Life of Spud

Arrived in the US on Sunday morning, rented a car and drove to my host family. Accommodations are great. Private room with shower, internet access. In Israel, this would be $150/night. After tying up some loose ends, I met up with the students from Cohort 12 at the home of Danny Lehmann for a discussion about Jewish day school education. He quoted Jonathan Sarna who argues that the goal of Jewish day schools is to help students navigate the tensions of being Jewish and America. The starting point seems to be that our kids are Americans and our mission/job is to infuse Jewish in all of that. Dinner was Chinese food with continuing discussion about Jewish ed. Afterwards I got to play some ice hockey, which is the best way to beat jet-lag. Went to sleep exhausted, looking forward to day one at my host school.

All the rage in education is an approach to curriculum writing called Understanding by Design . I've been working with this model as an educator for the last few years and it is the main focus of the second year pedagogy class at PEP. So I decided to use this model in planning for my visit to the US, by setting out my goals for the visit and then arranging my calendar accordingly. I met with my coach for a half hour (we've been talking about this for a while, though) to flush out my ideas, and I walked away with a good list of questions and ideas that I want to test in the US.

The date is the best title because it's been ages since the last blog post. I am now in Israel, a member of the Pardes Educators Program, living with the wife and kids in a two bedroom apartment in Talpiot. Last night the pipe under the sink calcified and broke and I awoke this morning to a flooded floor and hours of spoon-jeh . But this year has been a blessing, as I have become re-acquainted with the learning of my youth to enjoy it and aim to comprehend it in a pedagogic conception. I want to get a few thoughts out quickly. I will try to come back to them later and write more (although, historically...) "Where I See Myself in Five Years" My hope is to move forward in the circles of Jewish education. I aim to employ 21st century pedagogy to the texts and traditions of Judaism in the hopes of uniting the Jewish people in conversation regarding them. Whilst text study has been divisive at certain points in our history, it has always been a constant. I believe that it is o...