How many of you teach in a Hebrew/English dual curriculum and feel frustrated by dividing up the time into half the time for English and half the time for Hebrew?
There has to be a better way of doing this, but who knows the solution?
I have thought of different possibilities.
One way, of course, is to combine the curriculum a little better with each other, so it's not two isolated curriculums. But then how do you cover math, reading and writing? I guess you do it through the Hebrew curriculum.
Today I spent my day setting up my classroom for my kiddies coming on Monday. Actually was dreading this day over my summer vacation. But as I working in the classroom, I actually got pretty excited.
When I came home today, I was even more excited because I had 3 letters waiting for me from my students. Two weeks before school starts (I don't like to do it any earlier because who wants to think about school during our summer vacation!!), I send a letter to my second graders telling them all about me and some of my favorite things to do. Then I ask them to write me a letter back. Well, I just LOVE getting those letters back. I asked the parents not to help their child AT ALL with the writing, and it becomes a great informal assessment tool as well! But the best part is you really get to know the student on a personal level. If it's early enough before school starts, I write back. Who doesn't love getting a letter in the mail?
Tomorrow will be more setting-up time and more thinking about how to make more time for each of the important skills the Hebrew and English department teach the students.
