Sobering lessons learned by veteran teacher after 2 days shadowing students

Grant Wiggins  The following account comes from a veteran HS teacher who just became a Coach in her building. Because her experience is so vivid and sobering I have kept her identity anonymous. But nothing she describes is any different than my own experience in sitting in HS classes for long periods of time. And this report of course accords fully with the results of our student surveys. 

I have made a terrible mistake.

I waited fourteen years to do something that I should have done my first year of teaching: shadow a student for a day. It was so eye-opening that I wish I could go back to every class of students I ever had right now and change a minimum of ten things – the layout, the lesson plan, the checks for understanding. Most of it!

This is the first year I am working in a school but not teaching my own classes; I am the High School Learning Coach, a new position for the school this year. My job is to work with teachers and admins. to improve student learning outcomes.

As part of getting my feet wet, my principal suggested I “be” a student for two days: I was to shadow and complete all the work of a 10^th grade student on one day and to do the same for a 12^th grade student on another day. My task was to do everything the student was supposed to do: if there was lecture or notes on the board, I copied them as fast I could into my notebook. If there was a Chemistry lab, I did it with my host student. If there was a test, I took it (I passed the Spanish one, but I am certain I failed the business one).

Key Takeaway #1
Students sit all day, and sitting is exhausting. [....]

Key Takeaway #2
High School students are sitting passively and listening during approximately 90% of their classes.[...]

Key takeaway #3
You feel a little bit like a nuisance all day long. [....] 

click the above link for the full article - it is worth reading.Read the followup comments also

Lynching Survivor Thanks Israeli Arab who rescued him

Arutz 7     Moshe German, 47, who survived a lynching attempt on the Taibe bridge Sunday night, met the man who saved him from the mob on Monday, in a heartwarming gesture of gratitude. 

Majdi Baloum, 37, pulled Moshe from his vehicle after an Arab mob began pelting it with rocks, eventually setting it alight. 

Moshe, who recounted his experience in previous interviews to the media, related that he had been hiding under his seat; if Baloum had not pulled him from the vehicle, he likely would have died in the blaze. 

Moshe revisited Taibe, meeting Baloum at the Hydraulic Institute where he works, to thank him.

"You don't understand how moving this is," German told Yediot Aharonot. "I went here via the same road where I was almost killed yesterday. I saw the remains of my car, now just ashes. Images of what happened just flash in front of me all the time. They threw rocks at me, concrete blocks and fireworks. I was terrified." 

"I thought about my wife, Eina, and my sons Roey (16) and Eitan, who is two and-a-half," he continued. "I thought my family would lose me." 

"I tried to hide in my Toyota, but the crowd continued to attack me, and in a moment [Baloum] came up to me yelling, 'come, come!'. I tried to figure out who is calling me, and you pulled me out of your car and into your Jeep. You saved me," Moshe recounted. "I found it hard to comprehend what is happening, but I realized that you were afraid for my life. Even though they threw blocks at your Jeep, you just went faster." 

"Did you understand that you were saving my life?" he asked. [...]

בית דין חרדי באולטימטום למקובל המתחזה: תפרוש מעולם הקבלה או שההקלטה תפורסם

Rotter Forum
Comments on Shtieble report these rumors as untrue. People claim Rabbi Zilberstein denying any such court decision. 

ליאור עמרן

פורסם נובמבר 11, 2014 ב 10:15 AM

היה חשוב לי לשתף
התקשרתי לבית הדין של הרב זילברשיין בחולון, והם שאלו את הרב זילברשיין ואמרו שכבוד הרב לא הוציא פסק שכזה מעולם נגד החלבן, ושהדברים שנאמרו בשמו הם שקר וכזב.
הטלפון של בית הדין של הרב זילברשיין הוא
03-5015809
על כן האמירה הבאה באתר היא מזוייפת:
הפוסק החרדי הרב יצחק זילברשטיין נכנס לעובי הקורה בשבוע האחרון, בית הדין החרדי התכנס והחליט האיש חייב להיות מוקא מהציבור החרדי :”ובערת הרע מקרבך”

Consequently I have removed the item until this is clarified.
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Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg: Helping kids kick the pain and fear out of cancer

Editor's note: Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg has been named a 2014 Top 10 CNN Hero. Voting for CNN Hero of the Year continues through Sunday, Nov. 16). All of this year's Top 10 CNN Heroes will be honored during CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute" -- Sunday, December 7 (8pm ET) on the global networks on CNN.

For 12 years, Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg worked at a camp for children battling cancer.

He often witnessed the pain and discomfort many of them endured while undergoing medical procedures.

"It's really indescribable, what it's like ... to watch a child go through so much pain," said Goldberg, who served as the director of Camp Simcha in New York. "The child looks at you for help and then you end up having to hold them down."

One day, he tried to soothe a young camper who was screaming in pain during treatment. Goldberg, a black belt in Choi Kwang-Do, offered to teach the 5-year-old boy some of the craft.

"In martial arts, you learn that pain is a message that you don't have to listen to," he said. "That lesson is so unbelievably effective."

Goldberg taught the boy some breathing techniques. When the nurse removed the needle after chemotherapy, he said the boy had hardly noticed.

Goldberg realized he was on to something.

"When we are able to breathe through pain and imagine the pain lowering," he said, "the brain has an amazing capacity to put us into a different place."

In 1999, Goldberg founded Kids Kicking Cancer. The program provides free martial arts classes focused on breathing techniques and meditation for children battling serious illnesses. [...]

Complaints against R Barry Freundel were silenced by the label of lashon harah

Washington Post   [....]    About 2000, divisions at Kesher over the rabbi’s behavior became more severe. Some complaints were fairly mundane — that his style was too brusque and that he wasn’t making pastoral visits. A few people alleged that Freundel was diverting money donated for the synagogue to his effort to build a mikvah. Epstein, a past synagogue president, recalled that the conflict was resolved after the board appointed a committee to decide how to spend the money.

At one point, there were enough people bad-mouthing Freundel that some board members drafted a document calling for an end to criticism of the rabbi. The document uses the term “lashon hara,” meaning slanderous, negative talk, which is considered sinful in Judaism.

“We propose to bind ourselves and invite others to do the same . . . to cease to participate in any Lashon Hara, to stop listening to insinuations and attacks, to disassociate ourselves from them, and finally to respond forcefully in opposition to Lashon Hara” against the rabbi, the document stated.

“The majority of the congregation supported him, and the continued sniping was not consistent with the mores of the congregation,” said Epstein, who drafted the letter. People’s criticisms over the years “had no foresight approximating anything like what has happened.”[...]

Princeton Mishandled Sexual Misconduct and Discrimination Cases, U.S. Inquiry Finds

NY Times    A federal investigation into Princeton University’s sexual misconduct and discrimination policies has found that the university violated the law and failed to respond quickly and fairly to students’ complaints.

The Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights found that Princeton had not met the standards set forth in Title IX, the 1972 statute mandating gender equality in educational settings. The finding released on Wednesday said that Princeton’s failure “to provide a prompt and equitable response” to allegations of sexual misconduct allowed, in one student’s case, “for the continuation of a hostile environment that limited and denied her access to the education opportunities at the university.”

At the beginning of September, Princeton announced significant changes to the way it would handle sexual misconduct complaints, including lowering the burden of proof they would have to meet. Those changes were intended to bring the university into compliance with federal standards. A resolution agreement that accompanied Wednesday’s finding formalizes what the Office of Civil Rights described as “ongoing and proactive efforts to enhance the effectiveness” of Princeton’s procedures. Putting those changes into effect, the finding said, “will resolve the university’s noncompliance.” [...]

High Court overules lower court ruling saying Rabbis can't overrule Doctors

Arutz 7   An Israeli couple whom the High Court ruled Wednesday took the advice of a rabbi over that of a doctor is going to have to pay all expenses for care of their paralyzed child out of pocket.

The court ruled in favor of the Meuhedet Health Fund, which refused the couple when they sought care for the child, saying that doctors had informed them that the child would be born paralyzed – and that the couple decided not to terminate the wife's pregnancy on advice of the late Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu z”tl.

According to the fund, a gynecologist who examined the woman told her on her first visit – very early in the pregnancy – that the child would be born with major health problems, and recommended she terminate the pregnancy. The couple then consulted with Rabbi Eliyahu, and decided to keep the child – who was born paralyzed, as diagnosed by the doctor.

The Health Fund refused to pay for care for the child, saying that it was not responsible because the parents did not take the advice of their doctor. The parents sued, claiming that the doctor had not sufficiently explained the dangers to the child, only the damage that could occur to the mother during her pregnancy.

A lower court ruled in favor of the parents, but the health fund appealed, and on Wednesday the High Court ruled in their favor. According to the court, it is unlikely that the doctor did not explain the dangers to the parents, and that they needed to be held responsible for rejecting the doctor's advice. [...]

Rabbi Dovid Eidensohn: New blog devoted to marriage and divorce issues

My name is Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn. I studied under Gedolim Reb Aharon Kotler, Reb Moshe Feinstein, and Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashev, all of them zt"l. Reb Elyashev zt"l gave me his name for my Gittin Beth Din. He told me he was very concerned about the problems of divorcing parents, and sometimes this results is an invalid GET, when it is coerced especially when a civil court does this. I used to put a lot of material on my brother's blog, Daas Torah (Rabbi Dr. Daniel Eidensohn from Jerusalem). I just discussed with my brother about the need for me to make a new blog totally devoted to problems with marriage and divorce, children, court, etc.

I started it today as
www.torahhalacha.blogspot.com.

If you or anyone has a question in halacha about divorce and Gittin and marriage, please contact me at the above website:

www.torahhalacha.blogspot.com

Thank you,

Dovid Eidensohn

Rethinking challenging kids-where there's a skill there's a way

Schlesinger Twins: Beth asks that you send an email to Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky

http://helpbeth.org/email-to-rabbi-moshe-kotlarsky/

Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky is the director of the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries and Vice-Chairman of Merkos L’lnyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. Rabbi Kotlarsky travels the globe establishing Jewish centers for the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, becoming known as “Judaism’s Globe Trotter”. In many countries he is the public face of Chabad, visiting heads of state and opening new Chabad centers worldwide.

Please send your letter to Rabbi Kotlarsky at rmk@kinus.com or kinus@kinus.com  - or copy the following and send it to him =============================================== SUBJECT: Rabbi Kotlarsky - your help is urgently required Dear Rabbi Kotlarsky Shlita, It is with great reluctance that the step has been taken to approach you in this way. All other avenues to raise this matter to the highest echelons in Chabad have so far been fruitless which is why you are receiving this message. I understand this is a busy time in your calendar, shortly before the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Shluchim (Kinus), when so many emissaries come to Crown Heights from all over the world. But it is precisely at this time, when such a pool of immense talent and global influence is concentrated in one place, that the biggest breakthroughs can be achieved. In July 2011, 2 year-old twins Samuel and Benjamin Schlesinger, were ripped from their mother's arms and handed to their father, Mr Michael Schlesinger, on the immediate instructions of an Austrian court ruling. Their mother, Beth Schlesinger (nee Alexander), has been awarded pitiful visiting rights and hasn't seen her children on Shabbos or Yom Tov since this time (with the exception of one Shabbos in August 2014). The courts in Vienna have behaved extremely strangely in the father's favour throughout the proceedings by discounting important facts, twisting medical reports and other evidence of bias. The response has been a global campaign backed by a Beis Din, multiple Rabbis, British Politicians and many supporters globally. See helpbeth.org An anonymous Chabad posek has stated that these children should be living under the custody of their mother on the basis of a handwritten note written by the Rebbe himself: http://helpbeth.org/schlesinger-twins-the-lubavitcher-rebbe-held-strongly-that-the-mother-should-get-custody/ In an unusual move, Rabbi Jacob Biderman, the head of Chabad in Austria, voluntarily involved himself in the court case some time ago. Unfortunately, the father still has sole custody of the twins and he regularly cancels the few visits awarded by the court to the mother. We urge the Chabad leadership and the greater Chabad movement to stand behind Rabbi Biderman and provide him with all the tools he needs to be able to contribute further to the court case such that the mother's plight is accurately presented and that the judge should revisit her custody and visitation rulings. In this way it is hoped the custody arrangement will be revised and the children can have a better childhood than the one they currently face. Chabad do wonderful work in some of the most inaccessible places on earth and we hope they continue to have resounding success as they have done over so many years. I am sure I don't speak alone when I say I would like to see this success and fantastic reputation continue, without the distraction of the case of the Schlesinger twins in Austria. For more information, please watch this short clip. Wishing you and your Shluchim every Hazlacha. Yours your name and address

=====================================

Here is a video of Rabbi Kotlarsky speaking at this annual conference in 2012. He quotes a previous Lubavitcher Rebbe in the his address saying “no matter how engrossed we may be, in whatever it may be, we may never fail to hear the cry of a child”. We can only hope he hears the cries of Samuel and Benjamin Schlesinger in Vienna.

Visit Jewish.TV for more Jewish videos.

Russian monument to Steve Jobs taken down after Apple CEO Cook says he is gay

Washington Post

A Russian monument to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has been taken down, after Apple CEO Tim Cook’s announcement last week that he is gay.

The monument, which is in the shape of an oversize iPhone, was located on a university campus in St. Petersburg, one of the more liberal cities in Russia, until its removal Friday.

It was put there in 2013 under the initiative of Maxim Dolgopolov, head of the holding company ZEFS, known in English as the Western European Financial Union, which cited Cook’s revelations about his sexuality in a Bloomberg Businessweek article last Thursday as the reason the company decided to remove the statue.

“Russian legislation prohibits propaganda of homosexuality and other sexual perversions among minors,” ZEFS wrote in a statement published on the Web site of Russian radio station Ekho Moskvy. “After Apple CEO Tim Cook publicly called for sodomy, the monument was dismantled pursuant to Russian federal law on the protection of children from information that promotes the denial of traditional family values.” [...]

Spurious Correlations don't show cause and effect - examples

Tyler Vigen

International Conference on The Jewish Community Confronts Violence & Abuse

I will be giving two 15 minutes presentations at the "International Conference on the Jewish Community confronts Violence and Abuse" which takes place December 1- December 3 in Jerusalem at the Ramada Hotel. Schedule is still tentative

Monday December 1, in session 3 between 4:30-6 on "The Rabbinic Role in Confronting Abuse"  I will talk about: 

The critical role of halacha and piety in incorrectly reducing commonsense and the sensitivity to abuse and victims 

Tuesday December 2, in the session 4 between 5:30-7 on "Legal Dilemmas Involving Domestic Violence & Divorce", I will talk about:

The halachic problems of using Internet and public protests to free Agunos. The conflict between contemporary values of Get on demand and the halacha that a Get not given freely by the husband is invalid as a Get Me'usa

In Torrent of Rapes in Britain, an Uncomfortable Focus on Race and Ethnicity

NY Times ROCHDALE, England — Shabir Ahmed, a delivery driver for two takeout places, did not have to go looking for young girls. Runaways and rebelious teenagers would show up at the restaurants, often hungry and cold. He slipped them free drinks and chicken tikka masala. “Call me Daddy,” he would say.

But soon, Mr. Ahmed, a father of four, would demand payback. In a room above one of the restaurants, according to testimony and evidence in later legal proceedings against him, he would play a pornographic DVD and pass around shots of vodka. Then, on a floor mattress with crumpled blue sheets and kitchen smells wafting from below, he raped them, and later forced them into sex with co-workers and friends, too.

The girls were too scared of him to talk. And when they did, no one believed them. Once, a 15-year-old got so drunk and upset that she smashed a glass counter. Mr. Ahmed and his colleagues did not hesitate to call the police. After she was released, she was coerced into sex four or five times a week, sometimes with half a dozen men at a time, in apartments and taxis around Rochdale, a town in northwest England near Manchester. [...]

The recent revelations that at least 1,400 teenage and preteenage girls had been sexually exploited over 16 years by so-called grooming gangs in another northern English city, Rotherham, stunned the nation because of the sheer scale of the abuse. And it put an uncomfortable spotlight on issues of race, religion and ethnicity in an increasingly multicultural nation: Nearly all of the rape suspects are Pakistani men, and nearly all of the victims are white. [...]

In a country already fiercely debating issues of immigration and national identity, the cases have prompted anti-Muslim demonstrations by far-right groups and some soul-searching generally. Why do British-Pakistani men figure so prominently? Were they deliberately targeting white girls and staying away from their own community? Did police and local officials turn a blind eye for fear of being accused of racism, losing votes among immigrant groups or stoking the kinds of tensions that have unleashed periodic rioting in other British towns? [...]

A powerful culture of shame and honor surrounding premarital sex, including rape, among some Asian Muslims, may also have skewed the victim statistics. Honor and shame certainly proved an effective tool when Mr. Shabir blackmailed his Asian victim into silence during a decade of regular abuse. “You are damaged goods,” he would tell her, threatening to force her into marriage if she spoke up, Mr. Afzal recalled. Asian victims of sexual abuse are three times less likely to come forward than white victims, he said, citing Home Office data.

“They fear not just their rapists,” said Shaista Gohir, chairwoman of the Muslim Women’s Network U.K. “They fear their own community and their own family: They fear honor crime, forced marriage and being shunned and ostracized for bringing shame to their family.” [...]