Vision for Conservative Early Childhood Programs: A Journey Guide

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Staff Learning Jewish education is a process of lifelong learning. All the participants, especially the early childhood director and teachers, are lifelong learners. In a Conservative Jewish early childhood program, all adult participants share a willingness to learn on an ongoing basis. Professional Development Early childhood educators are required to keep learning. Every state requires a certain number of hours in continuing education. But in a Jewish early childhood program, staff members participate in professional development that increases not only their knowledge of developmentally appropriate practice but expands their Jewish learning as well. Main areas of Jewish learning for staff include Jewish time, particularly Shabbat and Jewish holidays; God; Torah, as in the Five Books of Moses; Jewish values; Jewish folklore; and Israel and the Hebrew language. Directors must provide their staff with opportunities for their own development and personal Jewish growth. Low-impact strategies: • Offer timely written materials and provide opportunities for discussion. • Take time during staff meetings to discuss the staff meeting shiurim http://uscj.org/Archive7067.html. High-impact strategies: • Provide chevruta style learning (text study in pairs). • Offer incentives, such as bonuses or salary increases, for taking local or on-line Jewish adult education courses. • Arrange mentoring opportunities that pair new and seasoned staff members for collegial discussions and growth. • Offer workshops with hands-on activities to familiarize the staff with the rituals and symbols of the various holidays and other Jewish aspects of the curriculum. God At its very core, a Conservative Jewish early childhood program revolves around the concept of God. Educators must be willing to explore their own relationships with God in order to be comfortable talking about God with children. Staff must be open and willing to entertain a discussion about God, which may include the use of basic Jewish texts, including Torah, liturgy, midrash or Jewish folktales. By having these discussions at an adult level, staff members will have a better idea of how to invite and incorporate God into the classroom environment. Vision for Conservative Early Childhood Programs: A Journey Guide USCJ Department of Education Maxine Handelman Handelman@uscj.org 81
Low-impact strategies: • Offer timely written materials and provide opportunities for discussion, either with a mentor or chevruta partner. • Read the God and Spirituality section of the Vision. High-impact strategies: • Create role playing opportunities to explore teachable moments in conversations with children – “It’s raining outside – why did God make the rain? God created the rain to feed the things that live outdoors, like plants and trees.” • Study common brachot that show different ways of saying thank you to God. Jewish Values When educators are familiar and comfortable with Jewish values and incorporate them into their own behavior, they are better able to recognize them, label them, and encourage them in the daily life of the classroom. Collecting tzedakah, visiting nursing homes, and giving canned goods to a food pantry are tangible examples of incorporating values into the classroom environment. As teachers model Jewish values, children will see how to communicate, treat each other and the world around them, and live a life of Torah. Low-impact strategies: • Offer a workshop to introduce staff to the variety of children’s books that support the teaching of a particular value or set of values. Documents such as “Is The Rainbow Fish Jewish?” (http://www.jewishlibraries.org/ajlweb/publications/proceedings/proceedings2002 /estrin.pdf) can be helpful. • Read the Ethical Behavior section of the Vision. Keep the stories in the back of your mind and use them when they fit in class. • High-impact strategies: • Create role playing opportunities to explore teachable moments in conversations with children – “Is that the hat David lost? Returning it to him is a very Jewish thing to do –it’s called hashavat avaydah.” • Strive to be a role model of Jewish values all the time. • Recognize Jewish values being modeled by other staff members (“When Morah Sara saved that bug from the children and put it outside, she modeled kavod habriot (honor for all living things) and also tza’ar ba’alay cha’yim (avoiding cruelty to animals). Vision for Conservative Early Childhood Programs: A Journey Guide USCJ Department of Education Maxine Handelman Handelman@uscj.org 82
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Vision for Conservative Early Child
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Vision for Conservative Early Child
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Introduction Early childhood educat
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clergy and other synagogue professi
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Ethical Behavior “Justice, justic
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How to Use This Section Jewish valu
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“I would like to have a drink of
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they shared the wheat equally each
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For class discussion: 1. How could
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Then one day, Jacob was walking nea
Page 21 and 22:
Dima ben Netina and the Ruby: A Sto
Page 23 and 24:
Made with Love: A Story of Ma’ach
Page 25 and 26:
Aaron and the fighting friends: A S
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That night, when the sun disappeare
Page 29 and 30:
The next morning King Solomon woke
Page 31 and 32: So Abba and Ima went back to their
Page 33 and 34: All the other parts of the body lau
Page 35 and 36: For class discussion: 1. Why couldn
Page 37 and 38: Impatient Abraham: A Story of Teshu
Page 39 and 40: Stone Soup: A Story of Tikkun Olam
Page 41 and 42: Rabbi Zusya and the Birds Who Would
Page 43 and 44: The Holy Miser - a story of Tzedaka
Page 45 and 46: “Almost perfect?” questioned th
Page 47 and 48: Jules, Jacqueline, The Hardest Word
Page 49 and 50: Values by story - grid 1 continued
Page 51 and 52: God and Spirituality Among the most
Page 53 and 54: Preparing Yourself for Wrestling wi
Page 55 and 56: their questions. Do not avoid the c
Page 57 and 58: • Celebrate and acknowledge life-
Page 59 and 60: 5. We are thankful for God’s gift
Page 61 and 62: • Morning Brachot The rabbis tell
Page 63 and 64: • Shabbat Tefillot Fridays are an
Page 65 and 66: Barchu Barchu et Adonai ha-m’vora
Page 67 and 68: Informal Ways to Invite God into th
Page 69 and 70: Bibliography and References Coles,
Page 71 and 72: Jewish Learning Raise up a child in
Page 73 and 74: Children’s Learning The goals for
Page 75 and 76: Low-impact strategies: • Post pho
Page 77 and 78: Expanding Knowledge The literature
Page 79 and 80: Low-impact strategies: • Suggest
Page 81: what we teach in class with real li
Page 85 and 86: Low-impact strategies: • Provide
Page 87 and 88: Continuity The most valuable early
Page 89 and 90: Ritual Observance and Halachah Ritu
Page 91 and 92: Kipot A kipah, also known in Yiddis
Page 93 and 94: There are many ways to explain the
Page 95 and 96: Kashrut - Dietary Laws The dietary
Page 97 and 98: Netilat Yada’yim -Ritual Hand Was
Page 99 and 100: Food Blessings In the words of the
Page 101 and 102: Cakes , Crackers And Cookies - Bore
Page 103 and 104: Birkat ha’Mazon- the Blessing aft
Page 105 and 106: Bringing Shabbat into the Early Chi
Page 107 and 108: Challah On Shabbat, we put two loav
Page 109 and 110: Havdalah Havdalah is the second sid
Page 111 and 112: 3. Spices We lift the spice box and
Page 113 and 114: Rosh Chodesh - The New Month Young
Page 115 and 116: Bibliography and Resources Dosick,
Page 117 and 118: Appendix A - More Kashrut Details B
Page 119 and 120: Appendix B - Sample Letter from the
Page 121 and 122: Staff Handbook one example Our scho
Page 123 and 124: Working With Clergy (and Other Key
Page 125 and 126: Rabbi Jonathan Lubliner of the Jack
Page 127 and 128: Creating a Jewish Environment The e
Page 129 and 130: • Hebrew labels transform a print
Page 131: Conclusion In the summer of 2007, e
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