The Efshar Project is committed to offering responsive, high quality professional development for educators for free or highly subsidized rates. Most Efshar Network schools are educators from diverse backgrounds, including many teachers who are not Jewish, or who are not confident in bringing Judaism and Jewish values into their classroom. In line with our commitment to offer responsive trainings, we are proud to be offering a new virtual series, “Understanding The Jewish Holidays and Translating Them To Your Classroom” with Lead Pedagogical and Leadership Coach, Judi Morosohk. Judi is a master facilitator who brings a deep understanding of both the Jewish holidays, as well as child development and emotionally responsive teaching practices.
This new series is offered on Zoom from 6pm-7:15pm, allowing educators to join without interfering with their work day. Judi has intentionally crafted each session to blend knowledge of the actual holiday, with concrete possibilities for bringing the holiday rituals and underlying big ideas of each holiday into classroom settings from infancy through kindergarten (and beyond!).
The series kicked off on September 18th, focusing on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, with a second session following a week later focused on Sukkot. Educators shared wonderful feedback about both sessions:
“Thought provoking and enjoyable. A good overview and I like the concept of “covering” vs “uncovering” a holiday. Thanks for emphasizing things to be done with infants and toddlers. Music was fantastic but my biggest takeaway was from the video clip – ‘We are all extra amazing AND we can all do better.’ Perfect message for children and teachers.”
“It was a wonderful presentation and I left feeling connected, whole, passionate, and well. I cannot wait to more deeply connect our classroom investigations into the high holidays. I am Jewish, and still left learning a lot! I will be sharing my notes with everyone at our next staff meeting.”
“I love the basic overview and specific ideas for each key concept of Sukkot. And, I love the music!”
As these quotes illustrate beautifully, even Jewish teachers, and teachers of all experience levels are able to attend these sessions and leave feeling refreshed and newly inspired on ways to bring the holidays to life in their classroom.
Educators who were unable to attend, or who would like to revisit any content are encouraged to access the recordings and slide decks here. We look forward to the remaining sessions, focused on Chanukah, Shabbat, Purim and Passover.
To register for any of the remaining sessions, please click the links below:
Wednesday, November 20th: Chanukah
Wednesday, January 22nd: Shabbat
Wednesday, February 19th: Purim
Wednesday, April 2nd: Passover
*All sessions are held on Zoom from 6pm-7:15pm
