Look how enthralled these boys are! And who wouldn't be?!?! The last time this happened they were 6 years old. Now they had the benefit of understanding what they are witnessing since they learned all about eclipses in science class.
Can you guess the era? Today's theme for Adar dress-up days in middle school was "Time Period". Pick an outfit to represent a time in history. These 8th grade girls had so much fun learning about the styles of the past.
Conjugating Hebrew verbs can be a daunting task for 5th grade boys. Thankfully, Rabbi Rubin and Rabbi Pollack make it fun and manageable. I walked into a scene of "verb tiles" in which students actively sorted them by similar prefixes and suffixes to help identify the patterns involved in conjugating the future tense of a verb.
I did not have the zechus to roam the halls of TDSA today because Rabbi Oratz and I were in New York attending a session with Larry Thompson and 8 other Jewish School leaders who are currently implementing his Responsibility Centered Discipline program. It was an intimate training and discussion digging deep into implementation challenges and how to perfect our ability to build the responsibility muscle of our students. As part of the session, Rabbi Oratz role played a typical RCD conversation with a "student" played by Larry Thompson himself!
Combining sports with physics and neuroscience is not obvious at first. When this guest speaker for the 8th grade boys explained how his products train baseball players and hockey refs in decision making, it became a lot more clear. Here, he is demonstrating how batters can determine strikes and balls within 4/10 of a second. While getting his doctorate at Georgia Tech, he became interested in the science of quick decision making. He is now involved in training baseball players, hockey refs, and police cadettes. This 8th grade class got to see first hand how their lessons in biology and physics could lead to lucrative and interesting careers.
"Doing Mitzvos is more precious than recess". That is a direct quote from a first grader in this picture. These boys are gathering the supplies they will use to decorate their siddurim tonight in the classroom with their parents and classmates. As they collected the beautiful, gleaming "gems" he felt compelled to compare mitzvos to the precious stones he was holding in his hand. Wow! Such a proud moment for his Head of School!
We are the CHAMPION
Congratulations to your Torah Day THUNDER Basketball Team for winning the league championship game today. The Thunder dominated the regular season, with only one loss - to Intown. And sure enough, the championship game was an intense rematch. It was amazing to see such a huge show of support from parents, teachers, and fellow students cheering on our athletes on their path to victory. A special thank you to Coach Diener who led our the boys to play with strong middos, teamwork, and skill. Go THUNDER!
Roaming through the middle school girls' hallway, I was drawn into the intense focus of these girls doing math. There was a quiet and productive din emanating from the room as each table worked on solving math problems as a team. The concentration and collaboration was impressive!
Kindergarten boys enjoyed a fabrengen today in honor of one of their birthdays. It included brachos on food, singing, a history of the Lubavitch Rebbes, and a story about the importance of benching from the bencher!
Ever wonder what happens after our 2pm Dismissal Days? We gather as a faculty community to learn and grow. During this session, teachers took a deep dive into our Core Values Discipline Program. Other sessions include Creative Writing Workshop and Reaching Each Talmid. We appreciate the time to grow as a professional community!
It was so hard to choose just one pic from this week's Chanukah Festivities. Each day brought a new height to our school's ruach through Chanukah games, story time, decorations, dancing, food, unique menorahs, and so much more. In the end, I chose a snapshot that highlights our connected community ruach led by TDSA's faculty. Rebbeim dance together with their talmidim; both expressing utter joy for Chanukah and everything this time of year means. We are so fortunate to have inspiring mechanchim and connected talmidim! The above picture shows K-4 students dancing together (special thank you to the YOY senior class for enhancing the dancing). Later in the event, all boys from K-8th grade danced with joy as one kehila. It was a beautiful experience!
I had the pleasure of showing off our school to a visiting guest today. It was gratifying to see how impressed she was at the many types of rigorous and engaging learning in our classrooms throughout the school. I snapped a picture of one example: these 1st grade boys playing math bingo as one of their math centers. The clues were addition problems in which the solution could be found on the Bingo Board.
Yes, I cheered loudly as our Torah Day Thunder romped the AJA Jaguars on the way to a victory this past Monday during our first official Middle School Basketball League game of the season. Our team played with passion and precision as they proudly represented their school. To start the competition, players unified at center court for a moment of achdus and Blue and White solidarity with our brethren. Gathered in an intermingled circle, one student led the teams and fans in Tehilim, while another led them in prayers for both the IDF soldiers and the captives. It was a beautiful way to start the game!
I walked into a powerful learning moment in kindergarten boys' class. After Morah Mindy demonstrated the sound "og" makes, she asked the students to come up with their own examples of words that have an "og" at the end - log, jog, hog . . . What an epiphany for these young lads to discover the formation of words!!! They loved saying it and writing it down and thinking of more.
TDSA students are building a dome of protection called the "mitzvah dome". Students take on extra learning, mitzvos, and/or tefilos to provide protection for Israel and all of Klal Yisroel. They write them down and we use the note to form the dome. Some examples include: "visiting an elderly neighbor", "benching out loud from a bencher", and "setting the table for Shabbos". I am sure it will be filled in completely really soon!
Rabbi Dovid Engel, an experienced Menahel who recently retired as a full time Head of School in Toronto, visited TDSA today to provide chizuk and Professional Development for our Judaic faculty. He began the day inspiring the Middle School Boys after davening with a riveting, personal story about how he was motivated towards the path of chinuch.
A heartfelt letter from a young TDSA student
What a beautiful day outside! The temperature cooled, the sun is still shining, and the smell of autumn is approaching. The 8B class seized the moment by bringing their literature learning outdoors. Small groups disused guiding questions related to the novel, while individual picked a comfy spot delve into their reading. It was spectacular watching them enjoy their temporary classroom setting!
Remember when grammar lessons were boring? They were when I was in middle school. That did not seem to be the case when I stepped into Mrs. Bowles' 5G Humanities class. Students were fully engaged in their daily grammar practice. They analyzed a sentence full of mistakes using specific steps for the grammar checks. They were excited to catch the mistakes! This daily practice will surely improve their writing competency.
Reconnecting After the Summer
I walked outside today to observe 1st and 2nd grade recess. It was great catching these girls clamoring into the TDSA Treehouse to rekindle friendships!
