Machane TBA Home Page - Temple Beth Ami, Rockville MD

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What is Machane TBA BaBayit?

Machane TBA is so much more than our building – We are a community committed to joyful, empowering and engaging Jewish education. It is in this spirit that we are excited to announce our new online/ virtual program, Machane TBA BaBayit (at home)!

New materials will be posted below for each program each week – Just look for the Machane TBA BaBayit logo for each grade level below! In addition, please be sure to friend us on Facebook as we will be holding live sessions and sharing content with you there as well!

The staff of Machane TBA are committed to supporting and caring for our families and our students. It may look a little different, but we are very excited about the potential this new virtual program brings to engage with each of you!

As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.
Message from Kim Roberts, Director of Education

One of my favorite times each week is welcoming each one of you at the door. Seeing each of your faces brightens my day and reminds me of how lucky I am to be a part of our Machane TBA community!

While I will miss seeing your faces today, I am very excited to welcome you to Machane TBA Babayit (at home) which will be our vibrant virtual Machane TBA community while we are at home!

We have worked hard to create meaningful connections and materials at each grade level so that we can engage together during this time that we will be a part. I am so excited to see all of the wonderful things we will do together!

Please know that I am always here for you, holding the door open to our community whether virtually or physically and welcoming you in to the most wonderful congregational family! As always, our main goals are for each of our students to feel good about themselves, being Jewish and being a part of Temple Beth Ami and we are looking forward to continuing to reach these goals virtually over this next time period!

Until I can see you again, I look forward to the connections we will make together through Machane TBA BaBayit!

What is Machane TBA?

The word Machane (Mah-cha-NEY) in Hebrew means camp. TBA stands for Temple Beth Ami. Jewish camping is a highly successful enterprise which achieves its goal of engaging kids in a Jewish setting where they establish lasting friendships. At Machane TBA we draw from the best practices of Jewish camping and we apply them to our educational instruction and overall atmosphere so that our students are always actively learning and interacting. So while “Machane” is our name, more importantly it represents the philosophy of Jewish engagement that we seek to harness.
Our Philosophy

We are an innovative, inclusive Reform Jewish school where Jewish life and values are modeled by every single member of our staff and where students are at the center of the momentum. At Machane TBA, we foster a love of Jewish living and learning through experiential programming, classroom activity, high-energy musical tefillah, and interpersonal relationships. Machane TBA educators always seek new ways to combine meaningful Jewish learning and transformative programming in order to create the BEST experiences for our students.
Office Hours & Phone

The Machane TBA Office is temporarily closed due to the Coronavirus.
If you need assistance, please reach out to us:
Kim Roberts, Director of Education
Lori Fein, Supervisor, Primary & TBAHigh & & Kayitz Volunteers
Lisa Goodman, Supervisor, L’mala, TBAjrHigh & Kayitz Programs
Elaine Prigal, Supervisor, L’mata, TBAHigh Curriculum
& Kayitz
Jennifer Smith, Registrar and Office Manager
Lori Rosenstock, Office Assistant
Machane TBA School Hours
We are having Machane TBA Babayit (“at home”) rather than regular programming at the current time.
Regular programming hours are:
- Primary (Pre-K-2): Sundays 9:00 am – 11:00 am
- L’Mala/L’Mata (Grades 3-6): Sundays 9:00 am – 12:30 pm
- TBAjrHigh & TBAHigh (Grades 7-12):
  - Tuesdays 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
  - Optional pizza dinner each week 6:00 pm – 6:30 pm
Arrival/Departure information
- Dismissal, drop-off lane and parking lot procedures
- Late arrival and early dismissal procedures
Registration
Food Policy
Staff

Complete Machane TBA Calendar

Grades PreK-2

Curriculum
Kehillah - Community Programming and Enrichment

Primary Enrichment

Primary Enrichment provides our Pre-K-2^nd grade students with three diverse 7-week fun, educational class sessions on Sunday mornings after their regular Machane session. Children are given the opportunity to engage in social activities and meet children from other grades and classes whom they might not ordinarily spend time with during their Machane session. Children have a snack of bagels with cream cheese, butter or jelly and juice and they have time for free play.

Primary Kehillah

Primary Kehillah are stand-alone youth programs for our Pre-K-2^nd grade students held on Sunday mornings after their regular Machane session. These are structured social programs with a fun, age-appropriate, engaging activity. In the past, they learned about Tikkun Olam when Star Gazing Farm animals visited and we created crafts to be sold to raise funds for this nonprofit animal sanctuary. We’ve baked hamentashen and made mishloach manot gift bags to donate. We provide bagels with cream cheese, butter or jelly and juice. There is time for free play, in addition to their Primary Kehillah Program.

Machane TBA BaBayit (at Home)

Grades 3-6

L'Mala (Upstairs Classroom Block) Curriculum
L'Mata (Downstairs Experiential Block) Curriculum
Kehillah Events and Erev Machane

Kehillah Events – Monthly community-building programs held on a Sunday morning after Machane TBA from 12:30-2:00 PM.
Erev Machane – Two immersive camp-style experiences that are designed to strengthen the connection between the curriculum, the Machane TBA staff, student peers, and the Temple Beth Ami community.
These events will be posted on the Machane TBA Calendar and Month at a Glance.

Machane TBA BaBayit (at home)

Grade 7

Curriculum

The 7th grade curriculum is designed around the topic of Jewish Identity. As our 7th grade students approach Bar/Bat Mitzvah, they explore what it means to be a Jewish adult in our community and in the world around them. In classrooms and/or large group settings and with a variety of programs and speakers, the students learn about American Jewish life, history, the Holocaust and Israel. During the year, students have a field trip to the United States Holocaust Memorial museum.

We also offer parent/child programming for 7th grade families. There is a strong emphasis on community and relationship building throughout the year with a goal of strengthening the students’ connections to one another, to Temple Beth Ami and to the greater Jewish community.
Kehillah Events & High Holiday Teen Services

TBAjrHigh students have opportunities for special Kehillah events, including an annual field trip to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and a much-awaited snow tubing trip held on a day in January when MCPS schools are closed.

These event are posted on the Machane TBA calendar and on the Month at a Glance.

Special teen services are held on Rosh Hashana afternoon with lunch. See High Holidays page for more information.

Machane TBA BaBayit (at home)

Grades 8-12

Curriculum

TBAHigh is a multi-faceted and all-encompassing approach to Jewish teen engagement for students in grade 8-12. Our program focuses on Jewish learning, identity and community-building, and it draws on the best practices of successful youth engagement.
Click here for the TBAHigh curriculum
Teen Leadership
Madrichim Program:
Teens in 8th-12th grade assist staff and students during our Sunday TBA Machane religious education programming, and serve as role models for our younger students. Some Madrichim may be eligible to earn SSL hours, and a limited number of Madrichim positions are paid.
Student Council:
TBAHigh has teen leaders on the Student Council who work on committees to help shape all aspects of programming. Meetings take place on TBAHigh Elective Nights. Committees include the following:
- Religious and Cultural Committee
- Programming Committee
- Social Action Committee
- Kehillah Committee
Executive Board:
The Executive Board leads the Student Council Committees to plan programs for the year. The Executive Board meets every Tuesday when TBAHigh is in session.
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TBAHigh 2019-2020 Executive Board
President: Jake Carin
Executive VP: Andrew Schorr
Programming VP: Ella Cooper
Religious & Cultural Programs VP: Melissa Herman
Social Action VP: Shannon Snape
Kehillah VP: Carly Fleischer
Kehillah Events
Teen Services
Youth and Teen Engagement

Machane TBA BaBayit (at home)

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