4th Grade Aliyah Video Project

My 4th grade classes are really really different. In one class, I have a group who feel much more traditionally spiritually connected (most believe in a more traditional concept of G-d, they really enjoy and buy into more traditional prayer) my other class has a more diverse range of opinions on both G-d and Jewish practice. Our core curriculum focus this year is "What does it mean to be a part of the Jewish people?" for both groups this is a tough question, especially when thinking about Israel, a country that most of them have never been to but have learned so much about.

In our Israel curriculum this year, we are focused on some of the recent Aliyot to Israel: Yemenite Aliyah, Ethiopian Aliyah and Aliyah from the former Soviet Union. However, the idea of moving to Israel, Lashanah habaah is still really foreign to all my kids. Yes, they have heard of the Holocaust, but most of them have been lucky (depending on how you look at it) to grow up in the Boston area never having heard, seen or felt antisemitism.

In planning how I wanted to teach this, I sat down with one of my coworkers to brainstorm our goals.

• Students are able to empathize with those who faced antisemitism and oppression
• Students understand although they do not need to agree, with the Jewish concept of Lashanah Habaah
• Students are engaged and excited to learn about the process of making Aliyah from each country
• Students work with two or three other students and work well as a group
• Students are able to creatively present their findings in a 3-10 min video clip
• Students have a better understanding about the need for a Jewish state

To do this, we decided to break our three classes of 4th graders into nine small groups and assign them to topics as follows:

4B will focus on the culture of each country (Yemen, Ethiopia, former S.U.); what Jewish practices were like there, etc 

4C will focus on the reasons that the Jews left that country; oppression, isolation, general conditions

4A will focus on the Journey itself, what did it take for them to make it to Israel, how did they get there? Who helped, etc

In making movie trailers for this project, it was helpful to suss out each student's current tech abilities and resources in addition to other talents so that making the groups can be as successful as possible. Students will be able to play around with animation, documentary style productions and pretty much anything else that they can come up with that still will convey the process of Aliyah in a respectful way.

Tech Fellowship furthering intentionality in the classroom

The past two months, in this technology fellowship, I have really thought about what technology I use to further my own learning and in general in my own life. While it is really important to me to bring fun and engaging new technologies into my classrooms, I also want to make sure that my time and focus is still on the materials and that my students grasp Jewish concepts rather than just tech concepts. This tech fellowship has been really helpful in structuring my thoughts and experimentation with what can be helpful and what is just adding in tech for the sake of adding tech. Learning how other teachers are using technology and accessing teacher connection/resource pages has been the most useful to me. For example, I think that using a wiki as a way to organize events for high school students could be a less chaotic way to plan. I also want to continue to explore all the online recording and movie programs.

Lesson/Unit: Israel

D Gardner

• Students will gain exposure to  Israel’s major cities, historical sites, art and music as delineated in the  Assignment Section of WebQuest
• Layout of the lesson/scaffolding will be presented using a timeline, embarking  the first day of school when Israel is introduced as a major topic of study for 5th grade students, and concluding with presentations to the entire school the last day of class. Checkpoints include students selecting a topic by December; presenting a draft to the class in February; to parents in April and the school in May.
• Key technologies include:
• Teacher directed learning: wiki, webquest, timeline, YouTube, web sites, Google maps, virtual tours (cities and museums), flip camera, Google docs, and Diigo
• Student presentations: technology of their choice, with teacher approval re project design, or none (students opt to select means of presentation)
• Reflections
• This project based, year long assignment is the pride of the 5th graders. This year we  found that the written reports and posters weren’t as well researched as in the past. As a result, the WebQuest will direct students in their research and establish a common core of exposure/knowledge. Material selected is gripping, of high quality and intended to instill/foster  a love of Israel as well as set high standards for student reports. With the use of a YouTube capturing actual footage from Israel becoming a state, students will have a sense of the excitement in 1948 when Israel gained statehood. As eyewitnesses age, technology will become ever more important to capture their stories. I applaud the efforts of Facing History and Ourselves to embark on this, as well as the History Project in San Francisco.
• It was both fun and inspiring to pour over the wealth of material and resources available. How fortunate we are to have a homeland, after so many years in diaspora. Our rich culture, reflects the diversity of Israel’s population.


• I look forward to collaborating with the fifth grade teacher in presenting this next year.

CJPTTF Blog # 8 Big Ideas - Reflections re teaching and learning with technology

As I entered the class, I expected to expand my repertoire for engaging lessons. I now exit with exciting, dynamic tools to use with my students, fortified with resources and endless opportunities for my students, colleagues and myself. Not only will I incorporate technology in the classroom with my students, but already I have found it an invaluable tool and resource for both researching topics and facilitating the multitude of administrative tasks related to teaching.

Although I have always maintained that we all learn together (students and teachers,) and accepted that students are more tech savvy,  I am now: much more knowledgeable about technology; have achieved a comfort level, embrace it; and am having fun, as I became totally immersed exploring the many resources we’ve been exposed to in just the past few months. Another aspect that I gained from the course is the ever expanding circle of colleagues to collaborate with, combining best practices from across the country and around the world.

In my role coordinating Hebrew instruction for students with learning disabilities and for students who are new to the school, goals for future include:

• developing lessons incorporating on-line resources for Hebrew instruction;
• creating reports for classroom teachers, specialists, administrators and myself to access and update concurrently; and
• developing resources for students to access to further strengthen their Hebrew reading skills.
  
  

Within the school, we have project based learning and a school wide system of assessment for Hebrew reading skills within our spiraling curriculum. Based upon my research during this course, we have agreed to implement an incentive system for those who acquire 100% proficiency.  Classroom instruction will be somewhat “flipped” with the expectation that students practice at home to achieve this. Thus, our goals will particularly address the dual problems of student absenteeism, and the chronic complaint of teachers not having enough time to teach. It will be interesting to collaborate with other colleagues to achieve these goals.

My Take Aways

I have taken away more than I ever thought I could in four classes.  I feel very proficient in creating a Wiki.  Our Hebrew School is now project based and I have been creating a wiki with 12 3rd and 4th graders.  I am amazed by the great job that they did.  They look forward to coming to Hebrew School each Sunday to work on the computers.  Some of them even do work during the week on their own and come in all excited to tell me about it.  I think that next year I will create a Wiki for my class to keep parents up to date on what we are doing.

I also did not realize all of the things you can do on youtube.  I thought it was only for watching videos.  I really enjoyed making a create your own adventure with the seder plate.  I plan on doing that with other things next year.

Our school is in the process of getting more technology and hopefully next year we will be able to get wifi without relying on hotspots.

Svetlana was wonderful and if she is teaching a follow up class to this one I would love to take it!!!!

Thoughts upon finishing the Technology Fellowship

The technology fellowship has been an amazing way to connect to the best resources in Jewish educational technology and has totally inspired me to incorporate technology into my classroom regularly. 

Here are a few ways the fellowship has inspired my work in the past few months:

1. I created a wiki to help my students learn Hebrew.
2. I crafted a project based learning experience on Jonah. I have done this before but never using technology and it is better than ever. 
3. My 7th graders have been engaged in a History game on Zionisms. We are creating a full length iMovie on our project that we will show at Israel day
4. I have helped my fifth graders move the skits they so love to iMovies that are much richer and full of midrashic possibility. It is really pushing their creativity and engagement. My classroom is so exciting!
5. I have moved several of my 7th grade facing history lessons to be digital. My iPad and laptop makes its way into almost every lesson and I am utilizing resources I didn't know existed before on the facing history website. 
6. I created a wiki for a Temple Israel professional development project. The wiki is allowing different groups to work together and is recording our work for the future. 
7. I have moved so many TBZ projects to google docs - no more sending word documents back and forth!

Though I am generally a tech savvy person, this fellowship has really pushed me to put technology front and center in my practice. My goal is to continue to learn and grow and technology changes and develops. Technology is a tool - I want to get better at choosing appropriate tools and allowing technology to be productive in my classroom. 

My Big Takeaways from the TTF

I am excited about the idea of introducing video-making into the classroom.  I think the kids are really going to enjoy it and I think that the various cuts done in film open up possibilities for exploring various ways to interpret and understand the Torah text.  Ideally, I would want my students to be as independent as possible with the editing and posting of video, music and pdf's.  As I ease into this, I imagine that I will be handling a lot of the final production elements and am a bit concerned about how much time that will take.  I think that I would benefit from further exploration of easy to use technology for the students to be empowered to complete the project themselves.

Wikispaces is a great, simple to use tool for my classroom.  I have been sending out weekly e-mails with assignments and class summaries but would be better served compiling it all onto wiki.