Covenant Award winner and widely admired Jewish educator Rosenblit here offers a potent challenge to Jewish day schools and the educational field more generally: to envision what it would look like to take teaching seriously as a profession.
HAYIDION The Prizmah Journal

Day School Teachers
Are there unique qualities and characteristics that we expect—and find—among day school teachers? Is there sufficient infrastructure to train teachers in the numbers needed by day schools, and do schools support those teachers sufficiently to grow and retain them?
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We invited leaders from some of the major organizations training teachers to work in Jewish day schools to reflect upon their work, share what they’ve learned from their experience, offer some guidance and wisdom for day school leaders and think about their work in relation to the whole, as part of a field.
Rabin argues that Judaics teachers don’t just, or primarily, teach texts. They exert an even more profound influence by virtue of who they are, how they discuss and practice Judaism. They themselves are a text that students study.
In this section, authors emphasize the importance of professional growth for teacher satisfaction and retention. Here, Woods presents the benefits of mentoring to the teacher-mentor, not just the mentee.
Teachers in our Schools
Dec 03, 2013“Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The miracle is that at times they accomplish this impossible task.” Haim Ginott
The Pew Survey and Day Schools: Opening Ourselves to New Possibilities?
Dec 03, 2013The publication of the Pew Research Center Survey on U.S. Jews on October 1 has given the Jewish world plenty to talk about as it got back to work after the holidays.
Don’t Forget the Teacher When Teaching with Technology
Dec 03, 2013The author argues that technology is not merely an add-on to lesson planning. Instead, field leaders should treat technology as part of a new triad that needs to be fully enmeshed with teachers’ pedagogical skills and content knowledge.
A Model to Support Faculty and Build Morale
Dec 03, 2013Kessler presents Appreciate Inquiry as a philosophy and method for creating positive relationships and productive collaboration among faculty members and between faculty and administration.
School Quality Depends on Teacher Quality
Dec 03, 2013The author of a large-scale study of teachers at Jewish day schools finds that teacher support, including professional development and mentoring, is critical for satisfaction and retention, and needs to be considered as an ecosystem beyond the schools themselves.
Painting a Teacher Portrait
Dec 03, 2013The Shlenker School developed this tool to clarify teacher expectations. By soliciting teacher collaboration in composing this document, the administration empowered teachers to help define their role within the values of the school community.
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