On Monday, first graders participated in a shofar workshop led by Rabbi Gedalia Potash of Chabad of Noe Valley. This workshop helps to enhance the students’ knowledge and understanding of Rosh Hashanah. Before sanding and varnishing their own shofarot to take home, students listened attentively to Rabbi Potash, who taught the students about animal horns and about the mitzvah (commandment) of hearing the shofar on Rosh Hashanah...

The Brandeis Youth Mentoring Board officially launched this fall as part of the Brandeis mentorship program that began in the fall of 2016. This youth board consists of students in fifth through eighth grades who, says Dean of Student Life Sharona Israeli-Roth, “want to support and make a difference in the mentorship program by actively helping to create mentoring activities and serving as leaders to the rest of our student-mentors.” This Brandeis Youth Mentoring Board will work to make the mentorship program meaningful for the entire student community...

In the sixth grade, students read Lois Lowry’s book The Giver, a novel about memory, as well various essays about how the mind works. This unit “supports our work with the Institute for Social and Emotional Learning by encouraging students to work metacognitively as they build study strategies,” says teacher Isaac Jacobs. In class yesterday, students read Daniel Schacter's introduction to The Science of Emotion...

The fourth grade has begun research as part of their California Birds Research Project, a project in which each student selects a bird native to California and does extensive research on that bird. “They will research, make a mind map, and write about their bird,” explains teacher Kate Callan. “Each student will also make a model of their bird out of papier mâché, which will be hung in our class.” Through this project, the students learn key research skills: what makes websites credible and how to recognize reputable sources...

Throughout the week, kindergarteners engage in mindfulness and yoga. “It’s a way for students to become aware of their body and to help them with self-control as they transition from home to school,” says teacher Lisa Hawley. Walk into a class during mindfulness and you’ll see students practicing their breathing...

After two years of research, the Brandeis Teacher Residency Program has officially launched with the start of the 2017–18 school year. This program allows new and experienced teachers to develop their teaching skills under the guidance of lead teachers. Residents grow their practices through hands-on experience in the classroom, guided by goal-oriented mentorship from their lead teachers...

Hannah Safford, ’05, was recently named one of the “Top 30 Thinkers Under 30” by Pacific Standard magazine for her extraordinary work in the creation of environmentally sustainable policies. Just 25 years old, Safford has already served as a fellow in the White House Office of Science and Technology, where she worked on key climate change policies and initiatives as well as global water issues. Safford is changing the way environmental policy is approached by rethinking the old models of “linear” based processes and replacing them with more sustainable solutions...