about

me

Rivka grew up in Pittsburgh and graduated from Touro College with an undergraduate degree in Psychology.

She has taught elementary school, middle school, teenagers, and adults for over 20 years.

She currently teaches middle school and is the special program coordinator at Torah Day School of Houston.

Rivka is a recipient of the Irving L. Samuels Outstanding Teacher award for Judaic Studies and of the Grinspoon – Steinhardt Award for excellence in Jewish Education.

What Inspired These Books?

A number of years ago, my (then) 5 year old daughter was having trouble in school because of a new kid in her class that was making her life miserable.

As a fourth grade teacher, I had extensive training on bully-proofing and had even given workshops on that topic. It felt very frustrating to me that the techniques that had helped so many of my students, and my older children, were failing on my Kindergartner.

I started to do more research into bully-proofing techniques that would work for younger children and discovered the bucket-filling concept, which was perfect.

It just had to be merged with the techniques I was already using for it to work for bully-proofing. What began as a bedtime story for my daughter has become an illustrated children’s book that is published by Mosaica Press and distributed by Feldheim.

Testimonials

Izzy Kalman, MS

Author of Bullies to Buddies: How to turn your enemies into friends

“May Sarah the Bucket Filler reach all children! Rivka Fishman does a superb job of teaching the right attitude for dealing with bullying and turning enemies into friends through the correct practice of ve’ahavta le’reacha ka’mocha –Love your fellow as you love yourself. “

Yael Trusch

Jewish Latin Princess

“Sarah the Bucket Filler is a must in every home and every pre-school classroom. Through this beautiful book Rivka Fishman teaches children (and adults) a powerful tool that will help them become empathetic humans who have inner happiness, resilience, confidence and who spread positivity all around! By becoming bucket fillers, readers will not only help themselves, but the world around them, making it into a brighter, better place. “

Allison Josephs

Founder and Director at “Jew in the city”

“I was reading this today and I was actually moved to tears…this book is really beautiful… this is really a sweet book to get for a kid that you love.”

Meet the Illustrator

Born and raised in both Amsterdam, Holland and Beitar Illit, Israel, Miriam has loved drawing for as long as she can remember. Miriam is a graduate of Oman Art School and has since done many projects, including illustrations in Mishpacha Magazine, the cover of “A Clever Title Goes Here” and the illustrations in Sarah Ester Varnai’s “Kids Discover Israel” series. Miriam also does private work as portrait artist. To see more of her work please visit: www.msinshalom.wixsite.com/artist

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THE BUCKETFILLERS