Auerbach Central Agency for Jewish Education

NESS

Leadership Development Seminar
(LDS)

 

The Leadership Development Seminar is designed to provide educational directors with time to read, reflect, and re-envision their practice as leaders of synagogue schools. An overarching goal is to create a learning community among the NESS school directors in which they think together about the significant issues facing leaders of synagogue schools.

 

The leverage for recreating synagogue schools into places where children have engaging and relevant Jewish experiences lies in our ability to help leaders see the need to change the cultures and structures of our schools. The challenge of creating change is a major focus of the Leadership Development Seminar. This includes work on writing mission statements and then considering how to bring them to life. Participants reflect on supervision, team building strategies, meeting designs, conflict management, data-based decision making, effective communication strategies, the needs of the adult learner, and ways to involve families in the synagogue school experience. Writing improvement plans that include short and long-term goals is also an important focus of the seminar.

 

The educational directors also look at effective teaching strategies that actively engage children in the learning process and learn how to design professional development plans that help teachers learn to use these strategies in their classrooms. Strategies for teacher supervision that help teachers reflect on and improve their classroom practice are examined. And, time is devoted to considering important managerial aspects of school leadership such as budgeting, teacher recruitment and retention, and fundraising.

 

Finally, the work of leadership is always infused with moral considerations. Decisions about children and their education are weighty matters. Therefore, educational directors explore a variety of frameworks for moral decision making and apply them to real life issues facing Jewish schools.