Want technology? Have we got a Hebrew APP for you!

We started with a few goals:

• Improving the Hebrew School experience.
• Maximizing student success at Hebrew reading.
• Involving parents in their child’s education.
• Eliminating the failure that is based on lack of long term memory consolidation.
• Providing teachers with valuable knowledge of student progress.

The Background

In the 90s we changed Jewish education by creating “Home Workbooks” for our Hebrew and Prayer series. These home workbooks involved parent by providing them with background on what was learned in class each day and by inviting them to do the practice material with their child.

The beauty of the Home Workbook was that no books would be lost in transit. Students could use the page at home (with their parents)—and then pull the homework out of the book because the pages were perforated.

The Home Workbook results were wonderful. We should have done something statistical so I could give you hard numbers, but we didn’t. Lots of parents leaned the Hebrew Alef-Bet with their children—and lots of homework got done, because it was short, fun, and easy.

At just about the same time, Jane Golub experimented with audiotapes (remember audiotapes?). She asked students to record themselves reading a passage and then pass in their tapes. Anecdotally, from both Jane and from the teachers she trained, participation was high and useful to teachers.

We’ve built all of these insights into the new APP.

Looking at the APP

This is easy. For the moment you need an Apple device. If you don’t have one—borrow one. Download the app: Tiyulim. Open the app and to use it follow the directions. For the moment, it is free, because this is a demo (test version), there will be a few changes in the final version.

• It will move faster.
• There will be more graphics.
• At the moment the sample is for Tiyulim. It is available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Soon we will have an Ot La-Ba’ot APP for all devices.
• It will cost $1.99 to download.
• And (if it is not obvious) the sample has three lessons, the student/family version will have the whole book.

The idea is simple: (a) Parents add the APP to a device. Tablets work better because they are bigger—but smart-phones will do. (b) Teachers will communicate the lessons to be done to the families. (c) Families (or just the student) will play through the review pieces and then (d) the student will record and e-mail the included passage to the teacher. Finally, (e) the teacher opens each e-mail, hears the recording, and evaluates each student.

Improving the Hebrew School Experience

Two things make kids hate Hebrew school. This APP begins to solve both problems. Both of them have to do with reading Hebrew out loud.

First, it is really boring waiting for everyone in your class to read a line in turn. The very way that teachers can evaluate and individualize the central goal of a Hebrew/Prayer program is its central problem. The entire collection of anti-Hebrew school literature centers on being bored during this one person reading at the time process.

What super-charges the boredom (that Freud described as the passive expression of anxiety) is fear of and embarrassment at pain. Reading out loud put a number of students at risk of public failure. Judaism compares embarrassing someone to killing someone. “Anyone who shames another person in public is like a person who sheds blood.” (Bava Metizia 58b)”

Boredom is one of the most destructive effects of passivity. Lack of variety is annoying; extreme repetitiveness drives people to despair. Passivity generates drudgery because it sucks ambition out of the environment. Little by little, routine turns to hopelessness. Life enjoyment wanes as individuals are emptied of their last drops of entrepreneurship.

The honest truth is that the process of sitting in class while the first person reads line one and the second person reads line two while the ninth kid anxious rehearses the ninth line is destructive. It is actually psychologically destructive. This APP can change that.

The APP offers teachers a chance to hear and evaluate every student without embarrassment and without waiting in line. Boredom and tension are gone. By recording at home and e-mailing the reading—we eliminate the public embarrassment and the waiting. We also grant students the right to record the passage as many times as they want—perfecting (and rehearsing) their performance. This means that the reading in class can be done in small groups, teams, and in lots of ways that are more fun and involve much less fear of embarrassment.

Maximize Student Success at Hebrew Reading.

Despite a phonics predisposition, the NRP (National Reading Panel) concluded that “phonics instruction produces the biggest impact on growth in reading when it begins in kindergarten or 1st grade before children have learned to read independently” and it “failed to exert a significant impact on the reading performance of low-achieving readers in 2nd through 6th grades” (NRP, 2000, pp. 2-93-94). The NRP also noted that “it is important to emphasize that systematic phonics instruction should be integrated with other reading instruction to create a balanced reading program. Phonics instruction is never a total reading program….”

While recently early education (and hence Hebrew education) has favored phonetic learning, there is a lot of research favoring WPW (Whole-Part-Whole Learning Model) learning, which is supported in constructivist learning.

The truth is almost never 100% true. What leads to the confusion in the “Reading Wars” is that some students do better with Part-to-Whole processing (phonetics) others do better in Whole-to-Part-to-Whole learning (Whole Language). In creating both Tiyulim and Ot La-Ba’ot we favor phonics but give a nod and include some material that is WPW. In that way we honor both learning styles. The APP does the same thing, using both part-to-whole and whole-to-part activities. The drill lets everyone learn in their own best way.

All drill is good. Everything that you can get students and families (note: and families) to at home: Dayenu! But listening to Gardner and reinforcing each student in their own style is even better. Our APP does that.

Involve Parents in Their Child’s Education.

To create the kinds of school-family partnerships that raise student achievement, improve local communities, and increase public support, we need to understand the difference between family involvement and family engagement. One of the dictionary definitions of involve is “to enfold or envelope,” whereas one of the meanings of engage is “to come together and interlock.” Thus, involvement implies doing to; in contrast, engagement implies doing with. (Ferlazzo, Larry “Involvement or Engagement?” Educational Leadership.” May 2011. Volume 68 Number 8)

The word “engagement” is the hot word in Jewish education. It was originally used in the context of family engagement. Secular educators figured out that student did better if their parents were engaged (actively involved) in their child’s school. Jewish education seconded that conception. When we created the Home Workbooks) we knew that knowledge of Hebrew was a boundary issue that kept parents (Jewish or non-Jewish of origin) from being involved with their child’s Hebrew learning.

Years ago, we solved this problem by including “Today I Learned…” pages that allowed students to teach their parents how to read Hebrew, letter by letter. These have now been transferred to the application making it easy for student and parents to play the activities together. We know (1) the co-viewing can be a powerful parent-child learning format  and (2) that learning through teaching s a very powerful way to learn. Both happen wghen students use the APP to teach their parents.

Using the APP, you can build Jewish family engagement, further parent learning, and create a powerful, positive, co-viewing experience.

Eliminating the Failure that is Based on Lack of Long Term Memory Consolidation.

It takes three classes a week to mazimize second language mastery and move new learning from short term to long term memory. (Yosi Gordon, unpublished Doctoral Dissertation)

Meeting once or twice a week (for Hebrew) makes success less achievable. If you can add an involved Review (using the Review APP) you dramatically increase the odds. The review APPs for both Tiyulim or Ot La-Ba’ot accomplishes another Hebrew intervention per-week.

1. Parents object to Hebrew School Homework.
2. Parents are demanding that Hebrew Schools use technology.
3. Our APP sells homework as technology and invites parental engagement.
4. Our APPs give students a much better chance at succeeding in moving short-term memory (new learning) into long term memory (learning that stays). Not only does the review help, but the fact that it is fun, also adds it chance to make it into long term memory (see Mind, Brain, and Education: Neruscience Implications for the Classroom edited by David A. Sousa).

Benefits of the New App

1. COST: You can save about $10.00 per student by using Torah Aura Productions technology.
2. HIPNESS: You will be using the latest technology platform. Families are moving to tablets (and APPs) and not to more laptops.
3. LEARNING: Students will gain insights into Hebrew and not focus just on psychomotor coordination.
4. ENGAGEMENT: You will invite parents to successfully learn Hebrew along with their child.
5. TEACHERS: Your teachers will have a chance to accurately evaluate each child’s progress—not with a number of passes but with an actual performance.
6. STUDENTS: You will see actual improvement in students’ Hebrew Learning because our materials are designed to help that progress.

Click here for more information on the new Tiyulim/Ot la-Ba’ot Hebrew Review App. Download the demo now from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.

Because I understand loneliness, I believe in the existence of the human soul. I believe that we are engineered with a need for connection. People aren’t meant to be alone. More than just believing that infants need attention, I believe that all of us need family, community, and a circle of friends. Loneliness is the 60 cycle hum of the human soul turned on and running, but not yet connected. It is the screaming over the phone line—waiting for a modem on the other side to respond.

There are two basic ways of dealing with loneliness without making friends. One is to suffer. The other is to mask the loneliness with business. We try to be too busy to feel, or we try to numb the feeling. At the moment we have two realities. At this stage in the development of technology there seems to be a lot of engagement that can best be described as isolating.

I believe in love letters. Correspondence can develop relationships. The research on social media suggests that social media connections can deepen relationships but have a hard time creating them (see Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger)

AFFILIATION

Here is what I know. Affiliation (and contributions) are trending down. It is as if a guy in a rubber dinosaur suit is crushing a city built of cardboard buildings. Jewish institutions are closing, merging, and downsizing. Jews are staying away in droves. What is easy to witness is the fact that teens are staying away from all youth movements and report that they don’t want cliques (see Current Trends in Jewish Teen Participation with Out-of-School Activities). Show me a teen that doesn’t want to be part of a clique and it is bad news for the Jets and the Sharks. Likewise, boys in particular (who are notorious at being busy playing video games and hacking) are staying away from any Jewish groups.

While we are often complaining that Jewish institutions are not investing enough in technology, ironically this is the technology that creates the business that impedes membership. If the Jewish people are going to fight for their future, technology (positive or negative) is not the issue, community (and affiliation) is.

THE BLAME GAME

We blame the Religious School (and demand that it only be fun) while simply not joining or not attending the synagogue that is the real source of the alienation. It is not only the memory of the synagogue not being fun, of it as a source of boredom, but that as Christopher Lasch in The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations describes it the new narcissist keeps far away from any involvements that might limit his freedom and mobility. And, yes, I am suggesting that those lost in the reflection of the ipad screen and worship at the idol of the latest and the coolest are narcissist.

I want it clear; I am not blaming the technology, though it tends to inflict dopamine addiction, but the context in which it is place. I am not blaming the victims of boredom, though I am saddened by their response. I am concerned about the Jewish community’s and the Jewish educational communities’ response to non-involvement in that they have forgotten that our greatest gift is the ability to end loneliness. Community—not reinforced individuality—is our best sell. We need not go into the ontology of “freedom” here. It is enough to say that belonging and feeling connected does not limit free will.

We need to listen through the apparent selfishness and consumerism of the current generations and understand that they are masking their loneliness with a great new business.

OUR BEST TRUTH

We should be on facebook and twitter. We need apps and websites, and we have to make peace with technology and those who use it. But our strongest sell needs to be, “We can end loneliness.” Our schools are a place of friendships. Our communities are accepting, supportive, and welcoming. Where those things are not true—we must make them true.

Ron Wolfson latest hit (after “welcoming”) will be Relational Judaism. He is right and his book will be the next great “The Jewish Book.” It is well deserved.

In the same way, Gila Gevirtz’s new Experiencing Sacred Community should be the new standard for Jewish education. To build a shining Jewish future—we need a round table—we need a communal Judaism.

Rather than thinking of this moment as a beginning of decline—or even a radical call for innovation (though that is never bad) think of it as a moment where the loneliness and need that will build the future is fermenting. While bells and whistles can mask loneliness, they can never solve it. The need for human contact will give us a future.

Skype may be a foreshadowing of teleportation. Texting certainly has replaced the quill. But remember “we need one another…” because “no man is a keyboard.”

Soon, we will gather with family and friends, at a Pesah seder, where we will celebrate the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery. Many of us will reflect that Jews throughout the world from Alaska to Katmandu, are participating in a seder. We will marvel at being a part of Klah Yisrael, the people of Israel. Our children are a part of this family as well.

What (and who) is Israel? What probably first comes to mind is “Israel” the country, the historic homeland of the Jewish People. But “Israel” is more. There is Israel “the place,” and Israel, “the people.” The mitzvah of Ahavat Yisrael, loving Israel, calls us to love both the land of Israel and Klal Yisrael, the people of Israel. Loving Israel links us to both the land and the people.

Teaching our children about “Israel” is about teaching both of these ideas.

Israel is a large family spread all over the world. We are a diverse group with different opinions, cultures, lifestyles, levels of observance, and beliefs. However, we are still all one family with responsibilities to each other.

Although home rituals are central to Judaism, much of Judaism also happens when we come together as a community.

• We come together to celebrate and to pray.
• We support each other in good times and bad.
• We welcome our newest members with family and friends at a brit milah (circumcision) or simhat bat.
• We support those who are ill or have experienced a death in the family.
• We communally give voice to our shortcomings and our wishes for peace and good health in the coming year during the High Holidays.
• We read the megillah and bring Purim alive, and then celebrate together at a Purim carnival.
• We connect with those we care about when we share a Passover Seder with family and friends.
• We strengthen each other as members of a vibrant Jewish community as we celebrate Israel on Yom HaAtzmaut.

We are the family of Israel, Klal Yisrael.

We know that young children are experiential learners who use all of their senses as they discover, make sense of, and make connections with their world. They learn best when presented with concrete encounters with things and events that are meaningful for them and that build on their previous knowledge and experiences. They must see, touch, smell, hear, and even taste these experiences as they strive to make sense of something new. As educators, we also know that teaching abstract ideas to children is never easy, and is often developmentally inappropriate.

The concept of “country” is one of the most difficult ideas for young children to grasp. Second and third grade teachers report that many of these “older” children do not yet grasp the idea that they live in a neighborhood, town, county, state, and country. They are not yet developmentally ready to understand geography.

Israel – both the country and Klal Yisrael – are too central to Judaism for young children not to have some exposure to them. When we introduce Jewish concepts and the story behind Jewish holidays, we understand that this is the beginning of what we hope will be a lifelong exploration for them. With this in mind, we thoughtfully introduce the youngest members of our community to their global family and community.

This raises the important question of what an appropriate curriculum might be, one that teaches our young learners about Klal Israel in a way that is suitable for their age and supports understanding. As always, we have to begin by asking what we want the children to come away with, and what they can remember and return to as they grow and learn more about Klal Israel .

Initially, children can learn about Klal Israel simply by hearing about it. One of our goals in an early childhood classroom is to provide a language rich environment. We surround children with words that they understand and words that they will come to understand through experiences. To facilitate these learning opportunities, we create a Jewishly enriched environment by using Jewish words and values that children come to understand and adopt as part of their vocabulary and their growing Jewish identity  ensch, brakhah, Torah, mitzvah, boker tov, Shabbat, tzedakah, shalom , and Israel and Klal Israel.

Young children may not fully comprehend what something happening “long ago” means, but they can have an understanding that what they do now has been done for a long time. First, it happened in Eretz Yisrael, the land of Israel. And now, today, Jews living all over the world continue to observe these mitzvot/practices. This must be important if their family, their teachers and friends give it such meaning.

As we strive to integrate secular and Judaic curriculum, consider the concepts of same and different – core concepts for literacy and math – as support to make these ideas more understandable.

The earth is full of different people. Some of those people are Jewish. Children go to the park or the beach. They see children with the same colored hair as they have. They do not know them, but they are all a part of the brown hair community. Perhaps a child likes mac and cheese. Many other people like mac and cheese. A child does not know them, but they are all part of the mac and cheese club.

Children go to synagogue for Purim, Shabbat or another holiday. There are so many people there. They know some of them, but do not know all of them. But they are all Jewish and are all there to celebrate together.

Being Jewish is being part of the Jewish club with other Jews who live all over the world. We are the same that way. We are all a part of the Jewish family even if we do not know them, and they do not know us. We are connected to other Jews all over the world even if we have not met them.

Torah/Bible stories are a place to start. When we tell the stories of our ancestors, say, “This story happened a very long time ago in the land of Israel. Israel is our special Jewish place.” Explain that the people we read about in the Torah are our great, great, great, great, great … grandparents. They were the first Jewish people. We are a part of Klah Yisrael, the big Jewish family.

As the children learn about each Jewish holiday, the rituals that surround it, and the values and mitzvot that guide us, we should share with the children that these observances began long ago in the land of Israel long ago and continue today with Jews all over the world. Whenever the topic is something Jewish, you can point out that other Jewish people in the world are celebrating, eating and doing and reading and learning, just like they are.

Introducing the idea of Klal Yisrael creates a budding awareness, beginning children’s understanding and connecting a Jewish child to his or her extended family of Jews all over the world. So, as you talk about what Jewish people “do,” emphasize that there are Jews in places all over the world who are also doing these Jewish things. Connect them to our history, to Klal Yisrael. Being a part of Klal Yisrael, the Jewish family, must be very special, if they and families like theirs are all doing the very same thing – from Alaska to Katmandu!

APPs: We have decided to invest in apps rather than websites. First of all the security is much better. Second, and most importantly, you can take an app with you. You don’t need to be plugged in. Students can work in a parking lot, a dentist’s office, their own room, or wherever. Therefore, because we believe in the future of smartphones and tablets, we’ve made a commitment to applications. This year we are releasing apps for our two primers, Ot La-Ba’ot and Tiyulim. More will follow in the future.

Recordings: We know that video games are fun, but it is really hard to evaluate a student’s proficiency from the number of passes a student’s avatar can make on a skateboard ramp. Because schools are emphasizing Hebrew (mechanical) reading, the only way to really evaluate their growth is by hearing them read. We know two things. First, that reading out loud in class is one of the things that most turns off students. Even if they read well, and don’t mind waiting a long time while everyone else performs, the listening to students who fail at the task is torturous. Second, we knew that Jane used to give her students audiotapes (remember audiotapes) and have them record readings at home. It was really successful for her and her students. Students had a chance to practice first, get help from parents where necessary, and record themselves without fear of being teased for mistakes in class. It also gave Jane a chance to focus on and note each student’s progress. We decided to build the right tech into our Hebrew Review apps. Now, students can read a passage into the phone (or tablet) and e-mail their reading (a wave file) to their teacher. The tech here is simple enough for any teacher who can open an e-mail.

Experiential Education: We accept the premise that Jewish schools can no longer feel like regular schools. We believe that experiential education—camp style learning—is one of the key ways to go. We have created a series of experiential textbooks.

• Grades 3-4 Experiencing Jewish Holidays
• Grades 4-5 Experiencing the Torah
• Grades 5-7 Experiencing Jewish Prayer
• Grades 7-9 Experiencing Sacred Community

And to make all of this easier and clearer, and presently in process, an academic volume with the leaders in the field: Experience and Jewish Education, Edited by David Bryfman.

Project Based Learning: We know that project based learning is tough on a couple a day (or less) time frame. Still it is a good thing. We have rewritten one of our old classics, Zot ha-Torah, simplified it, took out the Hebrew layer, added experiential activities, and added internet driven project based learning. It is now called: Parashah—Experiencing the Weekly Torah Portion.

Stuff: For a long time we have been selling big books, plush Torahs, puzzles, games, toys and all that kind of stuff. We also have one sided Simhat Torah flags so students can create the other side. A couple of years ago we added tallitot kits, hallah covers, siddur covers and other cloth craft resources. In the past year, we expanded our equipment and are now selling really big Israel maps, Alef Bet posters, giant board games and more. We have learned that when books are no longer at the center of what schools do—schools need lots of stuff.

The Flipped Classroom: One of the latest innovations in public education has been the flipped classroom. Here, student listen to the lecture at home (on the internet) and then go to class to do the homework with their teacher’s help. This started in high school math and science and now is having lots of other applications. We believe that it is a really good way to do small increments of family education. We are going to start by putting Torahtoons on YouTube and publishing a new resource guide that will let you (a) create a short ten minute hope experience in preparation for (b) a classroom experiential session.

E-Books, E-Textbooks. Many of our adult books have already been converted to e-books and by summer we will have a number of e-textbooks as well. We don’t know where the use of devices is heading in the classroom, but we are prepared to follow along.

We’re thinking about our place in the coming world and are interested in suggestions.

To create the kinds of school-family partnerships that raise student achievement, improve local communities, and increase public support, we need to understand the difference between family involvement and family engagement. One of the dictionary definitions of involve is “to enfold or envelope,” whereas one of the meanings of engage is “to come together and interlock.” Thus, involvement implies doing to; in contrast, engagement implies doing with. (Ferlazzo, Larry “Involvement or Engagement? ”Educational Leadership.” May 2011. Volume 68 Number 8)

Zero Defects

Thirty years ago the hippest book in America was In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters. It was a time when American Industry looked towards Japanese business practices to improve our own. Two of the innovations from that period have a great potential to effect Jewish education today.

The first is the Zero Defects movement. Zero Defects was a quality control program originated by the Denver Division of the Martin Marietta Corporation (now Lockheed Martin) on the Titan Missile program, which carried the Project Gemini astronauts into space in the middle to late 1960s. It is one of the postulates from Philip Crosby‘s  “Absolutes of Quality Management“. The idea here is simple. It is easier to go for zero defects than it is to reduce defects for six to four percent. Striving for perfection gets the best results.

The second is Quality circles. Quality circles were informal gatherings of managers and works that brainstormed ways of improving production excellence.

Observers of American Jewry have noted the seismic shift during the 1980s away from communal policies mainly designed to foster Jewish integration toward a survivalist agenda. Communal leaders became less preoccupied with fostering the socio-economic advancement of Jews, and instead set themselves a new challenge: How do we help Jews maintain a strong connection to Jewish life? (Wertheimer, Jack. Linking the Silos:How to Accelerate the Momentumin Jewish Education Today.)

Engagement and Jewish Education

In secular education, (The World of Educational Leadership) “engagement” has come to mean “family connection.” (Kein Yehiyah Ratzon—May it be God’s Will). In Jewish education it has taken on more of the “involvement“ meaning. Simply put, involvement is not enough. Engagement as “participatory” involvement isn’t enough, either.

For the Jewish people to survive, we need students who will in some way join the Jewish people. Jews who grow up with an inner-sense of Judaism are not enough. A person who brags that they are one-fifth Jewish isn’t enough. Neither is having a family meal and calling it a Seder, What we need are Jews who connect regularly with other Jews and together seek to build a Jewish future.

Directly put, the primary objective of Jewish education needs to be membership. By Membership I am as good with a major gift to federation as I am with participating in a small minyan that meets in an upper West Side apartment. We need to teach belonging. Community and Leadership need to be major parts of our curriculum.

Zero Defects and Quality Circles

I think his name was Glenn. He got thrown out of his Hebrew school class virtually every day. He wound up hanging out in my youth room. I never knew how he got there. But, part of my policy as a youth director was to provide sanctuary. I got the word that he had dropped out of the Hebrew School and his parents had quit the synagogue. I made arrangements to take him out to lunch. We ate together. I put on no pressure. I just said good-bye, because I thought that someone at the synagogue needed to. It was my version of zero defects. It would probably better be labeled “an exit interview.” I just thought that someone needed to say good-bye if there was to be any hope for a “hello” in the future.

Zero Defects in Jewish Schooling means that we let no one quit, no one leave. It means that we have to fight to retain every family. And fighting to keep every family means that we need to listen and we have to change. This, by the way, doesn’t mean we have to give up our standards though we may have to rethink our methods.

Quality circles is the second part of the formula. Whether it is families or students, you need to give your clients a voice in the process. Lots of synagogues and schools have already done this in programs like S2k and Imagine (etc). And while there is an old chestnut about putting people who complain on the committee, this is not that. Here, you honestly start with the question, “What can make what we do more effective?

Here is what you are thinking. If you are not worried that they will want you to fire half your teachers and cut a day a week out of the school—then, you are thinking that there is no way you can get them to show up. You can figure out how to get them there—I know you can. I also know that first you listen; then you think about change. You will need to change—but you know that already.

Getting Engaged

Let’s assume that engagement is a maximal word rather than a minimal world. If we read the educational literature, it is more than experiential. It is experiential with a connection; ideally a family connection. This means that we have to do a lot more than run a few “station” events for families—it means we need to engage in a real partnership with them. Partnerships involving sharing responsibilities (we have to get them to take some). And partnerships mean sharing control. Think zero defects and quality circles. But, most of all, we need to teach Jewish community by creating Jewish community. There are a lot of businesses out there that are now trying to take over synagogue schools. If we think of education as a product, then we might as well let them take over. But, we have it in our power to do a couple of things they can’t do. Families that want to “buy” an education (or a Bar/Bat Mitzvah prep) can now do so on the internet. We can offer them two things they can’t buy with a i-pad. First we can be a great synagogue. Second we can be the great interactive school that synagogue offers. That is the only way we can achieve out central goal of membership.

It is mid- December and the hallways at Oakland Hebrew Day School are pulsing with excitement. Hanukkah may be in full swing and winter break is soon to come, but this enthusiasm is not generated by these. No, our entire school is impatiently awaiting the annual Maccabia.

At OHDS, Maccabia is a day long, student directed, competition encompassing, Sports, Judaics, Drama , Music and Art. Teams are led by an 8^th grade General with the support of two 7^th grade Captains. Teachers are team members; the students are the leadership. One team wears warm colors (red/yellow/orange) and the other wears cool colors (blue/green/violet).

Maccabia happens on a Thursday. The planning begins on Tuesday evening with early emphasis on coordinating and planning the art components. On this single Maccabia day, each team must produce an originally designed trash can (these then enhance our campus permanently), complete a major hesed project, compose an art piece with the youngest students, produce a school gift and, design and complete the hallmark of the day – the team shelet (banner).

The shelet is a 2ft by 3ft cloth banner. Banners from previous years hang in our school Ulam. The shelet director is always a middle school artist. At a team meeting (2 nights prior to the event), leaders select a pasuk (verse) that includes the team name and then the shelet director goes to work, drawing a design based on this pasuk. This year team Taninim and team Nesharim were in contest, which allowed for great creative opportunity. The design must include the pasuk, the team name and the Hebrew date. Once I approve the shelet design, the artist/director draws this onto the fabric, ready to go by Thursday at 9:30a.m.

All day Thursday, the Art Studio is a center of industry. The shelet must be completed by 2 p.m. It is both painted and collaged by a team of artists, under the supervision of the shelet director ( a middle school student). Colors are mixed, collage elements explored and a d’var Torah, based on the art is discussed and written.

In another area of the room, two 5^th grade students are recruiting and supporting our youngest artists, in grades K-2, to create a mini-shelet for each team. The enterprise spreads into the hallway. Here a group of artists from each team transfers their pre-approved designs to large trash cans, turning an ordinary object into an incredible piece of art. This year, these middle school artists transformed plain gray garbage cans into sweeping masterpieces of eagles swooping and sea creatures breaching. As with the shelet these artists must prepare to explain to the panel of judges, how the design reflects the team names.

The school gift changes from year to year. In years passed, teams have gifted mehitza curtains, tiled street signs and sukkah panels. This year, spread on the floor was a chuppah, ready to be completed to enhance our traditional celebrations such as Haggigat ha Siddur. The teams work collaboratively on the school gift and they are judged by their level of cooperation. At the end of the day, a 2 artists from this project must, together, describe the process with which they completed this gift.

The Hesed project also changes from year to year. We have made blankets for the local children’s hospital, cuddly pillows for families who are living in a shelter and placemats for a meal delivery service. This year, our students in grade k-2, made mizrah plaques, under the direction of older students, to be sent to a school in Brooklyn which was heavily damaged by Hurricane Sandy.

Although I have been a part of Maccabia for 8 years now, the day never ceases to amaze me. In the span of just hours, these students create majestic pieces of art. Although they are in competition, in the Art venues, partisanship is suspended and collaboration reigns.

At 2pm, the teams gather in the Ulam for their final presentations. Even though I have been involved with the Art all day long, to see the finished pieces and hear the students’ speeches and divrei Torah is always a privilege.

If you ever wonder about programming that can excite and teach an entire community, consider replicating Maccabia, Oakland Hebrew Day School style.

Yes, we begin the day as two teams, one dressed in warm and one dressed in cool. But, at the end of the day we mix to form a resplendent rainbow!

We are writing this on the last day of Hanukkah, and only a few days after the unspeakable tragedy in Connecticut. We had planned to write about Purim, but now we are approaching Purim with a different perspective and with a different clarity. We are thinking about the clowns—clowns that are sent into the circus rings when there has been an accident during a performance. They are there to distract the crowd while the injured are removed from the arena.

Purim has, as we know, a frightening story. Once again the Jews face a serious threat from a man in power who has great hatred towards them. Megilat Esther, the Book of Esther, tells in great detail about this hate and Haman’s plans to kill the entire Jewish community of Persia. They are saved through the action of a great hero, Queen Esther, who risks her own life to save them.

But wait: Purim is not serious. Of all the Jewish holidays, Purim is the holiday that is the most fun for everyone, especially children. It is dressing in costumes and having carnivals. Its celebrations are loud and fun and its foods are all desserts. It is one of the two times where being noisy in synagogue is encouraged (Simhat Torah is the other). And all this comes from a story straight from the Arabian Nights.

It is a great strength that a community can unite in order to take a horrible event and reframe it. We do not dwell on the evil but on the survival. Just as someone under extreme stress can begin to laugh for no reason, in the face of the Purim story and the possibility of death and destruction of innocent lives, we laugh and laugh and laugh. We take the story and turn it on its head. Purim is topsy-turvy. Everything is backwards and upside down. Other Jewish holidays are home centered. Purim is, with deliberate intention, celebrated with the community, a loud, colorful community. There are costumes and masks. These costumes help us to change our reality, and perhaps the masks serve to hide what we do not want to see. We do not like this reality, so we change it by changing what we see and what we wear.

Purim is perfect for children. There is a king and a queen, a villain with a funny hat, a brave uncle, and a castle. What more could a child want? Its story and costumes are not meant to frighten but to entertain. It is Aladdin with a Jewish twist. Dressing up in costumes is a way for the child to be a part of the story. Children innately understand that they can change their reality by being princesses and kings and heroes, something that adults must consciously bring to Purim.

But as we think of Purim, we are reminded that like other stories of our holidays, it is a story of hatred and violence. As educators we walk a tight rope, continually exploring a way to tell our stories, but in a way that still protects and shelters children. How do we tell the story? Can it be Purim without the story?

It is our natural inclination to want to protect children. In response to the terrible event of a few days ago, many of us have carefully crafted letters to our families urging them to be mindful of how young children need to be cared for and sheltered from information they cannot process or understand.

As adults, we are aware of Jewish history and how difficult it has often been for Jews to live in harmony with their non-Jewish neighbors. Our world is very different now. We do not want young children to feel that it is not safe to be Jewish. Many of our children have a parent and/or relatives who are not Jewish. We do not want them to be uneasy about those relationships.

Idie once had a three-year-old in her program who climbed into her non-Jewish father’s lap and asked “Daddy, do you like Jewish people? Haman didn’t like Jewish people.” Children whose parents are divorced or separated may also be troubled by the Vashti story, one woman being sent away and another taking her place.

On the other hand, just recently Dale was approached by a congregant after a Family Shabbat celebration called “Stuffed Animal Shabbat.” For parshah Noah, the Rabbi told a unique and lighthearted version of the story of Noah’s Ark, one that engaged the children, their stuffed animals, and most of the congregation. This congregant was concerned that the children weren’t being told the “real” story. Dale felt that the Rabbi’s story contained the essence of the “real” story, but was crafted in a way that was developmentally appropriate for his target audience.

Are we “sugar coating” the stories? If “sugar coating” means a watered down version, then no. If it means making the learning sweet and meaningful for young children, then yes. As early childhood educators, we know that there will be a time in the future when children are developmentally ready to hear and understand a more detailed telling of these stories. How much do young children need to know?

We feel that without the essence of the story, Purim loses an opportunity to connect children to our community. A gentle telling of the story tailored to children’s ages and stages is appropriate. When we wrote Torah Aura’s Purim Drops of Honey, we told the story in a way that focused on the characters and what could be learned from them.

We want to shelter children from harsh truths of life and of the detail in some stories of the Jewish people. But what is it that we DO want them to know? We want children to know that:

• Esther was a hero. Yes, girls can be heroes – even girls in frilly dresses. . The whole book is named after Esther, our hero. She is a model of courage and grace, intelligence, resourcefulness, and modesty. Esther teaches even in the most difficult of times, we can do the right thing.
• Holidays can be joyous and that together – as a community – we are stronger and can vanquish evil.
• Good triumphs over bad. In this story, Haman is the vehicle that helps us. He tried to hurt with cruel words and lies but did not win. This is a comforting lesson today and one that can give children some security.

A thoughtful approach to Purim allows us to protect our children and ourselves. We all have difficult days. Purim tells us it is okay to be happy. Fun, laughter, and imagination are important and to be celebrated. The winter is ending and spring will come. Purim celebrates life. More than ever, tragedy serves as a reminder of bad and good, of sorrow and of joy… and even more importantly, that as a community, we share it all.

So, send in the clowns!

Drops of Honey: Purim

The Story of Purim—A Jewish Big Book

I’ve tangentially mentioned the concept before, but one of the trends in education (and business) that could prove to be a significant advantage for Jewish education of all kinds—day school, supplemental, informal—is the concept of BYOD—bring your own device.

While many, if not most schools (other than colleges) still prohibit or severely restrict the use of student-owned cellphones, smartphones, tablets and laptops, many forward-thinking institutions have a different approach.

Even if you accept the notion that religious education should perforce be counter-cultural, it is possible to permit the use of technology. I might argue that, in point-of-fact, it may be easier to demonstrate the need for balance and even disconnected time to students in the school setting when the use of the technologies are allowed. It can be hard to illustrate the potential pitfalls when only doing it theoretically! Counter-cultural doesn’t have to mean being anti-technology or troglodytes.

Let’s be plain—not allowing students to utilize technology in their learning settings is like not allowing a doctor to use a stethoscope or a construction worker to use power and hand tools of the trade. Smartphones, tablets, laptops, even gaming devices are the everyday tools of today’s students.

Few school or synagogues can afford the enormous cost of providing technology tools for all of their students. That’s what makes BYOD such an attractive option. Many of your students have these devices. All you need is a plan to allow them to be utilized, and one that provides the tools to those students who don;t yet have them or whose families can’t afford them. (As to families that make a deliberate choice to not give them these devices, that’s something your institution is going to have to think about. If you’ve decided to go the BYOD route and there are families that don’t want their children using the technology, there are philosophical decisions to be made. Will you embrace the technology at the risk of losing some families? Will you find a way to accommodate those families?)

Implementing a BYOD policy requires developing the technology infrastructure needed to support it, and an acceptable-use policy that creates sensible guidelines that make expectations clear to all, especially students. The students’ use of their devices needs to be restricted to those that are part of the educational program. Difficult to control and police? Perhaps. I think if the students are sufficiently engaged they’ll be using the devices to learn rather than play anyway. Some schools are even allowing “text breaks.” Developing social skills is part of what students learn, and today’s social skills include things like texting.

The power of technology, and especially BYOD, can create an amazing learning environment. Imagine your educational setting as a giant virtual Talmud. At the core, the mishna of the topic you are exploring.Your source material is your gemara. With supplementing technology, you have instant access to both find and create all kinds of additional commentary, glosses, notes, etc. (Addtionally, while some may shudder at the prospect, people have been studying in virtual hevruta now for years. Imagine the possibilities for your students to study in hevruta not only with other students int he class, but people from all over the world.)

There are many challenges to implementing a BYOD system. There are issues of technology, content-control, acceptable-use policies, equitable access, cross-platform compatibilities and more. It will take an effort that, I believe, will be worthwhile. The time to start thinking about this is now (well, actually, yesterday.) While it’s a brave new frontier, it’s not unexplored territory, and there is lots of useful information out there to help guide you.

The following are useful articles on the subject of BYOD:

• eSchool News—How to make BYOD work for your schools
• BYOD: A Guide for Schools
• Education Week—Are Schools Prepared to Let Students BYOD
• Challenging the Model of 1:1 with BYOD

What’s the future of technology in education? This info-graphic from Edudemic provides a fascinating look into the possibilities. You can view it online, but you can also download and print it out and post it!. 40 Ways Education Technology Will Be Used in the Future

I’ve mentioned it before, but this LiveBinder is an excellent compendium of useful Web Tools for Teachers Sorted By type.

If you haven’t yet discovered Richard Byrnes’ Free Technology for Teachers site, do go and explore it.

These two recent posts had some great information:

• 60 of the Best Websites and Apps for Teachers
• 30 Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers

Talk back to me! You can reach me at my contact points for my Technology in Jewish Education consulting work: e-mail yoeitzdrian@durlester.com. Twitter: @yoeitzdrian. I also blog and tweet as @migdalorguy and @havanashira. On Google+ I’m +AdrianDurlester

Hillel said: In a place where there are no humans, strive to be human.

Transforming Religious School into Camp: A Look at the why and How

Dr. Roberta Louis Goodman

We participated in a workshop on innovating in Jewish education that lead to our creation of Camp@NSCI for our 3rd and 4th graders. We consulted with experts locally and nation-wide to design this program. This webinar will review why we decided to transform our Sunday program into camp and how we do it. We will share how we are measuring our success too.

Thursday, November 29, 2012
1:00 p.m. EDT/12:00 p.m. CST/11:00 a.m.
MST/10:00 a.m. PDT

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Jewish Education: Is There an App for That?

Ira J. Wise R.J.E.

Every 18 months, computer processors become twice as fast and half as large as they were before. Everyone is talking about incorporating digital technology in Jewish education, and many of us wonder about the best ways of doing that and how we will be able to cope with the changes. In the words of Douglass Adams – DON’T PANIC!

Whether you are digital sabra (native), olah (immigrant) or tayar (tourist), this webinar will help you begin to sort things out. Join Ira Wise for an exploration of some of the possibilities, the costs (financial, logistical, spiritual, etc.) and the benefits (spiritual, communal, educational, etc.).

Ira J. Wise, R.J.E. is in his 18^th year serving as the Director of Education at Congregation B’nai Israel in Bridgeport, CT. He is a Digital Oleh and consults with educators and congregations on how to make digital technologies an effective component in learning, teaching and administration. He loves this stuff, and he is still certain that the best learning happens with a great teacher, a bunch of students and some Jewish texts. He blogs about Jewish Education at http://nextleveljewisheducation.blogspot.com/.

Thursday, December 6, 2012
2:00 p.m. EDT/1:00 p.m. CST/12:00 a.m.
MST/11:00 a.m. PDT

And the Lord spoke unto Moses after the latest food riot and God said unto him, “Speak unto the leading complainers in Israel and say unto them, ‘Form focus groups and write mission statements to set priorities. Use process to determine the rules that the Lord your God has taught you. You should follow the Torah of consensus and worship at the altar of committee.’”

I watch the news almost every afternoon. I have been seeing a set of commercials for Exxon Mobil for a long time without really noticing them. The commercial series is all about Exxon Mobil’s commitment to support teachers; the series of ads use the phrase “Invest in Teachers” and focus on math and science teachers. When I noticed the ads, I Googled the phrase and learned a lot.

Public School Teacher/Hebrew School Teacher

Public School teachers have a very different task (job) than do Jewish Studies and Hebrew School teachers. Public School (and private school teachers) live in a world of metrics and evaluation. As my friends who teach in the public school systems remind me, “It is all about the test. No Child Left Behind was all about tests.” It has been reformed as Race to The Top. It is still all about evaluation of teachers via their students’ progress.

The job of the Jewish teacher is first and foremost affect. Our job (like it or not) is to lead our students into a Jewish future. It is (in old language) to “build Jewish identity;” in today’s mission statement language it is written as to “build Jewish engagement.”

The other end-goal of most Jewish Education has no metric either. What is called “Hebrew Decoding,” the act of turning Hebrew graphemes into fluent and correct phonemes is hard to measure objectively. When you get 87 out of 100 math questions right, I can say you are doing 6^th grade math and are at the 92 percentile of 5^th grade students taking this test. I have objective information on students and teachers.

With Hebrew out-loud reading there is no objective measure. We may be able to agree on “good” and “bad” but I have no way to measure progress. This makes the evaluation of Jewish schools, educational leaders, and teachers, subjective not objective.

Teaching to the numbers may not be good for secular education, and there may be better ways of evaluating both students and teachers (and that is another story). The lack of a “Jewish metric” makes it really hard to succeed. The evaluation of Jewish education either needs a 30-year window (until the time when our students are the parents of students) or it is completely subjective. When there is no way to prove that you are successful—accusations of failure are frequent.

It is easier to imagine learning multiplication from a computer program than it is to imagine participation in Jewish life learned on line. Even so, a lot of educational research suggests that it is the teacher who makes the difference.

Invest in Teachers

The pitch made by Exxon Mobil is that the one thing that most enhances learning is teacher knowledge. That is a lesson that Jewish education has not learned well. More than understanding the latest model popularized by Educational Leadership, we should be developing teachers with deep Jewish knowledge. Look at these reports:

Educational Leadership:“All around the world, nations seeking to improve their education systems are investing in teacher learning as a major engine for academic success. The highest-achieving countries on international measures such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Third International Math and Science Study (TIMSS) have been particularly intent on developing teachers’ expertise both before they enter the profession and throughout their careers”

Bill Gates (Washington Post): “Compared with other countries, America has spent more and achieved less. If there’s any good news in that, it’s that we’ve had a chance to see what works and what doesn’t. That sets the stage for a big change that everyone knows we need: building exceptional teacher personnel systems that identify great teaching, reward it and help every teacher get better. It’s the thing we’ve been missing, and it can turn our schools around.”

Standford Center for Educational Policy: “In these high achieving nations, teachers’ professional learning is a high priority and teachers are treated as professionals. Many of the countries that have established strong infrastructures for high-quality teaching have built them over the last two decades. This suggests that such conditions could be developed in the United States as well, with purposeful effort and clarity about what matters and what works to support professional learning and practice.”

Asia Society: “The best school systems in the world boast good salaries and prestige in the teaching profession. In Japan and China, teachers have equal or higher salaries compared to other government workers. Liu Limin, the Chinese vice minister for education, deadpanned that, “as a civil servant, I can say the salaries aren’t high. But in reality, they are high enough to draw some of the best candidates into the profession.”

Institute of Education, University of London: “Children in classes taught by the best teachers learn four times faster than those in classes taught by the poorest ones, according to a leading educationalist.” (Professor Dylan Wiliam)

While we know that the jobs are different, there is something that Jewish education can learn from investing in teachers—particularly in the content knowledge base rather than the techniques and tricks we share. Look particularly at these articles:

• Gail Zaiman Dorph & Barry W. Holtz, “Professional Development for Teachers: Why Doesn’t the Model Change?” Journal of Jewish Education , Aug 2006
• Sharon Feiman-Nemser , “Teach them diligently to your children: An experiment in avocational teaching” Journal of Religious Education Fall 1997
• Gail Zaiman Dorph, Susan S. Stodolsky & Renee Wohl, “Growing as Teacher Educators: Learning New Professional Development Practices” Journal of Jewish Education Aug 2006
• Gail Zaiman Dorph, “Investigating Prospective Jewish Teachers’ Knowledge and Beliefs about Torah: Implications for Teacher Education” Brandeis University Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

We’ve known about the importance of teacher education for a long time, we’ve just moved away from it.

Beware of Texas

Public schools are likely to get a lot worse. Texas is on the way of banning higher level thinking skills from their state curriculum. The Republican Party of Texas has a platform plank against teachings HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills). As goes the Republican party so goes the Republican controlled State Legislature. As goes the State of Texas so goes all American Educational Publishing companies because they are that big a share of the market. As goes the Educational Publishing Companies so go most public school systems, because there, fulltime degreed teacher aren’t willing to work without books. (That my father bought for two zuzim…)

At the moment, Jewish Education seems to be moving in a number of directions. First, camp-like Experiential education is on the rise. Second, not-so-happy Hebrew time is being reduced or handled on-line. Basically, while public schools are going to information and basic skills in order to pass their tests. Jewish education is going in the other direction, looking to create schools that feel good. This is an observation, not a judgment.

The problem for Jewish Education is two-fold.

First, basic information is being lost. Second, we are no longer raising Jews who have the knowledge and skills to run their own Jewish life. We are no longer raising Jews who have the critical thinking skills to survey the tradition and decide what they believe. Technology can be a useful tool, but in the end, learning communities (that deal with the abstract) are the solution.

The Solution

There are goals, needs, and distractions. Our goal is to raise the next generation of Jews who will take responsibility for both raising another generation of Jews and do their part in tikkun olam. We haven’t been that good at meeting these goals, but they remain the real goals of a Jewish education, not just knowing the four “kinds” that are used on Sukkot or performing rehearsed Hebrew well on a single day.

Our goal is to build a connection between each of our students and the Jewish tradition. To help each student to find a way for Judaism to be useful in his/her life and then (a la Jack Kennedy) to find a way that they can be useful to the Jewish tradition’s future. While these goals are really different from doing well on a standardized test, they fall right in line with older educational goals, ones that focused on HOTS and strive to make students in mathematicians rather than teaching them mathematics, making then biologists rather than teaching them about biology.

Our real goal is to create Jews, not to teach our students about limited aspects of Judaism. And to do that, no matter the medium or the technology, learned teachers are needed. We need to adopt something like the goals the DOE has:

• Elevating the profession and focusing on recruiting, preparing, developing, and rewarding effective teachers and leaders.
• Focusing on teacher and leader effectiveness in improving student outcomes.
• Strengthening pathways into teaching and school leadership positions in high need schools

Our students (and their families) have real needs that require our understanding. We hear them on their e-mails that fill our mailboxes and our voice mail boxes. We know that they are unhappy—and like the consumers they’ve been trained to be—they know exactly what we should be doing for their children. No matter what we want to achieve, their satisfaction has to be taken into consideration and real responses (actions) have to be taken to assure their participation.

Here is where it gets tricky. Misread, their demands seem to ask for less. If they get us to shrink the scope of our goals, they are a distraction. In truth they are demanding authenticity. In the short run they are asking to go to soccer. In the long run they are demanding schools that are good enough to challenge soccer. To achieve that, we need great, knowledgeable, teachers to be there in relationship with their students. Try to imagine a viable camp without viable counselors.

It is taught that Hillel the Elder said in a baraita. “At the time of gathering, if the educational leaders of the community see that Torah is known and loved by all, leave it to others to determine the educational process. But, if they see a community for whom Torah is not beloved or well known, don’t allow the Torah to be disgraced.” - Brakhot 63a