USCJ: Shiurim

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Early Childhood Education

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Shiurim

th,USCJ's department of education will provide early childhood directors of USCJ Synagogue and Schechter early childhood programs* with a Staff Meeting Shiur - a lesson consisting of text and questions, to be used to stimulate Jewish discussion during staff meetings. The text may come from such traditional sources as Torah or Midrash, it may be a contemporary quote, a poem or an excerpt from a story, or it may be something truly alternative that lends itself to a worthy discussion.

Points to consider:

Each shiur (pronounced shee-or) should lead to a 20- to 25-minute discussion.
The shiur requires little or no prerequisite knowledge.
The shiur can be used any time during the month. If the text is part of the weekly Torah cycle it would come from a portion read in the second half of the month, and if it relates to a holiday the holiday, too, will fall in the second half of the month.
There are very few "right" answers.
You may not want to address every question.
That said, the final question of each shiur addresses how the text and the discussion relate to practice in the early childhood program. Be sure to leave enough time to grapple with the last question.
Have a TaNaK - a Hebrew Bible -- on hand to check texts surrounding or related to the given text.

Finally, we recommend giving serious consideration to inviting the synagogue or school rabbi to participate in (NOT lead) the shiur discussion. This is beneficial for many reasons:

The rabbi is a source of Jewish information.
The rabbi can help create a Jewish connection for staff members who have personal religious questions and may not have their own rabbi.
The rabbi's involvement in the ongoing Jewish education of the EC staff gives the congregation or greater school community the message that the EC program is an important part of the synagogue or school.
The rabbi and the teachers will have the opportunity to get to know each other informally. As a result, the EC staff may become more comfortable with the rabbi coming into the classroom for unstructured informal visits.
As the rabbi serves as the institution's mara d'atra, or religious authority, it will be helpful to have the rabbi take part in the discussion to help address any questions about religious practice in the early childhood program

*To receive your copy of the monthly Early Childhood Staff Meeting Shiurim, call Maxine Segal Handelman, USCJ's consultant for early childhood education, at (847) 641-9963 or email her at handelman@uscj.org.