Over 50 creative and practical applications implemented in Mesivta ...

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Motivation At Shaarei Arazim, our primary focus is on motivating every bochur by building on his strengths and strengthening his weaknesses. With innovative programs we encourage respect for davening, love of learning, appreciation of life and empathy toward fellow students. Baruch Hashem, many yeshivas are implementing our ideas. Here’s how we address some of the challenges: 1. Davening needs chizzuk. The entire yeshiva davens together, out loud, beginning with a special niggun hatefillah for pesukei dezimra created specifically at the yeshiva. 2. Interrupted chavrusah learning. The yeshiva has a special retzufos program. Once a week, the boys work toward extending the period of time they can sit and learn. The older the bochur, the longer he is expected to be able to sit, without interruption. 3. Challenge Shaarei Arazim’s Response 1 Davening needs chizzuk. Special niggun haTefilah. 2 Interrupted chavrusah learning. Retzufos program. 3 Acknowledging bochrim who excel in areas other than learning. 4 Lack of clarity in learning. Mastery program. 5 How to motivate a bochur to give over what he has acquired. 6 Forgetting to make brachos, especially al hamichya. Acknowledging bochrim who excel in areas other than learning. At an annual Melaveh Malka, we reward everyone who shows superiority in some area other than learning, for example midos, overcoming yetzer hora, punctuality, chessed, leadership, and so on. Annual Melaveh Malka to show acknowledgement and appreciation. Lilmod u’lelamed program. “Cookie” program. 7 Lack of confidence. All bochrim get a turn to lead. 4. How can a rebbe be certain a bochur has clarity in his learning? We feature a “mastery program” where the bochrim are encouraged to demonstrate their ability to master a specific element of learning. 100% mastery is demanded for an amud, blatt or perek — depending on the bochur’s level. 5. How to motivate a bochur to give over what he has acquired. Our lilmod u’lelamed program encourages stronger learners to teach those who may need some help. The best part is when the weaker students do well, the bochrim who helped them are rewarded, too! 6. Bochrim tend to forget to say Al Hamichya. We give our bochrim every opportunity to say brachos. Students are allowed to take up to five cookies per hour, as long as they say Al Hamichya out-loud. 7. Bochrim can lack confidence. Every bochur must be a shliach tzibbur, a ba’al koreh, blow shofar, speak publicly, and so on.
Teaching Techniques At Shaarei Arazim we understand that monotony can spoil any chance of motivating a bochur. We strive to keep the learning fresh, exciting and interesting for all by exposing our bochrim to a variety of strategies and innovations to help maintain their interest which guarantees success. 1. Auditory learners are addressed; what about visual learners? Aside from demonstrating the sugya visually, we also use an overhead projector. The gemorah is projected onto a white board. This helps make it less intimidating. Only the lines the class is learning are displayed. The bochrim are then invited to write on the white board for everyone to see— highlighting questions, proofs, and so on. 2. Bochrim don’t participate in class. We arrange group debates in our shiurim. For example, half the class will be assigned to defend Rava’s opinion while the other half will hold like Rabbah. Then, each group must defend its position while attacking the other. 3. Challenge Shaarei Arazim’s Response 1 Addressing “visual” learners. Visual aids. 2 Lack of class participation. Group debate in class. 3 Hachanah seder difficulty. Rendering gemorah from bite size pieces. 4 “Wasted” chavrusah time. Chaburos of four. 5 Monotonous learning. Weekly rotations. 6 Some bochrim don’t respond to either auditory or visual learning. How to prevent a bochur from giving up during hachanah time. Our Rabbeim break down the gemorah into bitesize pieces—question, answer, proof. If something is particularly challenging, it is highlighted at the bottom of the page. This is given to the bochrim prior to hachanah seder. Tapping into the 7 multiple intelligence techniques. 4. Chevrusah time can be unproductive. Our rabbeim arrange the bochrim in chaburos of four, with a strong student, a weaker student and two average students. The strongest is given responsibility of keeping the group on track, the weaker student is supplied with the proper translation. Each of the average students has a turn to say the gemorah. 5. Learning can be monotonous. We always challenge the bochrim in new ways. One week they may be required to learn extra meforshim. Another week they will be challenged to learn an entire blatt by heart, word for word. A third week they may be required to make charts of each sugya, and so on. 6. Some bochrim don’t respond to either auditory or visual learning Tapping into the seven multilpe intelligence.
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Page 5 and 6: Confidence Building At Shaarei Araz
Page 7 and 8: Empathy Just as important as mitzvo

Over 50 creative and practical applications implemented in Mesivta ...

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