1. Hidden Sparks News
A Banner Pilot Year for Hidden Sparks Without Walls (WOW) – An outstanding success, Hidden Sparks completed the first year of Hidden Sparks WOW, an innovative distance learning program for educators in Jewish day schools. During this inaugural year, there were 265 participants in our classes, from 59 Jewish day schools in 35 cities across the United States and Canada.
Free, short-term classes allowed educators to participate from home in interactive professional development by phone and/or online with leading educational experts. They provided teachers with concepts, strategies and tools to deepen their understanding of the ways in which students learn and behave.
Classes covered Language, Learning and Literacy: Foundations of Academic Success; The Role of Memory in School Success; Communicating with Parents; Social Cognition: The Science of Relating; Attention; De-escalating Intense Behavior; An Overview of How We Learn; Analyzing a Lesson; Analyzing Your Teaching Style; Analyzing Student Work; Strategies for Peak Performance: Effective Tools for Organizing Your Students; and Exploring Learning Processes in a Judaic Studies Curriculum.
For those who have yet to enjoy these courses, follow this link to our archived webinars to hear the presentations and view the slideshows.
Hidden Sparks Awarded A Milstein Foundation Grant – Working together with The Churchill School, a grant from the Milstein Foundation will underwrite the development of a model pilot to create an innovative and transformational curriculum and training program for teaching struggling students with learning differences and behavioral challenges. Hidden Sparks and The Churchill School believe this innovative paradigm will be an enormous contribution to Jewish day schools nationwide and to the field as a whole.
For this collaboration, Hidden Sparks will be responsible for dissemination and oversight of the curriculum and training program to Jewish schools nationwide. The Churchill School will oversee dissemination of the training and curriculum to public and non-Jewish private schools.
The Churchill School and Center, a private, non-sectarian public school for learning disabilities located in Manhattan, serves children from New York in grades K-12 and has a professional development arm (The Center) for parents and other educators. (Link here for learning opportunities offered by The Churchill School and Center)
A Visionary Transition – PEJE’s Diverse Learners Community of Practice (CoP) Absorbed By Hidden Sparks and Hebrew College – In September 2009, the Diverse Learners CoP will transition from the auspices of PEJE to become a collaborative effort between Hidden Sparks and Hebrew College, Newton, Massachusetts. The goal of the Diverse Learners Community of Practice is to improve best practices in the education of diverse learners in Jewish Day School settings by bringing together administrators, special educators, and teachers through our regularly scheduled conference calls and ongoing online discussions.
In assuming the mantle of leadership for this important initiative, Hidden Sparks and Hebrew College hope to:
Increase knowledge in the Jewish day schools and supplemental schools about learning and children’s social, and emotional development in order to increase understanding for and ability to meet the needs of the child with special needs as well as the struggling child in mainstream Jewish day and supplemental schools.
Enhance skills to support children with special needs in Jewish day schools and supplemental schools.
Please contact Sandy Miller-Jacobs at Hebrew College CoP.DL.SMJ@gmail.com or Debbie Niderberg at Hidden Sparks dknider@hiddensparks.org with ideas and thoughts you would like incorporated into the continuing vision of the Diverse Learners CoP.
