This has been a ridiculous few days. With this entry, I mean to convey the hardly-imaginable kind of opportunities that have been available here for me — I am truly beside myself at what I have been able to do this past four days, and only two since the main conference began. In that time, I’ve formed an introductory understanding about various types of Jewish education and the serious issues educators are dealing with — from the very people that experience them. I’ve learned about this issue broadly with conference sessions on the subject, and more intimately with speakers like Jeff Lasday, Iris Schwartz and Peter Eckstein. I’ve had instruction on how to teach Jewishly from Fran Perlman, a first time for me as most of my experience has been in programing and participation. I’ve explored graduate options through the opportunity fairs here, even in one case sitting down with the Dean of the Fingerhut School of Education at the American Jewish University for an hour long one-on-one discussion.
Particularly exciting to me has been the progress I’ve been able to make with an program I’m developing. I’m working on a scuba-diving Israel-trip educational add-on program (better program title coming soon), and networking at CAJE for that purpose has been a priority for me. Let me take this opportunity now and say that there can’t be a better place to network within the field of Jewish programming and education like CAJE — it’s way too easy here. Due to the sheer number of Jewish educators and organizations that are here, most networking referrals are to participants in the conference. No phone introductions — it’s a face-to-face process here, and those I’ve already met are able to personally introduce me to their recommended people-to-talk-to — its been extraordinary. I’m not prepared to leave just yet, but when I do, I’ll be ready to continue my relationship with the JNF, Oranim, Israel Experts, and other organizations I’ve met while here. This place is a golden opportunity.
Yesterday I caught a neat* session with Joel Grishaver on his revolutionary approach to teaching Talmud, and also listened to the extraordinary Joel Hoffman as he destroyed (I mean this in a positive way) my perception of Hebrew as a relatively historically intact language, and explored Jewish-religious influence on language.
Today, among other sessions, I heard Lori Erickson demonstrate “Teaching Science Jewishly”. Although it was focused on early-childhood and not terribly relevant for my particular needs, it was great fun and we will be speaking later on about ideas she has for the age group I’m looking for in my program.
This afternoon Daniel Siegel gave me some of his time to discuss texts for my program, and I had dinner with emerging Jewish musician Todd Herzog. He’s performing his acoustic Jewish pop music tomorrow night in the Mallinckrodt building — it was interesting to hear his journey becoming a Jewish artist, and you’ll definitely find me there tomorrow.
*commentary from another SCP Fellow: Jonathan is soooo Canadian!!! Who says “neat”? I suppose this may be why we love him. That or his ridiculously good looks.
Check out these SCP photos!
Lori Erickson demonstrates “Teaching Science Jewishly”
