In this ongoing debate of whether to continue learning or only do chazoroh, I’ve been hearing opinions to both ends. Today, I got feedback in writing, which I’d like to share with you below:
Rabbi Roitenbarg from Gateshead, who coaches multiple schools with their kriah curriculum needs, reported in this email a 90% success rate for the classes who’ve continued with the kriah curriculum via phone conferences/ recordings. (Without Zoom – Audio Only)
Some teachers’ fears of students’ lacking interest or engagement for ‘phone learning’ are merely obstacles causing them to refrain from teaching new material. It is truly a concern, and there’s no question whether we will have the same amount of participation with remote learning; especially when done through audio only.
On the counterpart, we have to remember that we can’t spoil the good for the perfect; still we can aim high by thorough lesson planning to create short, yet powerful lessons that will captivate the students’ interest and engagement.
Yes, there is a fear of some children lagging behind, however, in exchange, a lot more fall behind when we don’t continue teaching new material. At the same time, those who have continued teaching new materials are reporting high levels of success with the students’ abilities in the those areas.
To conclude, it is our recommendation that the kriah curriculum continues throughout these times and that the curriculum objectives for each grade should be met at the end of this school year. This year’s remote learning is anytime more effective than the next year’s teacher’s live lessons, due to the teacher’s unfamiliarity of the content.
I’d love to hear your feedback! Please share your experiences advancing in your curriculum by commenting on this post.
A Freilichen Yom Tov!