Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine School of Law, Professor Chemerinsky frequently argues appellate cases, including cases before the United States Supreme Court.

A Purim parody by the 7th/8th grade sketch comedy class, just one part of Emtza, our project-based program middle school program.

A Purim parody by the 7th/8th grade sketch comedy class, just one part of Emtza, our project-based program middle school program. (Thanks to Fun and their song “Some Nights.”)

There’s a Hebrew expression for how we celebrate the holiday of Purim: “Nahafokhu.” It means, “to be turned on its head.”

It comes from the Megillat Esther, the Biblical story of Queen Esther that we read in commemoration of the holiday:

… [The Jews] should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day … year by year, as the days on which the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned (nahafokh) for them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning to holiday: that they should make the days of feasting and joy, and of sending choice portions to one another and gifts to the poor. (Esther 9:21-23)

The idea of turning things upside-down got me thinking about an exciting trend in education called “flipped” or “inverted” learning. Here’s how it works:

In a “traditional” classroom, the teacher leads the learning. That means that he or she gives instruction, lectures, or otherwise directs the classroom activities. In a “flipped” classroom, the students direct the learning. In universities, this means that the students watch a lecture before class (from a recording, available to be viewed online at their convenience) and then spend class time – in which the whole class is gathered and there’s a professor in the room – on discussion, synthesis, and application.

By playing with the normative model – by “flipping” it on its head – educators have learned something important. Raised in the age of instant information available in their pockets, what today’s learners really value is guidance from teachers and classmates as they figure out what to do with information. It’s not that hard to find information. The key is answering questions like, “So what?” and “What does this mean?”

Hasn’t that always been the whole point of education?

In other words, as we struggle to understand the role and purpose of education in our rapidly-changing world, turning the classroom “on it’s head” has helped us to remember the core values behind the entire endeavor. “So what? What does this mean?”

This Purim, may you find joy and meaning in turning a few things upside-down.

Our class has just finished studying the Kedushah (“holiness”), the third brachah (blessing) of the Amidah prayer. One of the themes of this beautiful prayer is Kiddush Hashem, the idea that we can make God’s holiness seem more real with our holy actions. The kids realized that we can become holy through the doing of holy actions, which is not always easy.

We are lucky to be able to use iPads in our classroom and so far the kids used it when practicing chanting prayers. This time we decided that they will write, act, film and edit their own iMovie, incorporating lessons learned from the Kedusha. It was wonderful to see their enthusiasm and dedication as they worked to complete their projects. I hope you will enjoy watching their modern, visual midrashim.

Now that they tasted the fun that can be had while studying prayers, I expect we will get more creative pieces to put up on the school blog soon. Stay tuned

Rachael writes:

One unique aspect of our class is doing “Jewish yoga” and meditation together as a class each week. We usually end each class with an opening and closing meditation along with at least one Jewish prayer. We also bring in some “yoga-ish” poses in between to have a special experience of praying with our bodies. This week we included some Aleph-Bet yoga poses to spell out Hebrew words with our bodies.

We’ve also been studying Jewish values this semester. Recently, we wrestled with how to really “live” the values of teshuvah (repentance) and tzedek (righteousness/justice). And there’s more: We’ve been exploring our relationship to Israel, which has included learning about the history of Israel and about aspects of life in modern Israel. For example, we recently learned about the Old and New cities of Jerusalem.

Check out these pics of our Aleph-Bet yoga experience:

On October 7, our fourth-grade class became professional anchormen and reporters. The students were challenged to imagine what it might have been like if television news programs existed in the time of Noah and the flood. After coming up with a few topics, students were paired into groups and given materials to help them research their subject, and then filmed. We hope that you enjoy this “hard hitting” news program, with exclusive interviews, and reports about Noah and the flood….only on Hebrew Action News 18!

There are four parts to the Havdalah service:

• We say a blessing over the wine
• We sniff the sweet smelling spices in the spice box
• We light the tall twisted Havdalah candle. The candle has many wicks so the flame burns brightly.
• We put out the candle’s flame by dipping it in the wine from the Kiddush cup

During the Havdalah ceremony, we say good-bye to Shabbat hoping that its sweetness will last all week long. Once the candle has been extinguished, we wish one another “Shavuah Tov”  – a good week.

Some of these commandments are:

• Never be cruel to animals.
• Let animals rest from work on the Sabbath.
• Give animals water and food before attending to your own needs.

We learned that taking good care of animals is a mitzah! With this in mind we watched a You Tube video about a man who “saves the day” for a mama duck and her ducklings (Wonderful true story. Go to You Tube- Banker Helps Mother Duck and Her Ducklings).

Responsibilities come with having animals so, working together and using blocks, the children created shelters and took care of  some of Rocki’s very special stuffed animals.  And, of course, everyone went home with  those adorable feathered duck paper bag puppets!

After washing our hands and going over kitchen rules, we ALL took turns chopping, and making the salad, while learning what this holiday means to us as a large Jewish community.   Also, what it means to us as American Jews in Los Angeles.  How can the Israel Independence day affect us?  What can we do to celebrate it?

These were all questions that were posed and the answers we’re insightful and also some hilarious.

I think/hope what the kids took away is a greater recognition and pride in being a Jew.  And even by doing the slightest things like making and eating an Israeli salad, pita and hummus (which is not pictures, but we had later at snack), you can show your pride and support for Jews everywhere.

Thanks for taking the time to read this blog post and I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Kindergarten Family Day Sing-Along from Temple Isaiah on Vimeo.

Please enjoy the pictures of our trip….

For the few weeks before their fundraiser was scheduled to be held, the 7th graders worked on creating a plan on how to both raise money for Action Against Hunger but also to raise our community’s awareness about global hunger and about the specific work with malnutrition that Action Against Hunger does. They decided the best plan would be to create a large poster to attract people to their table and to inform those just glancing at it. They created a pamphlet to pass out to those who were more interested. They also wrote out a script for each of them to use when speaking to congregants about their mission. Most importantly, they decided to hand out with each item sold at their bake sale, a small note informing the purchaser what his/her donation would be going towards.

Hello. We are the TSBY 7th graders and we are doing a group mitzvah project. We are working to reduce hunger all around the world. We are collecting donation today for Action Against Hunger. Action Against Hunger is an organization that fights malnutrition, lack of water, and food insecurity around the world.

The Saturday before the bake sale, the 7th graders got together to bake challah and create challah french toast kits to sell at their bake sale. They figured that Sunday being the first day after Passover many people would be interested in buying yummy bread-filled snacks

On the Sunday of the bake sale, the 7th graders had their tables all set and were ready to speak to as many congregants as possible to raise their awareness of the global hunger issue. 

However, they learned that Sunday morning that sometimes, even the best laid plans must change. Congregants were clearly impressed and appreciative of their efforts, but many were happy to donate money and leave rather than listen to the 7^th grade script. Some people walked by their table without giving them a second glance. Others lingered and learned, but it was challenging to gauge how much awareness was raised.

During our debrief and evaluation afterwards, our students struggled to understand the lobby interactions. Their goal was not just to raise money; their goal was to raise awareness of the greater issue of hunger in the world. How might they communicate their message more effectively? Did the bake sale help or hurt their effort? How might they continue this work in the future?

In the end, the students raised over $200 for Action Against Hunger and learned some good lessons about the difficulties of social justice work. We’re proud of them and of their year-long commitment to addressing the issue of hunger.

The children helped to lead the Seder. Each child who wanted to came to the front of the table and lead a part of the Seder ceremony. We even lit the candles together as a class. We ate all the traditional Seder foods: matzah, charoset, parsley, hard-boiled eggs, and some children even tried to eat the bitter maror!

Aliza wishes you and your families an enjoyable, happy, and meaningful Passover.

Teacher Barb and Galen, our Rishon, were very surprised to see the interest and excitement the children exhibited at our classroom Seder.  As the pictures tell – the kids were attentive and took part by pointing out the important parts of the Haggadah and dipping and drinking.  These kids seemed to really enjoy learning at the Seder.  Then, we had more fun finding the afikomen in the classroom. Everyone found a party favor – but only one contained the missing matzoh!  Many thanks to every family who contributed to the event, from parsley to Kiddush cups, and a special thanks to Rebecca George and Andrea Tabor for their helpful support.

Enjoy your holiday and help your children make memories with your family! Passover blessings to all!

We had chocolate licorice as the zeroa (shank bone), a chocolate egg as the beitzah (egg), green M&Ms as the karpas (parsley), and bittersweet chocolate as the maror (bitter herb). Instead of regular matzah we had chocolate covered matzah. We drank four cups of chocolate milk (more like four big slips from one cup) to represent the four cups of wine. Instead of dipping parsley in salt water, we dipped strawberries in chocolate sauce (the strawberries represents spring just as the parsley does). Lastly, for the traditional Hillel sandwich of matzah, maror, and charoset; we made a S’mores Hillel sandwich with matzah, marshmallows, and chocolate.

Our class had so much fun at our chocolate seder that we are all ready for the actual Passover seder next week!

Chag Same’ach! (Happy Passover!)

Retelling the Story of the Exodus – in Song from Temple Isaiah on Vimeo.

Before they left Egypt, the TSBY slaves were forced to build wooden block storehouses for their Egyptian task masters. Then they witnessed Moses as he fought and killed an Egyptian taskmaster and was forced to flee into the desert.

While in the desert with Moses, the TSBY slaves created a burning bush using flame shaped paper with all their wishes for freedom written on them. This gave the TSBY slaves and Moses the strength to go back to Pharaoh in Egypt and tell him to “Let My People Go!”

However, Pharaoh would not let the TSBY slaves go free and so 10 plag-arades (plague charades) rained down on Egypt. The TSBY slaves acted out each plague. They even had frog puppets and they went after Pharaoh with them.

At last Pharaoh relented and he let the TSBY slave go free, but they had to hurry out of Egypt as fast as they could and did not have time to let their bread rise. Instead all they had to eat as they fled from Egypt was Matzah.

Finally, they reached the Red Sea, or the Sea of Fabric, and they did not know what to do. They were caught between the sea and the Egyptian army which was chasing them. One brave man, Nachshon, was the first to walk in to sea. Miraculously, the sea split in two and the entire TSBY Israelite people were able to walk through the sea safely to freedom. As they walked, they sang Mi Chamocha and Miriam’s Song (with their timbrels) to celebrate their newly gained freedom!

Tiyul: Shabbat B’yachad Experiencing the Exodus – Crossing the Red Sea from Temple Isaiah on Vimeo.

Once they reached the promised land of Temple Isaiah, they received the Torah from Mt. Temple Isaiah’s Ark and later celebrated Havdalah together.

The TSBY community experienced this miraculous journey from slavery to freedom because, as it says in the Passover Haggadah, “In every generation a person is obligated to look at himself or herself as though he or she personally departed from Egypt.”

You can see parts of the TSBY Exodus journey here:

After all that hard work we just had to have a little matzah with Israeli chocolate spread and music with Isaiah’s Music Man, Jeffrey!

Our group made a warm and cozy home out of an empty apartment. And, when this family is ready to move out to a permanent home of their own, they will be able to take with them all of the household items that we decorated the unit with.

We want to thank Beth Goss and her family for organizing the collection of items, this project could not have been accomplished without her.

We look forward to being able to do this again next year with a new class of fifth graders.

Please enjoy a few pictures of the decorating.

THE BINGO BONANZA READ

GRADES 4 TO 6

GRADES 2 TO 3

HONORABLE MENTION

Hooray! for all the winners of the BINGO BONANZA READ recognized on Sunday, March 11th at the Library Awards.

This year, our seventh graders have been working on a project around the issue of hunger. As a part of this program they organized this matanot l’evyonim project in order to create bags of food donations for the SOVA food pantry. The seventh graders set up stations for each food item. At each station, the seventh graders taught our families different facts about hunger, both locally and globally.

Station 1: Israel

• 1 in 5 children in Israel go to bed hungry at least once a week.
• Two in five Israeli children are living below the poverty line
• 22% of Israeli citizens are food insecure (aprox 1,100,000)
• Over 20% of Israeli elders live below the poverty line

 

Station 2: United States

• 19.4% of all the people in Mississippi were hungry in 2010
• In the US, 14.5% of households are hungry
• 1 in 6 people rely on the charity services for food (IE feeding America)

 

Station 3: Children

• A child dies from hunger related causes every 8 to 12 seconds
• 15.5 million children in America struggle with hunger in 2009
• For the price of one missile, a school full of hungry children could eat lunch every day for 5 years.
• 6% of children in the world die by age 5 from hunger, down from 28% only 50 years ago

 

Station 4: LA

• In Los Angeles, 8.9% of all seniors go to bed hungry every night
• In LA alone, close to 1 in 3 children live in extreme poverty
• Every day 30% of hunger needs in LA go unmet

 

Station 5: Worldwide

• Globally, 925 Million people are hungry; this is roughly 3 times the population of the United States.
• 2.6 billion worldwide people live on less than $2 a day
• 24 thousand people globally die of hunger each day, that’s 15 million per year.
• 1/3 of the world’s population is starving
• Worldwide, someone dies of hunger every 3.6 seconds

 

Station 6: Developing Word

• The infant mortality rate is twice that of the United States
• In developing and third world countries 1.4 billion people live on $1.25 per day, down from $1.90 in 1981.
• Chronic malnutrition is the cause of approximately 90% of hunger related deaths

In the end, we were able to create 50 bags, about 300 lbs. of food, to donate to SOVA this Purim. You can see the process in our photos below.

Check out the video of our students and their art work.

Here is what teacher Aliza wrote about the day:

 Parents enjoyed baking hamentaschen with their children.  We also worked as families to put together mishloach manot. Mishloach Manot (literally “the sending of portions”) are small gifts of food or drink that we send on Purim. Giving mishloach manot is a big mitzvah. We show that we are thankful for the goodness in our lives by giving gifts of food not only to friends and family but also to those in need.

While our parents were learning about the Purim story with Rabbi Nickerson,we created our own megillot in the classroom. We also learned about the story of Queen Esther’s heroism.

We were very happy to see so many families here on Sunday. Check out how much fun we had together.

These prayers, said respectively in the morning and the evening, are about creation, light, and the transitions between night and day. After completing our study of the prayers, we created works of art depicting the words of מעריב ערבים and יוצר אור, Ma’ariv Aravim and Yotzer Or, either specific lines or general themes.

Take a look at the artistic process, and our final products!