EDUCATION

Religious School Registration

Religious School Registration was due on June 15.  If you have not yet registered your students, please do so as soon as possible.  If you did not receive a copy of the forms or have any questions, please contact Jordan at 314-361-1564 ext.106 or Jordan@centralreform.org.

Click here to download program information and registration forms.

Teachers Needed

We need teachers for Shabbat School and Hebrew School (for Hebrew and Jewish studies classes).  If you are interested or have any questions, please contact Jordan at 314-361-1564 ext. 106 or Jordan@centralreform.org.

Spring 2008

From the Director of Education:

Dear Chaverim (Friends),

As I write this, we have just wrapped up another fantastic year of Religious School, and I have some phenomenal things to report. First off, I want to commend our entire school for the many acts of tikkun they have done this year. Through your efforts and money brought in for tzedakah, we are going to be helping the St. Louis University Health Resource Center (HRC), a student-run free health clinic in North St. Louis City. We have raised the money to purchase a machine that will allow them to screen every child at the clinic for lead poisoning in 3 minutes using only the amount of blood from a finger prick. This will allow treatment to start earlier, cause less trauma to the child and family, and eliminate the risk of losing affected patients due to lack of follow up. The current methods of testing for lead poisoning involves drawing a tube of blood from the child's arm and sending it away to a lab, and can take weeks to get the results back. Good job to you all.

This year we have gone through many changes. Our third graders have started coming to Hebrew School twice a week and we have committed to smaller classes for our Hebrew students. We have also done a lot of work to tighten up and better organize our curriculum. We have also worked on communicating better with our households, so that when asked what they did in school, students will no longer be able to tell their parents, "Nothing." We will also be asking for increased involvement from family members next year in all facets of our programming.

One of the things that we have also made a commitment to is accountability. We have been testing different methods of assessment in the school and are in the process of finalizing an assessment tool that can be used to show how far the students have progressed and better inform teachers and parents of the next steps in their student's education.

We continue to adapt, evolve and think outside the box in our quest to make CRC's education program the best in St. Louis, and I am proud to say that we are on the right track. Our teachers have attended many hours worth of workshops and seminars, and we are proud to be sending Toby Epstein and Marian Rosen to the national CAJE conference held in August at the University of Vermont, where we are sure they will come back fresh with energy and plenty of knowledge to share with their fellow teachers. We are also creating plans for teacher development to occur throughout the next school year.

I want everyone to be on the lookout in upcoming issues of "The MEMO" and "This Week at CRC for exciting Adult Ed opportunities.

We have recently made an addition to our education team, by hiring Claire Bernstein (who many of the students know from Shabbat School and Hebrew School) as our Youth Program Coordinator. Claire will be doing a lot of work with our Junior Youth Group (6th-8th Grades) and CeRTY (9th-12th Grades). We are also in the process of searching for an Assistant Director of Education and hope to have someone in place soon.

Finally, I want to thank each and every one of you for the support, confidence, and encouragement you have given to me during the past school year. Todah rabah.

Have a great summer, don’t forget to send in your registration forms, and feel free to contact me at 314-361-1564 ext. 106 or Jordan@centralreform.org if you have any questions about any education programs.

B'ahava (with love),

Jordan Ottenstein

Director of Education