Visiting
The mesivta years are crucial for academic success. For
many boys, these years will prepare them for their next
stage—zal or college. For others, these will be the last years
of formal schooling before they enter the job world. There
always seems to be a tension between fully investing and
focusing on the learning for now and also looking ahead at
what will come next.
This is compounded at our mesivta by the wide range of
academic needs of our students—some of whom have never formally learned the subjects of math and language, science and
history before joining us. Still others find it a real struggle to learn Chumash and Gemara independently. In a school of
twelve, there are literally twelve levels and beyond! In order to “up our game” of academics, we chose to leverage
technology this year by joining the cohort of schools who are using the Altschool platform to personalize learning. It has
TRANSFORMED our school in many positive ways.
BUT...not without kinks. With the uptick in productivity, came more pressure for academic performance. With the increased
emphasis on academic achievement came a need for balance to make sure that the warm and loving nature of Lamplighters
remained. Many group and individual meetings this year have focused on how to build rigor in our learning while not
sacrificing student agency. We needed to make a firm decision on the place of computers and technology in our school. We
had to fail a lot before realizing people and learning always come first. Tech is only there as a tool toward this end.
“
Although we are still in the process of tweaking a
few things, at the end of the day we went from
failing students to succeeding students.
Shuey Werner, Mesivta student
”