No-Stress Teacher Training

Last Sunday, Joel and Josh spent the day at Congregation Beth Emek in Pleasanton, Calif. They worked with education director Judith Radousky and a bunch of teachers, discussing lesson planning, classroom management, and how to best utilize all kinds of curricular materials in their teaching.

It was a lot of fun, a lot of learning, and it cost Congregation Beth Emek… nothing.

Here’s the deal: If you use Torah Aura materials, we’ll come to your school to work with educators, rabbis, teachers, and even parents. You pay us nothing. Nada. Zilch. Every Torah Aura book or instant lesson comes with free teacher training. (All you have to do is arrange to cover the cost of our coach-class travel from Los Angeles.)

Interested in doing some awesome teacher education? Email Josh: josh@torahaura.com, or call him at (800) BE-TORAH, x122.

Hanukkah already?

Hanukkah is fast approaching. December 3rd will be here before you know it.

For a super-cool Hanukkah art project, check out our “Decorate Your Own Dreidles.” These wood dreidles are 2.75″ tall, and they come with blank sides that your students can decorate.

While you’re at it, you should check out our bulk wooden dreidles (the ones that come with the letters already on them). You get 25 for just $6.99.

Of course, don’t forget the excellent Hanukkah materials from Torah Aura, especially The True Story of Hanukkah. The lesson goes way beyond the oil story, presenting Hanukkah as the evolution of a social struggle between two different groups of Jews using historical documents and primary sources.

As Easy as Comparing Apples to… Apples?!?!

Have you seen the awesome Jewish edition of Apples to Apples®? Well, we got it!

Apples to Apples® is the wild, award-winning card and party game that provides instant fun for four to ten players!

It’s as easy as “comparing apples to apples”…just open the box, deal the cards, and you’re ready to play! Select the card from your hand that you think is best described by a card played by the judge. If the judge picks your card, you win that round. And everyone gets a chance to be the judge!

Torah Aura is proud to carry the Jewish edition and the Junior Jewish edition of Apples to Apples®. Each round is filled with surprising and outrageous comparisons from a wide range of Jewish people, places, things, and events. Fast moving and refreshing, Apples to Apples® is a great way to add pizzazz and fun to your Jewish classroom.

Candlestick Magic & Hiddur Mitzvah

by Laurie Bellet

Yesterday, I ordered 100 wood candlesticks. I suppose that it isn’t so surprising. After all, I do teach a lot of students and, candlesticks for Shabbat are a staple on everybody’s art experience agenda. I guess I ought to add that this is the second order of 100 wood candlesticks that I have placed since the current school year began.

So, here’s the deal and (and what a deal it is):

Using Cell Phones for Teaching and Learning

Following is a piece written by an educator in the field about using technology in the Jewish classroom. For Joel Lurie Grishaver’s take on technology and Jewish education, check out his article, “The Jewish Message as Medium: Jewish Education in the Information Age,” from the Summer ’07 issue of Jewish Education News. You can read it by clicking here.

by Andrew Pass

Last year I taught an eighth grade Hebrew High School class at my Conservative synagogue. Class met for a total of two hours a week. Each week it seemed as if I was competing against my students’ cell phones. They rang at the most inopportune times. Can you relate?

Finally, towards the end of the school year, I had an idea. One Monday evening, I asked my students if they all had their cell phones. Of course, they did. I said, “Good! We are going to use them in class today.” After a short discussion on the nature of God, I asked students to take five pictures of objects that they believed supported the existence of God and five objects that they believed deterred from such a belief. The students were intrigued that I was asking them to use their cell phones instead of telling them to put them away. They engaged in this out-door activity. We had a wonderful discussion about the pictures, and more importantly about God, after we returned to the classroom.

Ten years ago who would have thought that eighth graders would bring cell phones with them to Hebrew high school? Who would have thought that nearly all cell phones would have built-in cameras? We live in an age of incredibly advanced technology. For most adults this technology is fantastically innovative. Most teenagers don’t see technology this way. Instead they see it as a normal part of life. Mark Prensky, a well known educational technologist, refers to children as “digital natives” and adults as “digital immigrants.”

So what does this mean to Jewish educators who work in community high schools?