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Leonard Saxe proposes creating an exciting, attractive program which will attract teens to continue engagement with Judaism after bar/bat mitzvah age. A Jewish service corps, which culminates in a meaningful experience of service learning. Being a member of the service corps would involve a series of short intensive programs that would culminate in a two- to 12-month experience at the end of high school.

After returning home from the Virtual School Symposium Conference in Indianapolis, Rabbi Meir Fachler, director of Gemara Berura, pushes for the establishment of a conference dedicated to servicing and furthering the cause Jewish Educational Technology in Jewish schools.

Yad Vashem is offering a unique seminar for English speaking educators from around the world to study at the International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel between June 24 – July 12, 2012. The focus of the seminar is on teaching the Shoah and anti-Semitism.

Abigail Pickus writes that the Israeli Government has tapped the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) to expand the number of young shlichim (emissaries) it sends abroad as a way to strengthen Diaspora Jewry’s connection to Israel and to counteract rising anti-Israel sentiment. A hundred and fifty young emissaries – up from the usual 75 – will be sent around the world to live and work within Jewish communities and on university campuses. The call has already been put out for applicants and so far, hundreds of young people have applied.

The Covenant Foundation recently announced nearly $900,000 in new grants as part of its mission to support and advance excellence and impact in Jewish education. The new round of grants underscores a commitment to initiatives across the landscape of Jewish educational experiences, settings and audiences, and propel innovative work in technology, new media, youth engagement and community building through education.

Join Hidden Sparks for the Spring, 2012 Semester of Hidden Sparks Without Walls, an online audio conference accessible from home or school. The Hidden Sparks Without Walls initiative is designed to strengthen an educator's knowledge and practice in working with diverse learners. The program offers free short-term distance classes for teachers, educators and administrators in Jewish day schools and yeshivot, to give them the tools to enhance the ways in which children learn and behave. It also enables teachers across similar or diverse disciplines to share ideas, curricula, and talk about their practice.

Educators and school administrators, Jewish Agency officials and community coordinators from around Israel and from abroad came together at the Ramada Hotel in Jerusalem on Chanuka to mark the launching of the International School Twinning Network, which will help build bridges between schools in Israel and Jewish communities around the world. The new network website was unveiled and a joint Chanuka candle lighting ceremony was held with Jewish schools around the globe via videoconference to mark the event.

The MOFET Institute's Online Academy will be offering two new online courses for the Spring, 2012 (March 4, 2012 - June 17, 2012) semester in addition to its courses in the fields of the didactics and pedagogy of teaching Jewish subjects in the Diaspora. The two new offerings are: "Using Web 2.0 Tools to Transform Teaching and Learning" and "Location Based Learning: An Experimental Learning Method Mediated by Mobile Platforms".

This year, a record number of nearly 2,500 people from places as far and wide as Shanghai and Cape Town, New York and Budapest came to the Limmud conference at Warwick University between December 23 – 29, 2011 to take part in nearly 1000 talks, lectures and workshops on all things Jewish. They chose from over 20 sessions taking place simultaneously, encompassing everything from lectures on the connection between Spinoza and the Kotzker Rebbe to Scottish-Jewish folk dancing workshops.

Areyvut's National Mitzvah Day, now in its eighth year, is an opportunity to get children, teenagers and adults involved in chesed (kindness) and community service activities. Schools, synagogues, organizations and individuals are all invited to participate in the program to take place between March 16 - 18, 2012. Each particular setting will determine the best structure or form with which to use the educational materials provided by Areyvut.

Andrea Rose Cheatham Kasper, outlines her award winning proposal for the establishment of Yadaim, The Academy of Applied Academics. Yadaim, is an exciting and dynamic re-imagination of vocational schooling and relevant, engaging Jewish education, creating opportunities for students of many talents to find a place to develop and grow while offering them a myriad of potential career paths.