Wordclouds+SU13

Instructions: Use Wordle.net or another free Wordcloud generator to create a wordcloud using the mission statement of a Jewish school. Post below with your initials and add your comment or observations. This exercise could be used with the faculty, the parents, or a school board to generate discussion about school mission.

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HD: I chose the mission statement of my school (JCHS of the Bay in SF) and it was interesting to see what popped as most important. Namely the word Jewish. The other themes community, school, and JCHS stood out, but everything else ranked the same. I don't think this would be how "the school" would see itself, and it's interesting to think about from a marketing perspective as we try to attract students.

EAT The word cloud application seemed to easily understand the most important highly regarded elements of the vision; Jewish, Community, and People. I love using word clouds and I think they do a great job visually highlighting important elements of the phrases we use. Which organization is represented here?

YW

This wordcloud indicates that the most important aspects of the mission statement for Contra Costa County Jewish Day School are Jewish, all, language, community, studies, students, science, maintain and school. According to their academic page, they strive to connect student learning to the real world, enabling them "to construct their own knowledge through cooperative exploration, manipulation, discussion, and creative expression of ideas." I can see these concepts reflected in the wordcloud. The prominence of the word "maintain" is extremely interesting. Is that the key verb that you would want parents/faculty to latch on to in your school? Iwould vote for nurture, foster, or facilitate.



IY I found this Wordcloud to be very interesting. The organizationis NewCAJE and it seems that appears most in the mission statement. But New is also important. It is the "new CAJE" once CAJE closed in 2009. But also, NewCAJE talks about this being a "NEW" century, demands on Jewish educators, technologies, approaches, students, generation of educators, etc. This is a Jewish organization and it is focused mainly on educators. I can really see the points the mission statement tries to get across come out in this Wordcloud. As a rule, mission statements are much shorter than this one. This reads more like organizational objectives. I would like for the NewCAJE leadership to see your word cloud - it is very informative. I also felt that the mission statement was too long and it did seem like organization objective. I know one of the members of the board, so I will definitely forward the word cloud on to them.

JG I really like what this word cloud did to the HUC-JIR mission statement. The two words that stand out the most other than "Jewish," "study" and "life," make me excited and proud to study there one day. Every aspect of the Reform Movement from "issues" to "learning" to "pluralistic," makes this mission statement come to life. I love how this lays out the words in a totally different way then on the page online. I could completely see how this would be a beneficial exercise to use in various areas from teachers to students to parents.



EK:

The word cloud I created was from the Hebrew Charter School Center's website. What I notice is that the word Hebrew is larger and that's the main objective of the school. Unlike a Jewish Day School, Hebrew Charter Schools are all about learning Hebrew for the sake of Hebrew instead of for the sake of Judaism as is the case in the Jewish Day School. It's all about understanding and language and not all about liturgy and faith. Is this good for the Jews? Well, when the Charter Schools take away from the supplemental or day schools, that doesn't seem right. But it also doesn't seem right to say they shouldn't exist because it's like giving someone a free education. All the more so. I think when our Hebrew Charter Schools are strong then the day school and the supplemental school can also be strong. There just needs to be collaboration! I like how the word Hebrew is the biggest word. It's what the movement is all about. Their website, for further investigation, is the following:

[|www.hebrewcharters.org]

In terms of the word cloud, here is the link and the image too:

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RR:



The word cloud I created was for the Hebrew High School of New England. I especially liked the alignment of the different words because each one looks like a building block dependent on the other one. And this is exactly what education is. The words that stand out the most to me are the words in white: co-educational, growth, academic, educational, environment, and think. The reason the white wording catches your eye the most is because it is against the black background. I find it really interesting that the word growth stands out so much because it is the function of building blocks.

EL:



I created this Wordcloud for Chicagoland Jewish High School (CJHS). I like how this Wordcloud has representations of all of the aspects offered at CJHS, but still highlights being Jewish as the most important. It also highlights "Shabbat" and "Dinner" in larger font, representing an important part of Jewish practice. CJHS takes their academics and sports very seriously as well and many of the words in this Wordcloud indicate that. I think that the coloring is also significant; green, yellow, and brown are very natural colors. One could take from this image that at this school, being Jewish comes naturally.

EH

This word cloud is for my NEXT program. I don't have a real mission statement yet, so I used the key texts I use to describe the program. That is clearly why there are too many small words, compared to those above. At the same time, the key words I would have chosen are exactly the ones that are emphasized.



AB This is a wordle of the mission statement of the Leo Baeck Day School in Toronto. Jewish is clearly the most common word in their mission and goals. Reform, community, personal, capabilities, and participate are other common words. It is a Reform Jewish day school, and community, as well as personal capabilities, are important, as is participation.

LV

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URJ 2013 Curriculum > //The world is sustained by three things: Torah, worship and deeds of loving kindness. This is the curriculum Reform Jewish Congregations are adopting for the 2013-2014 school year.// —[|Dr. Vende]

I chose the mission statement from Congregation Rodeph Sholom. Firstly, because my friends send their kids there, and secondly because I have been getting a a lot of questions at work about the city's reform day school so I wanted to learn more about it. I think the thing that stands out most of how many times the strange spelling of Shalom (Sholom) comes up in the cloud. Steven Beck