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 MHA FYOS REPORTER Shabbat Parashat Shemot Candle Lighting: 4:48 Shabbat Ends: 5:52 ‫י "ח ט ב ת ת ש ע " ה‬
January 9, 2015 A Message from the Dean THE FACE OF EDUCATION IN mindset (we have discussed this before in this column), so that they come to value what they do THE FUTURE and are prepared to take on challenges without The big buzz words in being spoon‐fed and overly dependent upon the contemporary education are teacher. They must have the confidence to take “blended classrooms” and risks with their learning and to face challenges. “flipped classrooms.” Both of these concepts are being In many of our classrooms at the MHA this type of heralded as innovations that learning has already begun. Students in 4th, 5th, and result in increased learning and better test scores by 6th grade can be seen doing individualized students who have traditionally been less successful assignments on their ipads as the teacher works with individual students or continues to monitor all in schools, as well as those who are connected and of the students’ work. In passing by Rabbi do well. Shochet’s classroom I will often see some students “Blended classrooms” combine the use of technology on their ipads, some learning chavruta style, others with more traditional teaching approaches. It allows working with the Rabbi, and some just answering for much more individualization and differentiation. questions in the old fashionedway. Always, I see Students can develop a certain independence by engaged students. This is what the classroom of the completing their tasks and assignments with less future will probably look like. In the high school, direct teacher intervention. At the same time, the the STEM teachers have incorporated a good deal teacher can work with individual students or small of resource materials and on line learning to groups while the other students are also enhance their students’ education. A student can accomplishing at a high level. This approach is move ahead or find a tutorial on some aspect of successful when the teacher has carefully thought the topic that he or she did not quite understand out what each child needs throughout the course of without taking away class time from the other the day and has carefully programmed what the day students. Students can take quizzes on the material will look like. It also requires a teacher to be flexible they are studying to see if they have mastered it. and reflective, to be able to correct and change The quizzes are sometimes self‐correcting and course when something doesn’t seem to be working, point out to the student what his error is. The which any good teacher would do in any classroom student can assume the initiative and make up his situation. It also requires the appropriate technology own quiz. for the classroom and the school building. If children “Flipped classrooms” involve assigning students to are dependent upon accessing assignments, they must be able to do so. There must be appropriate watch or listen to lectures at home and having bandwidth and each teacher will have to develop a them do the more traditional homework certain level of technology expertise to handle assignments in class the next day under teacher problems. The students must develop a growth (continued on pg. 2) 2 MHA
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FYOS REPORTER supervision. The students have been introduced to the material and have had time to think about it, and can make better use of their class time. This again involves a lot of time and careful planning on the part of the teacher. The teacher might have to video and/
or record himself and then share it with his students. The students can watch it when they want to, at home, on the bus ride or in a car. They can watch it in parts or the entire lecture at one time. In this way the teacher is accommodating the needs of the student. Additionally with this approach the student can replay the lecture as often as he needs and he can archive it and keep it for future use or review. When he gets to school, he can ask for clarification on any part of the presentation. Rabbi Gersten has been using a modification of this approach for years. He has been recording review materials for his students on an mp3 player for their personal use. In our primary grades students have already been recording themselves reading, and they can listen to stories on tapes that they take home. In the digital age these will appear as links accessible to phones, ipads, and laptops. ‫י "ח ט ב ת ת ש ע " ה‬
January 9, 2015 Socialization Skills in ECE Charna Schubert Learning to socialize is not as simple as many of us hope it will be for our children. We dream of children learning to share from birth and always being kind and friendly. But for 99% of children, these skills take time to develop. Developmentally appropriate socialization is our number one goal for our Pre‐K students. Teachers model appropriate talk, formally teach the PATHS program for social development, and use fun, interactive methods to learn these most important social skills. One tool we use is puppets. Puppets have many uses for young children and can be a powerful tool in social negotiations. They can enhance spoken language, aid social play, promote prosocial behaviors, and allow children to express negative feelings without risk. Puppets often help children relate to difficult In both of these situations the teachers will have to situations by allowing them to identify with the adapt to new learning environments, but they must puppet and still maintain emotional not fall prey to the pitfalls, or view these situations as distance. Sometimes they confide to a puppet or the end all of learning. The teacher must continue to other times they might assume the character of the facilitate and encourage, to evaluate, to motivate, to puppet to share feelings. assess, and above all to plan and execute complex There are many types of puppets we use. In all three lessons. Discussions and collaboration will be even more important to ensure that the students continue early childhood classrooms, we teach the PATHs to grow in their communication and socialization skills curriculum. This program revolves around a turtle during class time. Students will need to be trained in named Twiggle and the children explore emotions such as anger and frustration with Twiggle and his presentation and seminar‐style skills, which in time friends. Twiggle has even made appearances at the they will be able to share via the internet with IKaRR time meetings to teach us about controlling our students across the globe. anger. It is easier for children to explore these The digital age gives us enormous opportunities to use concepts in a fun circle time and it allows us as our imagination to make learning optimal. We all teachers to reference these lessons when a similar need to be trained to make these opportunities work issue arises in class. in our particular environment. All of the classes have dolls in their dramatic play corner and although they are not true puppets, they are used in similar ways. The children often use the dolls as babies and work through family life and home life with these additional characters. It allows them to take on the role of mom or dad and we often feel like we are in your homes listening to you! They also explore social roles they might not normally choose MHA
MHA 3 REPORTER based on their character and relation to the dolls. In Pre‐K 3, Morah Barbara and Miss Samantha use blocks with the picture of the children on them to help them work through arguments. If two children can't work it out just with words, the teachers will often bring out the blocks with each child’s picture on it and allow them to use these puppets to talk it through. It takes the personal element out of it and makes it easier for the children to calmly use their words. Although it is their picture on the block, they seem to feel like it is separate from them and it allows them to be more open to negotiation. These are only a few examples and of course there is much more we do to help social development in our youngest students. But I encourage you to try dolls and puppets at home as a means to calmly negotiate hard situations. Your children can draw their own or make sock puppets. They will enjoy the artistic process as well as using them for fun! SPOTLIGHT ON
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January 9, 2015 done. The younger grades get very involved and excited during the presentations and after. The objective is to get the 6th graders to view themselves as role models and encourage them to really model these behaviors and actions to those who look up to them. Ideally, this teaches them to think before they act because they know they are the teachers. For the younger grades it is great for them to interact with the older kids and see them doing the right things and behaving the right way. This really inspires them to emulate and do the same. We will be presenting our first Middah soon. Please ask your children what they have prepared/learned about IKaRR. I am excited to see this initiative continue and really help all the students be role models for each other! Please join us in welcoming Ed Espitia, our new Office Manager, to the MHA Family. The Ikkar Initiative Ed comes to us with over 25 years of Leora Klein experience as an accountant. He has managed the Welcome back! After a long break and all this cold finances weather, it can be difficult to get back into the swing of companies of things. What better way to keep warm than for the including Global 6th graders to come back and be able to work on the Materials Services and Michael Hatcher and IKaRR initiative that we have in the elementary school. Associates and has expertise in human resources, The 6th graders each have an "IKaRR partner" in the class, and an "IKaRR class." Four times throughout the sales, marketing, banking, insurance and year the students will create a 30‐45 minute lesson on international business. either Integrity, Kindness, Respect, or Responsibility and teach it to their assigned class (grades 1‐5). The students create all the lessons themselves which really requires them to delve into the true meaning of the Middah (value). These lessons are interactive, informative, interesting and fun. The students prepare games, videos, stories, practical examples, as well as other activities to help showcase the Middah to the class. They provide positive reinforcement like sticker charts or prizes to maintain the feeling even after the presentation is Ed is known for being a team player, dedicated to his work and providing fantastic customer service. We look forward to Ed strengthening and streamlining our financial operations as well as overseeing all non‐academic areas at the MHA Please introduce yourselves to him when you see him in the school. Welcome, Ed! MHA
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FYOS 4 REPORTER The Birthday Corner Mazal Tov to the following
students who celebrated
their birthdays over the
past few weeks and those
who will celebrate their
birthdays next week.
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Ben Gibber Rafael Davidovics Shayna Kahane Eitan Braverman Noga Finkelstein Yaakov Lubetski Yisrael Wiener Natan Finkelstein Ahron Braverman Carlos McCargo Ezra Somer Abigael Blotner Ariael Blotner Joseph Stackhouse Robert Musicante Adina Schwartzberg Miriam Shochet Tevet 7 Tevet 7 Tevet 8 Tevet 9 Tevet 11 Tevet 11 Tevet 12 Tevet 14 Tevet 16 Tevet 16 Tevet 21 Tevet 21 Tevet 21 Tevet 24 Tevet 24 Tevet 24 Tevet 27 ‫י "ח ט ב ת ת ש ע " ה‬
January 9, 2015 THANK YOU VERY MUCH During Chanukah, when our son Ethan had emergency surgery, the entire community pitched in to help and we are forever grateful. Thank you for saying tehillim, keeping Ethan in your thoughts, delivering food, watching our other children, and visiting the hospital and our home to keep Ethan's spirits up. Your kindness and support is greatly appreciated. With sincere thanks, Noam & Sarah VanderWalde Our Annual Auction will be held on Sunday, March 8th. Information about the Sweepstakes will be forthcoming. 5 MHA
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January 9, 2015 MHA
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January 9, 2015 Kroger Community Rewards Program
Help Margolin Hebrew Academy while you shop!
You must re-enroll for 2015, even if you've already enrolled.
You must update your information on the Kroger website to
enable MHA/FYOS to receive money from the Kroger
Community Rewards program.
Visit www.kroger.com, sign in to your account, click 'Account,' then scroll
to the bottom of the page to see 'Community Rewards.' Click 'edit' and
enter either MHA/FYOS’s number (80009) or search by ‘Margolin Hebrew
Academy.' Click on the organization name once found and click 'Enroll' to
confirm. That's it! Then shop as you normally would, pay any way you
choose, & make sure your Kroger Plus card gets scanned. If you enter
your telephone number on the form, you can use that number to shop
when you don’t have your card available.
If you have problems or need assistance, contact Phylis in the office
(ext. 224).
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January 9, 2015 This week’s newsletter is sponsored by the Joffre Family
Mazel Tov to our beloved daughter and sister (and aunt), Chana Sara, on her engagement to Eli Goldstone of Far Rockaway, NY. Wishing you a lifetime of love, happiness, good health, success, and mazel. Emma and Abba Yehuda and Chani, Rafi and Ariella Beryl and Deborah, Micah and Nathan Tzvi MHA
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FYOS REPORTER 390 S. White Station Rd. Memphis, TN 38117 Picture of the Week Elisha Wittlin created the letter “Mem” using Legos. To advertise in the MHA / FYOS Reporter contact Mrs. Phylis Levine
at plevine@mhafyos.org or 901-682-2400
We’re on the web!– www.mhafyos.org Check out the Dean’s Blog‐www.mhafyos.blogspot.com