Teacher guides often accompany student materials and are rich resources designed to help educators create memorable, effective lessons. When used in conjunction with student materials, they enhance teaching and learning experiences by offering guidance, strategies, ideas for projects, additional source materials, and help in opening up opportunities to include a wide range of learners.
Ronni Ticker, director of Jewish education at Beth Shalom in Cary, North Carolina, shares tips for how to use teacher guides.
In the classroom - Since lesson plans often include guidance for possible student responses, teachers may choose to hold them in their hands as a tool for guided discussions. Guides also offer general strategies for managing the different interactions with and between students. Teachers may need them in the classrooms as their "cheat sheet" for activities that need answers. "They don't need to be experts in the subject to conduct meaningful discussions, answer student questions or check individual or group work," says Ticker.
Before class - Many teachers need to begin prep at least one week out to choose activities and request materials for upcoming lessons. Teachers often adapt lessons, crunching activities if there are time constraints. Or they may choose an optional lesson from a list, either instead of or in addition to a primary one, depending on the structure of the class, or interests of the teacher or students, for example. "Teachers also need guidance on planning for different learning styles with the activities they choose," Ticker says. "Guides drive the lessons and really help with advance planning."
For interaction with parents - Some teachers also need guidance about what to tell parents about what is coming up or help that may be needed from home. "Parents needed handholding," Ticker says. Teachers aren't always confident about what or how to talk with parents about particular lessons. "That's another place where guides are useful."
Behrman House student materials and teacher guides are developed together to provide complete courses that offer options so you can craft learning experiences that work best in your setting.
One example is the Lesson Plan manual for Our Place in the Universe, a student journal about Judaism and the environment. The teacher guide contains 17 ready-to-use lesson plans, plus enrichment options such as puzzles and games that underscore and apply learning. It also includes project-based learning options that connect students with real-world problesm they can address.
Another teacher guide, the Curriculum Core of the new music-based Hebrew in Harmony prayer program, drives the program and is an essential resource for using it effectively. The educator binder includes fully scripted lesson plans and answer keys, as well as detailed strategies for teaching that content among learners of varying abilities and among various course settings. It provides complete guidance for using the music videos and other multimedia components of the program both in groups and for individuals.
You can find our teacher guides in our online store on the Related Products tab of the matching student materials. Review copies of any of our teacher guides are availabele at a 30% discount. (The limit is one copy per school).
