An accredited course (SOC 110) studying the history, practice, and philosophy of volunteering - an exciting part of Young Judaea and FZY's Year Course.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Welcome to a New Year
Hello Students and welcome to Bat Yam and Holon's Service Learning Class. This will be are forum for class discussions and weekly journals, and hopefully a good resource for you to improve your volunteering capabilities. Good Luck and Shana Tovah.
my volunteering place is at an elementary school. in my volunteer placement i have noticed kids fighting in the halls, like physical fighting. i haven't seen anyone get hurt, but i don't see teachers around to stop it. another thing i noticed was kids getting up during class while the teacher is teaching. she yells at them to sit down or be quiet, but they still get up anyway, and sometimes she just gives up on them and either doesn't say anything to them or makes one of the kids go out of the room.
I am volunteering at an adult education center where I am teaching English to middle-aged and older adults. So far, it has been really difficult because I don't speak any Hebrew, and no one wants to work with me because of my lack of understanding. I can relate to them because in my ulpan class my teacher only speaks Hebrew, and repeating a sentence 5 times won't help me understand it any better if I don't know the English translation. But the fact that they go every day to learn English shows a lot of promise. I've been wondering why someone who is over 60 would suddenly feel the need to learn a new language. Maybe they want to be able to speak to their grandchildren living in America, or maybe they just want to understand the English television channel. Anyways, for whatever reason, I hope I can develop a deep connection with all of the students and learn their stories.
I volunteer at a gan/kindergarten. I absolutely love working with all of the kids because they are so cute and so fun to work with. Even though there is a language barrier between the kids and I, I still try and make sure that they are always having fun and always have a smile on their faces. One problem that I am having is with the teachers in charge of the gan. Since my hebrew is not that great, it is very hard for me to communicate with them because they assume that my hebrew is up to par. Sometimes I think that I understand what they are saying and then the teachers yell at me for misunderstanding them. I can try and help this problem by having my other voulunteer partner, who knows more hebrew than I do, help me to communicate better with the teachers.
For my volunteering placement I am volunteering at a local private Jewish all-boys middle/high school. In my first week volunteering I noticed that a private Israeli high school has many different attributes than a Jewish American private school such as the one I went to. Besides for the fact that there is no air conditioner or proper teaching utensils to work with, I noticed that the students here are also very different than us American students.
In America we have a more disciplined school system where if a student gets caught talking on his cell phone in the middle of class the teacher will take the phone away and either give it back or keep it until the end of the year. In the school I volunteer at the students just listen to music and talk as they please during class time. I’ve also noticed that the students here are a little bit more mature in a sense of independence. A lot of the times in this school the students are more likely to “stand up” to the teacher in a disrespectful way. Such as today in class I noticed a student was talking during class and the teacher told him to be quiet, then the student just stared bluntly into her eyes and then turned away in utter disregard and continued to talk to his fellow classmate again. This made me think of my class back in Miami. If I had done that to my teacher I would have been either thrown out of class or have gotten a zero for the day.
What I think can be done to change this stigma is that the teachers here need more help with their class. Maybe a T.A. or even maybe the principal can walk in a once or twice a day to check up on the class and its progress/ disciplinary status.
Today I completed my fifth full day of volunteering. I work at the special needs Gan with children who have a variety of problems from being deaf to autistic. It has not been too dificult so far. I spend the first part of the day supervising basic activities such as glueing,cutting, and puzzles. I help the Gannent keep the children in order for the "meeting time", and during breakfast I make sure the children eat politely and stay seated. The rest of the day I spend in the sandbox outside. Playground time is mixed with children from a regular Gan. Some of the children mixtogether, but for the most part the children play with the kids of the their respective gan. I guess at the moment my biggest problem is feeling not needed. There are only 7 kids in the special Gan, and there are 6 helpers. I try and occupy myself and if I was more comfortable with my Hebrew I would be less shy to ask the teachers what they need, but it is hard for me to ask in Hebrew. I'm working on it. At the moment I am feeling positive, but bored.
Walking into my first day at the Gan all I could hear were cries of little children running around after one another playing with everything in sight. The first thing that came to my mind was, "what did i get myself into!" After observing the class for the first half hour and slowly learning name after name I started to adjust. The class is made up of about eighteen Ethiopians, Russians, and Israelis. Leading the class are two teachers Rutie, and Sigal. The students were very sweet as they caught on that it was harder for me to play with them because of the language barrier. Some of the foreign children sadly haven't learned hebrew yet so they are very lost which makes me feel right at home. I've been there for about a week now and I love it. The teachers assigned me and Tali to help them with a special needs child named Egal. He suffers from some type of mental problem, I personally think it’s just his parents neglecting him at home which causes him to act out all the time. If he isn't crying then he is throwing tantrums, or even biting other classmates. For the past week Tali and I have worked with him and started to gain his trust. The teachers told us that he was the hardest burden of teaching the class because they don't think he speaks Hebrew (he is Ethiopian) and his mother will not move him to a special needs school for better care. Surprisingly when Tali and I work with him he understands us? We calm him down during his tantrums and we play with him at the playground. The best part of the day is when the other kids come over to play with him too. The teachers don't really give him a chance they refer to him as the "monkey" of the class but he is actually a very bright kid. Learning the basic Hebrew I need to communicate with the kids has become easier everyday. Tali and the teachers help me with vocabulary, even the kids sometimes do too. The easiest way to get through to them what I am trying to say is pointing and motions and they seem to catch on. Besides the constant runny noses and the daily bathroom accidents the kids are a joy to play and interact with. They have taught me a lot in the past few days and I anticipate going to see them each morning..
The organization of the Year Course volunteer program at Ramat Yosef middle school is poor. This isn’t a complaint, merely an observation. It could be because Young Judaea Year Course participants have only been in Bat Yam two years previous, and/or maybe this year is the first year Ramat Yosef middle school is a part of the Young Judaea community volunteering program. In any case, without giving a direct blow by blow, the last week has been 20% tutoring middle schoolers in English and 80% wandering around, calling volunteer management staff, calling the middle school staff, showing up to school, going home, showing up, waiting, talking to teachers, going home, coming back, waiting, wandering, etc., repeat. Not that I am criticizing anyone, I know how tough it is to organize something like this. It will take a while, but I’m sure the English teachers will find an efficient use for us, and we will have a scheduled day, work times, and work plan.
This week our English tutoring time came to a grand total of roughly 2 hours. And as short of a time as that was, I was able to pick on a few things. For now, our setup is this: the 8th grade English teacher sends about 8 students at a time downstairs to a small computer room, now dubbed The English Room, to study with the four American year course volunteers in segments of 30 minutes. One group will come downstairs, we will do things concerning the English language, the students will go back upstairs, and a new group will come down. The teacher has instructed us to check their homework and assign them the task of writing down ten questions to ask us in English, ask us the questions, and then record our answers. Total work time for the middle school students, about 15 minutes. I like to think the total learning time is greater though, ideally the whole 30 minutes. I like to think this because we tell the students that from the time they step into the room until the time they leave, they can only speak in English, and for the most part, they do. And they seem to enjoy themselves while doing it. It’s funny how we can get off task from the assignment and I don’t feel bad about it, since whatever else we are talking about that isn’t the assignment, we are talking about in English, and new words we use and new subject matter and new terms of expression will all work their way into the students’ English consciousness if not vocabulary, and that aids them in the long run.
The teacher sends us the strong English students in the first group, then the less strong students, then the mediocre students, and she doesn’t send the weak English students down at all. Some students are strong English readers and writers, but are deathly afraid of speaking the language. One girl wrote down a question to ask us: What is your favorite animal? After refusing to read the question aloud, she merely shook her head while we tried to persuade her to say anything in English at all. Even a word, such as “yes”, “no”, or “what.” So as not to put too much pressure on her, which could discourage her from speaking even more, we moved on. I explained to her after that it was ok to be a little embarrassed at first when you’re speaking a strange foreign language. I showed her how funny my American Hebrew accent sounded and advised her on a few things. 1) Don’t worry about how you sound now, or if some of the words you use aren’t the right ones, it takes time to get good at it, especially with English. 2) Don’t worry about what other people think, if you’re speaking it, you are already doing a good job. 3) The more you practice, the better you get at it. I feel like we will be hearing from this girl in the future—in English, mind you.
I am an educator who has been living in Israel since 2001. Since 2005, I have been collaborating for the Lookstein Center for Jewish Education in the Diaspora
8 comments:
my volunteering place is at an elementary school. in my volunteer placement i have noticed kids fighting in the halls, like physical fighting. i haven't seen anyone get hurt, but i don't see teachers around to stop it. another thing i noticed was kids getting up during class while the teacher is teaching. she yells at them to sit down or be quiet, but they still get up anyway, and sometimes she just gives up on them and either doesn't say anything to them or makes one of the kids go out of the room.
I am volunteering at an adult education center where I am teaching English to middle-aged and older adults. So far, it has been really difficult because I don't speak any Hebrew, and no one wants to work with me because of my lack of understanding. I can relate to them because in my ulpan class my teacher only speaks Hebrew, and repeating a sentence 5 times won't help me understand it any better if I don't know the English translation. But the fact that they go every day to learn English shows a lot of promise. I've been wondering why someone who is over 60 would suddenly feel the need to learn a new language. Maybe they want to be able to speak to their grandchildren living in America, or maybe they just want to understand the English television channel. Anyways, for whatever reason, I hope I can develop a deep connection with all of the students and learn their stories.
I volunteer at a gan/kindergarten. I absolutely love working with all of the kids because they are so cute and so fun to work with. Even though there is a language barrier between the kids and I, I still try and make sure that they are always having fun and always have a smile on their faces. One problem that I am having is with the teachers in charge of the gan. Since my hebrew is not that great, it is very hard for me to communicate with them because they assume that my hebrew is up to par. Sometimes I think that I understand what they are saying and then the teachers yell at me for misunderstanding them. I can try and help this problem by having my other voulunteer partner, who knows more hebrew than I do, help me to communicate better with the teachers.
For my volunteering placement I am volunteering at a local private Jewish all-boys middle/high school. In my first week volunteering I noticed that a private Israeli high school has many different attributes than a Jewish American private school such as the one I went to. Besides for the fact that there is no air conditioner or proper teaching utensils to work with, I noticed that the students here are also very different than us American students.
In America we have a more disciplined school system where if a student gets caught talking on his cell phone in the middle of class the teacher will take the phone away and either give it back or keep it until the end of the year. In the school I volunteer at the students just listen to music and talk as they please during class time. I’ve also noticed that the students here are a little bit more mature in a sense of independence. A lot of the times in this school the students are more likely to “stand up” to the teacher in a disrespectful way. Such as today in class I noticed a student was talking during class and the teacher told him to be quiet, then the student just stared bluntly into her eyes and then turned away in utter disregard and continued to talk to his fellow classmate again. This made me think of my class back in Miami. If I had done that to my teacher I would have been either thrown out of class or have gotten a zero for the day.
What I think can be done to change this stigma is that the teachers here need more help with their class. Maybe a T.A. or even maybe the principal can walk in a once or twice a day to check up on the class and its progress/ disciplinary status.
Today I completed my fifth full day of volunteering. I work at the special needs Gan with children who have a variety of problems from being deaf to autistic. It has not been too dificult so far. I spend the first part of the day supervising basic activities such as glueing,cutting, and puzzles. I help the Gannent keep the children in order for the "meeting time", and during breakfast I make sure the children eat politely and stay seated. The rest of the day I spend in the sandbox outside.
Playground time is mixed with children from a regular Gan. Some of the children mixtogether, but for the most part the children play with the kids of the their respective gan.
I guess at the moment my biggest problem is feeling not needed. There are only 7 kids in the special Gan, and there are 6 helpers. I try and occupy myself and if I was more comfortable with my Hebrew I would be less shy to ask the teachers what they need, but it is hard for me to ask in Hebrew. I'm working on it.
At the moment I am feeling positive, but bored.
Walking into my first day at the Gan all I could hear were cries of little children running around after one another playing with everything in sight. The first thing that came to my mind was, "what did i get myself into!" After observing the class for the first half hour and slowly learning name after name I started to adjust. The class is made up of about eighteen Ethiopians, Russians, and Israelis. Leading the class are two teachers Rutie, and Sigal. The students were very sweet as they caught on that it was harder for me to play with them because of the language barrier. Some of the foreign children sadly haven't learned hebrew yet so they are very lost which makes me feel right at home. I've been there for about a week now and I love it. The teachers assigned me and Tali to help them with a special needs child named Egal. He suffers from some type of mental problem, I personally think it’s just his parents neglecting him at home which causes him to act out all the time. If he isn't crying then he is throwing tantrums, or even biting other classmates. For the past week Tali and I have worked with him and started to gain his trust. The teachers told us that he was the hardest burden of teaching the class because they don't think he speaks Hebrew (he is Ethiopian) and his mother will not move him to a special needs school for better care. Surprisingly when Tali and I work with him he understands us? We calm him down during his tantrums and we play with him at the playground. The best part of the day is when the other kids come over to play with him too. The teachers don't really give him a chance they refer to him as the "monkey" of the class but he is actually a very bright kid. Learning the basic Hebrew I need to communicate with the kids has become easier everyday. Tali and the teachers help me with vocabulary, even the kids sometimes do too. The easiest way to get through to them what I am trying to say is pointing and motions and they seem to catch on. Besides the constant runny noses and the daily bathroom accidents the kids are a joy to play and interact with. They have taught me a lot in the past few days and I anticipate going to see them each morning..
The organization of the Year Course volunteer program at Ramat Yosef middle school is poor. This isn’t a complaint, merely an observation. It could be because Young Judaea Year Course participants have only been in Bat Yam two years previous, and/or maybe this year is the first year Ramat Yosef middle school is a part of the Young Judaea community volunteering program. In any case, without giving a direct blow by blow, the last week has been 20% tutoring middle schoolers in English and 80% wandering around, calling volunteer management staff, calling the middle school staff, showing up to school, going home, showing up, waiting, talking to teachers, going home, coming back, waiting, wandering, etc., repeat. Not that I am criticizing anyone, I know how tough it is to organize something like this. It will take a while, but I’m sure the English teachers will find an efficient use for us, and we will have a scheduled day, work times, and work plan.
This week our English tutoring time came to a grand total of roughly 2 hours. And as short of a time as that was, I was able to pick on a few things. For now, our setup is this: the 8th grade English teacher sends about 8 students at a time downstairs to a small computer room, now dubbed The English Room, to study with the four American year course volunteers in segments of 30 minutes. One group will come downstairs, we will do things concerning the English language, the students will go back upstairs, and a new group will come down. The teacher has instructed us to check their homework and assign them the task of writing down ten questions to ask us in English, ask us the questions, and then record our answers. Total work time for the middle school students, about 15 minutes. I like to think the total learning time is greater though, ideally the whole 30 minutes. I like to think this because we tell the students that from the time they step into the room until the time they leave, they can only speak in English, and for the most part, they do. And they seem to enjoy themselves while doing it. It’s funny how we can get off task from the assignment and I don’t feel bad about it, since whatever else we are talking about that isn’t the assignment, we are talking about in English, and new words we use and new subject matter and new terms of expression will all work their way into the students’ English consciousness if not vocabulary, and that aids them in the long run.
The teacher sends us the strong English students in the first group, then the less strong students, then the mediocre students, and she doesn’t send the weak English students down at all. Some students are strong English readers and writers, but are deathly afraid of speaking the language. One girl wrote down a question to ask us: What is your favorite animal?
After refusing to read the question aloud, she merely shook her head while we tried to persuade her to say anything in English at all. Even a word, such as “yes”, “no”, or “what.” So as not to put too much pressure on her, which could discourage her from speaking even more, we moved on. I explained to her after that it was ok to be a little embarrassed at first when you’re speaking a strange foreign language. I showed her how funny my American Hebrew accent sounded and advised her on a few things. 1) Don’t worry about how you sound now, or if some of the words you use aren’t the right ones, it takes time to get good at it, especially with English. 2) Don’t worry about what other people think, if you’re speaking it, you are already doing a good job. 3) The more you practice, the better you get at it.
I feel like we will be hearing from this girl in the future—in English, mind you.
Wow I totally thought you told us to write a page. Did I misunderstand? Mine's good though, read the whole thing.
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