Philosophy of Education

Thank you for visiting our website. If you think you know Am Yisrael, please take another look. We take our partnership between our students, their parents, our teachers, our clergy and our synagogue professional staff very seriously. Our goal is to have every person who enters our doors have a meaningful Jewish experience which will inspire him or her to want to learn more.

The Jewish learning becomes more involved each year and the curriculum is meant to spiral so that each year’s lessons build upon one another. One of my mentors in Jewish Education said that “Hebrew is the DNA of Jewish learning.” With Hebrew as a foundation, we can learn about our heritage in the most authentic way. Our students love learning Hebrew and read, write, listen and speak in Hebrew as often as possible. The siddur (prayer book) is a book that has been around for almost 1,000 years. Our students feel incredibly comfortable using the siddur because we make it a part of their lives early on. The Tanach (Hebrew Bible) is perhaps the best selling book in the history of the world. Our students become familiar with the Torah, Prophets and Writings throughout their years in our school. The Jewish holidays, including Shabbat and commemorations are community building events that build Jewish identity within our congregational community. Israel is our Jewish homeland and is a cornerstone of our entire existence. Doing tikkun olam (repairing the world) allows us to fulfill Rabbi Hillel’s statement, “You want to learn a great deal quickly, don’t you? Very well, I shall teach you the Torah while you stand on one foot. This is our Holy Torah: ‘What is hateful to you, do not do unto others.’” “Does it mean that the heathens and the Jews and all of us are brothers (and sisters)? Does it mean that we must be kind to one another like brothers (and sisters)?” asked the heathen, wonderingly. “That’s it, my son (or daughter). That’s the meaning of the whole Torah. All the rest is only an explanation of that. Go, go, my son (or daughter). Go and study it,” said Rabbi Hillel kindly.

The Jewish journey is an individual experience enhanced greatly by the community. Everyone has his or her own story and we want the Am Yisrael portion of your Jewish journey to be golden. This starts with the earliest years that your child enters the building. My earliest childhood memory was being held by my rabbi on the bimah and having him hand me a lollipop. I have witnessed moments similar to this at our Tot Shabbat and Junior Congregation services and in our Gan and 1st Grade classrooms. Our formal program encompasses kindergarten through 10th grades. With a new partnership we have with Chicago-based organization Shorashim, we also offer formal learning experiences to 11th- and 12th-graders through an Israel Ambassador program. Our high school students also have the opportunity for paid positions in our school as teaching assistants.

The 21st-century learners’ needs are prime on our agenda for reaching our goals:
We are diligent about meeting the needs of each individual student and take into consideration the 21st-century learner. Our newest technological addition to the school is a set of iPads. Many students enjoy using the iPads as a tool for learning Hebrew one-on-one in a remedial fashion and for doing curricular enrichment at school and at home using several recommended websites and apps. As more websites and apps become available, we will continue to add them to our school and recommended repertoire. These tools even help overcome learning disabilities like dyslexia.

We love our SMART Boards as they enhance the learning expereince in the school in a major way. We are one of the only synagogues on the north shore of Chicago to have not one, but two SMART Boards. We use the SMART Boards to teach Hebrew, letters, vowels and Hebrew decoding/reading. We enjoy Skype video conferencing with Israel and hope to branch out to other cities in the United States and throughout the world, do school-wide programs and show timely, poignant videos (e.g. Operation Solomon, Memorial for Yitzhak Rabin, Kristallnacht, etc.). A picture says a thousand words. A short, meaningful video says more.

We are excited about our “cloud computing,” as we have set up a secure place to post and share our students’ writings, videos and scans of their artwork. MP3 Recordings are made available to all students in the school to aid in practicing Hebrew prayers and Torah readings. Student videos are taped and edited by our technology madrich (teaching assistant) and sent to the members of the congregation once a month. They are a summary of the entire month in less than two minutes time. We have received rave reviews.

With the needs of our students at the forefront, we are meeting our students in their world, where they are at in their secular schools and in their lives in general. In addition, we are keeping the best of the past and having it meet our student’s needs. For example, hands-on tikkun olam (repairing the world) work is used as a teaching tool at Am Yisrael as well. One to two classes each month take turns making 150 lunches to donate to a soup kitchen. We also send classes to the ARK the two years leading up to B’nai Mitzvah and the 7th Grade class visits the Illinois Holocaust Museum. We participate in our synagogue’s Tikkun Olam Fair, the Taste of Israel Fair and make several projects to give to people at nursing homes, Jewish Child and Family Services, and local food pantries. All the while, Rambam’s ladder of tzedakah is a focal point, as we teach our students “to teach others how to fish so that they can fish for themselves someday.”

Do we use textbooks and siddurim (prayerbooks)? Absolutely! Do we have prayer services and sit in the sanctuary? Without a doubt. Do we offer art, music and Israeli dancing classes? How could we not? Do we believe that we must change with the times in order to compete with the sophisticated and complex modern-day student who has Google and answers to questions at his or her fingertips? You better believe it.

If you are interested in an innovative learning experience for your children that takes the needs of the 21st-century learner into account as a primary goal, we just might be the school for you. Please contact me if you have any questions. Our best ambassadors are our students and their parents. Please speak with them or set up a meeting/tour of the school with me.

B’Shalom,
Charlie Sherman