Educators

Connect Students to Israel with ISRAEL21c Teacher's Edition

Enrich your students’ exploration of Israel with articles and videos developed by professional journalists. Behrman House has teamed up with ISRAEL21c to adapt selected ISRAEL21c content for use in Jewish religious schools as a series of downloadable lesson plans for grades 4-7 focusing on modern Israel.  Nine installments, a total of 45 indiviudal lessons, of the ISRAEL21c Teacher's Edition are now available in the Behrman House Resource Libraries.

Behrman House (heart) JEA at #USCJ100

The Berhman House booth in Centennial Square was the perfect gathering spot for JEA members at the USCJ Centennial to meet up before heading out for an educator dinner in Baltimore this week.   The gathering included, from left: Rabbi Marim Charry, Jason Cathcart, Teri Rube Hochberg, Steve Kerbel, Robin Hoffman, Eddie Edelstein.

Four Ways Your Students Can Travel to Israel This Year!

New Israel studies options use multimedia learning tools to bring students closer to Israel today, fostering connections to the people and culture of Israel. Israel travel is one of the best ways for students to develop authentic relationships with Israel today. Yet how many of our students will actually be able to visit Israel this year? Chances are, very few.

Find Inspiration for the Routine Days of Heshvan

The school year is well underway. After the rush and tumble of Tishre, we and our students have perhaps settled into Heshvan, beginning the longest stretch in the Jewish calendar without a holiday. We can enjoy what Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin, in her book Tapestry of Jewish Time, called the blessings of routine:

Middot-opoly: The Educational Jewish Values Trading Game! *Free Download*

The Price of Good Values by Joy Getnick, PhD Jewish Program Director JCC of Greater Rochester (Rochester, NY) Camp Seneca Lake (Penn Yan, NY) Like so many other Jewish educators, I struggle to find creative and interactive ways for my “students” – campers at a JCC transdenomination

Jewish Values Permeate 'Thanksgivukkah'

The weeks leading up to the combined holiday offer a unique opportunity to meld our Jewish traditions with our American heritage and develop rich themes with our students around values including thankfulness, tzedakah, courage, tolerance, and religious freedom.

Frogs in the Bed

Coming for Passover 2014 Keep kids focused on the seder   "One morning when Pharaoh awoke in bed, there were frogs in the bed and frogs on his head . . ." Frogs in the Bed, My Passover Seder Activity Book by Ann D. Koffsky, based on the song by Shirley Cohen Steinberg

Do Students Need Answers--or Questions? A Reflection on Education by Rabbi David Wolpe

Rabbi David Wolpe's reflections from his 'Off The Pulpit' column are available in the Resource Libraries. As we move into the heart of the school year, read and be inspired by his thoughts on learning by focusing on questions rather than answers. Reading for Questions We go to the internet for information. The range of reference at our fingertips is astonishing. We have too many places to get answers. But one reads, wrote Franz Kafka, to ask questions. Where can a reader go for good questions?

Acts of Love, and What You Need to Live: Rabbi David Wolpe's Reflections on Sukkot

Rabbi David Wolpe's reflections from his 'Off The Pulpit' column are available in the Resource Libraries. Read and be inspired by his thoughts on Sukkot as we end the holiday. Acts of Love

Simchat Torah Reminds Us to Rejoice in Our Roles as Educators

Behrman House marks the beginning of a new year by saluting Jewish educators with this excerpt from Teach Them Diligently: A Midrash on the Jewish Educator's Year, by Bonnie K. Stevens If any holiday can be singled out as the one that best defines the Jewish teacher’s work and purpose, perhaps it is Simchat Torah. Its themes and symbols embody, precisely and beautifully, what we do.

Anna Salomon of Temple Beth-El in St. Petersburg FL Wins First Scholarship to Jewish Coaching Academy

Anna Salomon is creating her own b'nai mitzvah revolution among families in her congregation, Temple Beth-El in St. Petersburg. She shared her winning idea with us, and won a $300 scholarship towards the tuition to attend Deborah Grayson Riegel's Jewish Coaching Academy this fall. Congratulations Anna, from your colleagues at Behrman House! Read about Anna's idea here:

Problems in Your Professional Life? There is a Positive Approach Lurking in Your D-N-A

Quick coaching video! Coaching tip from Deborah Grayson Riegel: Change Your Problem Focussed D-N-A

We're Upgrading the Online Learning Center Today

Today is a big day for the OLC. We are updating many of the features on the site for easier sign up and use. We expect these changes to be complete by the end of the day. We appreciate your patience as we make these improvements.   You can find new User Guides for the OLC here.

New Permission Slip Puts You in Charge of Student Sign Up in the OLC

Our new process for adding students to the OLC (available NOW) will help you get classes underway quickly, and let students begin using the OLC without delay. This streamlined process will also make it simpler for your parents. The key to the new process is a written permission slip to send parents at the beginning of the year that authorizes you to create student accounts yourself. With permission slips in hand, you’ll be able to add students to a central enrollment list for your school with one simple process.

A Reflection on Fathers and Sons

Mark Twain famously observed that “when I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished by how much he'd learned in seven years.”  We spend our youth differentiating ourselves from our parents, separating from them. (And then we turn into them, but that comes a bit later.)

#BlogElul 2013 Day 29, Return

And now we return to our regular programming . . .

#BlogElul 2013 Day 28, Give

Better to give than to receive? Apparently we’re wired to feel that way. Darwin, John Stuart Mill, and Adam Smith all described the power of self-interest in moving the world along. Yet recent brain-based research indicates that our biology also disposes us to be generous. 

#BlogElul 2013 Day 23, Love

Let me not to the marriage of true mindsAdmit impediments.

#BlogElul 2013 Day 22, Dare

How do we dare to be ourselves in the world?  "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkeness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?

#BlogElul 2013 Day 21, Change

Change is in the air. And it's dusty. The final moments of summer are upon us. My Facebook news feed is filling with the smiling faces of eager new college students getting dorm rooms set up and the laments of the parents who will miss them.

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