On Friday, November 11, the entire JKHA/RKYHS faculty attended an in-house professional development conference. The day underscored the administration’s commitment to teacher learning as a support to student learning as they create and sustain a culture of excellence throughout the school.

The day had two components. Dr. Karen Gazith presented a review of formative assessment, emphasizing the importance of ascertaining every child’s understanding in real time. She followed up with two workshops, one for the JKHA teachers and another for the RKYHS faculty, offering many techniques for making student thinking visible in the course of teachers’ lessons. Dr. Gazith is the Academic Dean at Talmud Torah / Herzliah, a Jewish Day school in Montreal. She has also been an adjunct professor of psychology at McGill University for 22 years,

Dr. Adam Dobrick, RKYHS director of studies, ran workshops on teacher feedback, based on his own doctoral research. The research shows that certain types of teacher feedback are productive for moving student learning forward, while others, while appearing benign, can actually inhibit learning. Dr. Dobrick reviewed the types of feedback and conducted small group discussions where teachers discussed the categories in regard to their own classroom practice.

JKHA/RKYHS assistant principal and director of guidance, Mr. Gary Berger, ran separate workshops for the guidance and student activities personnel.

There was positive feedback from the teachers, many of whom have already implemented the ideas they learned at the conference. Many thanks to the Federation of Greater MetroWest for their continuing support of professional learning at JKHA/RKYHS.