English teacher Mr. Brian Forrester, having relentlessly posted a poem to Schoology every single day since the beginning of school, has taken a nearly 60-post lead over last year’s victor, Principal Daniel Weslow.
Community members are able to post information about school-wide events, club meetings and other opportunities on schoolwide group pages such as Student Activities, The Just Community and Lost & Found, through the learning-management system Schoology, mostly used for students to submit assignments and access course materials.
Some faculty and students at Shalhevet do this more than others, with the five highest scorers all reaching 40 posts on the year.
With the 2023-24 season still not finished, Mr. Weslow is still on track to come close to, if not reach, his total tally from last year of 97.
Even if that is the case, assuming Mr. Forrester does not back off from his constant poetry, there will be no opportunity for anyone to be the top scorer organically – that is, by making posts as needed instead of planning many ahead of time.
Mr. Forrester’s posts, also thanks to the poetry, averaged the most words per post at 154.81. Second to him was IT Director Yossie Frankel, at 130 words per post – without even resorting to such measures as daily poetry.
Regarding the other scorers, Rabbi Schwarzberg – the victor in the 2021-22 season – is poised to take bronze with 55. He amassed this with administrative posts and, in particular, announcements regarding Night Seder, a revamped after-school Torah learning opportunity.
Behind Rabbi Schwarzberg so far are, in close succession, Rabbi Tsaidi (46) and Dr. Keiter (43); the former often posts about special programs, while Dr. Keiter has weekly Town Hall reminders to thank for her sum. This is Dr. Keiter’s first instance breaking the Top Ten, while Rabbi Tsaidi would have been a three-peat member of the Top Ten had he made just two more posts last year, as he came in 11th then and 8th the year prior.
Meanwhile, the victor of most likes so far is senior Sam Elyaszadeh, with 184. However, much of these were attributable to a single post – a whopping 109 he received on a particularly shticky post in which he requested a day off for everyone due to heavy rainstorms. It was the most-liked post of the year.
Mr. Weslow came in second in likes with 141, a more impressive figure across his 78 posts – as opposed to Sam, who posted just 11 times in total.
The user who made the most comments was History Chair Dr. Harris, with 26.
Among the Top Ten posters, after a large gap is a sixth-place tie between Ms. Popper and Dr. Jonny Ravanshenas, both of whom post about events, scheduling and various programming. They each have 28.
And Athletics Director Jeff Remer again made his presence known, continuing to keep Shalhevet updated on all of its teams’ scores.
Speaking of scores, only two students have graced this year’s leaderboard.
Junior Mateo Robinson, like Dr. Keiter, makes weekly Town Hall–related posts; as Agenda Vice Chair, it has been his responsibility to ask for student announcements and “Meme of the Week” submissions.
Rounding us out is sophomore Etan Lerner, who frequently makes posts related to his revitalized student publication Nitzotzei Torah, along with the occasional Philosophy Club announcement.
The one non-graduating member of last year’s Top Ten who has thus far not made it this year is Rabbi Stein. Perhaps this can be attributed to his role switching from Judaic Studies principal to Dean of Academic Affairs when he assumed the role of Assistant Rabbi at B’nai David-Judea. He scored 15 compared to 45 last season.
Ms. Malka Popper, who has Rabbi Stein’s old position as Judaic Studies principal, scored sixth with 28.
