In my role at an all boys Yeshiva high school, I am involved in discipline.  A common complaint I hear from my students is the “unfairness” they feel when punishments do not appear to be 100% consistent 100% of the time.  This complaint comes in various contexts and forms.  The common theme is that many students express a feeling of frustration from inconsistency.

While it is debatable to me whether the students really agree with the argument they make or are simply unhappy…

The Common Core

One of the things I have experimented with in my classes this year is assigning students work which they are required to share on a larger stage than our classroom.

I had several complementary goals in mind in devising these assignments, but I will focus here more on the results than the planning.

In one of my classes, Contemporary…

As I write these words, the excitement I felt hours ago is still here!

WOW!

Those three letters basically sum up what took place today at Yavneh Academy. The first, ever, JedcampNJNY (second Jedcamp ever!) began at 9am and what an event it was! (You just didn’t want it to end!)

From the get go, educators from all over began to pour in and the connections began.

I couldn’t keep up.

 Everywhere you turned another new face was ready…

With Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha'atzmaut behind us, I am once again left wondering if the students gained anything more than not having class from the various programs that occurred. Considering that one of the tenets of Modern Orthodoxy is its Zionistic inclination, we don't really provide our students with good reasons and explanations for why they should be Zionistic. Can we give them more than a soldier and the Nefesh B'Nefesh video (which, by the way, makes me cry every time I see it)? Is…

HAVE YOU EVER FOUND YOURSELF WITH THE FOLLOWING DILEMMA?

You are an OK teacher, but sometimes the kids drift off in your class. Or you explain a concept for five minutes and the class looks back at you with a blank look as if you are speaking Chinese. Or, you thought the kids were with you in class, but they bombed the test. These kinds of days are demoralizing. It's not fun to feel like its been a FAIL.…

Using Evidence from Text - part of the new Common Core Standards -

I have just begun to explore the new common core standards -- at the suggestion of Dr. Steven Lorch of the SSDS of Manhattan.  It strikes me that the new approach they are taking to text resonates to some extent with the way that we teach Tanach?  It's kind of a wildl link but thought I would share in case there are helpful materials.  Common Core Library has lots of resources.…

(But not standardized testing or teaching)

There has been a lot of discussion in the media, blogs, journals, etc about standardization in education. There are many reasons for standardized curriculum, fewer for standardized testing and none for standardized teaching.

The question is how much do we utilize standardized curriculum and how much should we in Judaic Studies classrooms? In General studies classes much curriculum is standardized but in the Judaic Studies classroom…

Rabbi Dr. Noam Weinberg, in an article posted on JewishIdeas.org, speaks of the need for today’s Jewish educators to be able to relate to their students.  While some in the education community argue that it’s best for these teachers to model a lifestyle free from the impure influences of modern, secular society, Rabbi Weinberg disagrees.  He suggests that, in the spirit of…

All success begins with some failure . . . 

I have written about my fun few years in the web industry during the dot-com boom. I had a grand time and enjoyed feeling like my stock options were worth something before the market crashed. Then came 9/11, and I decided to devote myself to doing something meaningful like teaching our holy Torah to the next generation. Honestly, I didn't have such a grand time for the…

Yeshiva high school Judaic studies teachers are charged with the almost superhuman task of teaching content, nourishing learning skills, and inspiring religious…

Isaac Asimov was right. The dangers of artificial intelligence that he foreshadowed in his collection of short stories, I, Robot, are coming true today, most likely in the halls of your school.

You may have heard of the app that’s causing me to lose sleep: SimSimi (pronounced Shim Shimmy). The developer in Korea, who actually designed the program over 10 years ago, describes the app as an artificial intelligence conversation…

Last time, I introduced some of the top tips I learned working as an information architect in Silicon Alley.

My top 3 tips had to do with what to teach.…

The question screams "blasphemy", but at the end of the day its a valid question with which all high school students struggle.

As a Gemara Rabbi, its a question I deal with on an almost daily basis. Of course, some ask it in a cynical tongue meant to discourage their peers, but I believe most want a legitimate answer that is more extensive then "because!"

I decided to create a Google form for my class and find out what are my students issues with learning…

I began this school year with the thought to use Project Based Learning (PBL) in my Mishnah class, mainly because it looked interesting and my assistant principal, R. Aaron Ross (jewishedd.blogspot.com, @rabbiross) had been using it in his classroom and encouraging us to use it too.  Frankly, I wasn’t too enamored with my own frontal teaching style and I was happy to try a new method which promised increased student involvement and motivation. 

It took a while to get started –…

Featured Blog: Chinuch ENERGY!



Do you remember when you learned how to use the internet? I don't. Why not? If we can figure out the answer, we can create lessons that our students won't remember having to learn as well.…

Several months ago, I joined in on a #jedchat conversation, in which various educators were discussing the role of social media in our schools. The discussion led to a debate regarding the appropriateness of implementing activities that revolved around the use of social media, specifically through the use of smartphones, despite the fact that many students do not own these types of devices. Would this make a student who didn’t own one feel inadequate? Should these types of feeling be taken…

As I waited in line for lunch at the recent North American Jewish Day School Conference, I had the opportunity to have a wonderful conversation with Rabbi Josh Kahn of TABC. We discussed numerous issues relating to education, but there was one which has remained with me and has been occupying much of my down-time thoughts: Why do we find that most administrators in Jewish high schools teach classes, while the majority of our counterparts in the leading private schools do not? Put…

We come from a long line of paradigms in education that lead to reproducing our values and mission into the next generation. We imitated Hashem’s teaching style from Tanach in honing Jewish education.  We set parameters to inform school based education for every class of child (Bava Basra 21A) far earlier than most societies.  While the Talmud is replete with dozens of educational tips for parents to assimilate their children into Jewish…