Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy and Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School returned to school to find an entirely new Library Media and Study Center. Over the summer, the school ‘gutted’ the library and a full renovation took place. The new look and entirely new technological setup, design and layout including lower bookshelves are all designed to advance Library Science at JKHA and RKYHS into a state-of-the-art environment which will bring major enhancements to the students’ learning opportunities.
The enhanced functionality of the new space will better align with the goals of a 21st century learning environment from the youngest students in Nursery 3 all the way through high school. The new Library Makerspace that will launch in the upcoming weeks includes tools to facilitate the librarian’s collaboration with classroom teachers for STEM projects that make classroom learning come to life as well as an exciting robotics component. The Mobile Mediazone will enable students and faculty to share their work on devices of all types—phones, tablets, laptops, desktops and more—on a single screen so they can work together.
The new layout facilitates teaching the guided inquiry process for research projects where students will learn to locate and evaluate information from a variety of sources and will learn to paraphrase and cite this information and then internalize it to form their own opinions. The library will have a new space for teachers to work with small student groups and the new Library Study Center will be open for high school teachers to teach classes and easily break into group work at tables and lounge areas using a variety of technology.
The Fishel Felix Rozen Torah Reference Library will provide a central location for expansive Torah research and Torah learning opportunities for both faculty and students.
JKHA is enhancing its educational storytime with a more contained space to enable the youngest students to seamlessly move between story time lessons to craft and science activities related to the stories and book exchange.
This new space will truly bring energy and enthusiasm to the school, and JKHA/RKYHS look forward to sharing these wonderful new learning opportunities with its students.
By JLNJ Staff
