Now booking: Chanukkah sessions for November 2026. Chanukkah begins the evening of December 4. A session the week before Thanksgiving gives your teachers time to plan.
The Jewish Year for Educators
Professional learning for teachers who are new to Jewish settings, one holiday at a time, a few weeks before they teach it.
Great teachers, new to the Jewish year
Many teachers in Jewish preschools and day schools didn’t grow up with Shabbat, the holidays or a single word of Hebrew. They want to get it right, and they often have questions they’re not sure they can ask: What do I say to a family that celebrates differently? Why can’t we bring that snack? Is it all right to say “Happy holidays”?
The Jewish Year for Educators gives them the meaning behind each holiday, practical classroom guidance, a ready-to-teach lesson, and a friendly place to ask anything.
What teachers get
The meaning
What the holiday is about, at an adult level, and how it connects to the values your school teaches.
How families celebrate
Foods, blessings, symbols and customs, with the Hebrew words teachers will hear, pronounced.
The classroom
Do’s and don’ts, how to talk with children about the holiday, and how to include every family.
A lesson to use
A ready-to-teach lesson and printables from the matching Copper Comma kit, licensed for your teachers.
Sessions run up to 120 minutes, including time for questions. Every session ends with open questions: nothing is too basic to ask.
The year, session by session
- August · pre-serviceFoundationsCore values, including mitzvot (commandments and good deeds) and tzedakah (giving to those in need); Shabbat, blessings, kashrut in the classroom, everyday Hebrew, and how the school year follows the Jewish calendar.
- Late Aug · SeptRosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot & Simchat TorahThe High Holidays, the harvest festival that follows, and the celebration of finishing and restarting the Torah, all in the first weeks of school. One session for all four, or two: Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur first, then Sukkot and Simchat Torah.
- NovemberChanukkahThe story, the menorah, the foods and games, and how Chanukkah fits alongside December holidays.
- JanuaryTu BiShvatThe new year of the trees: nature, gratitude and caring for the earth.
- Late Feb · MarchPurimThe story of Esther, costumes, gifts of food and giving to others.
- March · AprilPesachThe Exodus story, the seder plate and what changes in the classroom during Passover.
- MayShavuotThe holiday of receiving the Torah at Sinai, first fruits and dairy foods, before the school year ends.
Optional sessions, at an additional fee
- AprilYom HaShoahHolocaust Remembrance Day: how your school marks it, and age-appropriate ways to answer children’s questions.
- MayYom HaZikaronIsrael’s Memorial Day, the day before Yom HaAtzmaut, and how schools move from remembrance to celebration.
- MayYom HaAtzmautIsrael’s independence day: flags, music, food and how schools celebrate it with children.
- MayLag BaOmerA day of bonfires, picnics and outdoor fun during the count between Pesach and Shavuot.
- SummerTisha B’Av & Tu B’AvA day of mourning and, a week later, a day of love and friendship, for summer camps and year-round programs.
Choose what fits your school
The full year
All seven core sessions, scheduled with you and billed monthly, plus one session free: split the fall holidays into two sessions, or add any optional session. Your free session can be used through August 31, including for summer camp staff. Joining mid-year? Book the rest of the year and the free session is still included.
Foundations only
One session for onboarding new staff, at the start of the year or whenever new teachers join.
A single holiday
One session before the holiday coming up next. A good way to try the series.
Several schools together
An online session shared by teachers from several schools, so smaller programs can join at a lower cost.
Sessions run in person across the Atlanta area, anywhere in the U.S. with travel costs covered, or online. Each one includes licenses for the matching Copper Comma kit for the teachers who attend, up to the number agreed when you book.
Your school’s practice, not a generic one
Jewish schools differ in how they observe, from Orthodox to Reform to community schools. Before the first session, we talk about your school’s practice and language, and I invite your Judaic studies director or rabbi to review the plan, or to join the session.
- Teachers leave with something they can use the next day.
- Materials come in English and Spanish, and every Hebrew word includes a transliteration and pronunciation, so no one needs to read Hebrew.
- Your staff’s questions stay in the room.
Carla Vaisman, M.Ed.
I’m a curriculum designer and a fourth-generation teacher, and I grew up with these holidays. I write the Copper Comma holiday kits for teachers new to Jewish settings, and I teach these sessions the way I’d want to learn: clearly, warmly and with room for every question.