I Just Had to Share

Each week I usually give out a Dvar Torah for the students to to read at the Shabbat table. Today I decided to have them come up with something on their own.I gave them the topic of Avraham's Ten Tests to write about. I told them it was for them, written by them, and I made it clear it would not be graded. Everyone in the class was working and writing some amazing ideas. I walked around the room watching and helping as needed. One student was writing about how the tests got harder, another one wrote why Hashem tested Avraham, and so on. The entire class was motivated and engaged. This was something new and just having them motivated would have been amazing, but that wasn't even the most amazing part. After giving them the allotted time I announced it was time for recess. About half the class sat in their seats and asked me if they could stay and finish their (ungraded) Dvar Torah's .
I couldn't believe it.

They made my day.

You as parents should take pride and have Nachas in the amazing work that everyone is doing. Please ask them to share with you their Dvar Torah's
Have a great weekend and Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Greenblatt

Critical Thinking and Open Ended Projects

In almost all of the educational literature today you read about the concept of 21st Century skills. To boil it down, 21st Century skills are skills that students will need to be successful in life. Some of these skills include but are not limited to; critical thinking, collaboration, questioning, and analyzing. The literature also tells us that these skills need to be taught and they don’t come naturally to our students. With that in mind I have tried to create an environment in my class that pushes the students to think and ask questions about what we are learning. This is not easy but as I told the class on the first day I will help you and give whatever assistance you need but I will not allow the words “I Can’t “ to be said in my class.
One of the ways to help students learn these skills is to give them projects that are open ended and by giving them choices.
Now that we have finished the first Perek in Shemot I have assigned a Tic-Tac-Toe activity that gives the students nine different choices of activities which are open ended (There is no one right way to do it ) as an assessment for Perek Alef.
These projects are due next Friday.

I am confident that as we progress, your children will see the benefit of learning these important skills.
If you have any concerns as always please feel free to speak to me
Have a Great Shabbos
Rabbi Greenblatt