Tag: jewish education

We have always believed that Jewish learning is not limited to the traditional classroom. With school closures, we’re offering:

• Free access to the Tribe. These materials are designed for families with children ages 4-8 to do at home. They can explore Jewish values and texts together at any time.
• Free access to our 3-7th grade values based curriculum. Our pluralistic lesson plans are designed for the virtual classroom (e.g. Zoom or Adobe Connect) where students can attend a live, online, teacher-led class.
• Reduced fee for our Hebrew program. These materials are designed for the traditional classroom, virtual classroom (e.g. Zoom or Adobe Connect), and/or self-paced learning. Students can learn in live classes and/or login to our portal to complete self.
• Reduced fee to play our online Escape Rooms. Families will enjoy working together to decipher the code to escape each Jewish-themed room. Use code ESCAPE10 to save $10. Or contact us to sign up unlimited families in your school/community for $99. 

We are also providing support to all educators during this time.

• Tips for the Virtual Classroom. We held this live session three times with over 200 attendees in total.  You can watch a recording of our first session on our site. 
• Beyond the Basics of the Virtual Classroom. We are hosting a follow up webinar for those who are ready to learn some additional techniques for the virtual classroom on Tuesday 3/31 at 2 pm Eastern. 
• Q&A session. We hosted a live session for all educators to ask the ShalomLearning staff any questions they had about distance learning. Watch a recording here. 
• Live training sessions for all new ShalomLearning educators to prepare for their first class. This session is offered frequently. To attend the next live session, please contact us. You can watch a recording here.

As needs are changing, so are we. Let us know if there’s another way we can share our expertise using education technology to make Jewish learning more accessible for everyone.

ShalomLearning has been the leader in Jewish virtual classroom instruction since 2011. Founded by Edtech visionaries, ShalomLearning has grown its partnerships to 150 sites. 

Our award-winning, Jewish values-based curriculum was designed by renowned Jewish educators such as Dr. Erica Brown, Rabbi Sid Schwarz and Jonathan Woocher (z”l). In addition to our pluralistic curriculum with detailed lesson plans and self-paced Hebrew modules, we train teachers on best practices and virtual classroom management. ShalomLearning was recognized as one of the most innovative nonprofits in North America and has over 1000 teachers in its growing communities of practice.

Rabbi Tracy Kaplowitz, Director of Operations JWB Jewish Chaplains Council^®

Imagine life in the military. You enlist in California, train in Texas, get specialized training in Alabama, and then are transferred to a base in Germany. There, you meet your bashert (intended one), get married, and two years later, your first child is born on base in Alaska.

Throughout each of these moves, the Jewish military community was there for you. Jewish chaplains and lay leaders led Shabbat services on your training bases. When you married and again when your baby was named, a rabbi was flown in for the occasion. Now, stationed in North Dakota, your first-grader is ready for Hebrew school, but there is none.

This all-too-common scenario has been the accepted version of Jewish life in the U.S. military for many years. Although many Jewish chaplains and lay leaders create and sustain vibrant and engaged communities, Hebrew schools are a rarity in the military. Where they do exist, funding is scarce and doesn’t cover textbooks or workbooks, let alone teachers.

JWB Jewish Chaplains Council^®, envisions a time when military families will have access to the same array of resources available in the Jewish world. Thanks to a partnership with ShalomLearning, this vision is becoming reality. Beginning in February, JWB and ShalomLearning launched the iJEM pilot, which brings Jewish education curricula to children in military families.

ShalomLearning offers Jewish education on three distinct platforms, and each one is currently being tested in military settings.

• Two Hebrew schools—one in Spain, the other in Virginia—are beloved by the children who are enrolled and their parents. Coming together each Sunday to learn Torah and explore their Jewish roots has long been a highlight of the week for these families. Yet, with neither a curriculum to follow nor materials to reinforce the students’ lessons at home, each school was limited in its impact. With the ShalomLearning blended curriculum, teachers are now selecting materials from a wide range of options, and students are logging in at home to bolster their classroom learning.
• In Japan, a virtual classroom, including students from Jewish families stationed on Army, Navy and Air Force installations throughout Japan, is about to launch. Although the students can’t meet each week in person, the first class is set for Sunday at 9 a.m. JST (Japan Standard Time)—and neither the kids nor their parents can wait!
• For four families with children of various ages on base in Washington State, travelling more than an hour to a Hebrew school each week is just not feasible. It is a commitment the families can’t meet consistently. However, homeschooling is another story. For these four families, the ShalomLearning online platform not only connects their children to their Jewish roots, history, and traditions, but also is empowering them to read the language of the Torah and the siddur.

With 10,000 Jewish service members—and their 15,000 family members—in the U.S. military, we know we are just beginning to scratch the surface of interest in Jewish learning within the armed forces. Building upon this pilot, we expect to expand slowly, bringing quality Jewish learning to Jewish children on more installations, in additional time zones, and in homes in and around military installations around the world. Within five years, we hope to offer all Jewish families throughout the military easy access to Jewish learning for their children—no matter where they happen to be stationed.

Share our vision, and help us bring Jewish education to every Jewish family in uniform.

Shalom Chaverim,

In New England, the beauty of the changing leaves around are as breathtaking as the spiritual wake up call which buzzes inside us. Can you feel the changes all around you? Can you turn your negative behaviors, relationships, and your mis-steps around to becoming a better you? In Judaism, it is imperative that we participate in making the world a better place and make a stand for our fellow human beings (yes….the doing) while not forgetting it is ultimately nurtured by who we are becoming (ahh…the being).

Thank God we’ve lived another year, and Rosh Hashanah brings a fresh start with a celebration of the birthday of the world. Perhaps it’s because it’s all I’ve ever known, but It always feels fitting in the autumn. What’s that gliding down heading my way? What’s that in the shofar I hear? Oh yeah…Its Teshuvah time!

Now of course, the act of repentance shouldn’t merely be seasonal. In truth, it is a lifelong process that touches every season of the human experience if you’re doing the spiritual work of repentance. There is no reason to wait until Yom Kippur to admit your wrong-doings, apologize to those you’ve wronged, ask forgiveness, and promise never to do it again. (Note: the previous sentence contains the four main steps of teshuvah).

There is something extra special about this time of year, when we come together as a community for collective prayer, delving into where we’ve gone astray, and individually, we work on arduous self-reflection in order to “turn things around” and to be our best selves moving forward. 

Jewish tradition refers to archery when searching for the perfect word for our unintentional sins as cheit, which literally means to “miss the mark.” Haven’t we all missed the mark at some point? The good news is that we can try again to get closer to our best destiny. Preparing for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur helps us draw a line in the sand and begin again. We can reset our intention and re-focus our attention.

Teshuvah is also great for looking at your organizational targets. Each of the past 5 years, The ShalomLearning team has set measurable goals and scaled up our programs nationally. From 300 students and 15 teachers at 15 synagogues in 2015 we’ve now grown partnerships with 110 synagogues, working closely with over 800 educators and 6000 students enrolled in 5780 (2019-2020)!

Getting back to your spiritual path, It is not easy to get things “right,” and hit our targets with the things that truly matter – deeds of loving kindness, studying Torah, connecting with our Creator, and performing tzedakah, to name a few essential mitzvot.

So… how do you know when you’ve truly completed teshuvah? You will know when you come across the same situation in life where you made the previous mistake for which you’ve already atoned, but this time, choose the right thing to do. Our beloved 12th century Jewish philosopher, Maimonides (aka Rambam) called this epilog fifth stage “Teshuvah Gemurah,” Complete Teshuvah.

His students would ask, “But Rabbi what if you are not faced with that same situation again?”

“Don’t worry,” Rambam smiled, “You will.” He also knew a thing or two about Karma.

May you all take the lessons of life and turn things around to be your best selves as I wish you a sweet and happy New Year with blessings of strong and vibrant learning communities deeply rooted in Jewish values.

L’Shana Tova U’Metukah!

Josh

• Lessons (28 per grade) for eight different grades (K-7),
• More hands on training and mentorship for teachers with seven in person workshops this summer and additional webinars,
• A new iteration of learning prayer through gamification (ShalomLearning Escape Room 2.0), and
• Meaningful partnerships with over 120 synagogues across North America – both large and small of various affiliations.

This fall (September 2019) ShalomLearning will offer three new levels of our values-based curriculum (K-2). Similar to grades 3-7, our lessons tie Biblical stories, prayers, holidays, and Jewish text to a value. In addition, for these grades, we focus on arts, literature and experiencing the values through the senses.

Here’s a sample activity from our Yom Ha’atzmaut unit for first grade. Keep in mind, this is just one piece of a larger lesson plan.

Israeli Food

Israel has so many wonderful foods. We are going to taste a few today. If children have tried some Israeli foods in the Kindergarten lesson, choose a different food this year, or stick with a favorite and remind students of their taste test last year.

Serve as many of these foods as you have access to.

• Israeli salad (Tomatoes, cucumbers, olive oil, salt, pepper)
• Hummus (could serve with cucumbers, carrots, pita)
• Pita
• Chocolate spread (goes on the pita)
• Olives

Spend some time doing some exploration about the foods. For example, ask children to wonder what hummus is made from. Have some chickpeas on hand to show them. Students can even try their hand at mashing the chickpeas to make their own hummus.

One reason the Israeli salad is the most well-known dish of Israel is that the cucumber has a long history in that region of the world. Ask students when they might eat an Israeli salad. Share that Israeli salad was part of the traditional Israeli breakfast at home before cereal became popular.

After tasting the food that you have, have a conversation with the students about what they liked or did not like. What was the same as what we eat, and what was different?