14 new English teachers graduated this week from the Herzog College teacher training program for native English speakers. They are all Olim – some recent arrivals and some veterans – who have trained within schools in Jerusalem on a revolutionary program funded by the Jerusalem Municipality and Tzemach David Foundation.
These graduates have studied pedagogy and techniques for teaching English as a foreign language, which is important to fill the need for better English teaching in Israeli schools. However, the focus of the program was developing practical teaching skills, and adjusting to the school culture.
One of the new graduates, Rachelle Lavi explained: ““Other teacher training programs place very little emphasis on how to manage an Israeli classroom. We were placed in schools with teachers who really know what they are doing. We were taught how to see what lies behind the students’ behavior, and how to respond appropriately.”
The trainee teachers all have university degrees from overseas, and English is their mother-tongue. Through this fully-funded academic program, they were offered the opportunity to change career, requalify, and help to resolve Israel’s shortage of suitably qualified English teachers.
Program Director Limor Riskin said to them: “You chose this career not because it was convenient, but because you believed it was worth doing. You will carry this belief into the classroom because you know what it means to start over. You know what it feels like to be uncertain and still keep moving. That particular kind of resilience – the kind that comes from having made a hard choice and lived with it – is exactly what your students need to see. The courage it took to change your path and walk into this profession is the same courage you will bring into your classrooms every day.”
