The Case Of The Missing Assignment Or Too Much Information

Last week I heard on NPR that in some elementary schools in the US parents are notified by email if their child fails to submit even one assignment.  In high schools parents get on-going notices of all the different deadlines regarding their children’s college applications, so that they could make sure their children do not to miss them.

It is true that the school has all that data on hand and it is very easy to share it with the parents. Also teachers and schools are judged by their students’ performance and they are very willing to recruit the parents to help improve it.  It could even  be  possible that  the parents themselves request, or put pressure on the school to give them all that information.

Please keep reading in The Times Of Israel

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-case-of-the-missing-assignment-or-too-much-information/

The Customer Is Always Right, Or Meaningful learning?

At a time when our Education Minister, Rabbi Shay Piron is trying to bring about change in the schools with his concept of “meaningful learning,” I have to wonder how he reconciles this lofty idea with the last incident concerning  the  suspension of the Israeli teacher  in Ashkelon.

That teacher  was suspended by her principal  after a  student had hacked into her private email, and published  in the class’ Wattsup his findings-- intimate photos of that teacher in the nude.

Please keep reading in the Times Of Israel 

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-customer-is-always-right-or-meaningful-learning/

Enigma Of A Cultural Hero Or Between Arik Einstein And Bibi Netanyahu

NOV.28.2013 -

I am sad today, my favorite Israeli singer Arik Einstein (1939—2013) died suddenly yesterday morning. He wasn’t only loved by me, he was immensely popular. But since he was a highly private person and his family asked for a quiet funeral, I didn’t expect that an official state funeral would close down the streets of Tel Aviv.  Moreover, I couldn’t imagine that our  prime minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu would appear at the funeral and claim Arik Einstein as his own. This was a hit below the belt--please let Arik RIP. I wish my last memory of the beloved singer could remain untarnished by an image of Bibi Netanyahu making yet another speech.

Actually this is a good place to start because everything about Arik Einstein was the exact opposite of Netanyau. Arik Einstein was a very talented man who wanted to be left alone, to maintain his privacy and to do the things that he loved quietly and outside of the limelight. Netanyahu is an intelligent man who cannot survive without constant attention and demands plenty of recognition for everything that he does.

Privacy is not a concept that Netanyahu appreciates; his rise to the top has only been possible thanks to television: like a sunflower he basked and flourished in its light. Since his days as the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations (1984 to 1988) when he “perfected his technique,” he has not missed an opportunity to be seen in public or to speak on television.

In contrast, in the early 80s Arik Einstein, by then already a successful and highly acclaimed singer and actor, stopped appearing in public.  However, he never ceased working and continued to make music and record. He had a special talent to attract and discover quality musicians and to bring out their special qualities. He collaborated with a large number of musicians and sang their songs in a beautiful clear baritone voice.  His clean and unaffected voice has become a symbol to everything which was honest about Israel, a voice of yearning for better and simpler days. 

 Arik Einstein changed the music scene in Israel for the better but never took any credit for it. He  even refused to accept the most prestigious award in Israel, the "Israel Prize.”

In an extrovert and noisy nation like ours, it is incomprehensible how such a private person who has stayed home for more than 30 years could become a national symbol and a cultural hero.  This quality of not tooting one's own horn but just doing the job quietly and professionally, even meticously, is also not a common Israeli trait. At the funeral someone said that every one of us has his/her own Arik.  I feel that this could be part of the answer.  We would like to believe that we are a little better than we really are,  and  that within us we have some of the humility, professionalism and integrity that Arik had.

It helped that Arik was good looking, witty and graceful, and since he withdrew from the public eye so long ago, he never grew old. In our hearts  he remained the Israeli Peter Pan -- forever fresh, handsome and young.

As for Bibi, unlike Dorian Gray, this fine looking man did age publicly in front of our eyes and his faults have become increasingly prominent - one of the unfortunate effects of over exposure.

Still since he took the time to be at the funeral and to speak about Arik, perhaps it could be an opportunity for Netanyahu to learn from this cultural hero a lesson about integrity. If such reflection does take place, I wouldn’t even mind to have my last memory of  Arik Einstein mixed with an image of Bibi.

  

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U58uKBDtZyo

“Privacy—A Useful Concept ?” Or Do I Want My Students To Read My Blog?

Every now and again when we discuss a relevant issue in class, I am tempted to share with my students one of my essays from my blog, but stop myself on time. Although it is a public medium, and I am always  delighted when people read my posts, when it comes to my students I’d rather keep my privacy and prefer that they do not  know that I write a blog.

In one of the earlier articles devoted to the subject of privacy, the sociologist Alan P. Bates provides a helpful definition of the term: "a person’s feeling that others should be excluded from something which is of concern to him, and also recognition that others have a right to do this” (1964: 429).

Bates’ definition expresses the way I feel about teacher/students relationship -- my personal life and my political views are “of no concern" to my students . When I went back to teaching, a week after my husband's passing I did not tell my class anything. I felt that such information  was actually a burden on my students,  and chose to focus on teaching them English reading.

Along the same line, earlier this semester one of my students wrote to say that the reason he did not attend any of the classes was that his mother was seriously ill and he needed to be by her bedside. My response was to offer help without any questions, I felt that this was my student’s  private concern.

It would have been different if that student had come to talk to me in person about his mother, in that case I would have naturally inquired about her health. When I meet students in my office they frequently tell me about their lives and I give advice  from my personal experience.

 But in class we convene for a reason and our social interaction should be purposeful and limited. Thus when I offer personal anecdotes they are either  connected to the reading material or are meant  to emphasize the significance of English.

As a certain degree of deliberate intimacy is conducive to learning, I have to balance between maintaining good feeling in class and  promoting serious work. I find that as a teacher my interaction with the  students is much more guarded than any other social or professional contact.  It involves measuring my words,  having to  question myself constantly whether what I am about to say would actually promote learning.

Since my students do not like to read in English (they usually are not great readers in any language) and they are not curious enough to look me up on Google, so far my blog has remained unknown to them.  If  one day a student tells me that she read some of my posts, I would be thrilled and forget all about my privacy. When that happens it would be a  proof  that the student has become comfortable in English and started to to explore.  This could count as a real succes.

 Meanwhile I am still waiting.

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