Hebrew Department Chair Vardit Caspi Attends Summer Professional Development Courses to Help Strengthen Upper School Hebrew Program


During the summer, Ms. Vardi Caspi, Upper School Hebrew Department Chair, completed two separate professional development (PD) opportunities both provided by officials and representatives from CET Israel and Hebrew college. The first PD was about teaching original Hebrew literary texts. The goal of the training was to delve deeper into sample texts in different genres that are part of our Upper School Hebrew program and to experience the reading of traditional and modern texts. Participants read and discussed Biblical texts, midrashim, classical and modern poetry, songs (lyrics and tunes), and classical and modern prose. Ms. Caspi was inspired by this training as it has been a nice refresh of familiar models as well as an insight on new perspectives in teaching literary texts to second language learners.

The second training session Ms. Caspi completed was offered by CET (Center of Educational Technology in Israel) and focused on training for an exciting new professional role she will assume this year. This past summer, Ms. Caspi was asked by CET and the Bishvil Haivrit program to serve as a pedagogical mentor for the 2022-23 school year. In this role, she will work with several independent schools and teachers in the northeastern United States to develop and enhance their pedagogical capabilities in teaching Bishvil Haivrit to a new generation of Hebrew learners.

Ms. Caspi helped introduce the Bishvil Haivrit program to the Upper School Hebrew curriculum and has been instrumental in the successful immersive instruction of the language to hundreds of GOA students. She is pleased to be able to share her expertise with other educators to assist them in developing their Hebrew language programs, and we are proud to have Ms. Caspi as one of our premier Hebrew teachers as well as our department chair.
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