August 10, 2017, 18 Av 5777  
Reminders for the week:
Complete your Summer eMailer Registration and Forms by tomorrow Aug. 11. 
Sign up for Family Conferences by Aug. 15
Message from the Head of School
As a school, we encourage risk-taking. It is hard to grow if we don't take risks. When toddlers take a first step they are taking a risk, The first time a child gets dropped off at school, they feel that they are taking a risk. Risk taking is so important to growth and learning that it is even articulated in our school's mission. According to the work of Carol Dweck PhD, author of the book Mindset, students who are able to appreciate their own mistakes as opportunities to grow, rather than as representations of flaws of a perfectionist self-image, show more resilience and end up being more successful students in the long term. The authors of Pirkei Avot had similar sentiments when they taught: If there is no wisdom, there is no fear; if there is no fear, there is no wisdom.

As times and best practices have evolved, so have schools and their systems. With the implementation of each new system there is inherent risk as well. After seeking for the past several years to make our annual back to school registration more user-friendly, we decided to attempt to stretch our current systems. And while we did experience some successes, we also have had some issues. Like our expectations for our students, we do our best to learn from our mistakes, and improve our processes for the future.

I appreciate everyone's patience and understanding as we grow and look forward to reaping great benefits from these challenges in the future. For now, please make sure to complete the registration process (and print out the forms that still need to be printed before hitting the submit button) by tomorrow (August 11th)- and I promise we will do our best to make next year's registration process even easier! 

Shabbat Shalom -Zvi
  
Staffing!
An exciting result of our expansion as a school is that we are able to hire new professionals to join our team and offer new opportunities to our returning teachers.

In the coming year, both Yael Ross and Tom Kerem have joined our first grade team, Lee Wiener has joined our middle school Hebrew team and Chanda Townsend has joined our fourth grade team.

We also offer a warm welcome to our new teachers: Millie Greenberg - Gan Rimon, Sagit Kirson  - Gan Geffen, Vered Zimmerman - Kitah Alef Tamar, Maria Cammisa - Middle School Science and Nate Witherbee - Modern Band. Also joining our staff as long term substitutes during the first quarter are Grace Lee - Middle School Language Arts (for Jenessa Scwartz) and Lizi Sand - Middle School Hebrew (for Lee Weiner).
Summer eMailer
On Friday, each family was sent the Summer eMailer  from Gradelink with your family's login information.  Please login to Gradelink and complete your student(s) registration and forms by tomorrow, August 11th. 
 

Family Conferences
Thu. Aug. 17th &  Fri. Aug. 18th
This is an opportunity for you, your child, and your child's teachers to get to know each other and start to build a strong relationship.  Sign-ups are now available for all families. We encourage children in all grades to accompany their parents to their conferences. (There is no childcare available on these days.)
All conferences must be scheduled by 
Wed., Aug.15th at noon.  Any questions? Please contact Diana.

Calendar and Upcoming Events
      
Aug. 15
Oakland A's Jewish Heritage Night, 7:05pm
Aug. 17-18
Family Conferences
Aug. 20
Welcome Back-To-School Breakfast at Oak Meadow Park/Vasona, 10:30am
Aug. 22 First Day of School 

CALENDAR


A's Jewish Heritage Night Out with Yavneh
Tuesday, August 15, 7:05pm
Limited tickets available  
$35 each in the lower box section. 
Get your tickets now! 

yellow_leaves_in_park.jpg
Welcome Back-To-School Breakfast at Oak Meadow Park
Sunday, August 20, 10:30am-1:30pm
Pancakes will be provided. Bring your own drinks, coffee, and vegetarian breakfast picnics. The picnic will be held at Oak Meadow Park, Picnic Area #1 and #2. Please RSVP by August 13th.
 
Alumni Summer Celebration
Yavneh alumni and their families enjoyed a BBQ and pool party together at the Annual Alumni Summer Celebration this past Sunday.  More photos

Summer Faculty Learning
Melody Randel:
This summer I had the good fortune to return to the Mechon Hadar Jewish Educators Institute in Manhattan for a second summer of learning. Having attended last summer as part of a six member Yavneh team, I was inspired to return, this time with four Yavneh colleagues, for various reasons. Learning with colleagues is such a powerful way to continue the summer learning into a new school year at Yavneh. We now can boast a total of ten Yavneh faculty who have studied at Mechon Hadar!  Read more...

Zack Sleep: 
We were incredibly fortunate to be invited to the NEI's annual professional development conference for Jewish educators hosted at Philadelphia's National Museum for Jewish-American History. The conference was led by some of the world's most esteemed scholars and educators of Jewish-American history, including doctors Jonathan Sarna, Jonathan Krasner and Benjamin Jacobs. Their focus was not only to instill an appreciation for the vast contributions of Jews here in the United States, but to give teachers the practical tools to pass on this history to "those that will carry it on long after we are gone."

After only three short days, we were imbued with a new sense of responsibility to our students. Our task is to remind our learners that they too are part of this rich tapestry of Jewish-American life. This, we have got to teach them how to critically examine archival texts, debate decisions of consequence, and render their own artistic interpretations of historical themes, all in the way of becoming active and inquisitive historians. 

We are so thrilled to begin this journey into the past with our students. If we succeed, they will know that history is not only theirs to learn, it is theirs to create. 

Support Yavneh
AmazonSmile is an easy way for your family to support Yavneh Day School.  When you shop through Amazon Smile, Amazon will donate a portion (0.5%) of the purchase price to our school.
 
Thank you to the following for their recent tribute donation: 

Sami Rubnitz, in honor of Noa Talmor's Bat Mitzvah

In the Community
APJCC Fall Program Guide Click here