At one time the Jewish community place high priority in supporting and training educators working in the community. At any given time Boards of Jewish Education, CAJE and the various movements were able to offer multiple professional days and conferences to meet most of the needs of the schools and educational institutions they served. The recent past has seen drastic budget cuts, staff reductions and a lower school population which has in part resulted in fewer opportunities for educators to “recharge” and learn new skills. Our consultants offer a number of workshops. Some are listed below. If you have a specific need and you don’t see it here let us know. We can help you find someone to work with you. If you have a specific skill and would like to offer it – contact us. We will work with you.
JSurge/JMorim is pleased to offer these workshops.
These presentations are solely the work of the presenters and do not necessarily reflect the views of JMorim or JSurge.
Observation, Supervision, and Evaluation of Teachers
Rabbi Julie Schwarzwald
$250
Designed for Education Directors, learn the best practices for observation, supervision, and evaluation of your teaching staff. Each of these objectives has a different goal and therefore requires a different approach. Learn how to distinguish among them. Receive different frameworks to use for each goal and discuss how to adapt and personalize them to meet the needs of your institution. Create an effective and meaningful process that helps teachers succeed and grow.
Teens & Trust: Building Bridges in Jewish Education
Rabbi Steve Bayar
$250
Working with teens is both rewarding and challenging. Too often we concentrate on the “what” and ignore the “how.” Content is always available but the creation of relationships between teachers and students forms a bond that will last forever. In this workshop we will present both strategies and curriculum designed to create trust relationships in and out of the class.
Teaching Text Through Videos: When a Film is Not a Film
Rabbi Steve Bayar
$250
Steven Spielberg teachers theology, Tom Hanks teachers Jewish ethics. Secular films are an excellent source of triggers to introduce and reinforce lessons of Jewish content. Learn to use current (and not so current) films to teach subjects like: Prayer, history, holidays and God. Participants will have the opportunity to create their own lessons within the workshop.
Tikkun Olam Starts in the Classroom
Rabbi Steve Bayar
$250
The greatest challenge in teaching tikkun olam is exporting the learned values outside of the classroom and into the world. In this workshop, participants will learn how to make tikkun olam a value for the family and the community outside the classroom. Participants will develop three separate tikkun olam projects that are guaranteed to work.
Teaching Jewish Theology Through Science Fiction and Fantasy
Rabbi Steve Bayar
$250
Teaching about God and the theological issues of evil, free will, and the afterlife are more easily accessed by using secular films. In this workshop, we will explore theological issues and learn which films to use to demonstrate topics effectively. Participants will learn how to apply and adapt Rabbi Bayar’s completed curriculum.
Turn It and Turn It: There is Always Something New
Rabbi Steve Bayar
$250
For teachers of Torah and midrash. Joseph deserved what his brothers did to him. Isaac really dies by the hand of his father. Moses’s last name was almost Goldberg. In this workshop, participants will explore different Torah texts to see how the Sages were able to create new paradigms from Pshat to Drash in their attempts to make the text relevant to the times. This workshop will expand your understanding of the concept and power of midrash and enhance your teaching of students from middle-school age and up.
Basic Zooming
Rabbi Julie Schwarzwald
$250
This 2 hour workshop is designed for a small group of people (maximum 15 for best results) who have not run their own Zoom sessions. We will cover creating a meeting, sharing your screen, using the whiteboard and annotation, breakout rooms, and all of the basic Zoom functions. Each participant will have a chance to try them in real time and will leave with the confidence to run their own Zoom session.
How to Teach Torah/Haftarah Chanting in 10 Easy Sessions
Rabbi Julie Schwarzwald
$250
If you already know the trop, let me share my foolproof method for teaching students how to chant Torah or Haftarah in just 10 sessions. Students need to be decent Hebrew decoders, so generally appropriate for 5th grade and older.
Differentiated Instruction in the Supplemental School Classroom
Rabbi Julie Schwarzwald
$250
Even with the limited teaching hours we have in Supplemental/Hebrew/Religious School programs, it is essential to offer instruction that meets the needs of all learners. Whether teachers differentiate content, process, products, or the learning environment, the use of ongoing assessment and flexible grouping makes this a successful approach to instruction. Learn how to adapt existing lessons and materials to empower and educate all students.
Meditation and Mindfulness for Teens and Their Teachers
Rabbi Molly Karp
$350
Even before the changes that Covid 19 brought to our lives, our teens were stressed, anxious, and overburdened. With barely a moment to think or process their own thoughts and feelings, it is impossible for teens to be their best and find their best selves, let alone experience moments of spirituality. This 2-hour workshop is an introduction that will begin to teach you how to practice and teach your teens to practice, self-relaxation, meditation, visualization and mindfulness practices that help us to find our calm center, breathe through stressful moments and experiences, focus attention when needed, and begin to approach awareness of the Divine in and outside of ourselves.
Consent Isn't Just About Sex! Teaching Consent Skills in Jewish Education and Youth Work
Rabbi Amy Josefa Ariel
$250
Even before the changes that Covid 19 brought to our lives, our teens were stressed, anxious, and overburdened. With barely a moment to think or process their own thoughts and feelings, it is impossible for teens to be their best and find their best selves, let alone experience moments of spirituality. This 2-hour workshop is an introduction that will begin to teach you how to practice and teach your teens to practice, self-relaxation, meditation, visualization and mindfulness practices that help us to find our calm center, breathe through stressful moments and experiences, focus attention when needed, and begin to approach awareness of the Divine in and outside of ourselves.
Consent Skills for Madrichim
Rabbi Amy Josefa Ariel
$250
In this 90-minute interactive workshop for teens, we cover the core concepts of consent and support participants in building the tools they need to apply consent practices and learning in the classes they are assisting. Consent starts with knowing what we want and don’t, how to express that, and how to hear it from someone else – and that isn’t just about sex! Our Jewish tradition has plenty to say about healthy boundaries and can guide us in these life-affirming practices.
Building Consent Skills in our Youngest Children
Rabbi Amy Josefa Ariel
$250
Designed for early childhood educators, in this 90-minute workshop we will learn the core concepts of consent and how they are grounded in Jewish tradition. We will explore how we learn what “yes” and “no” feel like in our bodies and how we learn to respond to someone else’s “yes” or “no”. Before we are done, we will dig into some hypotheticals based on real life experiences that illustrate how this learning and skill building is essential for our youngest students and how we can bring it to them.
Creating Jewish Learning With No Box In Sight
Rabbi Amy Josefa Ariel
$250
Designed for Education Directors, Principals, and Decision Makers in Jewish Education.
During this workshop, Rabbi Ariel will share three “no box in sight” programs she envisioned, created, and implemented including what was successful, what she adapted, and what she’d do differently now. The real heart of the workshop is what comes next! For a full hour, Rabbi Ariel will guide the community we create through exercises and discussions designed to help us think expansively about what is possible in Jewish learning. This is an opportunity to set aside all limitations for a while, and think big. Before we close we will have some time to bring ourselves a little closer to Earth and imagine together how we might infuse where we are with some of where we’d like to go.
Teaching Hebrew and Judaic Studies to Children Online
Includes follow-up document with links to referenced resources and tutorials
This 75-minute workshop will introduce beginning online teachers to Hebrew and Judaics games and activities to engage students online. It includes the following:- Activities/games requiring no tech other than a virtual meeting platform
- Activities/games requiring the teacher to use Zoom screen share and annotate
- Activities/games requiring additional simple apps/tech for teachers and/or students
Teaching Hebrew to Children Online
Stephanie Burak Gothmann
$250
Includes follow-up document with links to referenced resources and tutorials
This 75-minute workshop runs through several online Hebrew learning activities that span teaching Alef Bet, beginning reading, prayer practice, and conversational Hebrew. Along the way, we will cover a few key strategies to facilitate games and activities that involve engaging all students as much as possible in order to maximize student participation and attention. Most activities are designed for 2nd through 6th grade but K-1 and Middle School teachers will find helpful nuggets as well. Some activities are low-tech, involving just the use of Zoom or a similar virtual meeting platform. Others integrate free online applications including Class Dojo, Nearpod, and Kahoot, or the use of free online graphics and minimal photo editing skills.
Note: There is some overlap of activity ideas with the Teaching Hebrew and Judaic Studies to Children Online workshop.
Shanah Tovah, Shanah M'tukah
Joanie Calem
$250
Sharim V'Rokdim
Joanie Calem
$250
Kodem Kol Kavod:
First of All Respect
Joanie Calem
$250
Creating an Intentional Culture through Jewish Music
$350
Music teaches values and culture. What values do you want to impart? What kind of culture do you want to transmit or create? This workshop is for program directors, songleaders, teachers, and all those interested in harnessing the power of communal singing and music to engage hearts, bodies, and minds in all settings: religious schools, camps, day schools, synagogues, preschools, and all types of Jewish communities. Learn how to curate your community’s music choices with intentionality, empower others to lead songs, and bring more creativity to how you teach, transmit, and co-create your community’s specific values and culture.