Search results for: Professional development

In Israel, the Ministry of Education determines all aspects of educational policy, including teachers’ initial teacher education, licensing and professional development. As part of the New Horizon educational reform, the Ministry announced in 2010 a new plan for the professional development of teachers in Israel. The Ministry assigned a mediating role to its district managers and superintendents, placing them in charge of introducing and implementing this policy. The current study describes the findings of a qualitative, narrative-based research, which examined the attitudes of 25 Ministry of Education district managers and superintendents regarding the implementation of the new professional development policy.

Register now for our Echoes and Reflections Online Professional Development course in July! Echoes and Reflections is a multimedia Holocaust education program, of which USC Shoah Foundation,Yad Vashem and the Anti-Defamation League are founding partners. This program is intended for middle and high school educators who have not participated in an Echoes and Reflections program previously. The course is made up of three interactive learning modules, released over three weeks: July 11th-July, 2016. The program is being offered at no cost.

Jewish educators across the country have experimented, wrestled, and explored Israel education in many ways. While some have successfully launched meaningful educational experiences, others struggle to teach a topic that is foreign to many of our teachers and also raises many contentious conversations in our communities. In our three communities – Houston, Cleveland and San Francisco – we have taken a communal approach to bringing meaningful Israel education to learners in part-time settings. We recently had the opportunity to share these initiatives with each other through our participation in Shinui: The Network for Innovation in Part-Time Jewish Education. While our communities each offer different unique approaches to Israel education, we found that we had all experienced some success in this arena by focusing on it through a communal lens.

In truth, Israel is not the subject of Israel education — rather it is the one learning about Israel. The content of Israel education is not Israel — but rather the relationship with Israel. The aim of Israel education is not Israel but rather finding a meaningful role for Israel in our lives. The iCenter, the hub of Israel education in North America, constitutes a 21st-century address for such an approach. It invests deeply in professional development opportunities for educators across all kinds of learning environments — on Birthright Israel buses, at Jewish camps, in day and congregational schools, and elsewhere. Its aim is to both initiate and then further develop the relationship between a person and Israel. When done effectively, this relationship will be ongoing and meaningful. It will evolve as the person evolves and matures. One’s relationship with Israel may look entirely different at age 50 than it did at 15. But the relationship is there nonetheless because it originated with the person.