We invite you to join in these four upcoming webinars. Sign up for webinars by clicking on REGISTER Now buttons.

Meet Experiencing the Torah

Tuesday, January 31, 2012, 1:00 p.m. EST/10:00 a.m. PST

Experiencing the Torah is an exciting new book that uses experiential education to invite students to unpack the Torah. Learn how it works. See what it does.

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Using Artzeinu

Thursday, February 16, 2012, 1:00 p.m. EST/10:00 a.m. PST

Artzeinu is a revolutionary new Israel book. Josh Barkin, one of the co-authors, will show you how the book builds connections between your students and Israel. You can change that relationship.

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Neuroscience and Family Education

Wednesday, February 29, 2012, 1:00 p.m. EST/10:00 a.m. PST

Neuroscience, studies of how the brain learns, is the latest frontier in education. In the webinar Joel will show how this work influences the way we should be working with families.

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Meet Experiencing the Jewish Holidays

Wednesday, March 14, 2012, 1:00 p.m. EDT/10:00 a.m. PDT

Experiencing the Jewish Holidays is a revolutionary book that changes the role of texts in Jewish education. It uses a book to evoke an experiential approach to the Jewish Holidays. Learn how to teach your foundational course in a brand new way.

Can’t wait fot the snail mail to come?

for a full Spring Holiday catalog.

We’re back with another installment of tips, ideas, and resources to help you be a better user of technology in your teaching. This infographic “How to Focus in the Age of Distraction” illustrates lots of things you can do to avoid the pitfalls.Print it out and post it in your workspace!

This infographic is found on one of my favorite online educational resources, Edudemic. Edudemic also has a wonderful article and resource called “The Uncool Teacher’s Guide to Getting Hip“. Another great list on Edudemic is Top 10 Free Online Tutoring Tools for 2012. Their 350 Best Education Resources Chosen By You is an invaluable collection of links.

Another favorite blog of mine to check out is The Daring Librarian. Her 10 Super Geeky Tips for the New Year is useful for geeks and neophytes alike.

I don’t have an iPad, but if I did, I would definitely be using this app: Explain Everything. It’s creating a lot of buzz in the education community.

Google+ (aka Google Plus) has seen tremendous growth, and since my last griping comments, Google has finally opened up Google+ for Google Apps users. How to Use Google+ Hangouts for Teaching is a great article on ways Google+ could be of use in education.

If you’re still not sure what role networking (social and otherwise) can play in Judaism, read this fascinating article, Networking, An Ancient Jewish Practice  by Rabbi Arnie Samlan on the DarimOnline blog.

For those of you using Google Chrome as your primary browser, Richard Byrne‘s Free Technology for Teachers blog which I’ve mentioned previously has this useful article 10 Useful Chrome Web Apps and Extensions for Teachers and Students.

If you’re on Twitter, have you checked on #jedchat yet? JEDCHAT is a Twitter Chat for all Jewish Educators. We hope to chat every Wednesday night at 9PM Eastern Time. You can find out more on their blog.

Intellectual property rights have become a complicated issue in the age of the internet and digitization. Right now, Congress is considering two acts, SOPA and PIPA, to address concerns with foreign sites that seek to circumvent copyright and intellectual property rights. The legislation has the support of the music industry the motion picture industry, the cable industry, and others. The supporters of the legislation claim that anyone who opposes these bills is “in favor of piracy.” Opponents argue that the bills go too far, and don’t reflect fair input from all interested parties. (Claims from organizations like the American Federation of Musicians, or the Motion Picture Association of America seem to indicate that all musicians and those in the movie industry support the bills, but that’s not the case. There’s no consensus, and some prominent artists like Aston Kutcher and Peter Gabriel have voiced their opposition.) I’ll allow readers to make their own decisions. You can research the proposed legislation on line. Just don’t try to do it on Wednesday, January 18, 2012 on Wikipedia, because they, along with a number of other websites, are shutting down to protest the proposed regulations. Other internet services have called the blackout “silly.” To be honest, it’s hard to find unbiased articles on the controversy online, so you’ll just have to do your own filtering. Just search for SOPA, PIPA, Wikipedia Blackout, etc.

As the debate rages as to how to manage and insure intellectual property rights in the digital age, I encourage to engage your students in discussing this important issue. A good starting resource on Jewish Law as it relates to copyright can be found at Jewish Law. If you’d like to educate yourself about copyright law, you can use the list of links I’ve compiled for the jewish music community at the Hava Nashira site.

As you use technology tools in your work, I’d love to hear about your experiences! Do you have a favorite online resource that might be unknown to others, or simply one that’s so useful you want to share it anyway to be sure as many people as possible know about it? I’d love to help you share the love. Need more information, some hand-holding, some translation of techo-jargon? 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.

Adrian A. Durlester (aka MigdalorGuy or Yoeitzdrian)

The study of Edot Yisraeil is a staple of 5^th grade curriculum in both day schools and in supplemental programs.  At Oakland Hebrew Day School, midway through the year, our 5^th grade students become immersed in the cultural life of each of five edot (Iraq, Morocco, Yemen, Ethiopia and Ashkenaz) through experiences in cooking, music, dance, history and art.  Over the course of the past few years, I have worked closely with our Judaic studies teachers and our Israeli shlichim to innovate art activities which are of authentic quality, offer challenging processes to the students and which culminate in satisfying products.  Over the next few weeks, I will focus on art experiences to enhance your edot unit.  Each activity, process and product, can be adapted for other learning content areas.

This past week, students visited the Art Studio to complement their Iraqi edah studies by making foil hamsot.  The Iraqi artisans are well regarded for their hamsah amulets and you can find many fine art examples by searching online images.   For this 60 minute activity, we use ‘tooling foil,’   a pliable metal product.  You can purchase rolls of 36 (or up to 40) gauge tooling foil in aluminum, copper or gold colors from Nasco Arts and Crafts.  Nasco also offers pre-cut tooling foil squares (5”) in copper. Every student needs a wood stylus or a ball point pen (or any similar tool with a point) to carve into the foil and it is helpful to provide an assortment of decorative stencils.  Each student will also need a cushion of newspapers under their work.

This year, we used the aluminum color (funds from the Covenant Foundation augment my program budget) which I had already cut into 6” squares, prior to the lesson.  Before distributing any materials, I teach about the symbolism of the hamsah and show examples.   I also caution students that the sharp metal edges can cut into skin. The artist’s first step is to trace one hand, fingers closed (or the thumb can stand out or both the thumb and the pinkie finger can extend out), onto the metal foil, bringing the lines for the wrist down to the edge of the foil square. After deepening the hand outline, students plan their decorative designing process.   Using stencils and textures plates, students draw and rub to embellish their designs.  After completing the design, the artist flips the hamsah over, and accentuates the lines from the back.  One side is embossed (popped out) and one side is engraved (pressed into).   After the design process is complete, the hamsah hand is cut out using an ordinary scissors (this is the time that cut skin is most likely).  Some of my artists opt to add color to the hamsah with Sharpie markers; others keep the foil plain.  Hold the hamsah, finger side up, and punch up to 3 holes in the bottom edge.  Cut several lengths of picture wire, lace them through the holes and string beads onto the wire for the finishing touch.  You can use this same technique for making a mizrach or a shiviti plaque and tooling foil is a dramatic base for mezuzah making.

Each hamsah is a unique piece of art, ready for prominent display. (Next TAPBB—Ashkenazi papcuts)

LBellet@ohds.org

In the middle of the cold, gray winter comes a Shabbat bright with song—Shabbat Shirah, the Shabbat for feeding the birds. Unfortunately, many people are not aware of the beautiful custom that surrounds this Shabbat.  And this one day comes with opportunities for meaningful learning and for doing a mitzvah.

Shabbat Shirah, the Shabbat that falls on or before Tu b’Shvat is a great teaching opportunity that is a wondrous combination of Torah, midrash (extra stories that explain the Torah), learning about winter, animals in different seasons, and the mitzvah of tzaar ba’alai hayim/caring for animals.

The Shabbat is called Shabbat Shirah, the Shabbat of Song.  On that Shabbat, we read from the Torah B’Shalah which is about the Exodus from Egypt and the parting of the Reed Sea.  The highlight of the parashah is the reading of Shirat Hayam, the Song of the Sea.  The newly freed slaves sang this beautiful song after crossing the Reed Sea thanking God for saving them.

So what does feeding birds have to do with the Exodus from Egypt? The Rabbis gave two explanations connecting the tradition that surrounds this unique Shabbat.

We feed the birds to thank them for teaching us to sing.  This Torah portion is about using song to praise God.  Birds praise God and creation with their singing, and they do it spontaneously, all day.  What a wonderful lesson for us.

The second reason imagines a situation for which we need to thank the birds that saved God and Moses from embarrassment.  The Torah says that in the desert the Israelites ate manna, a gift that God sent them every day.  But on Friday, everyone was to pick up two pieces, so that they would not need to gather it on Shabbat.  There is a midrash, a Rabbinic story, that says that on the first Shabbat in the desert some malcontents got up very early and put manna out on the ground.  When everyone woke up and saw the manna, the Israelites would distrust what God and Moses had said.  But birds came and ate it before everyone woke up and the plan failed.

So, in the midst of winter, and on Shabbat Shirah, we remember these stories, and we repay the birds by giving them food when they most need it. Learning about winter should not only be about snowflakes and snowmen.  Shabbat Shirah gives an opportunity for children to find out about what happens to animals in winter.  It is a lovely lesson on being sensitive to the needs of animals and performing the mitzvah of kindness to animals, Tzaar Ba’alai Hayim.

There are many ways to make bird feeders.  Whatever kind of feeder is made, each child should make one to take home, and the class should make a few together to hang outside the classroom where children can see the birds eating.  Put more bird feeders near the playground and around the grounds.  For school, use ones that can be refilled as well and take a walk every few days to refill them. Instead of a one-time cute project, the bigger lesson is now the children understand this action in a profoundly, Jewish way.

Don’t lose hope, because it might take a little time for the birds to find the feeders.  Once they do, it is an opportunity for children to observe them and to learn what the different birds are.  Find a guide book with color pictures, so that the children can try to find the birds they are seeing.  Copy pictures of these birds and post them with their names. Photograph these events, and further encourage the children and help them to document their responses in what they are seeing (and saying).  Help to make the families a part of this project by encouraging them to send in their photographs and descriptions of what happened with their bird feeder at home.

Making a bird feeder in winter is a common activity in our classrooms.  Now this fun project is an opportunity for meaningful Jewish learning. The children can become connected to the natural world around them.  They can become aware of the needs of animals and do something about it by performing a mitzvah.

Can you think of a better reason to sing?

I was in England for Limmud UK. I learned and taught there. Over and over again people asked me, “How was your Limmud?” The radical insight here being the “your.” Limmud is a conference of almost 3,000 people who spend about a week studying. There are hundreds of sessions and limitless possibilities. Colloquial language understands that everyone has their own experience at this conference. What is good for one learner may not be for someone else.

The how was “your.” Lesson is one we need to apply to all forms of Jewish education. In both our practice and in our dreaming and planning, we need to remember that there is no single student. Each of our learners will have a unique experience. No matter what we plan, no matter what technology we bring to bear, we need to understand that different students have different experiences.

How do you individualize educational experiences? Basically there are two ways. The first is to do the Limmud thing—that used to be the CAJE thing—that is, to offer lots of different choices. The other option is good teachers.

Where many have given up on teachers, Bill and Melinda Gates and their foundation, are investing billions of dollars in the American educational system, most of that devoted to identifying and helping good teachers (see Measure of Effective Teaching Project).  Whether we use I-Pads and apps, or skype to save carpool time, it matters who is on the other end to explain, connect, and apply the content.

We are in a moment in America where teacher’s tenure is at war with teacher excellence. And this is not to say that some tenured teachers are not excellent. Teaching, at the moment, is not a job for the best and the brightest. It is highly test result centered because of the policy of No Child Left Behind. If there are problems with public school teaching, how much the more so, are there problems in Jewish teaching? Would that I could defend all Jewish teachers as misunderstood and underappreciated, I can only testify to the underappreciated part.

This weekend I participated in a local teacher education event. I taught two hours and fifteen minutes session. For many of the participants this was all the in-service training they got for the year. All the things that we know make teacher’s better, peer counseling, evaluation, on-going training and supervision are missing from the cycle. The formula is really simple. We want our schools to be better, the solution is not new apps, but caring people who know how to manage and communicate within the classroom. We need to look at those teachers who are failing, those who have potential, and those who are excellent. Then we need figure out how to fill our classrooms, not with warm bodies, but with teachers who are or will become excellent.

We need to create a culture of Jewish education where teaching is a major mitzvah (which it is), where learning is a way of life (which it is supposed to be), and where we devote major efforts to improve all who teach. Only then will I-Pads make a difference. We need to expect a lot of different answers to how was your Jewish educational experience—and we want them all to be good. That means options and that means great teachers. There are no other choices.

by Carol Starin

Peter Stark died tragically on January 3^rd. I first met him at CAJE and later worked with him on the CAJE board (where we knocked heads a few times). Peter was so talented—he knew 7 or 8 languages, sang and wrote beautifully. Although I never saw him in action on a stage, I knew that he must have been a terrific actor. Peter was smart, sensitive, thoughtful. And, for years, he was part of the 5 things Advisory Group that provided guidance, advice, and input for the columns I wrote for the Torah Aura Bulletin Board.

In his honor, in his memory, and because through his words he still has much to teach, here are 5 teaching strategies—in his own words—that, over the years, Peter contributed to LET ME COUNT THE WAYS.

1. In a column called “Defining a Heymishe Classroom” Peter wrote

Creating a heymish classroom is an art. Depending on the teacher’s personality and the atmosphere and tradition of the school, a heymish classroom may be formal or informal. It requires a delicate balance of comfort, caring, and warmth—with structure. The key element is that the classroom provide a structured atmosphere that enables students to relax—this means that kids don’t have to deal with bullying, isolation, loneliness, continually changing rules of engagement –intellectual or interpersonal. They can concentrate their energies on learning.

If it’s true that schools teach less of what schools used to teach and more of what homes used to teach, then the heymish classroom becomes a more important model than ever. The classroom must provide a safe nest in which the student feels nurtured and from which the student feels free to try his/her intellectual wings. To do this, the teacher must be a role model, valuing students and their ideas, encouraging independence of thought and inquiry.

Peter offered a model to which those of us who are over 50—and remember the Our Gang comedies—can relate. He said that the greatest test and opportunity for modeling is the teacher’s word with the students who, in Miss Crabtree’s Little Rascals class, are at the “bottom of the class.” Today we may say that these students have divergent learning styles. But the Torah teaches that their souls were present at Mt. Sinai and they have just as much share in Torah as Alfalfa, Darla, or Spanky (Miss Crabtree’s cute ones, bright ones and loveable ones). It is up to the teacher to create an atmosphere in which these students, no less than others, feel free to speak up and test their ideas. If the teacher succeeds in doing so, every student feels safe, every student feels free to think and every student feels at home.

2. For a column on Using Journals in Our Jewish Classrooms Peter shared that a colleague has her students keep a journal of their discovery of a particular text.

For narrative texts, going back and revisiting what the text meant to the reader on first encounter is a particularly effective way of studying how the text tells its story. For legal material this is equally true, and it allows the student to focus clearly on what he/she thinks is clear, and what he/she thinks is NOT clear. The student is able to measure his/her learning by comparing what the text seemed to mean at first with what it meant after further investigation. When a text is particularly difficult, the student is encouraged (occasionally) to vent frustrations briefly but to continue to enter daily reactions to the text. Often the venting yields an insight into the passage that seemed frustrating. Finally, these personal journals are great sources for highly personal divrei Torah, because students can use them to narrate their own discovery of the text and teach what they have learned and how they have learned it.

3. For a column on Making Personal Connections to Pesah, Peter described how he took students inside the concept of slavery.

My students spent weeks making actual bricks from mud and straw, coordinating each step with passages from the haggadah. Students wrote papers comparing their expectations with what it was like to actually work as brick makers. At one point a group of students who found a chunk of soil that was hard to break up complained loudly that they had worse conditions than anyone else and that they “were like slaves around here.” They then discussed how much harder brick-making was than anyone expected and what it would be like to have to make bricks fifteen to eighteen hours every day.  (Following this article is Peter’s complete lesson on brick-making.)

What does it mean to be a slave today? Retelling our story reminds us to get involved in what’s going on in our world today, to examine the injustices we see, to play an active role in our communities, and to make social justice a priority. Pesah foods, tastes, smells and texts trigger our hearts and minds to think of the suffering of others. With your class, make a list of those who are suffering today. Choose something from the list and get involved in making a difference.

4. For a column on the passion of teaching

My principal area of teaching is biblical texts. I tell my students from the outset that in my classroom we begin with the assumption that the text can stand up to their questions, so no serious question is out of bounds. Deducing what Rashi or Ramban or Ibn Ezra asks of the text is an important step, but my aspiration for my student is something deeper and more ennobling: for the student – even for a moment—to step into the shoes of Ibn Ezra, Ramban, Rashi or Rashi’s famously learned daughters and ask questions that address the text directly and that integrate knowledge of the real world with thought about the text.

These objectives are of a different order from those that help frame individual units or lessons. These are questions that inform my planning of my students’ encounter overall with Biblical texts. My question is: have I created in my classroom an atmosphere in which diverse students see text study as worthwhile and ennobling?

Then what fuels my passion is seeing independent thought begin to take wing in my students’ work. Even more so, when this occurs among those who are not the usual suspects—who are not those students accustomed to being academic stars.

When the passion wanes, I think of a 6^t–7^th and 8^th grade student of mine—years ago, who was interviewed just prior to her middle school graduation about why we study certain subjects. She said, “We go to language arts so that we can communicate effectively and so we become familiar with great writing; we go to science so that we begin to see how the physical world works; we go to math to learn how to calculate and apply number skills; we go to social studies so that we will know more about people and places in the world; and go to Tanakh to laugh and to think.”

5. For a column about Using Writing in the Jewish Classroom Peter wrote:

One of my favorite writing assignments for a Tanakh class arose out of studying multiple layers of meaning in the Book of Samuel. For years I’ve taken students to the Dutch and Flemish painting collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where their assignment was to identify and describe a background detail in a painting, and then to offer an interpretation of how this background detail commented on the foreground subject of the painting.

One of my favorite students wrote a great essay about a still life of flowers, describing what one could see as one approached the painting. At twenty feet one sees a nice bouquet. At ten feet one sees that there is something beyond the flowers. At five feet one notices that the flowers are swarming with insects. On close inspection, it’s clear that these flowers are probably part of a funeral display, and that what seemed pleasant or innocuous actually comments on the impermanence of life.

The impermanence of life………………MAY HIS MEMORY BE A BLESSING

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Making Bricks for Pesah…A Classroom Project

Peter A. Stark

Abstract

Students replicate the labor of our ancestors, making bricks with (and/or without) straw, while studying Pesach-related texts. This is an easy and winning activity that prepares students to participate actively and personally in the seder table discussion of yetziat Mitzrayim. The description below has been broken into a lot of small steps for clarity, but this is not a complicated or difficult project.

Objectives

1.  To give students a hands-on understanding of activities (brick-making) and feelings (slave mentality) described in the text
2. To prepare students for the mitzvah of telling the story of yetziat Mitzrayim
3. To open dialogue between parents and students, during which students are prepared and eager to discuss their own experiences in learning text
4. To prime students to make active, personal contributions to seder discussion of yetziat Mitzrayim

Note: This project plan includes physical activities, discussions, and writing. It is assumed that the teacher already has command of the relevant texts and has lesson plans and material for teaching those texts. The discussion material provided relates the text to the hands-on activities described.

Age Range: This material may be adapted for use with elementary school students of different ages. I originally created this lesson for a mixed-age group of 3rd-5th grade students.

Time Frame: Three to five weeks of classes, with project work several times a week, leading up to a “Yom Botz,” “Day of Mud.” This project might be even more effective if it were possible to devote two or three whole days to the entire project, making bricks within a week. That adaptation might be useful for summer camps, as well.

Related Texts:

• Parshat Sh’mot and Parshat Va’era, Exodus 1- Exodus 6
• Haggadah
• Parshat Noah, Genesis 11:1-9 (bricks in Tower of Babel story, though that text specifies burnt bricks, while we are making sun-dried brick. However, student can discover that fact.
• Pirkei D’Rabbi Eliezer 24

Materials

1. Texts
2. A bucket of dried-out clay soil, right from the ground, twigs and all (requires preparation; soil must be completely dry, which can take weeks, depending upon the container it is stored in)
3. Trash bags AND/OR heavy plastic drop cloth
4. Buckets or small cardboard boxes (about a foot cubed in size, open at one end, lined with a plastic trash bag)—must be waterproof
5. Old screen windows OR small squares of screen, mounted in small square picture frames
6. Old wooden spoons OR small wooden blocks
7. Tiny rectangular baking pans OR clean, dry juice boxes (lunch-pack size, one of the wide faces cut open) OR similar-size containers folded out of cardboard
8. A large bundle of straw OR lengths of any kind of dried grassy plants OR (as a last straw) dried lawn clippings (last straw, get it?)
9. Childproof scissors
10. Tap water
11. Small disposable cups OR any other small vessels, used to add water slowly when the clay is mixed.
12. Paper bags (supermarket size)
13. Markers

Procedure (broken down into small steps for clarity)

Stage I: First Steps

1. Prepare materials well in advance.
2. Introduce the project at the point when students are learning the Shmot passages cited above, or at an appropriate point in the annual teaching of Pesah.
3. Send home a note announcing and describing the project and asking that students bring in aprons or wear appropriate clothing.
4. At each stage below, teacher should demonstrate the physical labor required prior to students commencing the labor.
5. Students will work in pre-assigned pairs.
6. Materials should be labeled for each group and storage space designated where materials will not be disturbed during the course of the project.

Stage II: Preparing the Clay (1-3 weeks of sessions)

1. The goal is to grate the raw, dried soil chunks, using the screen to filter out stones and plant matter. The result will be a very fine powder of clay materials.
2. Distribute the screen frames (Materials, #5), the receptacles (Materials, #4), and the wooden spoons (Materials, #6).
3. Demonstrate how to set up the receptacles, with the screen over the opening. Give students time to do so.
4. Demonstrate how to rub the raw chunks of dried clay soil against the screen, creating a fine, dry powder that falls into the receptacle.
5. Distribute a chunk of dry clay soil (Materials, #2) to each pair of students.
6. Begin grating. As the clay soil is rubbed against the screen, plant matter included in the soil (twigs, etc) will collect on the screen. Discard this material as it collects.
7. As the soil chunks are grated, big clumps that can be held in the hand will break into small clumps. Use the wooden spoons to force the smaller clumps through the screen.
8. One student holds the frame securely over the receptacle while another grates the clay. Students should rotate tasks within each pair.
9. Once students are used to the routine, the teacher may lead a discussion while the work goes on, or the teacher may lead singing of rhythmic work songs (Israeli pioneer songs of labor, the kind modern Israelis call “shirei Sochnut,” are perfect; seder songs may also be used).
10. Work should be prolonged enough (per session AND length of activity over days and weeks) that students get weary of the routine, but not all class time should be devoted to the project.
11. Build in time for cleanup and washing of hands after each session.
12. Daily follow-up discussion and journal entry time (see below).
13. This stage ends when each group has about a quart of powder. Rough measurements are fine.
14. Each group should place its spoon into its pail. Set the pails of powdered clay aside in a dry storage area.

Once I spent Thanksgiving with Shirley, Marvin, and the family. Shirley ordered some help to serve the dinner and do the dishes. Rather than waiters or other kitchen help, two rental janitors showed up in grew uniforms with their name stitched on the pocket. Someone else might have panicked and sent the janitors away. Shirley huddled with them, explained what she wanted, and had the guys with the embroidered names on their grey work shirts serve the soup and the rest of the meal.

Shirley was a voice we will miss. She was a leader who could work with whatever she had available. We need to learn from that example.

This article is the logical extension of the work we have done with executive function. We want people in Jewish education to say that “Going to Hebrew School will make your child into a better student.” And, we want to suggest that “brain science” can help us to create more successful and impactful Jewish education.”

Review

We started with Adele Diamond and her work on the prefrontal cortex. This is the part of the brain that is involved in mediating conflicting thoughts, making choices between right and wrong or good and bad, predicting future events, and governing social control.

According to Adele Diamond executive function breaks into three key areas:

• Inhibitory Control. This includes self-control, self-censorship, delayed gratification, impulse control, and the development of discipline. It is the part of the brain that does reflection and evaluation. Its functions include: Being able to think before you act. Being able to learn something new that conflicts with what you usually do. Acting appropriately when tempted to act otherwise. Paying attention despite distractions.
• Working Memory. This is the manipulation of information. This is imagination, problem solving, creativity and that whole arena. It includes: Being able to consider things from different perspectives. Being able to relate one idea to another. Being able to perform a set of instructions in sequence. Being able to monitor one’s own thinking.
• Cognitive Flexability. This is the ability to leave one task and focus on a new one. It is all about mental focus. “Mindfulness” is the popular Buddhist term. It includes: Being able to pay more attention when necessary. Being able to think ‘outside the box.’ (Metropolitan State College of Denver Tools of the Mind)

We then met Ellen Galinsky who wrote a book called Mind in the Making: The seven essential life skills every child needs. She takes Neuroscience and breaks it down into material manageable by most parents and most teachers. She takes executive function and breaks it down into seven simple skills. This is pre-frontal cortex stuff that weaves together our social, emotional, and intellectual capacities.

1. Focus and Self-Control. This is our ability to pay attention, to not be distracted, and it where we remember the rules.
2. Perspective Taking. This is where we develop empathy and view things from different points-of-view.
3. Communicating. This involves not only language skills, but our ability to grasp what images, metaphors, points-of-view will best communicate our insights to others.
4. Making Connections. Making Connections involves figuring out what is similar and what is different. (“One of these things is not like the other.”) Figuring out how one thing connects to another. This is associative and comparative thinking.
5. Critical Thinking. This is our ability to evaluate and to decide what evidence we are going to use to make decisions.
6. Taking on Challenges. According to Dr. David Bryfman, challenge is a definitional part of Experiential Education. Here is our ability to tackle the new and the difficult.
7. Self-Directed. Engaged Learning. Self-Direction is also an element of Experiential Education. It is where that which is demanded is transcended by that which were want to seek.

The Focus

Classical Jewish learning involves pairs of learners (hevrutot) who work with Jewish texts. They rehearse the text in preparation of a class wide lesson. Sam Heilman, a participant observer who has looked into the dynamic of Jewish text study, defines the lernen (classical Jewish text study) process as having four steps or moves, recitation, translation, explanation, and discussion. In his book The People of the Book he explains:

• The first of these consists of an oral reading of the text, usually by one person who is cued or echoed by the others who are with him…
• Translation, the second step, became necessary when Jews no longer were fluent in the primary languages…but it was always part of the necessary expansion of the sketchy text…
• Explanation, the third move, is the effort to briefly clarify the meaning of implications of what has been recited. During explanation, learners define questions and refine answers. They organize a text, determining where one object or inyan ends and another begins. They frame matters, detailing what the Talmud (text) is trying to do. Finally, they provide short glosses or footnotes to what they have just recited…
• Discussion, the last move, allows for the broadest possible consideration of the text. Mirroring the give-and-take of the sages… (they) evaluate the signficance of what they have read and debate its conclusions, digress to tell stories or ask and answer questions… The students’ concerns and words merge with the issues and language of the Talmud (text) they reviewed. This the ultimate step of the process, the point at which life and lernen become one.

In the remainder of this article we want to show how studying Rashi (doing text oriented Jewish study) we expand executive function and increase the learning skills of our students.

The Proof

Here is Rashi’s comment on one verse, Genesis 18.23. Here Abraham is just about to argue with God about the destruction of Sodom. This Rashi is dense and takes a lot of unpacking and decoding.

The Torah says, “And Abraham drew near (Gen. 18.23) Drawing near can mean preparing for battle: “And Joab drew near…” (II Sam. 10.13). Drawing near can mean pleading: “And Judah drew near…” (Gen. 44.18) And drawing near can mean praying: “Elijah drew near…”(I Kings 18.21) Abraham did all of these, he battled, pleaded and prayed.

Before we even begin to work on this Rashi, we need to form a Hevruta to begin work. This process of starting with a partner, begin the reading, and committing to finding a “translation” and working out “a solution”—plus developing personal meaning.

The very act of beginning involves, “focus,” “taking on challenges,” and “self-directed, engaged learning.” We are making two assumptions about this process. First, that the learners have some previous experience with decoding Rashi and working in hevruta. This means that students have already had success and reward from facing the “challenges” involved in this kind of text study.

Students begin to read to each other and decode (translate).the text by expanding it through logic (“critical thinking”) and making using context (“making connections.”)

(1) Let’s look at the beginning of the text. It begins, “And Abraham drew near (Gen. 18.23). The first questions that automatically comes is, “Draw near to what or Who?” The answer comes from reading ahead. Next Abraham is in the middle of an argument with God over saving Sodom. Therefore we know that Abraham drew near to God.

(2) The next question is “How do you draw near to God?” (Here “perspective taking “ comes into play. This question could be one generated by the students, (“self-direction”) or it could be found from reading more of the Rashi.

(3) The first thing you learn about Rashi, that we are not teaching in this lesson, that needs to be part of the back drop to this lesson, is that Rashi is always answering questions, but Rashi rarely verbalizes the question. Rashi is a game of “Jeopardy.”

(4) If we look ahead we see that Rashi gives three answers: (1) “And Joab drew near…” (2) And Judah drew near…” and (3) “Elijah drew near…” Here comes the question, “How does one draw near to God” and Rashi finds the answer by knowing that the Bible gives us three examples of how people draw near to God.

(5) Next “self-direction” is really required. We will not understand this Rashi unless we know what each of the three did to draw near. Rashi (or actually whoever annotated Rashi) gives us the chapter and verse of the three incidents. (Depending on the edition of Rashi, there may also be footnotes or other hints to how the three drew close to God). “Perspective taking” tools have already clued us that Abraham will draw near in all these ways—and that we, too, have the capacity to draw near to God in the same way.

(6) Our research shows us:

• “And Joab drew near…” shows us that Drawing near can mean preparing for battle. The rest of passage teaches us: (II Sam. 10.13) and then (he) went out and defeated the Syrians.
• “And Judah drew near…” shows us that Drawing near can mean pleading: The rest of the passage teaches us:” (Gen. 44.18) and then begged for Benjamin’s life.
• “Elijah drew near…” (I Kings 18.21) just before he out-prayed the priest of Baal on Mt. Carmel.

(7)`Next comes out need for “perspective taking.” We need to understand the connection between these events and Abrahams forthcoming debate with God over Sodom.

Rashi says: Abraham did all of these, he (1) battled, (2) pleaded and (3) prayed.

Next comes the Heilman final stage, the discussion. Here is where we personalize. This is the place we use “communication.” Either with our partner or with the whole class we answer two questions:

• How did Abraham “draw near” to God in these three ways at this moment.
• When do we need to battle,  plead and pray to get close to God.

By the time we are done, the passage from Rashi comes out:

We want to know what it means to “draw near to God” if God is everywhere? Obviously, “drawing near” is an emotional or spiritual place, not a physical one. Here are some examples: Drawing near can mean preparing for battle: “And Joab drew near…” (II Sam. 10.13) and then went out and defeated the Syrians. Drawing near can mean pleading: “And Judah drew near. . .” (Gen. 44.18) and then begged for Benjamin’s life. And drawing near can mean praying: “Elijah drew near…”(I Kings 18.21) just before he out-prayed the priest of Baal on Mt. Carmel. Which of these kinds of drawing close was Abraham trying to do? He was prepared to do whatever it took, to speak harshly, to plead, and to pray. There are indeed many ways of reaching God!

We have hit all the elements of executive function in puzzling out this one passage. Students will do as much as she can on her own—then the teacher will help them complete the process.

Conclusion

In a recent NYTimes story “A Silicon Valley School that Doesn’t Compute” there is a focus on the Waldorf school in Silicon Valley. Paul Thomas,  a former teacher and an associate professor of education at Furman University, says:

“Teaching is a human experience. Technology is a distraction when we need literacy, numeracy and critical thinking.”

My friend Idie Benjamin taught me, “I tell a parent that their child has trouble focusing.” They respond, ‘You should see the hours he spends in front of the computer.” The right question is, “Can they focus without the computer.”

Pierre Laurent, 50, who works at a high-tech start-up and formerly worked at Intel and Microsoft. He has three children in Waldorf schools. He says, “Engagement is about human contact, the contact with the teacher, the contact with their peers.”

I will not argue against technology, I am now reading books on my Nook. But, I will argue that somethings are better done in person. Jewish schools can build important learning skills if they focus on being Jewish schools—places that work in Jewish ways to use Jewish texts to explicate the human condition.

As teachers of young children, we tend to be enthusiastic about the work we do in our early childhood classrooms. We want these young learners to know so much about each holiday, but in our desire to give children every opportunity and every bit of information, sometimes the train gets a little off track.

As early childhood educators, we know how children learn.

• We know that young children are experiential learners. They learn from acting on their environment and manipulating objects.
• We know that young children use their senses to learn about the world.
• We know that young children understand and make meaning from having direct experiences with things.
• We know that young children make meaning from having encounters with materials that enhance an authentic learning experience.
• We know that young children are concrete thinkers and are not developmentally ready to understand many abstract concepts.
• We know that a curriculum has to be meaningful and appropriate, both chronologically and developmentally..
• We know that confusing children is never a good idea.

But in our enthusiasm, we sometimes get off track. And our Hanukkah curriculum can be such a place.

Consider two things we say when telling the Hanukkah story to the children.

“The Maccabees needed to find oil to light the Menorah.”

“They only found enough oil to burn in the Menorah for one day.”

In a world of light bulbs and candles, what does that mean to our experiential, hands-on learners?

What can these statements mean to our youngest learners, and why do we tell a story that most of these children can’t comprehend? If children can’t understand and make meaning out of what we are doing in the classroom, then we have to question why we are doing it.

Yes, the miracle of Hanukkah is central to the story that we tell our children. It is a beautiful tale of determination, faith, and trusting in God. During the darkest days of winter, it can bring us light and hope.

If we want our children to know this version of the story (Yes, there are versions that do not include the miracle), we must find ways to make it tangible and give it a context and meaning.

Olive Oil—What is it?

As part of your set induction in telling the children the story of Hanukkah, set up an oil lamp. All you need is a clear glass bowl, olive oil, and an easily obtainable wick for an oil lamp. Perhaps at a Shabbat celebration, talk about light—the electric lights and the Shabbat and Havdalah candles. What other lights do they know about?

Then light the oil lamp. Tell the children about how people lived long ago. While an abstraction, it demonstrates that in the time of the Maccabees people lived differently. If they know the story of Aladdin and his magic lamp, they will know what an oil lamp used to look like. Try to find a toy one or pictures. Camping lanterns are another type of oil lamp

Questions to explore—

• How does oil give light?
• How does it burn?

Only enough oil to burn for one day…

• How does a menorah that burns oil work?
• How long does it take for oil to burn up?

Set up your oil lamp again. Put a small amount of oil in it. This time put a little water in first, so that when it uses up all the oil, it will not burn the bottom. Light it and put it in a safe place where it can be observed by the children but not touched. You can also light different candles to see how long they will burn.

When it goes out, you can say, “There was only enough oil to last….”

Now the children have an understanding of an oil lamp and of how this small amount of oil would not have lasted for eight days. How does this change the children’s understanding of the story? What questions to they now have? What answers to those questions can they now formulate, having had this experience? Do they now want to take their learning in a new direction as they gain authentic knowledge about Hanukkah? A variety of teachable moments can now grow, and the children will have the opportunity to build on “what they know.”

Play with oil. Let the children touch it and explore it and use it for a variety of art experiences.

Make olive oil. YouTube has videos that will show you how. It takes some work. Now children can begin to have a basic understanding of why the Maccabees couldn’t easily have more oil.

Cook the traditional Hanukkah foods—latkes and soufganiyot—sharing the idea of oil as a medium for cooking, as well as the historical medium for giving light.

Let’s get the train back on the track. Let’s remember how young children learn. Let’s give them the experiences so that they can really understand the Hanukkah story. If we want them to be awed by the miracle, let’s help them understand how truly special it was.