Teachers & Educators

Get in the High Holidays Spirit with a Daily #BlogElul Post

Today (August 7, 2013) is the first day of the month of Elul, a time for soul searching and repentance in preparation for the High Holy Days.  What better way to search your soul than to share something about a different High Holy Day theme each day of the month? That’s the idea behind Rabbi Phyllis Sommer’s project #BlogElul.  For the month of Elul (8/7 – 9/4), she is inviting bloggers, tweeters, facebookers, instagrammers, viners, pinners, and all other social media-ers to post and share things about the following daily topics:

NewCAJE4: Workshops You Don't Want to Miss

It's almost time for the 4th Annual NewCAJE Conference!  Which workshops will you be attending? Here are a few suggestions:

Experience the Online Learning Center at NewCAJE4 July 28th-31st

Will you be at the 4th Annual NewCAJE Conference July 28th-31st at Nichols College in Dudley, MA? Behrman House Educational Consultant and Technical Support Lead David Schwarz will be there to answer all of your questions about Behrman House materials and the Online Learning Center! Attend a Workshop with David Schwarz There is no registration or fees to attend NewCAJE4 workshops. Simply attend the workshops that interest you!

Meet David Schwarz at the Institute of Southern Jewish Life (ISJL) Conference

Behrman House will be at the annual Institute of Southern Jewish Life (ISJL) conference in Jackson, MS, June 23-25, 2013. Let us know if you’d like to schedule a time for a curriculum  and Online Learning Center consultation on Sunday or Monday.

Hurry to Make Your Personal Consulting Appointment

We hope the school year ended on a good note for you. We want to make sure you hit the ground running next year so we're offering FREE personal consulting appointments for educators. We invite you to sign up! During the appointment, we can:    -Go over any questions you have about Behrman House materials.    -Set up your school together in the OLC.    -Review ways for teachers to use the OLC.

Innovation, Education, and Entrepreneurship: David Behrman Joins Discussion at CET's Shaping the Future Conference, June 5th

Next week, David Behrman is off to Israel for the Center for Educational Technology's "Shaping the Future 2: Innovation, Education & Entrepreneurship" conference on Wednesday, June 5th, at the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv. This biennial international conference on innovative thinking in education brings together entrepreneurs, educators, researchers and policymakers from all over the world.

Enhance Your Prayer Curriculum with Visual Tefillah

Engage students in prayer with Visual Tefillah, a series of beautiful and thought-provoking PowerPoint slideshows to supplement Kol Yisrael and Hineni. Prayers are broken down line-by-line with text in Hebrew and English alongside dramatic photographs illustrating the meaning/intention of the words.

Be Nimble, Be Quick: The Paralysis of Large Scale

In a provocative piece in the Huffington Post, Hildy Gottlieb argues for faster-moving, decentralized, and opportunistic program development, taking advantage of communities, relationships, and resources that already exist. She uses a parable:

50% Off Certificates - 1 Week Only!

Get 50% off certificates between May 1st and May 8th, 2013*. Get ready for this year's graduating class or stock up for next year! Sale ends midnight 5/8/13. View and purchase certificates in the Behrman House online store (50% off will be automatically applied online) or mention this sale when you order by phone (800-221-2755). Presentation envelopes also available for $.50 each.

What I Learned at Songleader Boot Camp (and I can’t carry a tune)

I was in Boston last weekend at Rick Recht and Sheldon Low’s two-day Songleader Boot Camp (SLBC). I’m no song leader nor a musician, so why go? A couple of reasons:

Testers Wanted: Teach Core Values Through Interactive Comics

This week, Behrman House is launching a prototype of an innovative comic strip designed to teach the core values of each Torah portion. The comic series, which is called “The Amazing Torah Tablet,” follows the exploits of Micah and Mollie, a brother and sister who face the daily dilemmas of middle school with the help of a magical Torah Tablet.

Introduce Your Students to MK Dov Lipman - Exclusive Interview and Lesson Plan

Download this exclusive interview FREE through March 8 with the coupon included here.

How Education Director George Kelley Does Family Education

We recently asked fans of the Behrman House Facebook page "How do you get parents involved in Jewish education and reinforce Jewish life at home?"  George Kelley, Education Director at Congregation Beth El-Zedek in Indiana, joined the conversation and offered some great family education ideas.  We asked him to expand on his comment here so other educators can learn from Beth El-Zedek's success.

Israel's Pursuit of Pluralism

Comedian Sarah Silverman tweeted last week that she was proud of her sister, Rabbi Susan Silverman, and her niece, 18-year-old Hallel Abramowitz-Silverman, for wearing tallitot while praying at the Kotel. Mother and daughter were arrested with 8 other women during the monthly prayer service held by Women of the Wall, a human rights group that has waged a long legal battle to secure religious rights for women in Israel.

New Online Store Spotlight: Account Management and Order Tracking

Have you ordered from the Behrman House online store (behrman.powerwebbook.com A.K.A. "the blue site") in the past? The Behrman House online store has now been moved to BehrmanHouse.com (A.K.A. "the brown site") for a fully-integrated, more powerful, and easier to use online shopping experience. You can now browse products and place orders at www.behrmanhouse.com/store - Don't forget to update your bookmarks!

Get SMART

Welcome to February, when 33 percent of all New Year’s resolutions have already fallen by the wayside. Research shows that the problem isn’t weak willpower. Rather, it’s ineffective goal-setting. Our goals aren’t SMART enough. We have SmartBoards in our classrooms, smartphones in our pockets, and maybe even SMART cars in our driveways, but we need to make sure that our goals are SMART, too.

Let's Meet Up at the North American Jewish Day School Conference

Our Executive Editor, Rabbi Mark H. Levine, will host a networking session, demonstrate the OLC, and meet with educators to discuss a brand new product at the NAJDS conference February 3-5, 2013, in Washington, D.C.

A Different Approach to Teaching about Passover

Last year, Kim Beame, Director of Education at Congregation B’nai Israel in Boca Raton ordered 250 copies of Simply Seder, our newest haggadah, to use as a teaching tool in her school. We immediately called to ask “Why?”

Save 50% on Selected Review Copies Plus 30% Off Our Newest Materials When You Join the Golem Plan

Have you missed seeing some of our newest materials? Be the first to see what's new in Jewish education when you join the Golem Plan: you'll get 30% off our newest classroom materials, PLUS 50% off review copies of some of our most popular 2012 titles (limit one copy per title per school, offer ends February 28, 2013). Just mention this offer when you sign up for our Golem plan and choose from the list below:

Online library from Israel’s Center for Educational Technology coming soon to the OLC

As a “giant step forward in our mission to reshape Hebrew education for a younger generation,” Behrman House has entered a collaborative agreement with Israel’s Center for Educational Technology (CET) to bring a first-of-its-kind online library to Jewish schools in the United States, giving students and educators access to both companies’ vast repository of educational offerings. CET developed Israel’s premier and biggest online library, encompassing over 1,000 Hebrew textbooks and information sources.

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