Do the Write Thing

Over the last month, there has been an incredible amount of excitement in the air around reading. One of the goals of the Sveta Grinberg Read for Life Program is to create that excitement and buzz around reading, and, judging by the number of books read by our students during the program, it did.

We should be equally excited about writing, and here at Schechter, there is a lot to be excited about. In the last two weeks, our students have won high honors in the Power of the Pen competition (including our seventh grade team advancing to regionals) and swept Federation’s writing competition for Yom HaShoah. Mazal tov to all of the students and kol hakavod to their coach, Davida Amkraut!

Some may feel that writing is an art form that is slowly being lost because of texting, instant messaging and social media. And receiving a message like “AFAIK” (as far as I know) or “BRB” (be right back), probably reinforces it.

Yet, written communication is becoming even more important because of the dramatic increase in the places, times and formats that we do write.

Writing is something that you will see emphasized starting in our four-year-old classrooms as students begin putting together sentences in their journals (often with some fascinating creative spelling). These skills grow and develop over time. Our first graders engage in creative writing and start drafting reports. Third graders are learning research as they draft their President speeches. In fifth grade, they discover the challenge that an ambiguous prompt can provide as they write short stories based upon a series of pictures from Chris Van Allsburg, and of course, writing abounds in all classes as our students enter middle school whether they are working with Mrs. Amkraut in Language Arts, Mr. Norton in Science or Giveret Slain in Hebrew.

Even just outside my office door is a wall filled with graffiti about our school-wide read, Rules. Students with varying levels of writing sophistication have filled it with thoughts and observations about the book.It is these kinds of scaffolded writing experiences that have led to the successes that our school has had in the Power of the Pen competition year after year.

A Schechter education prepares students to use their writing to effectively communicate ideas!

Shabbat Shalom,

Dr. Ari Yares
Head of School

Power of a Jewish Mother

While our fourth graders are researching famous Jews for the Wax museum project, their teacher, Donell Newman, has been reaching out via e-mail and Facebook to several of the people selected by the students to see if they can get questions directly answered. Sometimes, though, you have to try a different channel to get a hold of them, like their mom.

One of our students had selected Browns offensive tackle Mitchell Schwartz as his famous Jew. Schwartz is one of the few visibly Jewish NFL players. Mrs. Newman had reached out to the Browns’ front office, but had not heard back yet from them about arranging an interview with Schwartz. Late one night, Mrs. Newman’s husband, Scott, suggested that she try a different approach - contact his mother.

Mrs. Newman scoffed at the idea, but she did it anyway.

Pretty quickly, she got a response from Olivia Goodkin, Mitchell’s mom. “I’ve passed along your e-mail. Please let me know if you don’t get a response.”

Mrs. Newman did get a response and a series of emails starting going back and forth between Schwartz and her. Mrs. Newman’s hope was that Schwartz would answer the student’s questions and thus enrich his Wax Museum presentation. A lot more than that happened.

“You know,” Schwartz wrote, “I’m going to be in Cleveland in a week or two. How about I stop by the school?”

And he did.

This morning, our fourth graders were treated to a question and answer session with Mitchell Schwartz. He then joined us for the closing ceremonies for the Sveta Grinberg Read for Life program as our celebrity guest.

Sometimes you just need to call mom.

Shabbat Shalom,

Dr. Ari Yares
Head of School

In their own words

"I liked making mummies with my buddy!" Ever think you'd hear that from a first grader?  Or hear an eighth grader say, "My buddy was incorporating what he learned in class when we played the game online.  He knew so much!" These were some of the rave reviews given by our first graders and eighth graders after spending an interactive, dynamic field trip for both the first and eighth grade classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Middle School Social Studies teacher, Jesse Ebner, and first grade teacher, Marci Friedman, created a great opportunity for collaboration, growth and deeper learning. Prior to a field trip to the Cleveland Museum of Art, the eighth graders met with the first graders twice before the field trip and then met them twice after.  The pre-field trip classes were focused on some joint learning on ancient Egypt (the eighth graders had studied Egypt a few weeks earlier, and the first graders were currently working on a unit about Egypt).  They used  computers to play a game called "Mummy Maker" to learn about religion in Ancient Egypt and the mummification process.  They also used the computer to learn about hieroglyphics and "translate" their own names to hieroglyphs.  They made "name plates" with their name in hieroglyphs and drawings to represent themselves and the items they would take with them to the afterlife.  

On the field trip, the eighth graders and first graders took separate tours focused on seeing items they learned about in their respective units.  Eighth graders saw ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian artifacts, as well as ancient India and Chinese religious artwork.  First graders focused mostly on Ancient Egypt.  Then, both groups got together for a fun scavenger hunt throughout the museum, lunch and free time in the hands-on "Gallery One."

After the trip, eighth graders wrote their own reflection blog posts  Then, they met with the first graders to share what a blog looks like and explain how they write their own blog posts. The eighth graders helped the first graders write rough drafts and then use the iPads to publish their first blog posts!

Here’s what we heard from our eighth graders about their experience:

"It was fun to be with and hang out with our younger buddies."

"They (first graders) know what they saw at the Museum and what they learned, but they couldn't put it into words.  I attempted to help them put their thoughts into words and spell hard words like, hieroglyphics."

"We learned some leadership skills.  The first graders looked up to us as the oldest grade in the school.  They probably look forward to being in eighth grade when they could be the ones teaching their first grade buddy about ancient Egypt."

"Remembering being in first grade and having a book buddy, it would've been really cool to have a blog from first grade to look back on."

"It's strange to hear first graders have blogs. I didn't even know what the internet was in first grade!"

"I like working with the first graders, it was just fun. Working with younger kids gives you a new perspective on what you are learning."

"I thought it was nice that the first graders really look up to us. They like being with us."  

Our first graders had similar reflections ranging from, “I was able to learn more from my buddy" to "I am excited to blog again." Another shared, "It was cool to blog because it was my first time”; while one student told us, "I felt happy because I had someone to work with me and explain things to me and she was so nice."

Kol HaKavod to Mrs. Ebner and Mrs. Friedman for facilitating this shared unit and for enabling our students to begin sharing their own words!

Shabbat Shalom,

Dr. Ari Yares


Eighth Grade Blogs (password is Schechter):  

http://talyasocialstudies.weebly.com/eighth-grade-world-history/field-trip-reflection-blog

http://noahsocialstudiesblog.weebly.com/eighth-grade-blog-page