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