Awards and Honors

• 2010 Samdperil Award Winners: Bruce Wolpert, Rabbi Alvin Kaunfer, and Bob Sarkisian.  Read Speech
   

• Sharon Sock and Nicole Katzman Receive Charles Samdperil Award for Dedication to Jewish Education -
   

• We are delighted and proud to announce the acceptance of Jessica Perlman, assistant teacher for kindergarten, into the preprestigious DeLeT program, now know as the Elementary MAT (DeLeT) Program. This program prepares beginning Jewish day school teachers for grades one through six, while serving as a site for studying the goals, curriculum and impact of Jewish teacher education. Students in the Elementary MAT (DeLeT) program earn a Master of Arts in Teaching in elementary education. Jamie Faith Woods, fifth grade teacher, is a DeLet graduate. Over the years we have had several DeLet interns. We hope to have at least one and perhaps 2 interns next year.
  
  from Jessica: "Upon receiving my acceptance, I was pretty choked up...it's just such an incredible honor. I have admired my co-workers amazing teaching abilities, and I cannot wait to become a certified teacher as well. I have to admit that this is bittersweet. Working at JCDS has been such an amazing experience, from the kids to the incredible staff, and I will miss everyone very much. However, I am very excited to begin this new chapter in my life, and I truly want to thank everyone for their support. I will miss you!!!!" Kol Hakavod!
   

• We are proud to announce that our talented Rhonda Mills, Judaic Studies teacher, presented at the first annual conference entitled GISHA (Good Ideas Supporting Hebrew Access) -Teaching Hebrew Reading to Students with Special Needs On April 26 and 27th. Over two hundred Jewish educators from across the country came together at Hebrew College for the first annual conference entitled GISHA (Good Ideas Supporting Hebrew Access) -Teaching Hebrew Reading to Students with Special Needs. Rhonda Mills and Frieda Shapira presented a workshop session, "Adapting the Tal Am Hebrew Language Curriculum for Students with Special Learning Needs".
  
  The three basic tenets of the workshop were: 1. All students can learn Hebrew. 2. Class is taught as immersion with Hebrew being the language of instruction and 3. A multi-sensory approach benefits all students across the learning spectrum. We took a look at the teaching process which involves setting the environment with both music and visuals, introducing and reinforcing the material and then assessing both formally and informally the student's mastery of the material. "It was quite rewarding to have the chance to dialogue with teachers using the Tal Am program from many different schools. Having them express their appreciation for our step by step approach to utilizing the vast array of materials provided in the program, thereby benefiting students with different learning styles was gratifying. Access to successfully learning Hebrew language became more of a reality as utilizing the Tal Am program as the means of instruction became more accessible to teachers during our workshop".
  Rhonda Mills
   

• We are proud to announce that our very talented Jamie Faith Woods, 5th grade general studies teacher, presented at this conference. Jamie's presentation, "Enacting the L: Creating a Professional Learning Community." Jamie noted, "I presented how and why I began a teacher group at JCDS, described the successes of working with teachers who are committed to fostering a professional learning community, explained the way we use protocols to help teachers talk about problems of practice, and suggested how other day school teachers can begin similar groups at their schools.
  
  Jamie began the group to foster helping one another with problems of practice. They started with monthly meetings and now meet once a week. The group meetings average six teachers, who represent Judaic studies, general studies and learning resources. We use protocols from the book The Power of Protocols: an Educator's Guide to Better Practice by McDonald, using different protocols depending on the problem. We recently "peeled the onion" when a presenter brought a layered problem about individualized instruction.
  Jamie was a DeLeT fellow at JCDS in 2002-2003 in the 1st grade with Nicole Dunn as a mentor. "The DeLet program fostered my love of the concept of opening the doors of our classrooms. I love talking about teaching and I greatly value reflective practice."
   

• February, 2009 JCDSRI joined the Children’s Garden Network of Rhode Island and is planning a school garden. Jamie Faith Woods, 5th grade teacher, is the coordinator for this project. For more information http://www.childrensgardennetwork.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/
  gardenDirectory.main/index.htm