Philadelphia Federation visits Beitar

 Thursday, February 13, a delegation from the Philadelphia Jewish Federation visited the Chassidi Klali Talmud Torah in Beitar Illit to see Achiya’s Language Skills program in action. Since September, 2011, the school’s administration and kindergarten teachers have undergone intensive training to learn how to enhance children’s language skills, with the understanding that these are the building blocks of cognitive development.

 

 

The school principal, Rabbi Twersky, met with the delegates to explain to them how the program has impacted his students. He surprised one of the first grade teachers by asking him to tell the delegates about the program’s impact. The teacher said since the program’s introduction, the majority of students who enter his first grade are able to express themselves and hold conversations, both with the teachers and among their peers.

 

The delegation visited a kindergarten and observed several children sitting on a rug, looking at picture books, while the main teacher worked individually with one of the pupils and the assistant teacher played an educational card game with three children. Afterwards they observed a kindergarten teacher read one of the Yiddish book that was produced specifically for the program to a classroom of children. The children enthusiastically participated in the class discussion following the story.

 

Before the delegation boarded the minibus that would take them to their next destination, the principal passionately requested that the program be expanded to additional schools, including his children’s school in Ashdod. “We need to train additional mentors to work with teachers so that we can expand this program to more schools. In addition, we need to begin a program to teach children how use language to express their emotions.”