Teachers Get the Prize at Auction

By COLlive reporter

At Thursday’s Cheder Menachem Auction in Los Angeles, more than just the “Split the Pot” winners went home with cash. The Menachem Education Foundation (MEF) was there to present the Eisenberg Award, a monetary award given to exemplary teachers.

The Crown Heights based foundation aims to raise the bar in Jewish education and has launched a teacher training program, produced across-the-board standards for Chumash and Gemara, and a number of other initiatives to put professional educational practices into Chabad community schools.

Rabbi Elozor Fisch, second grade teacher in Cheder Menachem, was one of this year’s Eisenberg Award recipients, given to teachers who have shown excellence in implementing Data Driven Instruction (DDI).

“Before DDI, I focused on ‘all the skills all the time,’ or ‘as they came up’,” Rabbi Fisch explained. “Now, my teaching and lesson planning are streamlined and focused. I am able to pinpoint what we are accomplishing – which skills are being mastered and which have to be retaught. With action plans, each child gets exactly what they need.”

DDI helps teachers combine clearly delineated standards with frequent and focused assessments to ensure that students are progressing. This enables teachers to focus on each student’s individual learning journey within the framework of overall goals.

Another second grade teacher, Rabbi Liebel Lipsker, was also nominated by Cheder Menachem.

“The award represents a year’s worth of collaboration and goal oriented teaching, during which these teachers ensured that the needs of every individual child are accounted for,” said the school’s principal, Rabbi Menachem Greenbaum.

The award is generously sponsored by Jerry and Sharon Eisenberg, in memory of Yaakov Velvel (Billy) Eisenberg OBM, an acclaimed educator of 33 years. “My brother was devoted to seeing every child in his classroom succeed,” said Mr. Eisenberg. “With this Teacher Award, I hope to perpetuate his legacy.”

“Teachers matter,” says Rabbi Zalman Schneur, founder and director of the Menachem Foundation, “and great teachers matter even more. It is an incredible honor and privilege to be able to recognize and award those who make Chinuch their Shlichus.”

The foundation’s future goals include launching a Teacher Training Program for women, expanding the Zekelman Standards Project to include additional grades and subjects, and finding new ways to help schools and teachers put professional standards and teaching methods into place.

For more info, about MEF’s programs, visit www.MyMEF.org