By Zivia Avelin TAP has been a really cool experience for me for many reasons. The first thing you should know is I am dyslexic. So I have experienced learning disabilities and being a learning disabled student. But I wanted to know more about what it’s like to have other disabilities and how to go about teaching a neurodiverse student. TAP has helped me satisfy that curiosity, here I have learned how overstimulation works, ways to accommodate different learning abilities and styles,  and most importantly to listen to people about what they need and how to best support them. That [...]

by Noa Cutler, Beth Am Israel Being a TAP teen has provided me with valuable strategies and skills for connecting with students and meeting their individual needs. During the first few weeks of class, I mostly concentrated on learning about my students themselves. As a teacher’s aide, it’s important to understand the students’ habits, likes and dislikes, outlooks and limits. I noticed one student in particular, while engaged in the lessons and stories, kept trying to stand up and move around as class went on. I talked to him one on one, and then reached out to the teacher about [...]

by Mic Lieberman-Burak, Mishkan Shalom The TAP Teen program has given me the opportunity to become a more effective classroom assistant, providing me with new skills and new perspectives. It has made me better able to help the kids to have the most fulfilling and memorable Hebrew School experience possible. While there has been an important emphasis on accessibility, this program has far surpassed the basic definition of this concept. Accessibility is not only adapting a space to meet the needs of a person and their abilities; it is about ensuring that the community, and the space occupied by the [...]