Pardes is a pretty great place!

There is a trend in the Jewish world to talk about how supplemental schools, religious schools, are broken and don't work. I recently commented that I thought we had a good supplemental school and someone asked me to share why. Here is what I shared with them. When I went back and reread what I wrote, which is really just a few examples of things Pardes does well, I realized we don't have a good school, we have a great supplemental school. I hope you are as proud of our community as I am.

It is surprisingly hard to describe in a succinct paragraph what makes my school a good school. I am also the type of person who always is looking at what needs improvement, and of course there is always plenty to improve, but here is my attempt.

I believe that the students at my school come away from their experiences with a connection to their Jewish identity and a feeling of being a member, a valued member of our Jewish community. Here are some things which I think we do well:

1)   We have excellent retention rates, something like 75%-85% of our students continue from 7^th – 8^th grade and about 90%-95% continue from 10^th -12^th grade. We are graduating 17 seniors in two weeks (out of a school of 245 students.) These students are involved and active in so many parts of the synagogue.

2)   We have 20 madrichim, teenage assistants working in our school. This are teenagers who request to continue in the classroom. We have this large of a number even with our requirement that they must continue their own Jewish education through our high school classes to be a role model.

3)   By and large kids are not complaining about being there, in fact on Tuesdays we have to block the doors in the lobby, otherwise the students would be in there classrooms 20-30 minutes before class because they are excited to see their teachers and to be there.

4)   Our classes are examples of a blend of active, creative and experiential learning. Our teachers strive to employ good teaching strategies. Rarely do you see students sitting in desks listening to a teacher talk, or worse waiting for each student to read the next line of Hebrew.

5)   We connect our youth groups, summer camps, travel experiences, Shabbat services, and holidays into our school. The name of the school is Pardes, The Meyer Kranzberg Center for Jewish Living and Learning. We strive to live up to the living and learning part of the name.

6)   We employ opportunities for students to showcase real learning in public settings.

7)   Teachers are encouraged to learn and grow. As well as having professional development workshops throughout the year, a group of motivated teachers participate in a Community of Practice where we choose a topic each year to study. This past year we focused on differentiated learning and I think next year we are going to tackle 21^st century learning.

      So is it a perfect model? No. Are there plenty of areas I am always trying to improve, yes. Do I wish it was not Sunday morning and after school, certainly. But given these constraints, I believe we are providing these students a Jewish education and more importantly a Jewish identity and strong connection to our community.