ARTIFACTS

LETTER OF RECOMENDATION

This is a letter from the Rosh Midrasha of Tiferet, where I worked as a Madricha for one year. I feel this is an artifact that comprehensively explains the type of teacher I am in both informal and formal education. It is a sincere representation of my character and skills, from the perspective of an employer. One reason I chose this as an artifact, is because I feel it reflects the growth and understanding I gained while figuring out what role to play for these seminary students. The lessons I learned from this job have significantly changed my approach to interacting with students in and outside the classroom.

LESSON PLAN

This lesson plan was devised to be used in a Fifth grade classroom. It is a practical lesson that not only informs the students about a subject, and models how we can apply the lesson to our daily lives. I feel it is a good representation of a complete lesson plan from start to finish, and includes pedagogical skills and Judaic knowledge. I like that it goes through each function of the lesson and is clear about what is accomplished and learned by the students through each section.

CURRICULUM

I am extremely proud of creating an entire curriculum with my classmates as an assignment in Dr. Jeffrey Glanz's Curriculum and Assessment course. The prospect of creating a full curriculum is daunting, however, when I look at this thorough, well thought out, organized project, I am reminded of how far I have come in my education as a teacher. Although it was a group project, I decided to include it as one of my artifacts, because I feel it is a curriculum I would use in a classroom if I had the chance, and I had an equal hand in creating it.
This curriculum is for a 10th grade Shoftim class and extends throughout an entire year. It provides every detail about the course from the size of the class to the hours it takes place. It provides context for each decision we made in its creation and I feel it is the ultimate representation of my skills in creating a curriculum.

READING AND LITERACY

This is my final assignment from Dr. Scott Goldberg's course on teaching literacy. This assignment in particular, which I dictate in my final reflections, was difficult for me to execute. However, I managed to grasp a number of new skills and concepts about literacy and reading in Hebrew that I can implement in future classes. I chose to include this artifact because it features competency of skills that are not necessarily featured in my other artifacts. This assignment was challenging because I was learning the new concepts as I was attempting to include them in my lesson plans. I think this reflects my ability to adjust to new teaching styles and find a way to implement them.

CHUMASH LESSON

This document is the final assignment I turned in to Dr. Ilana Turetsky for her Teaching Chumash course. I am incuding it as an artifact because it outlines my thought process behind each pedagogical choice and exhibits my Chumash skills. Sections are color coded according to certain specifications that Dr. Turetsky assigned and I will explain them here. The blue sentences indicate how I intend to keep the students engaged. The pink sentences display my thoughts behind selecting the mefarshim. The red sentences explain how I will promote higher order thinking and how I will relate it to students' lives. The green sentences indicate a check for understanding/assessment. The orange sentences are activities of reading comprehension. Lastly the purple sentences display chumash skills or social skills. 

COURSE AND TEACHER ASSESSMENT

I was inspired to create this artifact after my numerous courses at Yeshiva University. At the end of every semester, we were given a course evaluation sheet and advised to elaborate on our opinions of the course. While I was not always able to benefit from the changes professors made after reading their evaluations, I like to believe they were valued and and considered in their preparation for the following semester. As a student filling out these forms, I was appreciative that I was given a voice and asked to express my thoughts on the course. This document is one that I intend to hand out to my students, not at the end of the semester, but at different points throughout the course. That way I can continue to make improvements and adjust my teaching and focus specifically to each class and student. While this in no way will serve as my only way of assessing my effectiveness in the classroom, I do believe it creates discussion and encourages involvement in the students taking their learning into their own hands.