September 3, 2021
Welcome to the 2021-22 school year! Over the past days, our classrooms and hallways have been filled with the joy, wonder, exuberance, curiosity, creativity, and laughter of children. Our students are starting new routines, learning, asking questions, singing, praying, playing, and making connections. Check out our First Days of School video to see some of […]
June 29, 2021 by
2004, the last time we saw the Cicada X brood, was my oldest child’s first year at JPDS. Now, 4 kids and a generation of 17-year cicadas later, we are facing our family’s waning hours at Milton. In less than two weeks (around the same time the 2021 cicadas depart), my youngest child, and our […]
June 14, 2021 by
Thank you for entrusting your children to us and for being our partners in helping your children learn, grow and thrive. At the eighth grade graduation ceremony, I reflected on the sacred work of educating your wonderful children, and I wanted to share some of those same ideas with you today as our community wraps […]
May 27, 2021 by
One of the surprises of school life in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the creation of new connections and new opportunities for finding joy across reimagined and redefined horizons – even as we navigated instances of limited or lost opportunity. During Milton’s recent capstone graduation trip, our eighth grade students and their […]
May 20, 2021 by
Congratulations to eighth graders Gabriel A. and Mayer F. on winning first place in the Cadena Initiative Regional Competition and kol hakavod to Aliza L., Nava F., Michal N., and Josie S. who were named finalists in the social entrepreneurship competition. The Cadena Initiative challenges middle school students to develop projects that mitigate the effects […]
May 7, 2021 by
Second grade scientists from Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School are contributing to a NASA scientific experiment. The elementary school students are participating in the ExoLab-8 Plant Experiment. Recently, red clover seeds and symbiotic rhizobia bacteria headed to space, to be grown on the International Space Station (ISS). Milton was one of the schools from around […]
October 19, 2017 by
On October 4 – a few days before Yom Kippur – I presented the first in a series of lectures for MILTON’s middle school Scholars Forum on Jonah and his aborted escape from responsibility. I don’t often get to teach middle schoolers in my work, and I was particularly excited that morning because, as a […]
October 19, 2017 by
Dr. Erica Brown – author, educator, and the Director of the Mayberg Center for Jewish Education and Leadership at the George Washington University – was the guest lecturer at MILTON’s Scholars Forum recently. Erica led a discussion with the sixth graders about the themes of responsibility, accountability, and leadership by examining the story of Yonah. […]
October 18, 2017 by
In this parasha, we hear the story of Noach and the flood, its aftermath when Noach planted a vineyard and got inebriated and his son saw “his nakedness,” and finally, the story of the Tower of Babel and the birth of Avram. The Noach flood story is a transitional story, which we can see by […]
October 10, 2017 by
In this parasha, we read about ma’aseh bereshit (the Act of Creation); Adam and Chava’s sin of eating fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad and their subsequent expulsion from Gan Eden (the Garden of Eden); Kayin’s murder of his brother, Hevel; and Adam and Chava’s descendants’ genealogy, culminating with the birth of Noach. Whether one believes, […]
October 4, 2017 by
As many of us know, Sukkot is about showing our faith in Hashem by replicating and living in the flimsy structures used by the Bnei Yisrael in the wilderness. This provides a tangible reminder of the fragility of our homes. Given this theme, it is interesting that the dedication of the first Beit HaMikdash, the […]
September 28, 2017 by
Brad Meltzer – the #1 New York Times bestselling author and TV host – came to our school last year to speak with third graders about his biography series, a genre the students had been studying. The children were inspired by his stories about the early lives and challenges faced by the real American heroes […]
September 27, 2017 by
Because of the Yom Kippur holiday, we do not read a regular parasha (Torah portion) this Shabbat. Instead, we recount the Avodah (Worship Service) that High Priest Aharon was commanded to conduct in the Mishkan (Tabernacle) and his descendants in the Beit HaMikdash (Temple). One of the most striking parts of this service is the […]
September 20, 2017 by
Near the New North Campus, on the edge of an old graveyard, stands a memorial to Confederate soldiers. After noticing the stone obelisk at the start of school, the fifth grade Stars & Stripes class wanted to learn more. During the first week of school, we used a Thinking Routines exercise called “See, Think, Wonder.” Students looked […]
September 19, 2017 by
At the end of Moshe’s last speech to Bnei Yisrael, Hashem tells Moshe to write down a song to teach to the Israelites. “Put this song in their mouths,” Hashem says, “so that the words may become a witness for Me against them. After I bring them to the land that flows with milk and […]
September 14, 2017 by
At MILTON, we foster joyful and dynamic classroom communities through intentionally-created learning environments. Our approach reflects our vision of each child as a whole and unique individual and our commitment to a culture of inclusivity. We consider a variety of criteria – including social dynamics, gender balance, relationships among students, and best fit between the […]
