In this blog post, Rabbi Rebecca Ben-Gideon explores some of the most challenging questions asked in the classroom. Middle schoolers, she argues, “need support and opportunities to wrestle with the conflict between the literalist and anthropomorphic God ideas they grew up with and their growing rationalist approach to understanding the world.”
Read the entire piece for her thoughts and experiences.
In this blog post, Rabbi Yehuda Chanales maintains, “We must work to bring the Sukkah mindset into our classrooms and schools,” pushing us to re-frame our actions and be more mindful of our surroundings.
He adds, “If we want to make room for God, deep personal reflection and identity building in our schools, we can’t simply look at the actions teachers and students need to be doing differently. While new programs, pedagogy, and curricula are valuable, we also need to think carefully about the culture and environment in which these new initiatives are introduced.”
In this blog post, Rabbi Feld discusses how at the induction stage of teaching, teachers often struggle with an issue called cognitive entrenchment: a state of mind in which you believe you have gained so much knowledge in an area that you begin to take for granted norms that should be questioned. On one hand, this helps the new teacher build comfort, stability, efficiency, and a sense of expertise. But on the other hand, he explains, the “cozy status quo which reinforces its own truths deters the teacher from notions of innovation by challenging assumptions that would benefit the student.”
In a new series of reports, Collaborative for Applied Studies in Jewish Education (CASJE) found in its specific review of professional development in Jewish schools that only 55% of the respondents agree or strongly agree that their organization provides sufficient opportunities for professional development.
Sharon Freundel shares her view of the critical importance of ongoing, school-embedded professional development for teachers and its impact on student learning, and reflects on how we may be able to address this disappointing statistic.
JEIC partners Rabbi Mitch Malkus (head of school at Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School) and Lianne Heller (executive director of Sulam) were recently published in eJewish Philanthropy.
Their co-authored article, “Designing exceptional learning for all students: A collaborative approach,” maintains, “Research has shown that when students have agency in their own learning they become independent, resourceful, and motivated lifelong learners and critical thinkers who ultimately become expert citizens.”
In this blog article about making change, JEIC managing director Sharon Freundel echos three phases of changemaking and three roles that people play at various times, originally identified by Rabbi Justus Baird of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America.
“As we consider our major initiatives at JEIC, we realize that this is what we have been doing unconsciously all along,” said Freundel, naming the recent “God Expansion” initiative as just one way that JEIC is making change in Jewish day schools.
In this blog, Rabbi Dr. Jay Goldmintz maintains that, “Now, more than ever, there is a need to help students find their personal connection to the Torah they are learning, to find themselves but within the context of tradition and community.”
“This requires a shift in pedagogy,” he relates, further expounding on how he envisions this shift.
Typically, educators frame the purpose of assessment as a way to gather relevant information about students' performance or their learning process.
In this article by JEIC Founding Director Rabbi Shmuel Feld, he suggests that “Jewish studies teachers could use assessment for a different purpose. Imagine if assessment could also be a way to develop students’ intrinsic motivation by making assessments more learner-centered.”
“We could redefine assessment as a tool for students to harness instead of a way to evaluate what they demonstrate,” he maintains.
Mayberg Foundation Trustee Manette Mayberg was recently published in eJP. Her article, “The invaluable role of a Jewish educator: A funder’s perspective,” maintains that the most important resource in Jewish education is the educator. “The long-term goals of Jewish education,” she writes, “are to shape a committed, thoughtful, ethical generation of Jews.”
In Rabbi Andrew Ergas’ recent piece about “Teaching Hebrews Rather than Hebrew,” he relates that in day schools throughout North America, we encounter different varieties of Hebrew, each stemming from a different historical period of Hebrew’s evolution. Rabbi Ergas suggests that each requires distinct educational goals. “Our task as a community of educators is to appreciate both the connections between the different aspects of Hebrew language learning and their distinctions,” he says. “Unleashing the ways this dynamic language can serve as a key to unlock a multiplicity of pathways toward an enriched Jewish life and community.”
Rachel Mohl Abrahams’s piece, "Enabling Student Agency," was recently published in The Lookstein Center's Jewish Educational Leadership.
In the article, she highlights a few day schools that created opportunities for student independence during the pandemic. She calls on schools to continue to find ways to give students agency over their learning as we move forward.
In this thought-provoking piece, Anthony Knopf maintains that “Given the prominence of ethics in Jewish tradition, an important barometer of our schools’ success should be whether those graduating have been taught to understand, internalize, and apply Judaism’s ethical values.”
He suggests several ways that practitioners can make use of a variety of approaches to help students engage more meaningfully in chesed projects and other character education activities, and urges that “Much more work needs to be done to develop innovative and integrated models for ethics education to help our students understand, internalize and apply Jewish ethical values.”
JEIC managing director Sharon Freundel writes about the power of Jewish education and about her personal journey as an educator and beyond. “Three years ago,” she tells, “I left the classrooms and hallways of the Jewish day school and entered philanthropic work with the idea that I could perhaps make an impact on the world of Jewish day schools beyond the walls of the school in which I was working. And let me tell you; it has been a challenge.”
“We are pleased to join with other foundations dedicated to excellence in Jewish education by supporting the work of Jewish Day School Standards and Benchmarks,” said Mayberg Foundation Executive Director Todd Sukol upon the announcement of JTS’s relaunching of its program.
“The program’s outcomes align closely with the ultimate goals of the Jewish Education Innovation Challenge (JEIC), which we launched almost a decade ago to catalyze radical improvement in Jewish day schools. The Standards and Benchmarks team has supported teachers in an important shift in instruction with a focus on Jewish texts' relevance to the individual learner,” he continued.
“We see this as a crucial component of effective day school education that will have lasting impact on each child and, ultimately, the Jewish people.”
In this blog article, Rabbi Shmuel Feld notes that “The time and energy to teach [a student] more textual skill becomes irrelevant if the student does not want to live a God-connected life.”
The journey through years at a Jewish day school, he poses, “should help students develop into intrinsically-motivated God seekers.”
He suggests, “During tefillah time, a teacher might capitalize on the imagination and empathy found in students.”
Amanda Pogany, Head of School at Luria Academy of Brooklyn, began a journey to create an environment of unconditional respect among students, parents and other schools, applying design thinking in a year-long process that resulted in ‘Four Commitments,’ a framework for “how we communicate and how we function in relationship with one another in our school community.” They came up with four commitments: I will be Kind * I will be Strong * I will be Curious * I will Contribute
In Rachel Mohl Abrahams' recent blog on collaborating to sustain innovation, published in eJewish Philanthropy, she maintains that “allies to create field change may be closer than you think.”
In his op-ed, Rabbi David Stein argues that after a year of “many questions but no obvious answers,” “whatever challenges or opportunities lay ahead must be met with a clear vision of the central goals of Jewish education.”
In Rachel Mohl Abrahams’ “Making Pesach Personal” article in The Yeshiva of Flatbush Alumni Network’s newsletter, she articulates: “ As we prepare to fulfill the mitzvah of “you shall tell your child,” it behooves each of us to consider how we make space for God in our families’ lives. How do we continue to feel that God is caring for each of us? How do we convey that in our homes? The notion of developing one’s own relationship with God needs to be at the core of Jewish education today. We need to ensure that we are helping our children establish and cultivate the feeling that God is actively involved in their lives. Their understanding of God must mature as they grow.”
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z’’l writes in his book Lessons in Leadership, that “Jews became the only people in history to predicate their very survival on education. The most sacred duty of parents was to teach their children … Judaism became the religion whose heroes were teachers and whose passion was study and the life of the mind. The Mesopotamians built ziggurats. The Egyptians built pyramids. The Greeks built the Parthenon. The Romans built the Coliseum. Jews built schools. That is why they alone, of all the civilisations of the ancient world are still alive and strong, still continuing their ancestors’ vocation, their heritage intact and undiminished.”
Elaborating on Rabbi Sacks’ idea, Sharon Freundel maintains that “by “schools,” he means not buildings, but spaces, physical or virtual, in which learning takes place. Schools are made up of students, educators, parents and other interested individuals. They are not the buildings within which they reside, and this lesson has truly hit home since last March.”
