By COLlive staff
If many past professional conferences have concentrated on the idea of “What” good chinuch is, this year’s Kinusim will deal equally with the question of “How” we can assure quality.
The Kinusim, both the mechanchim and mechanchos will feature a series of presentations of the Danielson Framework which will empower principals and teachers to better analyze what they are teaching and instilling in their students and enable them to monitor and assess their progress.
Parents will say that they want their school to be a safe and encouraging learning environment. They want the quality of the teaching to be excellent and want their children to enjoy learning. But most schools have the same goals. They also want children to learn to love the learning process, so where does it too often break down?
What do our teachers want? They also want to be able to teach all their students at an optimal level and to be to instill love for learning along with Yiras Shamayim. What then needs to be done to give them the tools they need to do what they want to do?
“This is a major over simplification of course. Students are human beings with different abilities, talents and learning styles,” said Rabbi Nochem Kaplan, director of the Merkos Chinuch Office and Kinus coordinator.
“They come from diverse backgrounds. They are emotional and social people, each with their own needs and wants. We can’t just put a few dozen children together in a room with a teacher and expect outstanding results.”
Educators need to understand how the learning process will affect each child; how to assess and measure his/her success and how to remediate in a meaningful way. In other words we need to really know what we’re doing for and to every child every step of the way. That means not only to their academic studies but to their development as committed Jews, Kaplan added.
This is where the Danielson Framework, developed by Charlotte Danielson, an internationally-recognized expert in the area of teacher effectiveness and evaluation, comes in.
The idea is that the educators themselves need to be able to fully understand the educational philosophy and process within a school, in order to meaningfully analyze how learning takes place.
The Framework divides the teaching process into 22 components which are clustered into four domains of teaching responsibility: Planning and Preparation, Classroom Environment, Instruction and Professional Responsibilities. It analyzes and organizes the teaching process in such a way that both teacher and supervisor can better know what is being learned and how to properly assess it.
All this helps a school and each teacher build upon what is being done in his/her classroom; it gives him fundamental ability to know what is accruing at every step and the to the tools through which to manage progress adjust as necessary and thus assure success.
Dr. Joseph D. Cantara, coordinator of professional development at Brienza Academic Advantage and Rabbi Yoseph Rosenblum, principal of Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh PA have been working cooperatively to develop a yeshiva oriented, professional program.
Rabbi Rosenblum will demonstrate the Framework’s application to limudei kodesh subjects; Chumash, and Gemara. Together they will present the theory and practice, which will be followed during the school year by in-school workshops, under the Federal school Title programs.
The Women’s conference will be held on Monday and Tuesday, 12 – 13 Tammuz, July 2nd and 3rd at the DOLCE Conference center in Norwalk, Ct and the men’s will be held on the 26th and 27th of Tammuz, July 16th-17th.
Registration at chinuchoffice.org
The supply of qualified teachers is dwindling. Our best are either going on shlichus or into other professions. Teaching pays very little. Our schools can’t afford more. However, the community has B”H grown and there are more “baleibatim” who are in business and are ka”h successful. Charity begins at home. Perhaps something can be done to increase the salaries of our teachers so that they don’t have to become therapists, or pursue other careers and we can keep the very best to educate our children in our community. We need to invest in the future of Crown Heights.
What you are saying is one component. NOT the only one.
A person that qualifies as a teacher will naturally have an inclination towards teaching and therefore care about the students.
Someone who “just got the job” due to various other reasons will not. Our school system should be ashamed of itself for letting some of the people it does teach.
Through the years, our mechanchim/os have been introduced to so many theories, strategies, methodologies. Kol Hakavod to all those who helped them gain new understandings about how children learn. The bigger issue that seems to be neglected is what we are helping the children learn. Are the children really relating to the Torah that they being taught? Do they really see how Torah is the ultimate guide for living? Do the children know how to seek insight and guidance about leadership and relationships and effective communication from the stories in the Torah? Do they really know how to integrate the… Read more »
every year some new theory. it’s rediculous already. we need to continuously work on improving ourselves and mentoring younger teachers with what we already have.plus we need to reasess if some,not many but some,should stay in the field.
i went through the yeshiva system and i think most kids dont care about how professional the teachers are they care if the teachers care about the kids they are teaching and have a interest in teaching and not teaching because they could get shlichus or any other job
the yellow-green-blue just need to be fine-tuned in our schools. the Red one needs to be completely taught.
Teachers did not take responsiblity for what they did and didnt do, except for the few outstanding ones. Whether one is an outstanding teacher, or just a teacher, there is professional responsibility and that is what the children feel. #7 has a great point, thankyou
can the issue of ADD kids be spoken about?
enthusiasm; passion; a love of the material? Where are those qualities?….putting things into little boxes and rigid structures is not what teaching and learning is about. Where is the room for spontaneous synthesis of new ideas? Who is throwing out “thought grenades”?
Things are sliding backwards because the emphasis is on measuring and structuring instead of creativity and spontaneity, with joy and enthusiasm.
you dont need to be qualified to be a teacher, you need to care about the students!
But we’re still the main ingredient – a teacher needs to LOVE teaching and LOVE his/her students. Otherwise, all the most wonderful analysis in the world will be useless. Let’s get teachers in the classroom who are real teachers who love their work. That will go a long way….
Can there be somthing setup in our schools for kids with ADD? i have two kids like this and its been very hard to find them the right school.
our educational system needs all the help it can get
Thank you rabbi kaplan for all your hard work!
I have a fantastic idea to help.
Why not hire teachers that are qualified as opposed to just hiring people because they are 1) family 2) can (just about) read hebrew 3) really need a job/something to do.
I think those suggestions will greatly improve our school.
I am saddened when people told me (when I was looking for a job) to go and teach. I wouldn’t want someone with no qualifications and training (like myself) teaching my kids, why would they want me to teach theirs!!!