I am living in Bat Yam, Israel, and teaching English to a diverse group of students from grades 3 to 6. For our students, English is often their third or fourth language. We have many students from Russian and Ethiopian communities. Personally, it has been a wonder for me to be around a diverse Jewish community--to see color and Judaism, to hear strangers on the street speaking Hebrew but with a familiar Amharic accent (something I haven't experienced since I witnessed my brothers stumbling through their Bar Mitzvah torah portions.)
It has been a great joy and privilege teaching (and learning) and inspiring. It has been a great shock! entering a new educational environment and cultural scene. All children seem to have the hereditary middle eastern "chutzpah," something I have to fabricate within myself in order to meet theirs.
And so for my humble request, I am running a 10K in order to raise money for the students and school that I work in. (I briefly thought to run the half-marathon but I think that will have to wait until next new-year-new-me.)
The goal is $500.
Any and all donations and/or sharing of this post would be greatly appreciated.
What *exactly* will come of this money, you ask?
I believe in the importance of creating an environment which inspires learning. Our school is fortunate enough to have a room dedicated to English learning, but the room, as is, does not inspire. My teaching partner and I would like to paint and furnish the space, to create a nook for reading comfort, another station perhaps for artistic activities. Another even for games like boggle and banana-grams. Any learning environment should inspire learning, but I'd like ours to !excite! learning, to become even somewhere the children enjoy going during their class breaks.
To share a line from my senior exhibition artist statement: "I use installation to shape a space, sculpture to furnish a space, and performance and improvisation to bring life and some chance to a space."
And so please consider helping us to shape, to furnish, and to bring life and some chance to our English teaching/learning space.
With love and gratitude,
Helen Rose
