The Kohelet Foundation announced that teachers at Lamplighters Yeshiva in Crown Heights have been awarded the 2017 Kohelet Prize.
Created to celebrate extraordinary accomplishments, stimulate breakthroughs and enrich the field of Jewish day school education, The Kohelet Prize, instituted by The Kohelet Foundation, inspires educators to share their innovations, successes and instructive failures on a national scale.
There were 270 applicants across six categories. The judges awarded one prize and one honorable mention in six categories and each winner or winning team will receive a $36,000 cash prize.
A team of six of Lamplighters’ veteran teachers applied in the category of “Physical Learning Environment,” and won.
“Lamplighters Yeshivah is so incredibly proud that their teachers’ accomplishments have been recognized in this momentous way,” said the school’s director, Yocheved Sidoff. “We wish the teachers, Morah Gavi Goldberg, Morah Hinda Dalfin, Reb Moshe Schack, Morah Ilana Spencer, Morah Chana Gorin, and Reb Gershon Riesenberg our deepest congratulations for this honor!”
Their entry is a video project, created as an in-house collaboration of the ideas and talents of these six Lamplighters teachers. Each vignette features a different key element of what we call “the conscious learning environment.”
When teachers are conscious of the unique needs of each of the learners within a space and are willing to allow adaptability of infrastructure, furniture, objects and interactions–the environment becomes as living as the people who live and learn within its walls.
Click here to watch the entry videos.
Holly Cohen, Executive Director of the Kohelet Foundation, noted that “the entries submitted for this year’s Prize exceeded our expectations in terms of both quantity and quality.”
Rabbi Dr. Gil Perl, Chief Academic Officer of the Foundation, added that “the entries that rose to the top were truly exceptional both in adhering to the category description and in their potential for moving the field of Jewish education forward.”
Along with announcing the prize winners, today the Kohelet Foundation launched the Kohelet Prize Database in which not just the winners but all Kohelet Prize entries are available for review – categorized and searchable by subject areas, grade level, and pedagogical approaches. Cohen explained, “the database creates a new space in which educators can share their best work with each other and with the field.” The Kohelet Prize Database can be accessed via the Kohelet Prize website: www.koheletprize.org.
Last year OT BR & ULY teachers won other prizes from other competitions its great to see our locals schools do so well
Wow. So amazing that our local educators have been awarded with this amazing honor. Yasher Koach! Lamplighters keep rocking on, those videos are amazing. I loved that most of the initiatives these teachers brought to their classrooms were not expensive or fancy, just creative! As an educator, I am so inspired!