October 13, 2004

The Orthodox Union’s New Jersey Association of Jewish Day Schools Presents:

Annual Election Day Elementary Education Conference to be Followed by New Veterans’ Day Conference to Focus on High Schoolers

Conference is Open to all Teachers

Given the success of its annual Election Day Conference for elementary school educators, the New Jersey Association of Jewish Day Schools (an affiliate of the Orthodox Union’s National Jewish Council for Disabilities) has announced an additional Veteran’s Day conference that will focus specifically on high school students.

Sharon Kolb, the Director of the New Jersey Association of Jewish Day Schools, explained the importance of this year’s conferences, calling them “pivotal forums through which the most urgent issues in education today will be brought to the forefront. We are fortunate to have gathered together the education elite, and I am confident that no one will walk away from the conferences without having added something new to their professional skills,” she said.

The conferences are open to all teachers, not only those in the field of Special Education, and to teachers in both public and private schools, she added.

The National Jewish Council for Disabilities (NJCD) includes Yachad, providing unique social, educational and recreational mainstreamed programs for individuals with developmental disabilities; and Our Way, providing mainstreamed and self-contained educational and recreational activities for the hearing-impaired and deaf.

How to motivate and reach all children in the classroom will be this year’s theme for the conferences. The Elementary/Middle School Conference will be held on Tuesday, November 2, from 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. at the Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy in Livingston.

The conference organizers have brought together an impressive team of specialists to explore instructional strategies and techniques in motivating, teaching and reaching all children in the classroom, including children with learning, physical or developmental disabilities.

The keynote speaker will be Dr. Edward Hallowell, founder of the Hallowell Center for Cognitive and Emotional Research. He has been on the faculty of Harvard Medical School for more than 20 years. Dr. Hallowell is the author of “Driven to Distraction” and “Answers to Distraction,” both national best-sellers. He has appeared on such national TV shows as 20/20, The Today Show, Dateline, Oprah, Good Morning America, and The View.

Teachers and administrators from various schools will make presentations. Other speakers include:

• Dr. Aryeh Wohl, an educational rarity, as an expert in both Jewish and secular studies programs;
• Rabbi Scott Goldberg, of the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration of Yeshiva University;
• Dvora Mann, Director of Educational Programs, Raab Holocaust Education Center at Michlalah Jerusalem College;
• Rabbi Menachem Liebtag, well-known Bible scholar and teacher at Yeshivat Har Etzion and Midreshet Lindenbaum in Israel;
• Kristi Hansen, Pacer’s Simon Technology Center;
• Greg Hamilton, Assistant Professor of English Education at Teachers College, Columbia University;
• Anna McTigue, Education Development Center, Massachusetts;
• Penny Petchers, school psychologist in Bergen County;
• Ronald Lamb, CSW consultant, Board of Jewish Education of Greater New York.

On November 11, Veteran’s Day, the High School Conference will take place to discuss teaching methods for high school students.

The conference will take place at the Frisch School in Paramus from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The guest speaker, Sandi Redenbach, is an educator and national consultant with a rich background in alternative education, accelerated learning, at risk programs, integrated discipline and educational restructuring. She founded and coordinated The Independent Learning Center, a drop-out recovery and independent study high school in California. Ms. Redenbach has also served as a director of curriculum and instruction, K-12. She has authored many articles on discipline, responsibility, emotional intelligence and leadership, as well as several books. As president of her own consulting and publishing firm, Esteem Seminar Programs and ESP Wise Publications, she has presented countless workshops throughout the United States, Canada and Europe.

Speakers include:

• Greg Hamilton, Assistant Professor of English Education at Teachers College, Columbia University;
• Dvora Mann, Director of Educational Programs, Raab Holocaust Education Center at Michlalah Jerusalem College;
• Batya Jacob, Director, Our Way Program, NJCD;
• Rabbi Uri Gordon, Director, The Jewish Teachers Corps;
• Rabbi Yaakov Menken, Director, Project Genesis;
• Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgot; Chair, Departments of Bible and Jewish Thought at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School;
• Anand Marri, Assistant Professor of Social Studies and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University;
• Lew Abrams, Director, Yatzkhan Center.

Pre-registration is required to participate in the conferences. For information on the cost of registration and other details, call Sharon Kolb at 212-613-8156, or 201-836-4181.

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The Orthodox Union, now in its second century of service to the Jewish community of North America and beyond, is a world leader in community and synagogue services, adult education, youth work through NCSY, political action through the IPA, and advocacy for persons with disabilities through Yachad and Our Way. Its kosher supervision label, the , is the world’s most recognized kosher symbol and can be found on over 275,000 products manufactured in 68 countries around the globe.

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