Had-Gadya

Hallie Chandler  had-gadya.wikispaces.com

For my final project of the teaching and technology fellowship run by CJP I created the start-up for a 4^th Grade Passover Curriculum online. It is still very much in “edit” form with only one introduction page and one lesson (the four questions). So far it really shows the depth of what is needed for this kind of curriculum as well as the usefulness of an online curriculum in the long run. Wikispaces (what I used for the curriculum) are comparable to Wikipedia where people can change content material, leave blogs, and upload documents. You have to be invited to edit information though on the pages so as a teacher you can have multiple wikis of the same curriculum so you never loose any of your original information. On each Wiki Space you are able to upload music, videos, documents. Because of this there will be a vast array of different technology methods being used in the classroom and outside of the classroom. For example, if a student creates a movie inside the classroom they can upload it to YouTube then share it on the wikispace.   

How the project originated: Temple Emunah Religious School shows pride in the amount of services and Hebrew that our students are able to lead and learn at the end of their experiences and education provided to them at Emunah. After much contemplation and dialogue within our community the Religious School has decided to move from 3 days to 2 days per week of Religious school classes. Because of this there will be a lack of time being spent in the classroom, so much more concentration will be placed in classrooms on principle subject material that we believe every Jewish students needs to know rather then secondary experienced learning like leading a Passover Seder. Instead of dropping this project based learning in class all together I have decided to maximize the interaction that the teacher can have even outside of the classroom and allow students to do project based learning in class that will flow over into home projects. This will allow our students to be successful by the end of the year in original projects like leading the Passover Seder.
End Goal: 
To have successful skills, knowledge, material, and experience required of leading a Passover Seder while using new technology methods inside and outside of the classroom.

Structure: 

The structure of the wiki space will be in the order of the Haggadah. Each new page will be a new section of the Haggadah and a new lesson in class in the order of the Seder. Students will be aware of what is ahead of them and what has already been taught in the class. 
Notes: Each lesson will have notes, either in written, PowerPoint, or video format. This will be the material that supports the lesson that was introduced in the class, what information was went over and discussions that were had. This will help kids to have supportive references to the information when they are at home or when they are working through the assignments.
Assignments in Class: this will be assigned tasks that need to be accomplished during the class period time. If students are absent from class then they will be required to accomplish them at home and post them to be reviewed by the teacher. Assignments may include group or individual work. Assignments will mainly be seen as "completed" after students have uploaded their assignments by video, music, blog, or project onto the wiki sight. 
At home assignments: "Homework" - this will really help to increase the amount of outside learning that a student is doing. Better follow up with the student can be had, no loss of papers, no "I never got the assignments," and more learning being done by the student to help further the learning inside the classroom so success of the goal can be had.

Pros:
~Having an entire curriculum online is a very powerful and exciting potential. Students, parents and teachers can access it anywhere they are, you can make adaptations to it each year or even as the class is in session, and there are so many projects that can be preserved year to year. 
~This really benefits outside of the class learning. It provides material to be carried over outside of the class. ~Wiki provides students with the opportunity to take leads on projects. 
~This will be extremely beneficial to students and teachers who are absent from class for extracurricular reasons. 
~By using technology and online resources we minimize the amount of Ganeza usage that we would previously have to. We do not have to worry about throwing out documents, printouts, or passages with Gods name on it. Students will be able to use online resources to learn prayers and songs while reading the Hebrew on the same page as the music clips.
~Having discussion with peers even outside of the classroom with strengthen students comfort level in sharing their opinions. 
~Being able to change things up year to year: Delete projects that were not so successful
~This will provide students with a local site to show off the work that they have accomplished in class with their friends, parents, and will allow them to refresh their memories later on. 
~This will provide students with the opportunity to use all different types of apps within the classroom and publicize them to everyone.
~things can be printed if needed! 

Cons:
~It is very hard to change and format text, change and picture location when you are focusing on the aesthetics of the page
~The idea of allowing students to access the page does not seam very comforting. It is great to allow them to blog post however, allowing them the "edit" bottom makes it very nerve wrecking when all of your lessons and information can be gone in the push of a bottom. (they can be blacked from editing the page if they have to) 
~"Copying" - this could potentially be an issue or very helpful for preventing copying since everyone can see the work that you are doing. 


Materials needed: 
The only real material required will be the Haggadah. However, I am hoping that it will get to a point where everything they need will be online. 

Please take a look at the WikiSpace!  had-gadya.wikispaces.com It is not completed to any extent but you can see the introduction page and a possible lesson plan. Online learning can be very beneficial. Just remember that face to face communication and relationship building is always key so trying to maximize that while in the classroom and build more connection with peers and the teacher even when students are at home.  

Reflections

It’s time to bring the world into the classroom, and bring what we do in the classroom outside into the world! I am extremely thankful for the teaching and technology fellowship that was provided to my co-worker and me through CJP. There is an idea that incorporating more technology into our classrooms and lives provides for greater connection with the world around us. Through the fellowship I have found it more possible to produce projects, gain knowledge, answer questions, and share information more efficiently and creatively.

The use of media, online resources, apps, ipads, etc have enabled new approaches beneficial to the learning of my students, the success of my curriculum, and the productivity of the classroom environment. The new imminent expectations are that using this technology will provide me with the support in the classroom to increase my one on one attention with students while other students continue to be productive in the class. It will enable me to clone myself so that I can be in more places at once. It will excuse the “I forgot my homework at home,” “my dog ate my homework,” “I was sick and didn’t have the assignment” excuses, which push students back in their work and success within the classroom and with the curriculum. In addition, technology will and has provided me with the ability to be creative with the learning that we do. There is such a huge push for experiential education now and using technology provides us with that greater ability to get yourself “outside” of the classroom and into real life situations. It allows students to create projects that can be accessible anywhere, giving them the ability to always find it to use as a future resource, something to share with others, or something to just reflect on.   

These are just a few of the many benefits that come from using reliable and educational technology methods in the classroom. I hope to continue to strengthen my liking of these unique methods and aim for the following goals. I hope to allow my students to recognize that anyone can help someone else get better at something. Connections can develop between students and a wide range of experts in dispersed fields using technology. I want students to recognize that they have more resources accessible to them and more creative opportunities. I want students to feel more confident in their work because they know it is going to be shared. Lastly, I want my students to find passion, purpose and have the desire to learn. By increasing the amount of teaching methods through technology, I believe students will be more successful in engaging and finding connections through the content that they are required and have desire to learn.

Hallie Chandler 

Temple Emunah 

Synagogue Educator 

Research an Israeli innovation

Reflections and lessons learned from doing a lesson with technology. (If you’re not teaching the lesson right away, you may need to do this part at a later date.)

I used the technology with the 5th and 6th grade students this Spring.The 5th grade students were asked to research (using the Ipads) an Israeli innovation. (Example: Sodastream, instant messaging, etc). and create a media presentation on these innovations. The students used a variety of applications to create their presentations: Tellagami, Greenscreen, Imovie, Tiltshift, etc. and were excited to research and work together! When all the assignments were completed, I combined al of their presentations into an IMOVIE to view all at once. Below is an example of one project that was competed.

There was definitely a learning curve attached with this project. Initially, some students required a lot of guidance and support in using the IPADS, and with the assignment. It was difficult as the educator to help the students, while still learning to use the Ipads at the same time. However, the students picked up the information quickly, and were able to produce some wonderful work! One student emailed me, and was so excited about learning to use Imovie that he had created his own Imovie at home!

In addition to this project with the 5th grade students, the 6th grade students worked with the Ipads to create informational videos for the Walk For Hunger that they are participating in on May 4 as the final component of the B'nai Telem curriculum.
I found that the 6th graders were extremely confident in the use of the Ipads, and required little-no guidance in completing this assignment.


Below are some of their videos that they created!

Integrating technology into the classroom was an extremely positive experience for myself, as well as the students! I am hopeful that the technology can be continued in the walls of the classroom to enhance the learning of the students in the religious school.

TTF Reflections

This Technology fellowship has been extremely beneficial to not only our learning within the classroom, but has expanded the way we as teachers utilize the technology within the class as well.

Throughout the year, we used the technology in the classroom with the 5th,6th, and High School students, and created a variety of different projects. By gaining a basic knowledge of the apps such as Tellagami, Greenscreen, Explain Everything, etc we were able to have students participate in a collaborative, hands on learning environment. The students worked to create Tellagami projects based on a location of their choosing in Israel, as well as creating Imovies and informational videos on an innovation in Israel. While this was a learning experience for both the teacher (myself), and the students, I think that the outcome was positive.

I think that in today's world, students are becoming more familiar with technology. I think that this course helped us gain insight and recognition of the different tools and learning modules that are available for use in the classroom. I would like to continue to learn and grow by using the apps within the classroom, as well as educating other teachers in the religious school the best way to use the technology. I also feel that because of the knowledge of the students in using technology, we as educators need to work alongside the students, and realize that we may learn from them as well!

Using Technology in Course Planning

The Teaching and Technology Fellowship really allowed me to think about how I want to teach for the upcoming year.  Because the school year for the courses I teach ended during the Fellowship, I focused myself on planning for the next school year. 

As some background information, I teach at a Reform synagogue, a Pre-Confirmation class made up of 7th, 8th and 9th grade students.  The structure of the curriculum is flexible and as a faculty we look for opportunities to engage students in Jewish Learning that interests them.

Teaching two courses each year allowed me to consider many different methods.  The first course I planned out was Jews in the News which was focusing more on the content creating aspect of the iPad technology.  Students would access a webquest for the instructions on their task to create a newscast each class about a current event item in Israel or an issue that effects Jewish people.  By using articles found on the internet they would produce a newscast using Tellagmi, iMovie or the green screen application.  The newscasts would be shared on the Temple webpage.

The second course focused on technology as a way of presenting and organizing class materials.  Using Jews on television to explore stereotypes of Jews, students would view select television episodes and through class discussion look for the different ways in which Jews are portrayed.  The introductory lesson, which is linked below, provides several short YouTube clips of some of the shows we would view. Students would be asked to use those clips to brainstorm some of the stereotypes that we might be exploring.

Introductory Lesson Prezi - still in progress but a GREAT start!

During each class discussion we would take notes using Popplet so that at the end of the seven-week course we would have a web of all the sterotryes discussed and examples from more than one television show for each.

Using technology to plan out the courses was in some ways easier than I had expected.  Creating a Prezi was more challenging than I had anticipated and it took me at least 3 tries to be satisfied with what I had created. This could be due to my status as a novice Prezi user.  Its a good thing I have a few more months before class starts to make improvements!

Reflections on the TTF Class by Bailee Star

 Corps Project--Popplet and Wikipages:

As an Education Director, I've struggled with how to present our innovative pilot project.  Our project uses a Corps model, where we link a grade with a committee in order to learn about what the committee does as well as how, when, what and why they do it.  The families learn together along with older members of the congregation.  They're able to learn about our Jewish values through experiential means.

This visual organizer is an important first step in presenting the greater temple community with a flow of the work throughout the religious school.  Others can see the holistic nature of our work and the project will gain more visibility in the greater temple community.  I plan to use this visual organizer on our new website--perhaps placing video in the boxes as I get more documentation on the projects.

Here is the Popplet for the Temple Shir Tikvah Corps Project:

I made wikipages for three of the TST corps in the project as well. I plan to finish those pages as we complete other activities toward the end of the year. I plan to use the Popplet as an introductory page and hopefully link the wikipages in the individual popplet boxes. These would be on the website as soon as the material goes live.  I hope to make three more wikipages for the three remaining corps as well.  I would use this information to link from the grade-based information sheets that are sent to parents.  We usually use the first parent education session to tell them about the Corps project for their grade.  With this information distributed ahead of time online, we would use our family education time to learn each other's stories and develop relational bonds.

http://cjpttfipad.wikispaces.com/Temple+Shir+Tikvah+4th+Grade+Caring+Corps

http://cjpttfipad.wikispaces.com/Temple+Shir+Tikvah+5th+Grade+Tefillah+Corps

http://cjpttfipad.wikispaces.com/Temple+Shir+Tikvah+7th+Grade+Tikkun+Olam+Corps

My goal is to use the iPads frequently during weekday religious school.  Students are often exhausted when they come right from school and the iPads offer an attractive solution to differentiating learning and offering students an exciting way to access the learning material.  Most recently, the fifth graders looked for innovations in Israel as part of our Israel activities leading up to our Israeli Shuk day.

Thoughts and Musings

CJP's Teaching and Technology Fellowship has opened the door to many possibilities to integrate technology in my classroom.  I came into the fellowship feeling confident in my understanding of iPad's and technology both inside the classroom and not.  I was already attempting to to include technology into the learning process before even hearing about the fellowship.  I am impressed by the tools and strategies we were introduced to and am coming out of the fellowship with a strong feeling that I am prepared to add technology into my classroom.

This fellowship further reinforced my belief that technology in the classroom is the future.  Our society is developing into a technology driven culture and the best way to prepare our student's to be empowered Jewish adults is through embracing the benefits of this change.  It is essential that Jewish schools embrace technology in the classroom.

The fellowship also introduced me to some incredible apps that I am looking forward to using in the future.  I was particularly drawn to the possibility of integrating Blogger, iMovie, and Book Creator into my curriculum.   Apps like this have the possibility to enhance the learning, while also creating excitement among  the students.  After learning about iMovie, I experimented with it in my classroom and was impressed by how serious and creatively my student's took the assignment.  To add to that, the students have been talking about it frequently and have been asking to use it again.  These apps have the possibility of students not only learning from them, but also allow the student to gain ownership over the material by encouraging creativity and self expression.

Moving forward, I plan to integrate technology into all of the classes that I teach.  As I explained in a previous blog post, I plan on using technology in my 7th grade Holocaust curriculum.  I strongly believe that technology will benefit the student's ability to understand subject matter and to reflect on what we are studying.  I plan to have students work on a long term project throughout the semester, focusing on an individual community that was destroyed in the Holocaust and preserve the story of their community using Book Creator and other apps.

I also plan on continuing to use online learning (both in class and at home) via a class website.  Check out my 5th grade class website by clicking here.

I have been very impressed with all that I have learned from CJP's Teaching and Technology Fellowship and am grateful for have been given this incredible opportunity to improve my teaching.