Educators

Addictive games—with content!

Last week an educator from a large Reform congregation called to ask for help: after testing her 3rd graders’ decoding accuracy and fluency, she found that those students using the Online Learning Center (OLC) had significantly improved scores over those not using it. The help she needed was in ensuring that all students used the OLC to the max.

Being Kind to Animals: Free Kindle Edition

Kids know that animals are important. Do they know that Jewish law agrees? Help them explore the ways Judaism supports the value of being kind to animals with a free Kindle edition of a chapter from Teaching Mitzvot - Concepts, Values, and Activities.

Help Parents and Teachers Talk to Students About Israel and the Gaza Conflict

At a get-together this past weekend, a local dad who teaches 5th graders in his congregation confessed his nervousness over teaching about Israel this coming year. He has been following the news and wondering what he will do in the fall. What questions will his students have? What will he say? How will it affect his teaching? How might the conflict and its portrayal in the media affect the feelings students have about Israel and their connection to it?

New Alef Bet Quest Games Available Now!

We’ve refreshed your favorite primer, Alef Bet Quest with a few new games for the upcoming school year. After completing each lesson, a matching interactive game will be available to help students learn how to decode Hebrew.  One new game allows students to shoot basketballs in a three-point shooting contests after choosing the correct Hebrew letters. Students will  learn to recognize Hebrew letters and vowels as they play through both Jewish cultural words and everyday Hebrew words.

What's So Jewish about "Jewish" Apple Cake?

Jewish Apple Cake? Cake? Of course—love it. Apple Cake? For sure—had that too. But wait. Jewish Apple Cake? What’s that?

Enriching Instruction with Music: Free Kindle Chapter

Throughout the generations Jews have used music for storytelling, prayer, and teaching. You can easily integrate music into your curriculum with a free kindle edition chapter from The Ultimate Jewish Teacher's Handbook.

Big Changes are Underway in the Online Learning Center

Your excellent feedback about the Online Learning Center has led to big changes to better suit your classroom needs.  Improvements and new features are to ensure that you can provide your teachers with a flexible, easy-to-use, and transformational tool that lets students engage in Jewish learning using the kinds of technology they use for the rest of their lives.  At the end of this month you will see the following changes to your learning space:

Beyond Apples and Honey: Free Kindle Chapter

Jewish education is always changing and we want to help you stay ahead with a free Kindle edition of a chapter from The Ultimate Jewish Teacher's Handbook.

Camp Connection: Use Jewish Values to Reflect on Camp Experiences

Welcome students back in the fall by helping them reflect on their camp experiences from a Jewish values point of view, using the Jewish Values Challenge Cards. 

Digital Badges Incent Practice and Show Students' Accomplishments

As your students complete lessons in Ready, Set...Go Alef Bet, Alef Bet Quest, Kol Yisrael 1, 2, and 3 as well as the 5 traits in Explorer's Bible 1 Animated, they will be rewarded with badges to encourage learning and track their progress.  A new section to the Online Learning Center has been added to show students' accomplishments called "My Badges" on the yellow navigation bar. 

Camp Connection: Enhance Proper Pronunciation with Visual Tefillah

Your students are headed off to Jewish summer camp this week to spend the weeks ahead immersed in rich Jewish experiences.  Although they will have daily opportunities to practice Birkat Hamazon and other blessings and prayers, many learners will hear the words incorrectly. You can help correct pronunciation with Visual Tefillah in the fall.  This 13-slide slideshow connects kids back to their camp experiences, and also corrects any mispronunciation with line-by-line text in Hebrew and in English. 

Coming Soon: Track Students' Prayer Progress Online with Digital Hineni

Soon educators will be able to use the strong and well-supported Hineni materials with a new online practice element for the Online Learning Center. These materials will be available for laptops AND tablets.  Hineni OLC Edition is a seven-module prayer series featuring 35 different prayers and blessings. The prayers will be presented in a touch-n-read fashion with the ability to click on each word to hear it. Learners will also be able to record themselves for teachers to assess.

Set the Stage for Hebrew Decoding Success with Unlimited Alef Bet

Want a fun way for your child to successfully learn to decode the Alef Bet? Behrman House’s newest interactive mobile app for the iPhone, iPad, and Android devices introduces young children to Hebrew letters and simple words. Kids will enjoy matching letters to create animated Hebrew words that talk. In creating activated Hebrew words themselves, children will begin to associate the sound with the letter and the words th letter helps to build. A fun and free game, Unlimited Alef Bet helps children learn to decode Hebrew letters, vowels, and words.

An OLC Makeover to Better Suit Your Classroom Needs

We're giving your Online Learning Center classrooms a new makeover.  We always welcome your feedback about your experiences with the Online Learning Center so that we can make improvements to better your classroom needs. We're adding the option to renew licenses, , and more. Our goal is continuous improvement of the OLC so you can focus on your role as a Jewish mentor and role model.  Coming improvements for this year include:

New Scenario Cards Add Challenges to Jewish Values Playing Cards

Add 32 scenarios to the new Jewish Values Challenge playing cards to help teens and pre-teens develop a deeper understanding of 58 Jewish values in a playful environment using card-based games created by Robyn Faintich.  Scenarios for Jewish Values Challenge Playing Cards allows students to explore real life challenging situations that can be handled with Jewish values. Learners will discuss how to handle situations like receiving a gift they do not like, obeying parent's rules, receiving too much change, and much more. 

A Bridge from Experience to Meaning

This blog entry was posted by Vicki L. Weber When you teach your child, use a carefully edited text. -Rabbi Akiba

A Bridge from Experience to Meaning

When you teach your child, use a carefully edited text. -Rabbi Akiba   The experience of digging into Jewish texts and reflecting upon Jewish concepts is a vital component that helps create learning experiences with meaning and place them in a specifically Jewish context.

Give Children the Keys to Independent Discovery with Shabbat Interactive

Now children, ages 6-11, can explore the magic of Shabbat on their own terms with Shabbat Interactive.  This digital experience helps children make meaning of all the core elements of Jewish identity. 

Reflect on Teaching and Learning During Shavuot

As the school year comes to an end, Shavuot offers a uniquely appropriate opportunity for us as teachers to reflect on the year and our students' learning. It is also a moment for us to pause and consider our own thoughts and feelings about some of the questions we ask of our learners during the year.   These reflection questions, based on the lesson on Talmud Torah from our new student journal Jewish Holidays, Jewish Values, might spur your thinking.

Special Offer When You Sign Up for Golem Express

Sign up for Golem Express now for a simpler, more predictable way to review innovative materials for Jewish education as soon as they are published through 2015 for the same $99 flat fee. By signing up now you can be sure to be the first to see our new Hineni for iPad and Hebrew through Music programs when they become available in a few months.  How it works:

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