The 4 S’S of Education
Rabbi Y.Y Jacobson often quotes the research in parenting that shows the critical importance of applying the “Four S’s” in our daily interactions with our children – children must feel: Safe, Secure, Seen and Soothed. I think this research applies to teaching students of all ages- from the youngest through the oldest grades. In my […]
Sticking to Your Guns
One of my most difficult experiences as a teacher was the year I taught a group of middle school girls who were incredibly disrespectful to me. Many of my colleagues completely side stepped disciplining them by simply giving up teaching them or showing them videos. I just couldn’t stomach dropping all my standards for good […]
Pondering Project Based Learning
As I discussed in my previous post, zoom teaching posed many challenges to students and teachers alike. When we moved to zoom most of my students were either not attending class or almost completely passive. I was heart sick at the learning opportunities they were losing. I thought to myself, maybe I could ask them […]
Lessons learned from COVID
I clearly remember the Shabbos meal when we had over a family and we were discussing the future of education. The young doctor, a resident at the time, was quite confident that within a number of years all of education would be moved to a virtual platform. He argued quite convincingly- what need would there […]
The Role of Creativity in the Classroom
As many Jewish educators can attest, one of the primary problems that we face is engaging students in faith based texts. The challenge of all educators is to engage students in text, but the struggle becomes particularly attenuated when we ask students to move beyond understanding the text, and allow it to shape their daily […]
Teaching Judaism Through the Prism of the Arts
This was a sermon that I delivered in January 2018 at Cedar Sinai Oheb Tzedek: Teaching Judaism Through the Prism of the Arts I remember the discomfort and the pressure I felt every time he called my name in class. I so badly wanted not to disappoint him or to let him down. He always […]