J-ed Talks

Join us for a brilliant episode with Dr. Sharon Silverman, the incoming Chair of the Board of Trustees of Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership. She is an educator, academic, and published author. Scroll down for a full bio.   Student Voices: We Believe in You  Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership This discussion is filled with insights and wisdom about education and teaching and learning practices. It is peppered with personal anecdotes that illustrate Sharon's points and highlight her belief that stories are a great way to learn. A few details to look out for in the discussion:  Overall approach: While students have many similarities, each one is different from the next and we need to concentrate on how they differ from each other. What is emotional awareness? What is self-efficacy? What is persistence?  Practical suggestions for teachers based on these three components of the Believe In You model.  What is "applied Jewish learning"? "When you're green, you are growing. When

Saul Kaplan shares some of his experiences and wisdom about Jewish education in this short interview. Some of the powerful ideas he mentioned are: The importance of ownership an example of what this looks like The importance of the teacher Considering the input/output process to ensure the system has coherence Education as "the opening of minds" (my words, not his) I really enjoyed speaking to Saul and hearing his ideas. I personally benefit from his prior work on a daily basis and this interview shows a bit of why he was successful in putting together a framework that has lasted so long and is still beneficial to our school. 

What are the implications of Jewish education's obsession with programmes? Why do we have a proclivity to deploy programmes? In this episode, which is based on personal experience rather than objective findings, I explore this issue and the potential for a different approach. The key theoretical claim I make is to view programmes as a positioning act rather than a well-grounded educational decision. The position taken depends on the context but has some general characteristics, for example, that the position dichotomizes and paints the Other with one brush. It is therefore difficult to question the educational power of an established programme because to do so involves opposition to the taken position. You want to ask questions about the educational value, but the programme represents, by its very nature, a position taken (often implicitly ideological) that resists any attempt at questioning.  For those interested, I borrowed the concept of "position-taking"  from Rob Moore and Johan Muller in 'Voice Discours

Along with teachers and schools around the world, we have, in a matter of days, transferred to 'remote/digital/online' teaching. I have found it difficult to transfer the cultural aspects of the school - those Jewish aspects that rely heavily on a physical presence at the school. For me, this includes things like Tefilla, ceremonies for significant Jewish dates, informal activities, corridor interactions, Jewish initiatives, charitable initiatives etc - things that create an 'Avirah' (atmosphere) in the school.  In this podcast, I reflect on the nature of these challenges in the hopes that a better understanding will lead to a better set of possible approaches. By the end of the episode, I identify what my "next-step question" is.  I offer a theoretical lens to frame this problem based on Legitimation Code Theory (LCT). This thinking was inspired by Dorian Love's blog post. I also refer briefly back to Ep 010 - the difficult part of education. How do we foster disposition development in students? Or, if you b

Join Rabbi Gavi Ziegler and me for a meandering conversation - I ramble, he is direct and clear! - about Jewish education. We explore what he enjoys about his work, what goals his school has for Jewish education, the challenges they face, their focus on values and integrating values across the school.  Gavi's recommended resource is Rabbi J. Sacks's book "To Heal a Fractured World".  At the end, Gavi shares a powerful message (he heard from Rabbi Sacks) to give us strength during this time of lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic. 

I share Basil Bernstein's three fields of knowledge:  production recontextualization re-production Using this as a lens, I present a second idea about the quandary that Jewish day schools face in trying to meet the diverse needs of a diverse community. Since no real philosophy of Judaism within the community can be 'imported' into the school to meet diverse needs - because it doesn't exist, partly due to the fact that Jewish day schools are often the only institution in which diverse communities may combine (cf. the siloing of denominational synagogues) - a new philosophy has to be produced. Thus, Jewish day schools may serve as rich seeding grounds for new ways of thinking about Judaism.  It turns out that Jewish day schools, in addition to knowledge re-production (teaching and learning), may need to become sites of knowledge production and knowledge recontextualization. This may point to the complexity inherent in such endeavours as foundationally complex rather than merely technically complex. 

I know, I know, it's all tricky!! But hear me out and what I have to say in this overly simplistic analysis. In essence, I want to point out that the difficulty in education, the real sticky bit that we have not quite figured out, is how the integration of knowledge in the individual cultivates a particular lens/identity (perhaps this is a spectrum?) in that individual.  How do we minimize the loss of learning/content?  How do we facilitate the integration of knowledge? (I.e., How do people learn and therefore how should we teach?) How do individuals develop identity?  All questions (above) with lots of answers. I'm not saying these fields are simple, I'm saying they are well developed and well understood, at least by some experts in the field.  What is missing is this: how does the individual move from being a novice to being an expert, not just in terms of technical knowledge and ability, but in terms of their dispositions and intuitions. Not sure if this makes sense to anyone besides me... hmmm... lol. s

Yael Fish is Head of Department - Jewish Life and Learning at a Jewish day school. She shares a few golden tips for early or starting teachers. Briefly, they are:  You can learn from your mistakes Balance what works for you versus what the team (or school) requires Don't take it too seriously Make your students feel good Have a mentor (who 'works for you')

I hope that everyone is indoors and safe. Here are a few thoughts about the challenges that this pandemic has created. Obviously, there are many more challenges than this and much more to say about it. Please stay safe and take the time, fifteen minutes every day, to zone in and think meta - think about the things you can do to make your days better. Blessings to you all. 

Topics in this epsiode My background as a teacher with EdTech My background as a student (online/distance)   Interaction between teachers and vendors EdTech community hype Over-emphasis on EdTech What type of research is done Things that are missing in an online environment Support through the 'grief' process in learning new stuff Teachers are expecting more from kids (especially re instructions) Learning conversations are stilted and unnatural Skills (as a conceptual whole) to thrive online - analogy to a novice apprenticed to a master to gain 'in-group' status The danger of this mass move to online/remote teaching is that ideas are disempowered (Papert). What does this mean for the pathway (i.e., the discourse going forward) - the types of questions/assumptions that are debated and enacted? 

A relaxed, substantive conversation about Jewish education with Stan Zive, friend and educator. Listen as we engage in a far-ranging discussion about Stan's experiences as a teacher, his approach, and general thoughts. This episode only scratches the surface and there is much more to dive into next time! 

Ari Poyurs has spent time as a Jewish studies teacher as well as in a role as informal Jewish educator. Join us as we hold a relaxed and enjoyable conversation about Jewish education and his point of view on some topics.

What is the purpose of Jewish Education? Join me for a relaxed monologue about three possible outlooks that you may or may not have heard of before. The first two, continuity and inherent meaning of Jewish learning, have been well explored in the literature, but the third one may be new to you. If we start thinking carefully about the purpose of Jewish education, we can create a system that is more purposeful and more guided. Ultimately, such developments foster further improvements in diverse areas of the system, including innovative approaches that challenge the current system. All in all, a good conversation to start and worth thinking about! 

Three short interviews from the National Jewish Education Symposium held in May 2018. The Academy of Jewish Thought and Learning hosted this symposium and I used the opportunity to get some audio content that traced people's personal stories and a short idea based on their own experiences.    Enjoy the listen and hope that you find it informative.

Am interview of two different people involved in Jewish Education in South Africa. At the Jewish education symposium, I went looking for personal journeys in Jewish education to share with the listeners of this podcast. Here are the first two.   

In this short episode, I explain why I am changing the format of the podcast.  I know that it has only been two episodes but I have been thinking quite a bit how to bring value to listeners and his to work towards my started goal of contributing to the conversion.  Thanks for listening.   P.s. I made this podcast entirely on my cellphone, including this upload!  Three next step is to edit in my intro music.

In this episode, we discuss the following ideas:  Dvar Torah - admit your mistakes Tech mezonos - Google Slides stop motion Shabbos Lunch - learning from all sources for the sake of our students Seudah Shlishis - Link coding and JS Contact details - Twitter @MrMrMoch     

In this inaugural episode, I introduce you to the structure of the podcast and also share some edtech tips for the Jewish Studies classroom. Stick around for the ending to find out how to get in contact and also please let me know if you like the final piece of music that ends the podcast.