About my work:
Interdisciplinary Studies
I began my work in interdisciplinary
studies at Frisch by meeting with Torah and Nakh teachers to see where in their
syllabi students would benefit from and appreciate a look into the cultures
that form the backdrop of the Biblical books. The interdisciplinary units that resulted
from that planning and which AVICHAI funded include:
- Paganism
vs. Monotheism: A comparison of the ancient Near Eastern pagan worldview
with Abraham’s monotheistic one
- Fertility
and Wells: Wells as fertility symbols and Isaac’s well digging
- Jacob on
the DL (disabled list): Achilles, Oedipus and the significance of leg
injuries (one of my personal favorites)
- Joseph in
Egypt: A comparison of Mesopotamian and Egyptian lifestyles (adapted for
elementary school as well)
- God
attacks Egypt: The might of the Egyptian empire and God’s response (a
2-part series)
- The
Hammurabi Code and Biblical Law
- The Mishkan and Art in the Ancient World
- Ancient
Military Encampments vs. the Israelite Encampment in Numbers
- Purity in
the Camp: A look at Sotah and ancient adultery law
- Prophecy
and Divination in the Torah and the Ancient World: Balaam and his powers
- The Power
of Shema: Deuteronomy’s Message
- Solomon’s
Temple vs. Temples in the Ancient Near East
- Assyrian
Might in the Books of the Prophets
- Jonah,
Pinocchio and the Meaning of the Foray into the Fish’s Stomach
- Palaces
and Parties: The Achaemenid Court and Esther
- What Ruth
Corrects in Levirate Law: A comparison of levirate law in the ancient
world and its significance in the Ruth story
- Co-taught
with a Nakh teacher: a three-part series on literature, art and music in
Judaism; I prepared the art and most of the literature part of the
sessions
Here is a link to many of my integration
units: http://www.slideboom.com/my_presentations
As Chairman of the English Department, I've overseen the establishment of set standards in grammar and research in my school's four-year program; combined Honors American Literature with AP English Language
in the junior year, making the course both literary and media-based; and planned,
taught and continue to teach an integrated senior elective called Hot Topics,
which uses literature, art, film and Judaic sources to look at medical ethics
and racism today. Here is a link to the wiki page that best features the
interdisciplinary and multi-media nature of the Hot Topics course:
[If you want access to any of the links to the Frisch wiki, please contact me at tikvah.wiener@gmail.com. The wiki is password-protected, but I have a guest password for educators.]
[If you want access to any of the links to the Frisch wiki, please contact me at tikvah.wiener@gmail.com. The wiki is password-protected, but I have a guest password for educators.]
As Coordinator of Interdisciplinary
Studies, I’ve worked with each department in the school to learn how the topics
in each course might fit into a theme I selected for each grade. I co-created
and wrote the content for a school wiki, where each grade can interact with
different topics pertaining to that grade’s theme. The grades' themes:
Freshmen: Identity
Sophomores: Exploration
Juniors: Conflict
Seniors: Integration
Freshmen: Identity
Sophomores: Exploration
Juniors: Conflict
Seniors: Integration
The wiki pages aren't divided by course, but rather by topics common to myriad classes. Freshmen, for example, under the theme of
identity, can learn about the topic of leadership by studying it through the
lens of their literature, history, and Tanakh classes. I co-wrote an article with
Rabbi Tzvi Pittinsky about the school-wide wiki in the Lookstein Journal, Jewish Educational Leadership: http://www.lookstein.org/online_journal.php?id=250
I also created, organized and now oversee
interdisciplinary days of learning for grades 9-11, ones that pertain to each
grade’s themes. The ninth grade integration day is fate and free will, the tenth
grade day is censorship and book burning, and the eleventh grade day is the
Holocaust. We planned the eleventh grade integration day with a school in
Israel, enabling us to have a global classroom.
I grew a week-long integrated study of the
Greeks into Frisch Greek week, where ninth graders focus on what the Greeks
contributed to the world and learn where to draw the line between what secular
cultures can give Judaism and ways in which secular environments harm our
religion.
In the tenth grade, I developed the Frisch
Africa Encounter, a month-long study of the African continent that culminates
in an evening for parents, students and teachers. As part of the month-long
program, students read either The
Posionwood Bible or Little Bee and
complete a research project in history that they then convert into digital
media for the presentation night. Students also learn about the integration of
Ethiopian Jewry into Israeli society; debate what Israel should do about
African refugees; repurpose discarded materials into works of art; and raise
money for Innovation: Africa, an organization that uses sustainable Israeli
technologies to improve life in African countries. At the evening for the
Frisch community, sophomores share their exploration of African art, culture,
economies, and social entrepreneurs with the school community.
RealSchool
The modern
world needs people with a complex identity who are intellectually autonomous
and prepared to cope with uncertainty; who are able to draw inferences and can
control their behavior in the light of foreseen consequences, who are
altruistic and enjoy doing for others, and who understand social forces and
trends."
-- Robert
Havighurst, 20th-century American psychologist
Last year I began RealSchool (RS), a
program that advocates for and models education reform by having students
engage in self-designed, collaborative, inquiry-based learning. The teams in
the club are formed based on students’ interests and generally include subjects
not taught in the traditional classroom. RS teams include App Making, The Arts,
Fashion, Finance, Graphic Design, Health and Environment, Marketing, Religious
Identity, Social Action and Entrepreneurship, Video Production and Web Design.
The club has organized events such as a
student-run Yom Iyun; a pre-Shavuot program called Detox for the Decalogue; a
student-run discussion series on prayer; and a day devoted to doing 26 Acts of
Kindness for the 26 victims of Newtown. Club members are now involved in
* creating a green cookbook that will be made into an app
* a fashion and dance show that raises awareness about ethical food and fashion, the oppression of women worldwide and female entrepreneurs
* an education reform movement
* a video series based on the prayer discussions the Religious Identity team is having.
* creating a green cookbook that will be made into an app
* a fashion and dance show that raises awareness about ethical food and fashion, the oppression of women worldwide and female entrepreneurs
* an education reform movement
* a video series based on the prayer discussions the Religious Identity team is having.
RealSchool’s student-designed website: http://frischrealschool.org
RS's FaceBook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/RealSchool/234355426650263?ref=hl.
RS's FaceBook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/RealSchool/234355426650263?ref=hl.
An article about RealSchool appears in the
Spring 2012 volume of The Lookstein Center’s Jewish Educational Leadership Journal and can be found here: http://www.lookstein.org/online_journal.php?id=425
Frisch LEADs
This year I decided to imbue the academic
curriculum with more of RealSchool’s values. I worked with my fellow AP English
Literature teachers and developed Frisch LEADs (Learning. Exploring. Analyzing.
Designing.), a project that has students choose their own topic for study and research.
Students blog about the discovery and planning process of this year-long
undertaking and must complete a 25-page paper or a multi-media project by March.
For more information, see http://frischlead.blogspot.com.
Two particularly good examples of student blogs from the project can be found here:
Two particularly good examples of student blogs from the project can be found here:
The Global Classroom
As a proponent of global learning, I’ve
also connected entire grades, my classes and particular students to students
across the globe. I mentioned the junior integration day, which Frisch conducts
with a school in Israel. I’ve also had my sophomore classes interact and
converse on wikis with a school in Gush Etzion, Neveh Channah.
In addition, as a result of last year’s
Frisch Africa Encounter, six sophomore girls became interested in building
relationships with Ethiopian children in Israel. My sister Smadar Goldstein of
JETS, an online learning provider based in Israel, presented the Frisch program
on Ethiopian Jewry as a webinar. Smadar arranged for my sophomore girls to
Skype with Ethiopian students, and one of my students, who is going to Israel
in February 2013, is arranging a meeting with her Ethiopian friend.
Additional Resources
I’m a lover of social media, blogging,
tweeting and posting on Facebook about my work and RealSchool’s. In addition to
RealSchool’s blog, I also have an AP Art History blog and one on which I post
about education, interdisciplinary studies and English.
For AP Art History:
For my education blog:
Here are three blog posts I particularly like:
The Greeks, Qohelet and the Importance of
Beginning Again
A Jewish Response to Hedonism and
Narcissism
Sacred Space: Contemplating Colorado,
Diablo III and the Destruction of the Temple
(You can discern my Sacksian and Heschelian
worldview in those posts.)
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