- Solomon, R. D & Solomon, E.C. (2009). Toolbox for Teachers and Mentors: Moving Madrichim to Mentor Teachers and Beyond. Tucson, Arizona: Wheatmark.
“Who will be the next generation of Jewish educators ? How will we train them? What should they know? How early should the Jewish community invest in encouraging young people to enter the field?”
“Dr. Richard and Elaine Solomon’s Toolbox For Teachers and Mentors provides a step-by-step guide for the seven levels of professional development from high school student aide up through the career ladder to master teacher. This is a must read for all those concerned with the future of the Jewish educational endeavor. There aren’t enough students in degree programs to fill all the staff positions that are or will become vacant. This book is hands-on, practical and appropriate for most educational settings. It’s a fresh approach to an old persistent problem and one that merits our consideration.”
Dr. Wallace Greene
Director, Jewish Educational Services
UJA Federation of Northern New Jersey
Chairman, National Board of License
For Teachers and Principals of Jewish Schools in North America
“This is a wonderful book that educators at all levels will find useful. Grounded in the latest research and practice, it offers a systemic and thorough introduction to teaching in a Jewish school, including lesson planning and classroom management. I will definitely recommend Toolbox for Teachers and Mentors to my graduate students!”
Isa Aron, Ph.D.
Professor of Jewish Education
Rhea Hirsch School of Education
HUC-JIR
Los Angeles, CA
“The Sages enjoin us to raise up disciples as a cardinal educational principle. This book is a timely response to a perpetual challenge: a shortage of competent, confident teachers of Torah. We do not just need more teachers; we need better teachers. This book can and should help that process, by enabling students to become teachers, teachers to become mentors and mentors to become educational leaders.”
Rabbi Jan Katzew, Ph.D., RJE
Director of Lifelong Learning
Union for Reform Judaism
New York, NY
“The need for new and competent Jewish teachers has been well documented, but the steps necessary to achieve that goal are steep and daunting. Richard and Elaine tackle the problem head on, offering an effective “Toolbox” to train current Jewish educators in the art of cultivating future Jewish educators. Not satisfied with that critical contribution, this book goes on to offer practical, concrete training for up and coming educators as well. This “Toolbox” is a creative and bold step into the abyss of targeted Jewish teacher training and preparation. I am most impressed.”
Rabbi Erin Hirsh
Director of Education
Jewish Reconstructionist Federation
Jenkintown, PA
" One of the most pressing needs in Jewish education is to encourage young people to share their knowledge and enthusiasm as teachers and ultimately as educational leaders in the Jewish community. The seven stage career development paradigm suggested by Richard and Elaine Solomon offers a blueprint to accomplish that goal."
Rabbi Shalom Z. Berger, Ed.D.
The Lookstein Center for Jewish Education in the Diaspora
Bar-Ilan University
Ramat-Gan, Israel
- Solomon, R.D. & Solomon, E.C. (2010). Toolbox for Teachers and Mentors: Lesson Plans for Pre-Service and In-Service Judaic Educators: Tucson, Arizona: Imago Press.
What a must-read resource for a Judaic Studies teacher or teacher educator!
“Toolbox for Teachers and Mentors: Lesson Plans for Pre-Service and In-Service Judaic Educators” is a practical sequel to the Solomons’ recent book, “Toolbox for Teachers and Mentors: Moving Madrichim to Mentor Teachers and Beyond.”
It is also a necessary sequel because it provides easily implemented lesson plans that are written to cover the original book’s content including: what is a teacher, what should I be teaching, how do I plan lessons, three teacher-directed and three student-engaged models of teaching, methods to reach all students including differentiated and individualized instruction, and strategies to transform the classroom into a Jewish community of learners.
In addition, each chapter lets the reader choose from a variety of lesson plans, with each containing these elements: lesson title, enduring Jewish knowledge rationale for the lesson, essential questions, assessments, objective/learning outcome, anticipatory set, introductory and developmental activity procedures, guided practice, independent activity and closure.
“Toolbox for Teachers and Mentors: Lesson Plans for Pre-Service and In-Service Judaic Educators” is essential for teachers, administrators, professors, staff developers and consultants interested in training the next generation of Judaic educators for our day and supplemental schools."
Hana N. Bor, Ph.D. . Director of MAJE & MJCS Programs. Associate Professor of Education Instructional Leadership & Professional Development. College of Education, Towson University, Towson, Maryland
You never can have too many dreams in Jewish life. Herzl dreamed of a Jewish state of which we still sing im tirzu ayn zo agadah, if you will it potentially it is no dream.
Richard and Elaine Solomon have an educational dream. They articulate and flesh out this dream in Toolbox for Teachers and Mentors: Lesson Plans for Pre-Service and In-Service Judaic Educators. It is a dream that one day our schools, synagogues, and communities will be so richly supportive of the professional development of our teachers that one can imagine a career ladder. One begins a teen (madrich), then becomes a novice teacher, progresses us to being an accomplished teacher, and finally becomes a mentoring teacher. In dreaming this dream the Solomons reminds us of the work of Carl Glickman, a University of Georgia Professor of Educator Development where he carefully scaffolds the growth of teachers at all levels of their development.
The Solomons continue to translation of that dream into educational tachlis. The most immediate thing to note is the depth and breadth of the Solomon’s mastery of creative educational methodologies. This is drawn from their own 60 shared year of work in education. On almost every page one sees an classroom and staff developed tested way of engaging the teacher/learners in their own development. The foci on student-engaged models of teaching, transforming the classroom into a Jewish community, and differentiated and individualized learning are but a few of the ideas embedded in ready made staff development lesson plans.
Short of a fully developed career ladder, the thoughtful practitioner of Jewish education will be challenged to find creative ways to utilize part of the total package offered in the volume. One can readily imagine a free standing faculty meeting where one of the ideas proposed and already packaged will expand the individual and collective repertoire of the faculty. A menu could be created for a modified program of madrich development based on once a month meeting. A faculty retreat could be devoted to a personal and professional exploration of one of the more generative of the techniques.
Perhaps in the end such practical and limited innovation and adaptation of Toolbox for Teachers and Mentors will create the soil out of which will grow the fuller dream. Im tirzu ayn zo aggadah.
Dr. Jeffrey Schein, Director,
Department of Jewish Education,
Siegal College,
Cleveland, Ohio
“Richard and Elaine Solomon have been banging the drum for a while that we need new models to train the next generation of teachers. In their previous publications, they have developed a well thought out series of stages to bring nascent teachers from madrich to expert teacher. In this Toolbox they actually provide the resource of detailed lesson plans to train those who train those who would be teachers. Geared to those who are mentors, staff developers, teacher trainers or otherwise engaged in pre-service and in-service programs, these lessons plans focus on the “how” not necessarily the “what” of Jewish education. Their writing style is easy to follow and the lessons combine the technical with the practical, and includes theory as well as research based applications. Most teacher training focuses on how to teach children. The lacuna of how to teach teachers to teach children is amply filled by this book.”
Dr. Wallace Greene, former Director of Jewish Educational Services and Senior Educational Consultant to the UJA Federation of Northern New Jersey, and President of The National Board of License for Teachers and Principals in Jewish Schools in North America. Dr. Greene serves as the Executive Director of the Jewish Center. Teaneck, New Jersey
"A friendly and sagacious book with helpful lesson plans and a clearly laid-out sequel text, about the whys and wherefores of successful Jewish mentors in education. "
Rabbi Dr. Moshe P. Weisblum is the spiritual leader of congregation Kneseth Israel, Annapolis, Maryland, and author of Ruth Talk and Table Talk: Biblical Questions and Answers.
“Several times every week I receive calls from congregational schools asking for advice on how to keep high school students enrolled, involved and engaged. A big part of the answer to this question can be found in the pages of Toolbox for Teachers and Mentors: Lesson Plans for Pre-Service and In-Service Judaic Educators. Taking high school students seriously, giving them important information and life skills, and seeing them as the Judaic educators of the future, Richard and Elaine Solomon have created an important book of scripted lesson plans that takes high school students step by step through the process of learning to be a skillful educator with a full bag of significant education techniques. The double benefit of this book is that in the very process of exploring the wide variety of classic teaching techniques the high school students will quickly reach that ‘ah ha moment’ and come to the ultimate understanding of how students process, learn and retain information just at the point in their lives when they are ready to go to college. This book is ‘win-win’ all the way. “
Wendy Light, National Education Consultant,
United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism
"A friendly and sagacious book with helpful lesson plans and a clearly laid-out sequel text, about the whys and wherefores of successful Jewish mentors in education. "
Rabbi Dr. Moshe P. Weisblum is the spiritual leader of congregation Kneseth Israel, Annapolis, Maryland, and author of Ruth Talk and Table Talk: Biblical Questions and Answers.
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