Over the last seven years, HALB and its Early Childhood Program, Lev Chana, have fully integrated “Blended Learning” as their driving educational model, moving away from desks and frontal teaching. The HALB Lev Chana Blended Learning model successfully integrates academics and technology while enabling our students to get a personalized educational experience of small skill groups. Mr. David Marks, Director of Blended Learning and Education Analytics, emphasizes the benefit our children receive from an increase in teacher/student interaction, positive feedback, support, and ongoing informal assessment. Additionally, Mrs. Felecie Akerman, Co-director of Lev Chana ECC, notes that Blended Learning enhances the teacher’s understanding of our children, enables teachers to make stronger, more valuable connections with children, and helps to build confidence in our children as they successfully complete the skills. The teachers think about their student’s needs as well as their underlying skills as they plan their groupings. While half of the class is working on specific skills with their teachers, the other half is fully engrossed with one of the four educational technological programs. An initial diagnostic assessment determines the level at which the student will begin the program. Teachers have the ability to go into the program and reassign skills based on the child’s performance and the in-house developed custom reports that assess the child’s performance: their strengths and areas of concern.
HALB is not content with sitting on its laurels and is looking “Forward to Normal.” They are addressing the unfinished learning that resulted from the pandemic, using data to flag students who may be missing core skills and knowledge, and they have begun to integrate Blended Learning in Limudei Kodesh in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades. They have already seen success and look forward to watching the students reach even higher levels of learning.
