There are dozens and dozens of ways of celebrating Chanukah in our day schools. Here's a list of 45+ teacher-generated activities, courtesy of the Lookstein Centre for Jewish Education...
I can't help but compare the suicide of Rigoberto Ruelas, the Los Angeles teacher who committed suicide to the rash of recent student suicides connected to cyber-bullying. To quote the New York Times, "When The Los Angeles Times released a database of “value-added analysis” of every teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District in August, Mr. Ruelas was rated “less effective than average.” Colleagues said he became noticeably depressed, and family members have guessed that the rating contributed to his death."
People are people. I guess it really doesn't matter if you are a teacher or a student. When something negative about you gets out there online, you can't get it back. I remember the days of being evaluated by my boss for my performance; in private and behind closed doors, and that was stressful enough - but to have that form of evaluation published online, for the world to see? I can only imagine how excruciating that can be. There's lots to be learned about this story, and I want to prepare a unit on this from a |