Teaching our children

My name is Beth Draper and I am very excited and happy to be returning to Congregation Shir Hadash as the new educational director.   For those of you who know me, I am looking forward to working with you and your children again this year. For those of you who don’t know me, I taught the kindergarten classes at Shir Hadash for three years.  I also taught kindergarten at the Milwaukee Jewish Day School for 23 years.  I am looking forward to meeting and working with all of you. 
This year the Shir Hadash congregational school is moving in new directions. We will continue to hold Sunday classes for all of our students.  On Sundays we plan to begin each session with a family/community service or other special programming.  It is our goal to include each family in the educational community.  With our families as role models, we hope to impart the strong value of Jewish education that we hold onto the next generation.  Following the family /community programming the children will proceed to the classrooms with their teachers for grade level instruction.  
Another change for our educational program this year is that we will use a new written curriculum designed to be developmentally appropriate for each grade level.  For each grade level, classes will include lessons about the holidays, Jewish values, prayers, Hebrew, the Torah, Jewish symbols, and Israel.  The lessons will be designed to introduce new concepts and then revisit them in subsequent years to delve deeper into each subject area as the children grow and mature.  As a part of the programming for the year each grade level will have a family learning component at which the children will demonstrate what they have learned from one of the units of study. 

We will have four class levels this year. We welcome Risa Berg-Ishkandarsjach back to our teaching staff again this year.  She will continue to teach the Hadashim Family Education Program which will meet monthly.  We want to welcome Shellie Blumenfield back again this year.  She will continue her teaching working with our first and second grade students.  We are currently in the process of interviewing for a teacher who will teach our third and fourth grade students.   We want to welcome David Dropkin to our congregational teaching staff.  He will teach the students in our fifth, sixth, and seventh grades.

  We have made significant changes to our Hebrew programming for this year. In an attempt to individualize our Hebrew instruction and meet the needs of each student, we are adapting a program based on the model   of a highly successful Hebrew program at Congregation Shaarei Shamayim, in Madison.   Each family will be assigned a tutor, and together with the tutor, will choose a day, time, and place, to meet for weekly one-to-one, half-hour Hebrew lessons.   In this way each child will be able to learn at his or her own pace, at a time and place that will be convenient for each family.  We are hoping that this method of instruction will provide the best possible learning outcome for each child. 
Prior to the beginning of the school year there will be a coffee for our religious school families.  We will take that opportunity to gather together as a community to celebrate the beginning of a new year of learning.  You will receive an e-mail regarding the date for this event very soon.

You will notice in this year’s registration forms that the tuition for the school has increased.  In the past few years we have been able to take advantage of a grant from the Bader Foundation, which helped to offset the cost of our educational program.  That grant has now ended, which is why the tuition has increased.  It is our hope that every family who would like to participate in our program will be able to do so.  Please do not hesitate to contact Rich or me, if you have any financial issues, which would prevent your family from attending our religious school.  We will do everything in our power to help any family interested in our program to participate.
All of the staff involved in the Shir Hadash religious school is looking forward to new year of learning together.  If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, please contact me at bth.draper@gmail.com.
We look forward to a great year in 5771 for all of our Talmidim (students).
B’Shalom,
Beth Draper
Congregation Shir Hadash Educational Director
Click here to download a copy of this letter, here for tuition rates, here for a Registration Form, and here for the Emergency Contact Form.

David Dropkin is our Youth Committee chairperson.

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