A note from the Director of the RS
I joke with people that a huge percentage of my job focuses on shmoozing. Whether I am good at it or not (the jury is still out on that!) I spend hours a week talking to parents, kids, co-workers, and other professionals in the field.
In the professional conversations we discuss how various forms of transformation are going, the status of our budgets, and ideas concerning other techniques to try.
However, it is in the conversations with various congregants that I hear some of the greatest ideas to consider and changes to make. Some of the ideas are quite silly, yet they still offer incite. Some of the ideas change how I think about things - and it’s when I change how I think about something that we come up with the best new ideas. It’s hearing that the students aren’t reading the prayers, but reciting them from memorization, that makes me then want to offer new ways for the kids to examine the Hebrew words…Or hearing that the kids don’t like sitting still for 40 minutes in a class, after an entire day in their secular schools, that I then want to find a way to break up the day in order to increase their potential learning.
This schmoozing is so important because I hear about gripes of parents and students or concerns about a child’s own learning style. I hear about the things that a child takes out of the classroom and brings home to share with his or her family. I hear excitement in learning. I heard complaints. I hear compliments.
Sometimes I need to say that I’ve heard the complaints before – and explain what we’ve done to try to fix it. Other times I am shocked to hear something for the first time – and have to consider what to do to address it. I don’t know how my predecessors have handled feedback, but I want to hear it all. All forms of feedback help us to make our program even better. Don’t assume I’ve heard something before – often I am kept out of the gossip loop!
I need to hear what you think about everything – whether you like what we’re transforming or not. We won’t necessarily change it on the spot, but the feedback is important to hear and to consider in our various levels of transformation.
Thus, I implore you to drop me an email, pick up the phone or stop by my office – tell me your thoughts. Because your feedback may be the missing piece needed to create a new program that we’ve been brainstorming…and hey, I can’t get enough practice schmoozing!
Rena Fraade
Director of Religious School Program
rfraade@larchmonttemple.org 914 834 6120 ex 28
My office is across from the main office at the temple!
