Amy Martin, Special Guest Columnist, Third Grade Teacher, and Community Service Coordinator At Schechter Manhattan, we are working to enact this mishna through our annual TzedakahRoundtable. As in years past, students will be thinking critically about where to donate their classroom tzedakah money. What I love about the Tzedakah Roundtable is how it empowers our students to be agents for change in […]
Last week I took my yearly, virtual trip back in time to the summer of 1787, to observe the proceedings of the constitutional convention of the United States of America. Playing the roles of the delegates were the Schechter Manhattan 7th grade students, who reenacted the convention as the culmination of their Humanities Exhibition project. […]
I am really impressed with Kitah Alef, our first grade. On Wednesday morning they presented their Siyum Ha’Amidah, the culmination of their study of the blessings of the weekday amidah. The amidahis a central prayer in Judaism, and it touches on a variety of big ideas including our connection of our ancestors, God’s holiness, the gift of human intelligence, […]
Chodesh Tov! This week we celebrated Rosh Chodesh Adar I with two longstanding and very fun Schechter Manhattan traditions, shira btsibur and mishe-mishe. On Tuesday morning we gathered for shira btsibur. Among the many things I love about Schechter Manhattan, our monthly school-wide sing along, שירה בציבור, is near the top. Folks who know me […]
A group of three students, from Gan, from Gimmel , and another from Zayin gathered around a pile of materials- empty bottles, cereal boxes, plastic containers. They talked together as they made notes and sketches on their plan for building a planter that could drain water and collect the water as it drained. The student from Kitah Zayin took a leadership role, […]
Last Friday, the second grade students showed me the maps of communities that they designed. They explained the needs and values of their imagined communities and pointed to the roads, parks, and buildings on the maps they created. I asked them clarifying questions- Is this a bridge? Can cars park on this area of the […]
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny… Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an “I-it” relationship for an “I-thou” relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. Hence segregation […]
One of the goals for our first year of the Lieberman Family STEAM Center is to incorporate STEAM learning activities into classroom curricula. We aspire for students to practice problem solving and design thinking within the context of their studies, so that they build 21st century thinking skills along with mastery of content and concepts. […]
As we lit the Chanukah candles each evening this week, it felt particularly poignant to me. We light our chanukiot right at sunset, as the light is fading and darkness is coming. By lighting the candles at that moment we extend light into the coming dark. I find that to be a powerful metaphor for our responsibility to make […]
“.בית הספר הקונסרבטיבי הנפלא ״סולומון שכטר״ בניו יורק. כמה אהבת הארץ, כמה אהבת יהדות” We sang Hatikva together- all of our students, K through 8, teachers, and some school leaders, along with a member of the cabinet of the government of the State of Israel. As we finished, Naftali Bennett, Minister of Education and Diaspora […]
