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Why Choose AHA?Education builds our communities and builds our future. Parents who have chosen Addlestone feel they cannot afford not to chose us for their children. They find a community here for themselves as well. Here is why parents choose Addlestone: Our students are immersed in an engaging and challenging program. Addlestone Hebrew Academy, an award winning school teaching children 18 months through 8th grade, has a challenging curriculum that develops students not only to excel academically, but also to make positive choices in a complex society. As an independent school, we are not subject to the limitations of state education budgets, and have more freedom in designing curriculum and instruction. At Addlestone, we believe in expanding the walls of the classroom to include experiential education, learning with students from other schools in person and on the web, and participating in tzedakah (social action) school projects. Moving away from lectures and sitting in rows, Addlestone students learn in exciting, interactive and web based formats. Our students are part of a strong learning community.The skills to learn, to organize, to prioritize are equal in importance to the information relayed. Our educational foundation is set when students learn how to learn, are given tools to comfortably read secular and Jewish texts and are given the confidence to engage in high-level discussions. Our teachers inspire and support our students in a warm and nurturing environment, working in classes with excellent student-teacher ratios. Our graduates are successful in high school. Our graduates go on to the high schools of their choices feeling well prepared socially and academically. Our alumni in high school and college return to tell their teachers that they were enriched by their years at Addlestone in all ways and that their success in high school, college and beyond was based on their Addlestone legacy. Our graduates are educated to become leaders in our community, grounded in Jewish values. During the ages students are in Lower and Middle School, their value system and sense of religious identity are most fully developed. Studies show that day school graduates express an extraordinary sense of responsibility towards influencing social values, helping those in need and affecting social change. With artistry, love and the magic of community, Addlestone nurtures children into strong human beings who have a firm Jewish identity and a strong moral compass. HIGHLIGHTS: FALL 2011 Jewish Court of All Time (JCAT) Addlestone was one of four schools chosen in North American last June, joining 8 other schools to be part of JCAT, the recipient of a prestigious Signature Grant from the Covenant Foundation. The curriculum is created in a web-based forum, where students discuss cultural, social, and moral issues surrounding a fictional trial, using the voices of historical or fictional characters they have chosen. This year, the fictional trial concerns the events of the St. Louis, a refugee ship that reached American shores only to be turned back by the Roosevelt administration, resulting in the deaths of many of the passengers. What if the children of the survivors sued the United States for reparations because of the resulting deaths and hardship? Pushing back the walls of the classroom to join these other schools in North American, JCAT provides our 8th graders with an opportunity to be involved with other 8th graders in historical research, legal deliberation and many other skills. The program is a collaboration between RAVSAK and the University of Michigan School of Education, where a team of graduate students guided by professors encourage and challenge Addlestone students to exercise their historical imagination. Rabbi Rosenbaum is teaching this exciting 8th grade class this fall. To read further about JCAT, follow this link: http://www.ravsak.org/programs/jcat Addlestone and Mitchell Elementary School Fifth Graders Work Together The Museum of Tolerance, a Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum in Los Angeles, selected Addlestone to work with another Charleston school, Mitchell Math and Science Elementary School, in a program about the Emancipation Proclamation’s effect right here in Charleston. On November 7, Addlestone fifth graders will be reading Ben and the Emancipation Proclamation with Mitchell’s fifth graders. This historical fiction is drawn from the early life of Benjamin C. Holmes, a slave in Charleston who, despite the illegality of literacy for slaves in the pre-Civil War South, taught himself to read. The plot revolves around young Ben who reads the Emancipation Proclamation printed in the Charleston Mercury to fellow slaves and realizes that they are free. We are excited to work with another Charleston school, and to work with professionals from the Museum of Tolerance. Discussions with other students, peering back into history in our own community is part of the experiential education that we prize at Addlestone. Ms. Nancy Peeples, Fifth Grade Teachers and Middle School Coordinator, is leading this project. Harvest Combine Simulator comes to Addlestone Through the use of modern technology, our students will have a glimpse at how fields are harvested. From EC3 through 8th grade, this look at how produce comes to our table is a link to an agricultural way of life with which few of our students have connections. Linking to our Tzedakah theme of hunger this year, our students will also be learning about nutritional eating and wellness, with the help of Addlestone’s own professional dietician, Ms. Luecken. Throughout the year, we will collect food for pantries and visit working farms. Two of our teachers participated in summer coursework on bringing agriculture into the classroom. Now, through modern technology and our existing garden program, we will be combining learning about a traditional part of America in a most cutting edge format.
Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks A+ List - Click here for a listing of some our students' most recent accomplishments.
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