Biographical Info

Areas We Address

A day school would engage with us if they are looking to develop or enhance its Modern Hebrew language program to:

• Strengthen student outcomes, increase student motivation and commitment to Hebrew, and
• Recruit and retain effective Hebrew teachers and leaders through sophisticated and content-specific professional learning.

We are the leader in the field of transforming Hebrew speakers into capable and competent Hebrew language instructors through helping schools to:

• Articulate their Hebrew mission,
• Use assessments that identify the current state and aspirational goals for the Hebrew program, and
• Implement a professional learning plan that includes seminars, coaching, and mentoring.

Expected Outcomes

Working with us, a school should expect to accomplish mutually-agreed upon outcomes such as:

• Onboarding and coaching new Hebrew teachers,
• Mentoring the Hebrew director through the development of a scope and sequence for Modern Hebrew that meets appropriate educational objectives, or the elevation of the professional learning for all of the school’s Hebrew teachers.

Through our membership program that provides a community of practice and access to quality pedagogic resources to multi-year initiatives that embed expertise within the school, Hebrew at the Center helps schools maximize this key component of the Jewish day school value proposition.

Hebrew at the Center also plays a key role in the broader field of Hebrew language education, providing schools with the opportunity to send their faculty for online courses that lead to a professional certificate, to the New Hebrew Teachers Bootcamp, and to the annual professional conference.

Key Activities

We help schools achieve their goals by implementing the following levels of support for the Hebrew program:

• Work with new teachers to onboard them as effective second language educators using the most effective, research-based practices
• Work on an ongoing basis with Hebrew faculty through professional learning sessions (virtual and on-site) and coaching
• Mentoring Hebrew leaders to build a faculty and integrate the instructional efforts with a scope and sequence that achieves the school’s stated outcomes
• Consult with school professionals and lay leadership to articulate an inspiring and achievable mission for Hebrew education and build a professional community to ensure the necessary resources for success

Hebrew at the Center also works at the community-wide and regional level:

• Bringing schools together to further support, strengthen, and retain Hebrew faculty and elevate Hebrew language learning on the agenda to ensure the next generation feels connected to the language of the Jewish people, to global Jewry and Israel, and capable to be Jewishly-literate citizens within the community
• Serving as convenor across the field
• Generating the annual State of the Field report
• Managing the Hebrew teachers professional conference, and
• Advancing certification programs that further professionalize the field

Setting Expectations

To ensure the impact of our support, we expect schools to:

• Work closely with us to set mutually agreed upon attainable objectives that align with the school’s goals and capacity.
• Understand that effective professional learning and a successful language learning plan requires the correct combination of time allocation, professional expertise, and financial resources. We strive to ensure we match what we know with each school’s unique set of Hebrew goals that include both academic and affective outcomes. We also believe that strong leadership from the top and a bottom-up approach that empowers teachers leads to the strongest outcomes.

To ensure the impact of our support, we expect administrators to:

• Help create an atmosphere of honest collaboration
• Ensure their goals for their Hebrew program are shared with their teaching staff and instructional leadership
• Provide teachers the time necessary for professional learning and subsequent reflection on both the learning and its application to their practice
• Understand how to work together to create appropriate and realistic goals for students, teachers, and their program

Successful language learning is a combination of student motivation, effective teaching, and the allocation of the time needed to acquire a language. We work best when we can be real partners with the administration on how to leverage each of those factors to accomplish the articulated goal.

To ensure the impact of our support, we expect classroom teachers to:

• Embrace a growth mindset and be willing to try things that may be new
• Bring their full selves to the professional learning
• Be willing to share their own experiences, wisdom, and training with their peers and to see the work with Hebrew at the Center as a critical component of their personal and professional growth as educators