The Meitarim network trains the teaching, Judaism and school management teams in numerous ways.
The training includes regular and ongoing supervision and guidance of the teachers and Judaism coordinators, institutional teacher training courses, principals and Judaism coordinators’ meetings, and national teacher training courses taken by teachers from all the inclusive schools of the Meitarim network from across the country. The training provided by Meitarim creates teaching and pedagogy teams that deliberate, bearing in mind the merit of learning and continuing their professional training as a supreme value.
The ongoing guidance is based on a Meitarim facilitator that comes to each school once a week and mentors teachers consistently and spirally. This is part of the regular school activity. The purpose of the guidance is to establish teaching methods based on the pedagogical principles of inclusive education. Every teacher in the Jewish learning subjects and classroom educators are instructed regularly and continuously.
In addition, Meitarim provides training for teachers before each year opens: either to who are new in the education system and / or new in the inclusive schools. In this initial training, the teachers are exposed to the inclusive jargon, to the differences between a “regular” school and an inclusive school and experience for the first time inclusive teaching. The training intended for the new teachers is carried out in major geographical locations and / or specific schools where there are a large number of new teachers before the start of the school year.
In addition to the individual courses in the schools, Meitarim provides institutional training in the various schools, for approximately 30 weekly hours. The purpose of institutional training is to create a uniform language in the school based on the pedagogical principles of inclusive education, along with adapting the nature of teaching to the specific population of teachers and students of the school. Meitarim offers a three-year institutional training for every school; 1st year – in which the basic pedagogical principles are taught and applied, and 2nd and 3rd years implementing the pedagogical principles in the various areas of the school: the formal curriculum, the social program, learning spaces, projects , the school climate, the relations between the school and the community, and the like. In the academic year of 2020, “Meitarim was recognized by the Department of Professional Development in the Ministry of Education as a body providing training courses. Hundreds of teachers each year take part in Meitarim training in various subjects: experiential teaching, the pedagogical principles of inclusive education, social education, the Bible and the various Jewish learning subjects, the wheel of the year and more.
Meitarim places great importance on creating work teams and think tanks comprised of the schools’ leaders – the principals. The principals of the various institutes operating under the auspices of Meitarim meet a number of times each year for joint deliberation, discussing daily matters, creating work groups on various topics and to continue developing and jointly nationally promoting inclusive education – specifically under the auspices of Meitarim.
Meitarim has a large number of coordinators around the country, who guide teachers and are integrated with the management teams in the various schools. All Meitarim coordinators are professionals in all realms of education and contemporary Judaism.
During the course of each Meitarim coordinator’s work in the network, s/he goes through a continuous and intensive training and learning process for the accross approx. 80 weekly hours. During the coordinators’ training the teams are exposed to enrichment in various fields: unique methods of teaching and pedagogy, training of facilitators, enrichment in various areas of Judaism, and so on. Each coordinator meets regularly throughout the year with a professional Meitarim mentor, who provides additional guidance that resonates the intensive training and addresses specific needs of the school coordinator.
All the Meitarim training courses are given by the finest coordinators around the country.