Welcome, New Students and Families!
Students across all communities are making new friends as our second week of school comes to a close. As they participate in book clubs, STEAM rotations, community collaboration, and Rosh Hashanah preparation, our 75 new students are seamlessly integrating into our learning communities. These students represent 44 new families, and 28 of them are children of Hillel alumni! Enjoy the video slideshow of some of our new students -- and when you see them around the building or around town, please offer them a friendly hello!
String handcuffs in science? You bet. Students were challenged to hypothesize how they’d escape from them in David Venning’s eighth-grade science class this week, and the results were often hilarious. Before actually slipping on the handcuffs that connected them to each other, however, he asked students to write a lab report with objectives, materials, and steps for escape. Having not tried it yet, students visualized and pantomimed what they might do.
Then they set out to do it, getting caught up in each other, stepping over the string, and ending up more entwined than when they started. When they finally disconnected successfully, they felt relief!
The point of the exercise, Mr. Venning explained, was to show students that “we’re all scientists to some degree. We all form hypotheses, perform experiments, and arrive at an answer -- or not!”
Assessments that Enhance Achievement
Fourth-grade teachers Lauren Partovich and Megan Rosenson have introduced a self-assessment tool that helps students reflect on how well they are learning classroom material. As they proceed through a unit of study, students rate how well they understand a concept, on a scale of 0-4. When they give themselves a “4,” they’re “ready to teach someone else!” said student Talia Colton.
The rubric, designed by education expert Robert Marzano, helps students become partners with teachers on assessments. After a math lesson this week, the teachers noted that students gave themselves the “same ratings we would have given them,” based on their understanding of rounding numerical equations. “We used their responses to differentiate our next activity, whether it’s more instruction, or students acting as teachers,” Mrs. Partovich said.
Advancement News
Thank you!
Thank you to Plum Market and Bruce and Mindy Ruben for being the Dinner and Desserts sponsors, respectively, for tonight’s Welcome Back Shabbat Dinner. We look forward to welcoming Shabbat with Rabbi David Fain, Tamarack Camps, Lisa Soble Siegmann, and 250 members of our Hillel community.
Join us for our next upcoming event
Meet the Malls:
Zachary, Lindsay, Lillee (first grade), and Emma (ECC3) of Farmington Hills
- Rosh Hashanah prep in five words: Time to renew the soul
- Even though the greatest outcome of Hillel was our meeting each other, there is so much more that enriched our lives. One of the best things is that we are better able to teach Judaism in this very secular world. We know what the essence of Judaism is. When we meet people who have never met a Jew, we bring them in and give them a crash course, and they get it by the time Shabbat dinner is over! Hillel taught us that to be a Jew means to be a mensch to everyone. We value that above all, and in a world where kindness isn’t the first instinct for most people, it always is for us!
- Although we enjoy Shabbat, holidays, and other traditions that to the outside world make our home look “Jewish,” the real source of Judaism in our home is that everything we do has a Jewish value prescribed to it. We make sure to note that value to our children along the way. If they recycle, we talk about Tikkun Olam; when we welcome guests, Hachnasat Orchim. Each day presents an opportunity to teach Jewish values, and how to incorporate them into our daily lives.
- We think that the education and resources provided by Hillel are the best we can offer our kids. Being able to send our kids to school and to have no question they are safe, cared for, and loved is the best feeling. We can call the parent of any one of our daughters’ friends for playdates, and also trust them to pinch hit a pick up from school!
- Each Hillel teacher literally loves our children as their own! My kids have had teachers that were our teachers, too. Every time we see Mrs. Shuchman or Mrs. Gaba, or any teacher we had while we attended, we always get a huge hug and kiss. They ask how our families are, they kvell over our children. Because at the root of it all, Hillel creates family and connects the entire Jewish community. This is how we want our children to remember their childhood: with friends, family, happiness, and love! What more could you ask for!?
September 12, 2018 is the new deadline for purchasing your Lulav & Etrog set from Hillel in time for Sukkot. Each set is $50. Pick-up is September 21.
Pay your PTO dues and sign up for volunteer opportunities including in the greenhouse! Pay by October 8 for your chance to win a staff or parent parking spot. The raffle will be held October 9.
Join PTO for its first meeting on Friday, September 14 at 8:15 a.m. and for Sukkah decorating after school on Thursday, September 20.
Parashat Nitzavim - Taking Control of Our Lives
Do you feel that the days and weeks are passing too quickly? The beginning of the year is such a chaotic and hectic time for children, parents, teachers, and families. Everyone is getting back into their school year routines, and with all of the transitions and new beginnings, it can be hard to pause and reflect on what’s happening. This is exactly why we have Shabbat, especially the Shabbat before Rosh Hashanah, as a perfect time to stop and take a moment to reflect on the transition into the new year.
At the end of this week’s Torah reading, Nitzavim, the Torah reminds us that things do not happen randomly in our lives. Days and weeks are opportunities for us to make conscious choices and decisions to determine the course of our lives. The Torah says “... I have put before you life and death, blessing, and curse, choose life… “uvcharta bachayim.” Why does the Torah remind us to choose life? Isn’t this an obvious choice?
The biblical commentator Maimonides explains this verse is not a reminder just to choose life, but more specifically a reminder that we always have a variety of different paths to choose from in our life. All of our decisions are based on what we desire. Our days and our weeks are created by our decisions, not by chance. My rabbi and teacher, Rabbi Avi Weiss, would remind us life is not a matter of just fate, but an opportunity for us to turn fate into destiny. Don’t let the time just pass you by; rather, take control of what is happening. Make choices to create the day and the week you want to experience.
As we enter Shabbat and prepare for the new year, let us take a moment amidst the chaos of a new school year and the rush of preparing for the holidays to reflect: What are the choices I make every week? What’s the destiny I would like to create as I choose life?
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi David Fain
Rav Beit Hasefer
