A new initiative by the Moshiach Office at Merkos 302 facilitates in-depth teacher training workshops to help ensure their Geulah messages resonate with students.
A peek into any Cheder room from a previous era reveals a familiar sight: A Rebbi stands in front of a classroom full of children teaching Chumash and Mishnayos, steeped in a Mesorah of training a younger generation in the basics of Yiddishkeit. Over hundreds of years, this model has remained almost entirely unchanged.
Yet even as newer and more exciting methods of instruction allowed mechanchim to communicate our timeless tradition in the modern era, one fundamental concept essential to the Jewish belief system has yet to be taught in depth to younger children. This is the subject of Moshiach and Geulah.
Children have always been inculcated with an awareness of Moshiach and Geulah. The belief in a better future for the world simmered in the background of many Jewish subjects and was certainly a topic that adults in their lives often conversed about. However, the Rebbe called for a new relationship with Geulah, one of proactive mindfulness and in depth-study. This call to action inspired many adults to establish classes and set fixed times to learn about these concepts, but children were regularly left out of the loop.
Tut Altz Kids, a project of the Moshiach Office of Merkos 302, aims to solve this issue. By creating the Live With Geulah Now curriculum, they have introduced a comprehensive study system geared specifically for children in many schools throughout the world. In the words of Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, Vice-Chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, “The Live With Geulah Now curriculum ensures that hundreds of children are given the opportunity to deepen their understanding of Moshiach and Geulah, in an unprecedented manner.”
However, as any good educator knows, for a message to resonate with students, you must have a comprehensive understanding of its underlying concepts. To that end, the Moshiach office provides an in-depth teacher training program for each segment of the curriculum.
Presented by Rabbi Shloimy Naparstek, the director of The Moshiach Office at Merkos 302, Rabbi Levi Raskin, the lead researcher of Live With Geulah Now, as well as guest hosts from around the world, the teacher’s training program are engaging presentations available in video and audio formats that can be streamed at any time. The sessions discuss essential topics from the Sichos that anchor each segment and explain how the lesson’s evolved. The hosts walk teachers through the goal of each particular section of the class and explain how all the individual pieces come together. Which segment has an interesting backstory that can inspire classroom discussion? Which topic deserves a little bit of extra focus? Which of the two games included in the lesson should you choose, and how do they work? All of these questions and more are answered in the training video.
“Children can sense when a teacher feels confident about the subject they are teaching,” says Rabbi Naparstek. “Our workshops give teachers the necessary background to deliver an exciting lesson seamlessly, sprinkled with stories, mashalim, and tidbits that did not make the final cut but are still useful in bringing the lesson to life.”
Print-ready booklets and extra activities are available online for free at www.tutaltz.com/lwgn.
Access the expanded resources with a yearly membership, including the teacher’s training program and a physical copy of the Tut Altz Kids Live with Geulah Now curriculum and Teacher’s Guide.
For more information and sponsorship opportunities, click here to message Merkos 302 on Whatsapp
But Perhaps the issue begins with the Geulah concepts not resonating with us as adults and mechanchim.