I was told by Limor, the more experienced of the two English teachers, to arrive at school at 9 am. I got there and Sahar (it's her first year teaching - she just came back to Israel from university in NYC) asked me to come to 6th grade with her. Limor had wanted to talk to me about a schedule instead, but then decided I could go to 6th grade and instead of shadowing Sahar take the 6th grade dovre anglit kids out. Basically I got there at 8:55 and was thrown into a classroom by 9:05 even though I hadn't been told I was teaching today. Okay, fine. I could deal with that.
Apparently last year they had a man, Marvin, volunteering at the school. He's in his 60s and retired to Israel from Chicago. He isn't going to be around after October because he and his wife are moving back to the states. He didn't so much teach the kids as read Shel Silversteen poetry to them. He came to school today and was told to sit-in on my classes. Obviously he can tell me a lot about the kids because he's taught them in the past. So I met with the 6th grade kids. Then I had to do the same with 4th grade. I had nothing prepared because I was told to come today and we'd work out a schedule. I wasn't told I'd be teaching. Instead I asked the kids a lot of questions and got to know them.
Then Limor and I tried to work out a schedule. Sahar had told me I could go to 5th grade and watch her teach, which I did. At this point they both told me to go to talk to the principal because there was no one to teach 1st grade and they wanted to see if we could work something out. I went down to talk to her, but she asked me to come back because her English isn't that good. Sahar came to translate. Basically the school needs another teacher for 1st and 2nd grade because Sahar (who is replacing the teacher who taught those grades) won't do it because she's too busy. They want me to teach both grades based on a curriculum/book/puppet/CD that they have. The homeroom teacher would be in the classroom "to translate" if necessary and there are tons of activities in the book so "I wouldn't have to do much" (according to the other English teachers....). At one point the principal mentioned trying to hire another teacher to do this job. I think that idea got scrapped somewhere along the translated conversation. I'm not really sure I'd get a trial period, I think they basically want me to teach for the whole year. I also wouldn't be able to split the class easily except in 2nd grade where the dovre anglit kids would get some additional assignments during the second half of the class.
I'm supposed to go Monday at 8am to find out what my schedule is - I'll probably have to start teaching right away (?). After this meeting Limor asked me if the ministry was going to pay me more and that I should double check with the principal about that. Then she said I was done for the day and could leave (it was about 1pm).
Some students get out at 12, some leave at 1, and others have school until 2:30. I left at 1 and went to the grocery store. While I was there, Sahar called to ask where I was and to tell me that the 5th graders were waiting for me. I rushed back to school and had a 1.5 hour class with them. Limor hadn't told me anything about teaching this group and had only given me morning classes. I felt like an idiot because the kids were waiting around in the hallway for me. They asked me about what book they should get and they seemed to really want this class, which is exciting for me.
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