Show your support for innovative ideas in Jewish education. Please vote for the Atid Day School Innovation Challenge. #atidchallenge

Now I know why I never became a politician. I HATE asking for your vote. BUT, please click on this link to watch the presentation of our 10th grade Nach Pottery project designed by myself and my other very talented and devoted colleagues at The Frisch School. This was an interdisciplinary project which every 10th grade Nach class participated in before Yom Kippur in which our students experienced Jeremiah's vision from chapter 18 at the Potter's House first hand by creating their own pottery. They then compared this vision with the classic piyut from the Yom Kippur liturgy, כחומר ביד היוצר. I could explain in detail what made this process such a substantial and deep learning experience but I have already blogged about this on this TanachRav blog here, here, and here.

One thing that I am particularly proud of is that this was not an individual project for just my Nach class but a group project for the entire 10th grade. In my role in educational technology, I always like to work behind the scenes. I tell my fellow colleagues that my job is to make them look good. I am almost embarrassed to promote something that was just done in my classroom. However, in this case, thanks to strong leadership from our Nach Department Chair, Mrs. Rachel Besser, and the head of our Art department, Ms. Ahuva Mantell, every 10th grade Nach student was able to participate in this unique experience. That is why we chose to enter it in the Atid Day School Innovation Challenge, we could publicize this model for others to use with their classes as well.

Now a little word about the Atid Innovation Challenge in general. One of the areas of Jewish education which we can always do more of is in sharing good ideas, creating a community of practice of professional Judaic educators. Obviously, there are many venues for this especially with the cognitive surplus that the online world brings to our fingertips through Lookjed, JEDCamp, JEDLab, and blogs like this space and others like Aaron Ross' Thinking About Chinuch. However, there is always the need for more innovative ideas in Jewish education so I applaud The Jewish Education Project, UJA Federation of NY, and PresentTense for setting up this exciting new space for showcasing Jewish innovation.

Once you are at the Atid Innovation Challenge take a look around at some of the other presentations. You can vote for more than one if you like. Two that I LOVE are the project by my good friend Moshe Rosenberg on bringing augmented reality into the Judaic Studies classroom and the project from Yeshivat Noam, where one of my daughters attends, about utilizing iPads to bring music education into the lower school classroom.

So PLEASE vote both for our project at Frisch, if you so desire, and for others that interest you as well. Then please share this posting with your friends and family so that others can recognize some of the innovative and creative lessons going on in Jewish education today.

Crossposted from TechRav