by Andrew Walters, Beth Tikvah B'nai Jeshurun   During the introduction workshops for the Reta Emerson Fellowship/Teen Assistant Program (TAP) that took place during the summer, I learned so many things that will hopefully be put into great use into being a more effective madrich (Hebrew school assistant) this year. In the first one that took place in-person at Or Hadash, I learned what the clear differences are between the jobs of teacher and madrichim as well as the jobs that overlap. I really liked this activity because before, I was sometimes confused if jobs I wanted to perform in [...]

by Amelia Goode, Keneseth Israel When I went into my first TAP workshop I didn't know what to expect. I only knew one person who would be there, and I wasn't sure what type of learning we would be doing. I was excited but skeptical; little did I know that the skepticism was not necessary as I loved TAP right away. TAP training is not like the teaching assistant (or madrichim) training I have received at my synagogue. Those usually consist of watching Google Slides presentations and talking in Zoom breakout rooms, and while helpful, are not as fun or [...]

by Arianna Frantz, Temple Sholom From the beginning of the introduction workshop until the end, I learned a lot of useful information ranging from how to help students to where my responsibilities as a teaching assistant will lie. At the beginning of the workshop, we introduced ourselves and played some icebreakers, before being asked how we could make those icebreakers accessible to everyone or give students a bit more help. One example of an icebreaker was lining up by birthday month and day without speaking. We said using whiteboards or playdough to shape numbers would help make lining up silently easier. This is [...]