Challenge

Back in November I wrote about the teachers’ professional development for this year. At the time I promised that I would update you as the sessions took place and yesterday we held our second session. Our focus for the year is experiential education. We are exploring a conceptual framework which helps us to better understand what elements are needed to make a successful experiential lesson.

We were examining the notion of “challenge” as the key element in deepening the learning in the school. Challenge is that element which makes experiential education effective. Often Jewish education focuses on skills and content. Those elements are important and valuable in socializing young Jewish students to Jewish practice and culture. However in order for Jewish identity to take root and become truly meaningful, students must be challenged in a meaningful way. Students must be encouraged to move outside of their comfort zones and in that way they come to see new perspectives. Gaining new perspective is not only enlightening in and of itself, but it also equips students to more effectively reflect on their prior, “old,” way of viewing the world. From this new perspective, students are able to make changes that expand their worldview to include new learning. This is our goal in incorporating “challenge,” and our goal for yesterday’s session was learning precisely how to add this element to our lessons.

In yesterday’s session we used one of the teacher’s lessons from last semester as a “case study.” The teachers analyzed and dissected their colleague’s lesson noting what they thought students would learn from the lesson, what the lesson accomplished, and if they felt the lesson challenged the students in a meaningful way. We moved from this discussion to looking at the theme of thankfulness and the morning prayer, Modeh Ani (literally, “I am thankful”), both of which were subjects in our case study. We then worked as a team crafting a lesson on the very same subject matter as our case study which would incorporate “challenge” using an approach to lesson planning which I had taught earlier in the session. The learning unfolded in a spirit of true collegiality as the teachers are committed to forming a real learning community. If you have not already come to see for yourselves, you should know that the teachers are a truly gifted bunch open to new ideas and to each other. They are engaged with Jewish education and happy to think and talk about it. I encourage you to engage them in a dialogue about your children’s education here at any time.

We will continue to explore the idea of challenge, look at the role of reflection to process in-class experiences, and examine how to make the atmosphere more conducive through the categories of “recreation” and “socialization.” I look forward to future sessions with the teachers and I will continue to give you a window into our work together.