What Do I Do Over the Summer? I Learn From Your Children.

I was surprised to be asked recently, “You work all year, what do you do over the summer?”

Truth be told, I spend much of my summer learning from your children. And that is a full-time job that fills me with great joy!

For 3rd-6th grade learners, one of the most important days of our religious school year happens during our final class together. Rather than only reviewing and celebrating the past year, we use that time to look ahead. We invite learners to become partners in shaping what Jewish learning will become next.

At Temple Shalom, we believe wonder is sacred. We believe Jewish learning begins not with having all the answers, but with learning to ask meaningful questions. Questions help us uncover curiosity, identity, longing, connection, and possibility. They help learners discover that Judaism is not something frozen in the past, but a living, breathing heritage they have a responsibility to explore and shape.

So each spring, we ask our learners: What do you wonder about Jewish life?

And every year, they amaze us!

3rd grade learners will spend next year exploring the stories of the first Jewish families and the Jewish journey that began with Abraham and Sarah. They asked beautiful questions about identity, belonging, courage, and relationships. Their wonderings help shape a curriculum centered on family, journeys, and discovering what it means to become part of the Jewish people.

Our 4th and 5th grade learners shared wonderings about blessings, prayer, Hebrew, and sacred language.

As a Jewish educator, these questions are gifts. They reveal what learners want to know and how they are beginning to make meaning of their own Jewish life. Their questions are a window into what feels important, mysterious, and relevant to them. And those wonderings directly shape the curriculum we build for the upcoming year.

This summer, as our team plans for next year, we are not beginning with a textbook table of contents. We are beginning with your children’s voices.

Our 3rd grade learners’ questions are helping us shape experiences that invite students to see themselves inside the ongoing Jewish story and exploring what it means to build holy community together.

Our 4th and 5th grade learners’ curiosity is helping us create a new year of exploration focused on sacred Jewish words; blessings, prayer, names, and the ways language helps Jews connect across time and space. Learners will explore how Jewish words can help us express gratitude, wonder, hope, healing, identity, and belonging.

This creative curriculum process reflects one of Temple Shalom’s core values: Wonder (Peleh). Wonder invites us to:

pause
notice
ask
imagine
open ourselves to discovery.

In Jewish tradition, asking questions is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of engagement. Many of our greatest Jewish texts are built around debate, curiosity, and generations of people wrestling with meaning.

So what do I do over the summer?

I listen carefully to your children’s questions.
I sit with their wonderings.
I think about what they are truly searching for.
And then, together with our incredible faculty, we begin crafting the next chapter of Jewish exploration shaped by tradition, and the curiosity and imagination of our learners.

And honestly, it’s one of the most rewarding parts of my role!