You mean you don't know who iCarly is?!?

Don't worry, I am not blogging about this very popular Nickelodeon show. I am painfully aware that I know nothing about iCarly other than that it is a mega-hit in the tween world. But I do know that navigating the social scene in elementary school these days is quite different from when I was in school, both for better and for worse. I'll get back to iCarly in a moment. In 24 short hours, we will celebrate Rosh Hashanah, a time of reflection and introspection for the Jewish community. Today at LGA, I witnessed something that spoke volumes about the moral compass that my uber-sweet school seeks to instill, in both the students and the faculty.

Parts of the story were retold to me; other parts I witnessed myself. The story involves three students at LGA, one of whom is new, and a veteran educator who holds an acute sense of the importance of the social-emotional curriculum of our school. At some point during the day, these three students got into an altercation that left everyone feeling bad. The students walked into the classroom of this teacher, who immediately sensed that something was not right. She could just feel it in the air. The students were not shy about hiding their feelings about what had just happened. This teacher told the three students to stay back while the rest of the class was dismissed for lunch.

LGA teachers have packed schedules. We expect a lot from them. In addition to teaching, every teacher at LGA is committed to serious professional development that involves multiple periods of meetings. When teachers aren't on lunch duty, they are often in a team meeting discussing students. This particular teacher had an actual lunch break today, and could have easily said, "I'll deal with this later." But she knew that the issue needed to be solved immediately. This teacher sat with the three students, asked them to talk about their feelings, and more importantly, made them each take ownership for miscommunicating and/or causing hurt feelings Some were more open to that concept than others, but all began to reflect on what could be different in their relationship. The teacher thoughtfully explored with them what it meant to be in a classroom community, and more crucially, the concept of what it means to be in a new environment.

Meanwhile, I was walking around the lunch rooms shmoozing with students when I noticed that these three students were missing. I asked another student if they knew where so-and-so was? I was told they were eating lunch in the classroom. I bumped into the above-mentioned teacher in the hallway, who told me what was going on and asked if I could follow them, as she had to get ready to teach. As the faculty member explained the story to me, suddenly we turned and looked into the classroom. The three students were dancing to a pop song they all knew. There was genuine laughter, and they looked like they were best of friends. At that point, I couldn't have been prouder of everyone involved.

In the end, was it their like (or dislike) of iCarly that brought these students together? Who knows? But what I do know is that this is what a strong social-emotional curriculum looks like at its finest moment. As an educator, I maintain that using the instances like these as teachable moments is just as important as when a student grasps a mathematical concept or learns a new Hebrew word. We are teaching our children what it means to be a mensch.

Shanah Tovah u'Metukah! May you all have a sweet new year.

The intracacies of school communication...

Communicating with a school community can be like walking a tight rope. We may wobble. We may stumble. We hopefully get to the other side with the satisfaction of a job well done. The way educators approach delicate discussions is probably the single-most important facet of communication. When it is good news, corresponding with parents can be the most satisfying part of a teacher's job -- that proverbial pat on the back, so to speak, can always be a pick-me-up. Yet often parent-teacher conversations have the potential for being complicated, and fraught with emotions on all sides. Will I offend this person? What if they get upset with me? We are not always telling parents exactly what they want to hear. Teachers are sometimes confirming a suspicion that a parent hasn't quite come to terms with.

Teachers at LGA pride themselves on being receptive and open to feedback from parents. But we also hope for the same in return. The faculty does an exceptional job communicating one-on-one with parents. However, we at times have fallen short on getting the message out about what our students are doing in the classrooms on a weekly basis. Over the summer, the administration decided that this was an important topic to tackle with our faculty. During work week, faculty spent an entire session talking about and developing a plan for parent communication. Some plans are creative (e.g., a blog from the kindergarten team). Many plans are traditional by today's standards

(e.g., weekly email journals exploring topics from the week). Teams discussed how and when completed student work should go home. There were a lot of really good conversations happening during that session.

Parents at LGA have a job to do, too, and many of you already do it really well. Keep us informed when something doesn't feel right to you -- contact a teacher or an administrator. Don't let things fester. Be constructive, not just critical. Be concerned, yet optimistic. Be patient, and have realistic expectations.

Most importantly, find the right time to communicate. Arrival and dismissal are usually not the right times. While this may feel like good air time for teachers and administrators, as they aren't teaching, these times are designed for transitioning our students from one situation to the next, and our focus has to be on them. I know this can be confusing, because a faculty member may approach you during one of these times to discuss something they need to connect with you about. Please take their lead at these transition times, and understand that just because they approached you about something at that time, that may not always work.

Our faculty is always happy to meet with you at a time that makes sense. I am struck when I hear a story about a teacher who spent their free evening talking to a parent over the phone, or when I walk around the building at 5 PM and there are parent meetings going on well after teachers are contractually obligated to be here. It’s because of this dedication, on both the parents’ and teachers’ parts, that our school is the special place it is.