Homework Assignment: Women Who have Changed History for the Better

"A woman who changed history and who is important to me is Julia Child.  She changed history by making French cooking accessible to Americans and encouraging people to cook through her passion for what she did. She is important to me because I love to cook, and Julia Child is an inspiration to me and to other cooks who inspire me. Julia Child was a pioneer in cooking, and she changed history with her charm and talent."
Emma

Seventh Grade Update 10/29/12

I hope everyone is safe and sound during the storm. Yesterday was a lot of fun, we learned about how women challenged the status quo during the time in the bible when Moses and the tribal leaders were dividing up the land. Tzelafchad, one of the women descended from Joseph, comes before the men and tells them that her five daughters have no father. None of them are married and Tzelafchad's husband died of his own mistakes in the desert. If the land is divided the way the tribal leaders are planning, then Tzelafchad and her daughters will be left with nothing.  After speaking with God, Moses is told that Tzelaphchad was correct in coming to him with this concern. From now on, the land will be passed down to the daughters of tribal members if there are no sons. 

This is a large change from many of the other tribes in the area. Through her question about fairness and a place to live, Tzelaphchad made sure that there was a place for women in Israel much bigger than it might have otherwise been. In class we made a play showing how important this was and describing how it worked. We also talked about how there have been many women throughout history who have changed the situation they were in for the better through both questioning the status quo and doing something about it. 

Outside of the Great Debate through Jewish History, for the third hour we continued our work on devising a game which incorporates both Historical and Biblical figures. We split the seventh grade class into two in order to do this, and once we've finished making the games we're going to exchange them between the two groups. Our group worked on making up a game where there will be at least three teams of players and a way for them to answer questions and come up with different activities. 

The kids got very in to the activity and enjoyed devising how the gameplay was going to work. Next week we'll be working on the creation. I can't wait to see what the create.

In other news, for homework I would like all the students to write three lines about a woman who changed history for the better. They get to choose who the woman is, however it needs to be someone they feel is truly important and within those three lines explain why they chose her. If possible I would like them to post their lines in the comment section of the Seventh Grade Blog which isseventhgradecbe.blogspot.com

If you have problems posting, I will happily take the sentences via email and post them there myself.

If you have any questions feel free to contact me a bchalmer@gmail.com.

Have a wonderful week,

Ushpizin

For those of you who are curious about Ushpizin and the traditions that accompany inviting guests into the Sukkah, there are several different sites you can check out on the subject.

http://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/Jewish_Holidays/Sukkot/At_Home/The_Sukkah/Ushpizin.shtml

Is one place to check out the tradition. I also recommend checking out the rest of the site about the different holidays. It's quite informative and can answer many different questions pertaining to tradition,  culture and and Jewish Life in general.

There are plenty of other places to check out, which contain many different philosophies. aish.com is one, as is chabad.org. Feel free to check them out.

As it happens there is also an Israeli movie which came out several years ago called Ushpizin. It takes place during Sukkot and involves an orthodox man and wife who have some Sukkot guests they hadn't expected. It's a good movie and if you get the chance I do recommend you check it out.

Seventh Grade Update 10/1/12

Yesterday, despite the weather, we had a lot of fun putting up our Seventh grade decorations in the Sukkah. If you get the chance I recommend checking them out. In order to make the decorations meaningful to the students and to incorporation learning into our Sukkot decorations in my class this week, we learned about the tradition of Ushpizin.

What are Ushpizin is also a wonderful question you can ask your seventh grader, who will probably answer with something along the lines of "it's guests." They would be correct. We learned in class that the word is from Aramaic and allows us to practice Hachnast Orchim, the welcoming of guests and showing them hospitality on Sukkot. Traditionally there are seven honored guests during the holiday, one for each day.

(A good way to see if the students remember is to ask who are the seven guests.) The seven guests in tradition are, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron and David. During class we speculated as to why it might be these seven who are honored as guests at our Sukkah, many of the answers being that these were some of the people that helped make the Jewish people. To add women to the tradition we learned that the seven female guests are Sarah, Rachel, Rebecca, Leah, Miriam, Abigail and Esther. 

While some of the questions in class revolved around who would be paired up with whom in the honor department, the other part of our discussion and activity was to come up with people who we would like to honor and invite to our Sukkah who weren't traditional. Some of the suggestions were Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Winston Churchill, Michael Phelps and quite a few others. Once we'd come up with the people, the kids got down to business writing invitations to them. 

In the Sukkah now you can find the invitations the kids wrote and illustrated. You might be able to find our paper chain, which includes those people who they weren't able to write invitations to and what they hope for the world in the year to come. 

With Columbus day and Simchat Torah celebrations coming up, there is no class next Sunday. However, the Saturday after that on October 13th, our first Jr. Congregation will be taking place. It would be wonderful if the seventh graders could join us as it's going to be a lot of fun, with singing, prayers and guitar. 

I will be posting this on the blog, along with the question of who you would want to invite to the Sukkah. Please feel free to comment and add your thoughts. I'd love to hear from all of you. The blog is Seventhgradecbe.blogspot.com

Have a wonderful Sukkot,

Bryna