This web site is intended as a learning tool for my students, their parents, and myself. It will include all lesson plans, preparatory material, post-class homework, research project topics and guidelines, and a calendar of upcoming tests and assignments due. Also, I'll post ancillary research material and interesting anecdotal data; the stuff of which lesson plans are born.
The primary goal of this web site is to facilitate the learning of Torah, with an eye towards how (and why) to learn independently. Everything else is a means towards this end.
Your grade will be based on the following factors:
All homework material will be supplied on-line, and will be listed on the page dedicated to each period. Each assignment will have a due date, and should be submitted on or before that date.
While some homework will be of the a post-lesson variety--reviewing the work that we have covered-- an emphasis will be placed on homework that prepares you for the upcoming lesson. The upcoming lesson topic for each class will be posted in advance, and an assignment will accompany it. Hopefully, you will feel that you're preparing for shiur, rather than just doing homework, and your learning should allow you to come to class with some a priori assumptions about the material we will cover. It is the debate of your assumptions, proving, disproving, and reshaping them, that is the exciting part of learning Torah.
Be prepared to read aloud in class from the assigned material.
Test dates will be listed here, along with the scope of the material they cover. Most tests are open book. Generally speaking, the goal of learning Torah is not blind memorization, but to have the tools and knowledge to find, decode and understand the information.
A number of assignments during the year will involve independent and creative writing on selected (and related) Torah subjects. The projects won't be graded by weight; we're shooting for quality over quantity. (If I'm foolish enough to assign a topic entitled "Sum Up the Torah While Standing on One Foot," you would get an "A" by handing in a paper stating: "V'ahavtah L'reyacha Kamocha.") Nonetheless, since the grade is affected by my subjective evaluation of completeness, best to err on the side of comprehensiveness.
Put your heart into it; write a piece of work that you'd be proud to present to your peers. You just might have to!
This site is intended to help you stay abreast of what your children are learning. The site contains:
It is a great gift when a child can learn Torah with his or her parents. I hope you will use the material on this site to help your kids prepare for class.