Dear Friends –
Thank you so much for joining Sunday night for the Religious School Town Hall. If you were not able to join us, I would like to share with you the plans for the 2020-2021 school year as well as answers to the questions that were asked.
For the 2020-2021 school year we are going to begin the school year with a hybrid of both in person and virtual learning.
- If your student/s attend Religious School once a week on Sunday, they will have the opportunity to attend in person learning at Adat Reyim once a month. All other sessions will be on ZOOM.
- If they attend twice a week on Sunday and Monday nights, they will have the opportunity to attend in person learning at Adat Reyim twice a month. All other sessions will be on ZOOM.
- The virtual learning will be successful if students participate and the parents play an active role in their Religious School experience.
- We will have two grades in the building at the same time. and we will make sure that this comes out to be fewer than 30 people in the building on that day.
- The students will only be in contact with their teacher, the madrich/cha, and myself. Parents will not be allowed in the building during these sessions.
- They will be meeting in the sanctuary and rooms 101, 102, and 103 with the walls open.
- Masks will be required at all times by all people in the building, including children.
- Chairs/tables will be placed 6 feet from each other in the Sanctuary and Classrooms.
- Class will run from 10:00am–11:15am on Sunday and 6:00pm-7:15pm on Monday nights.
- If you do not wish to send your student/s to inperson learning they will still be included in the class session through ZOOM. Please click below to tell us what you are planning to do.
- The schedule cannot be set until we have more students registered. If you have not registered, please do so ASAP.
- We will continue to have Ruach with Morah Andrea Cate and Morah Sariel Ende-Alonzo and those plans will be shared as soon as they are solidified.
- We will plan Minyan for Monday evenings throughout the year but also encourage everyone to attend services both on Friday night and Saturday morning so your student/s can be comfortable and familiar with the service outline and prayers.
We will try to have as many classes outside as possible, but this will be very difficult to plan and communicate ahead of time due to the weather. If you are hesitant about sending your student in person but would be fine if they were outside, then please make sure that you check your communication the day before your class meets. I want to reinforce that the health and safety of our teachers and students is our number one goal. Everything that we have planned will follow strict safety precautions, and if at any time our teachers are no longer comfortable, we will move to all virtual learning.
When not meeting in person students will be scheduled for virtual learning. I am very excited to introduce the new curriculum, “Shalom Learning.” You can go to their website www.shalomlearning.org , and I would also recommend watching the following two videos. The first one is about the importance of a Values Based Curriculum and the second one is about the Torah Aura Hebrew portion of the Curriculum https://vimeo.com/431945131 , https://vimeo.com/431926980 . The teachers will have the opportunity to supplement the curriculum with their own creativity and personalities as well as adding additional tools like Sefaria, Google Slides, Eyal Hebrew App and using the tools that Zoom provides like annotations, chats, and breakout rooms. We will be using Madrichim to assist in each of the Zoom rooms to run the technology so that the teachers can focus on teaching. The Shalom Learning Platform is hosted by Schoology, a product that a lot of public schools use. Each student will receive a log-in, and be able to see their progress, attendance, earn badges and more.
The First Day of Sunday School will be September 13th and we will have either a social distance picnic or a drive and wave, depending on the weather. If we have a social distance picnic everyone will bring their own lunches and chairs or blankets and sit at least six feet apart. We will pass out supplies for the beginning of the year. The First Monday will be all virtual learning. The High Holidays fall on the weekend this year so after the first week of Religious School we will have 4 weeks before we meet again. I will be working with Rabbi Glazer and the Religious Practices committee to plan some awesome celebrations for the Students and I hope you will make sure they join us.
During the Town Hall there were some questions about the Teen Program or “Teen Club” as one of the parents referred to it, and 7th Grade. 7th Grade will be taught by Morah Vered Margalit and it will be all virtual learning. As we get closer to the first day, we will let you know what time the class will meet. If you have an 8th-12th grader you will be hearing from Dan Altman and Carla Richter soon with plans for the upcoming year, but they will be following a similar hybrid format as the Religious School. We are excited to have Rabbi Glazer teach Confirmation. More information regarding class dates, times and content will be available soon. I hope all our Teens will sign up for the Madrichim program. We need as much help as possible running the Zoom Classrooms and I hope everyone will join us at the Social Distance Picnic or Drive and Wave on the First Day, September 13th.
This is a community effort and requires a lot of trust in each other. We need to know that we are all doing our best to stay safe individually and to keep each other safe as a community. I am trusting that none of us want to infect each other, our students or our teachers. That means that when you are out in public you are wearing masks and washing hands -- not just when you are in the synagogue, but all the time. If we all do our part, then this hybrid teaching will work and we won’t have to shut down and go all virtual. If you have any questions, please know that I am always available by email or phone (708)261-8971. Thank you and I look forward to a very exciting year!
Elizabeth Bayer
Executive Director and Religious School Administrator
Congregation Adat Reyim
6500 Westbury Oaks Court
Springfield, Virginia 22152
execdirector@adatreyim.org
religiousschool@adatreyim.org
(703)569-7577
