Teaching with Sefaria (Online) in the Supplementary School
1) Empower learners with Sefaria's library
  • Make a video/audio presentation to teach others how to study texts using Sefaria, or a short presentation guiding people through a text. Create simple tasks, such as responding to an idea from a text or sharing a response to a question about a source, and have people engage with you or with each other.
  • Sefaria pairs with email, text, WhatsApp, Zoom, etc.
  • Deputize lay leaders (and teens/older students!). Anyone who is tech savvy can help someone else use Sefaria.
2) Use all available media for communal experiences
  • Focus energy around Jewish rituals or prayers that families may choose to preserve, or ones they may choose to take on
  • Consider short videos, audio recordings, collaborative sheets, and consider including any media that students/teens are using
3) Show and Tell
  • Sefaria's groups are a great way to showcase learning that's shared across a class, school, or community.
  • A sheet set to anyone can add, or a sheet crafted by an educator that incorporates student artwork (like this one) or answers, can be a great way to give everyone a sense of accomplishment (Here's a great example that got parents involved, and here's some student work)
  • Anyone can take a picture, respond with a reflection, or share a favorite song. Consider ways to gamify / incentivize (consider this fourth grade d'var Torah, or our Sefaria student course for ideas).
4) How about those B'nai Mitsvah?
  • Sefaria's sheets are designed to easily accommodate all or part of a Torah portion for d'var Torah prep
  • As we consider moving to smaller, home-based celebrations, introduce Torah themes that are relevant
  • Digital resources for Torah study facilitate sharing across distances, via sheets or links
5) Passover is coming!
  • Educate around the holiday using Sefaria's new Virtual Passover group, coming soon
  • Consider making a customized Haggadah, among families, classes, or congregants (Ashkenazi Haggadah Template or Edot Hamizrach Haggadah Template) (Here's a fun family Haggadah)
  • Sefaria can be a platform for helping people dig in to the Passover story to discover new resources, or to digitize stories or customs they might return to every year