Malfunctioning Grades & Thorough Understanding of Shemot

There seems to be lots of complaints about the quizzes. I would suggest that rather than complaining about the quizzes students are really complaining about their grades. "How dare they receive low grades?" they ask. One solution could be to get rid of the quizzes. I prefer another solution - spend a bit more time studying for the quizzes.
The point of the quizzes is to make sure you have an overall understanding of the sefer. I've found that quizzes on a parasha help you do this (New York Times article seems to point in this direction too: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/science/21memory.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1). I'm open to other suggestions but until you convince me otherwise there is no other solution than studying the parasha well.
The better overall understanding we have of the sefer the deeper appreciation of the themes and ideas found in the sefer.
I do recommend that during leigning on shabbat you listen or read the Torah carefully so that you can be more familiar with the text.
Some tips in studying - I recommend reading the Hebrew - the English is an imperfect translation. I recommend studying a few minutes each night i.e. read an aliya a day (there are 7 aliyas for 7 days) and on Thursday night for mishmar review the whole parasha. I recommend testing each other. I recommend studying a unit (Artscroll breaks it up nicely) and reviewing it as a unit.

Malfunctioning

Not only is the class technology operating inefficiently, the 9/10th grade students are functioning abnormally with respect to the weekly Chumash quizzes. Everyone has a complaint now, not just me. Hey Jake.
Happy Trails,
Dylan

Chumash Class is Great

Today in class we presented our timeline, and I felt I learned a lot from the making of the timelines. I also think that the weekly parsha quiz is something that Rabbi Lubetski should immediately withdraw from the curriculum, and I think most if not all of my classmates would agree with me on that point. Besides that one complaint, Chumash has been a great class thus far and I am looking forward to using the technology including glogster.

-Benjamin Joseph Kampf

That's a lot of years

I have a question. I understand the many reasons why the Bnei were enslaved, but i don't understand why we were enslaved for hundreds of years. Any answers?

Today we watched all the different presentations learning about all the different programs. I am very excited to learn about the new programs we will be using for our next few projects as well as being able to expand on the programs we have already used.

Today, I presented my timeline along with Benjamin Kampf, which was very productive because it gave me a brief introduction as to when major events happened in sefer shemos. I can't wait to get started on my next presentation.

Well today I was exused absent from class. I have started to look over the Parsha for this week. I can't wait to be in class tomorrow!

Today's Class of Presentations

Today, in class, I, as well as many of the other students in class, presented my timeline and presentation. Today was very informative and I learned a lot from all of the amazing presentations. - Jake

P.S. Shout out on the blog to Dylan Cooper

In today's class I learned several new ways how to express and portray ideas that I was taught. Everyone's presentations that were showed in class were informative and creative. I enjoyed watching them too. Good day.

Nightly Question - 1/27/11

By now you should have reviewed all the answers to the question as to why the Israelites were enslaved. Which one did you like the best and why?
(the second, third, and so on, person to comment on this post must also comment on any fellow student's comment).

Enslavement presentations

Please post the link to your presentation as a comment to this post. Do not make a new post.

Timeline

http://www.capzles.com/#/BA566A55-06EF-4212-B370-38199172990F/?j=48E31CF9-725A-4266-B9D0-0DA701F7B45F
This is our timeline link and my favorite part of the shabaton was skiing and my favorite part of the shabbos was the uplifting singing

Today meir, dylan and i worked on our project regarding the question of why the jews were enslaved in egypt. We chose to focus on the sencond major answer simply because it makes the most sense out of the two. For the record i hope you tone down the amount of projects that we have to do it is overwhelming and i pretty sure that majority of the class would agree wit me on this topic.

my timeline

new posts and comments

I would like to see comments about what others are saying and not just new posts or comments disconnected to previous discussion.

Timelines

Please make sure that you are posting your timeline links to the blog or sending them to me at ulubetski@mhafyos.org

My most favorite part of the trip was hanging out with Rabster Lubetski. You can talked to him about anything and it's awesome how he tries to beat us up. Besides that, skiing was pretty awesome. It was funny watching Rabbi wipe out. Just messing Rabbi, calm down calm down. My favorite part of shabbos was the singing and dancing. The atmosphere was very enjoyable and it meant a lot to me. The food was delicious too. Good Day Mates.

Today in class Gabriel Goldstein worked with me on our project. Thanks to Prezi.com, our project is looking pretty swaggerjack so far. To this point we've included a couple of pictures, a video, and some information as to why BY were enslaved in Egypt. It's pretty cool so far, not going to lie. Anyways, just want to give a shout out to my big G, Dylan Cooper. Good day to all.

Nightly Question - 1/22/11

What was your most favorite part of the trip? Why?
What was your most favorite part of Shabbat? Why?
Feel free to comment on other students' posts.

Nightly Question - 1/19/11

We started a discussion today talking about why Bnei Yisrael were enslaved. What do you think the reason for the enslavement was?

Today in class I worked on my timeline with Gabe. We used time capsule to make our project.

Today in class we reviewed an outline of Shemot. I for sure learned some new things that I did not know prior to today's class.
P.S. Rabbi, I love this blog; However, I do not understand why people write 5 paragraph essays each night. Just saying. Goodnight to all.

time table

Which is better time toast or capzels. I started with timetoast but it is very hard to read what have other people used and how did you guys like it?

Time Line and Answer to Question

I would like to start off today's post by saying happily that I am sure that I am the first one to get very far into his timeline. I posted it and the link will be placed at the bottom of the post. Also, I would like to answer the question of the day. My answer is that I was taken aback when I heard that Shemos only spanned over the time period of one year. Rabbi Lubetski, I did read your post that said that if you are following up on someone else's post you should comment instead of start your own post. I think this is an exception of the rule for two reasons:

1. No one reads the comments only the posts

2. I added in the information about my time line (and I am not done yet, but I did do a lot)

link: http://www.capzles.com/#/ba566a55-06ef-4212-b370-38199172990f/

Time - Nightly Question -1/18/11

Is there something about the timeline that we learned today surprising? For example, are you surprised that sefer Shemot really spans only a year? Did you think that the events took longer? Explain.

Quiz Confusion

I am a little troubled about the quiz we had on Friday. I believe some of the questions were beyond the range of knowledge we were supposed to know about Beshalach. Had i known there would be more thought questions on the test i would have studied accordingly, but what i was told was that it would be strictly basic knowledge on the Parsha. Therefore i read through the Parsha and made sure i undestood it. I missed a couple questions due to the unpublicized "deeper thought" aspect of the quiz.

Blogging Comments

A few random comments:

a) I changed the timestamp issue so the timing is correct. We were originally in pacific time zone so i changed it to central time.
b) When do you start a new post and when do you comment? It's fairly simple. Let me give an example: Let's say you start a new post saying that Ethan (made up name) is the best student in the class. If you have something more to say about that issue such as not only is the best student in the class but he is the funniest kid in the class then you do that as a comment and NOT as a new post. You would start a new post if you started a new thread (i.e. new topic) such as discussing what you thought about the quiz we had on Friday.
c) I do read through all the posts and comments and they are fairly interesting. I will comment on your posts so please do check what I have to say. btw - I like reading the more substantive ones but I confess that I do enjoy some of the other comments too.

Netziv

Rabbi Lubetski, to answer your question, I am going to have to say I like the Netziv better because the Netziv believed that Shemos was like a continuation of bereishis and that is why he called shemos sefer sheni. I liked how he says that bereishis is like all about spreading the name of hashem and that shemos continues it by expanding and uniting the bnei yisroel and I agree with his opinion.

A Little Nerve

Shalom. I would first like to address the new, nice, nifty, gnarly, nightly question (which people may never do): I prefer the Netziv's theme explanation, due to the fact that it is a combination of Bereishit and Shemot. In his commentary, he discusses each Sefer and describes their specific purpose or theme. It is a great general, overall interpretation, which fits snugly with the entire Pentateuch.
I would also like to express my concern about the quiz tomorrow. In all honesty, I am not entirely sure what to expect on it: Multiple choice/Fill in the Blank/Short Answer/ et cetera. For all I know, the first question of the test may be to quote the Az Yashir (though I know Rabbi Lubetski isn't that cruel - check out my profile). I'm simply worried about my grades, as always, and I'm certain others are worried about the quiz as well.
Happy Trails,
Dylan

Today's Class

Today's class was a great class, and I thought I learned a lot about the Parsha. We learned the Netziv in depth, and I have never learned the Netziv before. I also thought that today the atmosphere wasn't the same as the two previous days due to the fact that we didn't have the technology because of some technical difficulties. Besides the minor setback, I thought that today's class kept me interested, and I think we realized that Ethan Cooper isn't a perfect student.

-Benjamin Joseph Kampf

P.S. sorry for the short post, I wasn't feeling like I should write a long one tonight, but there will be longer posts in the future.

Time toast

Good Evening my fellow students,

Today we learned about the timeline of Parshat Shemot as you know. I find my knowledge of the Parsha much greater now that we have done so. I am looking forward to davouring down some time toast tomorrow when we create our timelines online.

Reporting: Isaac Graber, Action News 5

Nightly Question - 1/13/11

Which explanation of the theme of sefer Shemot - Netziv or Ramban do you like better? Why?

(Also, please remember to look at capzles.com and timetoast.com)

The Technological Aspect

Thus far, Chumash class has been a big high of my school day for many reasons. I think that Rabbi Lubetski has the perfect ratio of the student learning by himself or with a partner, and Rabbi Lubetski teaching us the material himself. In today's class I learned many new things not only about the Sefer Shemos, but also on a nifty, little program called Google Docs. I worked on themes with my partner, Jake Baum, who knows an awful lot about Shemos that I didn't know. I feel that this is another positive for learning with a partner because we each taught each other a thing or two about the Parsha. Now I would like to address the matter of technology that has been talked a lot about around the class. Like my fellow classmate, Dylan Cooper, I do believe that the technological aspect of this course is a great way to learn how to utilize incredible learning programs such as Google Docs. This aspect will not only supply us with the requisite skills to be able to make use of these great technological achievements in the future, but it will also help us to be engaged in the learning as many of my classmates tend to doze off during class. I think it was the correct move on Rabbi Lubetski's part to incorporate these great learning enhancers into his curriculum.

-Benjamin Joseph Kampf

Guinea Pig Fun

As opposed to "Young Coops" below me (as usual), I personally believe the technological element of this class will engender a positive impact upon the course. It's more interesting and prevents people from dozing off. Honestly, the vast majority of the class will find using the computer more attention-grabbing than listening to a mere lecture. Comment if you disagree.
Happy Trails,
Dylan

Todays Class

I just wanted to mention how I loved class today. I loved the themes presented and I feel like we grasped the true concept of the Sefer. Because this is a blog and we are supposed to express our feelings, I will: Why are we using a computer that needs internet to post wordy and superfluous comments when we can instead learn Torah? Don't get me wrong fellow readers, Rabbi Lubetski's teaching methods are "beastly" and "impeccable," yet, I do see this as an issue at least to me.
-Young Coops (AKA Ethan Cooper)

shemos

I am really looking forward to learning about Shemos this year. These weekly quizes are really going to help me understand it. Moreover, I am excited to use the high-technology of google docs.

google docs

It will be a bit difficult getting used to google docs but i'm up to the challenge.

i am officially an author

I am an author currently and everyone in the class is not I can actually write new posts but you guys can only comment. Rabbi Lubetski sent Bentzie, Ethan, and I an invitation to be an author of the site
thank you

Welcome

Welcome to our blog on Chumash. For every day of class, each student is required to post at least one comment. The comment can be a new post or it can comment on someone else's post. Please make sure that if you are starting a new thread that you don't comment on a post but rather start a new post.