Hanukkah Break

Hanukkah started Wednesday night December 1st. Shauna and I were invited over Debbie and her family’s house to light candles and have dinner. They even had us light our own hanukiot (menorahs)! And as always, delicious food follows. There is not a single household that doesn’t have good food here. One thing I almost forgot about the holiday of Hanukkah is that you eat lots and lots of sufganiot (donuts with filling) and potato latkes. These food items are made from oil, and Hanukkah being the holiday created because of oil..you eat the oily foods.

SO after I visited Inbal, I met up with the rest of ITC in the city of Arad at Arielle and Jason’s house. Sarah and Rachel traveled in from Ashkelon and then Shauna and I coincidentally met up at the Be’er Sheva bus station and took the same bus to Arad. The next four days were filled with in-service teacher training.
On Sunday, we went to a conference for English teachers in Be’er Sheva all day. I thought there were a few valid points brought up. We need to teach them certain skills to be able to produce their own work. We can't just give them a test to read and expect them to come up with the correct answers just like that. We need to teach them how to find key information, how to summarize, draw conclusions and main idea. I see that students don't have these abilities in school because they haven't really been taught any like this. I feel that this needs to be taken to heart and implemented in schools. All students can benefit from these skills. We just need the time and concentration to use them. Some other workshops I went to contained inforamtion I learned in college. Just luck of the draw I guess because a few others thought some different workshops were useful. Back to Arad, Jason and I went running and Arielle cooked a lovely dinner for all of us.

Monday was Dialogue in the Dark and Invitation to Silence. We went to a children’s museum where they had an exhibit in which you feel what it’s like to be blind. We walked around in pitch-black darkness with a cane. We went through different rooms: a forest, a shuk, a city street, and a cafeteria where we could order food and drink in the dark. It was amazing how all of our other senses came into action when we couldn’t use sight. The next exhibit was where we couldn’t hear anything. We wore these enormous headphones that blocked out almost all hearing. We had to rely solely on our sight and a sign to understand what was going on. We had to be aware of our facial expressions and hand and body gestures to be able to communicate.

After the museum we traveled to Jerusalem to meet with Mark Lazar at the Jewish Agency. There we discussed each of our experiences in the school so far. We all pretty much weren’t too satisfied with what was happening in the schools but we acknowledged that this wouldn’t be easy; that we knew this coming into this job. It was relieving to hear that we were not alone. He gave us some insight and some paperwork with some ideas and some solutions to behavioral problems. True: we have only been in the schools for one month; we do have a long way to go. We can’t give up on the students or ourselves. Reflecting on the time we’ve had so far in the schools really helped put things into perspective. We can’t just be passive and go along with things. We need to be engaging and take risks.

After this seminar we stopped by the Gilad Shalit tent for lighting the hanukiah. They had someone playing a song and then together, everyone sang HaTikva, Israel’s National Anthem. It was beautiful. I didn’t realize this tent for Gilad was put up right outside the Prime Minister’s house. He has been in captivity since 2006 and his family basically lives in this tent, fighting and praying for his release. Every time I am near the tent or visit it I feel compassion of the people and the seriousness of the matter. Four years is too long.

After we grabbed dinner in the Shuk, we went on a Hanukkah tour of Jerusalem. Although it was cold and rainy, most of us enjoyed it. At least until exhaustion set in. We walked near some old Yeshivas, then into an ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi neighborhood and an ultra-Orthodox Sephardic neighborhood. We noted all of the beautiful hanukiot lit up outside the homes as well as inside. Being within these close quarters of ancient buildings with all of the beautiful lights brought a sense of connectedness and tradition to the area. This is not the first time I have felt this way, but every time I feel it, it's comforting.

We arrived back in Arad really late that night, exhausted. But the long day was totally worth it.

Tuesday, two of our Madrichot came to Arad for the last day of in-service training. We discussed and reflected our experiences so far then we created a lesson plan for cases where we have to take over a class or small group. It’s nice to have some preparation. Once the day was over, we all agreed to stay the night and celebrate Rachel’s birthday. We went into Be’er Sheva and met up with some people and went out to some college bars (people in college here are all after the army and about our age). It was a great atmosphere, took me back to my college years 