Welcoming A Very Special Guest

Today my mom flew in from Los Angeles to spend the week with me.  We are celebrating New Years Eve in our hotel room relaxing after her 15 hour flight.  I can't wait to take her to school with me tomorrow.  I don't think she fully understands what is in store for her.  I prepared my students and told them about her expected arrival.  I told them she was going to test them when she gets here and I think they feel a little intimidated.  I just hope they don't go bananas in front of her like they do with me.  I am so excited for my mom to see me in action as a teacher!  I think she will be proud :) 

Today I took her to Ramla to see my apartment and get a feel for my daily life.  I took her into the liquor store across the street and introduced her to the cashier.  He calls me spoon because every morning when I get yogurt I ask for a spoon.  I have taught him all types of words, but spoon is the only one that has stuck with him. I also introduced my mom to my host family.  What a special moment it was to bring two worlds of people who I call family together!  We sat around drinking tea, snacking on fruits and nuts and looking at old photos of one another.  I did all the translating.  Here is a photo my mom took of us today: 

So grateful to be surrounded by love at every moment

Meet My Partner In Crime

Her name is Lauren, but she goes under the guise of  her Hebrew name Malka (Queen). We call her Molly for short.  My name is Par Par.  In Hebrew it means butterfly.  It represents my free spirit-ness.

Lauren calls me Nugget because I am small.  I call her Shnitzel because she told an Israeli guy that her brother's name was Weiner and his last name was Shnitzel.
Its been an inside joke ever since.

There is never a dull moment between her and I.  We stick out like sore thumbs-- both from Los Angeles with a heavy valley girl accent.  We play off the fact that we sound clueless and create humorous interactions with the locals. We aren't just roomates though.  We are fun buddies that have heart to heart conversations.  We are bold and can be misunderstood, but I suppose some people were just born to stand out.

Molly & Par Par Adventures

Before a night out of hitting the town.  Viva la Tel Aviva ~

Group field-trip to the Golan Heights

Group field-trip to the Dead Sea.  Head to toe in mud mask, helps remove toxins from the body and gives you soft skin.

Molly & Par Par Forever <3

Merry Jewmas! xx

Wow.  Looking back at the past year of my life, I have a lot to be proud of.  This time last year I underwent three surgeries for my chronic pancreatic condition, flew to Seattle for two of them, was hospitalized for  a week, and was a live ERCP at a conference of 400 Gastroenterologists from all around the world.

This year I am in Israel, with my friends, my students, my host family, with support for my blog and support for my tutus.  What an upward spiral.  And what an important lesson at a young age to know that the human body is one of the most important things you are given in life!

Whether you are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or whatever else you may classify yourself as--  I am wishing all of you a happy holidays.  May you all have an upward journey of your own.

Is This Real Life

My students in the younger grades do the strangest things.  What seems to be universal is that they are absorbed in their own little worlds instead of listening to lecture.  I catch a lot of them bored out of their minds, making goofy facial expressions.  I guess they think no one is looking at them.  But no.  I am looking.  I am looking at the kid in the front row who has his open workbook plopped over his head.  I am looking at the boy sucking on the zipper of his sweatshirt.  He recently lost his two front teeth which permits the zipper to conveniently rest between the gap of his gums.  I am looking at the little girl painting her nails with pink highlighter.  I am looking at the kid drawing on the table and poking holes in his eraser.  I am looking at the kids who aren't sitting properly in their seats, leaning backwards on them.  Don't get me started on the ones who are picking their nose (that one's a given).  It is safe to say they are doing anything else besides learning.  At the end of the day I find myself questioning my sanity:  I thought I was silly- but boy do these kids take it to the next level.

#D I S T R A C T E D  

A Morning in the Life of an English Teacher

I live one block away from school. You would think that I would roll out of bed at 7:50 and stroll right in.  But as much as I'd like to indulge myself with beauty sleep, I think about what my body's first priority is.  So I lay in bed and turn on the snooze button for another ten minutes.  After that my morning begins.  I walk across the street to the local pitzutzia (liquor store) and buy my sweet tooth a vanilla yogurt with sprinkles and chocolate milk.

I walk to school and on my way there I run into students who also walk from this area of the neighborhood.  The kids acknowledge me as I walk bye, although they are rather shy outside of school, and I am not sure if it is because they are not confident in their English speaking.

I walk into the teacher's lounge and fill a beer mug to the brim with Rooibos tea.  The teachers are speaking Hebrew, so I really don't have a clue as to what they are saying besides key phrases here and there.  Most of them are not open to interacting with me nor the other volunteer from my program.  

The moment I walk into the class I hear "Hi Paige!" from ten voices at once.  The girls playfully crowd around me as I walk into class.  They hug me and don't let go.  "I love you!" they say, and I tell them I love them back.  They look at my outfits and are in awe of my fashion sense.  It gives me a chance to show them American fashion first hand (such as wearing only one long feather earring instead of two).  

 And this all happens within the the first ten minutes of my day.

  

What's not to love?

Haim Sheli

I look forward to going to school everyday.  It's not just a job for me.  It's a warm community.  My entire family is back in America, but I am never lonely.  My students are like my little children.  When I walk into school I am immediately flocked to by all the little girls in different grades.  They run up and give me big hugs and hang on me and follow me into the Teacher's Room.  They like to braid my hair and teach me hand games.  Their curiosity about English and American culture is illuminating.  I feel loved and I know I provide to many of them a source of affection that they might not get at home.  I think I have a special bond with my students because I am petite, and they think I am their age.  I can be silly with them, but I am also direct and firm.  They know when they need to pay attention and respect me as an authority figure.

I know that as much as I am making a difference in their lives, they have made a profound impact on mine.

Lunch time with the fifth grade girls.

This is my little sweetheart Kesem.  I call her Magic, because that's what her name means in Hebrew.

This is Hen.  She is one of the first girls I bonded with at school.  She is sassy, just like I am! I really admire that quality about her.  I think she is going to be a strong woman when she grows up.

First Time For Everything

Even though I am the teacher, I find myself in the position of learning all the time, just as a student would.  One of the most valuable lesson's I've learned in Israel is how to be a big sister.  Growing up I was an only child, and could never relate to that crucial sibling bond.

When I moved here, I was given a host family who I became extremely close with.  Their daughter, Naama immediately cozied up to me, in awe of my style, asking me tons of questions about America. 

 I began to take an inventory of our interactions:

Naama- the sister I never had.  We bicker because she can be totally unreasonable, but it will only last for a minute.  She will call me 11 times in a short time span to see where I am as I am walking over to her house.  It's annoying but it is only because she is eager to see me.  She is clever and sly, yet impatient- and it totally reminds me of myself.  I teach her American slang that I say back home, and she sounds like a carbon copy valley girl mini-me.  It's a crack up and slightly scary.  Especially when I fall asleep in her bed and hear her repeating endlessly "Loser + Loser, Together whatever."  What resonated the most was one night when we had a sleepover.  The way the moment we hopped into bed, she decides she isn't tired at all & I am therefore obligated to get out of bed & go back into the salon to watch tv with her.  The way we were pulling the covers back and forth in the middle of night, hogging the blanket to our respective sides.     It was surreal to lie in her bed that morning.  I woke up before her and treasured our bond, wondering what it's going to be like to leave Israel and not have her in my life every day.  

The day we met!  Symbolic because it was at Rosh Ha'Shaana dinner on the Jewish New Year.

Goofing around <3

What Happens In School

The first week of elementary school, I sat in classrooms observing the learning environment.  I had never witnessed such a sight!  In disbelief, I wrote the following journal entry:

These kids are savages.  They are all yelling at once and jumping out of their seats.  For as much as they goof off and don't listen; they sure do ask a lot of the teacher's attention.  During the middle of a lesson, they run up to her in huddles and bombard her with questions-- some productive and some obsolete.  They talk to me in their native tongue (Hebrew) as if I understand what they are saying- but to me it just sounds like a mix between gibberish and charades.

My key phrases in response to their questions are:
- I dont know
- Very little Hebrew
-What's that?
- How do you say?

Anyways, these kids are wild monkeys.  Everything goes in one ear and out the other, with the attention span of a gnat.  They ask me inappropriate things like what the word "bulbul" means in English (male genitals).  They know i'm learning words so they'll throw in there "butt" and start cracking up when I naively repeat it.  When the teacher reprimands them, they wine and refuse to do what she asks of them, over and over again.  The teacher will bang her marker on the table loudly- but the kids still talk over her.  Then she raises her voice by 20 decibels, which puts the quiet on hold for about 5 seconds, as they continue talking, throwing things across the table, laughing, making farting noises with their armpits, and talking back to the teacher.

To call these kids a handful is an understatement.  The teacher spends a good 1/2 to 3/4 of the lesson trying to calm them down, while threatening to take away their recess.  To an Israeli child, not having recess is a bigger punishment than having their parents called into school to discuss their poor behavior.

These kids are not a headache, they are a straight up migraine.  & yet, it's in some way fulfilling to wake up every day and show up for the people who look forward to seeing me the most.

The Inspiration.

My main course of study in college was Psychology and Communication.  I attended both UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara. This blog is about applying the theory I attained during my studies and turning it into action.

After I graduated university, I applied for a Jewish based program in Israel called Israel Teaching Fellows through the Oranim Program.  (http://www.destinationisrael.com/about-oranim/management.aspx) 

I was given the opportunity to volunteer in an elementary school  in the  lower socioeconomic area of Ramla and teach English.   In the classroom, it became increasingly apparent that learning from corporate text and workbooks wasn't effective for the children.  I decided to spice up the the lesson plan by planting seeds of creativity and form an avant garde curriculum to strengthen their skills.

Join me as I spread my wings on this journey to independence and growth.  My ultimate goal is to cultivate my own self discovery through the empowerment of others.

About Me/ My Roots:

Virginia Hamilton, the most influential teacher of my college education, who I continue to keep in touch with.

8 years of work experience in sales & retail, public relations, personal assistant to professionals in real estate, escrow, & mortgage, tutoring children at an after school program, and teacher's aid at a preschool.

Internship at  UC Santa Barbara's health center as a peer advocate.  This program was called Healthy Eating and living- HEAL for short.  We called ourselves Healers and gave presentations on body image, eating disorders, and nutrition.  We would stand around the bike paths and hold up signs that said "You Are Beautiful," sending the message that everyone deserves to love who they are.

*Tiny Dancer*  

Ballet has been a huge part of my life, and has sculpted me into the young lady that I am today with posture and poise.  

This is me with my best friend, accountability partner, and soul sister, Carla.  She has always stood by side and is a great source of acceptance and encouragement.

  

I have an obsession with tutus, so I decided to do something about it and start my own company.  All of my tutus are handmade and custom designed. This is a picture at a tutu parade I led in Venice Beach.

And lastly, my mom of course, who has been an endless amount of love and support.