Learning to learn from Passover

I often say that everything I needed to learn about being a Jewish educator, I learned from the Passover Seder.   As a child, I learned listening to stories, I learned touching things, eating and drinking, I learned from singing, and I learned that being close and enjoying a meal together builds community.   


Now as an educator,I remember that we learn best when we teach the story, when we retell in our own words, when we can use props, food, music, and creativity to tell our stories.   As an educator, I am always trying to incorporate as many of these things as I can into what I do.   

For this year's school seder, our classes sat together, each at their own table.   Our 6th graders spread as mini-madrichim among the K-5th grade classes.   We drank the juice, ate the greens, tasted the matzah, maror and charoset, acted out the story, watched a Passover video of the four sons, sang about the 10 plagues, and ran around looking for the afikomen.  

I don't know which part of the Passover seder will stick for any of our students, and I don't know what they will remember when they are older.  But, I hope, that if nothing else, they remember a sense of community and connectedness when they think of Passover.