Education Spotlight

JMM’s education department has not skipped a beat in the new year! School groups are enjoying the Scrap Yard: Innovators of Recycling exhibit, and the activities our department has created help students learn the stories of scrap families as well as use critical thinking skills to imagine what it might be like to work in a scrap yard.

The student response has been incredibly enthusiastic, especially as we discuss the importance of recycling and taking care of the environment. They are quick to identify differences they can make in their own schools, homes, and communities. We are also receiving positive feedback from our visiting teachers, who cite how much they love seeing their students engage with the exhibit and activities. Teachers have also confirmed the effectiveness of the curricular guide we send them in advance of their field trip experience to JMM.

In addition to our exhibit-based education programming, the team has been hard at work creating and refining projects and programs for a variety of different audiences, from hands-on student work to teacher professional development. There are three programs in particular that are coming to fruition over the next two months, and we wanted to share them with you!

For many years, JMM and the Baltimore Jewish Council have co-sponsored the very successful Summer Teachers Institute (STI), a three-day professional development opportunity dedicated to providing teachers with resources and materials to help them teach about the Holocaust in their classrooms. Each day of the Institute takes place in a different location – JMM, the United States Holocaust Museum (USHMM), and a changing third location (last year’s Day 3 took place at the American Visionary Art Museum).

Through STI we are able to provide an incredibly important professional development opportunity for teachers and educators at all levels and located all over the state of Maryland. The experience allows participants to not just be a student in the classroom, learning something new, but also providing them with the tools and resources to bring back to their classrooms. In addition, participants can receive achievement units which are applied to their continuing education requirements.With such a positive track record, last year we decided to expand our efforts in professional development and Holocaust education by piloting the first Winter Teachers Institute (WTI),which coincided with the Jewish Refugees and Shanghai exhibit. Like STI, this two-day event took place at two different locations, the first day here at JMM and the second day at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China and USHMM in Washington, DC.

The response to this program was overwhelmingly positive and this weekend we debut Day 1 of the second annual Winter Teachers Institute: Confronting Antisemitism. This first Sunday, February 16th, will take place at JMM and the second Sunday, February 23rd, will take place at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in NYC, where participants will see the Auschwitz: Not Long Ago. Not Far Away exhibit. Over the two days, teachers will learn from scholars, educators, and Holocaust survivors, exploring the topic of antisemitism through historical and contemporary lenses.

This year’s Winter Teachers Institute is made possible, in part, through the generous support of Sheldon and Saralynn Glass and the Joan G. & Joseph Klein, Jr. Foundation.

2. My Family Story 2020

2020 marks our 6th consecutive year of participation in the international education program presented in collaboration with Beit Hatfutsot – The Museum of the Jewish People in Israel. Jewish students from area schools research their family history with a goal of presenting their family stories and placing these stories in the broader context of Jewish history. Through interviews with family members and independent research, students make significant discoveries about who they are and where their families came from. They learn about historical events that have affected their families and discover their connections to the Jewish community. You can read more about JMM’s involvement with My Family Story here.Students, with the help of their teachers, transform these family stories into meaningful art installations, reflecting personal heritage and pride. The art installations are displayed and judged, with winners selected to have their project presented for inclusion in the international My Family Story exhibit at Beit Hatfutsot. The competition is intense, and for the past five years, the Baltimore Jewish community has been represented at the international show! Students whose projects were selected also receive a trip to Israel to take part in the opening exhibit ceremonies at the Museum. This year, if a Baltimore student project is selected, we will work with The Associated to arrange a special visit for the student(s) and their families to visit Baltimore’s sister city, Ashkelon.

This year we will host projects from students at Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School, Bolton Street Synagogue Religious School, and Ohr Chadash Academy. Over the past few weeks our staff have visited the students at some of this year’s participating schools to learn more about their projects and the stories behind them. The kinds of materials we’ve observed the students using to tell their own individual stories are so unique, including mannequin heads, 3D pens, and paper towel rolls! We can’t wait for you to come and see the projects for yourselves. Families will celebrate their enterprising students’ works at a special reception on February 27th, but the projects will only be on display to the public March 1 – 8, 2020, so don’t delay on planning your visit!My Family Story at the Jewish Museum of Maryland is supported, in part, by the Ronnie and Alli Russel Charitable Foundation.

3.The Immigrant’s Trunk: Ida Rehr Education Initiative

The last education program – and the newest – is one we are particularly excited to share. Thanks to a generous grant from the Jacob & Hilda Blaustein Fund of The Associated, we have been able to create a new, expanded experience around our Ida Rehr living history character.

The Ida Rehr Education Initiative combines aspects of the beloved Voices of Lombard Street: A Century of Change in East Baltimore exhibit and the living history performance of Ida Rehr, a Jewish immigrant who arrived in Baltimore from Ukraine in 1914. The combination is achieved with a comprehensive learning packet that supports learning outcomes in Jewish history, social studies, storytelling, and primary-source research. The experience introduces students to concepts and themes such as Jewish immigration, Americanization, and Baltimore and Maryland history. The Ida Rehr living history character is portrayed by professional actress Katherine Lyons, who has been playing the role for over 15 years.

To expand the living history character experience beyond a single performance, we have created three distinct modules for the project, each building on the previous experience. The program begins with a trip to the classroom that features the Ida Rehr living history performance. Following the performance, the students will then visit the Museum to explore the historic Lloyd Street Synagogue and our Voices of Lombard Street exhibit. During this visit to JMM, our education staff will help the students make connections between their in-class experience with Ida and their time at the Museum.

The third module takes the experience back into the classroom. Students will watch a newly created video featuring the character of Ida Rehr, who will invite the students to open a trunk that has been delivered to the classroom. In the trunk we have placed reproductions of artifacts that Ida highlighted in her performance. In the video, Ida guides the students through several activities that will culminate in them creating a classroom exhibit of Ida Rehr’s life. Students will work to create labels to identify each item and explain how each object, photo, and document relate to Ida’s immigration experience.

We can’t wait to share this experience with students all over Maryland. This spring (2020) we are piloting this education initiative in Baltimore City and Baltimore County schools served by CHAI’s Schools and Community Partnerships team. After this spring’s pilot, we will refine the experience as needed and begin outreach to a wide variety of schools in our networks, public, private, independent, parochial, Jewish, and non-Jewish. We are confident students and their teachers will really enjoy this extension of the living history character experience and how each of the modules is founded on a well-rounded, hands-on, sensory unit on immigration. This Initiative also offers a wonderful opportunity to extend the lessons and encourage students to apply what they have learned to exploring their own personal and family histories.

The Immigrant’s Trunk: Ida Rehr Education Initiative was funded by the Jacob & Hilda Blaustein Fund for the Enrichment of Jewish Education of The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore.

Our education team is excited to share these initiatives and programs with you! We are always working to provide the best educational experiences possible to our students, visitors, members, and friends and we’ve got even more coming down the pipeline.

Looking forward to sharing even more innovative work from the JMM education department with you in the future!