Mr. Rob's Blog

Hey everyone- busy week for everyone as we prepare for the big event on Sunday night-- the family Kol Nidre service! I'm really excited as we have some great content and look forward to making the Yom Kippur evening service into an interactive learning experience-- that is (and I'm not sure if it should be or not...) fun, yet still respectful and true to the spirit of the event.

Ruach is the word that comes to mind when Judy, the Rabbi, and the Cantor and I sit down to prepare these alternative services. We want to capture the spirituality and energy that can come from these events. To me there's nothing more spiritually unpleasant than sitting in a large room full of people who repeat liturgy without 1) understanding the personal meaning behind the words and melodies that our people have chanted for hundreds if not thousands of years; and 2) feeling a connection to the event. The liturgy and content of conservative services is deeply significant and has been to our people (and other faiths) for centuries.

The best example I could give is the Hashkiveinu prayer we chant every Friday night. The words, both in English and Hebrew, are beautiful and motivational-- yet most of us blindly chant the Hebrew without stopping to appreciate it. Same goes for Modim Anachnu Lach at the end of the Amidah-- these two prayers, at least to me, are the essence of Shabbat. I'll go into more detail on these after the High Holidays.

Anyhow (FO-CUS, Mr. Rob) back on topic -- we look to capture the same feeling and explore the deep meaning of the Yom Kippur liturgy and do it in a way that connects to us as 21st century families.

Class today was limited to 2 topics- and they're important: Atonement (and not just saying "Sorry"); and Hebrew reading including Mem/Mem Sofit and the vowel Chirik (long e sound). If you missed class this week you can download the homework by clicking on these links: Lesson 4a , Lesson 4b then printing the sheets.

REMINDERS: 1) YES there is class this Sunday!!! We will be learning some songs for the Kol Nidre service! Please attend!; 2) Class Shabbat and 3rd grade Consecration is coming up on 10/2. SAVE THE DATE! We will be leading part of the service.

Hey everyone! We've now added Lamed and TWO (yes, two!) new vowels: Cholam (long "o") and Shuruk ("oo" as in "tool"). We try to have a rule to help us remember some of the tricky letters and vowels.. for example: Bet has a base and a belly button, Tav has a toe, and so on. Today we learned that "Lamed Looks Like Lightning".

The memory trick for the vowels is a bit difficult to put into words on the blog, but it involves either putting your hands over your head in the shape of an "O" like a basketball player asking for the ball "I'm O-pen!!" and Shuruk has the dot in the middle.. like the sound you'd make if you were hit in the stomach: "Oo!" Doesn't quite work well in print, but ask your child to demonstrate.

Homework is lesson 3a and 3b, due on Wednesday.

We practiced this today by doing a speed reading game. The kids were given 5-6 minutes to practice a line in our text book, then were given the opportunity to try and read it as quickly as possible. This exercise helps with quick recognition of phoneme groups. Kids aren't penalized for long times, but are rewarded for quick times and if they improve on their own performance week over week.

We also have 2 teaching assistants with us on Wednesday and Sunday. My son Ian and his 7th grade classmate Hayley Garron are starting to do one-on-one reading with each student. This will help us to challenge those who are a little ahead of the others, and will also give some extra attention to those who need the assistance. We hope to have everyone in class get at least one session per week.. we have a large class, but we will do our best.

We also talked a little more about starting life "new" in the new year... on Wednesday when we come back we'll talk in more detail about Yom Kippur, forgiveness (both getting and giving), and the difference between starting anew while not totally forgetting about past mistakes.

Shana Tova!!!

Hi everyone- we had a very busy day today! We started by reviewing our Hebrew letters and vowels. Shin, bet, and tav reviews got us ready to learn our next new letter on Wednesday... coming soon: Lamed!

We had our first prayer class in the sanctuary. During that session Ms. Sandler talked about the special blessings for Rosh Hashanah.

When we got back up to our class, we continued the conversation about the upcoming Days of Awe. Today's focus was on renewal: If we can start with a clean slate and do the last year all over, what we can do to make the world (or at least our homes) better in the upcoming year. I really emphasized the positive phrasing-- no "I won't do.." or "I'll stop doing..." and had them reword their ideas in positive terms "I will do this better".

Rosh Hashanah is about renewal and starting over. After we start fresh at the New Year, we spend the next 10 days working on making amends for what we did and focus on the "I won't do..". That will be the focus of discussion on Wednesday.

Lastly today we started our Israeli Scavenger Hunt book. This text is a great story about an American boy on his first visit to Israel. The first chapter had the kids locate Israel on a world map, and then look at the relative size of the country compared to its neighbors.

Remember to have your kids let me know if they attend services! They receive team points for coming to Shabbat services-- even if they are at another synagogue!

See you all on Wednesday!
Rob

I'm happy to say we learned 2 new letters this week- which brings our running total to 3! We now can read and write Shin, Bet, and Tav as well as the kamatz and patach vowels.

Homework is Lesson 2a and Lesson 2b in our workbooks.

We also talked about the importance of proper behavior during our afternoon service. Even though we are at Hebrew School, the service we conduct is a 'real' minchah service. We fully expect all of the students to act appropriately- which includes properly handling siddurim (in addition to costing the synagogue about $50 each they contain sacred text including Torah), treating adults with respect, and not disrupting the service.

Please reinforce this to them. I am trying to get them to understand that they can have fun and be goofy when appropriate, but that there is an expectation that they are now taking on more 'grown up' responsibilities by participating in a real service.

We also won't get to have a snack until about 5:30. Our service ends at about 5 and it takes some time to transition to the class, dole out the portions, and say blessings. If this is a problem for your child, please have them eat before coming to synagogue. As with the sanctuary, no food is allowed in the chapel and we ask that the students give their full attention to the prayers.

Thanks!

Hey everyone! Welcome to the official blog site for Mr. Rob's 3rd grade class at Rodeph Sholom in Tampa. In this space I'll recap the recent class activities and post links to homework.

Last week we learned the Hebrew rules: 1)right to left; and 2) up/down/over. We also talked about the phoneme combinations... all Hebrew sounds can be broken down into letter/vowel or letter/vowel/letter groupings. We practiced using these rules using English letters... students were asked to write at least five household objects using these rules.

In Torah study we introduced our book, Explorer's Bible Book 1. In the story of creation we talked about the "it was evening then morning the next day" and how that relates to how we celebrate holidays starting at sundown on the day before the holiday... and how G-d called all of his creations "good" after they were made. This is a key concept that we'll explore in more detail in the next few weeks. We are focusing on how G-d made us all good by default and it's up to us to make decisions that will either let us do good or evil throughout our lives.

In Judaics we carried the 'good' theme forward and talked a lot about the idea of Study/Charity/Prayer. We want them to understand why study is the most important of the 3 and how we are commanded to do all three...

Today (Wednesday 9/2) we learned our first Hebrew letter, shin. I was very impressed with how much of the letters the kids remembered from past years... they were able to read some of the words in our text book!! This is great! I challenged them to finish the whole alef-bet by the end of February.. if they can accomplish this timeline we'll have a party when we're done.

Homework tonight is Lesson 1a and Lesson 1b in our workbook. You can also access the pages online if your child misplaced it or if they weren't in class. I also sent home the Parent's Guide.. use this as a reference if your Hebrew is a bit rusty

Have fun, safe, and healthy weekend and see you on Wednesday!! (no Sunday school this week due to the Labor Day holiday)