking Accelerator seminar, we explored how to effectively come at change to make it a little easier to manage. We started with a…
Setting Goals for Successful Learning
What makes Jewish text compelling and relevant to learners of all ages? How do we as educators know what to focus on when there’s SO MUCH content and SO LITTLE time?! Our November seminar on Lesson Planning and Goal Setting provided our Jewish Placemaking Accelerator cohort with some guidance on these questions and more. Our Accomplishments We started off the…
Design Thinking: Education from a Place of Empathy
We kicked off our first Jewish Placemaking Accelerator seminar exploring how to bring empathy into our classrooms and schools. In keeping with the Makom Community’s pedagogy, we ended up applying the principles of Design Thinking to our learning spaces, and we got there through Jewish text. What is Empathy? Participants started out with brief introductions and a small get-to-know-you prompt,…