Drawing Parents Into their Children's Synagogue/Temple Educational Programming

When I was growing up in the '60s, our afternoon Hebrew School, in an effort to mimic the public schools, invited parents to parent-teacher conferences. We kids didn't take these afternoon events very seriously -- most of us felt that Hebrew school wasn't "real" school. Judging by the turnout at these conferences, most of the parents felt the same way (although my parents, to my chagrin, were always the first to arrive). 

Over the years, complementary afternoon schools have experimented with a variety of techniques which are aimed at encouraging parents to become more involved with their children's Jewish learning. Parents are invited in to join school lessons and other experiential educational activities including Shabbat and holiday services, school performances and evening get-togethers. Synagogue and Temple educators place a great deal of emphasis on the importance of involving the families of their students in the curriculum and atmosphere of the school.

Based on the comments of many Jewish educators, these efforts are producing mixed results. Parents are often overwhelmed by their other home and work responsibilities, and find it difficult to participate in their children's complementary school activities. As a result, the parents aren't able to follow-up on their children's Hebrew school curriculum which creates an unfortunate disconnect that Jewish educators would like to address.

Temple Emanuel in Pascack Valley, NJ is working with JETS Israel on a unique project of online education. Among the goals of the program, JETS and Temple Emanuel educational staff want to encourage a higher degree of parental involvement in their children's Hebrew school experience and an increased understanding of what their children are learning.

The project, entitled The Holocaust: Remembering and Rebuilding, provides an overview of the Holocaust and the Rebirth of the State of Israel for the Temple's Bar and Bat Mitzva class. Students meet online over the course of three months to gain a deeper understanding of the Shoah and the establishment of the State of Israel, and how they impacted -- and continues to impact -- the Jewish World.

All of the lessons are conducted online to enable students to sign in from their home and participate virtually. The dynamic lessons move from audio and video clips to selected readings to textual study -- with multiple interactive assignments and activities interspersed among the various presentations. Students create shared documents, online bulletin boards, social posters and collaborative presentations that summarize each week's lesson.

The elearning aspect of the lesson also addresses parental involvement. Parents are invited to participate with their children or, if they prefer, watch a video cast of the session after the lesson to access the material and monitor their own child's participation and progress.

A recent mid-semester questionnaire was presented to both parents and students. The reflections indicated that, not only were the students engaged in the class, but the parents were also knowledgeable about their children's Hebrew school activities and involved in the curriculum.  While the parents suggested that a more community atmosphere is created when the class takes place at the Temple itself, they were enthusiastic about the program and indicated that they would like to see it continue -- perhaps partially at home and partially at the Hebrew School. These comments can now be taken into account when planning future elearning projects.

The following are some of the feedback from students and parents:

A. Kids Speak

Parents Speak:

Benefits of Online Learning for Student Growth and Achievement

The findings of a research project sponsored by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement of the U.S. Department of Education support the claim that the use of technology in the classroom enhances student learning in a number of ways.

*Summary of Findings

The following is a summary of benefits reported by teachers[1]:

Increased Motivation and Self Esteem

The most common--and in fact, nearly universal--teacher-reported effect on students was an increase in motivation. Teachers talked about motivation from a number of different perspectives. Some mentioned motivation with respect to working in a specific subject area, for example, a greater willingness to write or to work on computational skills. Others spoke in terms of more general motivational effects--student satisfaction with the immediate feedback provided by the computer and the sense of accomplishment and power gained in working with technology. Teachers also frequently cite technology's motivational advantages in providing a venue in which a wider range of students can excel. Compared to conventional classrooms with their stress on verbal knowledge and multiple-choice test performance, technology provides a very different set of challenges and different ways in which students can demonstrate what they understand. In addition, technology provides a more neutral playing field that is less intimidating to timid students. As one teacher put it, "The kids that don't necessarily star can become the stars." Another teacher expressed it as follows: "They have a voice and it's not in any way secondary to anybody else's voice. It's an equal voice."

Technical Skills

Students, even at the elementary school level, are able to acquire an impressive level of skill with a broad range of computer tools. Although the specific tools in use will likely change before these students enter the world of work, the students acquire a basic understanding of how various classes of computer tools behave and a confidence about being able to learn to use new tools that will support their learning of new software applications.

Accomplishment of More Complex Tasks

Teachers for the observed classes and activities at the case study sites were nearly unanimous also in reporting that students were able to handle more complex assignments and do more with higher-order skills because of the supports and capabilities provided by technology.

More Collaboration with Peers

Another effect of technology cited by a great majority of teachers is an increased inclination on the part of students to work cooperatively and to provide peer tutoring. While many of the classrooms we observed assigned technology-based projects to small groups of students, even when each student has a computer and works "independently", teachers note an increased frequency of students helping each other. The public display and greater legibility of student work creates an invitation to comment. Students often comment on each others' work, offer assistance, and discussing what they are doing. One teacher made the point that the technology invites peer coaching. In addition, students' ability to collaborate on substantive content can be further enhanced through the use of computer applications specifically designed for this purpose.

Breaking Down Classroom Walls - Increased Use of Outside Resources

Many teachers cited increased use of outside resources as a benefit of using technology. Not only are more resources available online through internet searches, but social media now enables students to access to peers or experts who can provide information or expertise on the particular subject under discussion.

Improved Design Skills/Attention to Audience

Experiences in developing the kinds of rich, multimedia products that can be produced with technology, particularly when the design is done collaboratively so that students experience their peers' reactions to their presentations, appear to support a greater awareness of audience needs and perspectives. Multiple media give students choices about how best to convey a given idea (e.g., through text, video, animation). In part because they have the capability to produce more professional-looking products and the tools to manipulate the way information is presented, students in many technology-using classes are reportedly spending more time on design and audience presentation issues.

*Similar findings were highlighted in more recent research done by Gulek and Demirtas in their evaluation of Microsoft’s Anywhere Learning Project.[2] Their research demonstrated positive results on student learning and curriculum delivery, as summarized below:

Student Outcomes:

·         Laptops lead to more student writing and to writing of higher quality

·         Laptops increase access to information and improve research analysis skills

Laptop Students:

·         Spend more time engaging in collaborative work than non-laptop students.

·         Participate in more project-based instruction.

·         Become collaborators (interact with each other about their work).

·         Direct their own learning.

·         Report a greater reliance on active learning strategies.

·         Readily engage in problem solving and critical thinking.

·         Consistently show deeper and more flexible use of technology.

·         Spend more time doing homework on computers.

Teacher Outcomes:

·         Teachers who use laptops use a more constructivist approach to teaching.

·         Teachers who use laptops feel more empowered in the classroom.

·         Teachers who use laptops spend less time lecturing.

*Conclusion

The rapid development of the internet and social networking in the 21st century has changed the way in which students learn, and potentially the way in which teachers teach. In the short number of years since these studies were conducted, the increased sophistication of online tools and social media have even increased the potential of online technology to enhance student learning. It is therefore critical that teachers become familiar with and proficient in the use of the easily accessible resources that can more effectively engage our students in the learning process - to enhance their classroom experience and to enable them to generate their own learning beyond the classroom.

  

[1] Most of the information in this paper is taken from this report, which can be found at http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/EdReformStudies/EdTech/effectsstudents.html.

[2] Geulek, J. C. and Demirtas, H., "Learning with Technology: The Impact of Laptop Use on Student Achievement", Journal of Technology, Learning, and Assessment 3(2), January 2005, pp. 5-6. Can be found online at: http://napoleon.bc.edu/ojs/index.php/jtla/article/viewFile/1655/1501 . 

Shutafut Twinning Partnership -- Israel and American Diaspora Communities

A Lens on Jewish eLearning in Poland

Teachers in Poland have learned that eLearning offers unique opportunities to engage  students who live in outlying areas and have no access to formal Jewish education

""I just wanted to tell you that as a way of involving the kids from the e-school, together with the following institutions:The Lauder-Morasha Schools and the JOINT /JCC Warsaw, I arranged a photography contest called: "Jewish Poland than and now" .  The exhibitionon is on a display at The Museum of The History of Polish Jews and is open to public for one month! The Museum also wants to display the photography exhibit at the Virtual Shtetl project on-line in the future. We had a big finale, this past Sunday at The Museum and the children from the e-school came to Warsaw and where awarded diplomas and prizes.. All the materials for the contest were used, of course, online."

(Hadassah Buchwald-Pawlak, co-founder and project manager of the Lauder eSchool of Poland)

Providing an online Hebrew School environment for Jewish youngsters who don't have an available or accessible local complementary Hebrew School is a concept which is gaining in popularity in Jewish communities throughout the world.

Originally, online Hebrew Schools were established for English-speaking students. The idea was quickly adopted by educational leaders in other countries who immediately grasped the value of the model. Online Hebrew Schools enable students to log into their class from any location and engage in the lesson while meeting, virtually, other Jewish students from different localities.

In Eastern Europe, the Lauder organization has been leading the movement to make Jewish education available to all Jewish youngsters via distance learning frameworks. The Lauder eSchool operates in Germany, Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic with a similar program slated to open next year in Moscow. The Lauder e-School is a key component in the non--profit Lauder organization's mission to promote the revival of the Jewish community throughout Europe. The school offers "secular" subjects as well as a Jewish focus and attracts youngsters from various backgrounds, ranging from families who are involved in their Jewish communities to those who have little or no Jewish background or affiliation.

A key component of Lauder's eSchool involves training the teachers in the various facets of distance learning. Since 2011 Lauder has been turning to the JETS: Jerusalem EdTech Solutions  program to prepare the educators to teach online. The teachers begin to develop the knowledge and skills that they'll need to teach online courses via the JETS No Teacher Left Behind Course. No Teacher Left Behind familiarizes teachers with online tools and methodologies that empower them to teach online.

Hadassah values her experiences with the JETS program when she wrote "I can tell you that, whenever I have the opportunity to talk about e-school I always say that we were all instructed by JETS -- even when I was at a conference in Madrid."

Many of the Lauder No Teacher Left Behind participants have chosen to further their learning and participate in JETS eLearning Community of Jewish Educators. The year-long eCom asynchronous course is facilitated on a Learning Management System which enables all participants to access materials, practice new tools and skills and interact among themselves as they learn how to including LMS learning in their own elearning "classrooms." Lauder educators are involved in the eLearning Community where they can trade ideas and experiences with Jewish educators from throughout the world.

The Lauder photography contest was part of a bigger educational project called "Kamienice Ya'akova" - "Ohalej Ya'akov". The program was developed by the following: 

• The Lauder-Morasha Schools
• Lauder e-Learning Schools
• Funacja Swiat na wyciagniecie reki
• Museum of the History of Polish Jews
• JCC Warsaw.

Photography contest participants were from: The Lauder-Morasha kindergarten, Lauder e-Learning Schools and Joint/JCC Warsaw.

 

 

"For whom are you responsible?" Online Holocaust Education

"For whom are you responsible?"

That question was posed to a group of Temple Emanuel middle school students as part of the JETS Israel class on Defiance -- the fourth lesson of the Remembering and Rebuilding After the Holocaust unit.

Almost all of the students' answers related to responsibility to friends, family and other personal acquaintances.

"Sometimes a friend needs help -- food if they are sick, take care of their kids when needed, invite them over" J.C.

"Family, friends -- they look out for you." D.B.

"Having an obligation and doing that obligation for our family and friends" S.R.

The class proceeded to view an old Seinfeld clip that showed the show cast's arrest under the Good Samaritan Law for ignoring a person in distress. Most of the students were unaware that such a law even existed but they expressed surprise and dismay that such a law was needed, even after the instructor pointed out that, according to their view of "for whom are you responsible," the Seinfeld characters were, in no way, responsible for the person who was being mugged.

 Now, the questions became more challenging. What does Judaism say about helping your fellow man? What does morality say about helping someone in distress? And from there the discussion moved into the crux of the day's lesson -- how does someone weigh the desire to help with the risk that it might mean to his or her own future and maybe, even to his/her life and the life of his/her family? How do you educate people to be responsible to their fellow man? The group moved into two separate groups to discuss the issues and consider the alternatives.

"It is a judgment call; you have to balance the risk you are taking with the need someone has for help." J.S.

"God expects us to be the best person we can be and do what is right in his eyes."S.R.

"You can only guide people in the right direction. You can't always make someone do something" C.B.

"You can teach that by setting good examples" J.C.

"You draw the line when the one who needs help expects the help and doesnt need it anymore" J.F.

By this time the students had begun to look at the question of "to whom am I responsible" differently. The class joined together to read some pertinent quotes and watch two videos about people who had acted honorably and courageously during WWII. 

 

They then contrasted this behavior with an account of a Jewish family that was faced with unexpected anti-semitism from a formally trusted friend during the Nazi era. A collection of quotes was presented 

[re: the quotes] 

"I feel this speaks to me the most because it demonstrates how most people don't do things for themselves" J.F.

"If more people do good and if we can be good after some evil and stay good the world will be a lot better " D.B.

"Everyone is trying to do good, but not always in the right way" B.G.

The groups moved to linoboards to continue their research into some of the best-known and not-so-well-known heroes of the Holocaust. The students in each group added their impressions of the readings and movies. 

The lesson concluded with a Google Presentation (PPT) in which each student will create a slide about a Holocaust hero that s/he wishes to honor.

As the lesson ended, the question was again asked -- "to whom is each of us responsible?"

"I have learned that anyone can help anyone." S.R.

" I am responsible for anyone who I see." M.H.

 "Anyone who needs my abilities more than I do." J.S

On Wednesday February 5^th 2014 the class will meet with class instructor and JETS director, Smadar Goldstein, to plant trees in the memory of the Righteous Among the Nations at Temple Emanuel of the Pascack Valley. The group's Google presentation, prepared by the students, will guide the ceremony.

 

Israel and the Design Thinking Classroom

When a recent post lauding the concept of Design Thinking appeared on the Jedlab Facebook forum, I was intrigued enough to do some research into the technique. The reading and video materials that I saw have encouraged me to consider how I can incorporate Design Thinking into my online classes.  

"Design Thinking," within the educational framework, refers to a creative process that helps the teacher and students design meaningful solutions to real-life problems. The goal of design thinking is to encourage students to work in a more human, innovative, collaborative manner and in a way that supports proto-type driven solutions to real-life problems.

My research turned up a wide range of methods that can be used to promote design thinking in a classroom. The strategy that I like best, and which I think will be most useful to me in my classes on Israel, involves a simple process that, I believe, promotes more creative thinking on the part of the students and more opportunities for reflection and growth on the part of the teacher.

In the classroom, a design thinking lesson should begin with a generative statement -- i.e. "Israel is important to the Jewish people." This provides an opening for the students to expand on the statements with tangents and directions that will lay the groundwork for future activities and work. The students can then develop the subject by presenting their ideas for sub-categories that they would be interested in investigating further. In the case of an Israel curriculum this might involve Jewish diversity in Israel, the historical relationship between the Jewish people and Israel and some of the present-day issues that revolve around Israel's relationship with the diaspora community.

At this point the class can either break up into pairs or groups or continue to work together. Additional thought-provoking questions should be presented -- one of the questions that I am planning for my lesson involves asking the kids to consider how they think an alien might react when seeing, for the first time, the special relationship that exists between the Jews and the Land of Israel. This, my question continues, takes into account that most non-Israeli  Jews are thousands of years removed from the Land of Israel. Another philosophical inquiry-type question could launch a unit on Jewish diversity by having the students imagine a walk down a Jerusalem street during one of the Jewish holidays and asking them to consider what different sights they would see as different Jewish communities celebrate the holiday according to their own traditions.

The idea is, basically, to find avenues that allow the kids to take the introductory generative statement and expand it into the directions that interest them. In a design thinking lesson the teacher uses empathy so that the students own the subject. The teacher will then define the issue or concern which broadens the subject to fit each student's interests. As the students ideate they make the subject real and powerful. The teacher must always prepare for unpredictable answers and allow the students to focus on the areas that interest them.

A lesson that's created around the concept of design thinking is aimed at encouraging the students to be aware of their own cognition processes as they identify and use resources that help them to explore subjects in a real and meaningful manner. Educators who have brought design thinking into their classrooms have commented that a design thinking-based curriculum allows for deeper learning, but demands that the educator be prepared to allow the process to evolve. Most students are not used to such an open atmosphere in the classroom and will need time to become acquainted and comfortable with these types of lessons. In addition, design-thinking curriculum takes more time than a traditional lesson.

Online education fits into design thinking curriculum. Students don't have to raise their hands or wait for their turn to express themselves -- as the questions are presented the students can participate immediately through chat or other online tools.

Stay tuned to my upcoming foray into a design thinking lesson for my Hebrew school class.   

Tzelem Elokim -- Learning about Being Created in the Image of G-d

One thing on which all streams of Judaism agree is that some of the core principles of the Jewish religion revolve around g'milut Chassidim, kvod adam l'chavero and tikkun olam. But what exactly do those concepts involve?

High School students at Yeshivat Kadima of St. Louis have been exploring these questions as part of their course on Jewish History and Contemporary Jewish Issues. The students integrate textual studies with history and real life dilemmas as they explore Jewish issues of today in light of Jewish sources and Jewish history.

The second semester of the course began in the beginning of January with a focus on the relationships between chessed and the students' own lives in light of a variety of the teachings of the Rambam, one of the greatest medieval Jewish thinkers. During January, the class focused on "How to be Good." After viewing a thought provoking video entitled "For Goodness Sakes" the students took a poll in which they were asked to note some of the traits that make a person a good person according to the video. A second poll was used to compare traits that the students feel make one a good person according to Judaism. The students then moved to a linoboard where they expanded on their answers and expressed their thoughts about how Judaism emphasizes "caring for 'the Other'".

 

The next lesson involved creating a Powerpoint Presentation which focused on definitions of goodness that could be derived from reading traditional texts, particularly those authored by Rambam. A different textual source was presented on each slide, and each student was asked to add his/her own slide to the presentation with a modern-day example of the "chesed" implied in the source. In addition to the feedback given by the instructor, the students were asked to review and comment on each other's work.

The focus of the discussion then turned to the concept of "tzelem Elokim" – "the image of G-d" as the fundamental principle behind the Jewish concepts of g'milut Chassidim, kvod adam l'chavero and tikkun olam. Each student was encouraged to look at how he/she embodies "tzelem Elokim" by reflecting on the following questions:

1. Which of your qualities most reflects "tzelem Elokim"? Give an example of when your behavior reflects "tzelem Elokim". 

2. Which quality that reflects "tzelem Elokim" do you respect in someone you look up to? This can be a family member, friend, teacher, anyone in your circle of life. Give an example of what this person did that makes him/her an example of "tzelem Elokim".

The students submitted their own thoughts and then commented on the answers that their peers had offered to further expand and clarify their visions of "tzelem Elokim".  

The next session focused on giving Tzedakah, particularly on whether giving Tzedakah is a choice or an obligation? The students examined different sources that command us to give tzdekka and commented on the sources that they found to be most convincing. They then studied Rambam's pyramid of the 8 levels of giving Tzedakah and created a class PPT in which each student discussed one of the Rambam's levels of Tzedakah and related it to their own personal experience.

To summarize the lesson the students were presented with halachot and dilemmas which elicited serious thought about issues that are raised by the injunction to give Tzedakah. The students were asked to comment on those issues as they considered their own feelings and the dictates of Jewish law.