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Educators Continued from Page 1
and sixth-eighth grade social
studies, Abrams Hebrew
Academy For a brief moment at
Abrams, students were allowed
to bring their cell phones to
school, a break with long-es-
tablished policy. The thinking,
according to Kornsgold, was
that students would need
extra downtime during such a
fraught school year, spending
five school days a week wearing
masks. This didn’t last long, and
the phones once again became
contraband. In Kornsgold’s eyes, the
brief cell phone era is emblem-
atic of Abrams’ approach to
pandemic education. When in
doubt, give students structure,
and show them that expec-
tations are the same as they
always have been.

It’s easier said than done.

Most clubs are out this year,
and so is art and music class.

Older students know that
they’ll likely miss out on their
class trip to Israel and other
privileges afforded the biggest
kids. “So there are disappoint-
ments,” Kornsgold said. “But
they’re resilient. They’re
Rabbi Alan LaPayover leads a class for RRC students.

Courtesy of Reconstructing Judaism
making the most out of it all. students found writing papers
And we are just really gratified to be a less daunting task,
as the immediacy of Google
by that.”
Docs-based edits gave them
Rachel Scheinmann, Humanities ample time to write. It also
Department chair, Jack M. keeps them from potentially
forgoing help because they
Barrack Hebrew Academy
Teachers at
Barrack, didn’t want to give up a lunch
Scheinmann said, had a pretty break to talk over a paper.

And in Google Meets
good sense of how to use
teaching platforms like Canvas breakout
rooms, where
and Google Meets prior to the Scheinmann will drop in on
pandemic. What kept things group conversations, she’s
moving in the spring was pleased by what she’s hearing.

the fact that Barrack had an
“Whenever I go in, every-
education technology officer one’s really active and engaged
on staff, allowing everyone to with each other and doing
go from basic literacy in those their work,” she said.

programs to fluency without
That said, Scheinmann still
too much disruption.

prefers when her students are
Last fall, Scheinmann’s at the building, as Barrack
students have been on a
rotating basis.

Elsie R. Stern, vice president
for academic affairs and
associate professor of Bible,
Reconstructionist Rabbinical
College Stern figured that there
would be a grace period at the
beginning of the pandemic,
three weeks or so to make
some decisions about how RRC
would move forward before
students grew tired of full-day
academic schedules that were
simply moved to Zoom.

“It took a week,” she
laughed. RRC’s students now spend
no more than four-and-a-
half hours per day on Zoom.

Based on student and faculty
12 JANUARY 7, 2021
JEWISH EXPONENT
Gan students at the Stern Center with teacher Marlee Glustoff
Courtesy of Perelman Jewish Day School
feedback, one-sided lectures
are kept to a minimum;
students have reported that
smaller, hevruta-size discus-
sions yield more than those of
a full-class Zoom discussion
or written forum discussion.

Students are encouraged to
take a lighter academic load.

Avoiding burnout has been
the name of the game at RRC
thus far, and will be going
forward. fly in your face.

Paul Bernstein,
CEO, Prizmah: Center for Jewish
Day Schools
When it comes to assessing
what works and what doesn’t,
Bernstein and Prizmah have
the benefit of the 30,000-foot
view. Some of what they can see
is quantifiable. After surveying
81 day school leaders in
August, Prizmah found that
early childhood centers and
K-5 schools would be more
likely to be fully in-person
than middle schools or high
schools, and that the most
commonly reported precau-
tion taken for in-person
learning was “manipulating
classroom space” (85% of
respondents). Now, with a full semester
of observation, Bernstein and
his team at Prizmah see things
that can’t be expressed numer-
ically. The energy spent on
fashioning something resem-
bling communal experience
during a difficult year can’t be
represented as a number; ditto
for the relief felt in schools
where in-person learning
was able to last for the full
semester. “There are certain things
we’re learning to do that may
well actually serve us better in
the future,” he said. l
Bryan Kirschner, fifth-grade
general studies teacher,
Perelman Jewish Day School
Stern Center
More than any other
semester that he can recall,
Kirschner said, fall was a time
for him and his students to
really get to know each other.

While PJDS has managed
in-person education, setting
up outdoor classrooms,
the social environment of
pre-pandemic school can’t
quite be replicated; seeing
that, Kirschner decided that
this was the year to more
actively foster relationships,
and to “have conversations
that maybe we would never
have had with kids if we were
in a typical school year.”
With those relationships
deepened, Kirschner and
his students have more easily
navigated the quirks of pandemic
education. In graduate school,
Kirschner noted, they don’t
teach you how to run a class- jbernstein@jewishexponent.com;
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