BHC Elementary Educators Mifgash – Thursday, May 28

Getting to know our partners: Temple Sinai, Sharon - The Ramot School, Haifa

The following blog entry was written by Beth Nelson (Director of Education) and Marina Korenblyum (BHC Partnership Educator) from Temple Sinai in Sharon.  Temple Sinai and the Ramot School, have been partners for more than 8 years.  This year, both sites have re-invigorated their connection and curriculum, with new educators at the helm.  We are excited by their enthusiasm, commitment to their partnership and their instant friendship!

 

Getting to know our partners: Temple Sinai, Sharon - The Ramot School, HaifaBaruchim HaBaim L’Yisrael!- the sign we saw upon landing at Ben Gurion Airport.

As we were warmly greeted by Jackie Levy-Atias and Maxine Zarchan we were driven by our BHC driver Aboud through kvish 6, to make our way to beautiful Haifa.

Our first night activity was attending 60th anniversary of Ramot School in Haifa which is Temple Sinai of Sharon’s beloved partner school. It was an amazing evening of songs and dance performed by Ramot students (see pictures). We learned that they scheduled this event in the city’s auditorium, in coordination with our arrival, to help celebrate our connection. We were asked to stand during the celebration, and Boston-Haifa was recognized and honored, by all the students, the parents and staff. Our group was able to learn a lot about Israeli Getting to know our partners: Temple Sinai, Sharon - The Ramot School, Haifayouth culture and development through this celebration.  (For example, the boys played just as active a role in singing and dancing on the stage, which was a pleasant surprise for us.)

On Thursday Beth and Marina visited with the Ramot school and toured the building, visited classrooms and had a short class with the 5th graders answering questions such as, what do the students wear? What subjects do they learn? How long is the day? Do we have music?

While we were meeting as a group Edna Sekuler,  the Principal and Marina discovered  through dialogues that they shared the same basic question-  “HOW DO YOU SEE US?

We were very impressed given the diversity of the student population and the challenges of their resources. The Ramot school received an award for their advanced methods of teaching math and science through designated classroom labs. Edna also shared with us that she was influenced by her participation in her Boston-Haifa  Principals mifgash, 3 years ago, and she has implemented Kabbalat Shabbat, snack and a system of hallway passes.

We are excited to  go with our new Haifa friends to Jerusalem tomorrow.

To follow our Mifgash further, feel free to like our facebook page.

Shabbat Shalom!
Beth and Marina, Temple Sinai – Sharon.

Getting to know our partners: Temple Sinai, Sharon - The Ramot School, Haifa

Here is a summary of the lesson that Beth and Marina planned for the 5th graders at the Ramot School:

Our lesson, adapted form a similar lesson we did with our 5th  grade Temple Sinai students, involves having the Ramot students explore their personal Jewish Identity.  As each student responds to questions about their identity, on a “Jewish Star” cut out, we will engage the group to think about “What makes us Jewish?” and “What makes the Ramot School Jewish?”  Groups of students will then work on creating a visual to clearly express what being Jewish means to them.  We will display the posters that Temple Sinai 5th graders created and illicit from the Ramot students comparisons as well as key concepts, associated with each community.  Each school will share the collection of posters and our incoming 6th grade Temple Sinai students will have a follow up directive lesson to explore the perspective of the Ramot students, with time to reflect on our similarities, differences and concepts of peoplehood.