This
year we are excited to offer an array of options to our graduates in
terms of professional support and development. As in previous years, we
will continue to:
- Make site visits to our beginning teachers
- Provide a closed list-serve, bi-monthly newsletters and a website with resources and job opportunities
- Connect our first year teachers with veteran coaches, and
- Offer whatever individual support we can to all alumni working in any areas of Jewish education.
NEW for this year are the following opportunities, from which our alumni can choose a number of options:
- Participation in the annual day school conference. We
invite those who have been working as administrators or teaching
full-time Judaic studies in day schools for at least 4 years to attend
the conference in Washington DC, February 3-5, 2013
. Along with other groups we will have a “mini-conference within the
conference” to bring our veteran graduates together. PEASP will
subsidize both the cost of the conference and the hotel (based on double
occupancy) for those who need the funding. (If your school is able to
pay for your participation, that will allow more for others who need
subsidies.) A limited amount will be set aside for travel, based on need
and cost of flights. We feel that this is an important opportunity for
those who have chosen careers in day school education, and we hope that
you will mark your calendars for this important professional development
opportunity. More information will follow immediately after the
holidays.
- Development of hevruta in our classrooms. Two
different opportunities will be provided. Those alumni with six years or
more teaching experience, who began the hevruta project this past year
with Orit Kent from Brandeis University will complete the project in the
fall, as they examine the last pair of hevruta skills - focusing and
wondering. Those who are interested in expanding their expertise in
using hevruta in the classroom will be invited (along with a colleague
from your school) to learn more, based on some of the work that our most
senior alumni have done over the past year. This will take place in
different locations in North America toward the end of the school year.
- A NEW one week intensive version of our summer curriculum workshop
for graduates with 1 to 4 years of teaching experience will be provided
in North America, tentative dates of Sunday, July 28th through Friday
morning, August 2, 2013. While built on the previous model of
curriculum development, there will be tracks offered, to meet the needs
of a wider range of teachers and provide professional development
opportunities for those who are ready to take on more leadership in
their schools.
- Two professional learning communities:
- Last
year’s PLC group focused on classroom management for middle schoolers. A
number of participants expressed an interest in continuing the calls.
The group will expand to include other interested participants - who are
at least in their second year of teaching. Ariel Wolgel will facilitate
the group which will read and discuss excerpts from the professional
literature and their application to the classroom.
- Our first year teachers are invited to join a regular call to focus in on the challenges they face as novice teachers.
- Finally we hope to involve a number of you in our initiatives connected to the new Pardes Center for Jewish Educators.
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