|
Striar Hebrew Academy Teacher Named CJP Teacher of the
Month
May 2006
Striar Hebrew Academy’s fourth grade general
studies teacher Faith Spencer has been named the teacher of the month by
Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP). Ms. Spencer, or Morah Faith as she
is more commonly and affectionately known, has been teaching at Striar
Hebrew Academy for six years. She brings to her role of fourth grade
general studies teacher a wealth of experience and talent. Before coming
to SHAS, Morah Faith taught in public and private schools throughout the
United States and Europe. She often speaks of her time teaching in a
Catholic girls’ school in New Orleans and contrasts that experience with
the Modern Orthodox milieu of her current position. Morah Faith brings a
great love and expertise of history, literature and mathematics to her
work, as well as the ability to charm her students on the upright piano
that is at the ready in her classroom. Striar Hebrew Academy is very
fortunate to have Faith Spencer as a member of its learning community.
Striar Hebrew Academy Students Qualify for National Bible Contest
April 9, 2006
 Two 6th graders from Striar Hebrew Academy have attained
scores high enough on the preliminary Chidon HaTanach (national Bible
contest) to compete at the national level in New York City in May. This
is the first time Striar Hebrew Academy students are participating in
this prestigious competition, joining nearly 200 students in grades 6-8
nationwide.
Aron Grossman, Adin Liss and several other classmates began their
intensive preparations last fall, with guidance from Judaic Studies
teacher Miriam Lewitin. Every Tuesday after school, this determined
group of students studied Sefer Bereishit (Genesis), selected Rashi’s,
Sefer Shmuel II and 15 chapters of Shir Hama’alot in Tehillim (Psalms).
They also devoted countless hours to individual studying in between
sessions.
“I felt that our students are capable of taking part in this important
competition, so why shouldn’t they aim for it,” says Lewitin, who
volunteered her time to coach them. “Just making it to the national
level is a huge accomplishment. I’m happy that they made it, and I
really enjoyed learning with them.”
“Morah Miriam helped us focus our studying and encouraged us,” says
Grossman, who has increased his home studying to almost an hour a day,
in preparation for the challenging May test. “I feel tense, but I’m glad
I’ll be there with Adin.”
“It’s very challenging because you have to study everything,” says Liss.
“I feel very happy and excited that we can step forward and represent
our school.”
The regional Chidon HaTanach consists of a series of three tests, of
which students’ combined scores need to “make the grade” to advance to
the next level. Nearly 100 students from day schools across the country
will compete in New York on May 14. First and second place national exam
winners will go on to the international competition in Jerusalem on the
following Yom Ha-atzma'ut.
Striar Hebrew Academy in Sharon is a modern, Orthodox day school
currently serving 150 students, toddler through grade 6.
Striar Hebrew Academy is Unique Honoree of
Bureau of Jewish Education's "Magen Hagan"
By
Sharla Allard/ Correspondent, Sharon Advocate
Friday, May 27, 2005
On May
26th, Striar Hebrew Academy became the first Jewish preschool of its
type to receive the Bureau of Jewish Education's Magen HaGan Preschool
Accreditation. The award was formally presented at the BJE 84th Annual
Dinner in recognition of the school's ongoing commitment to excellence
in Jewish early-childhood education.
"Magen HaGan independently accredits the Judaic component of
Jewish preschool programs," explained Naomi Chernin, BJE Early Childhood
Consultant and
accreditation liaison for Striar Hebrew Academy's Yaakov Spellman Early
Learning Center. "Striar Hebrew Academy is distinctive among schools
admitted to Magen HaGan in that the preschool is a department within an
Orthodox day school. Nonetheless, BJE approached their accreditation
process in the same way as we do for freestanding preschools."
Preschool Director Helen West saw a natural fit with Magen
HaGan upon initiating the accreditation process two years ago. "A basis
for my confidence was Striar
Hebrew Academy's ongoing accreditation by NAEYC [National Association
for the Education of Young Children, the nation's major certifying body
for preschools]," West recalled. "Additionally, Striar Hebrew Academy
was already in sync with many of the
BJE's own requirements-specifically our uniquely parasha-based
curriculum and our longstanding professional development work through
Hebrew College and BJE."
Still, experience cued West and her colleagues to the fact
that overlapping dual accreditations would mean investing considerable
extra staff time in documenting
and accruing professional-development hours. "But we also foresaw the
great payoffs that would come from new ways of advancing our teaching
methods and curricula," West said.
Curriculum mapping is a core criterion of Magen HaGan
already yielding results in the classroom, explained Chernin. "Very
practically, these maps get teachers to look at whether they're building
on Judaic concepts from year to year in a developmentally appropriate
way. Even seasoned teachers need to step back and consider how
curriculum 'spiraling,' which is the ideal, meets the reality, such as
how lessons naturally progress with respect to vocabulary and depth of
information."
"We're more attuned to making over-arching changes as a
result of this self-reflection process," added West. "We can chart
advancement of Judaic concepts from the
toddler classrooms to the kindergarten and beyond. For instance, we can
analyze how we introduce the holiday of Rosh Hashana by
identifying objects such as apples and the shofar and then
progress into symbolic meanings of these objects as part of the
holiday's
rituals. Seeing the curriculum from above like this, we've already
identified many places where we need to adjust the level of teaching in
order to maintain the momentum of learning."
While Magen HaGan criteria are actually a framework designed
to be broadly applicable to all Jewish preschool settings and
denominations, Striar Hebrew Academy's accreditation process still took
on an individual context. "Documenting our school's Jewish culture and
Judaic curriculum for the BJE actually was challenging because of their
sheer omnipresence and rigor," said West. "For example, because our
curriculum is parasha-based, the way we integrate each parasha
theme across disciplines and age groups added a layer of complexity to
all of our curriculum descriptions."
During the five years of the accreditation lifespan, ongoing
Magen HaGan requirements and other BJE initiatives will guide a series
of next-steps. "I will continue to work with the Striar Hebrew Academy
preschool staff on strengthening curricular transitions to the school's
elementary program," said Chernin. "Also, we'll concentrate on
completing professional-development credits and participating in formal
information exchanges with other preschools under or seeking
accreditation."
West added that while Magen HaGan honors Striar Hebrew
Academy to the community at large, for her it also realizes her personal
admiration of her colleagues. "I
am so impressed with the teaching staff here, with the work they do and
the time they invest," she said. "I feel that Magen HaGan recognizes our
teachers for doing something they have always done without recognition.
As the entire Jewish community benefits
from their expertise, I'll also continue to learn a lot from them."
Striar students empty their pockets for tsunami survivors
By
Sharla Allard/ Correspondent, Sharon Advocate
Friday, January 14, 2005
 Plastic
sandwich bags chock-full of scrunched-up dollar and five dollar bills
and tin cans full of coins were almost too much for the cardboard box to
contain at Striar Hebrew Academy, before school officials send it off to
help tsunami survivors.
"Pretty soon we're going to need another box," Rabbi M. Mendel Lewitin
said, chuckling. He heads the school, located on Ames Street in Sharon.
Nearly two weeks ago, Lewitin said he not so much made a pitch as
dropped a hint during the elementary school's morning assembly about
contributing to the worldwide effort to help Southeast Asia's tsunami
survivors following the Dec. 26 disaster.
"I began," he said, "by telling them what a 'tsunami' is."
He assured the children, most of whom naturally had no clue as to what a
30-foot wave breaking upon land can do, that Americans' personal safety
is aided by America's sophisticated electronic and communications
systems that warn us of approaching danger. But many countries, he said,
including those that rim the Indian Ocean, don't have such advanced
technology and so are more vulnerable.
The children understood, the rabbi said, and their empathy took
immediate shape just a few days later, as they marched their small
savings to school.
Though "the amount of money isn't so much the point, it's the caring,
compassionate hearts the money came from," Lewitin said. He said
couldn't come into the temple without students from grades 1-5 running
up to him with their fists full, crying "Here!" "Here!"
Rabbi Lewitin said many of the students keep a charity box at home in
the family room or their bedroom, "putting away a little at a time for
individuals or organizations that might need it, either money they've
earned or money they've received as a gift."
In each classroom, Lewitin said, the students can drop their pennies
into a
tzedakah, a small wooden box that serves as a reminder of the
value of sharing what they have Including sharing with non-Jews, Lewitin
said, because the Academy also teaches "the Jewish people are to be
responsible stewards of this planet, including all the people, animals,
and even plant life that reside in it."
Children at the Academy are taught "respect for parents and teachers,
consideration for their classmates, compassion for others, and concern
for the environment," according to its mission statement.
"What [the children's giving] says to me," Lewitin said, "is it confirms
the education we impart in the children. They've been able to process it
and respond to it. I'm very proud of them.
"Proud of their heartwarming demonstration of compassion for people who
they never met, may never meet, on another continent - people who don't
necessarily share their culture and ethnicity and background."
The aid is intended to help not only the survivors of the tsunami but
also the long-term effort of getting early-warning systems in place in
the region So far, more than $500 from the school is being sent to
Southeast Asia via the Jewish Community Southeast Asia Tsunami Relief
Fund, the American Jewish World Services, UNICEF and ZzAKA Rescue and
Recovery. The latter is an Israeli group that helps terrorist victims in
Israel, and recently extended its resources by sending a rescue team to
Thailand.
As Lewitin turned the pages of a small prayer book titled "Chai
Lifeline: Fighting Illness With Love," he said, "Every day in our
prayers we put our trust and faith in God and thank God for taking care
of us."
In the aftermath of this tragedy, with 167,000 dead and predictions of
diseases yet to be dealt with, one of the book's prayers offers
encouragement: "The desire of the Holy One . . . is to do good, and his
attribute of kindness is supreme over all. He desires the well being of
the sick, and therefore when you pray for recovery, you pray for that
which God desires."
"We're fortunate to be part of a worldwide effort, to be joining other
humanitarians in this effort," Lewitin said. "And the children are a
part of it, and they know that they're part of it."
Their giving is ongoing. A "Blessings Spelling Bee" will be held at the
academy later this month. As the children write out the many blessings
they've memorized, "a modest donation will be made by the faculty for
each word they spell correctly," Leslee Rotman, the Academy's librarian
and a grade one teacher, explained.
"But it won't be a competition to see how much money they can give," she
quickly added. "The point is not to try to outdo what someone else is
able to give. Even a little something is meaningful."
Another activity in the works school officials said is to have the
children write letters to their counterparts in Indonesia, India, Sri
Lanka, Bangladesh, and other areas' broken villages and towns. This,
they hope, will also help keep Americans' love for them alive.
Donating Hair Becomes Trendy at Striar Hebrew
Academy
 December
2004--
Trends among school children often
leave much to be desired. One trend at Striar Hebrew Academy in Sharon,
however, has parents wishing their children would get involved. More
than a dozen girls and mothers in the Jewish day school have cut their
hair and have donated it to organizations that create hairpieces for
children suffering from long-term or permanent medical hair loss.
The trend began with girls deciding
to donate their hair as part of a personal Bat Mitzvah charity project,
and took off like wildfire among younger girls wanting to model their
older friends and siblings.
“Throughout my education, I’ve always learned to
help others who are in need,” says Sara Diamond, a recent graduate of
Striar Hebrew Academy. “Donating my hair was an easy, yet meaningful,
way to make someone else feel special.”
Most of the girls’ donations have been sent to
Locks for Love, which receives donations from men, women, and the
majority from children. Begun in 1997, the organization has helped more
than 400 children who have lost their hair from cancer treatment or have
suffered long-term baldness from an autoimmune condition called alopecia
areata. Each donation needs to meet certain standards, namely the hair
has to be 10 inches long and dry, and made into a ponytail before
cutting and sending. Diamond’s hair was donated to a similar
organization in Israel.
Not only have the students
participated in this mitzvah (good deed), but also moms have gotten the
Locks for Love fever.
“My daughter Nomi was first inspired by some older
girls at summer camp,” says Elyse Winnick, a Striar Hebrew Academy
parent. “I offered to grow my hair, too, as a show of support.” Little
did she know that her hair would grow faster than her daughter’s, and
she has already cut and sent it. “Nomi has been a great sport about
waiting for hers to be long enough, and I’m so proud of her.”
Part of the mission of Striar Hebrew Academy is to
foster moral sensitivity and compassion for others. Furthermore, Judaism
teaches the concept of “v’ahavta
l’reacha k’mocha,” meaning “love your neighbor as yourself.”
“These kinds of acts are indicative of the
effectiveness of our educational curriculum that emphasizes the value of
Torah study along with acts of good deeds and kindness,” says Rabbi M.
Mendel Lewitin, head of school. “We take pride in our students for
internalizing their learning.”
Hair lengths among some girls at the
school are now in various stages, with the hope of soon reaching the
10-inch goal. Seeing the enthusiasm of the older girls, 7-year-old
Shifra Berg is growing her locks so that she can donate it as well. She
has several inches left, and the whole school is rooting for her.
|
