Now that you’ve mastered the basics of Sefaria, we want to show you how Sefaria can continue to support you as a teacher as you move ahead, equipped with our digital technology! In this lesson you will be introduced to our home page for educators which features materials and information to support your work. You will also take an in-depth look at the new Sefaria group, "Pedagogy on Sefaria: Exemplary Lesson Plans" for practical examples of how to use Sefaria in the classroom.
The video below will introduce these elements, and the lesson below will provide additional details.
1) We have a page designed especially for you: www.sefaria.org/educators is Sefaria’s landing page for educators.
Here are the key elements:
Sign up for our newsletter! These emails focus on developments that are useful to those working in education; from new features and texts to case studies of teachers using Sefaria in a variety of educational settings. These newsletters are designed to support your work and inspire you to try new things, and we hope you will enjoy them.
Read previous newsletters: Previous newsletters are a great source of information and can be found in Educator Newsletters. Often focusing on a holiday, previous newsletters suggest texts, sheets, and activities to assist you in your preparation and instruction.
Professional Development for Educators: This section provides information on past and present PD initiatives. Currently, we have two ongoing programs. One is this course, and the other is our Innovation Circle, which provides opportunities for educators to experiment with Sefaria in order to address a challenge, question, or dream that impacts their teaching. In the 2019-2020 school year, this cohort-based program will be available exclusively to educators in the greater Baltimore area. Check out this section of the educators page for more information, and let us know if your region is a good candidate for a future Innovation Circle!
In the Classroom: Click on this button to see a spreadsheet that represents some of the work that our partner educators have done over the past several years. In the coming months, this spreadsheet will be replaced by a link to our pedagogy group (more on that later), so watch this space for changes!
Request a Training: Sefaria provides fully-subsidized trainings and customized workshops for teachers and students across the country and around the world. Feel free to contact us directly, or just click on the button and fill out the form.
Sheets, Library, Groups, and “Learn More”: These sections contain tutorials that guide the user through various features on Sefaria. If you forget something from this course or a student has a specific question, this might be helpful!
Request a Text or Translation: Sefaria’s team values the input of our educator community. If there’s a text, or a translation of a text (whether it is an entire work or a section that you frequently teach), that you’d like to see on Sefaria, please click to fill out the form and let us know.
2) Lesson Plans and Pedagogic Materials: Freely sharing materials so that all can benefit from them is core to Sefaria’s mission, as is the thoughtful and skillful use of educational technology to elevate pedagogy in the Jewish studies classroom. We believe that having reusable and adaptable lesson plans that showcase Sefaria’s integration into the classroom can help inspire educators to innovate and experiment. Our new group on Sefaria contains sample lesson plans and educator materials, and we hope it will help you try something new! You can see the group here, and we welcome any feedback you might have.
In addition, we are also looking for new lesson plans and teaching materials to include in this group. If you create something that you are proud of, please share it with us!
3) Lesson #9 Assignment:
For this assignment you will be exploring the educator offerings and reflecting on how they can support your work.
When you are ready to get started, click here and follow the instructions! Remember to click "save" right away so that your work is saved. Once you click the blue save button, it will disappear and be replaced by a "share" button - a good indication that you have saved your work!
For questions, email [email protected].