Collegial relationships that make LGA stronger...

I am in Atlanta at the North American Jewish Day School Conference and enjoying my time here immensely. I have family in Atlanta so the fact that I get to spend some time with my brother and sister-in-law is an extra bonus. Morah Devorah is here with me plus a few other educators from our area. We hardly get to see each other because there are closer to 700 people here. The beauty of this conference is that it is completely cross-denominational. Jewish schools from across the spectrum are here. We all share one thing in common - educating the future leaders of the Jewish community.

The landscape in Jewish day school education is becoming so diverse. Some schools look very similar to LGA while others have a distinctly different feel because of cultural differences. Yet, we all strive for excellence, which of course is subjective.

I spent a good part of yesterday in a PEJE workshop dedicated to Development professionals. We had a session called "Speed Dating." There were close to fifty of us in this session. With a partner, we sat across from one another and had three minutes to get to know each other and our schools. We had to talk about a success and a challenge at our school. We also had to hand our partner our business card. We did this for an hour or so and I networked like a champion. Making connections and taking away some ideas that were really thought provoking to see how we could fit them into our valley community. I walked away intrigued by the creativity of the Jewish day school community. Again, some of these ideas may not be so desirable to implement in our school or community.

Throughout the conference, one major aspect is networking not only yourself but your school. Leveraging air time with important people and there were a lot there. Here's the good and exciting news...LGA is on the national scene as a school that embraces academic excellence, rigorous learning, creativity at every corner and is doing things right. We won a national award for creativity. School administrators are asking me how we are doing it. Really exciting stuff.

We are growing! I wish I could say this about every Jewish day school but it isn't happening. Demographics aren't in our favor but you know what is - our faculty and our innovative approach to learning. I appreciate these two factors even more than I did before I left.

Let's keep growing and thinking. See you soon.