Dear Friends,
As we approach the holidays of Passover, Easter, and Eid-Al Fitr, I wanted to share some of our latest updates with you.
We are now working hand in hand with the Ministry of Education to prepare for our groundbreaking 5-Year Tamkin Joint Venture. By September, we will launch our program in 15 additional Arab elementary schools in dire need of transformation – a giant leap forward in our mission to drive equity and excellence in Israel’s education system. While we’ll provide a detailed update on the Joint Venture in our next newsletter, we’re excited to offer you a peek behind the scenes as we prepare for the expansion. Read on to learn about the marathon training session that we organized for our amazing Tamkin team in February.
In other news, the pilot of the LightSail interactive reading and teaching digital platform in ten ICEI schools has been a resounding success. We recently celebrated with a festive event at the Zvulun Hammer School in Rishon LeTzion, attended by dozens of fifth-grade students, their parents, school faculty, ICEI staff, and special guests. Keep scrolling for more details and photos from the event.
Spring is here, and we’re busy preparing for our tenth Annual Young Writers Competition, which will take place on May 30. Check out the details in the Save the Date below. If you’re in Israel at the time, we’d love for you to join us at this uplifting event.
Wishing you and your loved ones a happy, healthy and meaningful holiday season.
With warm regards,
Don Futterman,
Executive Director, ICEI
Training Marathon for Tamkin Team
Our Tamkin – Arab Schools Initiative is expanding, and to prepare for this growth, our pedagogical and management teams gathered in February for a two-day marathon of training and learning.
With the addition this year of six new Tamkin staff members, including Principal Mentors and Pedagogical Supervisors, who will be working in 20 underperforming Arab schools by next year, this intensive training was crucial to enhancing our team’s skills and tools for creating lasting schoolwide change. The strategizing and shared learning throughout these two days benefited both veteran staff and newcomers alike and helped strengthen the professional ties between them.
We extend a big thank you to Sally Awad, Tamkin Director, Rawya Kittan-Boulos, Tamkin Director of Education, Eti Bukshpan, ICEI Director of Education, and Hana Gilat, ICEI Programs Director for organizing and running the marathon.
Shooting for the Stars with LightSail
The Zvulun Hammer School in Rishon LeZion was buzzing with excitement on the evening of March 26. Dozens of fifth-grade students, parents, teachers, ICEI staff, and special guests gathered for an unforgettable LightSail launch event as part of ICEI’s Atzmaut Plus program, a unique partnership between ICEI, the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ and the Municipality of Rishon LeZion to empower Ethiopian-Israeli families with children in ICEI schools.
The powerful LightSail Hebrew Digital Literacy Platform has been a game-changer for students over the past few months, enabling them to read books on their computers and phones both at school and at home.
As Danit, the mother of one of the fifth graders put it: “My daughter Maayan didn’t have much patience for reading before, but LightSail has motivated her to read more. Reading has suddenly become fun – the kids even compete with each other about who’s read more books! In today’s digital world, with children on their screens all the time, it’s great to have a platform that combines reading and technology.”
The young students were the stars of the evening, emceeing the event and performing a skit about how LightSail has made reading cool again. They also demonstrated the platform’s features and benefits to parents and guests. Hadar Davidan, a fifth-grade student, said, “I love that there’s a huge range of books and that I can choose a book by clicking a button. The questions in the books are fun and make me stop to think about what I’ve just read.”
The evening featured a special guest appearance by renowned Israeli storyteller Yossi Alfi, who shared his insights on the history of books and how technology is opening new horizons for today’s young readers. And to cap off the night, as part of a unique Atzmaut Plus initiative, each student was presented with a brand new tablet, which they’ll use to read even more books – wherever and whenever they want.
Special thanks to our partners for their invaluable support of our LightSail and Atzmaut Plus programs: The Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ, Abraham & Sonia Rochlin Foundation, Maor Foundation, Municipality of Rishon LeZion, and the Israeli Ministry of Education.
