On Thursday morning, February 7, the second graders led a community celebration and tefillah for their families and the first graders. The program elaborated a social and emotional learning theme that integrates many aspects of the curriculum in the exploration of what it means to be a mensch—a Yiddish word whose connotation means “a person of integrity and honor.” For the past several months, in both general and Judaic studies, the second graders have identified the qualities requisite to becoming heroes, sheroes, and mensches...
While rain prevented sixth graders from participating in a clean-up in Golden Gate Park during the week of Tu B’Shvat, the trip was merely postponed to today, and our students still had the opportunity to contribute to caring for the environment. “Tu B’Shvat offers a perfect opportunity to connect traditional Jewish practices of tree planting and caring for forested land with caring for the environment,” said teacher Jody Bloom. This is the ninth year sixth graders have participated in this park clean-up field trip...
On Wednesday, February 6, our girls' varsity basketball team took on the #1-seeded Burke’s team in the BAIAL league championship game. In front of a large Brandeis crowd of parents, students, alumni, alumni parents, faculty, and staff, our Brandeis Lions defeated Burke’s 35–20 to take home the trophy, avenging their one loss from regular season play. This is the first BAIAL girls' varsity basketball championship for Brandeis....
The first project of the second semester woodworking and fabrication elective tasks middle schoolers with creating their own usable wooden spoons, modeled after the sjöld tradition in Sweden and the work of British woodworker EJ Osborne. “The goal of this project is two-fold,” says Director of Technology and elective teacher Nicholas Cole-Farrell. “In addition to learning technique and familiarizing themselves with our tools, students are completing the circle of being both producers and consumers of a functional item crafted with their own hands...
Our seventh graders embarked last week for their three-day, two-night outdoor education trip at Redwood Glen Retreat Center in Pescadero. This experiential education trip focused on the themes of leadership and tzedek (justice), two themes that permeate the seventh grade curriculum. Students collaborated in group challenges; hiked through the woods; spent time discussing different types of leadership and the choices they can make around tzedakah; and participated in a tefillah walk through the woods, “in which we would walk together, and then pause and look at nature quietly...
As Jenny Rinn, director of lower school, explained at the beginning of the year, our community came together to design a guide “to forming a community that is open and inclusive to all,” the Seven Ways We Learn and Work Together at Brandeis. In the fifth grade, students and teachers are working their way through this guide, discussing the importance of each principle and participating in activities that highlight this importance. To punctuate the fourth principle, “Listen,” fifth graders paired up last Friday and both students in the pairings were given an identical set of LEGO pieces. One partner used the LEGO pieces to create a structure and then, sitting back to back, the partner who built a structure described it verbally so that the other partner could duplicate the structure...
For the last two months, eighth graders Avital D., Zohar F., and Amelia L. have dedicated their Friday afternoon elective period to furthering the culture of kindness in the middle school. For an hour each week (and sometimes additional time after school), these students write positive notes of affirmation on Post-it notes and put them up around the middle school wing for their peers to see. “Their empathy and compassion for their peers epitomizes our community values and we are grateful for the enrichment they provide Brandeis,” exclaims Director of Middle School Dr. Sivan Tarle...