JEWISH SPIRITUAL LITERACY INC

EDUCATING EDUCATORS - We continued to expand the quantity and quality of the J-IDEA teacher training program's 10 major content categories: Jewish Holidays, Art of Amazement, Esoteric, Marriage, Ritual, Ethics, Meditation & Prayer, Texts, History and Miscellaneous. In addition, we directly trained and mentored another cohort of 8 educators, increasing their skills at implementing experiential learning, and their thousands of students. JSL pedagogy provided them with fresh and innovative ways to motivate students in learning and develop their respect and love of Judaism. Participants register for free at jewishspirituality.net.

JTI - The Jewish Teachers Institute - In its fifth year, this project to train and mentor teachers for Jewish day schools expanded to schools outside Baltimore. We Zoom-trained 30 teachers serving approximately 750 students, with added modules on distance-teaching. The JTI "New Teacher Boot Camp" includes: model and practice a Harry Wong-informed classroom management method, simple concrete indicators of successful teaching (following Thomas Sergiovanni's and Elliot Eisner's models of professional standards), lesson planning and assessments, principles of visual and differentiated instruction and hands-on engagement, effective use of textbooks A/V resources and other technologies; with specific curricular support as well. All participants increased their knowledge and skills in one or more of the above categories. JTI-trained teachers increased their classroom effectiveness and were more likely to continue teaching.