Why capitalize those letters in DeLeT? Don't you know how to write?

I realized that I’ve been writing about this mysterious entity “DeLeT,” that has all these really funny capitalization and haven’t explained it at all. You’re either confused, or don’t care. But since this is a DeLeT inspired blog, humor me!

DeLeT is a Jewish day school teacher training program through Hebrew Union College in LA. Basically, it’s a 13 month program, the core of which is a year of what can best be referred to as student teaching in a classroom in a Jewish day school, bracketed by two summers of learning (classes on all sorts of teaching techniques, background, etc). While it is a graduate program, there is no degree waiting for me in a year. We come out of this as, and I’m quoting, “well-launched novice teachers.” I do get paid, so in that respect it’s very much like a job. But during the year I am both a full-time student at HUC as well as a full-time employee of Temple Israel of Hollywood.

The program is entering its 6th year; I am part of Cohort 6. There are five of us in the cohort, and we’re a pretty eclectic group, all coming from very different backgrounds and experiences and we bring something totally different. We spent the past month together, every day, the entire day, so we’re pretty well acquainted with each other. At least, in an academic setting. We’re all placed at different schools – three in LA and two in the Bay. I'm going to be at Temple Israel of Hollywood (TIOH) Day School, which is a day school part of a Reform congregation in, well, Hollywood. During the year we’re working at our schools every day, except Thursdays, when we spend five hours in the afternoon at HUC taking classes. The two guys in the Bay will learn with us via video conference (I’m already planning my Thursday wardrobes so I look good on camera. Suggestions?).

This summer we took classes in child development (early childhood, then middle childhood, and then early adolescence), teaching/learning about prayer, Jewish textual tradition, Parshat HaShavuah (“Torah portion of the week”), and a class called Teaching and Learning, which will continue through the year and it’s an introduction to how teaching-learning-content-school context all intersect, feedback on each other, and how it affects us, as teachers. It was all really great, but a huge overload of information. Like someone took a big syringe and injected it into our veins.

I’m going to be teaching in a 6th grade classroom. I’m really excited about TIOH – every time I’ve been there and everything I’ve heard about it from secondary sources leads me to feel is a very warm, open, committed day school that encourages growth in both its students and teachers. I know that sounds standard and “blah blah,” but as I’m coming to learn very fast, it is not at all standard or to be taken for granted in a day school community.

I've been writing DeLeT with these funny, random capitalized letters because that's how THEY (the ubiquitous) write it. DeLeT is a Hebrew word דלת meaning "door" or "doorway;" the program is designed to be a “doorway” into the world of teaching. But, because Jews can’t do anything straightforwardly, it’s also an acronym or mnemonic or something like that. The letters stand for words. (Quick Hebrew crash course: Hebrew words only have consonants, and the capitalized letters – all the consonants – represent the three letters in the Hebrew word). I’m not entirely sure what the letters represent, but I think the D stands for “Day School” the L stands for “Leadership” or “Leader” and the T stands for “Teaching” or “Teacher.” So that's the gist of it. Awwww.

I’m going to stop writing Delet with the caps now, because it’s annoying to type.