Our Stories

Lisa Schopf’s Remarks to the Graduates

June 22, 2021 by Lisa Schopf (Faculty and Staff)

This is a moment filled with nostalgia, appreciation, reflection, celebration, accomplishment, and anticipation for all that is yet to come. For me, it is also a moment in which I am feeling a sense of urgency as I want to be sure to tell you all I want you to know and hold onto before […]

  • #DCIndependentSchool
  • #DCJewishMiddleSchool
  • #DCPrivateSchool
  • #JewishDaySchool
  • #MiltonExperience
  • #MiltonGottesman

Second Grade Ingenuity on Display at DC Expo

June 9, 2020 by Ronit Greenstein (Faculty and Staff)

Second graders learned about Washington, D.C. through the lens of the departments that help make the city run. Students worked together in small groups based on the department of their choice such as the Department of Parks and Recreation and the Department of Public Safety. Each group identified the strengths and weaknesses of their department […]

  • #MiltonAdvantage
  • Design Thinking
  • Project Based Learning
  • STEAM
  • Washington D.C.

News from the MPA Birthday Books and Libraries Committee

November 1, 2018 by Adina Loeb (Community) Evelyn Khoo Schwartz (Community)

The Milton Parent Association presented the school with a one-time gift of $10,000 to help fund the new Milton Middle School Library in October during National Book Month. The libraries at Milton are funded solely by the MPA through the Birthday Books program. Knowing the new Middle School Library would require substantial set-up costs, the […]

  • #DCJewishMiddleSchool
  • #ThisIsWhy
  • Milton Parents Association

Pre-Kindergartners Represent Identity and Emotions through Self-Portraiture

February 1, 2018 by Revital Finkel (Faculty and Staff)

Our Pre-Kindergarten class began their year with the overarching theme of trying to understand our identity. Early on, a child said, “your identity is like yourself.” We decided to look at our identity through our feelings because while our feelings don’t define us, they are an immeasurable part of us and we experience a multitude […]

  • Multimedia
  • Visual Arts

Read-a-thon to Support Hurricane Harvey Victims

September 6, 2017 by Sharon Freundel (Community)

An important middah (moral virtue) is achrayut (responsibility). As teachers and as parents, we spend much of our time working to instill in our children a sense of responsibility for themselves, their behavior, and their work. But we also look for opportunities to teach our children that our responsibility does not end with ourselves – that, […]

  • Tikkun Olam

Kindergartners Create and Perform at the South Campus Community Theater

June 2, 2017 by Lisa Davis (Faculty and Staff) Vas Pournaras (Faculty and Staff) Xani Pollakoff (Faculty and Staff)

Kindergarten students engaged in an in-depth, multi-disciplinary project to create a South Campus Community Theater. Throughout, they honed skills including research, writing, design thinking, math, science, art, and design, along with deepening their knowledge of Jewish holidays. The students’ work was guided by the theme of community as they explored essential and guiding questions like, […]

  • Creative Writing
  • Design Thinking
  • Performing Arts
  • Project Based Learning
  • Visual Arts

Growing Through Writing

March 2, 2017 by Lisa Schopf (Faculty and Staff)

After their successful Ancient Egypt Exhibition this week, our Sixth Grade students sat with their written compositions and the artifacts they created, and reflected on the ways they have grown as researchers and writers. They also considered the ways in which the process of writing has helped them grow as students and human beings. Yonatan […]

  • #DCJewishMiddleSchool
  • Project Based Learning
  • Writing

First Grade Open House includes exhibits on Rock Creek Park’s History, Flora, and Fauna and Presentation of Original Hebrew Stories

February 2, 2017 by Caren Szanton (Faculty and Staff)

Last week, First Graders exhibited their expertise and creativity at their first Bayit Patuach (Open House) of the year, showcasing models of historic structures built from recycled materials, curated writing portfolios, multimedia representations of animal habitats, and clay sculptures of various plant species. Throughout the first semester, First Grade students explored the theme “Encounters with […]

  • Environmental Education
  • Project Based Learning
  • STEAM

Rock Creek Park Project Highlights Multi-Faceted Learning

January 28, 2016 by Candace Manor (Faculty and Staff)

Walking among towering trees, a fish-filled creek, and a brick-lined Peirce Mill, parents visiting JPDS-NC’s South Campus on January 21st could have thought they were taking a ramble through Rock Creek Park. Instead, they were appreciating first graders’ scaled model of the natural treasure that lies not a mile from our classroom doors, the culmination of […]

  • Design Thinking
  • Environmental Education
  • Project Based Learning
  • Washington D.C.

Exploring the Elements of Fiction and Paths to Publishing

January 7, 2016 by Janet Collier (Faculty and Staff)

What do an ancient Greek mathematician, little green people, and a karate-kicking 12-year-old girl have in common? They’re all in Hypatia Academy, a novel written and published by Esther Goldenberg, alumni JPDS-NC teacher and parent (mother of Ellie, class of 2014). The book is “the story of one girl’s unintended quest to find the source […]

  • Adult Learning
  • Creative Writing