When learning at home in a typical classroom setting, it is easier to often get bored or tired. Also, when learning in a classroom or at home, we’re often just seeing pictures and videos of the things we are learning about. However, at muss, we do learn in a classroom for a few days of the week but for the days we don’t, we are traveling to different places around all of Israel learning about the topics we talked about in class. This not only is more relevant to us and is engaging, it helps us to fully believe and understand what we are learning. On assessments, I can think back to the exact spot we were and it helps way more than just looking at pictures and videos in a classroom. Actually looking at artifacts and evidence from thousands of years ago feels so surreal because the day or two before, we were just learning about it in a classroom.

For example, hiking Masada was definitely the hardest activity we have done so far on our tiyuls. This really helped our class gain a perspective on how the Jews had to do this thousands of years ago without the materials we have now that we used to hike it, such as hiking boots, lights, and backpacks with water. When we made it up to the top of the mountain, we started learning about the Jews’ past and how the Romans surrounded every side of the mountain waiting for them to come down. It makes the class extremely entertaining when we’re at the spot that we are learning about. We also called out from the side of the mountain, “Masada Shall Not Fall Again” which was absolutely incredible because it felt so real, everything we were learning about and actually being there.
It really is an indescribable feeling getting to learn at the site which we once learned about in a classroom. It opens your eyes up to more perspectives than you would ever think.