SYLVIA COHEN CLASSES BEGIN THIS WEEKEND WITH NEW OFFERINGS; Bnei Mitzvah Shabbat prep on Saturday, K-5 Tzedek Program on Sunday
We here at the Sylvia Cohen Family Learning Project are very excited to announce that we will be true to our name this weekend-- learning Jewishly together with the whole family.
Beginning on SATURDAY MORNING the bnei mitzvah class will start tackling the Hebrew prayers of the service, parsing what they mean in English, and perhaps more elusively, what they mean to the students themselves. Bnei Mitzvah students will also pick a not so far off date to LEAD Shabbat prayers during a Saturday service with the kehilla. This will give them a chance to be there for each other as a cohort of Jewish kids in a non-Jewish part of the world, ways to establish a prayer practice with an eye toward Bar and Bat Mitzvah, and uphold the mitzvot of Shabbat itself: shamor v'zachor guard (keep) and remember.
SUNDAY MORNING we will start with a family minyan at 9AM. Parents this is your moment to check in with your co-parents and consider our theme in your lives: TZEDEK. At 9:20 our newly minted K-2nd graders will join us for our first big Jewish theme of the year: TZEDEK (Justice, fairness). We will soak ourselves in this theme when we break into small groups, draw, act out, think out loud, and listen to our chevruta partners talk about it. At 9:55 the 3-5th graders will log on and hear from their younger friends about what they did. We say goodbye to the K-2 at 10AM and the 3-5 grades and we do it again. Here's hoping there are no dibbuks in the network.
KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR YOUR BOX DELIVERY!
This box should show up on your doorstep before Sunday. Don't lose the box! Do draw on the box! Don't draw in the book....yet!
|
|
HEBREW AT HOME
עברית בבית
Here's a not so well kept secret: Hebrew schools don't /can't really teach Hebrew.
Why can't we teach Hebrew? Well, are you talking about Hebrew lin conversation? Then you would need to do Ulpan, Duolingo, Rosetta Stone, go to Israel, or fall in love with an Israeli. These are all time tested methods of language acquisition. They way to learn a language is to USE it and to NEED it.
If you are talking about the Hebrew of the synagogue, which has a lot of Biblical Hebrew, then we can learn shorishim (roots of words), key vocabulary, and plough roads in our brain to make way for the sounds of Hebrew language, which can then be called on whenever you go to temple. This is hard to do when you meet just a few times a month. Imagine only plowing a snowy road a few times a month-- but it was snowing heavily every day!
Which is all to say that this why we are moving toward a name (Family Learning Project) that better reflects what we do when we are together. And that being remote offers us an opportunity! Regular prayerbook Hebrew practice with a coach in front of a nice warm computer screen. We use the ancient hevruta method-- call and response- and we work our way through the prayers, ploughing routes in our brains that are made for IVRIT. If your young scholar is interested, they can sign up for 1-3x a week for 10 minutes at a time. Email your local Phoebe!
|
How do we show respect
-to others?
-The place we are in?
-Ourselves?
Joon came to the rescue for Violet and Erez in helping them change their screen names and teaching them how to annotate on zoom.
Natalia made quick work of ordering talmidim the supplies they need to do online learning.
Erez willingly led the opening exercise on Tuesday (hineini) with flair and cavod for his classmates.
Moreh Matt helped Phoebe think through the program for Sunday for our youngest learners.
The B'nei Mitzvah parents talked at length about new Shabbat morning programming for their children.
|
|
TALMIDIM HEAR THEIR CHARACTERS SPEAK IN CYBERSPACE; YOUTH TRANSFORM IN REAL TIME BECOMING ESTHER, PM MEIR, HANK GREENBERG et al
Heavy rains kept our class online on Tuesday, but spirits were high as we learned more about our characters from Jewish history. Before we watched video clips about them (hey, we were already online!) we listed our first impressions of them. After watching the clips we told our hevruta partner what we had learned. The word of the day was SHEMA, so we made sure to SHEMA each other as we worked.
Finally, we tried to order a sandwich as our character. One of us would pose as a delicatessen counter worker and another would ask for what they wanted AS THEIR CHARACTER.
For example, when Violet/Esther asked for her cheese sandwich, she was emphatic that it was JEWISH cheese. When Lilly/Golda Meir asked for her sandwich, she wanted a big side order of JUSTICE. Erez worked hard on his NY accent to sound like Richard P Feynman.
Next up: learning the words of our characters based on their writings and interviews. Also, our first look at Jasper's parashah!
|
SYLVIA COHEN FAMILIES!
FIRST DAY OF ONLINE PROGRAM
BEGINS
THIS
SUNDAY 10/18
9AM Parents/Family Minyan
9:25-10 PreK-2nd grade
9 55-11 Grades 3-5
BNEI MITZVAH CLASS
Saturday 9:30-10:15AM
- small class sizes for relationship building and time to think out loud
- stories and sacred texts for all ages
- Hebrew at Home- a new online prayerbook Hebrew program
- outside programming when possible
- creative and engaging Jewish practice
- Jewish friendships and community
- skills for how to be in a community
- want me to keep going? I could do this all day!
|
|
