2014 Bay Area Workshop
August 6 & 7, 2014
Jewish Community High School of the Bay
San Francisco, CA
REGISTER NOW
Join the Jewish Women’s Archive for a two-day professional development workshop in San Francisco. This year’s program will give you new tools for engaging your students and help you bring fresh content into your classroom.
Participants will have the opportunity to:
- DISCOVER the power of primary sources (including letters, photographs, and oral history interviews) and personal narrative to excite your students and introduce them to the stories and accomplishments of American Jewish women.
- COLLABORATE with colleagues and JWA staff to develop strategies and plans for integrating historical Jewish stories into your classroom or community.
- EXPLORE new ways to inspire your students through the Jewish legacy of social justice in the United States.
Program Highlights
- Learn how to creatively integrate historical sources into your teaching with Jonah Hassenfeld from the Stanford History Education Group.
- Observe a live oral history interview with Freedom Rider Carol Ruth Silver and learn how to lead story collecting projects in your classroom or community.
- Participate in lessons from JWA’s rich collection of curricular resources modeled by JWA staff.
- Collaborate, problem solve, and create new lesson plans with colleagues from similar education settings.
Draft Schedule
Day 1
Welcome and Introductions
Get to know your fellow workshop participants.
The JWA Mindset
Why was the Jewish Women’s Archive created? How will the JWA pedagogy and resources enhance your students' learning? In this session, we will answer these questions and begin to explore the role that Jewish history and women’s stories play in your classroom, school, or community as a framework for the workshop.
Using Primary Sources
Why are primary sources an essential part of the JWA mindset? In this session we will learn how to creatively use primary sources through modeling, text study, and small group discussion.
Lunch
Model Lessons
Participants will be able to choose from a select group of lesson plans and participate in a modeled lesson from our Living the Legacy social justice curriculum or our Go & Learn guides. After, we will discuss where the modeled lesson (or part of it) may fit into your curriculum.
Oral History Set-up Activity
Oral histories are an essential component of women’s history. In 2014, why do we still need oral history? What does oral history add to our collective stories, our personal stories, and to the historical record? This conversation will prepare you for the oral history to be conducted on Day 2, as well as the follow up activity.
Reflection
In pairs or small groups and through writing, reflect on the following questions: How will you use what you learned today? What questions do you hope will be answered tomorrow? Evaluate the first day of programs as a group.
Day 2
Review Day 1, Frame Day 2.
Oral History Interview
Observe an Oral History Interview of Carol Ruth Silver, a Civil Rights activist and author of Freedom Rider Diary, conducted by Rosalind Hinton. For more information about Carol Ruth Silver, see the Civil Rights Veterens website.
Oral history how-to
Practice skills for leading your students through the process of conducting oral histories. Discuss applications in your classroom and community.
Lunch
Breakout Sessions
Attend a breakout session about bringing historical sources and personal narrative into the educational setting of your choice. You will have the chance to practice identifying, adapting, and integrating primary sources to meet the specific needs of the students you serve. Content of these sessions will be based on participant input.
Content Mapping
Working with colleagues or independently, use tools and staff expertise to mine jwa.org for primary and secondary source content that matches your curricular goals. JWA will provide guidance.
Reflection
What did you learn? What are you taking away? Everyone gets one minute or less to share.
Next Steps
How will you take what you have learned into your community? Complete an action plan and learn how JWA can support you in the coming school year.
Schedule is subject to change.
Who is eligible to attend the workshop?
The workshop is open to any educator working in a Jewish setting. While our materials are primarily written for students in grades 8-12, educators working with younger or older students are welcome to attend.
Registration and Meals
Please complete the online registration form to attend the workshop.
JWA is pleased to offer this Workshop to educators free of charge.
Kosher lunches and snacks will be provided. We will provide written confirmation on completion of the workshop for anyone meeting continuing education or professional development requirements.
JWA is unable to provide lodging or travel stipends.
Advance Preparation
Workshop participants will be given a few, short preparatory assignments in advance. We will post these assignments in early June, and strongly urge you to complete them prior to the first day of the workshop. The reading be the foundation for several of the sessions.
Testimonials
“At first I had to hold on to my seat, but it was energizing to have East Coast energy come in here. Every year it seems like there is so much more about the Jewish world and Jewish education. JWA is right on and dead center.”
“It was great to instantly talk about how we are going to implement these ideas in our community. The website is an amazing resource I needed to have smacked in my face—which you all did very well.”
“I am taking home the grand vision of how we use story, whose story we tell, and how we use the stories of women. We let this slip by—now I notice that.”