My Yom Haatzmaut Station

Yom Ha Atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, is a meaningful celebration for Jews worldwide, but especially outside of Israel. Celebrating Yom Ha Atzmaut has been a way to express solidarity with the State of Israel and to strengthen own alliance with it. Many organizations and communities around the world come together on Yom Haatzmaut to celebrate Israel and what it means for the Jewish people. Regardless of what stream of Judaism you may come from, many Jews celebrate Israel in a public display of love and appreciation.

Our day schools are often challenged with the task of celebrating Yom Ha Atzmaut in memorable and meaningful ways to impart the love of Israel onto their students. Most of these students have never even been to Israel but we teach them that the connection to the Land and the State of Israel is a huge part of our Jewish identity. As educators, we are constantly challenged to develop programs and experiences that our students will enjoy and learn from. We want them to celebrate Israel’s Independence day in a meaningful way. A way that will prompt them to think about the land and what it means to them as well as share what they have learned about the country.

This past Yom Ha Atzmaut, the activities director asked me to be one of the “stations” at our annual Yom Ha Atzmaut interactive experience. “Huh?” What am I supposed to do with the kids? I don’t bake pita, I have not served in the IDF, and my Hebrew is mediocre. Isn’t this a “Hebrew teacher thing?” So she challenged me to think of something to do in my computer lab that was in the spirit of Yom Haatzmaut and under 15 minutes per time slot. I started out with my usual buddy Google looking at some sites and videos and creating a Symbaloo web page for my Yom Haatzmaut links. My internet findings included, episodes from Shalom Sesame for the younger students, great videos showcasing Israeli cities from Aish.com to pop music, and even the “Let it Go” song from the Frozen movie in Hebrew by Mona Mor, “LaAzov” .

I included an interactive tour from Discover Interactive Israel, a glimpse into the Google Campus Tel Aviv project, a video called What does Made in Israel Mean to you?. I also found an interactive map from Eye on Israel and displayed the famous Kotel Cam on my SMARTboard, while live Israeli radio was playing in the background.

But the best part about my “IsraTech” station was my new find, the Green Screen app by Do Ink! Green Screen makes it easy to create incredible green screen videos right on your iPad. When I first heard about green screen technology in the classroom I thought that it would be expensive and also require a lot of creativity. I figured that it was something high tech and fancy that high schools might use in their media lab for school TV news and channels and would never work in elementary school. I was looking for something easy to “transport” our students to Israel and wanted to look deeper into green screen technology. Thankfully, my Google search included the keywords, green, screen and app. That’s where I watched a cute little girl explaining how easy it is to use the app. So I gave it a try. I found green (you can use any color) bulletin board paper and covered up my whiteboard in the back of the computer lab. I hooked up the iPad to the tripod and set it up so that students can stand in front of the iPad with the green wall behind them. My iPad was also setup with the Apple TV screen so that students can see themselves on television. I previously selected pictures of the Kotel, the beach in Tel Aviv, Golan heights and many more.  I called in a couple of students at a time to pretend they were davening at the Kotel. One student even pretended to put a kvitel into to wall. They set up their scene as I recorded it easily with the app. Then we played it back for the class to see. What a riot! They were amazed by what they say. Some of the kids pretended to float in the Dead Sea, surf on the beach in Tel Aviv, eat fruit at the shuk, and ride on a camel in the desert! Not only were they mesmerized by the fact that they were on “TV” and “in Israel”, they were discussing how they once went to that spot in Israel or got excited for their upcoming summer trip to Israel. One scene was a kosher McDonalds and two students were ordering a meal in Hebrew! The teachers got into it too! This was really a fun exercise and really made the station come alive!

After this experience, I realized how much technology and tech tools are able to assist not only in content learning but also experiential learning. The students truly had a visual experience that heightened their excitement and love of Israel that day. You know what they say, “there’s an app for that”, even for Yom Ha Atzmaut!