2009-2010 HACD Annual Report - Bet Shraga Hebrew Academy of ...

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6 7Creating an Outstanding Integrative CurriculumAcademics continued to thrive at Bet Shraga, with achievements often exceeding the school’s highexpectations. Bet Shraga emphasized not just the curriculum itself, but also a love of learning.Our efforts to tailor learning to meet individual needs were a major part of the school’s success.Students encountered opportunities to challenge themselves and enrich their learning both in andout of the classroom.In the ClassroomBet Shraga built a mathematical community byhosting the American Math Competition-8(AMC-8), which draws the strongest math studentsfrom the greater Capital Region and Saratoga.Our team placed higher than ever before, comingin seventh among eighteen schools. All six of thehigher-placing schools were at least twelve timesBet Shraga’s size. The Bet Shraga team wasespecially proud of one student, Zachary Benson,who placed 21 st out of the 150 best schoolmathematicians in the Capital District.Using a newly adopted Mishna curriculum calledV’Shinantam, created by Rabbi Dr. PinchasHayman, middle school students learned througha multimedia program linking them to the ancientJewish methods of text study, reasoning andcritical thinking. Students were treated to visitsfrom Rabbi Hayman as well as incentives forreaching milestones.Achievementss¥nkkU s«nkkSMART Boards helped bring Bet Shraga’sclassrooms into the digital age. These interactivewhiteboards allowed teachers to display computerimages on a touch-sensitive screen to createdynamic, visually motivating lessons. In history,teachers could show bright, beautiful maps of variousparts of the world and move geographical masseswith the touch of a finger. In math, they couldmanipulate shapes to let students see and measurethem at different angles. SMART Boards createdamazing potential for lessons that made abstractconcepts visually concrete.AchievementsOutside the ClassroomAthletics and the arts were an integral aspect ofBet Shraga’s offerings, with many occasions forstudents to hone and showcase their talents.While our five existing girls’ and boys’ basketballteams proved to be as popular as ever, our three newco-ed after-school teams – cross country, volleyballand track and field – generated a lot of excitement.These new teams competed within the FriendshipLeague, a group of Suburban Council and privateschools that get together for meets and games atlocal high school facilities.Five students from our school band were selectedfor the 2010 Capital Region School HonorBand. This band highlights students’ musicalaccomplishments by combining the best schoolmusicians from Albany, Schenectady, Saratoga,Montgomery and Rensselaer County parochialschools.A team of Bet Shraga students participated in thestatewide Olympics of the Visual Arts (OVA)competition. The OVA team worked throughoutthe year to create an artistic solution to a longrangeproblem. Their challenge this year was toresearch and design a fuel efficient car and createa magazine ad to sell it. By combining art,engineering, science and team building skills, theydesigned a car whose engine ran on compressed air.Their ad campaign, “Feel like a millionaire driving onair,” and their solution to a spontaneous problemat the competition helped them to place second!“Please, sir, I want some more.” was the cryfrom the audience as it watched the springperformance of Oliver! Thirty-two students fromgrades 3 to 8, acted, sang, danced and workedbehind the scenes to bring the full version of thismusical to the stage. Together with a host ofparent volunteers, our professional directors ledour theater program to another successful show.
8 9Celebrating the Richness of Jewish TraditionStudents constantly encountered ways to strengthentheir Jewish roots and heritage. This year’s eighthgrade class was the fourth to culminate its BetShraga education with a ten-day trip to Israel. Thestudents traveled and shared their experiences withthe eighth graders from the Solomon Schecter DaySchool of Manhattan. Students who had learned foryears about places like the Kotel (Western Wall)and Masada had the chance to experience themin person. They spoke the Hebrew they’d learnedsince kindergarten and met the Israeli pen palswith whom they’d corresponded. Along with otherhighlights, students hiked and camped in the Negevdesert, visited the modern city of Tel Aviv, spent anight in a Bedouin tent, and toured Yad Vashem, theHolocaust memorial in Jerusalem. Together withIsraelis, they observed Yom Hazikaron, Israel’sMemorial Day, and experienced the transition fromsomber remembrance to exhilaration as theycelebrated Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day.Back home, our 6th through 8th grade studentswere exposed to a contemporary means ofcelebrating Jewish tradition. “Bible Rap” a groupthat describes itself as using rap and hip hop toenliven core Jewish texts, visited the school andhelped students write, sing – and even record –their own compositions about Passover.AchievementsThe Middle School Shabbaton (Shabbat experience) hasbecome an eagerly anticipated staple of the curriculum.Students this year prayed, played, and studied togetherat Temple Israel. They had a chance to bond with differentgrades and realized that though they were large enoughto be a middle school, they were also small enough tobe a family.Torah reading, a critical skill that the school introduces atan early age, is a stable trend in Bet Shraga’s lower school.Every third grader this year learned to read a portion ofTorah, an activity so popular that students volunteered tolearn an additional portion with teachers on their owntime. During the last Tefilah (prayer) session of the year,parents were invited in to kvell (take great pride andpleasure) as their children read their passages.Achievementsh©s©a« ,Ufk©nC okIg i¥e©,kInspiring Ethical GrowthBet Shraga students’ compassion was in evidencethroughout the school year. In Mrs. Patricia Balmer’sscience class this January, a discussion of rocks,weathering, and erosion led the fourth grade studentsto start talking about the earthquake that had just leftmany of Haiti’s people in desperate need. The studentsdecided to raise money to help the victims, andcollected over five hundred dollars from friends andfamily, attendees at school events, and their own pockets.It was an ad in the Shabbaton, Bet Shraga’s weeklynewsletter that inspired seventh grader, Noah Levine,to participate in the Jewish National Fund SusanShpeen Walk for Water. He went from classroom toclassroom educating fellow students about the watershortage in Israel and how participating in the walkcould empower them to make a difference.This year marked the tenth anniversary of the CapitalRegion Jewish Coalition for Literacy Reach Out andRead (ROAR) program. Bet Shraga’s eighth gradersmade weekly visits to Eagle Point Elementary to workwith their second grade buddies on their reading andEnglish Language Arts development. The visits servedas an enjoyable learning experience for the eighthgrade students as well as their younger friends.One of our special programs that brought out thebest in the students was our kindergarten buddiesprogram. Once a week our seventh graders spenttime with their kindergarten buddies; they worked onprojects, read or just had fun together. This sharedtime created a special bond, helping our youngeststudents feel a part of our school community.Like their eighth grade role models, sixth graderstook pride in helping the community through theirtwice-monthly visits to Daughters of Sarah SeniorCommunity. Joining together in activities rangingfrom cooking to Nintendo Wii, the two generationslearned about each other and brightened each other’sdays. One of the highlights for the year wasparticipating in the residents’ Purim Carnival. Thesixth grade program further trained the studentsin thinking about their relationship with the worldaround them when they stayed at the TEVA LearningCenter’s Shomrei Adamah residential program.Joined by other day school students, theyparticipated in activities which integrated hands-onstudy of nature and ecological concepts like energyflow and interdependence with Jewish ideas likeTikkun Olam (repairing the world) and Bal Taschit(valuing the lives of all creatures).
Page 1 and 2: Dream, Little Children...This is th
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Page 7 and 8: 12 Shomray Torah Annual Fund13Donor

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