jlearn2.0

Great article on Beliefnet by Esther Kustanowitz on “Seeing Myself in “The Jewish-Americans.” And a tip of the kippah to her for pointing out the following resources – including video clips from the series, lesson plans, and places to learn more – on the PBS site. Be sure to watch the series - there is a lot of rich material about Jewish life in the United States!

The Jewish Americans is a three-part documentary that will be aired throughout the United States on PBS January 9th, 16th, and 23rd. The series traces over 350 years of the Jewish American experience.

Video clips can be found on JTN’s site and on PBS.

The Jewish Americans was produced by JTN Productions, WETA Washington DC, and David Grubin Productions, in association with Thirteen/WNET, New York.

Articles about the production include:

As All-American as the Matzo Ball, by Elizabeth Jensen, New York Times
The Power of A Hyphen, by Steve Lipman, The Jewish Week

If you know of any materials that have been developed in conjunction with the series, please give a shout.

Congratulations to the educators who were recently awarded Avi Chai’s Educational Technology Experimentation Grants and to their schools! The projects represent a range of multimedia resources including podcasts, webcasts, websites, software, interactive curriculum, and SMARTBoard materials for Jewish learning.

Below is a listing of the recipients. Please see the Avi Chai Technology site for more details and to follow the grantees’ progress.

Avi Chai Educational Technology Experimentation Grant Recipients

Mr. Joseph Sonnenblick, North Shore Hebrew Academy - High School, Great Neck, NY
Dr. Yaakova Sacerdoti, The Jean and Samuel Frankel Jewish Academy of Metropolitan Detroit, West Bloomfield, MI
Ms. Evi Reznick, Yeshiva Atlanta High School, Atlanta, GA
Rabbi Don Pacht, Vancouver Hebrew Academy, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Rabbi Dov Nimchinsky, Robert M. Beren Academy, Houston, TX
Ms. Carrie Moaty, Katherine & Jacob Greenfield Hebrew Academy of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA
Rabbi Judd Kruger Levingston, Perelman Jewish Day School - Saligman Middle School, Melrose Park, PA
Ms. Davida Levin, Torah Day School of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA
Mrs. Elky Langer, Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Rabbi Daniel Kohn, Contra Costa Jewish Day School, Lafeyette, CA
Rabbi Avraham Ismach, HANC - Hornstein Middle School / Brookdale High School, Uniondale, NY
Ms. Deborah Harris, Solomon Schechter Day Schools of Metropolitan Chicago - Sager Solomon Schechter, Northbrook, IL
Ms. Tzivia Garfinkel, Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School, Chicago, IL
Dr. Joseph Fima, Herzliah High School – Snowdon, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Ms. Ghilly Einhorn, South Area Solomon Schechter Day School, Stoughton, MA

Check out TeacherTube, a new site that provides a safe, free venue for teachers and their students to post and access education-related videos. TeacherTube is growing its catalogue of videos and it is interesting to see the different types of resources that are available. The site is not affiliated with YouTube.

Imagine an online platform dedicated to video channels by and for students and educators engaged in Jewish learning.

Educators are using blogs as a means to develop reading, writing, and information and communication technology (ICT) literacies. Blogs also provide a forum for collaboration, information gathering, knowledge building, and publishing.

Below are a few examples of how blogs can be integrated into Jewish educational settings:

• Students in a writing class use blogs as their personal notebooks to share with their teacher for feedback on content and writing skills. The teacher and other students in their writing groups provide comments to help the authors refine, clarify, and strengthen their ideas. The blog preserves a running commentary as the work is created. Students also use images, original videos and podcasts to help tell their stories and to develop visual literacy and communications skills.
• A Jewish history class creates a “you are there” blog in which they write from the perspective of famous personalities or from a specific historical period.
• Learners in a North American class collaborate with Israeli counterparts to compare and contrast their everyday lives. Learners interview their grandparents and other older adults about their experiences growing up Jewish at a particular time or place. These interviews are edited and presented as video clips or audiocasts. Students track their families’ immigration patterns on Google Earth and link it to their blog.
• Jewish family educators post weekly guides related to the Torah portion for family discussions around the dinner table. Families build on this material, sharing their insights and related family customs with each other online.
• Congregational school students use a blog to continue their work on class social action projects even though they are not in the school building.
• A Hebrew language class practices their oral and written skills by producing podcasts and accompanying written materials in Hebrew. They exchange messages with native Hebrew speakers, discuss topics of mutual interest, and share photographs related to these topics through Flickr.
• Administrators post weekly updates about school events. Teachers use the blog to remind students and their families about homework assignments and keep them abreast of class projects.
• A beginning teacher in a day school keeps a blog journal that he shares with his mentor. The teacher journals about challenges he is facing in his new position. Each week he chooses a particular area to develop. His mentor reacts to his postings by providing feedback and perspective based on her own experiences. The teacher posts video clips of this work to his blog and reflects on what he had planned and what occurred in practice. Similarly, his mentor can post video clips that demonstrate alternate methodologies.

Feel free to share your own ideas!

COJS, the Center for Online Judaic Studies, is sponsoring its second annual workshop directed by Professor Robert Chazan and held on the campus of New York University. 30 North American educators will work together with renowned Jewish historians, scholars of education, educational technology specialists, and doctoral students. In conjunction with the workshop, each participant will create an innovative curricular unit for use in Jewish history classrooms.

The objectives of the workshop are:

• To continue the development of a professional network of master educators, scholars, and doctoral students. This network will remain active throughout the school year, working to create innovative curricular materials and to exchange thoughts regarding issues that are central to the field of Jewish history education.
• To facilitate conversation among leaders in the field (teachers, administrators, scholars, and graduate students) about fascinating issues related to Jewish identity, Jewish collective memory, and the teaching of Jewish history.
• To explore innovations in educational technology and to discuss its role in the future of Jewish history education.
• To introduce participants to the innovative curricular materials being produced by the Center for Online Judaic Studies (COJS) and to engage in dialogue aimed at improving and promoting the classroom utilization of these materials.
• To foster a collaborative environment that allows participants to engage with their colleagues, resident scholars, the resources of the NYU library, and COJS as they create their own curricular materials.
• To enable participants to encounter and discuss recent developments in the scholarship of Jewish history, curriculum studies, and educational technology/cognitive psychology.

Workshop participants will receive:

• Reimbursement for travel expenses
• Lodging near NYU (for participants coming from outside the New York metropolitan area)
• Several kosher meals
• A $1000.00 honorarium

Applications for participation are due the week of March 12. For more information, see www.cojs.info/~nyc/Workshop/index.html (click on the “Next” at the bottom of the page to see the second page) or contact Michael Kay or Yona Shem-Tov, Assistant Directors of the workshop, at: workshop@cojs.org.

Video on demand is becoming a popular means of accessing content for entertainment (witness downloadable episodes of hit tv series) and, increasingly, education. unitedstreaming, for example, is an educational subscription service sponsored by the Discovery Education that provides users with an extensive library of videos and curricular material from the Discovery Channel, BBC, and other partners on a variety of subject areas.

There are several resources already online that provide Jewish content.

The Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive has put a number of its holdings online through its Virtual Cinema. These include vintage films by amateurs and professionals on Jewish communities throughout the world, the Holocaust, pre-state Israel, State of Israel, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The Jewish Television Network, produced by JTN Productions, disseminates JTN programming online, including holiday shows, cooking shows, and programs especially for children like Mitzvah Mouse and Alef.. Bet puppet segments.

Both of these sites are free. As with any resource, educators should preview them to see if they are appropriate for their educational setting and provide learners with frameworks for viewing.