Since getting back from Crete we have started quite a regular schedule. I have officially started teaching at Be'eri school and am loving it so far. My teaching partner, Marisa, and I will be working with 1-2 kids each for the first 10 or so sessions before Louise decides to give us more. It's nice starting off one on one so I can gauge where the students are. Since the concept of a child being held back does not exist here, you could have a 6th grader who speaks conversational English and then have another 5th grader in the same class who doesn't even know the alphabet. It is disheartening that these kids just keep getting pushed into the next grade whether or not they are prepared. Once these kids realize that they are completely lost in class and just don't understand, most of them stop trying. It's really nice to be able to work one on one with the kids who need it most.

I am quickly learning the challenges that come with teaching children who barely know their ABC's. It is especially difficult because I do not speak nearly enough Hebrew to be able to converse with them. It's mostly memorization when it comes to the ABC's so I am trying to find a variety of ways for my students to practice. I also have one kid who is working on ABC's and vocabulary in one of his books. He enjoyed doing a word search in my last session with him so I created a crossword puzzle for him using only words we have specifically gone over. Instead of putting clues because I think that is too advanced for him, I just wrote the Hebrew translation. I think he will really enjoy it and I intend to come up with more fun ways to practice!

I am really enjoying teaching so far. Even though I do not have experience with this age group, I am quickly learning that I can definitely teach them and really impact these children. In addition to the four days of school, I have two days of Ulpan Hebrew lessons (3 hours each class), a secondary volunteer project one day a week, and group activities. It has gotten quite busy but everything is going really well, so I don't mind.

My secondary volunteer project is at Tiryat HaYeled. It is a children's home for 200 kids. The youngest right now is 6 weeks and the oldest is somewhere around 17 or 18 years old. There are six people from my program volunteering here. We will be working with 4th - 8th grade (I think) and helping with a new initiative to connect the kids with American counterparts. Essentially they will be paired up with younger American kids and will be writing to each other (electronically, not snail mail). We are there to help them with the letters as well as to get to know the children. I am not quite sure how the letter writing will go because some of the kids speak very little to no English, but I will find out this Wednesday!

Like I said before, we have two days of Ulpan consisting of 3 hours each class. Three hours is a long time to sit and learn a language, but luckily I am really interested in learning Hebrew. The class setting is not ideal because they put about 23 of us in once class. Since we are all at different levels and it is a language class, it is just too many people. I have trouble concentrating with all the background noise so it's not my favorite. I have learned a lot and will continue to go and learn, but I am also going to work on teaching myself. My writing has improved immensely though and I am learning new words every day. I cannot wait until I can finally hold a conversation!

I think that is about it for the past few weeks. Tomorrow for part of our seminar we will be going to the Yitzhak Rabin memorial in Tel Aviv in remembrance of his assassination. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel and was assassinated on November 4th, 1995. It should be interesting to see how Israelis remember such an important day.

Until next time!