News & Views
Lola Stein Think Magazine

Spring 2023

Rituals. Recipes, and Freedom

Past Issues

Special Collection 2022
The Footsteps of Abraham Joshua Heschel at The Toronto Heschel School.
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Special Collection: Learning Through the Visual Arts
This special collection was designed in honour of Morah Judith Leitner. As one of our school’s co-founders she has been a visionary leader to us all these past 25 years. To celebrate and honour Judy, we’ve collected images and articles that portray what learning through the visual arts means at The Toronto Heschel School.
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Fall 2022
This issue of THINK explores the marvel of method - how we do what we do.
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Fall 2021
This theme of this issue is “The Ordinary and Extraordinary of Every Day.“ As we try to re-establish some routines and normalcy in our lives this fall, we take time to think about what every day brings.
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Spring 2021
This issue of THINK explores the moon — what is lit up and what is behind.
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Fall 2020
This issue of Think explores the way we tell stories and teach history to children.
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Spring 2020
One in a Minyan
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Fall 2019
How We Talk
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Spring 2019
This issue of Think explores complexity and how we develop complex thinking in children.
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Fall 2018
This issue of Think explores educational approaches to nurturing wonder and developing scientific thinkers.
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Spring 2018
Covenant and Commitment This issue of THINK explores commitment and the educational training that supports children to become strong deep thinkers.
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Spring 2017
Cultivate Justice This issue of Think honours and highlights the work that teachers are doing to develop social responsibility in their students through the teaching of the students' heritage, culture, or religion.
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Fall 2016
Imagination lives here This issue of Think considers imagination and sees children and teachers contemplating possibilities, envisioning their potential, and discovering themselves.
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Spring 2016
The Art of Focus This issue of Think looks at the art and science of focus. Our writers consider how children can learn focus, and how Jewish tradition, classroom teaching, and family life contribute to children's sense of self and ability to learn and focus.
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Fall 2015
Learning as Belonging In this issue of Think our writers reflect on learning and belonging, and aspire to an educational environment that cultivates confidence, insightfulness, and initiative.
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Fall Winter 2014 2015
Towards Your Best Self In this issue of Think our writers consider what is personal and internal – the mind and not the brain, individual identity and not social definition, the management of perspectives and not information. They write about connections and patterns that are forming inside our children as they learn and mature.
15
Spring 2014
This issue of Think contemplates several themes that run through "Weapons of the Spirit". The writer, producer, and director Paul Sauvage uses the story of "Le Chambon" to cogently demonstrate what good values, good training, and good work look like. Our writers address a teacher's focus on the individual child, on the importance to elicit from each student the habit of creative response, and how both this attentiveness and this encouragement connect to moral and ethical responsibility.
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Fall 2013
The best educational strategy will deliver academic skills and build character at the same time. In this issue, we explore these layers. We look at specific educational practices that advance child development even as they expand the students’ academic reach. Our writers say that good education happens when children look inward to improve themselves and look outward to understand the world at large.
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Spring 2013
In school settings, the word "integration" perhaps calls to mind the desegregation of American schools during the civil rights movement or departments of interdisciplinary studies at universities. Today integration speaks to reframing ideas by widening their scope, enhancing topics through context and purpose. In this issue of think, our contributors fill the canvas with integrated studies.
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Fall 2012
Each of us hopes that the work we do and the life we live is of value: not only for the present but also for the future. We hope that the efforts we put forth to help our families, our communities, and our broader society will in some way endure, and will not simply dissolve in the shifting sands of time.
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Spring 2012
We live in an age of distracted living. Superficial descriptions and buzzwords send us sailing in crazy directions. Eat this. Don't eat that. Exercise for half an hour. Never sit down. In the school world, trendiness sees the phrase "critical thinking" bounce around like a new age technique, computers are touted as essential learning tools, and ecology is a fashion.
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Fall 2017
Integrative Education This issue of Think explores how integration helps children make sense of the world around them.
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Fall 2011
For some parents, enrolling their children in Jewish Day School education is a clear choice. Family tradition, strong adherence to Judaism as a religion, attachment to the land of Israel or the Hebrew language are all reasons that some families would only choose a Jewish Day School education for their children.
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Spring | Summer 2011
"It was child's play!" The phrase implies an activity accomplished with ease and enjoyment, a goal achieved without stress. Digging a deep hole at the beach is fun, even if it requires work and perseverance."
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Fall 2010
Recently in a store selling "educational" books, games and software for children, a child of five or six years attracted my attention. He was completely absorbed in a computer activity.
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Spring 2010
Education and neuroscience help students reach their potential while having fun in the classroom.
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Fall 2009
One day last June two very excited children proudly entered my office. They were carrying a plate of salad, but this was no ordinary offering of lunch for the Principal. This was the annual culmination of a math unit on measurement.
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Spring Summer 2009
In his book, SMART SCHOOLS: Better Thinking and Learning for Every Child, David Perkins writes that smart schools are informed, energetic and thoughtful. In smart schools, thinking is the center of the learning process. The Lola Stein Institute builds smart schools. The Toronto Heschel School is an excellent example.
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December 2008
A school that promotes excellence in education must understand the needs of the child in the 21st century.
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October 2008
To manage or to micromanage, that is the question! As our children grow year to year we want to make sure they develop all the skills they need to be successful and content. Some parents prepare the road for their children. Some prepare their children for the road...
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June 2008
During the 1970's when I was immersed in teacher training, the "self-esteem" movement was in vogue. We read voraciously on the subject and learned that praising children was the thing to do. When little Johnny coloured enthusiastically, we hugged him and cheered....
1
March 2008
As I sit here at my desk, reflecting on the past 12 years, I am struck by the beautiful community that is The Toronto Heschel School...

Perspectives

The Lola Stein Institute (LSI) is a centre of inventive educational thinking and addresses the challenge to re-frame schooling for the exigencies of our times.