My New project

On Sunday, I worked with the class that was learning how to windsurf; however, instead of me teaching me teaching the kids how to surf, one of the kids from the first class taught me.  I understand that this kid has been windsurfing for a while…he was  lot better than me.  It was a great thing for this kid (Oz) to teach me because it got him into a different mindset than he normally would have been in during the class. I think he really enjoyed the lesson, which is great, because I learned a lot from him.  Because I learned so much from him, I was able to work 1 on 1 with a kid in the second class, and eventually, the kid could stand up and turn the board; he was ecstatic.  I felt that this was a very successful day for both me and the kids.

Monday wasn't anything special…a lot of kids, they enjoyed themselves, and I didn't really do any teaching or interaction with them.  By no means was this a bad day, it just wasn't as fulfilling as sunday,  However, on wednesday, I began to work on my new project…Rami (a municipality worker who is in charge of maintenance and general logistics at my volunteer place).  After I arrive at work on wednesdays and thursdays, I don't usually begin working for another 30 minutes.  The reason for this is (based on my experience), Israelis love to shmooze and relax before working.  Wednesday began as usual: sit, drink, relax; however, as I started to talk to Rami about how life is and stuff like that, and I realized that I was teaching him a lot of English words (he likes to practice English with me because of his South African girlfriend).  But, I didn't get my realization until after I started painting.  My realization was that I should make it a point to teach Rami English.  But the question was: how?

*Note: I am currently reading a book called, "The Book Thief," which is an incredible book, and in it, a girl learns to read and write by painting on the walls of her basement with her adopted father.

Seeing as all I do on wednesdays and thursdays, I came to the conclusion that this would be a great way to teach Rami English.  So for the rest of the day wednesday and most of the day thursday, I taught him English by finding all of the words in our conversations that he did not understand and painting them on the walls.  This was very effective and he seemed really into it, he even mentioned something about how he wants to take an English ulpan.  This made me feel very proud of myself and I hope to carry on our lessons in the coming two weeks.