ISO interesting teachers

In August, 2005, I interviewed physics teacher Eli Honig for the first column I wrote as part of an ongoing series on teachers in the Jewish school system. Now, five years later, I’m about to interview teacher #48 for the column that will appear in the June 24 issue of The CJN.

The official name of the series, which runs at the end of the month during the school year, is “They are our teachers...” But more often than not we just refer to it here as the teacher feature.

The purpose of the series is to honour Jewish educators and let the community know who is teaching our children.

Mainly, I look for good teachers who are also interesting. As well, I do my best to vary the profiles by age, gender, and the school’s religious stream, and I look for a balance between day and supplementary schools, and subjects and grades taught. In addition to Honig, who teaches at TanenbaumCHAT (his profile is online here ), memorable interviewees include Mike Levinsky, who uses his acting skills to liven up his classroom at Leo Baeck Day school (article is here) and Kinneret Dubowitz aka “Morah Yoga” of Torah Tots Pre School (click here to see the article ).

Last month, I interviewed Shayne Hyman Train, an art and computer teacher at the Orthodox girls’ school Tiferes Bais Yaakov. To do justice to her curriculum as well as the school’s standards of Jewish law, she has to be particularly creative when doing her job. Click here to see the column.

I still have teachers on my list of potential candidates for the column, but I’m looking for new names. Suggestions are welcome.