Section archive - In-Service Training

The AVI CHAI Foundation and BetterLesson have recently agreed to a partnership to support 140 teachers in North American Jewish day schools to develop their capacity to bring blended and personalized learning strategies to their students in the 2016-17 school year. The expanded partnership follows a successful pilot of PersonalizedPD, BetterLesson’s innovative professional development platform, in the spring of 2016. Forty-three teachers from 15 Jewish day schools across the U.S. and Canada received design coaching and ongoing support throughout the spring semester from BetterLesson’s coaches to develop and use strategies to solve important teaching challenges having to do with increasing student agency, creating opportunities for deeper student collaboration and communication, and fostering students’ creative thinking skills. The partnership is primarily geared towards supporting teachers who have already introduced some blended or personalized learning strategies in their classrooms, but participants need not be advanced blended learning practitioners.

The Shoolman Graduate School of Jewish Education at Hebrew College, Newton Centre, MA, presents a workshop for Jewish educators at day schools and supplementary schools, led by Jen Glaser Director of the Engaging Texts Network. This four-day seminar (July 20-23, 2016) will cover many topics from the Philosophy for Children approach to education to inquiry-based learning.

Ivriyon is now accepting applications for the 2016 summer Ivriyon Hebrew Immersion Institute for Day School Educators (July 5 - 28, 2016). The Ivriyon summer institute prepares day school educators to teach Judaic subjects engagingly and effectively in Hebrew. The program combines intensive language immersion with powerful learning experiences to strengthen participating educators’ Hebrew language skills. The four-week program focuses on developing participants’ expressive skills through intensive communicative practice, writing, grammar review and vocabulary expansion.

Transform your understanding of your students and yourself as a teacher with Hidden Sparks blended format summer course (June 29 – August 3, 2016). The Hidden Sparks Learning Lenses curriculum helps educators learn how to observe, reflect and plan for all students in their classrooms. Using multiple lenses (developmental, temperamental, ecological) and real-life case studies, educators learn to understand student strengths and challenges, and identify strategies for all learners, including those who struggle academically and present challenging social-emotional issues. Educators will expand their instructional and conceptual toolboxes to improve student achievement.