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MOFET JTEC Portal Newsletter
Dear Subscriber,
We are delighted to send you the latest issue of The MOFET JTEC Portal resource listing.
The current bulletin contains research findings, educational resources, conference information, etc. selected from journals and other Jewish education publications. This month's listings include articles on day schools, inclusion of special needs students and a listing of professional conferences.
A new semester at The MOFET Institute's Online Academy has begun. There still are some open spots in a couple of courses. You can still register here.
We hope you will be joyously "flipping" your classrooms as Purim approaches (v'Nahafoch Hu)!
Wishing you engaging reading,
Reuven Werber
The MOFET JTEC Portal Team
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Please note: a complete list of recent additions to the portal follows the Featured Items.
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 A Beit Midrash for the Whole Community: Jewish Day Schools as Centers of Adult Jewish Learning
At the Schechter School of Long Island, we know that the education we provide our students will enable them to be passionate and literate Jews when they enter adulthood, Jewish exemplars for the next generation. However, a day school does not exist in a vacuum, and the opportunity exists for day schools to be embedded in what Gail Furman calls the “microecology” of their community, where the school is central to “the creation of local community”. In other words, if Jewish communities want to expand their commitment to Jewish learning, the day school can be a central institution in promoting that value community-wide.
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 Our Children's WhatsApp Culture: An Educational Look
WhatsApp, a messaging app that allows users to interact individually, and as a group, with their friends, directly from their phones presents a number of educational and spiritual challenges, both for teens, and for educators trying to teach our students to learn to manage their lives and the many distractions that constantly bombard them. In this month's Eye on Education, Rabbi Yona Goodman, Director of the Institute for Contemporary Chinuch with Emunah at the Orot Israel College of Education presents some of the issues that WhatsApp presents, and suggests several ideas to address the challenge of 24-hour connectivity.
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 My Child with Autism is Going to Jewish Day School (And it’s Working!)
Our son got his first siddur (prayer book) last week, and it was–in a word–amazing. A year ago, I never would have predicted he would be up on that stage. In fact, I was convinced of just the opposite–that my son would not be attending Jewish day school at all, let alone participating in the first grade siddur ceremony. I was so convinced, I blogged about how unlikely it would be for he and our new local community Jewish day school to be a match.I’ve never been so happy to say I was wrong.
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 HaYidion: RAVSAK's Journal of Jewish Education – Day School Teachers
This issue of HaYidion celebrates teachers, recognizes their challenges and addresses their issues in ways that we hope will honor their commitment and professionalism. In our Jewish day schools, we must appreciate and respect our teachers and value the many ways in which they serve our students. They open the gates to Jewish learning, without which we do not exist as a people. RAVSAK’s Executive Director Marc Kramer recently wrote that it is not enough for us and our students to just “feel Jewish,” to have a “Jewish identity.” Judaism requires a knowledge base that goes far beyond “Mah Nishtanah,” the blessings for the Chanukah candles and eating bagels. Our teachers provide this base.
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 Where Have All the Jewish Primary School Headteachers Gone?
Where have all the Jewish primary school headteachers gone? As the headteacher at Britain’s largest Jewish primary, it saddens me to say that we are facing a silent crisis in Jewish education. There are currently six Jewish primaries in the UK without a substantive head running their schools. Where are all the leaders? The headteacher is the leader of the school. They establish – or at least are responsible for implementing the vision of the governing body.
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Project Zug Promotes International Jewish Textual Study Using Internet Video Technology
Project Zug, Skype based international Hevruta study sessions, has already connected 200 American and Israeli Jews since launching in February 2013. The program’s scope is expanding to link Jews in Israel to those in Australia, Africa, Europe and South America. And within five years, they hope to enlist more than 5,000 “students” in this bold hybrid of an ancient method and cutting-edge tools.
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