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IDEAS FOR EDUCATORS
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On its most basic level, Areyvut’s “A Kindness a Day Calendar” serves as a constant reminder to reach out to others, and each person who acts upon its suggestions will surely make someone else’s day a little brighter. Think for a moment how much larger an impact could be made if every individual shared his or her calendar with others. Whether you are a community leader, teacher, rabbi, parent or friend, there is someone in your life who could benefit from a daily, weekly or monthly reminder to uphold Jewish values.
Here are some suggestions as to how the calendar can be adapted to meet the needs of different audiences. We encourage you to experiment with these ideas and to share your feedback with us.
For Adult Audiences
For Adult Audiences
- Incorporate a suggestion into weekly classes and sermons.
- Incorporate the Hebrew texts into Ulpan classes.
- Use the suggestions and texts as a postscript for e-mail communications or newsletters.
- Incorporate the suggestion of the day into a phone message or voicemail.
- Establish a tikkun olam committee that meets monthly to execute a project based on the main themes of the calendar. To begin the meeting, share all sources having to do with that theme. As you develop your committee please keep us informed of your progress.
- Each week, hang up the seven daily suggestions in a prominent place in your synagogue.
- Attend a class or read a book to deepen your knowledge and understanding of what Judaism has to say about chesed.
- Offer a lunch and learn based on the themes and sources used in the calendar.
For Young Audiences (K-5th Grades)
For Young Audiences (K-5th Grades)
- Share a sampling of suggestions with your students and create a “Mitzvah Tree” to keep track of each time a student follows a suggestion.
- When introducing a new suggestion, read a picture book in which characters emulate the suggestion.
- Add a “World Repairer” to your job wheel. It is the World Repairer’s job to read a new suggestion for the week and let the class know when s/he witnesses tikkun olam in action.
- Pick classroom themes and projects based on the suggestions in the calendar.
- Allow older kids to teach younger kids about Jewish values and create collaborative tzedakah projects.
For Middle School and High School Audiences
For Middle School and High School Audiences
- Develop a list of suggested chesed activities and information on agencies where students can perform those actions.
- Add a “World Repairer” to your school newspaper or bulletin board and regularly highlight students and people who actively participate in tikkun olam.
- Enhance your curriculum by implementing the suggestions in the calendar that relate to your particular discipline.
- Encourage your students to teach younger kids about Jewish values and create collaborative tzedakah projects.
For All Audiences
For All Audiences
- Have your student’s think of their own ideas of how they can help others and make their own tikkun olam calendar.
- Post a new suggestion in a prominent place in your school or classroom.
- After synagogue services read the suggestion of the day.
- The sources in the calendar are traditional Jewish sources provided in English. Have students find the source in Hebrew or teach the sources and their meaning in a Hebrew or Jewish Studies class.
- Present one of the daily suggestions without revealing the source and ask students to develop a source (Jewish or general) to coincide with the action. Similarly, present one of the sources without revealing the action and ask students to develop an action to relate to the source.
- Look for articles, programs, movies and people who highlight these suggestions and try to learn more.
- Teach about famous people (Jews or non-Jews) who emulated these values. Students can dress up as these people and share their lessons with the class. You can also find “regular” people or Mitzvah Heroes” who live these vales daily and invite them to come speak.
- Annually publicly recognize people in your community who excel in kindness.
- Set up a monthly or regular tikkun olam trip. Each trip can be based upon a theme from the calendar, and all sources relating to the theme can be taught beforehand.
- Address the suggestions in an interdisciplinary manner involving both Judaic and General studies teachers and classes.
- Assign each student or class a different theme from the calendar to incorporate into a tzedakah project. Have a school and community wide program featuring the various projects.
- For each holiday, choose a different theme from the calendar and initiate a related tzedakah project.
The calendar and its contents are the intellectual property of Areyvut and are protected by copyright. Areyvut, however, encourages the use of this materials in educational settings as long as any written material or verbal presentation acknowledges that it was taken and/or adapted from Areyvut’s 2007 "A Kindness a Day Calendar: 365 Ways to Make the World a Better Place” and mentions the Areyvut website (www.areyvut.org). If you intend to use more than 5 days of entries in your classroom and/or presentation please contact us at 201-244-6702 to obtain permission.
To suggest an additional idea please e-mail projects@areyvut.org or call us at 201-244-6702. Please e-mail us at calendar@areyvut.org to let us know how you, your synagogue, class and/or family are using the calendar.
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The theme for May is:
Saving Life | | | to learn more click here |
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