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| The Graduate School of Education and Human Development at the George Washington University proudly houses the Mayberg Center for Jewish Education and Leadership.
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Earn a Master's in Curriculum & Instruction with a concentration in Jewish education in just 12 months! GW's Graduate School of Education and Human Development is accepting applications now for full-time students in Summer 2019.
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| What's New at the Mayberg Center • Spring 2018
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Dr. Erica Brown, Associate Professor of Curriculum & Pedagogy and Mayberg Center Director |
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Striving to Make Learning Transformative We all want education to be transformative. It so rarely is. Ideas enter and exit quickly under a surfeit of information we are exposed to daily. When it comes to Jewish education, there is almost an expectation that what we learn will inspire and move us to become better Jews and better people. But this, too, does not happen automatically. What has to take place for education to change us?
Jack Mezirow defines transformative learning as a process that exposes us to ideas that help us re-interpret our experiences. It can create deep structural shifts in the way we think, feel and act. Deep learning can help us change the way we understand ideas, the world and our relationships: “…learning is understood as a process of using a prior interpretation to construe a new or revised interpretation of the meaning of one’s experience in order to guide future action” (Mezirow, “Contemporary Paradigms of Learning,” Adult Education Quarterly, 1996, p. 162).
This is easier said than done. Transformation cannot happen if learning does not feel relevant and meaningful to our lived experience. “A defining condition of being human is our urgent need to understand and order the meaning of our experience, to integrate it with what we know…” writes Mezirow in Learning as Transformation: Critical Perspectives on a Theory in Progress (Jossey-Bass, 2000, p. 3). We’ve provided links to readings on transformational learning in this newsletter. So what learning has had the most impact on your life?
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GSEHD invites educators to apply to its Master's in Curriculum & Instruction with a new, full-time concentration in Jewish education
GSEHD is now accepting applications for its Master's in Curriculum & Instruction with a new concentration in Jewish education. The first cohort for this 12-month, 30-credit program on the Foggy Bottom campus in Washington, DC will begin in Summer 2019. This full-time program offers students the same foundational core courses as all others studying in the Curriculum and Instruction program. The concentration in Jewish education features four courses focusing on specific instructional techniques in the arenas of Jewish history, Rabbinics, Bible and experiential education. Students will participate in a 10-hour per week internship in the fall and a practicum in the spring semester.
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|  | GSEHD Dean Michael Feuer addresses a VIP reception announcing the Mayberg Center's Ben Gamla Learning Circle |
| Launch of Our Ben Gamla Learning Circle to Support the Center
We invite you to join our new Ben Gamla Learning Circle. Strengthen Jewish education and leadership across the country and across the lifespan, while also advancing your own learning. Close to 2,000 years ago, Joshua ben Gamla created the first network of schools to ensure Jewish literacy. Teachers in every ancient city welcomed young Jewish children into lifelong learning, creating a standard of literacy that is foundational to Jewish literacy to this day.
A gift to the Mayberg Center helps us continue ben Gamla’s important work, growing talented teachers and Jewish communal professionals to build better, more inspired, more educated communities nationwide. Each giving level includes unique study opportunities. Learn while you support the learning of others through the Ben Gamla Learning Circle.
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Attend the Network for Research in Jewish Education's 2018 Conference Co-hosted by GW
June 11-12, 2018 The Mayberg Center will co-host this year’s joint conference of the Network for Research in Jewish Education (NRJE) and the Social Scientific Study of Jewry on June 11-12, 2018. Academics from around the country and beyond join together annually to share research and findings, trends and important developments in Jewish education across the lifespan. Dr. Ben Jacobs, NRJE chair and a visiting associate professor here at GSEHD, is proud that GW is hosting this year's conference: "The annual conference offers scholars and practitioners who engage in research on Jewish education to convene and share their completed work, or works in-progress, in a collegial and congenial setting. It's an honor to bring NRJE, the leading academic organization for Jewish educators in its annual collaboration with the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry, to GW, a major hub for the preparation and study of Jewish educators."
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Boosting Your Professional Skills: Workshops on Communication
July 19, 2018; 9:00 am - 12:00* pm The Mayberg Center will co-host “Boosting Your Professional Skills: Workshops on Communication” with the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington on July 19, 2018 from 9:00 am - 12:00 pm. These workshops, housed at 6101 Executive Blvd., #100, Rockville, MD 20852, are open to all professionals working in Jewish nonprofits, day schools and congregations. Workshops will explore ways to strengthen practical communication skills and nurture positive relationships at work with donors, colleagues, clients, volunteers and parents. The schedule will include the following: - Power networking breakfast
- Workshop 1: "Post with Purpose: Digital Strategies" with Jeff Rum, CEO+Founder, ignite:action
- Workshop 2: "Speak and Write for Impact" with Dr. Erica Brown, Director of GW's Mayberg Center for Jewish Education and Leadership
- Reflection and personal action items
- *BONUS WORKSHOP for day school and congregational educators on communicating proactively and effectively with parents from 12:00-1:00 pm
The $18 registration fee includes interactive workshops, supplies, beverages and a light breakfast. JPRO Network affiliates and individual members receive a 20% discount!
Registration closes on July 12th!
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| Conversations that Matter 2018 -- The Limits of Civil Discourse with Moshe Halbertal and Jeffrey Goldberg
What do you get when you put a philosopher and a journalist together? One great conversation. Noted Israeli philosopher, Professor Moshe Halbertal, and Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, joined us at “Conversations that Matter” on March 6, 2018 to discuss “The Limits of Civil Discourse.” While Goldberg spoke about the impact of technology on our capacity to consider the other, Halbertal shared observations on power, decision-making and their influence on civility with insights from his latest book, The Beginning of Politics: Power in the Biblical Book of Samuel. Dean Michael Feuer opened the evening, pointing to the long Jewish tradition of healthy, respectful debate that has shaped millennia of scholarship as a model for civil discourse. Save the date for our next Conversations that Matter: March 26, 2019.
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Connecting Children to Their Spiritual Selves
The Mayberg Center hosted Rabbi Dr. Howard Deitcher from Hebrew University in Jerusalem for a range of professional development workshops on topics including the possibilities of Jewish spiritual education and emerging challenges in day school education. Dr. Deitcher facilitated sessions with day school heads, Jewish educational leaders in schools, congregations and camps and GW professors and graduate students in December, 2017. He also facilitated sessions at The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington’s Jewish Early Childhood Educator Conference in addition to a learning session for parents.
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Diversity in Jewish Day Schools
Dr. Erica Brown participated in a roundtable discussion called "Embracing Diversity, Teaching Equity: Race and Ethnicity in Jewish Day Schools" at Brandeis University on April 30, 2018 at a conference entitled "Inside Jewish Day Schools: A Research Conference on Teaching and Learning." This conference, co-chaired by Professors Jon A. Levisohn and Jonathan Krasner, began with an exploration of "the grammar of Jewish day schools," investigating the key terms and characteristics of day schools and why the name day school was preferred to parochial school, which suggested a narrowness of focus.
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Dan Finkel holds degrees in the Biological Basis of Behavior (BA, UPenn), Jewish Education (MA, Siegal College), and Anthropology (MA, UConn) and is in his third year as Head of School at Gesher Jewish Day School in Fairfax, VA. He shares a bit about himself and his work, as part of our series to get to know practitioners in the field. Name Dan Finkel Weird hobby: Playing electric bass for over twenty years in bands that played blues, bluegrass, funk, and rock
Favorite book: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Mentor: Rabbi Marc Baker
Most unusual job you’ve ever had: Selling Olympic collectible pins in Atlanta in 1996
Favorite Jewish holiday: Sukkot
Inspiring quote: "Connection is why we're here; it is what gives meaning and purpose to our lives." (Dr. Brene Brown) Most recent big dream in Jewish education: Jewish Day Schools are widely recognized as offering the most outstanding academic and moral foundation available for our community's children and have the resources to serve the widest possible range of learners with excellence.
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The Mayberg Center was started in 2016 to advance community-based scholarship in the field of Jewish education and leadership. Housed in the GW Graduate School of Education and Human Development (GSEHD) at The George Washington University, the Center aspires to be a vibrant laboratory for teaching, learning, and educational engagement in the arenas of pedagogy, identity, and Jewish literacy. The Center has three goals in serving the community: 1) to provide high-level graduate degrees in Jewish education, 2) to offer professional development for in-service educators and non-profit professionals, and 3) to bring academics and practitioners together to shape the Jewish present and future.
The Mayberg Center for Jewish Education and Leadership is funded through the generosity of the Mayberg Foundation.
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Mayberg Center for Jewish Education and Leadership
GW Graduate School of Education and Human Development
2134 G Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052
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