Come Learn With Us
Professional development at the Jewish Enrichment Center is an invitation to engage with big questions while nurturing practical skills for enacting your vision of exceptional Jewish learning.
Teaching is complex, challenging work. What happens in the classroom is influenced by so many factors: what’s on children’s minds, and their needs that day; opportunities that teachers set up that invite children to explore content and connect with peers; the language we use; frameworks for teacher collaboration; partnership between school and families on behalf of children’s learning; and so much more.
How does each piece of this complex system work together to teach our children to be Jewish citizens of the world? Professional development at the Jewish Enrichment Center stretches our imaginations and deepens our own capacities as educators by raising challenging questions, and offering concrete strategies and tools alongside a myriad of examples of child-driven, content-rich learning. Through collaborative inquiry with colleagues, a stance of intense curiosity, and without judgment, together we can begin to unpack the complexity of teaching and learning.
A sampling of tools we explore through professional development:
- Observation without judgment in stance and speech
- Making values visible in the educational environment
- Text study and creative expression to bring forward the child’s voice
- Educator language for democratic, compassionate classroom culture
- Empathetic response in challenging moments
- Comprehension continuum use to design emergent curriculum
- Documentation practices
- Interactive learning structures to scaffold children’s understanding