"Prayeraoke"

For years I have enjoyed my Hebrew teaching but found it to be challenging.   As you well know, those of us who teach in after school programs have very little  going for us.  With only an hour a week per class, students arrive to us tired, hungry, stressed and certainly not at their best.  On top of all of this, they have no incentive to do a great job or study at home,  since no one has given students the sense that we are giving them a skill that will be useful to them, outside of classic Bar Mitzvah preparation fear.

So naturally, teachers like us quickly realize that one way of motivating students to learn some Hebrew in the classroom is to make it fun.  There are lots of kitschy Hebrew games to play in the classroom, however the mileage varies with such games and usually we sacrifice content or leave someone behind as we give in to the feel-good.  We acquiescence to the begging for games.  In essence, we water down our efficacy by avoiding what really works for mastering Tefila skills.  Repetition, repetition, put it away, then repetition.  Did I mention repetition?

As a long time bar mitzvah tutor and Hebrew teacher, it has been proven to me time and time again that this is the simple formula for learning prayers and melodies.  Repetition scientifically contributes to short term memory,  and returning to it often contributes to moving knowledge to our long-term memory.

My final project started out with the intent to create a Hebrew prayer version of karaoke, called Prayeraoke. I have had this idea for years, but have never found software or a person that could create it for me. This remains in my list of things to do.  (Please feel free to use my idea, in return for free rights to use it!)

Quickly realizing that I wasn't going to fulfill my dream of creating real Prayeraoke, I started to think about my use of music in the classroom and out.

In many places that I go, I consider my guitar and my song leading skills to be tools that not too many other people have. So when GarageBand was introduced to me in TTF, I naturally gravitated to it.  I layed down a few tracks, using only a quiet room, the iPad and my musical ability (which is mediocre) as tools.  Very quickly and gratifyingly, I produced something that sounded decent and could be used in order to tell a digital story.

Once the audio was complete,  I was able to export it to iMovie and smash it with a little bit of ExplainEverything and Drawing Pad.  iMovie seems like an appropriate app to bring it all together because it is versatile and accepts virtually any media as an import.

I ended up using the final product to tell a digital story (visual and audio) with key values intertwined in the text and subtext.  Students were asked to sing  along with the intermittent prompts on the screen to snap them back to attention, if needed.

Below, I'm including the 5W's and an H as to why one might use this combination. While it lacks refinement that I would want to use it for REAL humans, here is the link to the beginnings of the project:  http://youtu.be/_TKSYYDpbRc

Stop reading here or read on to learn why this might be an interesting medium:

Using Music and Digital Story Telling to Teach Values 5 W's and H

Why?  

• Digital story telling may be a medium that better catches attention of our kids, due to conditioning and maybe wiring?
• It is a way to combat students' desensitization to the teacher talking all the time
• It may allow for greater creativity and encourage students to take on similar projects of their own
• May appeal to different learning styles due to use of visual and auditory sensory input
• Can be repeated more than once to reinforce, if needed

Who?

• Teachers or students can create edit, embellish, or just be receivers of media
• Parents can receive exactly what the kids saw via electronic media or email, blogs, etc.

How?

• Can be used in a flipped classroom, PBL, Philosophical inquiry, or other modalities
• Knowledge of the medium and software/apps can be part of the discovery process or part of a prerequisite
• Assumes that materials are available for presentation:  ie internet access, projector, smart-board, iPad, etc.
• Work toward goals and check in frequently on progress toward goal.  Don't use it if it will not help.

When?

• When you need a change of pace in your classroom
• When the goals of the lesson support using it
• When you can create or find appropriate materials
• The technology will not work against you
• You need to reach more or different students than you might usually
• Someone in contact with your material  (students, educators, parent) will  appreciate  the work

Where?

• This sort of materials can be used in informal settings, home, school, etc.  Important to use in appropriate setting.  (Example:  video around a campfire may not be the mood we are looking for)

What?

• We can create a digital version of almost any lesson.  Content can be anything
• Engagement is key - ask how often in your presentation people are asked to do something. Is it appropriate for your goals?

Values planned for this lesson:  Shalom and g'milut chasadim.

Shalom:  Lo Yisa Goi - Nation shall not lift up sword against nation  (Isaiah 2:4, Michah 4:3)

G'milut Chasadim:  Story of Two Brothers

Thanks for reading!

Israeli Spies

For my final project, I used many of the resources that we acquired during the fellowship to create a wikispace for a class on Israeli spies for my 7th grade class.

The iPad platform seems especially suited to the subject matter. Students begin with a webquest to introduce themselves to the topic, trying to ferret out information just as a real spy has to do. I have pages on the different topics that I plan to cover (some of them are still a work in progress), including videos and documents. Finally, I created a final project/spy mission for the students for the last day of class. New clues can be air dropped to the students as they successfully figure out and complete previous clues.

The page can be found here. I hope that you have fun exploring it. Please let me know what you think!

Hazzan Devin Goldenberg
5th and 6th Grade
B'nei Mitzvah Tutoring
Temple Beth Sholom
Framingham, MA

Big Ideas from TTF Seminars

One of the strongest ideas I’m taking away from the TTF is the potential for a collaborative dynamic that’s infused in the classroom utilization of the iPad.  Before taking the seminar, I was wary of the potential for students becoming locked in to their own “zones” with iPad.   I’m so happy and thrilled to say that I could not have been more mistaken.

What do I mean by collaborative learning?  It’s learning in which collaboration, teamwork, and the collective talents of all participants are an integral part of the learning process.

This means not just publishing ideas (iBook, iMovie, etc.), but publishing them in ways in which creators can receive feedback, reflect and revise their own output and that of others.  This feedback and revision process is not merely an add-on but at the heart of the learning process.  This blog is itself a good example of this as we post our thoughts and plans with the primary intention of promoting feedback and interaction.

And it also means working together in real-time to accomplish collectively forged and monitored goals, whether we’re smashing apps in workgroups to create an audio-visual guide to holiday observance  or communicating and working with experts outside of the classroom on a presentation using Google Drive.

I’m excited about using technology in my classes to create and enhance such a collaborative learning process.  One in which all participants are learners/teachers – one in which I can spend more class time functioning as a guide and facilitator.

As my actual group class and individual tutoring time is very limited, I’m especially intrigued by the possibilities of the flipped classroom approach.  I hope to use what I’ve learned in the TTF to more successfully engage students from home.  The knowledge and skills I’ve gained will allow me to produce entertaining presentations of curriculum content that I feel confident students will enjoy watching.  Who knows? – their parents might get involved in the learning as well.  This will hopefully save valuable class time which can be better used for hands-on work, project based learning, and differentiated instruction that will benefit both the advanced and less advanced learners.

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!

Technology and Holocaust Education

Temple Emunah's Kitah Zayin (7th Grade) spends the first half of the year learning the history of the Holocaust.  I found myself asking if technology could be used in the teaching of the Holocaust, and if so, in what capacity?  It was after thinking about this question that I came up with a resounding yes.  

I remember being in 8th grade and our Holocaust teacher would enter the classroom every evening with a thick stack of xeroxed packets.  We would spend each class session popcorn reading the text.  Completely non-engaging, but then again, how else could we have learned it?  Technology in the classroom can help us to transform the way that we teach the Holocaust, as well as the way that students process and reflect on the information.   Below are the five big benefits that I see from technology in Holocaust education.  

• Increased Use of Outside Resources
• Self Expression & Outlet of Reflection
• Peer Collaboration and Support
• Create Connections & "Real" Moments to Engage
• Vehicle of Remembrance

I created the following project that will be implemented next Fall in the 7th grade Holocaust curriculum.  The assignment will be given towards the beginning of the semester and will be ongoing as we progress through the material.  I will give them opportunities throughout the semester to work on the project.  The work that they do on the project will coincide with what we are covering in class. At the end of the semester they will have time to put the finishing touches on their projects and present to the class.

Virtual Yizkor Bikher

“For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.” - Elie Weisel

Overview:

Yizkor Bikher are memorial books that were written in Hebrew and Yiddish by survivors after the Shoah to serve as a testament to their destroyed communities.  Each book  focused on a Jewish community’s history before, during, and after World War II.  Details included what life was like in the ghettos and camps, resistance activities, acts of rescue, the destruction of their community, and accounts of survival.  Many books also included personal diaries, poems, and other documents written by Jews during the Holocaust.  

Assignment:  

In small groups (2-3 individuals) you will create a virtual Yizkor Bikher, a memorial book, for a Jewish community that was destroyed in the Shoah.  Your virtual Yizkor Bikher will be created on your iPad with the app Book Creator.  Other apps may also be used.  The books will be shared at the Synagogue's Yom haShoah Ceremony.  Your book must do all of the following:

1. Your book must serve as tool for remembrance.  This means honoring the lives that were lost in the community by creating a thoughtful and sincere project.  Please make sure to include a section with a meditation or prayer to remember the lives that were lost.  
2. Your book must describe the Jewish life of your community before World War II.
3. Your book must describe the Jewish life of your community in the ghetto or camps.
4. Your book must describe an act of resistance in your community.  
5. Your book must describe an act of rescue in your community, either by a righteous gentile or Jewish.  
6. Your book must include audio.  (Either your voice, or music)  
7. Your book must include the video or story of a survivor from your community.  
8. Your book must include pictures from your community.
9. Your book must include a separate reflections by each group member.

Resources:

www.holocaustexplained.org

www.ushmm.org

www.facinghistory.org

Printed material given by teacher

Course Reflections - Teaching and Technology Fellowship

I went into this class looking for ways to reach students; to differentiate the way information is presented, excite students about learning and grow as an educator.  Nearly three months later, I can look back at the work I have done and reflect that I really have accomplished those goals. 

The moment you even say the word iPad students change their body language in class, begin to pay attention to the instructions and start creating new ideas.  It's like giving students freedom to be themselves while learning. In only the few classes we held after getting the iPads, I could see the difference in the students.  They were eager to know what we were doing and how it would include the iPads. This excitement was rare previously but was refreshing to witness.

There is also a distinct value in exploration that the use of the iPad easily allows in the classroom.  Connect to the internet and you can find information about anything.  Students are great at using Google but not always so great at deciding which information is accurate and reliable.  Being able to research on your own helps to harbor interest in the subject and ownership of your own learning. Being able to create something interesting to you and appropriate for your level of understanding and abilities is invaluable and bringing technology into the classroom helps to make that goal a reality.

I find myself browsing through apps in the AppStore often, looking for new things and thinking about how they can be used in improve my teaching.  Not take the place of teaching as many would have you believe.  I often ask myself what purpose the app would serve; would it be for my own organization of materials, for a class presentation, to send home to families or for a student project?  Each use has its own value and there are many apps that fall into the categories I have devised. I even bought extra Cloud storage just so that I wouldn't have to get rid of anything! 

Technology in the classroom is really about so much more though.  Through this experience I have decided that a significant advantage to technology in the classroom is the way it helps to communicate what learning took place.  Technology can often provide evidence of learning which can be sent or posted to share with families.  Students who are excited about the learning opportunities they experienced are more likely to share with the adults they live with about what they learned than just report that their day was "OK".  The community can be better involved with the education of our students by witnessing student ability through these products.

To me this course was really a catalyst, a jumping off point, for changing the way I teach and the way I hope students will learn. Five classes and some CloudWork certainly does not make me an expert on anything but it points me in the right direction to improve as an educator and provide opportunities to students that are engaging and informative.  I know where to look for new ideas and how to change my thinking about topics.  For students, it is less about what you know at the end of a course and more about how you learned it.  

Initial Technology Ideas

These are my initial thoughts of technology applications given our current 7th grade curriculum.

Topic: Jewish Life Cycles

Lesson Layout:
Introduction of Jewish life cycles with brainstorming session to assess students' understanding

Key Technologies:
Common Craft. I can see students having a lot of fun creating their own explanations of Jewish Life Cycles using this approach. I've seen it done with drawings instead of the paper cut-outs; either way, or a combination of the two, would make this a more engaging process for the students.


Topic: Purim
Lesson Layout:

Read the Purim story, discuss different ways to retell it. Do some online research for different Purim Spiels, music. 

Key Technologies:
Common Craft. Students could take their live presentation script or write one of their own. They could then collaborate to create their Common Craft pieces to retell the story in a way that the younger classes would enjoy. This is something that could then go into an area where teachers could just take it to present, or it could become part of an expanded Learning section of the temple web site.

Our 7th graders present a Purim play to the religious school each year. This will give them an opportunity to present the play in a lasting way. They could also use this same approach to create short plays for some of the younger classes.

Another fun approach for students might be to create a storyboard or comic strip version of the Purim story. That's even something they could put together and use as a donation to the temple library, or as a fundraiser, depending on how it's done.

Topic: Holocaust
Lesson Layout:

Flipped Classroom mode. We have an extensive Holocaust study packet. The problem is that we never make it through the whole thing because it's just too long.

It will take some commitment on the part of the students, their families, and the religious school to get students to read this material outside of class so that we can jump right into the discussion and project work.

Technologies:

An all-class collaborative timeline using Timetoast or similar online timeline creating program. I envision students each taking a different aspect/person/time period of the timeline, and adding in what they've learned from their reading. Also, if the families are amenable to it, students could add in family history, making this timeline unique. At the end of the project, we will have a lasting timeline that will become part of the temple archive.

I think this approach is useful because of the amount and type of information you can add to the timelines. It's also important for the students to see what else was going on in the world around them -- in the arts, sciences, sports, politics, etc. -- to gain a better understanding of how something like this could happen and go unnoticed or misunderstood for so long.

TTF: Big Ideas

I have to say that my head is still spinning with all the options I now see are available for me to use in the classroom. I am more inspired than intimidated. This has been a wonderful learning experience!

Technology in and of itself is not necessarily something that will benefit students in the classroom. However, after extensive exploration (and diving down numerous, fascinating rabbit holes), I can see ways to apply different technologies to various subject areas in the classroom.
   
I will be more likely to go to my extensive bank of online resources to look for more innovative ways to engage my students in the topic at hand. While Life Cycles are an important part of our religious school curriculum, the textbook we have is fine, but it doesn't grab the students' attention. The funny thing is, I think that if I took the activities in the textbook and converted them to some online format (blog, game, flash cards), the students would jump right into it and actually enjoy it more!
 
I hope to find the right match of technology to enhance my students' understanding of the topic material. There's so much available that I think it will wind up being fairly easy to find programs that are suitable matches for the tone of the lesson I want to present; the challenge, I think, will be winnowing down my choices. I look forward to checking in here for future input and inspiration!

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. 

Presenting on EdTech at Jewish Learning Connections Showcase

This past Sunday I had the pleasure of presenting about my work at Temple Ohabei Shalom, and the planning and research we all do through the Teaching and Technology fellowship. In the Prezi above, I touch on maximizing instructional time, using resources fully, and figuring out answers to the question

How can the Divine rest between two people when they are miles apart, connecting through satellites?

While this presentation is mostly images, check out the screen captures of students at the Ansin Religious School connecting on Schoology and discussing a midrash, and a video of our 7th grade students discussing their b'not mitzvah projects and coming to really insightful conclusions.