Submitted by Rabbi Netanel Gralla, Head of School, Yeshivat He’Atid
Note: The information in this profile represents SY2012-13 unless otherwise indicated.
School Overview
|
School Description
Yeshivat He’Atid is the first fully-blended Jewish day school in North America. Yeshivat He’Atid is committed to providing a high-quality Jewish day school education at an affordable price tag. Its blended-learning model is being replicated in several different communities across the country.
Blended Learning Program
|
Program Model
Program model: Station Rotation
Model description
Students engage in three hours of Judaic studies and three hours of secular studies each day. Within each three-hour block, students move through a three-station rotation; these stations include an in-class learning lab for online learning, small-group or full-class instruction, and group projects.
Program Description
How much time do students spend on campus in this blended-learning program? How much of this time do students spend learning online or with educational software?
Students are on campus 100 percent of the time they are engaged in blended-learning. Because administrators wanted to integrate the blended-learning program gradually, students currently spend only spend 40 minutes of the six-hour school day engaged in blended learning. Administrators plan to increase the amount of blended learning students experience as the school continues to grow.
Briefly describe the offline components of this blended-learning program.
During offline rotations, students engage in small-group lessons, pencil-and-paper assignments, reading comprehension and large group conversations.
How does this blended-learning program fit into the rest of the students’ school day?
Currently the blended-learning program is just a small part of Yeshivat He’Atid students’ school day. The school day begins at 8:30 a.m. and the students have community time where they work independently. At any point during this three-hour block, teachers will break up students into three groups and begin a three-station rotation model. Students also have four hours of additional, non-blended learning that emphasizes project-based learning and includes two additional hours of Judaic studies.
What are the teachers’ roles and responsibilities in both the online and offline components of this blended-learning program?
Teachers play a very similar role to the role they play in a traditional Orthodox Jewish day school. They design their own curriculum, create lesson plans, build relationships with parents, and monitor behavior, amongst many other tasks.
What other adults are involved in this blended-learning program (e.g., paraprofessionals, learning coaches, counselors) and what are their roles and responsibilities?
In addition to the classroom teachers, the school has supporting teachers from Israel who help students with their classwork and only speak in Hebrew to help students with their language skills. Also, the school has master teachers who are qualified teachers with additional training who work to train the classroom teachers in how to collect and analyze data, differentiate lesson plans, and create the personalized learning experience for the student.
Briefly describe the set-up of physical space for this blended-learning program.
The school has extremely large classrooms and each classroom features a row of eight desktop computers that students use when they are engaged in the online portion of the blended-learning program.
How are students grouped within this blended-learning program?
Students are grouped together by level during the rotations. Groups are fluid and can change depending on student skills and teacher observations.
Do students have some element of control over the pacing of their learning? Are students tied to a semester-based course schedule or can they complete courses at any time? Briefly describe any requirements or benchmarks in place to ensure student progress.
Students are able to move at a faster pace within the material based on routine assessments created by teachers. The school does make sure the content is age-appropriate, while also providing grade-level material in a more challenging manner to students are who moving more quickly. This is where the students’ learning is differentiated.
Describe the academic results of the program, using quantitative data where possible.
The school only opened in the fall of 2012. No quantitative academic data is yet available.
What have been the biggest obstacles in implementing this blended-learning program? What has needed adjustment along the way?
The biggest challenge has been familiarizing teachers with the online content providers. The school uses multiple content providers and each one is unique in its navigation and data. The school needed teachers to feel comfortable creating assessments using the providers. Accordingly, administrators started with just a few providers to allow teachers to become more comfortable, and then added more providers.
Contact Information
Name: Rabbi Netanel Gralla
Title: Head of School
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.yeshivatheatid.org