My school visit

Sunday (8/26/07)
The English Inspector from the Ministry of Education in Tel Aviv (the titles sound so much more intense!) and a middle school teacher came to talk to us today in orientation. A lot of time was spent on talking about the Bagrut, a standardized test the high schoolers have to take for each subject to exit high school. There is a lot of frustration, just like in the States, from teachers wanting to teach more creatively and based on their students’ needs rather than teaching to the test. However, there is much less verbal dissent about it and both were very hesitant to answer how they truly felt about the tests.
Afterwards, I took a taxi with Marion to my school. It is called Tzahalah and is in a very wealthy area in NE Tel Aviv. It is a very large school- more than 600 kids, 1st-6th grades. I met with the principal (Irit), the 4th-6th grade English teacher (Michelle) that I will be working with closely and the secretary (Eyal) that will be the one to answer all of the questions Michelle can’t. In Israeli schools, the principal is a very administrative position and is not expected to be very hands-on, with the students or the teachers. I am told that I will probably not see very much more of her and should direct my questions to the teacher and secretary only. She’s a warm, friendly person, but has too many other things to deal with. She met with me today just to find out who is going to be in her school and then is just going to trust that Marion and Michelle make sure I do a good job. Even so, Mark says, just like any principal, she always knows what is going on throughout her school. Somehow, she has her ways. Michelle is very friendly also, though a tough teacher. Marion says she is very independent and will sometimes say things in front of Irit, even though she is planning on doing it a different way. For example, she said I will spend the 1st few days to a week observing, but Mark and Marion have both said that I will be teaching the 1st day. We’ll see. :)
For dinner, Allie, Ali and I met another girl in our program, Molly. She lives 2 blocks from our new place. We went to a Thai restaurant where for 15 shekels ($4.75) you can get a 1/2 kilo (1 lb) of noodles & veggies! They have a lot of other, cheap dishes that are also that big. Great for 2 meals. And...sushi! I think I'll be there a lot- at least when I'm not eating hummus and falafel!