OU’S YACHAD/NJCD PRESENTS ANNUAL ELECTION DAY NJ STATEWIDE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND NATIONAL YESHIVA SPECIAL EDUCATION CONFERENCES FOR JEWISH DAY SCHOOL EDUCATORS
Once again this year, Election Day in New Jersey will be an opportunity for teachers in New Jersey Jewish Day Schools as well as for their counterparts from around the country to improve their teaching skills, as Yachad/National Jewish Council for Disabilities (NJCD), a program of the Orthodox Union, presents two high-level conferences.
The dual conferences — the New Jersey Statewide Professional Development Conference for Elementary, Junior High School and Special Education levels, and the National Special Education Professional Development Conference — will be presented Tuesday, November 2 from 8 a.m. to 3:15 p.m., at the Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy in Livingston, NJ. These conferences are organized by the New Jersey Association of Jewish Day Schools and the National Association of Jewish Schools Serving Special Children respectively. Both associations are divisions of Yachad/NJCD.
In addition to New Jersey educators, special-education teachers from around the country are expected to attend. As in past years, more than 800 educators are expected to participate in these conferences.
NJCD, which is directed by Dr. Jeffrey Lichtman, is an agency of the OU that provides educational and social inclusion programs through its two major components, Yachad, for children and adults with learning and developmental disabilities, and Our Way for the deaf and hard of hearing.
The conferences, with the shared theme of “Talmud Torah Al Pi Darko (Learning Torah According to His Own Way): Reaching all of Our Students,” will run simultaneously and will concentrate on general, Judaic studies, and special education, as well as on serving children with special needs, providing educational advocacy, leadership development, teacher recruitment and training, and developing programs of inclusion.
Before following their separate programming tracks, both groups will join to hear the keynotes. The first, “Understanding the Unique Needs of Children: Reaching Children Who Don’t Fit,” will be presented by Dr. David Pelcovitz, who holds the Gwendolyn and Joseph Straus Chair in Jewish Education at the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education of Yeshiva University.
It will be followed by “How to Be an Effective and Successful Educator,” with Harry and Rosemary Wong, ED.DS, the foremost authorities on the effective teacher, and the authors of the best-selling book in education, The First Days of School.
“We are working to unite day schools and yeshivot which are teaching children with various special needs in their classrooms throughout the United States,” declared Batya Jacob, Director of Educational Services of NJCD, and Associate Director of both the New Jersey and the National Associations. “To this end, we have formed the National Association of Jewish Schools Serving Special Children which is hosting the National Special Education Conference on Election Day. We look forward to welcoming representatives from schools throughout the country and to continue working with schools as the year progresses.”
Travel subsidies are available for educators traveling from outside the New Jersey and New York areas. For registration costs and for more information contact Batya Jacob at 212-613-8127 or 551-404-4447, jacobb@ou.org.
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