Section archive - Formal Education

The Sinai Schools, a network of Jewish special education institutions that began in 1982 with three students at one site in New Jersey and has grown to six locations with 150 students in the state, will establish its first branch in New York City next year. Sinai has announced that it will open a “school within a school” at the SAR Academy in the Riverdale section of the Bronx beginning in September 2018. Aura Lurie, who has served as a teacher for more than a decade in the SAR Academy “inclusion” special education program, will be director of the Sinai pilot program at SAR.

Between 1990 and 2001, the Israeli Ministry of Education freely distributed to students countless copies of the books written by Holocaust author Ka-Tzetnik. This educational project has never been researched and, despite its magnitude and uniqueness, it has abruptly disappeared from public awareness as if it had never been carried out. The motivations that stand behind this initiative and the lessons it teaches about Holocaust pedagogy are the focus of this article.

The classroom display in elementary schools, usually, manifests the teacher's effort and vision. However, upon entering an elementary school classroom one will usually encounter a visual overload. How can teachers determine the appropriate amount of elements that would be on display? How can they know what is the accurate recipe for a pleasant and efficient display? It seems that, in practice, this might resemble your grandma’s cake recipe, which was passed down from generation to generation. “Just put a little bit of this and not too much of that…” This article addresses thesequestions and provides best practices recommendations in an appendix.

The aim of this study was to test the notion that integrating movement into the learning environment contributes to the academic achievements of kindergarten students. One hundred and sixty Israeli 4–6 year-old kindergarten students participated in the study for 145 days, which included pre- and post-intervention tests in language, mathematics, and non-verbal intelligence. The three interventions consisted of (a) a mindful movement—integrating movement in academic learning, (b) a movement for its own sake—allowing children free movement without providing academic instruction, and (c) a control condition—children engaging in their regular academic environment activities.