| Debby
Barany
Dramas
PEP
Portland, Oregon
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|
Deborah
Barany
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Deborah
Barany, Assistant Director of the FMAMS and Director of the
Parent Education Program (PEP), has a doctorate in Education
from Stanford University and her research focused on moral
thinking of Bnai Mitzvah students. This is her second year
with the Mini-School. Deborah became involved in the PEP of
the FMAMS because of her desire to do pilot projects and the
program seemed to be a challenging program to bring to life.
PEP was her first experience in teaching adults. Prior to
this project she was very involved in the San Francisco area
with Jewish family education.
Some of the things she enjoys about teaching in the Mini-School
are participating in a community of learners and getting to
know her students as parents, teachers, friends and intellectuals.
What she likes best about her job is the opportunity to learn.
"Debby Barany, the Director of the Parent Education Program
of the FMAMS in Portland has been instrumental in the success
of this pilot project," says Eliana Temkin, Director
of the Portland Mini-School. "In addition to her role
as Director she taught Rhythms to the PEP students last year
and will teach Dramas this year. Her talent in education has
been key to maintaining the excitement in our school. Debby
has played a vital role and is a key asset."
Deborah finds teaching in a pilot program very challenging.
"It makes you work really hard and think deeply about
one's own teaching practice as well as the content of the
lessons," she says. "At the beginning of the year
the students would complain a lot!" she says. "They
complained because they did not perceive how the study of
Jewish texts would impact their family life or parenting skills."
As the year progressed and they became more skilled at reading
classic text and Tanach they began using Jewish texts to view
their lives. They were able to listen to their children's
questions, understand these questions through Jewish lenses
and feel that they had resources to answer their children.
They were also able to recognize "holy" moments
in their lives in the everyday experiences of parenting. "This
was powerful for us all," says Deborah.
Deborah says that one of the changes in her teaching methods
with adults is that she now thinks really hard about her essential
questions and how to tell a story with texts that addresses
these questions. She also wants her students to develop their
own essential questions both through the texts they read as
well as their own life experiences.
"I
think of teaching a lesson as telling a story," she says.
"It begins with my question and writing a set of questions
that are connected to the main idea. I then organize the question
to tell a story or show how an idea developed. I use the texts
to shed some light but also I like to show how a text can
generate more questions. My criteria for good questions is
that they generate more questions. If a question doesn't propel
you to the next idea or set questions, it does not serve you
well."
Deborah
met her spouse when they were undergraduates at UCSD through
the campus Zionist organization. They have three children,
ages seven and twin five year old girls. She also teaches
8th grade Jewish History at the local day school. In addition
to all this she is working with the day school to help start
a new Upper School (grades 9-12).
Her hobbies are quilting, historical costuming, and fabric
dyeing. One of her Matzah covers was commissioned for the
Women's Division of the Jewish Federation of Portland for
an all-women Passover Seder held in 2001. After the Seder
they were donated to the Jewish Museum in Oregon.
If she were granted one wish, she said she would like to be
able to climb Mount Hood.
Advice Deborah would give a new Mini-School teacher would
be: Make it fun and laugh with your students. Be a good listener.
Deborah Barany can be reached by e-mail at dbarany@portlandjewishacademy.org
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