The Kohelet Prize Database
Pedagogy: Constructivist
Explore the Kohelet Prize Database
Prize Categories
- Interdisciplinary Integration (79)
- Real-World Learning (105)
- Learning Environment (30)
- Differentiated Instruction (45)
- Development of Critical and / or Creative Thinking (56)
- Risk Taking and Failure (12)
Pedagogy
- Blended Learning (112)
- Constructivist (195)
- Design Thinking (41)
- Experiential Education (65)
- Flipped Learning (13)
- Gamification (6)
- Hevruta (31)
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- Language Immersion (13)
- Montessori (21)
- PBL - Project Based Learning (238)
- Social Emotional Learning (54)
- Socratic Method (10)
- Soulful Education (17)
- Whole Brain Teaching (27)
- UBD - Understanding By Design (105)
- 21st Century Skills (273)
Subjects
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- 7th Grade (142)
- 8th Grade (138)
- 9th Grade (104)
- 10th Grade (110)
- 11th Grade (110)
- 12th Grade (109)
From Mesivta 404 to Lamplighters Mesivta: A Real-World Journey (Mesivta 404 2.0)
Stop. Push your mental reset button. You might think this entry will be about a unit plan, an initiative or a school program with a real-world application. But actually, this entry is school as the real world application. Students and teachers at Lamplighters Mesivta are founding school together. Read about why and how...
Mishkeh Mechanic / Success Strategist 2.0
Middle school students completed a project in their STEAM cross-curricular class and followed the Teshuva process to "realize," and thus capitalize upon, their mistakes and successes; this highly replicable, easily transferable project took on a far-reaching mind of its own, with students at the helm of the real-life skills ship.
Derech Eretz, Respect, and Consent: Middot in the Modern Age
This program is an interdisciplinary exploration of current events, Tanach, and literature to examine the meaning and application of derech eretz in a modern Jewish context.
Creators of Content: How Students Can Co-Design Their Understanding of Their World
Students at Pressman Academy from grades K-5th participate in STEAM twice a week for 45 minutes. During this time they are presented with a variety of options to explore a given content area. Ultimately they create prototypes to solve complex problems and models to represent how they understand the world using tools from cardboard to CNC machines.
JSTEAM – Melacha Makerspace
JSTEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) Makerspace. STEAM through a Jewish lens in sync with Maimonides School's mission creating a beautiful blend of Torah and Worldly experience with hands-on creativity.
Maimonides Integrated Connections
Three interconnected gears with the letters M.I.C. representing Maimonides Integrated Connections. This encourages students and teachers to find cross-curricular connections, bridging various subjects and disciplines, and integrating classroom learning with real life experiences.
Poetry Unbound: Finding Poetry Across the Curriculum
Inspired by the “Poetry in Motion” campaign on New York City subway cars, three teachers looked for ways to help students discover poetry outside of English literature textbooks: art, Hebrew, Judaics, and our school’s mission trip to Israel.
JCDS Learning Adventures
JCDS Learning Adventures are deeply immersive week-long interdisciplinary units developed around real-world challenges. While students in each grade have amazingly diverse experiences, all Learning Adventures are connected by a common pedagogical vision: students collaborating to develop and share solutions to tangible real-world problems.
The Shlenker BackYard: A Gateway to Experiential Learning
The Shlenker School’s nature reserve “The BackYard” is situated on a 1.5 acre wooded area directly behind the school. This outdoor classroom is utilized for core academic and Judaic learning experiences. Students learn about environmental ethics and are taught the Jewish value of Ba’al tashchit—not destroying or wasting resources in nature.
Integrated/Environmentally Conscious Tashlich Unit
This interdisciplinary unit on water and tashlich integrates Judaic studies, physical science, ecology, and Language Arts through text analysis and critical thinking exercises. Fourth grade students connect Judaism and general studies through Torah, mitzvot, scientific method, creative thinking, and problem solving.
Learning in Common: Creating a School-Wide Collaborative Learning Space
The Information and Technology team of Portland Jewish Academy recognized the need for a more collaborative, connective, and centralized learning space for our school. We created a place that is a living expression of our core values of limmud (study), kehillah (community), and zehut (Jewish identity).
Mishnah Sukkah: Design Challenge
Heather Kantrowitz has developed a project based unit on Mishnah Sukkah that has become an integral part of Austin Jewish Academy’s seventh grade program. Students learn Mishnah Sukkah and then build model-size sukkot based on the descriptions in the Mishna, and it has evolved to include a design challenge and writing component.
Reaching In, Reaching Out: A Tefillah Chug Focused On Dismantling Social Barriers Through Personal Identity Exploration
Using Sara K. Ahmed’s “Being the Change” (2018) framework, students connect and celebrate social comprehension skills and Jewish prayer. Through stories, identity webs, artwork, poetry, and Tefillah inquiry, students explore elements of their own identities, perspectives, and assumptions in order to weave stronger ties amongst our sacred community.
Schechter Westchester’s K-12 MakerSpace Program 2.0
Four makerspaces, six innovative educators, two campuses, students ranging in age from 4-18. This is the basis for our culture-shifting focus on maker education across all grades, K-12. The learning that goes on in these spaces, and the impact that it has on thinking throughout our institution, has revolutionized how students approach their world.
Towards an Environment of Personalization: The Academic Coaches Program
The Academic Coaches program connects each student to one caring, natural adult mentor in the school building able to provide both academic support and a more personal account of student development to other teachers and administration, while helping students develop goals and foster their own self advocacy skills.
Crash Helmet Design, Prototyping, and Testing: An Egg-Citing Physics and Engineering Design PBL
In this authentic project, high school students develop crash helmets with a goal of protecting a population of people from traumatic head (brain) injury. Using eggs to simulate human heads, students employ the design thinking process by engaging in real-world research, scientific data collection, engineering prototyping, and performance testing.
Art as a Lens to the Holocaust and Genocide: The Legacy Project
Middle schoolers become researchers, artists, historians, and storytellers, exploring memorials and monuments through an integrated year-long study in Judaism, Fine Arts, and Humanities. This project-focused learning fosters deep understanding and engagement about the Holocaust on a personal level as well as within a deeper global context.
“Kids around the world do the same things in different ways.” Kindergarten students create The Museum of the Universal Languages of Childhood
The Kindergarten theme of community was woven into all aspects of our curriculum and was explored through the lens of global competency. Our multidisciplinary curricular approach to learning culminated in the creation of The Museum of the Universal Languages of Childhood that represented the languages of celebrations, games, and fine arts.
Things that Go Bump in the Night
Students contrast Mystical Judaism with Rational Judaism. Topics include: Sorcery, Witches, Amulets, Evil Eye, Chamsa, Lilith, Star of David, Mezuzah, Golem, Demon, Incubus, and Dybbuk. Students integrate Jewish Studies with Art, by creating art projects that are message-driven by the associated Jewish Studies topics.
Statistical Analysis of a Federal Data Set: Project Based Learning in the Introductory Statistics Classroom
Introductory Statistics is best absorbed with active engagement. In this Project Based Learning class, students choose their own "real life" data sets from federal sources, apply newly learned statistical techniques to their data, and use quantitative reasoning to explore their passions. Seminar-style interactions with classmates enhance learning.
The Tzedek Program
The year-long Tzedek Program gives 7th graders a deep understanding about their obligation to give tzedakah. Armed with this knowledge, 7th graders will be will be able to make their own educated philanthropic decisions in their own community of San Francisco based on their understanding of the needs and priorities through a Jewish lens.
Mesivta 404: Risk, Failure, Opportunity
Equal to a boy’s feeling of accomplishment and belonging is his chance at finding his place among the Jewish people. But departing from the path of least resistance, even if things do not seem to be working, is hard. Taking the risk to do something different might just have to come from desperation. This is the origin story of Mesivta 404.
Am I My Brother’s Keeper? From The Torah to S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders
You Be The Judge: What does Jewish Law say should happen to Ponyboy Curtis? An exploration and analysis of S.E. Hinton’s American Classic, The Outsiders
The Space We Create
The presentation that follows is based on years of perseverance and experimentation as to what makes for a meaningful and happy learning space for children. “The Space We Create" shows how this is cultivated by using everyday materials to create innovative and flexible classroom spaces. With dedication and care, children will thrive.
Student Centered Chumash Class
Differentiated instruction is crucial in education, because every student should be given the opportunity to maximize his/her potential. Shifting my Chumash class into a more student-centered one has helped me reach this goal. In this model, students play an active role in their learning, and they produce work that demonstrates authentic learning.
Integration of Vygotzky’s Zone of Proximal Development Theorem in the Singapore Math Program
The implementation of the combination of Vygotzky's theorem of the zone of proximal development with the Singapore math program presents significant benefits in creating the critical thinking skills and developing the required cognitive functions for understanding complex mathematical concepts.
EVERlab 2.0: a next generation Beit Midrash
EVERlab is a learning environment dedicated to the integration of ideas and concepts from Jewish studies and “secular” academics. It combines elements of a conventional maker-space, including iteration, prototyping and design-thinking with the ethos of a Beit Midrash: the critical/open exchange of ideas and a collaborative search for deeper truth.
Building a Mathematical Menorah
The Menorah is one of the most prominent symbols of Hanukkah. Students collaborated to design and build a Menorah based on Mathematical principles. Students then incorporated the “Keshet of Kavod” (Rainbow of Respect) into the design, emphasizing Jewish values. The built Menorah was then used in the Maccabia games and was showcased at the JCC.
Beth Tfiloh’s Lower School Israel Fair: A Student-led Interdisciplinary Experience
Beth Tfiloh Lower School students participated in a multi-week and school-wide interdisciplinary learning experience about various landmarks in Israel. Students (K-4th grade) conceived of, developed, and created fifteen hands-on exhibits to share their learning with the broader student and family community.
Two Poems–Two Teachers–Two Classrooms: Creating a Collaborative “Howl” for today’s teens.
We used two poems as an opportunity to challenge a very significant norm at many schools--the lack of interaction among students in different levels/grades. Students in two classes--one an AP senior class, the other a grade-level junior class--analyzed both poems, asking questions of each other and answering as many as they could.
Shifting Math Models
In order to better differentiate in our math classrooms, we recently shifted our math model from a "pull-out" model, where students were pulled out into above and below level groups, to a "push-in" model, where a third teacher joins the classroom and the teachers teach in small groups.
Israeli Master Chef Carmel Style: Making Hebrew Learning Real and Personal
Students brought their Hebrew learning to life by fusing it with their interests in context of daily lives. They recorded a video guiding the audience in making their favorite dish by applying their Hebrew skills, higher critical thinking and tech skills, research, and writing skills. Students’ videos were assessed and voted on by their peers.
New Directions in Jewish Community: The Jewish Emergent Network (JEN)
This unit explored the innovative and exciting new spiritual communities of the Jewish Emergent Network. It expanded their sense of what is happening in today's Jewish world; allowed them to engage directly with the communities they were studying; and pushed them to think seriously about what they want for their own ongoing communal involvement.
The Architecture of Real-World Learning — A Treehouse Builds Community
Students combined their study of math and science with learning about architecture. This year-long, integrated project resulted in a real treehouse as their graduation gift to the school. They did everything from surveying stakeholders, calling for donations, supply shopping, meeting with the city permit department and designing the final product.
The Innovation Lab – The Space where Maker Ed and Jewish Ed Inspire
We’ve built a culture designed around an open space where students actualize content learned in their Jewish day school & apply it in ways that are most meaningful to them. Students collaborate & think creatively, using 3D printers, woodworking, coding, graphic design, and a host of other tools to create tangible outcomes of their education.
“Change the world. It just takes cents”TM
"Change the world. It just takes cents"TM is a student-led, teacher-mentored, PBL, service-learning, experiential education, Tikkun Olam, multidisciplinary process, where lessons evolve organically, and students are the creators of their learning blueprint, rather than being enslaved to textbooks. Students emerge empowered advocates and leaders.
Unique classroom methodology implemented in HS Coding class
An overview of the unique and productive technical learning approach - essentially an integration of personal and formal educational theories together with the teaching framework defined by codeHS.com - I implemented in the Coding and STEM robotics class I currently teach at Rae Kushner High School.
Differentiated Reading of Literary Works
A learner based model for reading whole literary works, that affords unlimited possibilities for differentiation, using Google Classroom.
Pupkis: Travelling Yiddish Puppet Theater
Our students adapted a recently translated Yiddish short story for performance as a puppet show. They wrote the script, built the puppets and stage and performed the puppets. The show was performed for local Jewish elementary schools as well as for the rest of the student body at the Weber School
STEM Education and Crosscutting Concepts
The Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School has developed a model of STEM integration with general and Judaic studies using the Next Generation Science Standard's Crosscutting Concepts (CCC). This model of integration is the only one in the nation and is the subject of research and collaboration with The George Washington University.
Teva Tuesday
Each week our students in our 4-5th grades spend an afternoon outdoors to learn, become aware of and appreciate the vital role the earth plays in our existence. Students are encouraged to gain a deep, profound respect for the environment, to become Shomer Adamah (Guardians of the Land) through study of Jewish texts that promote these ideas.
Fundamentals of Economics & Business and Jewish Business Ethics
This entry describes a year-long course at Maimonides, enabling Juniors to study the Fundamentals of Economics, both as a rigorously taught social science class, and as a deep consideration of the ethical and moral teachings of Judaism on the topic. The entry focuses on the many opportunities for Real World Learing for students through this course
Learning for a Cause
Learning for a Cause is an ongoing project and the brainchild of educator Michael Ernest Sweet. The project seeks to engage students in learning and writing about real-world issues beyond the classroom walls, and then publish that writing in real books alongside celebrity guest writers. Students make REAL books about REAL issues.
Flags of the Tribes of Israel: A Media Arts and Chumash “Integrated Creative Judaics” Production
In this three week "Integrated Creative Judaics" unit,11th grade students delved into the roots of Midrash Rabbah Bemidbar 2.7 in an exploration of the tribal flags of the Israelites and identity. They then drew upon their wisdom to create "fruits of the soul" by designing and animating flags based upon their learning.
Integrated English 11/Media Arts: A Failed Attempt to Institute a Progressive Educational Program into a College Preparatory High School
There is hubris in imagining that just because we developed a program that would lead to enhanced student learning that it should happen. But we did do our best to identify a problem, recruit faculty and students, present funding opportunities, and further the school mission in the areas of Judaic integration, integrity, and personalized learning.
Inspiring All Learners through Multi-Age Classrooms
Through our new multi-age format, the Schechter faculty differentiates and optimizes student learning. This progressive model reaches diverse learners within a single classroom environment and is transforming student engagement, individualized instruction, social outlets, improved self-esteem, and richly integrated curriculum.
Are You ‘Board’ with Traditional Lesson Plans? GAME ON!
GameOn! provides students with innovative skills they use to create board games based on their mastery of a particular topic. Students transform their knowledge of any subject into a tool used by other students. Creating a website, we connected classrooms across the globe through educational game play and development.
Mishkeh Mechanic/Success Strategist
Eighth grade students completed a project in STEM class, documenting throughout using the SeeSaw app's video and picture abilities, and crafted a non-fiction “narrative" in Language Arts class, where they followed the Teshuva process to "realize," and thus capitalize upon, their mistakes.
Creating a Culture of Goal-Setting: Intrinsic Motivation and Personalized Learning
In view of the importance of intrinsic motivation as well as personalized learning, kindergarten students at Yeshiva Lab School engaged in an in-depth study of goals and goal-setting. Each child set goals over the course of the year with the guidance of an educator, who used these goals to target instruction.
DASH Weeks
DASH is a comprehensive school wide study of a topic that is carried out in every classroom, Judaic and secular, as well as in the arts. It is cross grade, cross curricular and integrated. The school has now done two DASH units, one last spring and one in November 2017. This fall's topic, "Water: Source of Life" was engaging and exciting.
Creating a Positive Learning Culture
Creating a Positive Learning Environment is is divided into five sections:
• The Goals
• The Space
• The Station Rotation Model
• The Language
• The Organization
Each section of the google slideshow portrays how I have developed my learning environment into a space where positivity and child centered learning is of primary focus.
Understanding Media Bias
Students will learn how to navigate the news to discern the credibility of a source by investigating what media bias is with their peers, “acting as the journalist” within the classroom, and reflecting on their experiences. Their conclusions will then be applied to their understanding of how to interpret the news in the real-world.
Three Biological Systems – The Fuchs Mizrachi 2016-2017 STE(A)M Learning
Every year, the FMS Lower School embarks on an 8 week intensive learning journey in preparation for our annual STE(A)M fair. This journey encompasses so much, but at its core, this experience lays the foundation for life-long learners and information seekers; involvement in this process remains the most valuable lesson for our students in the LS.
Kol Isha: Giving Voice to Jewish American Women
Kol Isha: Giving Voice to Jewish American Women is a primary document based inquiry project for advanced level American history students that encourages analytical interpretation of historical documents in tandem with creative writing and personal reflection.
100 Day Sculpture Museum
Happy 100th day of school! In this project, students will be challenged to use exactly 100 items to create a sculpture to be exhibited along with a bar graph and written statement for a special 100th Day Museum. Motivation increases as students apply mathematical skill, creative thinking, and problem-solving to this real-life learning experience.
Interdisciplinary Perspectives on HeLa Cells
My 12th grade AP Language and Composition students read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a non-fiction text which explores the intersection of race, American history, and medical ethics through the lens of the discovery of an immortal cell line tied to an African-American woman named Henrietta Lacks. My students’ final project was to examine these intersections through a project that blended independent research with multi-media content. Of particular interest to this category is the student project that tackled the ethical questions raised in the text through the lens of Judaic studies; students who completed this project consulted primary sources as well as experts in Jewish medical ethics to create a presentation they later delivered to the entire student body.
The Talent Center Handbook & Extra Challenge Project Kit
The Talent Center Handbook shows how to develop creative young Jewish leaders with an 18 word curriculum in just 30 Minutes a Week. Emek’s game-changing Extra Challenge Projects connect holistic Torah learning, technology, and Jewish design thinking through child-led community service passion projects.
The Secret of Platform 13 – Fantasy Genre Study
The Secret of Platform 13, which inspired JK Rowling's Harry Potter, is a fantasy that will engage, thrill, and entice all students. It is filled with twists, turns, suspense, fantasy, and other elements. The final project included a choice board - an easy way to differentaite for all learners. Due to its interest level being above students' lexile, this was a read aloud.
Ma’ayan Program: Differentiated Learning
Ma’ayan is a program we designed as a vehicle to ensure that all students, regardless of academic or other abilities and/or needs, participate in the school’s Hebrew and Judaics program, at a level that is appropriate for them. It is also designed to ensure that students who want to come to our school and have not been studying Hebrew and/or Judaics are not deterred from attending our school. Finally, it is a proven tool through which we provide Hebrew classes at a high enough/challenging level for Israeli students (or those who come to our school who are fluent in the language).
License to Read Hebrew
This is a reading program designed to foster an enjoyment of reading Hebrew while cultivating the skills necessary for navigating Jewish life.
Judaic Differentiation
I have created a system of differentiation where students can learn, practice and demonstrate Chumash (Bible) skills at their levels. Upon mastery, students create videos, where they apply acquired skills to unfamiliar text, to be virtual teachers for other students. The compilation of these videos gets posted to a website to populate a student-created Khan Academy for Judaic skills.
English Language Learning in a Jewish Elementary School
I am applying for the Kohelet Prize for Differentiated Instruction on behalf of a team of teachers that has developed an individualized, highly differentiated English Language Learning program for students who speak English as their second (or third) language. Our program is designed to meet the needs of each specific student and is flexible enough to accommodate children of all elementary ages and abilities.
Differentiated Instruction in a Learning Support Class
For the past 3 years I have been finding new ways to use differentiated instruction in my 2nd to 5th grade learning support classroom. In my class I teach students to take charge of their own learning in order to reach their potential. I use positivity and encouragement to build my students up so they have the confidence to take risks and try their best.
Andrew Clements Book Clubs
In this unit, 3rd grade students participated in differentiated, interest based book clubs with the work of author Andrew Clements. Students applied their annotation skills to these books, and met in groups over the course of a few weeks to discuss their findings.
An Executive Functioning Model Implementing Differentiated Instruction
It is vital for children to develop the tools of Executive Functioning in order to discover their own sense of self, intrinsic motivation, self confidence, curiosity and exploration. Students who have the opportunities to develop Executive Functioning Skills are able to succeed in their learning and development, while participating in a learning environment which optimizes success. This model can be implemented across grades, in all subject areas, with varying levels of intervention, to provide differentiated instruction.
Yad Hayotzer: An Interdisciplinary, Experiential Approach to Teaching the Prophets
Jeremiah Chapters 18-19 explore the interplay between God and His people as the fashioner of Jewish destiny through the agency of a potter. Jeremiah’s symbolic action comes to life as each student experiences "becoming" the potter, realizing the challenges of imprinting one’s vision on another. This project enhances the tefilla experience for our students as they explore the Yom Kippur piyyut - KaChomer BeYad HaYotzer, Like Clay in the Hands of the Potter - and helps shape their understanding of the roles of fate and free-will, both in the history of the Jewish people and in their own lives.
STEAM Initiative
The Ma’ayanot STEAM initiative orchestrates a learning environment which fosters creativity and reasoning, compelling students to evaluate, ideate, prototype, test, and iterate . Our philosophy is one of Constructionism which shares constructivism’s connotation of learning as ‘building knowledge structures’ and adds the idea that this happens most pronounced in a context where the learner is consciously engaged in constructing an entity. Students are forced to engage dynamically with their creations in order to prevail in the fruition of their design.
Olivia’s Creative Compilations – Jewish Texts Come to Life!
Whether it is marrying off two characters from "Once Upon a Time" in an Orthodox Jewish ceremony, designing ad campaigns around Nezirut or creating Ten Plagues theme parks using Minecraft, my students have done it all. My mandate as a teacher is to enable students to access content in a rich, creative way that showcases their unique, creative thinking and knowledge on the topics.
Making Space Holy
Fourth Grade students were challenged to transform the school's maker space into a full-scale Mishkan. Students self-organized to design and build the various components of the Mishkan using limited materials, tools, and resources. These constraints intentionally mimicked the design challenges faced by the Israelites.
Mah Nishtana Goes Tech
Over the course of last school year first graders learned the basics of coding using Scratch Jr. Each lesson in Scratch Jr. also included concepts that were taught elsewhere in the curriculum. The first graders extended their coding skills late last spring by programming our resident robots to travel to a designated spot and ask and answer the Mah Nishtana in the correct order as we had studied in class in preparation for Pesach.
Life Under Shlomo: The Golden Years
Using information gleaned from I Kings 3-8, students designed tourism promotional websites about King Solomon's kingdom. Content areas covered needed to include: his administration and government, cultural sites, testimonials & reviews and a gift shop.
Jewish Heroes Congress
This unit was developed to help students increase their knowledge of mitzvot and virtues and help them be more discerning when choosing people to hold in high esteem.
Developing Critical Thinking in a High School Statistics Class
Our submission, “Developing Critical Thinking in a High School Statistics Class,” aims to teach students the necessary tools and help them develop the perspective to critically analyze and evaluate numerical and statistical information. Teaching critical reading and critical thinking and creating opportunities for students to practice and develop these skills are key components of the unit. There are many possibilities for interdisciplinary integration and multi-level adaptations.
Accessing Artistic Intuition Through the Study of Chumash
Second grade students designed Chumash covers based on individual pasukim from Lech Lecha or Vayera. They brainstormed ideas and charted their creative thinking, making the steps of their process visible. The final image they designed and embroidered into their Chumash cover synthesizes symbols they generated based on words from the pasuk and colors the words represented to them.
21st Century Personal Mishkan
Students collaborate to design/build a modern, personal Mishkan & furnishings, incorporating motifs, imagery from the ancient Mishkan, and applying wisdom gained from interviews with senior citizens, exploring: "What makes a quality life, and how can we make life better?" Students then return to Senior Center, using their completed designs as springboard for deeper reflection on how to heal after trauma and how to reach our deepest Human potential.
In Defense of Learning Lishmah
Jewish educators often approach their subjects with the same modalities and grading system that are common in General Studies classes. Rather than continue with this approach, Shalhevet attempted to design two Judaic courses that would devalue letter grades and promote more authentic and deeper student learning. We were willing to take a calculated risk and we failed. While our initial pilot missed the mark, the effort has promoted some benefits and has jumpstarted further innovation in our approach to Judaic instruction.
Yonah and the Jonah Complex
We learned about how Yonah runs away from God and what his different motivations could have been. We spoke about how Abraham Maslow's "Jonah Complex" can be relevant in our lives when we prevent ourselves from success for fear of success.
Turning Dreams into Reality
In honour of our school's 18th anniversary and its initial visionaries, we launched a school-wide initiative looking at how to turn dreams into reality. Each grade integrated this theme with a core curricular unit. A detailed description of each grade's project as well as work samples are included with this submission.
Torat Chayim: Real World Learning in Tanach and Gemara; Analysis and Integration through Real World Application
How do we engage students in the rigorous, text based learning of Tanach and Gemara while helping them learn how to apply their learning to their lives and the world around them? A portfolio of sample projects are provided that serve as different models in answering this question. These projects challenge student to extract values, apply and synthesize their learning in various "authentic" ways.
The Jewish Primary Day School of the Nation’s Capital’s (JPDS-NC) Election Project 2016: Kid’s Voices Count
The Jewish Primary Day School of the Nation’s Capital’s (JPDS-NC) Election Project 2016: Kid’s Voices Count was an interdisciplinary, school-wide project that required the participation of every student and teacher at JPDS-NC. Students from Pre-Kindergarten through Sixth Grade delved into a variety of election issues, met with experts to deepen their understanding, met with and listened to other students in area schools to broaden their perspectives, and reflected on Jewish teachings that relate to the issues in the election. Each grade focused on a different election-related issue connected to their core curriculum, culminating in a Voter’s Guide distributed throughout our community and beyond.
Authentic Service Learning through the Mitzvah Program at the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School
The mitzvah program at the Martin J.Gottlieb Day School was first introduced as an integral part of the middle school curriculum 22 years ago. The concept was based on the idea that after students studied Tanach, Jewish laws and customs, they were more likely to understand and accept the mitzvot if given the opportunity to put them into practice. It was also believed that students who became part of their community at large with service projects would grow to understand both their responsibility to the community and their ability to make a difference even at the young age of 11.
Artificial Insemination in Halacha
We learned about the mitzvah of procreation and discussed some of the practical applications with modern medicine such as IVF.
Where the heart feels at home – מקום שלבו חפץ
The Netivot Upper Elementary learning environment is warm, inviting, stimulating, and vibrant like no other. Our classroom setting incorporates collective responsibility, independence, freedom of movement, freedom of choice and peer learning, and utilizes multiple modalities of instruction. This ground-breaking classroom promotes growth in all areas, academic, social, emotional, and spiritual, embodying the adage: אין אדם לומד אלא במקום שלבו חפץ.
The de Toledo High School Media Lab
The Amnon and Ronit Band Media Lab at de Toledo High School is an innovative learning environment which promotes academic, social, emotional, and spiritual growth. Over the last 12 years, the lab has evolved from a basic computer lab to a flexible and creative space designed to serve the varied educational needs of students and teachers in the media arts including: video production, animation, photography, graphic design, and computer science as well as serving the broader school community for instructional support, school and professional development.
The Conscious Learning Environment
This video project is an in-house collaboration of the ideas and talents of six Lamplighters teachers. Each vignette features a different key element of what we call "the conscious learning environment." When teachers are conscious of the unique needs of each of the learners within a space and are willing to allow adaptability of infrastructure, furniture, objects and interactions--the environment becomes as living as the people who live and learn within its walls. NOTE: Please view the FULL project using the LINK below. (YouTube videos and .pdf are only a backup)
Technology… Innovation and Integration featuring the Startup Incubator
The Adelson Educational Campus has constructed a 5000 square feet, state-of-the-art, invention and entrepreneurial workshop: the Startup Incubator. In this space, teachers and mentors work collaboratively with students to employ the design cycle in identifying and tackling real-world challenges, prototyping a wide range of products via coding, digital media, and 3D fabrication. This innovative, interdisciplinary learning environment, paired with school wide one-to-world device deployment and extensive technology professional development, is providing our community a relevant and progressive “Education for Life.”
Schechter Westchester’s MakerSpace
Our Idea Incubator (The INC) is the first MakerSpace built in a Jewish institution in North America. It houses Schechter Westchester’s Engineering and Entrepreneurship (E2) program, in which students take advantage of an innovative, modular learning environment to develop crucial skills such as creativity, collaboration, mechanical and electrical engineering, computer programming, public speaking, confidence, and—most importantly—fearlessness.
Rookies Approach
Ivrit, differentiated instruction, centers, multisensory learning, responsive classroom
Machshava Beit Midrash
Students today are busy, often overwhelmed, and increasingly stressed at school. The Machshava Beit Midrash is a learning environment where students are able to choose from a number of different philosophical and thought provoking books to learn alone or together with a chavruta. In addition, inspirational video and mindfulness training stations allow students to settle and better take control of their thoughts, creating a spiritual and meaningful atmosphere that hopefully permeates beyond the walls of the classroom.
Kindergarten Learning Environment
A classroom environment utilizing nine distinct stations. Stations provide for student exploration, and help them develop deeper connections to their learning.
Innovative Learning in a Flexible Space
Our new innovation studio houses iPad Pros, Chromebooks, a green screen and a 3D printer. We offer flexible seating to accommodate a variety of educational needs, as well as a movable wall so our space can expand as needed.
Area 251
Our program provides a constructivist based pedagogy that facilitates real world, solution-based, student outcomes. The makerspace provides for a hands-on learning environment that uniquely inspires creativity, invites curiosity and celebrates individual solutions.
A Learning Environment that promotes academic, social, and emotional growth
The best way for students to learn optimally is for them to learn in a physical environment, which meets their diverse needs. It is vital for all children to develop the tools of Executive Functioning in order to discover their own sense of self, intrinsic motivation, self confidence, curiosity and exploration. Students who have the opportunities to develop Executive Functioning Skills are able to succeed in their learning and development, while participating in a learning environment which optimizes success.
The N.E. Miles Jewish Day School Social Justice and Leadership Initiative
The N.E. Miles Jewish Day School social justice and leadership initiative is guided by the core beliefs and values on which our school is based. To that end, we provide real-life experiences for the students to participate actively in three of the guiding Jewish values- Menschlichkeit, Tikkun Olam, and Torah Study.
The History of Light
A 4-6 week long interdisciplinary unit, which ties together research and presentation skills, Chanukah, Israel, New Jersey History, the science of electricity, and the use of light as a medium in art.
The Gift of Mincha: Drawing From the Text, Building a Siddur
This course addresses the driving question: “How might we improve our school's daily mincha experience through creating an originally drawn, translated, and annotated school siddur?” In this project-driven, team-taught, and inter-disciplinary senior Art/Judaics course, students respond to a very familiar text--the mincha siddur--through contemplative, artistic, and written avenues. Through studying the text in both a critical and soulful manner, and by creating and crafting their own translations, illuminations, commentaries, and illustrations, students are in the process of jointly building a siddur that will be used as the school community's daily mincha text.
The Akiva Broadcasting Network
The Akiva Broadcasting Network (ABN) is an interactive, team-oriented program of study where students develop communications skills; broadcast technology and technical skills; and critical life skills, integrating Jewish and Secular Studies across the curriculum.
ABN is part of the Kid TV program developed by Professor Larry Katz with the objective to teach cross curricular skills to students through the creation of TV newscasts that are shared with other members of their school community via an internal broadcast network and are also shared on the school website. Student select the news items, prepare the D’vray Torah, and stories on famous Jewish personalities, write the scripts, shoot and edit the stories, do the interviews, take on the roles of anchors and reporters, manage the broadcasts and handle all of the technical jobs
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj_uSY53-dM&feature=youtu.be).
Project GO FORTH: Lech L’Cha: A Cross-Curricular Study of Immigration and Personal Narrative
Project GO FORTH: Lech L’Cha is a multi-faceted, interdisciplinary approach to understanding the immigrant experience in America. Project GO FORTH: Lech L’Cha integrates seventh grade Social Studies, in which students study the history of American immigration, with Language Arts, in which student examine creative writing and sensory language, with Judaic Studies, in which students specifically explore the parsha Lech L’Cha as a lens through which they can understand the spiral of Jewish History with the originating immigrant experience of Avraham.
Philosophical Ethics and the Meeting of Minds
We are delighted to share our entry in the Interdisciplinary Integration category: the “Philosophical Ethics” unit of our junior year Integrated American Literature, Jewish and Western Philosophy course, affectionately referred to as “Tikvah. The unit culminates with the Meeting of Minds project.
Pesach Haggada Scrapbook
Middle School learned about Pesach from a multiplicity of perspectives and incorporated their learning into a usable Haggada scrapbook.
Megillat Esther – a Historical, Political, and Psychological View
Over the course of Megillat Esther, we learned about how psychology, history, and political theory can change how we read the story. With basic information from a political theorist, some analysis of fascist leaders, and some basic principles of psychology, we tried to understand the motivations of the characters in Megillat Esther.
The Makers Movement @ Kellman Brown Academy
Kellman Brown Academy is committed to the principle that ALL of our students are critical thinkers and problem-solvers. Through introducing the Makers Movement into the culture of the school, students are challenged to "make" what they need to solve real-world problems using their imagination and any materials they can get their hands on. The Makers culture promotes independence, ingenuity, and collaborative work.
Sukkah Design and Build Challenge
16 seventh grade students were presented with a real problem -- that MJDS has no Sukkah. Their challenge was to design, prototype, build and decorate a kosher Sukkah in time for Sukkot. The results were stunning; but the process was even more so.
JanTerm Integrative Research Project
The JanTerm Integrative Reseach Project is a month-long (in January) intensive project where students learn and practice research and writing skills across content areas. By reconfiguring the students' schedule, students are allowed longer blocks of time to conduct research, write a formal research paper, meet and edit with a mentor-teacher, as well as work on hands-on projects. In this time, our Judaic Studies curriculum works in tandem, guiding the students to study the same theme from a Jewish lens. The students also work on creating a final project that reflects their learning of the Jewish texts and principles related to the overall theme.
Israeli Art Masters
Our multi-modal arts program offers an innovative approach to Jewish arts education which includes our Israeli Art Masters Program. The goal of this program is to weave together the study of fine arts with learning about the Land and history of Israel, appreciation of the Israeli landscape, exploration of Jewish artistic inspiration, the study of Hebrew vocabulary and Positive Discipline Social Emotional Learning. Through this program students have studied various artists from Israel as well as the inspirations and techniques used in their art. In parallel the students compare the color wheel to the Positive Discipline "wheel of choice" which relates the processes of an individual's problem solving decisions to an individual artist's thoughtful artistic choices.
Human Body- Bones, Joints, and Muscles
This unit highlights the skeletal-muscular system. Incorporating science, math, writing, reading, and art, students learned about the bones, joints, and muscles and how they work together as a system. They also visited with an expert in the field who was able to provide them with real life connections to what they learned in the classroom.
Student Council- Real-World Learning
The Perelman Jewish Day School Student Council inspires real-world learning of civic engagement in our school. The Student Council provides students with opportunities for leadership and ownership of actual student issues. Students have a forum for discussing our school environment and exemplifying good citizenship.
Sinai Akiba Academy New Horizon Day School Exchange
Sinai Akiba Academy, a Jewish day school, partners with New Horizon School, a Muslim day school. Through art, text-study, games, and prayer, students come to see their "buddies," as individuals rather than as members from a faith group.
Shinshinim Integration Program
A group of Israeli teenagers (Shinshinim) who are volunteering in Toronto for the year join my Grade 12 Israeli history course for one lesson a week. The students learn about Israel together and share and challenge each other's understandings about Israel. The Israeli teens provide first-hand experience and real-world knowledge about Israel and change the nature and dynamic of the course because of their involvement.
Hands On Hydroponics
After learning about the climate in Israel and their hydroponics projects, students with teacher built a hydroponics tank and also each student created his or her own hydroponic system.
Haggadah Companion
The Haggadah Companion was a collaborative, cumulative project among the Judaic, language arts, art, and technology disciplines. It was designed as a supplement to any Haggadah.
Real World Judaic Learning
Using this program, students can use their skills in a real-world setting and share their learning with others. Students apply learned skills to create a video of unfamiliar text as a demonstration for other students. The collection of these videos gets posted to a website to compile a student-created Khan Academy for Judaic skills.
Real life Hebrew Immersion
Students actively converse in Hebrew with their peers in class, at recess and at home, thereby making Hebrew not merely a subject they learn at school but a language they own and use. Students attain Hebrew fluency through engaging in games and collaborative real world Hebrew projects.
EVERlab
The 9th grade EVERlab unit focuses on the integration of the concepts, themes and structures from two different courses: Tanach I and Ancient World Civilizations. The unit begins with students brainstorming the overlapping content from eachcourse and moves through scaffolded design, collaboration, and critical thinking exercises in order for students to refine and deepen integrated topics they have chosen themselves. Students ultimately develop projects that demonstrate this integrated thinking.
Dreaming with Yaakov to Search for Meaning
Dreaming with Yaakov takes learners on a journey through bibliodrama, geography, social studies, journal writing, archaeology, and art history, visual art, Tanach and Rabbinics, in order to explore what the story of Yaakov has meant to readers over the ages. The ultimate goal of which is to prepare students to see themselves as participants in the Jewish tradition of meaning making.
Passion Learning for Elementary Schools
Kindergarten through 5th grade students exercise already existing passions or new interests in multi-age/grade elective classes. Electives span such disciplines as sports, computer programming, engineering, robotics, culinary arts, fine arts, the environment, etc...
B*E*S*T Layer of Learning
Going back to the primary source- Teaching TaNaKh from TaNaKh using the B*E*S*T method. Enabling students to 'own' the text making their learning limitless- not confined to instructional teaching.
Moot Beit Din versus Moot Court
With the right teacher, the study of Jewish Law and the Jewish Legal System (Mishna and Gemara) is exciting, insightful, and extremely relevant to contemporary issues. What most students do not know is that British Common Law (the source for the U.S. and Canadian Legal Systems) has its basis in Jewish Law. Moot Court versus Moot Beit Din is a program that takes composite, real life legal problems, and divides students into two teams who research, recreate, and present each side of the case before both a Beit Din and a civil court giving the students incredible real world experiences.
And There Was Light
This is an interdisciplinary unit, teaching the history of festivals and religions involving light across many cultures. Students were exposed to the symbolism of light in literature and Torah as well as the science of light in creating day and night, seasons and electricity with the creation of lamps in the school's pottery labs. Students learned Tfillot and added the Hallel for Hanukkah the festival of light, as well as created a book demonstrating of all of their learning.
L’Dor V’Dor: Linking Youth to Elders from the Ground Up
L’Dor V’Dor provides deep one-on-one encounters between students K-6 from Columbus Jewish Day School and Jewish and non-Jewish elders around lifecycle and holiday events. Through carefully planned and facilitated exercises, simulations, and activities, the intergenerational wisdom of elders interacts with the joy of youth among participants aged 6-106, through the use of art, music, text study, guided interactions, prayer, and more.
Israeli Knesset Simulation
The Israeli Knesset Simulation is a combination of live role-playing and online virtual world interaction in which high school seniors immerse themselves in Israeli politics by becoming members of Knesset. By playing a specific character, learning the party platform, and drafting legislation through committee work, the seniors engage in Israel from the inside-out, breaking down the barriers between their education and the real world.
Innovating Real-World Solutions in the Startup Incubator
The Adelson Educational Campus has constructed a 5000 square feet, state-of-the-art, invention and entrepreneurial workshop: the Startup Incubator.
In this space, teachers and mentors from university and industry work collaboratively with students to employ the design cycle in identifying and tackling real-world challenges. Prototyping a wide range of products from mobile apps and digital videos to IoT devices and drones, students ultimately develop not only solutions but lean startups through our relevant and progressive “Education for Life.”
HBHA Upper School Social Justice Project
Imagine an educational experience in which Jewish teenagers have the opportunity to take their classroom learning and direct that knowledge into a course of action that enhances their education and the Greater Kansas City community. This experiential learning is happening at Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy, in the form of the Upper School Social Justice Project. I developed and implemented this project - in partnership with peers from an urban charter school, as well as local leaders - which facilitates personal growth and community activism in our students as they address issues such as health care access, voter engagement, and universal early childhood education.
Halacha and Technology: An Interdisciplinary, Hands-on Approach
Our senior elective, Merging Halachic Judaism with Modern Life, combines the study of and appreciation of Jewish law with the study of engineering and its principles. In the first half of the year, students learn Hilchot Shabbat and how these laws manifest in modern life. In the second half the year, students work in groups to identify and create a working prototype that merges both Halachic implications and modern technology to enhance the Shabbat experience. Students, thereby, learn to view the latest technological innovations through the prism of a religious perspective.
Ancient Egypt
When beginning the study of parshat Shmot, students recall that by the end of sefer Breisheet the Hebrews dwelled in Egypt. We are reminded in the first few verses of Shmot that Jacob and his family made their way to Egypt and that Joseph already resided there. As the story unfolds, a rich understanding text can be gained from learning about ancient Egypt and seeing how its culture and environment impacted the Hebrews.
Environmental Education Across the Curriculum: Developing Connected Thinkers For Our Global Future
I teach my students that all of learning and all of life is connected. When we realize connections, we celebrate our
learning. The attached PDF titled Real-World Learning explains how my students learn about the environment and the real world around them by being exposed to connections inside and outside of the classroom and by being encouraged to question and to create ideas.
My presentation begins with the PDF titled Real-World Learning. Thank you!