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- Rabbi Philmus' summer office hours will be Tuesdays from3:30-5:30 pm, Wednesdays from 2:30- 6 pm and by appointment. To make anappointment please call the synagogue office at 215-579-2200.
- Young Families Havurah May 10, 2013 We are a group of parents with young children ages 3-5, who get together once a month at different people's homes to celebrate Shabbat with…
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Joe Kessel
Joe Kessel
Hello! My name is Joe Kessel and I am the 6th grade teacher here at Congregation Brothers of Israel.
In May of 2010, I graduated from Hofstra University with a B.A. in Elementary Education and Psychology. I am currently working towards a Masters degree in Counseling Psychology at Temple University. Over the course of my life, I have been fortunate enough to have gone to Israel twice. I first went, at the age of twelve, with my synagogue and became a Bar Mitzvah upon the mountain of Masada. The second time that I traveled to Israel was through the wonderful Birthright organization. It was while on this trip that I developed a profound fascination with Israel as well as my Jewish heritage.
As a teacher, I always strive to integrate concepts that were taught successfully in previous years as well as to remove concepts, which students had some difficulty grasping. I consider myself to have a relatively unique teaching style. I truly believe that stuents learn best when they are being intellectually stimulated through an array of different forms of activities and assessments. By this, I mean that I like to do a lot of hands-on and kinesthetic-based activities as opposed to traditional style of visuals and worksheets. In addition, I use discussion-based teaching instead of lecture-based teaching. I find this style of teaching to be more relaxing, less anxiety-provoking, more thought-provoking, and much more engaging than the lecture style of teaching. Overall, I have found that studdnts all want to be engaging members of the classroom but some of them feel uncomfortable doing so. It is my job to make sure that all of my students are given the necessary tools needed to feel comfortable contributing in classroom discussions. This will ultimately affect their learning experience throughout the year.