Times: Leslie Medine's Organizations Help Revolutionize Education

Leslie Medine, my cousin, has been doing brilliant work in the field of education for many years. Her visionary efforts are recognized nationwide, as this Times article shows.

Re:framing
Rethinking How to Teach the New Teachers
By DENISE CARUSO

SCHOOL enrollments are increasing year by year, but qualified teachers are leaving the classroom in droves. More than a million veteran teachers are nearing retirement, and more will follow.

More than two million new teachers will be needed in the next decade alone, according to the National Education Association, and we should hope that they start lining up soon.

Economic research shows that an educated work force is the foundation of a stable economy. A good education does more than just increase a person’s earning potential. Studies find that regions that produce well-educated high school graduates have a higher rate of business start-ups and more economic activity. Graduates also provide communities with a continuing pool of taxpaying labor.

As teacher rosters shrink, the question is this: How long will such regions be able to hold onto those benefits?

The well-known liabilities of teaching — low pay, overcrowded classrooms and crippling budget constraints — have led recent graduates to opt for more lucrative career options.

And those who are called to the profession despite its shortcomings often find themselves overwhelmed by the enormity of the job. According to many education experts, new teachers feel so ill prepared that a staggering 50 percent of them bolt during their first five years of teaching.

To help stop the exodus, the Reach Institute for School Leadership, a group based in Napa, Calif., has started an innovative program, designed by and for teachers, that has the potential to transform those first stressful years in the classroom. Reach’s newly accredited, two-year teacher credentialing program has a goal of attracting a new generation of committed teachers, mentors and school administrators — and keeping them for a lifetime.

In traditional credentialing programs, student teachers spend most of their time taking education courses and seminars. The time they spend in a classroom teaching students is relatively brief — often just two weeks.

The Reach program flips this traditional model on its ear.

Instead of spending most of their time learning about being a teacher, Reach’s students start the program at the front of the classroom from the very first day, with a teacher mentor by their side.

“Most new teachers who fail, fail just because they’re new,” said Page Tompkins, the founder and director of Reach. “When they’re struggling with what to do with a problem, they had no one to say, in real time, ‘Let me watch you do this.’”

Before starting Reach, Mr. Tompkins, 37 and a former principal, was a co-founder of the Bay Area School of Enterprise, or BASE, in Alameda, Calif., a public charter high school. BASE is now the lead school for Reach, which is a partnership of eight public charter schools in the San Francisco Bay Area that provide the teachers, mentors, coaches and administrative support for the program. Leslie Medine, a co-founder of BASE and Reach, is also the primary sponsor of Reach through her On the Move organization that trains young leaders. Other financial supporters include the Walter and Elise Haas Fund and the Dean Witter Foundation.

Terry Jones, a lecturer and intern coach in the secondary education department at San Francisco State University, finds Reach’s model innovative — and sensible.

“Universities do not do a good job, if they do anything at all, teaching students how to manage a classroom,” said Dr. Jones, a teacher training expert who is an unpaid adviser to Reach. “With Reach, young teachers go into the classroom, have experiences, then come to a seminar where their coach can add theory to what they’re learning first hand. It’s exactly the opposite of the way it’s done now.”

Teachers in the Reach program are also part of a “cohort” or team of 10 or 12 students who spend the entire two years of the program together.

Each of the 30 students who are in Reach’s inaugural class meet with the cohort for three hours a week. “Being a new teacher is lonely work,” Mr. Tompkins said. “There are days when all of us say, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore.’ But in a cohort, I know people are counting on me to show up.”

ACADEMIC research seems to support Reach’s approach. Teachers from six Georgia school districts, surveyed for a study published in the May 2005 issue of Educational Leadership, said the most effective strategies for helping new teachers were giving them the opportunity to observe other teachers, work with mentors, meet and make plans with other teachers and receive plenty of feedback.

Likewise, a study of existing alternative certification programs (not including Reach), to be published in 2008 in Teachers College Record, suggests that effective programs include a collegial atmosphere and “trained mentors who have the time and resources to plan lessons with candidates.”

Another important factor, the report states, is that new teachers are trained “in schools with strong leadership.” According to Mr. Tompkins, Reach has “networked” all eight school principals into active program participation, is developing a “mentor coaching academy” for experienced teachers and a master’s degree program.

“I want to be sure that we have a place for them when they want to take more responsibilities and go into administration,” said Dennis Chaconas, a 35-year veteran of public education reform who works with the school principals and is helping to develop the mentor and master’s programs. Thus, training new administrators and coaches is “the next step” for Reach, he said. “Good principals and good programs make and keep great teachers.”

What's New in Jewish Teaneck?

Cover Story

Walter Isaacson’s Albert Einstein: Rebel with a cause

God gets a rewrite

Of making many books there is no end, for which we all are grateful

Community

Torah dedication fulfills longtime vow

New site for outsourcing — Israel

Time to take action on Darfur

Hadassah activist speaks of its ‘powerful mission’

The tale of a trek

Teens use roller hockey to raise money for Sderot

New director of Wayne Y wants to build bridges in community

Gotta dance — and sing

Ridgewood marks centennial of 'homegrown hero’

Up in the sky... it's a bird, it's a plane, it's the new ASUS PC EEE - what is it?

I got one. The new ASUS PC EEE. It is not a regular notebook or laptop. It is not a sub-notebook or mini-notebook. It is not a PDA. It is sui generis - a new species very cool has evolved.

Yes it looks a lot like a notebook computer - it opens like one, has a keyboard and screen like one. But it differs. First it runs Linux, not Windows. Second it has no hard disk, just flash memory.

Yes it is reasonably price at $399. It is white, under two pounds and smaller than a trade paperback book.

I'll be giving you a report on the usability of this puppy within a week. I hope to use it at meetings and everywhere that I can. Like a new car it takes about 50 miles until you get used to the handling. The keyboard and screen are a bit cramped at first. We'll see how that plays out - and by the way I'm writing on it now.

Anthony Flew: Does He or Doesn't He (Believe in God)?

About Anthony Flew, the Times wants to know does he or doesn't he - believe in God?

You ask, who is Flew? He wrote "Theology and Falsification" in 1950 and became the standard bearer of the British philosophical anti-theologians. I read Flew's work along with that of R.M. Hare, D.Z. Phillips and many others in my first semester at Brown where I went to study Religious Studies after I received my ordination at Yeshiva University.

Flew and his followers ask, If you can't falsify a theological claim, then what is its philosophical value as a truth claim? These British writers came at theology from the angle of language and logic.

It's worth it just to look at a paragraph from Flew's classic essay:

Now it often seems to people who are not religious as if there was no conceivable event or series of events the occurrence of which would be admitted by sophisticated religious people to be a sufficient reason for conceding "there wasn't a God after all" or "God does not really love us then." Someone tells us that God loves us as a father loves his children. We are reassured. But then we see a child dying of inoperable cancer of the throat. His earthly father is driven frantic in his efforts to help, but his Heavenly Father reveals no obvious sign of concern. Some qualification is made — God's love is "not merely human love" or it is "an inscrutable love," perhaps — and we realize that such suffering are quite compatible with the truth of the assertion that "God loves us as a father (but of course…)." We are reassured again. But then perhaps we ask: what is this assurance of God's (appropriately qualified) love worth, what is this apparent guarantee really a guarantee against? Just what would have to happen not merely (morally and wrongly) to tempt but also (logically and rightly) to entitle us to say "God does not love us" or even "God does not exist"? I therefore put to the succeeding symposiasts the simple central questions, "What would have to occur or to have occurred to constitute for you a disproof of the love of, or the existence of, God?"

But the Times is not interested in citing Flew or understanding the nuances of his arguments.

Their writer just wants to know if a bunch of Christian wingnuts are taking advantage of an old man. Are they claiming that a leading atheist has recanted and become a Christian when in fact that is not the case?

Bottom line - the article leaves us skeptical about that claim. Hmm, ironic isn't it?

The Turning of an Atheist By MARK OPPENHEIMER

The British philosopher Antony Flew was one of the West’s most influential nonbelievers. Then came news — from conservative Christians — that he had recanted. But his change of heart may not be what it seems.

There is quite a bit of confusion out there on this subject. In 2001 Flew was still lucidly claiming to be an atheist in "Sorry to Disappoint, but I'm Still an Atheist!"

But since then Flew has most likely deliberately muddied the waters, see this summary of sorts.

Times Zeroes in on Israeli Haredim

New York's best Jewish newspaper illuminates the dynamics of Haredi life.

November 2, 2007
A Modern Marketplace for Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox
By STEVEN ERLANGER

BEIT SHEMESH, Israel — When Larry Pinczower switches on his cellphone, the seal of a rabbinate council appears. Unable to send text messages, take photographs or connect to the Internet, his phone is a religiously approved adaptation to modernity by the ultra-Orthodox sector of Israeli life.

More than 10,000 numbers for phone sex, dating services and the like are blocked, and rabbinical overseers ensure that the lists are up to date. Calls to other kosher phones are less than 2 cents a minute, compared with 9.5 cents for normal phones. But on the Sabbath any call costs $2.44 a minute, a steep religious penalty.

“You pay less and you’re playing by the rules,” Mr. Pinczower, 39, said. “You’re using technology but in a way that maintains religious integrity.”

A community of at least 800,000 people — out of 5.4 million Jews living in Israel, a country of 7.1 million — the ultra-Orthodox, though comparatively poor, form a distinct, growing and important market, and Israeli companies are paying attention. While there are rabbinical strictures against watching television, using computers for leisure, immodest attire and unsupervised mixing of men and women, the Israeli market economy has adjusted in creative and surprising ways.

Some 60 percent of ultra-Orthodox men do not work regular jobs, preferring religious study. More than 50 percent live below the poverty line and get state allowances, compared with 15 percent of the rest of the population, and most families have six or seven children, said Momi Dahan, an economist at the School of Public Policy at Hebrew University.

But because they live in tight communities like this one, and obey their rabbis, they have significant power in the marketplace, as well as in the voting booth, said Rafi Melnick, dean of the Lauder School of Government at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya......

Grand Street News: Restoring the Stanton Street Synagogue

A synagogue restoration project closer to home...

A Synagogue Grows on Stanton
by Yori Yanover
An interview with the Stanton Street Shul’s charismatic member Jonathan Shore. Almost 100 years old, Stanton is celebrating the renovation of its study hall and the kaleidoscopic variety of its membership. ...more

Egypt Promises to Restore Maimonides Synagogue

Hat tip to Egyptology News:

Friday, November 02, 2007
Preservation of Jewish heritage in Egypt

American Jewish Committee

In Egypt for events marking the centennial of Cairo’s main synagogue, Shaar Hashamayim, an American Jewish Committee delegation met this week with Egyptian officials to discuss efforts to preserve the Jewish heritage in Egypt.

The delegation, led by Rabbi Andrew Baker, AJC’s director of International Jewish Affairs, met with Minister of Culture Farouk Hosny and Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. The Egyptian officials assured the AJC group that the Maimonides Yeshiva and Synagogue would be properly restored during the coming year.

The Yeshiva was the original study house of the 12th Century rabbinic scholar and is adjacent to a 19th century synagogue named for him. The Yeshiva has been a place of pilgrimage for Jews around the world, although the structures have long-since fallen into a state of disrepair. Dr. Hawass said that a full technical analysis had already taken place and preparatory work could begin almost immediately.

The centennial events were a reminder of the large and vibrant Jewish community that could be found in Cairo and Alexandria during the first half of the last century, when Egypt was a far more culturally diverse society.

Ann Coulter Taking on Water and Sinking Fast

Hey Ann.

We Jews actually listen to what people say and when it is about us and when it is offensive then we say so.

Coulter escalates war of words with Jewish groups
Published: 11/02/2007

Ann Coulter escalated her war of words with Jewish groups.

In a column Thursday, the conservative pundit blasted the Anti-Defamation League for condemning her earlier remarks suggesting that Jews would be "perfected" by Christianity. Coulter suggested the ADL was soft on Iran and Islamist extremists. "The ADL is more concerned with what it calls the 'neo-Nazis' and 'anti-Semites' in the Minutemen organization," she wrote, referring to an anti-illegal immigrant group that has drawn support from right-wing extremists, "than with people who behead Jews whenever they get half a chance."

The ADL is at the forefront of lobbying for tougher anti-Iran sanctions and monitoring pro-terrorist activity.

She also blasted the ADL for defending Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the first Muslim in Congress, for taking his oath on a Koran instead of a Muslim bible. "Do they have Ellison on the record acknowledging whether the Holocaust happened?" she wrote. Ellison joined resolutions in the Minnesota legislature condemning Holocaust denial and attended Holocaust commemorations.

Coulter accused the ADL, as well as the American Jewish Committee, of being part of the liberal establishment. She added: "Liberal Jews are on a collision course with themselves. They can't reconcile the survival of Israel with their conception of themselves as liberals. The liberal coalition has turned against them. Jews are out; Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is in. The new king knows not Joseph."

ADL dismissed the column as "little more than a desperate attempt to deflect attention from her own bigoted and hateful views, and her mistake in giving vent to anti-Semitism on a national cable broadcast."

The National Jewish Democratic Council renewed its call on broadcast networks to stop using Coulter, dismissing her claims that she is a true defender of Jewish interests. "Jews for Coulter?," Ira Forman, the NJDC's executive director said in a statement. "You could hold that convention in the backseat of a Volkswagen Bug."

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Night of 100 Dinners
Jewish Family Service, Teaneck

and support the the 6th annual TeaneckShuls fundraiser...

Beit Kobie
A non-profit foundation in remembrance of Sgt. Kobie Ichelboim, a commander and a fighter in the IDF who was killed on March 10, 2002, in active duty, near Nezarim in the Gaza Strip. Beit Kobie provides a home and family for lone soldiers serving in the IDF.

Forward: NYU Bailout of Jewish History Center is DOA

Clearly the CJH is in receivership and NYU wants to divest itself of housing the Skirball Department.

The hyperbole of the whole venture is amazing, to wit: "The proposed merger would create the largest institution outside Israel for Judaic research." That is utter nonsense given the size of JTS, HUC and YU. And is quantity a good thing or ought we not strive for quality?

Most puzzling is the absence of the three seminaries, especially Yeshiva University in this scenario. The YU Museum is part of the CJH now. Does YU want to just cede it to NYU? To me that says that YU is in no position to bail out the Museum. That just confirms the theory that the Stanton donation of $100 million to operating expenses of YU was itself a massive bailout of that Orthodox institution.

BTW look at just how far the YIVO has fallen! The Neue Galerie, famous now for housing the "Portrait of Baroness Elisabeth Bachofen-Echt," by Gustav Klimt, circa 1914, is itself housed in former Yivo Institute building that was originally designed by Carrere & Hastings for William Starr Miller on the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 86th Street. Now that is some location.

Read the Forward report here.

NYU Bid To Take Over Center for Jewish History Called ‘Dead on Arrival’
Jennifer Siegel | Wed. Oct 31, 2007

The ink is barely dry on New York University’s preliminary plan for bailing out the financially strapped Center for Jewish History, but some insiders at the center have wasted little time in proclaiming it dead on arrival.