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Preschool Music and Rhythm!

Join us for a musical morning designed specifically for 3 – 5 year olds. We’ll create a musical craft, enjoy a drumming circle with our amazing music teacher, Mike Murdock, and more! It’s a wonderful way to learn about JCDSRI while enjoying a music-filled morning. All are welcome!

Sunday, February 4, 2018
10:30am – 11:30am
RSVP requested but not required: nstein@JCDSRI.com

Introducing TikkunXDesign

What is TikkunXDesign? TikkunXDesign explores the interplay between Jewish values, the 21st Century skills of Design Thinking, and the subjects of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math). The concept of tikkun olam stems from the Jewish obligation that we engage in “repairing the world.” We know that despite the challenges before us, we have the resources, support, desire, and duty to work on making the world a better place.

Our goal is that the design projects we do through TikkunXDesign be purpose driven and reflect the values of our school. While tinkering is always fun, we don’t want to teach our students to simply create more “stuff” to be put in the world. That’s why we emphasize “process” at JCDSRI — particularly the skills of design thinking — which focus on building our capacities and capabilities to solve real-world problems.

This unique program, dubbed TikkunXDesign, plays a vital role in our students’ learning and will continue to shape our school’s culture as we welcome Tiferet Rose, who joined our faculty this year to direct and expand our TikkunXDesign program.

Tiferet says she is honored to be the new TikkunXDesign (Design Lab) teacher, to be working with an amazing staff, as well as to be learning with – and from – such wonderful, curious children! Tiferet has a MS in Science Education and an MPS in Environmental Interpretation, has experience in both formal and informal education, is excited to expand her knowledge base and experience into teaching Design Thinking.

 

Emphasizing process over product: This fall, TikkunXDesign classes will focus on developing the five healthy mindsets of Design Thinking: Optimistic, Collaborative, Empathetic, Visceral, and Experimental. Each grade – PreK through 5th – will work on one major project throughout the year, delving deeply into our challenge, learning as much as we can about it, and then generating ideas, experimenting and prototyping possible solutions.

So far we are off to a wonderful start!

Creating a Loving Community of Learners

A few weeks ago, I awoke to find my inbox overflowing with emails from colleagues around the country. They were all sharing a letter, written by John Allman, the Head of Trinity School in NYC, to his families. What struck me about his letter – and the subsequent article about him in The New York Times – was not his fierce critique of cultural norms (including a troublesome focus on consumerism, an increasing sense of entitlement, and a weakening of social connections) – but his reliance on Jewish values and vocabulary in his search for a solution.

Echoing the teachings of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (a British philosopher and theologian), who in turn uses the language of generations of Jewish scholars and students, Allman described the kind of school community he seeks to build — one which sounds remarkably like the one we have at the Jewish Community Day School of RI (JCDSRI). Rejecting a transactional model in which priority is given to the exchange of fees for “educational skills and credentials,” he longs to build covenantal relationships in which “we educate our students so that they leave us with a commitment not just to advance their own educational interests, but also serve the common good and to give generously to others for the rest of their lives.”

Allman acknowledges that his vision of a “covenantal relationship” is a uniquely Jewish one. Its origins are found in the relationship between God and Israel – one that is built on a sense of obligation, interdependence, and loyalty. As Allman suggests – and we know to be true at JCDSRI – this model can serve as a paradigm for human relationships in which respect, mutuality, and compassion are foundational.

Allman’s letter – and the resulting dialogue – highlights the value of Jewish education and its capacity to inspire us to be more ethical, more empathic, and more committed to our communities. I personally feel blessed to be leading an exceptional organization in which covenantal relationships are a natural outgrowth of our school’s identity. Unlike Allman, we don’t need to search for external models for how to create a loving community; at JCDSRI we have – in Rabbi Sacks words – “a shared destiny and an acceptance of responsibility to and for one another . . . What matters is that we build something none of us could make alone.”

As JCDSRI prepares to celebrate its 40th anniversary next year, I feel grateful for all those who have helped in constructing and maintaining this exceptional community. May we continue to find value in Jewish education – in all its forms – in the years to come.

Purposeful Play at JCDSRI

Purposeful Play is a new 7-week program of open exploration through our senses with music, art and play!

Join us for Purposeful Play with Ruth Horton, an early childhood educator with over 30 years of experience working with children and families.

Each class is a unique experience so children and caregivers can attend one or all seven.

Cost is $15 per class or you can sign up for all seven for a discounted price of $90.

Classes are Wednesdays from 10:00 – 11:00 am at the Jewish Community Day School of Rhode Island.

Classes run from November 1 through December 20 (no class the week of Thanksgiving -Nov. 22)

To register or for more information, contact Naomi at (401) 751-2470 or email here.

Reflections for Rosh Hashanah

Dear Friends,

The sound of the shofar – the ram’s horn – being blown by dozens of school-aged children wakes me from my early morning haze. Its blast reminds me that teshuvah – turning, return, repentance – brings with it a sense of heightened awareness and responsibility. And with it gratitude that I engage in this sacred process with my students as my guides.

I believe in the transformative power of Jewish education.

Its power derives from generations finding meaning through storytelling and action, a commitment to justice combined with mercy, and a recognition that tradition is sustainable only when it accepts innovation.

Jewish education empowers us to respond to the world as it is with a vision for what it might become.

I believe that Jewish education has the capacity to inspire us to become more ethical, more empathic, more committed to justice and compassion. Like the blast of the shofar, it awakens us, propelling us to honor the old while embracing the new.

I write this as we continue to watch hurricanes turn the lives of millions upside down, while the tensions from Charlottesville and elsewhere remain a fresh memory, and as politics in the U.S. and around the world continue to make many feel more vulnerable, more confused, and less connected.

Yet I remember that the rabbis tell us that it is by the breath of children God sustains the world. I believe that it is indeed in the next generation that my hope is rekindled.

And, as we welcome the start of a new school year at the Jewish Community Day School of RI during the same time that Jews in Rhode Island and around the world celebrate Rosh Hashanah, I am filled with the faith that one derives from new beginnings and from the potential of an exceptional community of children, their families, and of staff, faculty and supporters – all of whom make our holy work possible.

May this year of learning together empower our children – and us – to bring to the world more light, more compassion, and more justice.

Shanah Tovah Umetukah – a happy and sweet New Year.

Andrea Katzman, Head of School

Education for the Future

Read about our innovative curriculum in the latest edition of East Side Monthly magazine. We are proud to be highlighted in the September issue for our Design Lab as well as our unique partnership with Brown/RISD KinderSTEAM. In fact, “we are the only school on the East Side with {a Design Lab} completely dedicated to elementary school students.” Read more about Design Thinking and our focus on 21st century skills here.

 

Welcome back to school!

School is open! JCDSRI teachers and administrators happily welcomed back students this week. After a busy summer of facility upgrades and renovations, it was wonderful to hear children’s voices and see smiling faces back in school. Students arrived to find a newly expanded music room, design lab, learning center and a new outdoor sitting area featuring a free lending library.

We expressed our excitement with messages on our “Happiness Wall” in the lobby. Everyone in our community was asked to add a message to the wall expressing a happy moment from the first week of school. Here are a few:

My happy moment was …
“…reading in kindergarten”
“…the first day of school party”
“…when I saw Ms. Silva”
“…playing on the maze on the blacktop”
“…doing my rest time work”
“This school is so nice and this week I feel so nice about this school” (from a new student)

Opening day ended with our annual back to school block party – a fun celebration to start the year. Parent volunteers arranged games, face painting, snacks, and a visit from the ice cream truck. Children also enjoyed getting soaked in the famous home-made dunk tank.

The tone has been set for a joyful, connected and active year ahead!

                   

Children of Abraham

We believe that all people are born B’tzelem Elohim or in the image of God.  We are proud to be Jewish, but we don’t believe that people that are different than us are threatening. In order to build relationships with people that are different than us, we have built a long-term partnership with the Islamic School of Rhode Island. We are especially proud of this friendship and that our values are expressed in what we do, not only in what we say. Please watch this video to learn more about it!

Friendship between the Children of Abraham from Jewish Community Day School RI on Vimeo.

Learn about the powerful friendship between the Jewish Community Day School of Rhode Island and the Islamic School of Rhode Island.

 

KinderSTEAM with Brown Engineering

Who We Are

Sara and I are both seniors studying mechanical engineering at Brown University, and we are interested in classroom design and placemaking as it relates to social and emotional learning. I worked as an assistant teacher in a preschool for several years in my hometown of Middletown, NJ. While at school, I’ve taught a theater class for 4th and 5th graders through the Brown After-school Elementary Mentoring (BEAM) program and co-lead a Design for America team investigating design thinking education in schools. Sara previously completed a project where she and her classmates custom built furniture for a 2nd grade classroom.

Project Overview

Our project is part of our capstone design course at Brown. We originally started as a part of a larger group, the purpose of which was to develop a line of children’s furniture to encourage imaginative play. Throughout our research and ideation process, Sara and I became more interested in social and emotional learning and mindfulness in classroom spaces. We eventually formed our own subgroup to explore those ideas, while the rest of the group has continued to develop their play furniture idea.

The two directions we are most interested in pursuing are designing spaces for mindfulness/reflection and exploring ways to promote feelings-sharing and healthy communication through physical objects and furniture. We have been exploring the former with the help of the JCDS Pre-K class, who have shared insights on their own classroom Quiet House with us and helped us develop our frame prototypes.

 

Workshop with Pre-K

We have had a great time developing our Quiet House ideas with Laurie’s Pre-K class! During circle time, we asked the students to tell us about their own Quiet House, which former students helped Peter build and decorate. The students explained to us that the Quiet House was a place they went when they wanted to calm down and especially enjoyed the stuffed animal snake, books, and decorative lights. We showed the students four different prototypes we designed and built out of cardboard using our laser cutter at the Brown Design Workshop. Then, each student decorated one of the prototypes using pipe cleaners, glitter, fabric, markers, ribbon, and other materials. We were really impressed with their creativity and ideas for the spaces. They had some great suggestions for ways to make the houses feel cozier, like by adding fabric to the outside or pillows and rugs on the inside. They also used stickers to show us where they thought that lights, windows, and doors should be. One student used popsicle sticks to model a front gate that would only allow him to enter his Quiet House, stressing the importance of privacy. We really appreciated the variety of creative ideas the class had, and we had so much fun helping them build. It was also really useful for us to get a clearer idea of the students’ relationship to their own Quiet House.

 

Design Lab with 3rd Grade

We look forward to collaborating with the 3rd Grade class in Design Lab to prototype a classroom Recharging Station. We visited Design Lab where the students were sharing the data they collected from interviewing other students. Questions the 3rd graders asked included “Should we have a recharging station in Design Lab?” and “How does the recharging station help?” For one question, 27 students said “Yes” and 25 said “No.” Rotem had students create two block towers–one with 27 blocks and one with 25 blocks. When the two towers were held up next to each other, we could see that this wasn’t a very big difference. The students are continuing their design process over the next few weeks. We can’t wait to see what they come up with!

Meet Our Head of School, Andrea Katzman

Andrea’s formal teaching career began over a decade ago in the Department of Education at Rhode Island College, where she guided teachers as they learned to create diverse, safe, and democratic classrooms. Eager for the opportunity to put educational theory into practice, Andrea became a Pre-K teacher at JCDSRI, where she created learning experiences based on principles of progressive education. Two years ago, Andrea returned to the university classroom, teaching in the Schoolman Graduate School of Jewish Education at Hebrew College. For over 10 years, Andrea has worked at JCDSRI as a classroom teacher, a teacher-leader, and is currently JCDSRI’s Principal. She will assume the position of head of school in July, 2017.

In her work, Andrea is particularly drawn to accompanying people through transitions. She has had the privilege of helping young children through the beginning stages of their formal education, supporting adults as they embark on their new careers as teachers, and guiding parents through uncertain or challenging experiences. She looks forward to accompanying JCDSRI through its next iteration as a center for learning, collaboration, and innovation.

Andrea brings years of teaching and administrative experience to her new position along with expertise in creating and executing social-emotional curricula, in mentoring teachers, in nurturing partnerships with families and communities, and in educational theory – particularly around constructivism and progressive education.

Andrea is committed to leading JCDSRI from strength to strength while providing a powerful voice to the chorus of those reshaping the landscape of Jewish education.

Andrea lives in Providence with her husband Steve and is the proud parent of two JCDSRI alumnae, Ariela ’09 and Elie ’13.