Project Based Learning is focus of Kroll Educators Conference

Project Based Learning (PBL) is the theme of the Elaine and Sanford Kroll Educators Conference, to be presented by the Jewish Alliance          of Greater Rhode Island at Temple Beth-El, in Providence, on Thursday evening, Sept. 8.

A light Kosher supper will be served at 5:30 to those who preregister at their schools. The program begins at 6.

The presenter will be Ronit Ziv-Kreger of Sharon, Massachusetts. Ziv-Kreger combines a passion for Jewish learning and life with her MIT training in management science to help institutions navigate systemic changes and adapt pedagogies to manifest their vision. She serves as a consultant to Combined Jewish Philanthropies’ initiative to reinvent supplementary education in the Boston area, and as designer and trainer for Hebrew College’s congregational PBL professional development. 

Ziv-Kreger has supported dozens of schools both in Israel and the Boston area since 1997 with successful implementation of innovative pedagogies such as Project Based Learning and Torah Godly Play. She is a graduate of the Pardes Educators Program and received her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management.

According to the Buck Institute for Education, “In Project Based Learning (PBL), students go through an extended process of inquiry in response to a complex question, problem, or challenge. While allowing for some degree of student ‘voice and choice,’ rigorous projects are carefully planned, managed, and assessed to help students learn key academic content, practice 21st century skills (such as collaboration, communication & critical thinking), and create high-quality, authentic products & presentations ….

“Students gain a deeper understanding of the concepts and standards at the heart of a project. Projects also build vital workplace skills and lifelong habits of learning.... PBL can motivate students who might otherwise find school boring or meaningless.”

Ziv-Kreger will be teaching the basics of PBL at the Kroll Educators Conference, and applying it to the Jewish classroom.

Deeply aware of the connection between Jewish education and Jewish continuity, Elaine and Sanford Kroll established an endowment fund at the Bureau of Jewish Education to provide an annual teachers’ conference.

Sanford Kroll, a former president of the bureau, observed firsthand the need for professionalism in the Jewish educator. He instituted programs to reward teacher creativity and to encourage educational experimentation. An honorary member of the bureau’s board, Elaine Kroll demonstrated her commitment to Jewish life in Rhode Island through her active involvement in many Jewish communal agencies.

The Jewish Alliance recognizes and pays tribute to Elaine Kroll and Sanford Kroll for their commitment to Jewish education, for their generosity, and for making this conference possible.

For more information about this program, please contact him at 401-421-4111 or lkatz@jewishallianceri.org.

LAWRENCE KATZ is director of Jewish Life and Learning at the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island.