TAP

by Ayelet Cooperberg, Adath Israel During the zoom meeting on the 29th we learned about autism and got to know each other a little better. We started off by doing a show and tell with something in our room. People shared toys from when they were little and other objects that are meaningful to them. After that we watched a video clip from Sesame Street featuring their first autistic character, Julia. Big Bird, one of the other characters on the show, has a difficult time interacting with Julia at first. However, once he realizes that Julia can play the same [...]

by Lea Rubenstein, Darchei Noam In our second TAP session of the school year, we learned about what autism is and how it affects each individual differently. We began with a short video clip from Sesame Street featuring the muppet Julia, a young, nonverbal autistic girl who is friends with the other characters, Elmo and Abby. After the video, we discussed different ways Julia’s friends made her feel safe amongst them. Our group was very fortunate to have Noah, an intelligent Jewish speaker, attend our Zoom meeting and answer the questions we had about how to best address the unique [...]

by Lauren Selden, Beth Chaim My name is Lauren Selden. I am a junior and a part of Beth Chaim. Sunday August 28th I had the privilege to start my first ever workshop with TAP along with other Jewish teens. We spent some of the workshop discussing the difference between our role as madrichim in our classrooms and getting a better understanding of how to best communicate and help our students feel connected to Jewish learning. We also spent time preparing bags with items that would assist in our teaching and our students’ learning. The items included: a whiteboard, a [...]