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xiphiasOkay. So, I got to sleep at 3 AM last night, and got up at 6:30, and did my class prep then.
Rafi, Tamara, and I had met up at a coffee shop close to the beginning of the week this week, and Rafi gave us some ideas about lesson planning, lesson trajectory, and stuff like that with names that sound like they'd be some sort of faddish educational theory, except that they actually make sense and work. And he said that he'd sit in today in the first part of the class to observe how it went.
Yeah, okay. So I did the majority of my lesson planning on three and a half hours sleep, three hours before class started. I DID have the outline to work from. . .
It was also suggested that, as an opening activity, we have the kids make flags for Simchat Torah, which is Thursday night.
After that, I wanted to build off of what I'd done last with with the Ushpizim, and bring it actually into what we were SUPPOSED to be teaching about in a larger sense: hachnasat orchim, or hospitality. So we sat in a circle and I asked them to think about, and talk about, times when they felt scared because they were in a new place, and how they ended up feeling better. Some kids told about how they felt when they came to new places, some about how they felt better, and what made them feel better, some about how they helped other people feel more welcome. We talked a little about how feeling familiar with a place often makes one feel more comfortable: I said that I'd be willing to bet that they were mostly more comfortable on the first day of Hebrew school THIS year than they were two years ago -- after all, THIS year, they're pretty much the same class in the same room with the same teacher that they had when they were Kitah Aleph -- first grade.
Then I introduced the term "k'vod" -- honor, respect. I pointed out that this was a word that they had heard before: in the second line of the prayer the Sh'ma, the line that we usually say very quietly, one of the words is about "shem k'vod" -- something about the honor of The Name. And I told them that, as they knew, I tried to be very careful about honoring The Name of G-d -- I don't write it out on pieces of paper that might get thrown out or dropped on the floor, for instance. And I said that showing respect to G-d's name was a way of showing respect to G-d, because there's some sort of connection between G-d and G-d's name.
Then I said that people were created in the image of G-d. And I wasn't 100% certain EXACTLY what that means, but I did know that that meant that there was some sort of connection between people and G-d, sort of like how there's a connection between G-d and G-d's name.
And because of that, showing respect to people was a way of showing respect to G-d.
So then I told them that I wanted to give everyone a chance to think about and talk about this idea of respect and honor, and I had them go back to the table and write or draw a picture of something that had to do with showing respect and k'vod to people, and that, afterwards, we'd go around the table and tell people what we'd drawn or wrtitten, and what the story behind it was. We talked about those stories, and then it was time for snack.
All in all, it was the smoothest-running lesson we've done all year. I saw some things I was a little worried about: for instance, while the often-disruptive kids weren't disruptive, they were, nonetheless, dominating the conversation. I tried to steer the discussion and ask questions of soem of the quieter kids, with limited success.
The second half was less smooth. This was partially because Tamara went off to teach Gan. My class, having had me two years ago, has absolutley no fear of me, and therefore tests my boundaries much more strongly than they push Tamara. Nonetheless, we did manage to get through three lessons in the Hebrew section. We're starting to put together a pattern of "glue words (chosen by me) into your notebook, and copy the word several times to get writing practice, then try sounding out loud the worksheet of nonesense sounds, and then play a game as a group, something that gives Hebrew practice.
Snack, of course, was done out in the sukkah today. Mark and I played and led the singing of the standard Jewish-hippie Sukkot song, by the Byrds. ('Cause, see, we read the book of Ecclesiastes on Sukkot. So, therefore, we sing "Turn, Turn, Turn" because we're a post-hippie community.)
I've got lots more to say, but I'm falling asleep. So I'll stop now.
Rafi, Tamara, and I had met up at a coffee shop close to the beginning of the week this week, and Rafi gave us some ideas about lesson planning, lesson trajectory, and stuff like that with names that sound like they'd be some sort of faddish educational theory, except that they actually make sense and work. And he said that he'd sit in today in the first part of the class to observe how it went.
Yeah, okay. So I did the majority of my lesson planning on three and a half hours sleep, three hours before class started. I DID have the outline to work from. . .
It was also suggested that, as an opening activity, we have the kids make flags for Simchat Torah, which is Thursday night.
After that, I wanted to build off of what I'd done last with with the Ushpizim, and bring it actually into what we were SUPPOSED to be teaching about in a larger sense: hachnasat orchim, or hospitality. So we sat in a circle and I asked them to think about, and talk about, times when they felt scared because they were in a new place, and how they ended up feeling better. Some kids told about how they felt when they came to new places, some about how they felt better, and what made them feel better, some about how they helped other people feel more welcome. We talked a little about how feeling familiar with a place often makes one feel more comfortable: I said that I'd be willing to bet that they were mostly more comfortable on the first day of Hebrew school THIS year than they were two years ago -- after all, THIS year, they're pretty much the same class in the same room with the same teacher that they had when they were Kitah Aleph -- first grade.
Then I introduced the term "k'vod" -- honor, respect. I pointed out that this was a word that they had heard before: in the second line of the prayer the Sh'ma, the line that we usually say very quietly, one of the words is about "shem k'vod" -- something about the honor of The Name. And I told them that, as they knew, I tried to be very careful about honoring The Name of G-d -- I don't write it out on pieces of paper that might get thrown out or dropped on the floor, for instance. And I said that showing respect to G-d's name was a way of showing respect to G-d, because there's some sort of connection between G-d and G-d's name.
Then I said that people were created in the image of G-d. And I wasn't 100% certain EXACTLY what that means, but I did know that that meant that there was some sort of connection between people and G-d, sort of like how there's a connection between G-d and G-d's name.
And because of that, showing respect to people was a way of showing respect to G-d.
So then I told them that I wanted to give everyone a chance to think about and talk about this idea of respect and honor, and I had them go back to the table and write or draw a picture of something that had to do with showing respect and k'vod to people, and that, afterwards, we'd go around the table and tell people what we'd drawn or wrtitten, and what the story behind it was. We talked about those stories, and then it was time for snack.
All in all, it was the smoothest-running lesson we've done all year. I saw some things I was a little worried about: for instance, while the often-disruptive kids weren't disruptive, they were, nonetheless, dominating the conversation. I tried to steer the discussion and ask questions of soem of the quieter kids, with limited success.
The second half was less smooth. This was partially because Tamara went off to teach Gan. My class, having had me two years ago, has absolutley no fear of me, and therefore tests my boundaries much more strongly than they push Tamara. Nonetheless, we did manage to get through three lessons in the Hebrew section. We're starting to put together a pattern of "glue words (chosen by me) into your notebook, and copy the word several times to get writing practice, then try sounding out loud the worksheet of nonesense sounds, and then play a game as a group, something that gives Hebrew practice.
Snack, of course, was done out in the sukkah today. Mark and I played and led the singing of the standard Jewish-hippie Sukkot song, by the Byrds. ('Cause, see, we read the book of Ecclesiastes on Sukkot. So, therefore, we sing "Turn, Turn, Turn" because we're a post-hippie community.)
I've got lots more to say, but I'm falling asleep. So I'll stop now.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-04 01:44 am (UTC)Then I said that people were created in the image of G-d. And I wasn't 100% certain EXACTLY what that means, but I did know that that meant that there was some sort of connection between people and G-d, sort of like how there's a connection between G-d and G-d's name.
And because of that, showing respect to people was a way of showing respect to G-d.
Wow. That makes a _lot_ of sense.
Thank you!
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-04 09:57 am (UTC)Just let me know within the next two weeks if you want me to pick up any of those Israeli games for you from the bookstore here so I can bring them up to Boston with me on the 29th.
"Mark and I played and led the singing of the standard Jewish-hippie Sukkot song, by the Byrds. ('Cause, see, we read the book of Ecclesiastes on Sukkot. So, therefore, we sing "Turn, Turn, Turn" because we're a post-hippie community.)"
I always think of that song when we read Kohelet! :-)
Oh, and the Rabbi at my parent's shul (I went home to Rochester for the first days) decided not to speech at us on Shabbat, saying: "Since we read Kohelet, I have learned there is a time l'drosh (to speak/commentate) and a time to remain silent. Now is the time to remain silent before it becomes a time of uprising and war." ;-)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-04 06:39 pm (UTC)And because of that, showing respect to people was a way of showing respect to G-d.
Very cool: that you're willing to admit you don't entirely understand what a phrase like that means. I think most people wouldn't admit it - they'd go around in circles trying to explain it, and get frustrated when the listener still didn't understand it, not realizing that the reason the listener didn't understand it is because the explainer didn't really understand it.
A little disturbing: the implication that this is THE reason to show respect to people, therefore someone who doesn't choose to show respect to G-d cannot be expected to show respect to people. Which has from time to time been (roughly) a justification for compulsory religion. (No, I'm not claiming you said that, or that you believe it.)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-04 07:52 pm (UTC)If the average adult had the moral and ethical sense of the third-graders I work with, we'd need many, many fewer law enforcement officials.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-04 07:54 pm (UTC)