Teachers in Jewish schools often wonder:
- How can our students work together in a supportive, caring manner?
- How can we teach Jewish values in new, different, and engaging ways?
- How can students of varying abilities and learning styles share their talents?
- How can we enhance our students' creativity?
Student-created murals provide surprising and wonderful answers to these questions by providing the following benefits:
A positive learning atmosphere - Mural projects energize kids. Children intuitively know that they will be moving their bodies, using their imagination, and working together. These are all natural ways for kids to learn. In addition to creating lots of interest, a mural project also provides a stress-free space for students to take risks. Mural projects offer constant opportunities for success and help to build students' self-esteem and self-confidence.
Peaceful interactions and community building - Most synagogue-based Hebrew/religious schools' curriculum are designed as a progressive ascent to becoming a Bar/Bat Mitzvah. Sometimes this Hebrew/religious school journey parallels a student's secular educational experience, where grades are assigned as markers of success.
With mural projects, the focus is changed to a group accomplishment. Students work in teams to come up with themes, sketch designs, and paint together. This kind of interaction may be one of the few times that students have worked in such a collaborative and cooperative way. Also, using the arts as a vehicle for learning was frequently a new experience for many students. The process is liberating, healing, empowering, and inspiring. It gives students a real life experience that demonstrates the power of community and teamwork to attain a shared goal.
Talking and doing, a powerful combination - Both the content and process of mural-making supports Jewish educational curricular goals. For example, at Barnert Temple in Franklin Lakes, NJ, students explored the idea "Mitzvah Goreret Mitzvah" (one good deed leads to another) in hevruta, or pairs. They discussed the idea that when others are kind to them, they in turn pay it forward and are kind to others. Creating a visual representation on the mural of what "Mitzvah Goreret Mitzvah" meant to them made the lesson relevant, powerful, and permanent.
Inclusiveness - Many students can take part in the numerous steps that are involved in a mural's creation and completion. Younger children enjoy drawing images and painting them in. Older children embrace the sophisticated concepts of composition, color mixing, and theme development. Parents and community members gladly lend a hand.
Students with ADHD and other learning challenges also thrive, since the mural requires a variety of skills that don't characteristically come into play in a typical classroom scenario.
Unleashed creativity - Mural projects allow for students and adults to claim or reclaim their creative spirits. Their eagerness to contribute to the mural is kindled, fostered, and supported.
Community pride - A large, prominently displayed, and permanent mural in a synagogue-based Hebrew/religious school or Jewish day school fosters tremendous pride among students, parents, staff, and administrators, and acts as a daily reminder of a school's values.
By integrating a mural project into their curriculum, educators in a Jewish day school or a synagogue-based Hebrew/religious school can share an exciting, innovative, and dynamic approach to teaching Jewish values. Students engage with this kind of a project in an enthusiastic, energetic, and highly focused way. When Jewish values are taught through a variety of processes (such as discussion, collaboration, sketching, and painting) a deeper understanding is cultivated.
- How can our students work together in a supportive, caring manner?
- How can we teach Jewish values in new, different, and engaging ways?
- How can students of varying abilities and learning styles share their talents?
- How can we enhance our students' creativity?
Student-created murals provide surprising and wonderful answers to these questions by providing the following benefits:
A positive learning atmosphere - Mural projects energize kids. Children intuitively know that they will be moving their bodies, using their imagination, and working together. These are all natural ways for kids to learn. In addition to creating lots of interest, a mural project also provides a stress-free space for students to take risks. Mural projects offer constant opportunities for success and help to build students' self-esteem and self-confidence.
Peaceful interactions and community building - Most synagogue-based Hebrew/religious schools' curriculum are designed as a progressive ascent to becoming a Bar/Bat Mitzvah. Sometimes this Hebrew/religious school journey parallels a student's secular educational experience, where grades are assigned as markers of success.
With mural projects, the focus is changed to a group accomplishment. Students work in teams to come up with themes, sketch designs, and paint together. This kind of interaction may be one of the few times that students have worked in such a collaborative and cooperative way. Also, using the arts as a vehicle for learning was frequently a new experience for many students. The process is liberating, healing, empowering, and inspiring. It gives students a real life experience that demonstrates the power of community and teamwork to attain a shared goal.
Talking and doing, a powerful combination - Both the content and process of mural-making supports Jewish educational curricular goals. For example, at Barnert Temple in Franklin Lakes, NJ, students explored the idea "Mitzvah Goreret Mitzvah" (one good deed leads to another) in hevruta, or pairs. They discussed the idea that when others are kind to them, they in turn pay it forward and are kind to others. Creating a visual representation on the mural of what "Mitzvah Goreret Mitzvah" meant to them made the lesson relevant, powerful, and permanent.
Inclusiveness - Many students can take part in the numerous steps that are involved in a mural's creation and completion. Younger children enjoy drawing images and painting them in. Older children embrace the sophisticated concepts of composition, color mixing, and theme development. Parents and community members gladly lend a hand.
Students with ADHD and other learning challenges also thrive, since the mural requires a variety of skills that don't characteristically come into play in a typical classroom scenario.
Unleashed creativity - Mural projects allow for students and adults to claim or reclaim their creative spirits. Their eagerness to contribute to the mural is kindled, fostered, and supported.
Community pride - A large, prominently displayed, and permanent mural in a synagogue-based Hebrew/religious school or Jewish day school fosters tremendous pride among students, parents, staff, and administrators, and acts as a daily reminder of a school's values.
By integrating a mural project into their curriculum, educators in a Jewish day school or a synagogue-based Hebrew/religious school can share an exciting, innovative, and dynamic approach to teaching Jewish values. Students engage with this kind of a project in an enthusiastic, energetic, and highly focused way. When Jewish values are taught through a variety of processes (such as discussion, collaboration, sketching, and painting) a deeper understanding is cultivated.
About the Author:
Jennifer
Levine is an accomplished Jewish educator and visual artist. After receiving her
B.A. in Jewish studies from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, she spent
a year studying Jewish texts at the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem. She has been
a teacher for over twenty
years and a school director for fifteen years. She is currently the founder/director of The Peace
Garden Song and Mural Project, an initiative that brings collaborative art,
music, and mindfulness education to Jewish and secular schools across the
U.S.A..
Levine is an accomplished Jewish educator and visual artist. After receiving her
B.A. in Jewish studies from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, she spent
a year studying Jewish texts at the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem. She has been
a teacher for over twenty
years and a school director for fifteen years. She is currently the founder/director of The Peace
Garden Song and Mural Project, an initiative that brings collaborative art,
music, and mindfulness education to Jewish and secular schools across the
U.S.A..
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