What Makes SINAI Shalem High Schools Unique
Vocational Preparedness Program
SINAI’s unique Vocational Preparedness Program prepares our Shalem high school students to be productive members of the work force upon their graduation. Students learn responsibility, communication skills, trouble-shooting, and independence, while practicing vocational skills in real community settings. Job coaches accompany our students to work settings such as stores, offices, schools, restaurants, hospitals, and nursing homes for several hours each week.
SINAI’s Vocational Preparedness Program enhances our students’ self-confidence and teaches them that they are valued members of the community at large.
We are grateful to the many businesses, organizations, and institutions that partner with SINAI to provide vocational training opportunities for our students.
The SINAI Shalem Classroom
Shalem High School classes are divided subject by subject into peer groupings typically averaging between 4-6 students to match the academic and social needs of each student. We teach to each individual student’s strengths, and use a multi-sensory approach to provide each student with different ways to learn information that might be challenging to him or her.Curriculum and Life Skills
We craft an individualized Comprehensive Student Plan specifically for each student, to meet his or her particular needs. This enables us to evaluate and track student progress throughout the year. SINAI Shalem offers a functional academic high school program with a hands-on, pragmatic curriculum designed to challenge our students while providing them with the critical skills they will need most as adults. In all subjects, teachers employ a hands-on, skills-based approach to promote meaningful learning. Core subjects such as Reading, Reading, Writing, Math, and World Awareness are taught with a focus on critical thinking and language development. We offer adaptive physical education, and teach our students the importance of maintaining healthy habits in order to improve their physical and mental well being. Students also learn practical skills such as banking, budgeting, and computers. Judaic studies foster knowledge and love of our heritage, holidays, and traditions, and reinforce the value of community, love of Torah, and the State of Israel. Traditional Life Skills are taught not only in the classroom, but in real life settings such as the bank, grocery store, and coffee shop, to promote skill attainment, retention, and generalization. Hygiene, Abuse Prevention, and Conversational Skills are part of our interactive, innovative curriculum designed to teach students practical and relevant skills for life. Through our Community Survey course, students learn to access a broad range of community resources with confidence and independence.Inclusion by Design®
Each of our Shalem High Schools is embedded within a mainstream partner school. Students are full members of their partner school community, and our students participate with their mainstream peers in the non-academic activities offered in the typical TABC, Ma’ayanot, or Heichal HaTorah experience. These may include lunch, prayers, trips, after-school clubs, Shabbatonim, and special programs, as appropriate. SINAI’s Lunch Buddies Program matches Shalem students with peers in their partner school; many of these social relationships have lasted long after both students have graduated. Every part of SINAI’s Inclusion by Design® approach is individualized to maximize and develop each student’s strengths.Therapies and Counseling
In-house therapies offered at SINAI Shalem High Schools include Occupational, Physical, Speech/Language, Music Therapy, and Art Therapy, as well as Counseling and Social Skills Groups. Our on-site mental-health professional works with students on developing their emotional, behavioral, and social growth. Other therapies and related services are provided as needed. Therapeutic services at SINAI are offered as an integrated part of our students’ school day. Therapies are one-on-one or in groups, depending on each student’s individual needs. Our therapists both pull out and push into the classrooms, working within the class setting and advising the teachers on an ongoing basis.His inclusion on the basketball team and close relationships which were cultivated with the Heichal boys made T feel like a million bucks.
