Design Thinking Update

It’s been a while since I’ve checked in publicly with our Design Thinking team that is working with the Day School Collaboration Network. In a recent conversation with our coach, the team broke down the larger question of redesigning the Burt L. and Iris S. Media Center to address some of the smaller questions that will help inform the design process. For example:

1. How might we inspire kids to read age appropriate material with guidance?
2. How might we create a space that serves as valuable resource for teachers to get materials: accessible, supported, organized, and uniquely valuable content?
3. How might we create a space that is versatile for displaying work so that students are inspired?
4. How might we create a space where students can meet in a cozy, warm, communal space that is amenable to food, movies, etc.?  
5. How might we create a central meeting place that feels appropriate for meetings with the the board, parents, and other guests?

In thinking about these questions, I started thinking a little bit more deeply about what we have learned so far through the design thinking process. Enter a blog post from  Ed Horwitz of the Jewish Education Project and Maya Bernstein of Upstart Bay Area, our partners in the Day School Collaboration Network, laying out five observations of the design thinking process that they had learned about training and schools and got me thinking about how their observations applied to our process.

1. Slow down to speed up - This seems counter-intuitive to reduce speed to get somewhere faster. After all this is why we floor the gas pedal on I-271 to get where we want go faster. Slowing down doesn’t seem like it would get us anywhere in a speedier way. Yet, our design team is discovering just that. We could have taken any solution and thrown it at the Media Center and seen how it works. And maybe we would have been successful, but probably not. The design thinking process has forced us to think about how the space is used currently, what people would like to use it for, and what truly are the needs of the school. Our initial solution lacked insight into this and a true understanding of the space.

2. Diverse teams make the biggest impact - There are so many stakeholders involved in this process. The team itself represents alumni, administration, and general studies, Jewish studies, middle school, lower school, and preschool staff. This mix of experiences as well as length of service at the school has created a team that can practically “see around the corners” as they explore the problem.

3. Sometimes the process itself is the product - As noted above, the administration could have simply imposed a solution on the Media Center, and, in fact, the current situation of under-utilization is the outcome of an administrative decision. While I can’t comment on the decision making process that yielded the current layout and use of the library, it became clear to me that needs were going unmet. In going through a design process, we’ve have made a shift in the way that decisions for our school can be made. They can be inclusive and involve multiple perspectives working together to benefit the school.

4. Name the unspoken issues - Simply in addressing this problem, “How might we enable our community to use our Media Center and common space in a way that feels valuable, accessible, and alive?” has raised issues that we might have preferred not to discuss. Conversations have touched on the absence of a full-time librarian, the use of the space as a math classroom, and the lack of availability of the media center when a teacher needs it. Often times, these are the topics that we dance around rather than addressing head on. It doesn’t mean that each of these will find a solution, but rather being aware of them sensitizes us as we seek to answer the larger question.

5. Teacher and student empowerment - Since the beginning of the process, the design thinking team has not simply locked themselves in the conference room and pondered the weighty issue before them. Instead, the entire staff has been part of the process as they are asked questions to help better understand how they do use the media center and why they do not. One of the most interesting observations from this process was a teacher who shared that she doesn’t use the library because it is simpler to call the children’s librarian at the Beachwood Library, share with her what she is looking for, and later in the day to pull up to the library’s drive through window to collect her books. Without going through this process, we might never have heard this anecdote and have it shape our understanding along with comments from her fellow teachers.
   Student voices have also been heard and noted. Group discussions around the library and creative classroom activities with students in multiple grades helped them share their input into this process.

Now it is your turn. We know from listening to conversations in the hallway that the media center is often on your mind. Our parents were incredibly excited and engaged by our Go for the Gold - Read for Life program because Kehillat Schechter is a community that prizes literacy. We want our children to explore written texts that allow them to think critically and to gain enjoyment from the telling of a well-written tale.

Click on this link to answer a few short questions and add to the diversity of opinion that is shaping the design process as we look to create new models of how to engage with our media center.

Shabbat Shalom,

Dr. Ari Yares

Seder - The Family Experience, Part 2

With the warm temperatures of the last few days, it feels like spring is truly in the air. I’ve visited several sedarim (plural for seder) over the last few days and have seen our students ready themselves for turning their family seder table into a learning experience for all. This truly is the purpose of the seder.

Earlier today, our middle school students with their VIP guests (more on that in a bit) studied the tenth chapter of the tractate Pesachim which explores many of the reasons why the seder is organized in the way that it is. Looking at the text, they saw both familiar and unfamiliar rituals. Analyzing the text, you can see the priorities that the rabbis of the Mishnah (a text that was developed around and after the destruction of the 2nd Temple in 70 CE and codified in 220 CE) had in creating the seder ritual. Among them were:

• Making it a portable, home-based ritual
• Remembering the sacrifices conducted in the Temple
• Reminder of God’s greatness
• Engage the next generation of Jews by asking questions
• Creating unity among Jews who would now be more separate as they spread around the world. ​

​It is these last two that I began focusing on last week in my blog. The seder is a ritual that is so rich and that can be a unique experience year after year or even from first seder to second seder. Here are a few of the family minhagim (customs) that were shared with me in the last week:

• Have each participant bring their own haggadah to the seder. Share the different commentaries, translations, and pictures that accompany them.
• Chase each other with green onions (scallions) during Dayeinu.
• Get creative with your charoset. Mix chocolate chips into a little bit of it and serve it with the Afikomen.
• Serve a vegetable based appetizer after Karpas. You have said the blessing over vegetables at that point and more could be eaten.
• Share stories of past sedarim that you have attended.
• Put out a cup for Miriam that is filled with water to represent Miriam’s well that followed the Israelites in the desert.
• Create a bag of plagues with toys that represent each plague. Put out puppets for Chad Gadya (One Little Goat) and insist that each participant use a funny voice while singing the song.
• Explore saying the Mah Nishtanah (Four Questions) in another language. Look for it in Yiddish, Arabic, German, or Ladino for example.
• Create a new custom for your family this year that is your very own.

Enrich your seder with the knowledge that your children have gained from their Schechter education.

Earlier today, our students brought smiles to the faces of their VIPs in their classrooms and then together in the gym as we joined together as a community. With our VIPs present in the morning and the opportunity to wish our 8th graders a nesiyah tovah (safe travels) in the afternoon, it has been an incredible week of learning, sharing, and growing.

On behalf of the staff and Board of Directors of Gross Schechter Day School, I wish you aZissen Pesach.

Shabbat Shalom v’Chag Kasher v’Sameach,

Dr. Ari Yares
Head of School

Seder - The Family Experience

I had an interesting treat on Thursday morning. I had stopped by the Kofim class, our two-year-olds, to sit and play with the kids. Instead, I found myself being handed an interesting project, a frog made out of an Oreo, frosting, chocolate chips, and two pretzels. Through this craft and the familiar "One morning when Pharaoh awoke in his bed"song, our youngest students were learning about the Pesach seder and discovering ways that they can be involved in celebrating the holiday.

At its heart, the Pesach seder is a family education experience. In fact, it has its roots in the text of the Mishnah where the rabbis explain just how we are to tell the story to our children. This text, in Tractate Pesachim of the Mishnah, is something that our middle school students explore as they look at the seder from a different angle than their preschool buddies.

As our students progress from preschool to lower school to middle school, they engage and learn about each of the holidays in a developing way. Our preschool students have been practicing the Mah Nishtahnah, Four Questions, in preparation for being called upon at their seders for this time honored tradition. Third graders through Giveret Sharaby's Yemenite seder discover that there is more than one way to experience a seder. Our eighth graders are engaged in a close reading of the Haggadah while other middle school students explore Hebrew stories of analogous exodus experiences.

Our sedarim are as rich as we are willing to make them and we encourage you to bring your children into the conversation. Use what they are learning at school as a starting point for them to take ownership of this incredible learning experience and make it more than just a large meal with matzah. Offer them the opportunity to take a leadership role for a portion of the seder. Send them off to find new texts, songs, or interesting minhagim, customs, that are new to your family or tell them stories about the sedarim of your youth and help them breathe new life into old family traditions.

For years, my father has been collecting e-mails, news clippings, and the occasional Pesach ad for inclusion in the Yares Family Supplementary Haggadah. This collection has grown so large that we now have not only the supplement to the Supplementary Haggadah, but have moved into the supplement for the supplement to the Supplementary Haggadah. Thankfully, we don't attempt to read everything, but instead rely on these texts as well as a variety of haggadot at the table to bring context, commentary, and the occasional joke.

This is just one of our family minhagim that have enriched our sedarim. Kehillat Schechter is made up of families from a wide variety of backgrounds, each of whom has their own rich connections to Jewish practice. To help us create a Seder experience for our children and for ourselves that help us with re-living the Exodus from Egypt, we want to hear about your family traditions and customs.

What happens around your seder table that is unique for your family? Is there an orange of the seder plate? Do you sit on the floor for the meal? Does your haggadah consist of songs and rhymes that could have been written by Dr. Seuss?

Share this with the community on our Facebook page and we'll share some highlights as we head into Pesach next week.

Shabbat Shalom,

Dr. Ari Yares

Dayeinu

Earlier this week, I heard a joke that went something like this:

“There are four seasons in Cleveland - almost winter, winter, still winter, and construction.”

The joke is funny because given the weather of the last few weeks, even though spring has started according to the calendar, it just rings so true. Our bodies are yearning for the warm air and sunny days that are heralded by spring and instead we woke up Wednesday morning to a few inches of snow on the ground. Even those of us who have never formally been diagnosed with seasonal affect disorder may be starting to show symptoms.

With us searching and hoping for signs of a true spring, I am grateful that Rosh Chodesh Nisan is just around the corner. The start of this month marks the beginning of the transition out of winter and into spring. But it is more than that. It is the transition from the feeling of being enslaved by the winter into the freedom of spring.

Rosh Chodesh Nisan heralds the arrival of Pesach (Passover) just two weeks later. Too often, we focus only on the physical preparation for Pesach - kashering our kitchens, bringing up the Pesach dishes from the basement, running to the market for kosher for Pesach food. These preparations are important, but the holiday is so much more.

Despite the weather outside (and a history of snow during the seders), two of the other names for Pesach are here to help lift us out of our winter doldrums. The first, Chag HaAviv (the holiday of spring), connects Pesach to its place in the calendar year. It may not be spring outside in Cleveland, but in Israel, the rainy season is ending and spring planting has begun. The second name, Chag Z’man Matan Cheruteinu (the holiday of the time of our freedom), connects Pesach to the Biblical story of the Exodus from Egypt that we tell at our Seder tables.

The juxtaposition of these two themes and the arrival of the holiday Pesach on what is (hopefully) the heels of one of the worst winters in years is incredibly powerful. For the last several months, and certainly during the last few weeks, we have felt enslaved by the bitter cold and the snow. We yearn, like slaves in Egypt, for freedom from the oppression of winter as if it was one of Pharaoh's taskmasters. We are acutely feeling the need for liberation and perhaps this will make the telling of the story of the Exodus even more personal for us this and allow us to experience it like we were present.

Throughout the school, over the next two weeks, you will see signs of both Pesach and spring. I can’t predict the weather, but our students will be exploring the themes of Pesach and the signs of spring. Already, projects are going up on our walls about the metamorphosis of caterpillars to butterflies and the Ten Plagues.

In the meantime, let us say together, dayeinu with the snow already.

Shabbat Shalom,

Dr. Ari Yares

Head of School

How Will We Know?

I was at Target the other night and I noticed that at the bottom of my receipt there was a link to an online survey. Now, this particular visit to Target was not memorable in any way. There was not an exceptionally positive experience or a retail horror story to recount, but for some reason Target was interested in my opinion.

The likelihood of me completing this particular survey is pretty low and, to be completely honest, I’m not even sure where I put the receipt. I do, however, understand why Target was interested in my opinion. For each piece of data that they gather about a particular store, they can start to shape an understanding of what might be working and what might not.

By now, our parents should have received a link to our own survey. As I noted in my letter earlier this week, we are participating in a survey that is conducted by Measuring Success to help us take stock of how we are doing as a school. This is an incredibly important opportunity for us to learn more about what our parents think about school - good, bad, and ugly.

As a school, we are committed to a path of continuous improvement and getting parent feedback is an incredibly important part of that process. All of your responses are confidential and Measuring success will only provide us with aggregate data. This survey will provide us with vital data and allow us to compare how we are doing to other day schools and to how we were doing the last time Schechter participated in this survey in 2009.

This is, of course, not the only opportunity to have a voice in our school, but it is a crucial one. We are striving for 100% participation because we want to hear from each and every family in our school. Please help us create an even better school for your children.

Shabbat Shalom,

Dr. Ari Yares

Be Happy! It's Purim!

I saw this image on Facebook earlier this week and it got me thinking about happiness. Since the beginning of the month of Adar (ok technically since the beginning of the first month of Adar - see my earlier post about the complexities of the Jewish leap year), we have been talking about and trying to increase our happiness. And, it’s not as easy as the chart indicates.

In recent years, an entire school of psychology has arisen that is dedicated to happiness. Positive psychology looks at human functioning, not from a deficit model that we use to describe mental illness, but rather trying to figure out how do we live more fulfilling and meaningful lives. It’s a long way from Dr. Freud blaming your mother for all of your woes.

While the month of Adar focuses on happiness, it is the holiday of Purim that brings this into focus. Costumes and candy aside, Purim is not the Jewish version of Halloween. And it is more than just the stereotypical Jewish holiday (we were in trouble, we were saved, let’s eat as the Bible Players adroitly summarized this past weekend). Purim is the Jewish version of positive psychology.

Each of the mitzvot that we engage in over Purim are designed to increase our happiness. Mishloach manot, giving gifts of food to friends, and matanot l’evyonim, giving gifts to the poor, reflect that when we do things for others we feel better about ourselves. Listening to the megillah? Who doesn’t feel better after hearing a dramatic story with a positive ending?

And, of course, the often quoted requirement to become so drunk that you cannot distinguish between Mordechai and Haman falls into this as well. While we can debate to what level one should actually partake, we connect alcohol to celebrations and connecting with friends, and these help promote happiness.

So this weekend, take time to invest in your happiness and celebrate Purim! Enjoy the fun-filled Mishloach Manot bags that will come home today too!

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Purim Sameach,

Dr. Ari Yares

Head of School

You Are Not Alone

I have to admit. I am pretty excited about the start of the “new” Cosmos TV series hosted by Neil Degrasse Tyson. I really don’t remember the original series hosted by Carl Sagan all that well (although I’m sure that plenty of episodes were played by substitute teachers in my science classes growing up). I am intrigued by the questions asked in the series - How did life evolve? How did the universe begin? Are we alone?

It is that last question that I have been ruminating on over the last several days. As a self confessed science geek, it is one that sets my imagination afire and has probably spurred my heavy viewing diet of Star Trek, Star Wars, and Dr. Who while growing up. Right now, though, I am less concerned with the question of are we alone on a universal scale and instead have been thinking about are we alone as educators?

Coming back on Tuesday from the first ever iJed conference, I can answer you with a resounding no.

There is something refreshing and renewing about attending a national conference. iJed gathered together schools that work with both the Schechter Day School Network and Yeshiva University’s Office of School Partnerships (Gross Schechter works with both) for three days of learning, collaborating and exploring all aspects of Jewish day school education.

A major portion of the conference was focused on three learning labs: 21st Century Learning, Financial Sustainability, and Supporting Diverse Learners. Joining me at the conference were Laurie Gross-Kammer and Lisa Loeb. Each of us attended a different set of lab sessions in order to maximize the learning that we could bring back to Cleveland.

This conference was more than just sitting and listening. It was doing.

Lisa explored and tried a variety of new classroom learning tools to support 21st century learning, building bridges between Jewish studies and General studies. Laurie gathered together a group of student services staff representing schools from all of over the country to share strategies on how best to support students in a dual language environment.

Like many heads of school, I spent time learning more about financial sustainability, having conversations around building word of mouth marketing strategies (are you talking about Schechter) and strengthening our board of trustees. I met with coaches to talk about the big picture here in Cleveland, getting advice about the direction of the school.

It was great to get away and collect some new ideas and feel a bit refreshed. It’s wonderful to come home to find ways to start implementing those ideas. And it sure does feel great to know that we’re part of a much larger community.

Shabbat Shalom,

Dr. Ari Yares