Just got back from the North American Jewish Day School conference where I spent 2 days engaged in presentations and great discussions with new friends. On Monday I co-presented with Rabbi Jan Katzew from the Life Long Learning Team at the URJ for the PARDES Day of Learning. We engaged in a "Tag Team" presentation focused on a the idea that in order to connect the dots moving forward you have to look back (Steve Jobs Quote). While Jan focused on the history and future of the URJ I focused on the history and future of technology, the Internet and the Law of Accelerating Returns. We had a great time and it was very well received. On the second day I invited 3 leaders of the day school community to join me in presenting on the subject of 21st Century Learning Environments. Jon Mitmacher, Gil Perl and Drew Frank are all young innovators in the day school community that are breaking new ground and leading with vision. My second session of the day focused on 21st Century STEM and how STEM redesigned in the Challenge-Based and Studio-Based model could ignite student passion for the subject. You can access resources from each of the presentations at the PARDES Google Site I created for the event. Overall, I learned a great deal about the Jewish Day School community, made a lot of new friends and was very impressed with the level of passion and expertise amongst their teachers and leaders. I look forward to expanding my collaboration beyond PARDES and the URJ to others in the community. Just got back from the North American Jewish Day School conference where I spent 2 days engaged in presentations and great discussions with new friends. On Monday I co-presented with Rabbi Jan Katzew from the Life Long Learning Team at the URJ for the PARDES Day of Learning. We engaged in a "Tag Team" presentation focused on a the idea that in order to connect the dots moving forward you have to look back (Steve Jobs Quote). While Jan focused on the history and future of the URJ I focused on the history and future of technology, the Internet and the Law of Accelerating Returns. We had a great time and it was very well received. On the second day I invited 3 leaders of the day school community to join me in presenting on the subject of 21st Century Learning Environments. Jon Mitmacher, Gil Perl and Drew Frank are all young innovators in the day school community that are breaking new ground and leading with vision. My second session of the day focused on 21st Century STEM and how STEM redesigned in the Challenge-Based and Studio-Based model could ignite student passion for the subject. You can access resources from each of the presentations at the PARDES Google Site I created for the event. Overall, I learned a great deal about the Jewish Day School community, made a lot of new friends and was very impressed with the level of passion and expertise amongst their teachers and leaders. I look forward to expanding my collaboration beyond PARDES and the URJ to others in the community.