Have you ever picked up a small pitcher of milk for your coffee only to have half of the contents dribble down the side and pool onto the counter?  Often, design is something we dont think about unless it is really bad or really good.  And yet, there is a remarkable and nuanced history behind the shape and construction of almost everything we touch, a story behind the design of each object even the container holding your milk. Once, I thought design meant the funky looking chairs that I couldnt afford from Soho furniture shops.  Then my cousin, a textile designer, explained design to me in very different terms.  Design, she said, is making everyday objects that are both beautiful and functional.  She viewed a well-designed object as art and until that conversation I had never thought of everyday objects that way.

Steve Jobs once said, "to turn really interesting ideas and fledgling technologies into a company that can continue to innovate [...]

When we begin to talk about new models, new structures, new leadership, new programs that replace the old, we inevitably have associations, and often those associations are negative.

I recently attended a workshop as a guest designer at Stanford d.schools K12 Lab Network. The network is in its first year, training teams of teachers from public schools around the Bay Area to use the tools and mindsets of Design Thinking to tackle their challenges. Excitingly, this network was informed by Upstarts work with the Jewish Education Project on the Day School Collaboration Network (DSCN), the first such network of schools in the country using the tools of Design Thinking to address problems across schools. Melissa Pelochino, the networks lead designer and facilitator, was a coach for DSCN in its inaugural year.

The focus of the workshop was to help schools introduce World Language courses to their students in innovative ways. The day was designed to help the school teams arrive at prototypes they could take back to their schools. The kick-off activity was designed to help the teams develop empathy for their students, for whom learning a foreign language could be very daunting and challenging. It was led by Monica Martinez, the founder of Don Bugito Prehispanic Snaqueria. Thats right; the opening activity of the day was eating bugs.

The Talmud in Shabbat 22b recounts a debate about the core mitzvah of Chanukah: Is the mitzvah lighting the candles (hadlaka), or is the mitzvah placing them (hanacha) where they can be widely seen? On the one hand, the entire purpose of lighting the Chanukiah is the lighting itself illuminating the darkness, bringing that flickering light into being. On the other, if the light is hidden away, if it is not shared, what is actually being accomplished?

This debate can be understood as a metaphor at the core of any program that is attempting to create change across an entire organization, or network of organizations. If the program is successful in inspiring or changing individuals, but is not effective in creating change within an organization or network as a whole, is it enough? Is it worth it?

The Day School Collaboration Network (DSCN), a collaboration between The Jewish Education Project and UpStart with funding from UJA-Federation of New York, was originally conceived as a lab of sorts, one that would produce innovative solutions to some of the most pressing challenges facing the Jewish day school world.

The past often gets a better rap than the present. Things were good, back in the day. More wholesome. Less complicated. Slower. Kinder. People looked in each others eyes. Children wrote essays without emoticons. Whose great-uncle hasnt complained of having had to walk to school uphill, both ways in the snow, as a child? Life may have been harder, harsher, but it built character, and that character is being lost.

The weeks immediately following the overwhelming month of Tishrei, heavy with Jewish holidays, are always daunting. The workweek seems suddenly endless, [...]

We are currently in the second year of experimenting with a new approach to bringing innovative solutions to challenges and opportunities facing NY Jewish Day Schools. The Day School Collaboration Network is a network of educators who share the goal of developing more inspiring, relevant and creative solutions to challenges facing their schools and, by extension, to the broader field of Jewish day school education. This joint project of UpStart Bay Area and The Jewish Education Project made possible by a generous grant from UJA Federation of New York, enables day school educators working at the grass roots (including classroom teachers, curriculum heads, deans, counselors, and learning specialist) to identify and grapple with challenges that impact the field of Jewish day school education, regardless of religious, philosophical, and geographic differences. Before hi-lighting the work of these schools, we want to share some broader observations about this experience.

The Seders Four Elements of Creative Education

The Pesach Seder, perhaps the most popular of Jewish rituals, is a visceral and meaningful educational experience.  Maybe this is why it has remained so widely celebrated within the Jewish community. As the professional Jewish community continues to struggle with the most effective ways to keep our tradition vibrant and alive, a task that demands tremendous creativity, we can learn a lot from the Seder itself.  The Seder is a model of creative education, which elicits the kind of experiences and ideas critical for the constant renewal of Jewish life. Here are four core educational elements that the Seder embodies, which echo best practices in todays world of innovative education:

I. Constraints Drive Creativity: Perhaps counter-intuitively, it is only when we are given clear limits and structures that we can be our most creative, innovative selves.

Gross Schechter Day School in Cleveland, Ohio was recently chosen to participate as one of 15 Jewish Day Schools, and one of only two outside of the New York area, in the second year of the Day School Collaboration Network (DSCN).  

DSCN is a joint project of The Jewish Education Project and Upstart Bay Area, made possible by a generous grant from UJA Federation of New York.  This exciting new initiative utilizes Adaptive Leadership and Design Thinking to to create a shift in mind-sets and skill-sets that will lead to new forms of creativity, distributed leadership, and efficacy within and across schools. 

In the DSCN, educators from across the religious spectrum address challenges facing individual schools while working together to bring new models and approaches to the broader field of Jewish day school education. 

A team of four educators from Schechter participated in a two day retreat as part of the schools involvement in the program. The educators included Early Childhood Center director Tracey Bortz, kindergarten teacher Orli Rabkin, fourth grade teacher Donell Newman, and middle school teacher Cheryl Stone. The four spent the retreat working side-by-side with teams from other schools and experts in Design Thinking and Adaptive Leadership.

Dr. Ari Yares, Head of School at Gross Schechter Day School, participated in the inaugural cohort of DSCN during the prior school year. Dr. Yares shared that through the DSCN, we are acquiring new problem solving skills that allow us to tackle challenges and grow stronger by understanding the needs that underlie those challenges.

The Jewish Education Projects Director of Jewish Day School Leadership and Innovation, Rabbi Ed Harwitz, has been involved in the program since its inception. He commented that  The DSCN seeks to become the Silicon Valley of the Jewish day school world,  a real location for creativity and measurable innovation.