April 27, 2011 – With support from Targum Shlishi in partnership with the Maytiv Foundation, the Council for Economic Education (CEE) is bringing free training to teachers in New York-area Jewish day schools during the spring and summer of 2011 (teachers outside of the area are also eligible to attend the workshops for free, but must provide their own transportation and lodging). The goal of the initiative, conceived by Targum Shlishi, is to enroll fifty teachers from Jewish day schools in CEE workshops in 2011. The CEE will reach out to day schools in the area in order to network with teachers and make them aware of this opportunity.
CEE workshops are typically five hours long and cover such topics as: “Cultivating Your Financial Garden: Financial Fitness for Life Program for Teachers of High School Students,” “Virtual Economics 4.0: Re-tooled, Expanded, More Interactive, and the Answer to All Your Economics and Personal Finance Teaching Woes!” “Economics in U.S. History: Kicking It Up a Notch with Innovative Lessons,” and “KISS Economics 101: Keeping it Simple for Students.”
“Economic literacy is an important life skill, and unfortunately it has been long neglected in Jewish day schools. In not teaching our children basic financial tools, we are doing them a tremendous disservice,” says Aryeh Rubin, founder and director of Targum Shlishi. “The CEE’s workshops are extremely high quality and we’re pleased to support this effort to extend the CEE’s reach to the Jewish day school educators in the New York area, a group that the CEE has not cultivated in the past. For every teacher who attends a workshop, there is the potential to impact thousands of students.”
Adds Maytiv Foundation director Ivan Berkowitz, “This experimental program could be part of the solution to the absence of basic economic education in these otherwise multi-curricular schools.”
Upcoming workshops
Starting a Financial Garden: Personal Finance for Young Learners
May 4, 10 am – 3 pm, recommended for teachers of grades K-5
Watering That Financial Garden
May 5, 10 am – 3 pm, recommended for teachers of grades 6-8
Interactive and Online Tools for Teaching Financial Education
May 12, 4 – 7 pm, recommended for teachers of grades 9-12
A full schedule of workshops is scheduled for July and August — there are currently 16 tentative workshops scheduled then. For further information see www.councilforeconed.org/nationalcenter.
For information about enrolling in a workshop
Educators interested in more information about the program should contact:
Douglas Young
CEE
Director, HSBC Center for Economic and Financial Education
dyoung@councilforeconed.org
Phone: 212-827-3602
About the Council for Economic Education
The Council for Economic Education (CEE) offers comprehensive, best-in-class K-12 economic and personal finance education programs, including the basics of entrepreneurship, consisting of teaching resources across the curriculum, professional development for teachers, and nationally-normed assessment instruments. Each year, the CEE’s programs reach more than 150,000 K-12 teachers and over 15 million students in the United States and in more than 30 other countries. For more information, visit the CEE’s website: http://www.councilforeconed.org/
About the Maytiv Foundation
The Maytiv Foundation, founded and directed by Ivan Berkowitz and his family, supports various educational activities, primarily in the Jewish community. Over the last decade, it has funded a broad range of projects including: programs in Jewish day schools and yeshivot; publishing and recording archival cantorial music; Jewish inspirational learning in summer camps; innovative study of Jewish law in American and Israeli law schools and institutes of professional legal education; publication of Jewish legal texts; innovative programs for adult education through non-congregational centers; and programs employing the arts to help stimulate spirituality.
About Targum Shlishi
Targum Shlishi is dedicated to providing a range of creative solutions to problems facing Jewry today. Premised on the conviction that dynamic change and adaptation have historically been crucial to a vibrant and relevant Judaism and to the survival of its people, Targum Shlishi’s initiatives are designed to stimulate the development of new ideas and innovative strategies that will enable Jewish life, its culture, and its traditions to continue to flourish. For more information on the foundation, visit its website at www.targumshlishi.org.
Media contact:
info@targumshlishi.org
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