Torah Godly Play (TGP) CoP
Participants in this ICoP are seeking to deepen their teaching staff's instruction by infusing an experientially based pedagogy that deepens students' connection to our sacred stories and our people.
This ICoP is facilitated by national educational leader Rabbi Dr Michael Shire, Professor of Jewish Education at Hebrew College Boston and founder of Torah Godly Play. He was Director of Education at Temple Beth Hillel in North Hollywood in the 1980s and earned a PhD in Jewish Education from HUC Los Angeles.
Torah Godly Play is an adapted spiritual pedagogy for cultivating the religious language, spiritual awareness and creative wondering that is an innate feature of childhood. It draws upon our Torah stories to create an environment, a learning and a relationship to enhance spiritual development. Torah Godly Play is used in circle time for Early Childhood and intergenerational settings. It is a component of the Torah curriculum for elementary grades and used as part of social, emotional and spiritual learning for teens. It is also used with elders in memory units of senior life facilities. Our time together will be to experience an element of the Torah Godly Play methodology and reflect on the pedagogy together. Further details and opportunities for training teachers will follow the session. You can find out more about this innovative pedagogy in the following article https://www.jtsa.edu/hidden-page/torah-godly-play-an-innovative-approac… and the following YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6cGW6Tx2_w.
Thirteen schools are currently active in this ICOP: Temple Isaiah, Silverlake Independent JCC, Temple Menorah, Sinai Temple, Hamakom, IKAR, Temple Ramat Zion, Temple Ahavat Shalom, Adat Ari El, Temple Judea, Kol Tikvah, Leo Baeck Temple, and Temple Beth Hillel.
This ICoP gathers three times in the 2023-24 academic year and are facilitated by Dr. Rabbi Shire, lasting one hour each.
For more information contact David Lewis, Director of the Center for Part-Time Jewish Education