Ziva Hassenfeld adapts a theory promoted by Lev Vygotsky to Jewish text learning as she suggests a way to bring the whole child into that learning. Schools spend enormous time training students to read, write, and interpret texts. This activity is particularly...
Non-Cognitive Qualities All Educators Need to Know About: Grit, Mindset and Motivation
In this article, Debbie Niderberg and Hollis Dannaham bring to light some of the recent research on the importance of “grit” as a determining factor in student success. With ever increasing stakes for our day schools to retain students and amply prepare them for both...
Translating as Explanation: Havruta, Skill Development and Social Emotional Learning
TRANSLATION AS EXPLANATION: HAVRUTA, SKILL DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING JOSHUA LADON Joshua Ladon how using different modes of havruta learning can help to develop students’ social-emotional skills. In the past several years, scholars and practitioners of...
Seven Principles for Teaching Jewish Leadership
Rachel Levitt Klein’s dialogic essay underscores why teaching leadership should be an essential component of the day school program. “OK but how do you TEACH Jewish leadership? Don’t you just DO it?” said my tired colleague as soon as she heard I was about to pitch an...
Leadership and Followership in the Judaic Classroom: Challenges and Opportunities
LEADERSHIP AND FOLLOWERSHIP IN THE JUDAIC CLASSROOM: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES Chaim Botwinick explores the possibility of teaching leadership through exploring Jewish sources and models. Today’s Jewish day school youth and Jewish educator are experiencing a myriad...
The Power of Reflection in Jewish Education
Ronit Ziv-Kreger focuses on how self-awareness and reflection can help students develop intellectually and personally. Experiential education is increasingly popular, but according to John Dewey, the American philosopher and education reformer, “We don’t learn from...
Whole Child Growth Through Jewish Integrated Learning
Rebecca Milder describes a learning process which touches multiple pieces of the student experience. At the Jewish Enrichment Center, children involve their whole selves in Jewish learning: they dive into a Jewish text with peers, and wrestle, refine, and recreate...
Ethical Dilemmas: The Right Answer, or the Right Answer for Me?
Matthew Lipman shares how using ethical dilemmas in the class can help touch on many aspects of student development. Children in today’s world are bombarded by an ever-increasing barrage of marketing and advertising as well as being presented with role-models of a...
The Turkish Gesture: A Custom in Danger of Extinction
While travelling with a group of Pardes students to Istanbul, Turkey, we encountered a fascinating custom. As we stood in the synagogue about to begin the silent amidah prayer, people turned and looked at each other and gently waved. It was a gesture that lasted a...
Teaching the Whole Child
To successfully educate the whole child we need to believe that social/emotional development is just as important as cognitive development. That it’s just as important for a child to learn how to communicate needs, work in a team, and develop meaningful relationships...