by Russell Jay Hendel
This article describes the innovations in use of space and building design of the AMIT religious network of schools in Israel. It is important to emphasize that space-design by itself will not accomplish pedagogic improvement; space-design is at most supportive to innovative pedagogy. Once we define our concept of learning, we can explore how spatial redesign supports and enhances it.
As part of its effort to teach students in a more experiential way, AMIT Shachar Junior and Senior High School in Beit Shemesh recently gave its students some science lessons outside their usual school milieu.”
Students at AMIT Wasserman Torah, Arts and Sciences Junior and Senior High School for Girls in Ma’ale Adumim have been given the opportunity to take part in a special leadership program at the U.S Embassy in Jerusalem.
Teams from three AMIT schools were over the moon when they recently found out their projects made it to the finals of the Ramon Foundation’s SpaceLab program, which gives students the opportunity to submit a scientific experiment to the International Space Station and have real-life astronauts test it out in space.
Students from two AMIT schools who returned recently from their heritage trip to Poland held special ceremonies to reflect on their experience and process what they witnessed and learned.
Last week I visited Menorat Hameor, a Haredi high school that AMIT operates in Petach Tikvah. This is the only Haredi school that AMIT operates. With us were three alumni from the school, two who serve in Haredi intelligence units in the army and another alumnus who is in a junior college computer program.
AMIT students around the country recently marked the 5th annual day of recognition for wounded IDF soldiers and victims of terror attacks. Two schools held especially meaningful ceremonies, hearing from some of the soldiers about their experiences defending the country.
Students at the AMIT Evelyn Schreiber Junior and Senior. High School for Girls in Tzvat welcomed AMIT President Audrey Axelrod Trachtman and other dignitaries recently for a tour of the school’s cutting-edge new campus.
A beautiful new children’s book, “Martin & Anne, The Kindred Spirits of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Anne Frank” (Creston Books), written by award-winning children’s author Nancy Churnin and illustrated by Yevgenia Nayberg, weaves together the parallels between the American civil rights icon and the teenage girl whose autobiography may be the most well-known book on the Holocaust.
AMIT Dvir Junior and Senior High School in Beit Shemesh offers its students innovative programs to help them move smoothly and confidently as they grow into the next stage of their lives. Through these programs – a boot camp training program for upper classmen and a bar mitzvah program for middle schoolers – AMIT Dvir is helping take their students from boys to men.
