M²: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education – To create virtual laboratories for diverse educators to explore creative pedagogies for Jewish education and to develop new educational practices and resources inspired by Jewish wisdom.

What keeps you inspired?

What keeps me inspired to do my work is experiencing firsthand the power of bringing together a poly-disciplinary group of Jewish educators to reconnect and explore the deep reasons for why they do the work that they do as educators and creators.

Why is it essential for educators to have space to iterate and create new educational practices and resources? What happens when educators have this space?

We all can get stuck in our silos and rely on the way in which we know how to teach. By allowing people to reconnect to their worldview and the reasons they are doing this work, we can re-spark their passion and creativity as an educator. We can’t always rely on our old tricks and habits; we must keep inventing, reinventing, and mining our tradition for pedagogies of gold.

How will this project ultimately support educators in teaching about well-being?

Fellows will be creating educational resources for the field that are grounded in practices of well-being. And not only will the resources be focused on well-being, but our cohort process will also be one that supports well-being. So while educators are creating resources for the field, they are also engaging in the practices of well-being.

Learn more:

• Exploring the Jewish educational practices of well-being by M² co-faculty Rabbi Lisa Goldstein
• Jewish Pedagogies Circle: Research Papers and Educational Resources (materials created by last year’s Pedagogies Fellows, on which the new project is modeled)