I'm a student again!

I've decided to pursue an official teacher's licence, since I don't have one yet. The way it came about though was so... Israeli. I got a phone call about 2 weeks ago, it was a Thurs afternoon at about 5 PM, from a woman at Misrad Hachinuch (think Board of Ed), telling me about this teacher's licensing program in English specifically for new olim. It starts in February she said, so I must call the woman in charge, Orit as soon as possible. BUT, Orit is only in the office Mondays and Thursdays, so I'll have to wait till Monday to call. Surprised? No. Okay, I made it my business to call Orit on Monday. She told me to come in for an interview Thursday, so I did. I ventured out to Tel Aviv. I was so nervous, I was sweating and my heart was racing . I really wanted to get into this program. I was hoping they'd consider me qualified. I reached the building and I was invited into a office where I sat before a committee of 4 people, who in a matter of minutes, determined I was perfect for the program. Have you taught before? Yes. You speak English and Hebrew well? Yes. Do you have a teacher's licence? No. Okay, you're in. The rest of the half hour was spent explaining the program, trying to settle some techinical and logistical issues etc. One of the bigger challenges discussed was the fact that the program is twice a week, and I had only one day a week on which I wasn't working. The committee explained that I would have to convince my principal to let me have another day off in order to attend classes. This task did not seem so appealing to me, so I asked if they could call the principal right then and there and explain to her the importance of me being there twice a week. I wanted this request to come from them. One of the committee members responded "It wouldn't be professional if we'd call her now, we'll write her a letter and you'll give it to her. " Okay I figured, I understand. I expected to get a type-written letter on official letterhead, you know, something "professional" looking. Instead, the director of the program wrote a scribbly note on a piece of paper from his notepad, and put in a sealed envelope. Sure, I thought to myself, this is much more professional than a phone call...

After all was settled, they told me the program starts Tues, in Cholon. and that there a number of people attending from Modiin. "How do I get there, can I have directions?" I asked. "Call one of the other girls from Modiin, they'll tell you," and I was handed another scribbly note with a couple of phone numbers on it.

Thankfully all went well with my principal, scribbly note and all. By Sunday afternoon, I knew I would be attending school on Tues. I called "one of the girls from Modiin" and we decided to car pool, which worked out well. She and the another 2 Anglo women became my instant buddies. My first day of school was interesting, in a taking-it-all-in kind of way...I thought I would be one of a room full of Anglo olim just like me. You know, from Efrat, or Ramat Beit Shemesh... from New York or London...It turned out that only half of us were Anglos and the others... Russians. Yup, the tall, skinny, blonde type. Heres the weird thing- why do all Russian women have blonde hair and all Russian men have black hair? This will be very interesting, I thought. Are they going to learn how to speak English before we start this program? Then I yelled at myself for being so judgemental. I mean, here I am, an American, teaching first-grade-Israelis Hebrew. Shame on me. It turns out that during our lunch break I was sitting around with some of the people from the program and one of the other Americans thought I was Russian! I mean I've been told I look Chinese, Vietnamese, even Hawaiian, but Russian- never! I am the farthest thing from tall, skinny, and blonde. I was actually thinking to myself that this person doesn't look Jewish at all, but I didn't go there...


Also interesting is the makeup of the school altogether. Its a michlala datit, where religous women go to get their teacher's licenses. Everyone was young, like 19 or 20, wearing skirts, and lots of them were covering their hair and pregnant. So I finally got my Stern experience after all.

The day wasn't so bad. On a scale from 1-10, I think it was a 5. The month of February is devoted to workshops, and the real courses start in March. We spent about 6 hours there, in a workshop about introducing art into all areas of learning. I think what I learned could've been learned in about a quarter of the time, but thats okay. The presenter was really smart and experienced, but it was initially hard to take her seriously given her choice of wardrobe. I just kept thinking: My mother presents at these kinds of workshops all the time. This woman's outfit is so far-fetched that it would qualify as a Purim costume for my mom. A long summer dress, hot pink socks, light blue patent leather Mary Janes, etc. But in the end, I did gain from the experience and became optimistic about the program.