Lights: The Miracle of Chanukah

As a child I watched Lights (1984) probably every Chanukah.. It  is a great rendition of the Chanukah story. It really expresses the tension the Macabies had: to accept the Assyrian-Greeks demands of assimilation or to resist and stand for what they believed in.

Here is a review from IMBD:

Lights: The Miracle of Chanukah" is a fantastic storytelling feat that beats "8 Crazy Nights" by a mile. Here we have the real story of Hanukkah, albeit with not so great animation. The voice-over work and script, however, make up for it. Paul Michael Glaser plays a young Jewish man, who is befriended by an Assyrian/Greek (Leonard Nimoy.) (Paul) wants to be friends with (Leonard), but is not ready to discard the old ways of Judaism just yet. Every time he tries, a golden Star Of David, ala Jiminy Cricket, reminds him of who he is. Judd Hirsch provides a great historical narrative explaining the events that occurred. I heartily recommend this short film, since nothing better has come along.

עלה למעלה עלה: Enabling our students to reach their full potential

לא הביישן למד-before  learning can happen, the student needs to believe that learning is possible. The student needs to believe that he or she can learn! often students approach learning with self doubt and little hope in their abilities. As a teacher my primary role is to become an enabler, to help my students to discover their inner abilities and their great potential which often gets trapped under feelings of self doubt and fear of failure. 

 I taught my student's this beautiful poem from Rav Kook  אורות הקודש א', ס"ה  it serves as a mantra:

בֶּן אָדָם, עֲלֵה לְמַעְלָה עֲלֵה,

 "יֵשׁ לְךָ כַּנְפֵי רוּחַ"

Often, my students start singing the song as we walk up the stairs עלה למעלה עלה!

בֶּן אָדָם, עֲלֵה לְמַעְלָה עֲלֵה,

עֲלֵה לְמַעְלָה עֲלֵה,  עֲלֵה בֶּן אָדָם

עֲלֵה לְמַעְלָה עֲלֵה,

כִּי כֹּחַ עַז לְךָ,

יֵשׁ לְךָ כַּנְפֵי רוּחַ,

כַּנְפֵי נְשָׁרִים אַבִּירִים,

אַל תְּכַחֵשׁ בָּם

פֶּן יְכַחֲשׁוּ לְךָ,

דְּרוֹשׁ אוֹתָם –

דְּרוֹשׁ  בֶּן אָדָם

וְיִמָּצְאוּ לְךָ מִיָּד.

אורות הקודש[א', ס"ה]

A New Sequencing Game: Kahoot Jumble!

Wow! I am excited about this new game! My students love playing Kahoot. This fast paced game- show is an excellent review game . Kahoot  energizes and excites the students and I get immediate data on how much the students are grasping. Kahoot is very compatible with Hebrew and there are thousands of public  Judaic and Hebrew Kahoots available to use or copy and modify. I created over 29 of my own and I have used many Kahoots which other teachers have shared.

Here is the first Jumble I created. This is a review of the זמנים we have been learning in משנה

Kahoot Jumble A Jumble offers the same competitive-play as a Quiz. But Jumble questions come with a twist by challenging players to place answers in the correct order rather than selecting one correct answer. 

Creating a Jumble is very easy and intuitive, very similar to creating a regular quiz, the only difference is you need to input  four items to sequence. Here is a link to the tutorial on how to  create a Jumble


This is what the clas sees on the SMART board:

This is what the student see on their devices:

Review of the Tal Am Parshat Hashavua Chovrot

I have created many of my own Divrei Torah to share with my students, I have tried to make the דברי תורה interesting and engaging. My intention in writing the דברי תורה has always been to give my student a simple message they can relate toת and then be excited to share the דבר תורה  with their family at the Shabbat table. When I discovered the Choveret Parshat Hashavua from Tal AM  I learned that I can have my student prepare a beautiful Dvar Torah while actively engaging in the process of learning תורה as a פרשן. 

In the weekly lesson students:

1. Review the Parsha:

 2. Focus on a few Pessukim and ask question:

3. Working in partners students try coming up with possible answers:

4. Learn about the חכמים: each week we are introduced to at least two new חכמים

• What era the חכם lived?(using our timeline)
• Where did the חכם live? 
• History about this particular חכם

5. learn the answer of the selected  פרשנים

-compare and contrast

check for understanding

6. The most important part: The lesson:

Every week we learn a new אימרה for פרשת וישב:

"השנאה מקלקלת את השורה"

I usually tell a story to help my students connect to the lesson of the Dvar Torah.

At the very end the students complete a summary of the Dvar Torah which they then share with their family. This system helps my students connect to the rich world of פרשנות while remaining in the target language.

- 

The Talam Parsha curriculum is spiraled.Students gradually get introduced to the process starting in first grade and it grows as they progress through the grades. 

To help teachers prepare Chava Kassierer the TaL AM Torah and Parasha trainer has great videos:

I find her videos very helpful in helping me give a good הקדמה ממקדת.

New Hebrew Games: Monopoly Deal and Settlers Of Kattan

Working with two amazing Bnei Akiva Shlichot has given me and my students so many opportunities to feel a genuine connection to Israel. They also make it easy to get Israeli products. Today my students were thrilled to play Monopoly Deal and Settlers of Cattan in Hebrew. Now that my students have transitioned from being Hebrew students to Hebrew speakers, they can pick up almost any game and play it in Hebrew without a detailed Hebrew cue sheet! 

Preparing our students for the real world of Torah study: תורה לשמה

 As a teacher of Torah, I often ask myself: How am I preparing my students to lead a life committed to learning Torah? My job is to help my students find an intrinsic desire to learn Torah: תורה לשמה. Students may need to learn the necessary skills to become independent learners but what is even more important than skills? A desire to learn! If our students' only interaction with Torah study is when  sticks and carrots are waved at them (grades, raffle tickets, prizes) then when will the students be able to discover their intrinsic desire to learn.

I often take my students outside to the playground for a picnic lunch. Instead of sitting in the lunchroom, we sit outside on the grass, we converse in Hebrew and we then play a game of  soccer in Hebrew. Today it was very cold outside so I gave my student a choice: Watch a Hebrew dubbed Movie in the classroom or join me for a  voluntary In-depth Parsha Shiur. Many students choose the Torah class. I told the students in advance there will be no special prizes or treats for this class. Having the opportunity to learn  in an environment which was 100% לשמה  was so special for them. 

Today's Parsha Class

We discussed the fears of Yaakov וירא יעקב מאוד ויצר לו we applied lessons to our own lives and we explored the רמב"ן and the כלי יקר. The boys shared their own questions and we explored many פרשנים. 

I wish lunch was longer! the students didn't want to stop learning. We had to stop learning because lunch was over and class was starting again!

Buddy Poke: A very easy animation creator

I played with the  Buddy Poke app to create a video to help a student who needed a review of the Mishna we were learning in class.  With buddypoke you can record fun talking avatar videos. I was able to create a short (and silly) animation in the same amount of time it takes to record myself. My students were enthralled by the videos and they started making their own videos at home. Because this is an app which is linked to social media I couldn't have the app installed on the ipads at school.

Last summer, I shared my videos with my colleagues at the AVI CHAI design studio with Better Lesson

a few of the teachers brought this back to their 1st  grade classroom. Their students used Buddy Poke to  create Hebrew videos for stories they wrote.

Here is clip with an intro to the first Mishna in Mesechet Brachot: 

Here's a short clip explaining the morning Zmanim

Sunrise Minyan

One of the Highlights of learning Mishna with my 4th graders is the Sunrise Minyan. Waking up at the crack of dawn to experience  משיכיר/ נץ החמה /עלות השחר.

Here is an article from the Jewish link about the Sunrise Minyan:

Before Sunrise

On a recent crisp October Sunday morning before the break of dawn, parents and students of Yeshivat Noam’s fourth grade gathered along the banks of the Palisade Cliffs for a remarkable minyan. Nature provided the walls of our beit knesset: the brilliant orange and yellow foliage of the cliffs on one side, while on the other side, gulls and geese wheeled and soared above the surface of the deep blue Hudson River.

The idea behind the ‘Sunrise Minyan‘ belonged to Rabbi Yaakov Nadler, Yeshivat Noam’s fourth grade rebbe, who, while teaching the Mishna of Brachot, found a creative way to make the davening times relevant to my nine year-old’s grade.

Introducing Mishna to children can present its challenges, and when the subject drifts into differentiating between terms like netz hachama (sunrise), alot hashachar (dawn), and how much light is necessary to recognize one’s friend within four cubits...well, it’s not hard for me to imagine how a child’s attention might occasionally wander.

For a nine year-old boy, there’s no better way to challenge boredom than by introducing a flashlight. In the countdown leading up to the big day, my son made sure to check in with me several times to ensure that our flashlight had working batteries, that we had the proper directions to the cliffs and that he would indeed be having doughnuts.

We began davening at 7:00 am, a group of bleary-eyed parents, together with our excited kids, huddled together on a dock by the water in the early morning darkness. I noticed that I was not the only father wrapping my talit around myself as a blanket to keep warm.

As davening progressed and the sun rapidly began to break over the horizon and rise above the Hudson River and warm us all, Rabbi Nadler repeatedly called attention to its changing position and applied the appropriate terms for the zmanim. And just like that, 2000 year-old terms suddenly sprang to life and became exciting and relevant.

When this beautiful minyan concluded, the students immediately scrambled for the hot chocolate and doughnuts that had been laid out for them while most of us parents fueled ourselves with coffee and marveled at the experience. The program continued as Rabbi Nadler led all of us on a short hike through the Palisades.

As a parent, I was moved by several aspects of this experience: how a teacher creatively devised a way to transform the mundane into meaningful; how this same teacher selflessly shared his precious personal time with his students and their parents; and how Yeshivat Noam has fostered a climate that welcomes this kind of creative approach to experiential learning.

Too rare are the moments in which parents and children can enjoy a shared moment of joy in a Jewish educational setting. Rabbi Yaakov Nadler’s Sunrise Minyan provided us with just such an experience that is also an unforgettable memory.

Etzion Neuer is a proud parent of four Yeshivat Noam students.

By Etzion Neuer

Guess Who? Game in Hebrew

Here is a cue Sheet to help your students play Guess-Who in Hebrew.  No need to wait to travel to Israel to buy the Hebrew version. Just use the regular game and play in Hebrew. Students who need help with the phrases can look at the sheet.

Pirkei Avot as an intro to Mishna

I am always excited to be the one to formally introduce my students to תורה שבעל פה. My students love hearing the history of the מסורה.  They especially enjoy learning the stories of the תנאים.  When we get to Rabbi Akiva the students become especially fascinated by his story.  This year I decided to use the learning of  Pirkei Avot as the context for learning the history of the תנאים. This also worked well with the כתה המאוחדת which has an entire section devoted to proper manners: כללי הנימוסים. 

שינון: Learning by Heart

Learning משנה by heart is an exciting part of connecting the student to how the תורה שבעל פה was first transmitted. I used this video to help my students:

Songs

Almost all of my students memorized the first 3 Mishnayot. About 30% of the students went on to memorize 5 or more. 

The key was to have the Pirkei Avot songs  playing at every possible time. I used the music mainly for transitions between activities.  The students enjoyed chanting along with the music and as a result, for many, the memorization came naturally. 

I found that memorization was most difficult for some of the students who consider themselves as "enrichment" students. Being able to complete the task instantly was a challenge they don't always face. There was some resistance, but once the students learned the process of memorization, they bought in and participated. 

To celebrate the students accomplishments, we had a S'more party. I brought to school my tailgating grill and cooked up graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows. 

The students are now creating posters and imovie skits, creating stories (in Hebrew of course!)

Classroom Gaga Ball Pit

How do you get your students moving on a rainy day when playing outside is not option?

You turn over the desks so that they form   walls to create a Gaga Ball pit.

 Setup takes 3-4 minutes.

My class plays with elimination untill the last 3 players are out.

We play music in the background (often the students chant the Pirkei Avot they memerized while they are playing)

The students also speak in Hebrew, drawing on the same words they are comfertable using from soccer and basketball:
...... חוץ, זה לא הוגן! תמסור

My students don't dread the rainy days anymore!

Nearpd in The Judaic Studies Classroom

Nearpod is a great tool to engage students in learning text. I have created Nearpod classes for most of the chumash lessons I teach. I first started using Nearpod in "Teacher Mode" as a tool to engage all my students in the classroom. Nearpod made all my students active learners.

Nearpod gave me the ability to send slides to my students devices, and the students   share their responses with the class. The ability to draw and highlight on top of pictures is what drew me to nearpod. 

This year, I have been using Nearpod in "Student Paced Mode". As a meaningful homework assignment, the student reviews the pessukim and answers questions on each passuk by highlighting the answer in the text. This also helps me check on my students grasp of the material by looking at the reports generated for each session.


Here is an example of what my student
Homework:

Share:

In Defense of Tal Am

When I first saw the Tal Am curriculum,  I immediately fell in love with it! It was colorful, it was beautiful, and I wished I could of had this as my Judaic curriculum as a child. Soon after, I started hearing the reservations and worries  teachers had about this new curriculum.

Talam

In the past few years, I have seen many of the local Yeshivot drop parts of Talam, and replace it with Lehavin Ulehaskil, or with teacher generated worksheets with a stronger focus on the grammar.

The complaint I am constantly hearing from my colleagues:

Tal AM doesn't teach grammar! 

To deal with this problem, some schools have rejected Tal Am entirely, while others, still use Talam but they supplement it with many Grammar worksheets and drills.

Why Teach out of context Grammar at all?

Many teachers, myself included, can tap into our own childhood experience learning Dikduk. I learned, Shorashim, I learned the tenses, and I memorized the charts but I did not speak the language! Boring drill after drill had to be endured but there was no payoff at the end. Research consistently confirms:  learning grammar by rote memorization and drills does not lead to language acquisition.  

If drilling grammar is ineffective then why are teachers squandering so much class time on a "drill test and forget" methodology. The time is better spent giving the students the opportunity to truly develop their language skills by engaging in real conversations in Hebrew about the material being learned. 

Many teachers try to use Talam as a traditional workbook, thereby missing the crucial part of the Tal Am methodology, סביבה של עברית, creating an enriching immersive environment where students are engaging in the learning, where the student is at the center. If the teacher remains stubborn that half the lesson has to be dedicated to rules and drills there is no time remaining for the most important part of the Talam methodology: making Hebrew come alive for the student.

I often hear a very sad and almost tragic statement from teachers: "I can't talk in Hebrew in my classroom because I need to explain the very complex Dikduk rules in English, because if I explained it in Hebrew my students just won't understand." Perhaps, these students need to be speaking in Hebrew and learning the language the way our brain is wired to learn language, by learning in context in an immersive student centered environment.

Hebrew, or any foreign language, will never be learned by memorizing and drilling word lists and dikduk rules. The copy machines can keep churning out more and more worksheets. The students can work in school and then continue at home for many more hours doing painfully boring homework drills. If we want our students to learn the language, the students  need to be immersed in the language. Breaking the whole language into little parts is like trying to reconstruct a shattered glass vase by figuring out how to put the little shards back together again.

Hebrew needs to become our students language, not a subject in which they can memorize some of the rules. I want my students to be bilingual! proficient in both English and Hebrew and Tal Am is a platform which helps me design my classroom to be truly immersive!
 תלעם תל עם

Hebrew Pixel Art

My wife, returned from the Institute of Play with an Idea to create post it art. She inspired me to try it with my 4th grade students. My students enjoy telling stories in Hebrew. IN this activity, the students wrote a story together, they collaborated In Hebrew with each other on the projext (a great review of directions and colors). My students were disappointed that they had to stop for recess! 

Firing up my Students!

Recently,  I brought to life the Rashi which explains why Yaakov is not afraid to return home despite his brother Esav being ready to take revenge.

Esav is compared to a mountain of Hay: large and intimidating. The students explored their own fears, they wrote out a few Hebrew sentences about there personal fears. 

We went outside and experienced for ourselves the analogy of Hay. With one match the entire bale of Hay went up in flames. The students also burnt their sentences about fears to signify that many of our own fears are like the Hay scary and intimidating but we can overcome them.

May we all find the fire within us!

כאשר ילדה רחל את יוסף: משנולד שטנו של עשו, שנאמר (עובדיה א יח) והיה בית יעקב אש ובית יוסף להבה ובית עשו לקש, אש בלא להבה אינו שולט למרחוק, משנולד יוסף בטח יעקב בהקב"ה ורצה לשוב:

Creating an Immersive Hebrew enviornment

Hebrew teachers often express frustration that their students are not making real progress in their language acquisition. In best case scenario, the Hebrew teacher  may be talking to students in Hebrew and demanding that students respond in Hebrew but often the results at best are students who can talk "Classroom Hebrew" but not ready to speak Hebrew in the real world. Students in this environment see Hebrew as a school subject and not as a living language.

I shared this frustration and I was determined to help move my students from being passive learners to active learners who take ownership over their learning by engaging in the most important part of language acquisition: conversing in the target language.

The Real World learning:

To help my students start the process of owning the language. I introduced my students to games which they were familiar with and the students played the game in Hebrew. I provided a phrase list which students can use as a reference, thereby giving the students a set area in which to practice and become comfortable while using the language.

My students  started with the game of war students can use the Hebrew they already know and add new words that are being used for the game. The game of Spot-it has been very helpful at getting students to converse about everyday items. Students who find a match share a sentence using the match they find. Students get the Hebrew Spot-it mat which I prepared to help students with the word. To learn about asking questions and facial characteristics my students play Guess-Who?

I also introduced my students to playing sports in Hebrew: Students learned the words needed for playing soccer and basketball and then the Hebrew class was out on the basketball court where students played basketball in Hebrew.

In the first two months of school, my students have become more comfortable with :

• Everyday conversational Hebrew (small talk).
• Playing basketball, soccer and tag  in Hebrew
• Playing some of the classic board games in Hebrew

At this point my students conversational Hebrew has increased that they can use any game of their choice and play it in Hebrew. The students are comfortable and excited to use Hebrew in and outside of the classroom. At recess, many of the boys elect to play the games in Hebrew.

By empowering my students to have  the comfort and ability to converse with each other in Hebrew, my students have become engaged and active learners.  It has given me the opportunity to take a constructivist approach in the classroom where students can create projects they are interested in while conversing and collaborating in Hebrew.

Using this approach students are using the language outside the artificial construct of a workbook. Students are able to learn from each other and increase in conversation in all areas of their learning. Using this approach students Hebrew comprehension and comfort with the Tal-am texts has increased, and students are becoming more fluent in the language.

I encourage all Hebrew teachers to explore this approach. The challenge is helping the students change their mindset about their ability to converse in a foreign language. It is important that they are given easy steps and a defined parameters. For example on day one, students have a few questions they ask their peers in a small group with a facilitator. As the students get more comfortable, the students learn to self-monitor and continue in Hebrew without the facilitator. It's difficult at first for the student to switch from their native language to Hebrew but by engaging the students with games the students are excited to play it makes it easier for the student to buy in.