Educators

Hebrew with Intent: Clarifying the Right Why

In the Spotlight: Temple Sholom of Chicago Hebrew is unquestionably a significant piece of what it means to be Jewish. This is the first in a series of profiles of three educators and their experiences developing a clear-eyed purpose for Hebrew in their schools and a program that supports those goals.

Rabbi Professor David Golinkin Helps Us Dig Deeper into As a Driven Leaf

First published in 1939, As a Driven Leaf is still regarded as a major influence on contemporary Jewish life and thought.

Coming Soon: Shalom Uvrachah Goes Digital

Soon, Hebrew learning will be available across all of your devices! With the upcoming Shalom Hebew OLC app, your students will be able to journey through the pages of Shalom Uvrachah - our bestselling Hebrew primer - where vowels talk, letters dance, and students can swipe words across their screens. 

Happy 60th Birthday ARJE!

We're getting ready to celebrate the Association of Reform Jewish Educators' 60th birthday at the URJ Biennial! Will you be celebrating with us? On Friday, November 6th, at the URJ Biennial in Orlando, Florida, the ARJE invites you to celebrate its birthday in the Kikar section. 

Teachers Helping Teachers: Virtual Marketplaces for Educators

Laura Randazzo, an English teacher in California, understands the kinds of resources that other teachers are looking for, and thanks to virtual marketplaces, others have access to them. Her story of creating and sharing teacher resources was highlighted in a recent article in the New York Times. A couple years ago, after hearing about the site TeachersPayTeachers.com, a virtual marketplace where educators can buy and sell lesson plans, Randazzo started posting her own items to the site. 

Babaganewz Gets a Makeover

The popular Babaganewz resource library is returning with a brand new look and a new way to connect educators. Like the original site, the new Babaganewz Jewish Educator Marketplace will offer a growing collection of resources specifically for the Jewish classroom. And now educators can create, share and sell resources themselves using the site.

URJ Update: CHAI Resources for Families are Now Available

Behrman House is pleased to announce the additional of CHAI Parent Education, CHAI Parents: Early Childhood Parent Education, and the CHAI Shabbat Family Workbook to our list of cleared and available titles. 

Shalom Coloring is Available NOW!

The wait is over! - Shalom Coloring is available now! Drawing on the rich history of Judaic objects, art, and tradition, this new collection of exquisite imagery features complex illustrations and patterns that will inspire novice and expert colorists alike. Each beautiful piece is designed specifically for adults and allows them to escape their stresses and mentally relax with a rainbow of choices and beauty. 

The New Alternative to Meditation

Coloring has expanded beyond just a pastime enjoyed by children to help relieve tension and anxiety in adults. According to a recent article on theopenmind.com, of the current top 20 selling books on Amazon six of them are adult coloring books.  "The unlikely pastime for those of us who have successfully graduated from kindergarten has been gaining popularity of late, as an easy means to express oneself and de-stress along the way," Huffington Post writer Pricilla Frank explains. 

What Goals Can You Reach with the Help of Blended Learning?

You work hard to develop learning goals that meet the needs of students and families in your school and keep the student at the center of learning. On Friday, November 6th from 11:15 AM to 12:30 PM you can join Joan Carr, Marlene Myerson and Vicki Weber to discuss how the principles of blended learning can help solve the unique issues your school faces in meeting student and family needs.

Help Reboot Jewish Education!

We're seeking ideas for a NEW digital experience that can help reboot Jewish education! Have you been tinkering with an idea for an app or other digital learning experience for Jewish education? Would you like to get ongoing mentoring about your idea, and take it to a month-long workshop in Israel to bring it to life with help from professional coders, designers and ed tech developers?

Hot Topics: The Presidential Job Interview

What qualities do you think voters should look for in a presidential candidate? As the country prepares for the 2016 presidential elections, the Pew Research Center surveyed Americans to find out how the general public views presidential traits.  

Will We See You at the 2015 URJ Biennial?

Behrman House will be set up in the Kikar area at the URJ Biennial in Orlando, Florida from November 4th-8th . We'd love to see you! Visit us and browse the latest picture books from Apples & Honey Press, including Farmer Kobi's Hanukkah Match,  Hanukkah Cookies with Sprinkles, Kayla and Kugel, and Mama Doni's new Alef Bet book. Take a look at American classics like Dr.Seuss and Goodnight Moon in Hebrew.

Hack Jewish Education

Behrman House, the leading publisher of textbooks and digital learning materials for Jewish schools in North America, and MindCET, the innovation department of Israel-based CET (Center for Educational Technology) announced today a new pilot accelerator program to identify and support a North American-based Jewish Ed-tech development team beginning in Fall 2015, funded with a grant from the AVI CHAI Foundation. The goal of the pilot program is to jumpstart the creation of new, Jewish educational technology.

It's A Global Testing Day for Behrman House

We regularly host usability testing sessions to get an outside perspective on how our website and digital materials work. Today we took it global! We spent the day testing two of our upcoming products, Hebrew in Harmony, which helps students learn Hebrew using music, and Shalom Uvrachah Digital the new cross device primer for the Online Learning Center.  Unlike our previous usability testings, which were completed in our New Jersey location, this test included participation all the way from Israel.

Behrman House Named 2015 New Jersey Family Business of the Year

We won! Behrman House is honored to be named 2015 New Jersey Family Business of the Year by Fairleigh Dickinson University's Rothman Institute, in the category of businesses under $10 million.

Travels with Marlene: Singapore

Our very own Marlene Myerson is on the road, visiting Jewish communities in Singapore and Hong Kong. One of her stops was a visit to meet with Rabbi Nathan Alfred, along with lay leaders, volunteer principals, teachers and parents of UHC Singapore, a twenty year-old congregation with 150 members that just this year opened a religious school.

URJ Update: We've Cleared Even MORE Titles

Last week we announced the addition of a modified version of Chai Level 7, the OLC edition of Mitkadem Digital, and A Taste of Hebrew and we are happy to announce another seven URJ Press titles to our cleared and available list. 

Supplemental Materials for Chai Level 7 Workbooks Now Available

While we are in the process of revising the Torah, Avodah, and G'milut Chasadim workbooks for Chai Level 7, we have a set of downloadable annotations and instructions for using the Level 7 curriculum core without the workbooks available now! Chai Level 7 Torah, Avodah, and G'milut Chasadim supplemental instructions can be downloaded for free here. 

Come See us at the URJ Biennial!

From November 4th-8th Behrman House will set up in the Kikar area at the URJ Biennial in Orlando, Florida. We'd love to see you! We'll be bringing CHAI and Mitkadem as well as showing our Online Learning Center and our new lines of student journals that focus on values, holidays, Bible and the environment. Plus we'll have picture books from Apples & Honey Press, American classics like Dr. Seuss in Hebrew, and copies of our fantastically popular Shalom Coloring book.

Teach Israel

 Experience Modern Israel

New from Behrman House. Fly to Israel without a plane ticket.

Discover Israel

 Let's Discover Israel

Offer younger children an exciting and age-appropriate introduction to the Jewish homeland