A Testimonial from Bialik Hebrew Day School, Toronto, for our Schools Pedagogy Course “Purposeful Pedagogy: Making Tanakh our Students’ Story” with Rabbi Reuven Spolter.
“This year, we truly understood how much the statement “The Bible is Our Story” is not just a slogan – but a living, breathing, inspiring declaration. Together with my team from the Jewish Studies department at Bialik Hebrew Day School in Toronto, I took a course in “Purposeful Pedagogy: Making Tanakh our Students’ Story” with Rabbi Reuven Spolter from Herzog College.
“Under the professional guidance of the “Herzog Global” team, we were exposed to a fascinating approach that places the “heart of the lesson” at the center. We learned how to identify the educational values at the heart of every story, why this focus is vital, and how to develop a meaningful and relevant pedagogical dialogue with our students.
“The course provided an abundance of practical materials and tools: presentations, articles, video clips, authentic examples from the classroom. This all came together to create a deep learning experience that invites thinking, exploring, experimenting, and team collaboration.
“For us, one of the central insights was understanding that the choice of what to highlight from the Biblical story depends on our interpretation, our values, and the people who choose to tell the story. This can create a diverse dialogue that connects characters, periods, and communities, and encourages renewed thinking about our role as Bible teachers today.
“For our team, the pedagogical language we developed during the course – with concepts like zoom in and zoom out, realia, backward thinking, experiential learning, chavruta, and Project Based Learning (PBL) – has become an integral part of planning every study unit and every lesson.
“This is a course that brings together depth and practicality, vision and tools, Bible and life itself. And this is the true story of the Bible in the classroom.”
Meirav Cohen
Jewish Studies Teacher, Bialik Hebrew Day School, Toronto, Canada
