Classroom Update!

To all you wonderful parents!

I want to update you on our curriculum and keep you up to date with what is happening in the classroom!

Our current curriculum is two-fold - divided into Wednesdays and Sundays.

Until we part for winter break, our Wednesdays are being spent discussing tzedakah.  We are following a curriculum developed by the American Jewish World Service called "Where Do You Give".  I chose this curriculum because 7th grade is an extremely transformative year during which your kids are transitioning into a life of Jewish adulthood and, thus, Jewish responsibility. I want the class to understand that very few people are born with the privilege that we enjoy.  With this privilege comes a great deal of responsibility and an obligation to fight for those people who are less equipped to fight for themselves.  At the root of tzedakah is tzedek - or justice - and I want the kids to be thinking about how their actions create a more just community and, thus, a more just world. Our tzedakah curriculum will culminate with a class-wide B'nai Mitzvah tzedakah gift. In addition, the kids will be making personal tzedakah boxes that will represent their own individual ideas of giving.  Once we are finished with our tzedakah curriculum we will begin our class Parsha Project.

Now to Sundays...on Sundays we have been talking about our Jewish history.  By the end of the semester we will be reaching the Holocaust and the entirety of next semester will be focused on studying WWII.  So far we have covered the Russian Jewish shtetl, the pogroms in Eastern Europe, and the resulting wave of Jewish immigration to the US.  Next week we begin talking about Zionism! Am yisrael chai!

In Hebrew we are plugging away at the prayers that begin our Torah service.  So far we have learned Ein Kamocha and Av HaRachamim.  By Thanksgiving we will be embarking on Brachot HaTorah - the blessings before and after the Torah reading . This is a big deal for our B'nai Mitzvah!

I have the pleasure of teaching your kids twice a week and I wish I could teach them more often.  Since I can't, in order for them to fully absorb the material, I rely on you, parents, to reinforce concepts and ideas at home.  Please dig.  Ask the kids what they are learning.  How does it relate to their everyday lives?  I want them to be thinking about this material as they walk through the rest of the week.  We are Jewish ALWAYS, not just in Hebrew school, and I want these kids to leave 7th grade and proceed forward with a Jewish identity that sticks and continues to shape their lives forever.

Have a happy week.  Shavuah Tov!
Mikey