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For Your Calendar
Monday, June 13
No Classes
Shavuot
Tuesday, June 14
Middle school trip to Lake Compounce
Wednesday, June 15
9:10 am
8th Grade Recognition Ceremony
Thursday, June 16
Last day of school
noon dismissal
8th Grade Graduation
7:00 pm
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Day School offers our heartfelt condolences to...
The family of
David T. Chase, who passed away this June 1, 2016. Mr. Chase
's career spanned many different industries including commercial real estate, construction, banking, manufacturing,
telecommunications, and hotels. His
tireless philanthropic work spanned across many different religious, medical, and societal causes. He was one of the co-founders of the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC.
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Community Events
5:15 pm
Emanuel Synagogue
Shabbat Under the Stars
Featuring a "Pre-neg", a musical shabbat service, and BBQ dinner.
Click here for more information and to RSVP.
Sunday, June 19
Swim-a-thon
Sunday, August 28
9:00 am - noon
West Hartford Bike or Walk the Loop!
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Shabbat Shalom
Parashat Bamidbar
Candlelighting 8:07 pm |
June 10, 2016
4 Sivan 5776
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Reminder: No School on Monday, June 13.
Chag Sameach - Happy Shavuot!
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A Message from Andrea |
 45 years! That's an amazing accomplishment, almost half a century. During that time Schechter has gone through many iterations - from dream to founding, to adding an Early Childhood program, to a new building, to a new vision in the 21st century.
Last year we developed a strategic plan for Schechter with three primary goals:
- Develop a leading and innovative institution of learning
- Raise the profile of Schechter in the community and increase enrollment
- Ensure a viable and sustainable financial future for Schechter
This past year was an incredible success - we grew our enrollment and with a generous gift we have been working diligently on our language arts program; work in both the Jewish studies and Hebrew departments has been ongoing and we are a partner school with Facing History and Ourselves. Our MakerSpace is up and running and our after school enrichment has been plentiful and well attended. In competitions our students have shone; they have lit up the stage and we have increased our visibility in the press tremendously. We have increased the wifi--
capacity in our building several fold; our admissions application has gone online; we will be unveiling our new website and logo refresh by the beginning of the school year; we hit new heights in our fundraising and have taken part in reinvigorating the support and passion for Jewish day school education in the Jewish Hartford community.
As we move into next year we will be rolling out a new Hebrew program in the Middle School, with a single Hebrew block, and three simultaneous classes so that students are in a class that best suits their learning needs. With the generous support of the Jewish Community Foundation we will be piloting a one-to-one technology program for 5th-8th grades, in which each of those students will be provided with a Chromebook; grades K-4 will have access to an iPad cart for use in the classrooms. (More details will follow.) Additionally, we are embarking on the deep work of school climate as a full faculty and staff, and will be trained in August in Restorative Practices. It is so important to take stock of all these wonderful developments even as we forge forward with much work to do.
My commitment to developing a leading and innovative institution comes second to none. And I want to speak about what that means. It means that the vision for Schechter is to be guided by educational research, sociological developments both in the United States and the Jewish community, and extensive conversations with other leaders in the field and within our community. Over the last two decades our understanding of learning and teaching has grown incredibly. Today good education looks completely different than it did even a decade ago - what neuroscience has shown us is transformative - we have a deeper and clearer understanding of what it means to learn, how fundamental social and emotional health is to that learning, the pedagogy that it takes to create effective learning environments, the way data must be used to support instruction, the impact of adult bias on students, and the high level of teacher self-awareness and reflection now necessary to teach effectively.
In our world, we have moved away from the currency of facts to the currency of thought; from knowledge to wisdom, from performance to demonstration of learning, to classrooms that encourage curiosity and meaning making and where the answer to the question "who is doing the intellectual work?" is, "the students." As a matter of fact, nothing guides my thinking about every classroom and every presentation more than that simple question.
In the coming years we will see this evolution and transformation take place. I want to paint a picture for you for what learning at Schechter will be in the coming years.
Schechter students will learn to take full ownership for their own learning - when you walk into a classroom you will see students engaged in a variety of learning activities around the room, some independently, some in small groups, some with the teacher. In fact it won't be immediately obvious where the teacher is, until you spot him or her sitting at a table or on the floor with a student working together to articulate goals, and working toward meeting them. If you were to enter and ask a student what she is working on you will hear her speak clearly about the lesson and how she is applying it to her writing. She will show you a specific part in her writing that she is working to develop; she will be able to describe to you not only the assignment, but her specific goals in the assignment. You will watch as she uses a variety of tools to work independently, move to a peer for shared thoughts, and at times to confer with the teacher for further coaching. You will hear the teachers asking students open-ended questions, whose answers they do not know. You may observe a class conversation about math - true math discourse, where conceptual understanding is at the core of the instruction, where students access the concept through a variety of ways, where each student's individual needs are met through small group instruction. You will see students engaged in academic discourse about reading, writing, text, language, art, music, and health. You will also see an environment that honors students and their learning. You will see safe and rich learning environments, where students are clear about the values that we hold dear, developing the tools to manage conflict in a controlled manner, a school culture that shifts from a focus on rules broken to harms done and the process of reparation.
You will observe a school and faculty committed to life-long learning, non-stop professional development where content knowledge is strong, pedagogic practice is sophisticated, and that mindset and school climate is explicitly a part of every discussion.
You will see that professional boundaries are clearer, a renewed commitment to every learner in our school, so that each has the opportunity to reach their potential and beyond all the while upholding our core values of WISDOM, COMMUNITY and GOOD HEART.
Additionally, communication between school and home will be more open and more transparent, with the ultimate goal of building a community that appreciates direct, kind and honest communication.
Our rich curriculum is an incredible asset - second language acquisition of Hebrew and the critical text analysis and thinking skills developed in the study of Torah give our students the opportunity to stretch their learning and thinking, and raises the bar on every other content area. We have to change the conversation: our curriculum doesn't take away from our students; rather, it enriches them by helping them develop cultural competencies, the ability to toggle back and forth between languages, look at ancient texts in their primary languages, and think across time as they interpret and re-interpret not only our Jewish tradition, but every text which they encounter along the way.
Schechter has tremendous assets and growing support, and we are ready to take on the challenge of our next iteration. Change is both exciting and scary; just as we prepare our students to be bold and resilient, we too must be bold and resilient, holding steady in the face of our own evolution and development.
I look forward to our continued partnership as we move toward achieving our vision for Schechter.
Shabbat Shalom and have a wonderful and restful summer,
Andrea
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Last ReLiSH of the School Year |
This morning was the last ReLiSH of the school year. It was a morning of celebration and saying good-bye.
Students Victoria Boustani (7th grade), Talia Leshem (4th grade), and  Sydney Huttner (3rd grade) were given awards and plaques for their participation the
eesmarts
essay contest. Statistics professor and Schechter parent Ofer Harel presented seventh grade students Yonah Goldberg, Aaron Rotter, and Russell van der Hulst and sixth grade students Tamar Chameides, Brady Dulitsky, and Eva Gordon with awards for their participation in a statistics poster contest run by University of Connecticut.
Eighth grader and ReLiSH caboose Josh Chachques, closed the program with a speech he delivered last evening at the Schechter Annual Meeting. He then invited his classmates, as well as their first grade reading buddies to come up for one last breath to welcome in Shabbat.
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8th Grade Students Visit Birken Manufacturing
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 Last Thursday, the eighth
grade visited Birken Manufacturing in Bloomfield, CT. Birken specializes in "complex aerospace jet engine components," which provide a relevant, real-world application to the engineering unit the eighth graders just completed. Students had an opportunity to see many of the high-precision machines Birken uses to make the jet engine parts, which are precise to within a thousandth of an inch, and even much smaller in some cases! The students learned about different types of materials and techniques used, including how Birken minimizes its waste and environmental impact.
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Rosenberg Orthodontics Celebrates Reading Challenge with Pizza Party |
On Monday, students in third, fourth and fifth grades celebrated their success in the Rosenberg Orthodontics reading challenge with a pizza party sponsored by Dr. Barry and Carol Rosenberg, parents of three Schechter graduates. The Rosenbergs spoke to the students about the importance of reading and choosing good books. Lilian Ehrlich stated, "We are privileged to have many books to choose from and there are many children who don't own any books." The students followed up the party with thank you notes that included something about a book they enjoyed. Cooper Govoni-Raich shared, "My favorite book during this challenge was Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary." She also thanked the couple for providing water to keep the students hydrated! The third and fourth graders look forward to the challenge again next year and the fifth graders enjoyed having met this challenge for the last three years.
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5th Grade Torah Readers |
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The last group of fifth grade students read Torah at services this past week. Using their handmade yads, they were joined by parents and grandparents for this Schechter ritual. Mazel tov to
Matthew Patchen,
Tsedkella Malk,
Sal Katz,
Talia Gordon-
Wexler,
Lilian Ehrlich, and
Alyssa Temkin.
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2nd Grade Balancing Act |
This past week, students in second grade performed a science experiment in order to demonstrate the property of balance. Using a potato, a fork, and a pencil they hypothesized on whether the potato would stay on the table or fall off while only the tip of the pencil is touching the edge of the table.
Most of their hypothesis were that the potato would drop. The students spoke about Isaac Newton, who discovered gravity when an apple fell on his head and then about what happens when you let something drop out of your hands. Then with the potato, fork, and pencil they showed that once you have as much weight on one side of the center of gravity as on the other, the object will not fall. It was a big surprise for everyone when they actually saw the potato not move.
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Fifth Grade Civil War Re-enactment |
On Tuesday, the organization Historic New England sent two members to teach the  students about two aspects of the Civil War: Medical issues and toys.The students met Josiah (the injured mannequin), learned how the practice of medicine in the 1860s did a lot of harm to injured soldiers, and learned how to make a stretcher to transport the injured. Things lightened up for the second half of the presentation when the students got the opportunity to play with many toys that children played with during the Civil War era. They had a great time playing with the challenging toys. One student commented, "If I had these toys, I'd play with them all the time instead of playing video games!"
 
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Noah Webster Distributes Dictionaries to 3rd Grade Students |
On Friday afternoon, the third graders had a chance to "meet" Noah Webster and some of his Rotarian friends. Dana Gordon brought them to the class as part of the Rotary's Dictionary Project that was established in 1992. Every third grader across the country is given a dictionary by the Rotary club. Since Noah Webster lived in Connecticut, students in West Hartford are treated to a unique connection; one of Webster's descendants comes to the school and explains to the students what life was like back in Webster's time. The members of the Rotary explain the goals of the organization and how far reaching the Rotary is. Mr. Gordon states that with modern technology, it is good to have a book in your hand. Gordon has been distributing dictionaries for eleven years and to date has given out over 9,000 dictionaries to West Hartford third graders. The Dictionary Project decided that the third grade is the right time to receive a dictionary since you learn to read in first and second grade but in third grade you are now ready to learn.
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1st Grade Visits Mystic Aquarium |
Last week, the first grade went on their annual trip to Mystic Aquarium. The children were so excited to see many animals that they have been learning about: seahorses, sharks, dolphins, clown fish, sting rays, and many more. One of the highlights of the trip was the sea lion show. It was so amazing to watch those great beasts perform many tricks. The students saw firsthand why it is necessary to be aware of keeping our oceans clean to protect the fish and mammals who live there.
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2nd Grade Students Study Rocks and Minerals at Nature's Art |
As a culmination of their unit of study on rocks and minerals, second
grade students visited
Nature
's
Art
in Monteville, CT. Each student was able
to dig for rocks in a mine and were excited to be able to take their
findings home with them.
The students appreciated using the microscopes from the science lab to assist them in studying a great quantity of rocks and minerals.
As an added attraction, the students saw a spectacular display of huge dinosaur replicas in the park. This was a great tie-in with their previous study of dinosaurs.
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Author Speaks to Fifth Grade |
This past week, the fifth grade class welcomed Dawn Metcalf, a Connecticut author of Young Adult books. She spoke to the students about writing, having a voice, and being unique. Metcalf told the students about how she became an author at age eleven and the secrets to her getting published. Many of the students are anxious to read her fantasy books!
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Schechter 8th Grade Graduation |
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Susan Kurtis, Editor
Lara Lakenbach and Audrey Sobel, Asst. Editors
Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Hartford |
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