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Information, resources and reflection on Jewish early childhood education

Thanks, Lisa. This one is especially helpful to me. Have you see any of the blogs that Ellen Dietrick has done? She is the new director at the Temple Beth Shalom Nursery School in Needham, and she uses blogging to involve parents in a way that is rich, deep, and meaningful. Her blogs are private, though, so I cannot share the link with you, but perhaps you or I could drop her an e-mail if you'd like to see. At TOS, we are anticipating replacing our weekly newsletters to parents with blogs beginning this summer or next fall, so I was interested in looking at this one! I think that this tool is useful in its ability to communicate more efficiently with parents (and with other educators and community members) and to engage them more deeply. I also feel that blogging can be a great way to make connections between curriculum, activities, and child development more transparent for parents through the use of tags. For example, you could tag all of the activities that incorporate, for example, Israel, and then parents could see how Israel is integrated strongly throughout the curriculum. I have used blogging before. I personally find it very user friendly.It produces a strong documentation of children's learning over time, and of the growth of curriculum over time. I do feel that one of the dangers of blogging, however, is the ability to quickly publish information without much editing. I noticed in the first post today on this blog that were a few type-os! I think that particularly in early childhood education, there is a need to produce quality well-written communications to demonstrate that educators are knowledgeable and themselves well-trained.

Pages with easy-to-understand information about Jewish holidays and traditions. Geared for children a little older than preschool--for teachers and parents.

A place for Jewish educators to discuss issues and share resources and approaches related to teaching Hebrew in Jewish supplementary education.

Joan, what are the features of the Hebrew Project-(what's on the web site) and-how might this help you in your teaching?

There was a great deal of information on the website, but a few specific things from the reading struck me. One is to devote more "time on task" to the Hebrew reading and allow students more time to decode, read to one another, and read to the group. Also, with teaching siddur based Hebrew, students need the opportunity to practice it in real settings, such as an in class tefillah service. Also, it is important for students to practice at home with parents. So, I might provide transliteration of prayers or have parents use an on line program for the prayers, assuming they are not Hebrew readers.

A curriculum using Jewish music to teach text study, values & ethics, Hebrew, and social justice within a Judaic framework. Materials for students, parents, teachers, and musicians to learn about Jewish music news and information.

The website offers a search engine so teachers and parents can locate Jewish books based on ages, themes and values.