Helter CELTA

So despite the delay to the FYP I am charging ahead with my own preparations for life in Israel. To this end I started my CELTA (Certificate of English Language for Teachers of Adults) course a couple of weeks ago. This six month part time course will qualify me to teach English to adult learners so I feel better inasmuch as I feel that I am now doing something towards my future career opportunities in Israel.

Sitting in the first observation lesson last week took me back to my days at Ulpan at the Rothberg School in Jerusalem. I made such a lot of progress in a short space of time when I was studying in Israel, I only hope that the students I will be teaching in Hove benefit nearly as much from their language classes as I did from mine in Israel. I also realised that teaching a language was a whole new ball game to teaching history. I enjoy teaching so much, I hope that I can bring the same enthusiasm and energy to teaching English as I do in my history classroom.

Speaking of which I have a pile of history marking waiting for me on the dining room table. Even though my teaching hours are, ahem, lighter this year, as I am teaching a new GCSE specification I am teaching Russian history for the first time. I am actually quite happy about this as it is something I have studied myself and being of vaguely Russian stock (way back in the shtetl) I feel an affinity to the topic.

My final thought for this evening on teaching, learning and language, is something Roni's started saying. I often berate Mark for, among other things, switching between Hebrew and English all the time when speaking with Roni (I would rather he stuck to Hebrw as much as possible). Nonetheless, Roni has started to use the phrase 'ke zeh' ("like this") as a little add-on to her sentences - like "Swiper's so funny ke zeh" - for those of you unfamiliar with Swiper or Hebrew, Swiper is a cheeky character from Dora the Explorer (Roni's latest DVD obsession) and although she's developing a lovely chamoudi (sweet) Hebrew accent, she's using the phrase ke zeh incorrectly - but to great comic effect, making her sound like a little Yenta.

"Swiper's so funny ke zeh mummy!"

As we prepare for Israel,  I am wondering how her Hebrew will develop in the coming weeks. Last time we were there she definitely made great strides in her understanding because she was hearing different people speaking, and hearing more conversation. I hope that her speaking will develop now as I love it when she throws a bit of Hebrew into her speech. At the very least I want her to teach Aunty Lucy a couple of Hebrew nursery rhymes!

Lehitraot! xx