Tochnit Chayil -  Jewish Educational Leadership Program

Tochnit Chayil - Jewish Educational Leadership Program trains a self-selected group of students at Midreshet HaRova to be leaders in formal and informal education on their return to their respective communities after their year of study in Israel.

The program focuses on students with leadership qualities, giving them skills to lead and influence youth through formal and informal education.  The program endeavors to provide professional training in the various disciplines of Jewish education, including training in preparation and methodology, and a wide range of materials that will serve students in Diaspora education.

Students in Tochnit Chayil participate in the full educational program of the Midrasha, adding six hours per week of extra training including:

  • Methodology - prepares students for teaching in classroom situations, focuses on methodology in education as well as group dynamics in both formal and informal education, materials includes team work, operating seminars, youth movement skills, effective discipline, and more
  • Havurot, "Hora'at Amitim" - students learn how to research, study, investigate, and present a topic to students
  • First Aid - a 6-week course in basic first aid, taught at the Midrasha as required by Ministry of Education students of education

In addition, the program includes:

  • Seminar on Kiruv - 4 session seminar focusing on skills specific to working with non-religious individuals and groups
  • Educational Practicum - weekly visits to Israeli schools, once a week, to observe and participate in programming and special classroom projects.  Students are given experience with youth groups, including running shabbatonim with the KEDMA organization for immigrant girls at a high school ulpana.  Some, specifically from the southern hemisphere, participate in summer volunteer work in summer camps and summer programming in informal environments

Graduates of the program have taken on roles in education in communities from London, England, to New York, to Sydney, Australia, and Johannesburg, South Africa. The response from both graduates and employers is very positive. 

For the Midrasha, the Tochnit Chayil embodies one of the very important lessons of any learning, the importance of sharing our learning as a means of enriching the community as a whole. 

Below are samples of recent correspondence received from graduates of the Tochnit Chayil program:

Dear Rav Berg,

I want to confirm that I have received the certificate from Michlelet Efrata and thank you for the leadership training you gave me.  It has proved to be very useful, as not only have I run shabbatonim and other peulot but I am now also teaching in a Hebrew school for Conservative children, using many of the techniques and lessons I learned with you.

Thank you again,

Shauna Elmaleh  New York

 

Dear Rav Yonatan,
… We wanted to give you some nachas.  We gave a shiur in your teacher training class which we gave again last simchat Torah when we went to Columbus, Ohio on Torah tours (a program by YU which sends students all over the country to bring ruach to small communities...) and now, b'ezrat Hashem, will be giving it again this Simchat Torah in Atlanta, Ga.  We hope this gives you some nachas because we'd like to thank you SO MUCH for teaching us how to teach others and giving us the tools we need to accomplish this task.

Kol tuv,

Malka & Nilly -USA

PS. You can tell your students about this so they work really hard on their shiurim :)

 

Thank you so much! We really enjoyed the course and got a lot from it!  Thank you for everything you taught us last year

Shana tova -- 
Anna and Gaby
London, England

 

Dear Rav Berg,

Hope all is well with you and your family. Thank you very much for the certificate and I apologize for not having e-mailed sooner.   The teaching qualification has already proved itself useful since I have mentioned it when applying for a job in a cheder and I outlined the skills that I had acquired.  It has also given me a certain sense of confidence because with these skills, I feel I can put into practice what I have learnt from the Midrasha.

Hope to come and visit the Midrasha soon,
Kol Tov,

Liora Cohen (5765 shana bet)

 


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