January-February 2012 - The Jewish Georgian
January-February 2012 - The Jewish Georgian
January-February 2012 - The Jewish Georgian
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Page 36 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN <strong>January</strong>-<strong>February</strong> <strong>2012</strong><br />
By Belle Klavonsky<br />
CREATIVE WITH A CLASSIC. Davis<br />
Academy eighth-grader Rebecca Greenberg<br />
and 7th-grader Sophia Bussey work on a puppet<br />
for a school production of Prokofiev’s<br />
Peter and the Wolf. <strong>The</strong> puppet performance<br />
was the culmination of academic and creative<br />
activities during <strong>January</strong> that integrated the<br />
arts into the curriculum at the Davis Academy<br />
Middle School. <strong>The</strong> project was led by Davis<br />
faculty and visiting artist and puppeteer<br />
Marilyn Price.<br />
YOUNG READER. Davis Academy students<br />
work with a variety of tools in everyday learning.<br />
Kindergartener Renee Vaysman concentrates<br />
on a writing activity using a listening<br />
program that helps her learn how sounds make<br />
up words.<br />
FRIENDLY AUTHOR. Award-winning children’s<br />
author Eric A. Kimmel spent a day at<br />
<strong>The</strong> Davis Academy Lower School reading<br />
from his newest book, <strong>The</strong> Golem’s Latkes,<br />
and his most popular book, Herschel and the<br />
Hanukkah Goblins. Students enjoyed Mr.<br />
Kimmel’s stories and asked questions about<br />
his work and the writing/publishing process.<br />
FRIENDS FROM ISRAEL. <strong>The</strong> Davis<br />
Academy welcomed three 8th-grade Israeli<br />
students and their teacher, who visited and<br />
studied at Davis during <strong>January</strong> through the<br />
ORT Lipson International Studies program.<br />
<strong>The</strong> program is a win-win, allowing Davis and<br />
the Israeli students to learn about each other’s<br />
cultures. Left to right: Davis 8th-grader<br />
Meredith Galanti, Israeli student Polina<br />
Gogian, Davis 8th-graders Lily Sandler and<br />
Lille Brown, Israeli students Betty Khaimov<br />
and Lior Mashim, Davis 8th-grader Mallory<br />
Goldenberg, and Israeli teacher Tamar Katz<br />
JOYFUL DAY. Davis Academy 2nd-graders<br />
had much to celebrate after ceremonies in<br />
which they received their permanent Siddur<br />
books from their parents. Afterward, they gave<br />
thanks and sang songs on the occasion of this<br />
meaningful milestone.<br />
MUSICAL EXPRESSION. <strong>The</strong> Winter<br />
Concert showcased the budding talents of<br />
nearly 50 Davis Academy Middle School students,<br />
who performed a repertoire ranging<br />
from classic rock to contemporary. Here, Alex<br />
Heller plays the Keytar, and Matthew<br />
Diamond plays guitar; both are 7th-graders.<br />
SENIOR EXPERIENCE. Weber seniors<br />
returned from their five-week Senior<br />
Poland/Israel Experience tired but happy to be<br />
home. <strong>The</strong> trip began with one week in<br />
Poland, where students explored a millennium<br />
of <strong>Jewish</strong> history and learned of the complexities<br />
of rebuilding modern <strong>Jewish</strong> communities.<br />
After Poland, students traveled to Israel,<br />
where the country became the classroom.<br />
Students enjoyed experiential learning based<br />
on important chronological events that molded<br />
the <strong>Jewish</strong> people and the State of Israel.<br />
WRESTLING WITH SUCCESS. <strong>The</strong> Weber<br />
Wrestling Team is receiving local recognition<br />
for its strong start to the season. Recently featured<br />
in <strong>The</strong> Northside Neighbor, the team<br />
received accolades for coaching, teamwork,<br />
and dedication. Head coach Zachary Shindell<br />
was a member of the first Weber wrestling<br />
team and won an individual GISA state championship<br />
his junior year. Sophomore team<br />
member Jonathan Geller (pictured) was subsequently<br />
recognized as <strong>The</strong> Northside<br />
Neighbor’s Male Athlete of the Week.<br />
CHALLENGE AWARD. <strong>The</strong> Weber School is<br />
one of twenty-seven U.S. schools that received<br />
a $25,000 Challenge Award, designed to drive<br />
increased revenue through innovation, by<br />
Partnership for Excellence in <strong>Jewish</strong><br />
Education. One hundred twenty-seven schools<br />
submitted a total of 141 applications. <strong>The</strong><br />
Weber School’s PEJE Challenge initiative is<br />
the establishment of its first-ever endowment.<br />
<strong>The</strong> endowment initiative was launched at a<br />
special event on <strong>January</strong> 18, at which Weber<br />
introduced two honorary endowed funds<br />
named in honor of two very special Weber<br />
friends and leaders, Carol Nemo and Felicia<br />
Weber.<br />
ENTREPRENEURS-IN-TRAINING. In<br />
<strong>January</strong>, Weber welcomed several new semester-only<br />
classes, including a new entrepreneurship<br />
class. <strong>The</strong> class recently began a project<br />
in which individual teams must develop a<br />
product—a child’s toy—meeting specific<br />
requirements and using a selection of random<br />
items. <strong>The</strong> five teams had to develop three<br />
product ideas, narrow down their ideas to the<br />
best one, select a name and tagline for the toy,<br />
draw the toy, set a price, and then design the<br />
box in which the toy will be sold.<br />
UN BUEN HOTEL. Sophomores in Liza<br />
Suarez’s Spanish II Honors class furthered<br />
their learning about Spanish-speaking countries<br />
by creating a brochure, written entirely in<br />
Spanish, for an imaginary hotel in the<br />
Hispanic country of their choosing. In order to<br />
fully develop and design their brochures, the<br />
students researched and compiled information<br />
covering the geography, people, government,<br />
and culture of their respective countries. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
incorporated sentence structure and vocabulary<br />
learned in the previous semester to create<br />
compelling brochures for countries such as<br />
Puerto Rico, Argentina, the Dominican<br />
Republic, and Spain.<br />
SKYPE TALMUD. Weber Judaics teacher<br />
Marc Leventhal is leading a “Skype Talmud at<br />
Lunch” series. Students use Skype software to<br />
make video calls over the Internet, discussing<br />
Talmud with students from Barrack Hebrew<br />
Academy, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and<br />
Posnack <strong>Jewish</strong> Day School, Plantation,<br />
Florida. Most recently, the students discussed<br />
Tractate Sanhedrin, one of ten tractates of a<br />
section of the Talmud that deals with judicial<br />
procedures, both civil and criminal. <strong>The</strong> discussions<br />
are lively, as the text addresses questions<br />
of criminal law and punishment.