Dear Hevre,
We are sending along
our final newsletter of the school year. We hope that for all of you,
these last few weeks will provide opportunities to bring closure to your
teaching, to help your students recognize all that they have learned,
and to reflect on what you accomplished and what you wished you had
accomplished. We trust that the summer will give you time to rest up and
return rejuvenated to your schools. For those of you working in other
capacities, we hope you will get a bit of a summer vacation as well.
There is much to read
about in this newsletter. Please do take the time to read through
carefully and respond as requested. There are quite a number of valuable
links to the retreat, for both those who attended and those who were
unable to join us.
Our staff will be
working through the summer and we hope to continue to serve your needs.
Keep in touch and let us know how we can help.
Hag Shavuot sameach,
Susan, Amanda, Debra
Pardes Educators Alumni Support Project staff:
Dr. Susan Wall, Amanda Pogany, MA,
Debra Weiner-Solomont, MSW
The Pardes Educators Alumni Support Project is funded by a generous grant from the Jim Joseph Foundation.
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Dvar Torah - Reuven Margrett (Cohort 6)
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Reuven
is in his third year of teaching high school at the Frankel Jewish
Academy of Metropolitan Detroit. Prior to that, Reuven taught at the
Immanuel College in England.
The pedagogical phrase that I have heard the most
is, "Just because you taught it, does not mean that students have
learned it." I too have said it to others, and yes I too have
experienced it in the classroom as well as in my life. 
What
makes something have an affect on you? I have heard many shiurim, been
to many classes, and had many hours of being "taught". Yet what makes me
an effective learner in order for the learning to have an impact on me? To
put it another way. If Shavuot is zman matan torateinu, the time our
Torah was given, what is it that turns 'the Torah', into 'our Torah'? It
says in Yeshayahu 55:1, "Ho! All who thirst, go to the water... " which
is very good advice for both now, as well as in a future time when it
tells us that there will be water to quench our thirst. We also know
that our tradition tells us that 'ein mayim ela torah' (there is no
water except for Torah). This means that the real source of life is
Torah. The parallel to water and Torah is made more profound by the
Evian website which says that 'Water is life', which we would translate to 'Torah is life'. (Did you know that each day, an average adult naturally loses 2.5 to 3 liters of water under normal conditions?) Click here to read Reuven's dvar torah.
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Education Corner
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Havruta
Amanda Pogany
This
year a group of our veteran alumni embarked on an exciting project on
how to use havruta more effectively in our classrooms, led by Dr. Orit
Kent from the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis
University. We gathered at Brandeis for a two day workshop in which we
were introduced to research based frameworks for havruta learning,
including six core practices of havruta.
Since then, we have been
translating these ideas into our classrooms. We have been working on
developing havruta lessons and study guides for our students that will
help them deepen their havruta work and we've met monthly to share and
reflect on our work and videos from our classrooms. In the upcoming
year, we look forward to sharing many of our 'take-aways' with you.
Below are some reflections by the participants. We hope that our
reflections will inspire your thinking on this important topic.
Participants
in the first phase of the project were: Evan Wolkenstein (1), Haley
Delugach (5) and Tamar Rabinowitz (1), Jewish Community High School of
the Bay; Jessica Lissy Trey (3) Hannah Senesh; Keren Romm (5) CHAT;
Michal Cahlon (5) Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy; Seth Goldsweig (2) and
Hana Macmull, Robbins Hebrew Academy; Elisha Stein (4) Barrack Hebrew
Academy.
Reflections on Havruta
We began the year by observing our students working in havruta. What follows are some of our insights.
Click here to read more.
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Strengthening the Network: A Data Bank of what we've taught
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In both
the written feedback and the final group meetings at the retreat, there
was a strong request for information on courses that our graduates have
taught, so that we can be more helpful to one another, as we prepare for
our teaching. In the earlier years we did provide lists by age groups
and also by subjects taught and we'd like to do so again. HOWEVER, WE
NEED YOUR HELP FOR THIS TO WORK. The data bank will only be useful if
most people submit courses they've taught. It takes about one minute to
actually enter the data for each course and grade level you've taught.
(For our more senior alumni, the trick will be remembering all the
courses you have taught.)
The form will need to be submitted multiple times-one course one submission.
The instructions for submitting appear at the top of the form. Please
read the instructions carefully so that you do it properly and we can
use your data.
We ask that even if you are
no longer in the classroom, you fill these forms out. For example, when
we are looking to hire a subject matter coach for our new graduates, we
look to see who might have taught similar materials before. In general,
you never know when this information might be helpful to you or your
colleagues. Click here to start your submissions.
Similarly, a couple of weeks
ago, we sent you contact information for all those who have gone
through the program, so you can contact people directly. If the
information we sent out was not accurate in your case, let Debra know. Before the year begins, we would like to send out an updated, corrected list.
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| From the Field |
Drew Cohen, cohort 10,
at The Weber School in Atlanta, was teaching his high school Talmud
class, Perek Hamafkid, much of which is about ownership of animals. To
help the students personally engage in the material and visualize what
was happening, he used a stuffed penguin (in place of a cow). In giving
scenarios of who owns the animal under what circumstances, Drew used the
students' real names, throwing the penguin around as they talked
through the examples, as follows: "If Ben owns the penguin, Rachel
borrowed the penguin from Ben, Joseph rented the penguin from Rachel,
and the penguin died, who pays whom?" The students were totally engaged
and got it. It's a reminder to all of us, that finding even simple ways
to connect the students with the material goes a long way.
Robyn Miller, cohort 9
at the Eleanor Kolitz Academy in San Antonio, TX works with the
pluralistic track's tefilah, for K-8. She found that tefillot were
constantly being disrupted when stu dents
called out, "what page are we on?" She laminated 'Siddur marks'
(rather than "book marks') for each siddur which had the names and page
numbers of each prayer. The students could follow along more
independently and Tefillah flowed more smoothly.
Joey Heyman, cohort 9, at The Weber School in Atlanta starts off her class by reciting together the phrase from the daily morning service "ותן בליבינו להבין ולהסכיל, ללמוד וללמד, לשמור ולעשות ולקיים את כל דברי תלמוד תורתיך באהבה".
A high school student is constantly moving from one subject to another
all day, and it's nice to have a moment to clear the head, acknowledge
the purpose of this particular subject, and move from an "אני פה" to a "הנני".
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Know of any Day School Postions Available in your Community?
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A few of our current
graduates and a number of our alumni are looking for teaching positions
for the coming year. If you know of any that might be available in your
school or community, plea se be in touch with Debra
immediately with the name of the contact person at the school, so we
can pass this information along. It is also helpful for us to know the
grade level, if the position involves "ivrit b'ivrit, and whether there
is a requirement that the teacher be "shomer Shabbat". Thanks for
supporting your colleagues!
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| Spring Retreat Roundup |
Any of the 58 educators who joined us for our alumni retreat March 22-26
at the Pearlstone Retreat and Conference Center outside of Baltimore,
will tell you what a special opportunity it was to: re-engage with
colleagues and teachers, reflect on our profession, and return to our
institutions with new ideas and approaches to try. Both for those who
were in attendance and those who were unable to make it, you can access: - a video of the plenary given by Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield entitled: The 'Avodah' of Jewish Education see description below.)
- Excerpts from the opening of the retreat, including a moving presentation by representatives of each cohort and Susan Wall's opening words regarding the future of our alumni support project as PEP moves into the next decade.
- Materials from the various sessions.
- Click here to view a smattering of photos. (Forgive us if you were there and do not appear.)
Note
that the video of Zvi's session is an inspiring master class dealing
with the Pardes vision for what it takes to make an excellent Jewish
Studies teacher. It Outlines practical guidelines based on Pardes's core
values of centrality of text, openness, community, and diversity and -
of course - deeply rooted in classical Jewish sources, Zvi explored the
character of Moshe as a model of the consummate Torah teacher and
offered thoughts on the extent to which one should emulate the Jewish
people's greatest educator. Please click here to access the video. Click here for sources to this session.
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Focus on Sarah Zollman (Cohort 7)
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Sarah
is in her fourth year of teaching and continues to commute to Carmel
Academy in Greenwich, CT from her home on the Upper West Side in New
York City, where she lives with her husband Avi. She usually teaches
with shoes on, but remains barefoot on the streets of New York.
On the small white
board at the front of my classroom, homework assignments are written
every day on the bottom, while the top has the Hebrew and English date
and the parsha. These days, the top half of the board is also crowded in
with the Omer count and the number of days left in the school year. My
fourth year at Carmel Academy is winding down. 
When I started working
at Carmel (then WFHA) after completing the Educators Program, I was
disappointed to learn that I would be primarily teaching fifth grade,
when I had my heart set on middle school. And every year since I have
primarily been the fifth grade Judaics teacher while also teaching an
assortment of other grades. What started as slight disappointment has
turned into love. I love my fifth graders, their silly jokes and their
growing maturity. I love watching their blossoming sense of injustice,
whether focused on teachers, parents, or characters in the chumash. I
love watching them try to fit Adon Olam into the latest pop song and
asking if they can rap their Mishnah projects.
Click here to read more.
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PEP News
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Mazal tov! The ten members of PEP's eleventh cohort will be graduating on Tuesday, June 5, 2012. Click here
for more details. If you will be in Israel at that time, please join us
to celebrate this milestone for the newest members of our alumni
community.
Cohort 11 graduates have already found teaching positions at: the Chicagoland Jewish High School,
the Solomon Schechter of Long Island, and the Solomon Schechter of
Bergen County (in conjunction with Camp Young Judaea Sprout Lake as the Nadiv Educator).
Finally, we'd like to
welcome the five incoming Pardes Educators of Cohort 13: Cara Abrams
Simonton from Eugene, OR; Naomi Zaslow from Miami, FL (and currently a
Pardes Year Program student); Laura Marder from Sewell, NJ (and
currently a mechina student at Pardes) ; Jeff Amshalem, currently from
Jerusalem; and Tani Cohen-Fraade from New Haven, CT (and currently
living on Kibbutz Yahel). These five, along with Cohort 12 and students
in the new one-year PEP offshoots, will comprise a diverse and exciting group. We wish them all the best of luck!
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Educational Publications, Resources and Opportunities
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Cheryl Stone (Cohort 11) has recommended Israel's national library site, which contains a host of valuable online e-resources and a digital library. Click here.
David Bernstein has recommended Shorashim, a free online compilation of almost 3300 Hebrew verb root entries, in English. It can be found here. A reformatted version of the Soncino Talmud, as well as other resources can be found on this site as well.
Dah Bear, on online tool to assist students in mastering hebrew vocabulary has now been redesigned for use by teachers.Click here.
The Cairo Geniza online catalogue, based upon the printed catalogue of the Hebrew manuscripts in the Bodleian libraries can be accessed here.
The David Project Summer 2012
Teacher Training Institutes will be held July 16-July 19 in Boston.
This program is supported by the AVI CHAI Foundation. Click here for
more information. Stephanie Hoffman (Cohort 6) works at the David
Project. Click here for details.
Ulpan Or will be conducting enrichment workshops for Hebrew teachers. Click here for details.
The article, "Flight from Conversation"
was recently published in the New York Times Magazine. It is an
important read to help give you insight into your students and
communication skills. Also recently published in the New York Times is
another article about social media rules for New York City teachers.
Click here to read it.
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| Alumni Update | |
Professional news:
In the last newsletter we inadvertently left out Keren Romm (Cohort 5) who has also served as a mentor to PEP student teachers.
Personal News
Mazal Tov to:
Amy Martin (Cohort 10) on her engagement to Yosi Cirlin (Pardes 2009-10, Fellow 2010-11).
Donna Rudolph (Cohort 6) and husband Ari on the birth of a daughter, Noa Chana. Mazal tov to big brother, Eitan.
Bradley Bernstein (Cohort 9) and wife, Aviva. on the birth of a boy.
We are sorry if we missed something. Please help us by sending in your news!
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