Engaging Our Students For A Stronger Education

A look at effective methods used by local schools

To achieve a preeminent education for our children, yeshivas need strong leadership, innovative programming, and parent-teacher-student engagement. According to studies, without strong leadership, education for our children suffers. Across Queens and the surrounding local communities, a vast range of Jewish educational choices are offered, including day schools, yeshivas, outreach schools, and programs for those with special needs in a mainstream environment. Families looking for a secular, as well as a Jewish education have doors open to them where they can find the right fit for the right education for each child.

Yeshivas today have administrative leaders who are visionaries in educational requirements and have created and oversee curriculum that will build our future leaders.  Throughout the Mishnah, there are quotes reflecting the importance of education in correlation to our connection to Hashem and to the world around us.  To help bring this idea of learning through a personal connection to Hashem, Rabbi Michael Ribalt, Assistant Principal of Judaic Studies at the Yeshiva of Central Queens (YCQ) in Kew Gardens Hills has instituted a program where students don’t just daven three times a day because that’s the expectation; he has learned that a child or even an adult will do this by choice when they feel a closeness to G-d. Rabbi Ribalt says, “We want our students to connect in all areas.  This will build self-esteem, as davening is a time to work on ones self. Tefillah should be a tool to help students work on a social, emotional and spiritual level.” To do this, there needs to be some relevance in the children’s own lives.

Rabbi Ribalt initiated a program that requires the morot and rebbeim to give thought to what is on their student’s minds, to question where their interests lie, and connect them to tefillah and learning. Though this process takes thought and practice, the outcome creates a more permanent and meaningful experience. Students stay most engaged when lessons are exciting, concrete and use the five senses. One teacher wanted to show her students the importance of davening and how students should respect Hashem and themselves.  She handed each student a comb, and had him or her comb their hair, wash their hands, and straighten their clothing.  By having them take a few minutes to prepare before davening, it showed them the importance of their tefillah. Another lesson was teaching the idea of pokeach orayim, being thankful for our sight. The teacher had students complete tasks blindfolded to gain a real understanding. “Once you have an individual sense of Jewish pride and relevance, students will begin to open themselves up to understanding the significance of davening for themselves and eventually for all of the Klal, the entire Nation, thus building strong character that will carry students in all areas of tefillah, academics and as members of the Jewish community,” said Rabbi Ribalt.

When a child is preparing to begin their education, parents want to feel that they have a choice in what is the right education for their child. Oftentimes, a mainstream school is not equipped to handle students who require additional services or a more supportive learning environment. Yet these obstacles should not prohibit a Jewish child from a Jewish education in a Torah environment. The Yeshiva Education for Special Students (YESS), located in Kew Gardens Hills, offers an opportunity to students who cannot be solely in a mainstream yeshiva, and gives both Judaic and secular educations in a supportive Torah environment while attaining access to their mainstream peers to build security, confidence, and socialization skills. The curriculum is tailor-made for students individually.  The administration, teachers, and therapists work as a team to create the most productive course of study. A specific curriculum may never be used again or it can be applied to another student with similar needs.  Teachers have a tremendous amount of input in their students’ education in regards to materials and methodologies used in a fluid curriculum. Faculty is constantly reassessing and reevaluating, as the student progresses, looking at what is and what is not working, and reinventing the course of teaching.  Leora Hecht, Educational Director at YESS, notes importance of individualized curriculums. “I don’t believe there is any single program that works across the board for all children.  We take aspects and elements of many programs and incorporate them in to the individualized curriculum we create as a team, for each student.”

A shared vision of academic success and religious connection for all students based on high standards, a climate created within the framework of a safe environment, positive interaction between school and home to enhance the connection needed for academic and spiritual growth, and the cultivation of leadership within our yeshivas and day schools in order to create a supportive working and learning environment, all allow for our teachers to teach at their best, so students will have a rich learning experience.

Many of our local yeshivas and day schools maintain both rigorous Judaic and secular studies academic programs, as well as offer a variety of extra curricular activities and athletics. In a changing world built on technological advancement, Yeshiva University High School for Girls-Central offers the ACE Mentor Program of America and the Science Institute, which exposes, excites, and inspires students in the fields of engineering and science. Central alumnus Chaya Baila Rothberg (‘12) noted the positive balance of the program. “I love that we were able to learn about and use technology in a positive way. Though we were being taught about technology, we would also be encouraged to turn off our cell phones and engage in real conversation, face to face. A good balance.” 

Many yeshivas and day schools have introduced classroom management programs that enhance education by allowing for easy access to school-wide information, including homework and open lines of communication between school and home. This allows for technology to have an ongoing safe and positive effect on education.

When asked about the importance of leadership by administration, Rabbi Mendel Zlotnick, rebbe and ELA teacher at Mesivta Chofetz Chaim in Kew Gardens Hills, answered, “When kids know that there is someone at the top that has expectations of them and believes in them, they produce.” Teaching grades 9-12 requires a balance in the classroom between structure and expectations and knowing when to have a sense of humor. “It is the combination of structure and kidding around that keeps the boys engaged.  If a student senses I care about them and we form a positive relationship, it overflows in their work.” To this end, the menahel and assistant principals are very involved in dealing with and resolving day-to-day concerns and needs of faculty and students.

The community also boasts several choices of pre-schools. Many parents will choose a school based on personal family hashkafah, or where they eventually want to send their child to elementary, while others choose a preschool based on the methodologies used in preparing students for their future academic journey. Sharon Korn, pre-school director at YCQ, incorporated a program called Fundations®, A Wilson language training program for phonics that uses a combination of learning through accessing sight clues along with necessary attack skills that will prepare children for kindergarten and first grade in both literacy and Common Core Math. One of the most efficient ways to assess a child’s writing readiness is based on whether another person could understand that student’s writing. Says Mrs. Korn, “Our teachers do this by first instructing students in letter recognition and then encouraging the use of inventive spelling where they can express themselves in personal journals.”

Regardless of what type of Judaic and secular education in an academic institution is accessed, the keys to success are strong, open leadership; student motivation; innovative programming; an effective learning classroom climate, where each student feels like a significant contributor to the class; computer self-efficacy, where students and faculty feel confident in technology skills; and professional development, allowing teachers and administration to work as a team learning and introducing new methodologies in teaching and curriculum building and problem solving to gain the best possible outcomes in all areas to create life-long learners in our children.