Beyond the Four Walls

Here is a copy of the article I wrote for this weeks School Newsletter


This past Sunday night I was one of the presenters for an online Elluminate session, which dealt with using social media in schools. Elluminate is an instant communication platform designed for educators to advance and promote collaborative learning, which specifically benefit students, teachers, and educational institutions.
My topic was how social media can be used for teacher and student growth. I discussed how I have utilized Twitter as a tool in my own professional growth. In my opinion, one of the most significant areas that social media and networking can assist educators and students is the access it affords to schools all over the world. We are not isolated and limited by size to a smattering of ideas and outlooks.
In the past few months, I have been in touch with administrators and teachers from schools in Florida and Australia that both use Tal Am and we have discussed the possibility of our students and teachers Skyping .Last week and again just yesterday, a few students and I Skyped with schools in Omaha, Nebraska and in Colorado to discuss Chanukah. The possibilities for learning are endless - we are no longer confined by the four walls of our classroom.
I believe this ties in very well to the story of Chanukah. Chanukah commemorates a time during which we had to hide the public practice of our religion and deny our Jewish identity. Baruch Hashem we live in a time and place where Judaism is a recognized and respected religion and its practices accepted by our neighbors. We have the freedom to publicly share our creativity and knowledge by having an amazing dance program performed by our elementary students and a night of learning in the CYHSB in our own building. Technology has given us the ability share the pride we have in the celebration of our Yiddishkeit with all types of schools all over the world.
May we continue to shine bright as a school, community and a nation.

For those that may be interested here is a link to the online Elluminate session I referred to: https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/jwsdetect/playback.jnlp?psid=2010-12-05.1457.D.4C3548A84E624FA254CD6511B7CA09.vcr&sid=vclass

Have a Great Shabbos

Akevy

Third Grade Play

Today the Third grade put on a play about the Mitzvah of Hachnasat Orchim, a topic they learned about in Chumash. The play was excellent and Kol Hakavod to Morah Yehudit for her efforts.
I wanted to recap what I said and what Morah Yehudit said at the play about how this short 20 min. play is so important to what and how we are teaching our students.
In my previous post I mentioned the importance of having students engaged in the learning process. What better way to have them engaged than having them put on a play showing what they learned in class. It also gave them an opportunity to put the Hebrew they learned to practical use by speaking and doing the play completely in Hebrew. Finally the play also showed relevance in that what we learned in Chumash is not just stories about the Avot but it applies today to our daily lives.
We should all be proud and have Nachat from our children and student, but we should realize that a play is more than just fun activity but it is actually a great learning experience as well.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving and Shabbat Shalom
Akevy

Blogging= Engaged Students

A while ago someone I follow on Twitter (@shareski) wrote a post that to be an excellent teacher all you need to do is blog ( I am simplifying it a lot).
However what I can say is that if you want students to be engaged then simply blog. I set up a blog for each of my fifth grade students using kidblog.org . Then I gave them a choice of topics to write about and asked them to comment on at least two other blog posts. I must be honest the writing and the comments need some work but the enthusiasm was amazing. Students were looking to see who commented on their blog and one point a student said "how come nobody commented on mine yet." When we got back to class one student said "boy that was fun" another commented "can we do that again" . Later that day I left some feedback and comments on each post. Then an amazing thing happened today a day later students came in and said I read your comment but I didn't have a chance to edit my post and another said "when are we blogging again".

During a recent #edchat( a forum on Twitter to discuss relevant issues in Education) someone commented that students are blogging anyway why not bring into the classroom. That is so true ,we have a perfect opportunity here to make a connection and relate to our students on their terms and in their world why not take advantage of it an make it a learning experience.
Once students are engaged and are excited about what they are doing the learning happens almost automatically.
Akevy

Engaged Students

In last week’s newsletter Rabbi Feigenbaum mentioned the Twitter articles that I re-tweeted about motivation. I would like to focus on a similar but related topic and that is “Student Engagement”. Having students engaged and actively participating in the lesson is one of the keys to learning. There is a famous quote “Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I’ll understand.” This idea was evident this week in the Lower School Judaic classrooms as classes learned about sukkot. The Benot Sherut did an activity that had the students acting out a story about sukkot. In some classes they made a play about the Ushpiezen, the special guests we invite to the Sukkah. In other classes they made models of kosher and non kosher sukkot and displayed them in the hallway of the school. Some classes used technology and had to make up a question sheet based on a video they saw, while others made games and went to some of the younger classes to play their games with them. The common denominator in all of these examples is that our students were engaged and were learning.
Have a Chag Sameach
Akevy

A Rosh Hashanah Message

This week Jews across the world will be celebrating Rosh Hashanah. I have been looking for an inspirational message for this time of year. The following is based on the words of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the British Commonwealth. Rabbi Saks explains that even though Rosh Hashanah is the anniversary of the creation of the world and of man, the portion we read from the Torah is about the birth of Isaac. Rabbi Sacks comments that on Rosh Hashanah one would think that we would read about how G-D created the world and the coronation of G-D as our King. Instead we read about our creation, the birth of a child. We see from here that our relationship with G-D on this day is not as a creator but as a parent.

As I write this, the next phase of Israeli- Arab peace talks are about to begin, the situation in Iran and how that will affect Israel and for that matter the entire world is very tenuous, not to mention the issues with the economy. How are we supposed to deal with and understand all of these complex issues? Rabbi Sacks says that the message that on Rosh Hashanah we read about the birth of Isaac gives of an insight of how we should approach these world issues. He says the following; “Don’t think about the past; or even present calculations of political interest or economic gain. Ask what impact this will have on future generation. Have in front of you the image of a single human child. The message of Rosh Hashanah is that greater than an understanding of creation is the ability to hear the cry of a child.”

I don’t think Rabbi Sacks wrote these words with educators in mind but as I read these powerful words I got my inspiration as an educator. As teachers we always have to have the image of our students in front of us at all times.

As we celebrate Rosh Hashanah let us remember that we may not be able to deal with all or the global issues that we face nor do we have the capability of changing the past but we as educators and for that matter parents do have the ability to think about what effect we have on future generations. May we always keep the image of our students and children on our minds and may we always be able to hear the cries of the children that need us.

Wishing you all a Ketiva V’Chatima Tova
Akevy

Sharing success

When I created this blog I had in mind a number of things. First and foremost as a means of open communication between myself and the parents and secondly as a way of sharing with all of you the wonderful things that go on in our classroom. I have encouraged the teachers to email me their successes so that I can post them on the blog as well. I do feel a bit awkward that the first success that is shared happened to come from something I did in my class.

One of the things you often hear about in educational theory is the concept of an engaged learner and how important it is ,and it is very important. The other thing that people need to realize about an engaged classroom is that it could look and seem to be a bit out of control to an outsider. However it is a totally different experience when we see that theory in practice. Today I had such an experience.

I had the fourth and fifth grade today after davening for a half an hour. I decided to do a joint activity. I divided them randomly and put four shorashim ( Hebrew root words) on the board. I told each group to pick two shorashim and see how many words they could come up with. I told them they could use a siddur, Chumash, words around the room, or their own knowledge. They were all working and about half way into the activity they asked if they could do all the shorashim on the board. I was blown away that they wanted to do more than was necessary completely on their own. Each group came up with over 25 words. I must add there was no reward for winning or other external incentive, other than the joy of learning
They were definitely not quiet nor were they sitting nicely but they were learning and engaged.
The best thing for me as a educator is that other than coming up with the activity I had nothing else to do it with the outcome, it was completely student driven.

My hope is to share many more success stories with you through out the year.


Have a great shabbos
Akevy

First Day

Dear All,

Today was an amazing day. The excitement for me was building all week but there is nothing like seeing smiling and enthusiastic faces as the students enter school on the first day. What was even nicer was that those same smiles were there at the end of day. It truly was a Great Day!
Last night I participated in an online chat (through twitter) about improving teacher- student relationships. I don't recall what prompted my response but at some point I sent the following Tweet: The talmud quotes someone who says;I learned a lot form my teachers, even more from my friends but I learned the most from my students.
I shared this today with the boys after davening. I believe this to be an important goal and that is that education and learning is a partnership it has to be a give and take with everyone wanting the same thing and that is for each and every person whether it be student or teacher to give their best effort in order to achieve success. One of the videos we saw during in service interviewed a teacher that said that the class knows that is Mrs "x" doesn't know something that is o.k. we will bring in an expert who does.
I think if our students see that we as teachers are striving to become life long learners they will follow, and that learning is a community in which everyone learns from each other and it is not a top down approach that says you do this because I am the teacher.
The journey that we embarked on today is going to a long one filled with ups and downs and I as told my fifth graders, (I don't know who said this ) "that in order to succeed you may (or must ) fail along the way" but in the end we will succeed because

"FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION"

I am excited and looking forward to taking this journey with you

Rabbi Greenblatt

Here are some pictures from the first day

The importance of Education

As we are about to start the new school year and it being Erev Shabbos I thought I would post so words of Torah on the importance of education. This is taken from the "Diary of a Chief Rabbi" by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.
Shabbat Shalom and see Y'all next Week

Rabbi Greenblatt

The Real Battleground of Survival is Education
Diary of a Chief Rabbi

I had a lovely experience the other day, opening a new computer centre at one of our Jewish primary schools. It's fascinating to see how children take to the new technology, entranced by its almost magical possibilities. Already they had created a school website to which many of the children had contributed. They understood how it could be accessed by their friends in other schools - even by people halfway across the world.

We are living through a revolution, one of the most profound in history, and our children are the first to enjoy it. There are, of course, great dangers in the Internet and we must guard against them. But there are also huge opportunities and we should understand them. There is a spiritual dimension to communication technology, and even a Hanukkah connection. To understand them we need historical perspective.

The most profound transformations in society take place when there are changes in the way we record and transmit information. We can track one of these through the history of Europe after the invention of printing in the fifteenth century by Johann Gutenberg. The result was a vast democratisation of knowledge which led eventually to the Reformation, the development of science, the birth of the Enlightenment and the emergence of the modern nation state - all made possible by the spread of literacy and the increased availability of books. It was fascinating to see the Sunday Times last week rightly identifying Gutenberg as the man of the millennium.

The first great revolution took place between five and six thousand years ago with the invention of writing - cuneiform in Mesopotamia, hieroglyphics in ancient Egypt. To that moment we can date the birth of civilisation. For the first time knowledge became cumulative. One generation could hand on its wisdom to the next. People were no longer limited by memory alone. The start of written records was an axial moment in the history of mankind.

But it was the second revolution, some two thousand years later, that had truly epoch-making significance, namely the invention of the alphabet in Canaan at around the time of the patriarchs. Both cuneiform and hieroglyphics involved too many characters to be mastered by more than a small section of the population. Mesopotamia and Egypt were hierarchical societies and could not have been otherwise. The vast majority of people, unable to read or write, had no chance of reaching their full potential as human beings. They were a workforce, nothing more or less, often employed by rulers as forced labour for grandiose building projects such as the Babylonian ziggurats and the Egyptian temples and pyramids. The Torah contains scathing critiques of both in its narratives, of the Tower of Babel and the enslavement of the Israelites in Egypt.

We do not know who first invented the alphabet. It may have been the Phoenicians, the Canaanites, or one of several other peoples who occupied the narrow strip of land that is today the State of Israel. But this we know: that the first alphabets were semitic. Indeed the word alphabet itself derives ultimately from the first two letters of the Hebrew script, aleph and bet.

There can be no doubt that our ancestors were the first to fully understand the radical implications of the new technology. An alphabet that involves a symbol set of a mere twenty-two letters can be mastered by everyone. For the first time the prospect opened up of a truly egalitarian society, one in which every human individual could reach his or her true potential through direct access to knowledge. The prophet Isaiah put it beautifully: "And all your children shall be learned of God, and great shall be the peace of your children." The birth of the book gave rise to the people of the Book.

Judaism became the first - and still the greatest - civilisation predicated on education, study and the life of the mind. Which takes us to Hanukkah. The word Hanukkah means "dedication" and refers to the cleansing of the Temple by the Maccabees. But it also derives from the Hebrew word Hinnukh which means "education", and reminds us that one of the results of the Maccabees' victory was an enormous intensification of Jewish learning, culminating in the world's first system of universal schooling. The encounter with Greek culture taught Jews the vital lesson that the real battleground of Jewish survival was not military but educational. That was the only way they would resist assimilation. It still is.

The rededication of the Temple lasted not much more than two centuries. It was then destroyed by the Romans and has still not yet been rebuilt. But the rededication of the Jewish people, through education, Jewish schools and a life of learning has lasted from that day to this. The ultimate lesson of Hanukkah, as it is of Judaism as a whole, is this. Military victories are temporary. Spiritual victories are not. It takes an army to defend a country. But it takes schools to defend an identity. Jews eventually lost their country. But they never lost their knowledge of who they were and why. That is how they were able to survive two thousand years of exile and eventually return and rebuild our land.

On Hanukkah our ancestors dedicated a building, but they did more. They dedicated a hundred generations of Jewish children through Hinnukh, Jewish education. "Call them not your children but your builders," said the sages - reminding us that we should care more about builders than buildings. In the past few days, opening a new Jewish primary school in Pinner and a new computer centre in a Jewish school in Southgate, I saw the builders of our future and knew that the Hannukah lights in Anglo-Jewry will continue to burn, and grow.

Published in London Jewish News & Jewish Telegraph December 1999

Getting ready for school

Here is a link that I thought would be helpful as we prepare for the start of a new school year
http://bit.ly/c9GDTw

Rabbi Akevy Greenblatt Article – Summer Newsletter July 16, 2010

I hope you are all having an enjoyable and relaxing summer. It is difficult to believe that in about one month our faculty will be returning for in-service and that the first day of school is less than five weeks away.
Over the past few years I have written about the importance of Curriculum and the Tal Am program. However, learning is an ongoing process that is constantly evolving and we cannot rest on our laurels and be content with what we have achieved. I am certainly not denigrating our past accomplishments in the area of elementary Judaic Studies. We have the Tal Am curriculum in grades 1-4 which is a Hebrew immersion program based upon the latest in “brain based research,” we have differentiated many aspects of our fifth grade curriculum, and the technology that was introduced last year in sixth grade will now be available in every classroom. These improvements do not, however, address everything that we want our students to learn.
Over the summer I have begun the process of looking at ways to improve the Tal Am curriculum and to bring more differentiated initiatives into the Judaic classrooms. This is not a process that can be done alone nor is it something that can be accomplished overnight. Throughout the year I will be working closely with our teachers, whose input into this process is essential to accomplish this goal. We will need to establish benchmarks and standards to enable us to enhance our curriculum so that our students can achieve optimum success in Judaic Studies. Another project that we will be working on is getting Chumash and Ivrit standards in place by the end of the 2010-2011 school year.
We cannot operate in a vacuum and your input and support is important. To that end I have created a blog “Lower School JS” so that I can communicate with you about what is going on and I encourage you to send comments. The blog can be accessed at mhalowerschooljudaics.blogspot.com. I hope to send out divisional emails as well as a means of open communication. Enjoy the rest of the summer, stay cool and have a meaningful fast.

Welcome

I have started this blog in an effort to communicate with you about the wonderful things that are going on in the Judaic studies program at the Margolin Hebrew Academy. I encourage you to comment and follow what we are doing.
I am looking forward to a wonderful year of learning and growth.
Have a wonderful summer and see y'all in about five weeks

Akevy