SUMMER 2017 COURSES
Beginning the week of June 12, 2017:
• Balancing Texts and Tech: 21st Century Text Study (3rd – 12th grades)
• Password to Prayer: A Literary Approach (3rd – 12th grades)
• Reimagine Teaching: Creating a Positive Classroom Culture
(all grades)
• A Toolbox for Teaching the Complexities of Modern Israel
(7th – 12th grades)
• Hands on Ritual: Learning in the Flipped Classroom (3rd – 7th grades)
• Adding Technology to Your Jewish Classroom (3rd – 7th grades)
• Hebrew Through Movement (kindergarten +)
Beginning the week of July 10, 2017:
• Jewish Education Through Musical Play (pre-K – 2nd grades)
• What ARE You Thinking?: What Jewish Teachers Need to Know
About the Teenage Brain (7th – 12th grades)
• Bringing the Bible to Life (3rd – 6th grades)
Beginning the week of July 17, 2017:
• Truly Welcoming Children of Interfaith Families (all grades)
Beginning the week of August 7, 2017:
• Boot Camp for New Teachers (and those with minimal formal training)
• Jewish Essentials for Teachers
Registration and more information can be found at
www.gratz.edu/NEXT or [email protected] or
(215) 635-7300 ext. 135.
Partnerships with central agencies
and federations in the following
locations offer free tuition or provide
tuition stipends upon completion:
Baltimore, Broward County, FL,
Cleveland, Detroit, Hartford,
Houston, Miami, Milwaukee,
Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Toronto
and the Greater Palm Beaches.
We also have similar partnerships
with ShalomLearning and
Reconstructionist-affiliated schools.
What’s NEXT?
The Professional Learning Program for
Supplementary School Teachers
New Excellent Teacher Training
Welcome to our summer
series of courses!
We are pleased to present this
semester’s high-quality, intensive
learning opportunities for
Supplementary School teachers.
All our courses are online and
asynchronous – meaning that
teachers log in and participate
in the class for ANY two hours
a week that you choose, night
or day.
If the central agency or federation
near you is not yet a partner, we are
happy to work with you to establish
a partnership in your area.
Auerbach
Family
Foundation
Balancing Texts
and Tech:
21st Century Text Study
Password to Prayer:
A Literary Approach
Reimagine Teaching:
Creating a Positive
Classroom Culture
(3rd – 12th grades)
(3rd – 12th grades)
(all grades)
Course begins June 12, 2017 and will
be four weeks long. All sessions will
be asynchronous. Plan to spend
two hours a week on the course,
although you may choose any two
hours that suit you.
Course begins June 12, 2017 and will
be four weeks long. All sessions will
be asynchronous. Plan to spend
two hours a week on the course,
although you may choose any two
hours that suit you.
Course begins June 12, 2017 and will
be four weeks long. All sessions will
be asynchronous. Plan to spend
two hours a week on the course,
although you may choose any two
hours that suit you.
Instructor: Mindy Gold, MAT,
Certificate in Jewish Education;
Founder and Lead Consultant at
EdtechMMG, LLC
Instructor: Bunnie Piltch, MEd;
Adjunct Instructor, Gratz College;
Founding Director and Officer,
NewCAJE
Instructor: Jodi Gross, MAJEd,
MAJCS; Director of Adult Learning
and Youth Engagement. Adat
Shalom Synagogue, Farmington
Hills, MI
This course brings together Jewish text
study with the technology tools favored
by today’s students. Jewish text study
provides the opportunity for students
to explore Jewish traditions and
values. It helps us make connections
between Jewish communal life and
daily life. Technology increases our
access to sacred texts by engaging
multiple intelligences and multimedia.
Finding the Password to Prayer
[tefillah] is arguably the most
sophisticated key to unlocking the
sacred Jewish literature in the
supplementary school classroom.
Yet, given the students’ limited Hebrew
skills, we must ask: How can they
access prayer? Should siddur
[prayerbook] and Hebrew language
be taught as a single, integrated class?
Could it? The answer is, “Yes!”
When we bring ancient Jewish
texts to life utilizing technology,
we instantly communicate their
relevance to modern life to our
students. As students explore texts
in new ways, fresh understandings
arise and Jewish engagement
increases.
We will share a variety of tools and
techniques that can be used in schools
with all different tech capacities.
They will work across multiple device
platforms that we encounter in
supplementary schools that tend to
be Bring Your Own Device (“BYOD”)
settings. Course content will also be
differentiated for teachers with varying
levels of technology and/or text study
backgrounds.
You will leave the course with a core
set of texts and technology tools that
can be used in your classroom from
day one and throughout the year.
By interacting with the literary text
of the prayer, we will become
engaged and motivated to learn
Hebrew and find personal meaning
in tefillah.
In this course, we will explore ways to
present prayer as literature that lead
to the development of Hebrew skills
while simultaneously leading to the
understanding of prayer content. You
will participate in a series of guided
tasks based on four stages of reading:
pre-reading; while-reading; postreading; and follow-up/reflection. We
will examine and discuss a variety of
options for designing learning activities
that focus on each stage.
At the end of the course, you will be
able to plan and develop activities that
engage students in the study and
analysis of tefillah on multiple levels.
In this course, we will explore practical
strategies for creating a positive
teaching and learning environment.
You will: explore an array of classroom
management techniques and find
those that will feel most authentic to
your teaching environment; learn how
to develop a classroom management
plan and discuss some of the
challenges and opportunities of
implementing such a plan. When you
know how to proactively establish a
positive classroom environment with
clear expectations and systems to
reinforce those expectations, issues
of poor behavior and discipline fall
to the wayside. After this course, you
will be primed to teach impactfully and
to manage challenging situations
smoothly.
The course is appropriate for both
experienced teachers who need a little
brush-up on their skills as well as
beginning teachers.
“I greatly enjoyed taking the classes
offered by the Gratz Next Program.
The classes were easy to access
online and the teachers really know
how to use technology to bring
education to a new level. I can’t wait
to apply what I learned to my own
teaching!”
– Naomi Bright Lerman
Beth Tikvah B’nai Jeshurun
Erdenheim, PA
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A Toolbox for Teaching
the Complexities of
Modern Israel
Hands on Ritual:
Learning in the
Flipped Classroom
Adding Technology
to Your
Jewish Classroom
(7th – 12th grades)
(3rd – 7th grades)
(3rd – 7th grades)
Course begins June 12, 2017 and will
be four weeks long. All sessions will
be asynchronous. Plan to spend
two hours a week on the course,
although you may choose any two
hours that suit you.
Course begins June 12, 2017 and will
be four weeks long. All sessions will
be asynchronous. Plan to spend
two hours a week on the course,
although you may choose any two
hours that suit you.
Course begins June 12, 2017 and will
be four weeks long. All sessions will
be asynchronous. Plan to spend
two hours a week on the course,
although you may choose any two
hours that suit you.
Instructor: Steve Kerbel, JD, MEd;
Principal of Steven Kerbel
Educational Consulting,
Rockville, MD
Instructor: Laurie Fisher, MAJEd,
MAJS; doctoral candidate,
Gratz College
Instructor: Dr. Gloria Becker,
Adjunct Instructor, Gratz College
Finding it difficult to get a handle on
teaching Modern Israel to middle
school and high school students? It
can be excruciating to try to provide
a balanced picture of how Israel
has reached its current state of
development among the family of
nations.
Primary sources – which lack a
particular advocacy or political
agenda – are underutilized in that
quest. We will explore how biblical
sources, historical accounts and
contemporaneous writing can help
us teach the themes of Peoplehood,
State-Building & State-Keeping,
Culture & Society, and the
Arab – Israel Conflict.
Starting with biblical sources, historical
accounts and contemporaneous
writing, we will examine the early
history of the Jews and their
connection to the land, the connection
maintained in exile and dispersion, and
the modern religious, nationalistic and
pragmatic return of a major Jewish
presence in the land of Israel.
At the end of the course, teachers will
be familiar with many primary sources
and how to access them and teach
with them, helping students gain a
more nuanced understanding of
Israel today.
Jewish ritual objects give us the
opportunity to make a spiritual
experience a hands-on experience as
well. Each week of this course will
introduce three new projects along
with video instruction. Through these
presentations, participants will be
introduced to the flipped classroom as
a model of instruction, all while making
and learning about ritual objects.
The theory behind the flipped
classroom as well as its practical
application will be taught and
discussed. Have fun making a tallit,
a megillah, a mezuzah, ritual items for
Shabbat, and more. Make learning
about ritual engaging and creative
while discovering a new way to add
a virtual classroom to your tool box.
Are you tired of your students spending
more time on their devices than paying
attention in class? Do you have limited
access to computers or the internet in
your school? This four-week class
will explore how to use the
technology your students already
have - their smartphones - to raise
their interest and participation. If you
have more computers and tablets, you
will also get a lot out of this class.
Together we will explore new ways for
teaching about the Jewish holidays
using calendaring material, the use of
digital storytelling for teaching Jewish
values and lifecycle, and using the
website blendspace to curate content
for creating multimedia lessons and
units. (We will not cover Hebrew
learning in this course as there is just
not enough time.)
“I really enjoy my NEXT online class because of the smart and caring professors
who designed an interesting and useful class. The professors guide and challenge
us to think for ourselves and create learning that is both meaningful and relevant to
us. Each time I log on, I am excited to see what my teachers and colleagues have
to say. As a mentor and veteran teacher of over 18 years, I look forward to sharing
the resources with my colleagues.”
– Judith Bickford, Baltimore, MD
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Truly Welcoming
Children of
Interfaith Families
Jewish Education
Through
Musical Play
What ARE You
Thinking?: What Jewish
Teachers Need to Know
About the Teenage Brain
(all grades)
(pre-K – 2nd grades)
(7th – 12th grades)
Course begins July 17, 2017 and will
be three weeks long. All sessions
will be asynchronous. Plan to spend
two hours a week on the course,
although you may choose any two
hours that suit you.
Course begins July 10, 2017 and will
be four weeks long. All sessions will
be asynchronous. Plan to spend
two hours a week on the course,
although you may choose any two
hours that suit you.
Course begins July 10, 2017 and will
be four weeks long. All sessions will
be asynchronous. Plan to spend
two hours a week on the course,
although you may choose any two
hours that suit you.
Instructor: Rabbi Robyn Frisch,
MAHL; Director of InterfaithFamily/
Philadelphia
Instructor: Emily Aronoff Teck, MEd;
Founding Director of the website,
JewishLearningMatters.com;
doctoral candidate, Gratz College
Instructor: Dina Maiben, MAJS,
Acting Director, Gratz Advance;
Adjunct Instructor and doctoral
candidate, Gratz College
In this course, you will learn ways to
engage your students in joyful Jewish
learning through musical play. Like
them, you will explore songs and
sound, consider content, and engage
in self-expression through listening,
singing, moving, playing instruments,
creating, and talking about musical
experiences. You will learn how
musical play looks different at
each stage of development with
improvisation, reflection, conversation,
imagination, and imitation as part of
the mix.
Over the past twenty-five years,
neurologists have made remarkable
discoveries about the ways the human
brain gets rewired between the ages of
11 and 22, and how the adolescent
brain learns best. These findings have
enormous implications for those who
teach and work with teenagers.
Offered in collaboration with
InterfaithFamily/Philadelphia
Most supplementary schools officially
welcome children of interfaith families
today, but what does it really mean to
be welcoming? Supplementary school
teachers of children of interfaith
families stand at the intersection of
Jewish communal beliefs and values
and the complex lives of the children
with parents who are not Jewish.
We are tasked with cultivating our
students’ Jewish identities while
simultaneously navigating the policies
of our respective schools, our own
personal beliefs and values, and the
need to honor our students’ realities.
Using our own experiences and
case studies, we will explore
“best practices” for handling issues
that come up with students from
interfaith homes and their families
with grace, respect and integrity.
We will consider everything from the
language we can use to the ways we
can structure activities in order to
integrate these children effectively.
You will leave this class with a deeper
understanding of your role as teacher
to children of interfaith families, as well
as tools and strategies to make your
classroom truly welcoming.
The strategies presented support
different learning styles and
personal preferences so that you
can engage in learning in the way
that you choose.
You will emerge from this course with
methods that incorporate art, writing,
movement, technology, and more with
music. You will learn how music can be
used across the curriculum; increase
your song repertoire and knowledge
of learning theories that support the
effectiveness of musical play as a
learning platform.
We will explore music that represents
a variety of styles and topics including
holidays, Torah, prayer, and values, as
well as more specific topics selected
by participants.
No musical talent or training is
necessary to succeed in utilizing
music as a tool to teach.
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After exploring these findings we will
begin applying them to create smart
ways to teach our teens in both formal
and informal environments. In this
course, we will strategize ways to
capture and hold a teen’s elusive
attention and how to help them think
through the process of making
decisions. We will focus on the
optimal ways to structure time,
identifying approaches that lead to
dynamic and meaningful activities
for teens. We will also discuss how
art, music and movement enhance
learning, how we can help our teens
actively access their knowledge and
problem-solving skills, and how we can
encourage them to creatively approach
new situations.
Bringing the
Bible to Life
(3rd – 6th grades)
Course begins July 10, 2017 and will
be three weeks long. All sessions
will be asynchronous. Plan to spend
two hours a week on the course,
although you may choose any two
hours that suit you.
Instructor: Dr. Gloria Becker,
Adjunct Instructor, Gratz College
Bible study lies at the heart of Jewish
learning, but our kids sometimes have
a hard time connecting with the biblical
text. The world of the Bible seems so
far away in time and space; the stories
in the Bible often seem too fantastic;
and the language and literary motifs
are often beyond the reach of
elementary school students. In this
course we will explore some great
high-tech and low-tech activities
you can do with your students to
bring the Bible to life and deepen
their understanding of our most
foundational text.
From learning how to create Midrash
using PowToons (a website for creating
animations) and avatars to handmade
Midrash using paper, glue and scissors
you will gain a new collection techniques and learn how to adapt movies,
television and comic books for teaching about Jewish heroes.
“Through the program, I learned how
to turn my units and lesson plans from
vague rough sketches to detailed
plans that takes into account the
strengths and weaknesses of my
students and work towards realistic
and measurable goals.”
– Teddy Segal
Or Shalom, Berwyn, PA
Boot Camp for
New Teachers
(and those with minimal
formal training)
Newly
Redesigned
Jewish Essentials
for Teachers
Newly
Redesigned
Course begins
August 7, 2017 and will
be four weeks long. All
sessions will be asynchronous.
Plan to spend two hours a week on
the course, although you may
choose any two hours that suit you.
Course begins
August 7, 2017 and will
be four weeks long. All
sessions will be asynchronous.
Plan to spend two hours a week on
the course, although you may
choose any two hours that suit you.
Instructor: Dina Maiben, MAJS,
Acting Director, Gratz Advance;
Adjunct Instructor and doctoral
candidate, Gratz College
Instructor: Peter Eckstein, MAJS,
MAJEd. Technology Integration
Educator, NEXT and the Friedman
Commission for Jewish Education
Every new teacher wakes up in the
middle of the night worrying about
setting up a classroom, planning for
the first day, organizing lessons, and
keeping everything engaging. This
course will help you jump into
Supplementary School teaching
without feeling overwhelmed and
offers you a solid introduction to
many core aspects of teaching
in a part-time Jewish educational
program.
Are you looking to fill in gaps in your
Jewish learning? Do you want to
review what you may have forgotten
about Jewish life, traditions and
heritage? Are you looking for a quick
refresher on key concepts in Jewish
religion and culture that will help you
share Judaism with your students in
more creative ways? Look no further!
Jewish Essentials is the course for you.
Topics include: creating a positive
learning environment; curriculum, unit
design; and lesson planning. Upon
completing the introductory course,
you can focus on gaining a greater
depth of knowledge in building a
classroom community, learning styles,
multiple intelligences, special needs,
child development, instructional
strategies, and engaging students
through understanding how they learn.
Together we’ll explore key Jewish
concepts related to texts and literacy,
time, prayer and spirituality. We’ll also
delve into some Jewish ethics and
values. This course will provide you
with the foundation to explore both
ancient and new understandings of
Judaism.
It is a gift you can give yourself that will
in turn benefit your students!
“Anything I can do to improve my practice and engage my students in religious
school is really great. This course was fully subsidized, sounded really interesting
and fit in perfectly with my unplanned summer, since I can take it anywhere.”
–Barbara Checkoff
Beth El Temple, West Hartford, CT
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Hebrew Through
Movement
(kindergarten +)
Offered in collaboration
with the Jewish
Education Center
of Cleveland
Registration and
more information
can be found at
www.gratz.edu/NEXT
or [email protected] or
(215) 635-7300 ext. 135
REGISTRATION AND FEES
Online course with rolling admission.
Ten one hour modules. The modules
can be completed at any pace.
Hebrew Through Movement, which is
both a curriculum and a technique, is
widely recognized as one of the single
best tools available to Supplementary
School teachers who want their students
to effectively and enthusiastically learn
Hebrew. When you learn how to use
Hebrew Through Movement, you will
be able to create a more positive
and joyful Hebrew learning
experience for you students in just
15 minutes per session.
Additionally, your students will build
enough vocabulary to comprehend
core segments of common prayers or
rituals. The curriculum is fun for both
students and teachers. Students are
engaged and enjoy learning Hebrew!
Tuition is $100 for a four week course and $75 for a three week course.
We are pleased that partnerships with ShalomLearning,
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College/Jewish Reconstructionist
Communities and central agencies and federations in the
following locations offer free tuition or provide tuition stipends
upon completion: Baltimore, Broward County, FL, Cleveland,
Detroit, Hartford, Houston, Miami, Milwaukee, Philadelphia,
Pittsburgh, Toronto and the Greater Palm Beaches. A stipend is
available for teachers from ShalomLearning schools and a discount
for teachers in Reconstuctionist congregations. Please visit our
website or request a location-specific brochure for more information.
If your school is part of a federation, movement or Jewish
educational organization that does not yet have a partnership with
NEXT, we are happy to work with you to establish new partnerships.
Education Directors – if your school will not benefit from one of our
partnerships, we are happy to offer you one complimentary class
tuition for each three teachers you register in a semester.
Hebrew Through Movement is an
online course offered by the Jewish
Education Center of Cleveland. By
special arrangement, NEXT is making
this innovative course available to
Philadelphia Supplementary School
teachers.
Auerbach
Family
Foundation
Teachers outside the Greater
Philadelphia are can register for
Hebrew Through Movement directly at:
https://letslearnhebrew.org/htmReg/reg
ister.php
For more information about
Hebrew Through Movement visit
www.Hebrewthroughmovement.org
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