Biographical Info

Areas We Address

A day school would engage us if they are looking to develop or enhance…

The quality of teacher learning, student learning, and professional development. Our curriculum has five main strands that we see as woven together (think of a multi-strand challah!) and rooted in our core principles of Jewish professional development for educational leaders.

• Teaching and learning
• Jewish learning
• Relational learning
• Educators as designers
• Educational leadership

Expected Outcomes

Depending on the services selected, a school could expect to accomplish from among these a selection of the following outcomes:

• Instructional/pedagogical leader(s) will develop expertise in the theory and practice of inquiry-based, learner centered, Jewish text rich, relationally rooted professional development for their faculty/staff.
• The nature of professional development will change. It will shift from a single session, potpourri, bring-in-an-expert approach, to a multi-session, locally led, content rich program of study that encourages close observation, invites multiple perspectives, and leads to action to improve the quality of teaching and learning in the building. When schools send a team (either in one cohort, or in successive cohorts), they also build capacity to make deep change to the culture of the school.

Key Activities

We help schools achieve their goals by implementing the following:

Helping their leaders build capacity as pedagogical leaders. As they become more skilled, more confident in their ability to lead deep professional development, the teachers will become more skilled and confident in child-centered, inquiry-based teaching. Some MTEI participants choose to include interactive Jewish text study in their faculty meetings. Others may initiative Japanese Lesson study, peer observation processes, or advanced training for mentors. We have seen school leaders lead their entire faculty in communication training using non-violent communication processes. Other school leaders have led participatory action research processes (such as Group Level Assessment and Future Creating Workshops) that to help create school wide change.

Setting Expectations

To ensure the impact of our support, we expect schools to be open to new professional learning initiatives that MTEI participants bring back to the school. This may include creating new opportunities for MTEI participants to facilitate professional development at the school, finding additional time in the school day/year for professional learning to occur. In addition we expect schools to provide material and professional support for MTEI participants to travel to and from Skokie six times over two years, to provide for coverage/substitutes while participants are away from school, etc.

To ensure the impact of our support, we expect administrators to be open to MTEI participants’ new learning, and help create opportunities for MTEI participants to do the required professional development practices with their teachers. This requires cultivating a culture of innovation and risk-taking that allows experimentation, trial and error, learning from mistakes. This may require creating new time slots for faculty/staff professional learning, compensating faculty for professional learning.

To ensure the impact of our support, we expect classroom teachers to participate in the professional development sessions that MTEI participants bring back to the schools, to offer honest feedback, and to share in the collaborative learning.