CA Students Excel at Life Lessons

Students of Bais Rochel Leah High School at Hebrew Academy Huntington Beach in California were recently able to participate in an innovative and in-depth study program.

Upper school girls led Project Based Learning workshops for the elementary students. Each girl was assigned to teach a project or was assigned to supervise a group of elementary students. Middle school girls acted as assistants. Each project was designed to demonstrate how a school lesson is applicable in real life situations.

Projects included Patterns in Nature – Math, Science, Chesed; Shabbos Acrostic Poems in English and Hebrew – Arts, Literature; Write a Children’s Book – Media, Literature; Baking – Math, Yahadus; and Go Fly a Kite – Math, Science, Fun

The girls worked with teachers and younger students and, in the process, learned about their own strengths and weaknesses.

L, a 10th grade student, learned that her discipline skills need improvement.
S says that she applied what she remembered from being a younger student and was able to provide extra attention to children who could use positive role modeling.

S, a middle school student, learned that you can have fun with anyone, even with a 3rd grader.

B, who wants to be a teacher, learned that an instructor has to be able to adjust a lesson plan for different grade levels, for individual students, and even for group dynamics.

EJ came to realize that it’s important to ask for help when you need it.

And, M is now even more certain that she loves to work with young kids.

Staff and students alike affirmed that knowledge only becomes real to students when they are able to apply it to hands-on and real world learning. Study programs like these are an integrated part of the Bais Rochel Leah High School curriculum and help us produce well-educated leaders for the next generation.