I Guess That This Must Be the Place

The principal approached me at school and asked me to help some of the sixth graders with an essay contest. They are supposed to write a page about some topic like violence in schools, the absorption of new immigrants, and discrimination. I'm really excited about this, and so are the eight kids I chose to write essays. I had a little meeting with them so I could go over some things about writing essays, gave them an example outline, and we sat and brain stormed. One of my teachers sat in on the session with us, and kept saying, "Barri, they don't know English very well, how are you supposed to teach them what 'discrimination' means? This is too hard for them." I told her, "This is the assignment. It's for sixth graders, and these are the best students. If they can't do it, then there will be no submission of an essay from this school." This is a nation-wide contest. I think they can do it, with my help.

I have also started an after school program for non-readers. I call it, "The Derek Zoolander Center for Kids Who Can't Read Good: The Israel Chapter." I received a list of all the fifth and sixth grade students, and had to send letters home to the non-readers to let their parent's know that they won't be home at 2:15, but rather 3. I sent out 40 letters, 20 sixth graders, and 20 fifth graders. On Sundays and Thursdays after school I sit with the fifth graders, and Mondays and Wednesdays are for the sixth graders. Out of the 20 sixth graders, four have been showing up. out of the 20 fifth graders, six show up. They don't even pay attention, they talk to each other and play on their cell phones, and fight the whole time. I told them, "You don't need to be here if you're not going to pay attention. You can go." And they all gave me blank stares and continued goofing off. I feel like a babysitter more than I do a teacher. One of the fifth grade teachers sat in on my after school session. I do not really like this teacher, and she interupted me the whole time, just like the fifth graders that I was trying to teach; no wonder these kids are so misbehaved, they have no one setting a good example for them. This woman's English is not very good, and she kept interupting me and telling me what to do with them. I had worksheets and I was going over "ee" and "ea" words with the kids. They seemed to understand, or at least they were able to read the words. So I decided to put a passage up on the board that contained mostly "ee" and "ea" words. She interupted me saying, "Uh. Barrrrrrri," (cause they roll their r's here), "Zey do not understand zis, zey do not know how to rrrrread. Zis is too harrrrrd forrrrr zem!" I've never been a teacher before. I have never taught English as a language, but I don't know how to teach kids to read unless I make them read. They seemed to be doing just fine.

It's hard because a lot of these students just don't care, nor do their parents. A lot of these kids have hard lives at home, their parents are prostitutes and drug addicts. They have no one at home to tell them to do their homework, and a lot of them get abused. These kids are also the trouble makers in class, and they fight constantly.

We had a training day in Kiryat Malakhi, about twenty minutes from Ashkelon. A social worker came and talked to us about violence in the schools, and what we're supposed to do if something happens. We went around the room and explained specific situations that have happened at our schools. Aside from the two fifth graders getting stabbed at my school, there were a few other incidents that have happened to the other people in my group. One guy had a rock thrown at his head by a student, from behind. He reported the kids to the police, and they didn't really have anything to say, just that everyone knows these kids to be trouble makers in the neighborhood. The guy in my group had to be removed from the school these kids go to, since apparently they know he went to the police. Another guy in my group is getting heckled by some students who follow him home. We were told if something like this happens, to tell them that if they don't leave us alone we're calling the police. But I think it might be a little hard to do that if they don't understand English....

We also had a discussion about the fighting, because it happens A LOT, multiple times a day. I was told by the teachers not to break it up, but they don't break up fights either, they just let these kids fight in the middle of the classroom. The social worker told us not to do anything when this happens. It's a really difficult concept for me to grasp, that there are children fighting and there's nothing I can do about it. It really bothers me to see people fighting.

All the Americans from the other OTZMA group have moved away, to the next part of their program, so I'm left all alone with my two roommates. We get along great, but it gets pretty lonely here. We've been leaving town on the weekends to go visit friends. I almost made a friend on the bus, but I could feel her judging me. She saw that I had a "MASA" backpack so she asked to sit next to me. I asked her about what there is to do in Ashkelon, and she told me, "Go to the beach," because Israel doesn't have a winter. But it does. Granted, it's usually beautiful druing the day, but I still wouldn't consider this beach weather. I told her that I live with two other girls and we get really bored. She told me, "Well, when I get bored, I read book." I have read almost every book I brought with me, I probably read more than this girl does, and I could just feel her judgement. I could tell that she thought I was some dumb ignorant American, and maybe I am, but being all alone reading books all the time is not the way I imagine staying sane on this trip.

I feel stupid when I talk to people here. Everyone in this country (except my students apparently) can speak three languages, at least. The Russians here can speak Russian, obviously, as well as Hebrew and English. A lot of the Israelis know English and Arabic. It kind of sucks fitting into the "Dumb American" stereotype. I can get by in Spanish, and as I improve my Hebrew, my Spanish comes out a little sometimes and I usually end up speaking a combination of the two languages, "Hebrish."

Game Rules for the Dreidal Ring Toss:

number of players: the more the merrier

materials needed: dreidal, plastic rings, beer bottles filled with beer

Rules:

Everyone gets a plastic ring to use at any point throughout the game. Your beer must be in front of you at all times, unless you're drinking, of course. You are not allowed to throw your ring to the person sitting to the left or right of you. If your ring lands on someone's beer bottle, they have to drink half their beer (or finish it, depending on how much beer they have left). You are allowed to steal other people's rings, and you are allowed to block the rings being thrown at your bottle, although you are not allowed to hold your bottle.

Spin the dreidal. "Nun" means take a drink

"Pay/Shin" (depending what kind of dreidal you have) means give one drink

"Hay" means give two drinks

"Gimmel" means social, everybody drinks

It has come to my attention that I should probably give credit to the artists whose song lyrics I use in the titles of my blog posts. My post on 9/16, "So many miles and so many roads," is a quote from the song "Another Day" by Yonder Mountain String Band. The post marked 9/30, "Take along some of your favorite things, cause you're gonna need 'em," Is from the song "Down" by Widespread Panic. The post on 10/16, "Hang it up and see what tomorrow brings," Is a Grateful Dead lyric from the song, "Truckin.'" And the post "every silver lining has a touch of grey" is from the Grateful Dead song, "Touch of grey." And this post, "I guess that this must be the place" is from a Talking Heads song called "This must be the place."

Every silver lining has a touch of grey

The past couple weeks have been interesting in my school, as well as in my town. I met my host family and had dinner with them, and they were really nice, they all spoke English very well. They also had a cute dog that I got to play with, which made me miss my puppy.

In one of the fifth grade classes there is a particularly mean looking boy, who never smiles and he picks on everyone. I noticed one day in class that he was pulling on his ear lobe with both hands and I didn't realize what he was doing until I saw a pin in his hand. He was trying to pierce his ears! He isn't one of my students so I I haven't seen him recently, but I just saw him a few days ago and he now has earings in his ears.

There is no discrimination at my school. These kids are just mean to everybody.

I feel like I'm not really "making a difference" with some of these kids, I just feel like maybe they're too young to appreciate or understand why I'm here and what I'm doing. There are constant fights going on, and a lot of disruptive kids. This school is an alternative school for kids, because where other schools have failed them, this school won't turn anyone away. The kids that I get in my small groups of five-eight students are very well behaved though, and they love me. One of the teachers said I was famous at the school, "like Britney Spears." I didn't really appreciate being compared to Britney Spears, but it was a sweet idea.

In one of my sixth grade groups they were learning professions, so I asked them what they want to be when they grow up. All the girls said stuff like actress, singer, dancer, all the usual things little girls say. Then we got to the two boys. The first boy said, in English, that he wants to be a computer hacker. I started laughing, and made him pick something else because that's illegal. The other boy when it was his turn, said that he wants to be a murderer. I told him that that's not good, and to pick something else. Then he tells me that he wants to be in the army forever so that he can kill people. I was freaked out, as I'm sure anyone would be when a child is telling you he wants to kill people. So I talked to his teacher, who had a talk with him, and apparently he thought it was funny, and he was just joking. All the girls call this boy crazy and nuts, and he's very quite, and my teacher said, "those are sometimes the ones who are the most disturbed."

I get called horrible names by kids who don't know the meaning of these words, they hear them on TV. I get called "sexy lady" at least twice a day by little kids. I've tried explaining that they can't say these things to people, but they never listen.

When I was walking through the halls at school the other day, there was a bird in the school. All the doors and windows are open, and it's not uncommon to see a bird flying through the school. I guess I walked into it's flight path and scared it or something, cause the little piece of bamba that was in it's mouth came shooting at me, and hit me right between the eyes.

When I got to school on Monday, it was just a normal day, I was sitting in the teacher's room waiting for the bell to ring, when the principal came in and had a meeting with the tachers. I didn't understand what was being said, so one of the teachers filled me in. Sunday after school a few kids had gotten into a fight. Two fifth graders and a sixth grader. Someone had taught the sixth grader that if you pull apart scissors you can use them as a weapon, so he that's what he did. He stabbed both of the fifth graders. Apparently a teacher saw and called the police. Needless to say this boy is no longer at the school. This morning, though, the teachers went on strike against violence in the schools, and school didn't start until ten this morning. In one of my groups we talked about the situation, and they thought that is was fun that they didn't have school this morning. And fights were still breaking out during classes. Obviously they didn't get the message. We talked about how this is a serious issue, and it's scary, and then they understood. My groups of kids are very well behaved though.

I got a break from Ashkelon for the weekend, and went out to Arad with my roommates and the whole group, to visit two friends also from the program. Arad is a beautiful place, in the middle of the desert on a hill, so you can see the surrounding desert. In the distance on a clear day you can see a little sliver of the Dead Sea. We went on walks through part of the desert, to a lookout point and saw the sunset, bright pink and orange, it was amazing. Arad helped restore some appreciation for this country. Coming from Ashkelon where there is garbage everywhere, people just throw their trash on the streets, and the sidewalks are covered in dog poop, it smells, and it's just filthy. I'm also living in the poor neighborhood, though. One of my roommates likes to say, "Just because you're poor doesn't mean you have to be dirty." I can't even express how filthy it really is. But Arad was beautiful and clean, and it made me feel better.

Hang it up and see what tomorrow brings

I moved to Ashqelon on Sunday with Michelle and Maytal, and after getting settled, I visited the school that I will be volunteering at. The school was very happy that I was there to help, and both of the English teachers were practically fighting over me, so I tried to split up my time evenly. I am going to be taking between five and eight students out of class at a time, to tutor them in small groups. I will also be helping one of the teacher's second grade classes in the classroom, because some of these classes are huge, up to 42 students!

On Monday I sat in on two classes. The first was a sixth grade class that had 24 students. They were so disruptive, getting out of their seats, walking around, looking out the window, going to the other side of the room to talk to their friends, nobody paid attention, and only a select few even had their books on their desks. The teachers at this school yell a lot, and even I was getting frustrated with these kids. The teacher asked me to say something about who I am and what I am doing here, who I will be taking out of class. I thought I would try to help out by saying, "I'm only taking kids who are well behaved," but they were not affected by that at all.

The second class I visited was with the other teacher, and it was a special ed class with only about eight kids. They were better behaved than the other kids, but I don't think I am going to be helping out with this class because they already have three teachers.

Tuesday was worse than Monday was, as far as student behavior goes. They swear (in English and Hebrew) and I don't even want to know what names they called me in Hebrew. They scream at the teacher, and continue fighting. Sometimes the teacher can't even start her lesson because she can't yell over the kids. I can't understand how kids can behave like this. I wasn't like that, was I? They have little to no consequence when they act up, though. They don't really get sent to the Principal's office, and they have to do something REALLY bad to even get suspended, and I don't think fighting falls under the category of "really bad." I also need to stop answering questions that they ask me when I don't understand them. I told a group of kids that I was from England, and I also told a couple kids that I don't like boys; and one kid in fifth grade asked me if I was single. Oh yeah, and I thought a little second grade kid was a girl, until he informed me that he was not. All these little boys have long hair though, and when they're that little, it's hard to tell sometimes.

There are some sweet kids, though. I get hugs everyday from two of the girls in the second grade. Two girls from a sixth grade class came to me during recess (which they have four times a day), to ask me if they could be in my group. And a really cute fifth grader asked me to pick him for my group. I think I will have a different effect on these kids than their normal teachers, because I am not going to yell at them. It's not my job to discipline them, so if they misbehave all I need to do is tell them to go back to class, problem solved. I'm not worried about the kids at all, despite the horrible experiences I had this week in their classes. But if something good has come out of this, it's that I now know for sure that I never ever ever want to have kids...Or be a teacher in Israel.

take along some of your favorite things, cause you're gonna need 'em

In about a week I will be moving to Ashkelon with Michelle and Maytal. Originally we were told that we would be teaching English in high schools, where at that point, the students are learning reading comprehension. We have recently been told that Ashkelon doesn't need any help at all in their high schools, and therefore we are being placed in elementary schools. We visited three schools today, where the three of us will be split up into, to teach. Every conversation that was held in every meeting, both the principals, as well as the english coordinators for the schools, were held in Hebrew. I felt completely left out of the equation, and that they didn't even take into consideration my low level of Hebrew, and I am completely terrified that I will not have as great an impact as I originally invisioned with these kids, especially if they don't understand what I am trying to convey to them.

After our visits today, I have become more nervous than I initially was, concerning the language barrier. I am in Hebrew classes, but by the time they end (tomorrow) my Hebrew will still not be good enough to be able to communicate with my students. I don't know how I am supposed to explain a lesson or game rules, when they didn't even understand me when I asked them how old they were. When the English Coordinator wouldn't speak English, I felt really disheartened, like I will be on my own, wondering if I would even be able to communicate with the faculty. The three of us haven't yet decided which schools we want to be placed in, but the first school informed us that they want a fluent Hebrew speaker, which leaves me out once again. The other two girls I will be living with are fluent, and should have no problem in any school they will be placed in.

Everyone I have voiced my concerns to has told me, "it will be fine, don't worry, the best way to learn a language is to be completely immersed in it, and to not hear their native langauge at all." Maybe that's true, but I am still worried about how I am supposed to explain to them what I want them to be doing, whether it's a game, a lesson, or simple instructions. It is very possible that I am being over emotional, and over thinking the situation, as I tend to do quite often, but I am still scared.

On a lighter note, starting Friday we have sukkot break. It is a week long break that the whole country takes. I am going to Arad with several other people in my program for a three day long music festival that is spread throughout the entire town, in the middle of the desert. I am very excited about this, live music being a major influence in my life, and I think this will help releive a lot of my anxiety about my teaching situation. Most of the bands that are playing I have never heard of, however, Monday night, the first night of this festival, The Wailers will be playing at a stage in the town that overlooks the Dead Sea. I have seen them once before, and they put on a great show, and I will feel a little piece of home, except for the view of the Dead Sea, which I am sure will be gorgeous, especially at sunset.

A View from the Top

So the past week or so has been spent in Ulpan classes, Hebrew lessons. We spend about five hours a day in class, and it's pretty hard but I think I'm starting to get it....Maybe. We have speakers come in almost every day speaking to us about Israeli culture, and immigrants, poverty, society, and the school systems that we will be teaching in. The speaker that has been with us for the past two days gave seminars on "teaching out of the box," demonstrating acting techniques that we could use while teaching. He was pretty cool, an old hippie dude with long gray hair that looked like he hadn't brushed it in years.


We have an Israeli contact person here in Be'er Sheva, who comes to most of our meetings and hangs out with us, gives us advice on what's going on in town. She took us all out last night, to a disco (or a club, but Israeli's call them discos), and we stuck out like sore thumbs. People were coming up to us asking "are you students or just tourists?" We were of couse standing in a big circle in the middle of the dance floor bopping around to the music, and of course any time a song in English came on, we all got really excited. In Israel, there is no max capacity for people, so it was jam packed, smokey, and pitch dark, with the occasional laser light that would flash all over the crowd. I was completely out of my comfort zone; this is not my kind of bar at all. If I want to dance, I will go see live music, not a DJ in a crowded bar with a laser light show. But I embraced the new experience, and actually had fun.

And Israeli boys are very cute.

So many miles, and so many roads...

Hi! So after an excruciating long wait at the airport in JFK, losing my ticket, then finding it, the ticket counter finally opened so I could check in. They asked me so many questions, and kept looking at my passport, and going to show someone else my passport, I got nervous that they weren't going to let me into their country. But they did.

Everyone is really nice. There are 9 other people in my Israel Teacher Corps, and they are all really cool. There are 40 other people in the regular Otzma volunteer group, who are also all really nice.

We went on two long hikes, the first through creeks and streams in Ein Gedi, right by the Dead Sea, where we got to swim afterwards. I did not go in because I think the Dead Sea is absolutely disgusting and it burns my skin. The second hike was so much fun! We climbed up a desert mountain and it was amazing. We had to climb up ladders, ropes, and boulders to get to the top and it was so exciting. When we got to the top we could look over what we had just climbed up, with the Dead Sea far off in the distance. It was beautiful. I have a pair of Keens that I got specifically for hikes in Israel, and they are the most comfortable things I have ever put on my feet, they are amazing and I think everyone should get a pair. They were great during climbing, as well as the treks through the streams, they dried really quickly, and best yet, they let your feet breathe so no stink!!

We arrived today in Be'er Sheva where we will be spending the next month living in two 3 bedroom apartments, 5 to an apartment. I am living with 2 girls and 2 boys, and the girls played rock paper scissors to see who got the single room, and I won! So I have my own room for the next month. In October, I will be moving with 2 of the girls to Ashkelon, (on the beach, bitches!) and I am really excited.

So far I am having a lot of fun, and I like everyone a lot, we have already become really good friends, and we are having a great time.

Ho-k funny video

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/flash/play/710/