• activities,  Digital tools,  Diversity,  International collaboration,  pre-service teachers,  relational education,  teacher-education

    GatherEd: Learning and Creating Global Teacher Education

    May 17, 2023

    What does GatherEd mean to me? For the second time, GatherEd has provided an opportunity to halt the everyday race, always loaded with local worries, administration, tasks and surroundings, to zoom out of routine and into crucial issues from a different perspective. GatherEd means a chance to grapple with the complexity of education in a changing global reality, collaboratively unpacking terms like multiculturalism and multilingualism. GatherEd has given me the space to think about global teacher education, digital responsibility, inclusion, accessibility and democratic competencies alongside dedicated colleagues from Norway, Iceland, Greece, Spain and Israel. I am grateful for the invitation to attend my second GatherEd workshop at the University of…

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  • Digital tools,  Online Education,  Teaching

    Stay on top of online learning: A game

    April 19, 2023

    Here is a game I made for my undergraduate students during the pandemic. As we moved rapidly to online teaching and learning, we spoke explicitly about independent learning strategies. I feel a need to return to this game now in my online courses. I made the game on the free LearningApps.org site. You can access the game here with the QR code. I’d love to hear your thoughts if you play or share the game with students.

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  • activities,  pre-service teachers,  relational education,  teacher-education,  Teaching,  Writing

    Nice to meet you: Letters and questionnaires for building relationships with students

    November 2, 2022

    Teaching and learning are relational processes; building significant relationships in large classes requires planning, time, and hard work. Showing genuine interest in who my students are as individuals is crucial in developing trust and a feeling of safety in my classroom.  At the beginning of each academic semester, I make sure I allow my pre-service teacher students at the Oranim College of Education to introduce themselves to me in different ways. I devote most of the first lesson to an introductory letter in a few of my courses. In the past ten years or more, I have been following a strategy I learned from Professor Julian Kitchen from Brock University…

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  • activities,  lesson planning,  pre-service teachers,  Teaching

    Can you break the code? A quiet warm-up

    November 1, 2022

    Two of my didactics courses opened last week with the beginning of the 2022-2023 academic year. I began both lessons with a quiet activity which allowed the students to get seated, calm down, look around the room and get ready for the class in an easygoing fashion.I presented a message in code and asked the students to translate it into their notebooks. In the “Teaching English to Young Learners” course, they read a note from me in English, and in the “Literacy: Didactics for Hebrew Teaching” course, they read a quotation about language in Hebrew. While the students were reading the message, working alone or with a neighbour, I had…

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  • Diversity,  International collaboration,  Professional Learning,  teacher-education,  Teaching

    GatherED: Global Teacher Education “Languages as tools for developing global citizenship”

    October 20, 2022

    I am in a hotel in Crete writing to process an inspiring three-day inspiring workshop funded by the Erasmus + program. When I arrived in Rethymnon in Crete from Israel, I knew I would be participating in a GatherED international workshop about language education in multi-lingual and multi-cultural classroom environments. I immediately discovered that the learning was engrossing, and the powerful emotional connections with fellow participants extended well beyond any expectation.  I flew to Rethymno with four Oranim College of Education colleagues. I knew Janina Kahn Horwitz, the head of my department, very well, but the others were only acquaintances. Representing the college together in an international context instantly bonded…

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  • Assessment,  pre-service teachers,  relational education,  teacher-education,  Teaching

    “More than the calf wants to suck the cow wants to suckle”

    June 22, 2022

    It’s that time of year again – assignments, follow-ups, reminders, and grades. It’s the time of the year when I look at my Google Sheets for each course, fill in the grades from recent assessment tasks, and organise the data. This is often the period when it becomes evident that one or more students will fail the course.  Nothing is a surprise here. Students who are behind or are at risk of failing have had numerous ‘nudges’ during the semester. They have had warnings that they are close to the attendance quota cut-off mark, can’t miss additional lessons, or have received emails that they haven’t submitted work. These messages always…

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  • pre-service teachers,  Professional Learning,  SEL,  teacher-education

    “Academia Community”

    June 13, 2022

    As a pedagogical advisor at the Oranim College of Education, I accompany groups of pre-service teachers (hereinafter referred to as students) in their practicum in a primary school. The second and third-year students are at the school one or two days a week throughout the school year. I have been at the Beit Zeev school a day a week for four years now. On the days that I am at the school, I meet with teachers and my students and observe my students teaching classes, small groups and individual pupils. At the end of the school day, I meet with the student cohort to discuss teaching, learning, and class management…

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  • Digital tools,  pre-service teachers,  relational education,  Teaching

    Giving students a choice: A win-win situation

    January 6, 2022

    “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” ― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets “We make our choices; then our choices make us.” Anonymous Giving students a choice is an effective way of differentiating my teaching. In my experience, student choice increases involvement and engagement in the course, elevates motivation and reduces stress. When learners read a list of options and identify ones they can achieve, they experience a sense of “I can do that!” empowerment. Granting choice in academic contexts also prepares learners to take responsibility for their progress. Additional benefits are learners knowing their strengths, exploring…

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  • teacher-education,  Teaching

    Everyone is talking about ‘back to normal’

    November 6, 2021

    ‘Back to normal’, everyone is talking about ‘back to normal’. What is normal? Is it possible to go back after what we have experienced? None of us knows if we are in the wake of the COVID19 crisis or in the midst of another of the unfolding waves of the virus; none of us can tell if the routine we are creating at present will remain stable for an extended period. Everything is still uncertain and fragile, and we are all learning to live with unpredictability. I constantly remind my pre-service teacher students that the flexibility they are acquiring in these ever-changing dynamic times will serve them well in their…

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  • Writing

    Student writing: Sounds in the silence

    October 20, 2021

    I consider my work with MEd students a privilege. I have fifteen experienced and motivated educators, joining me weekly to learn, partake in collegial conversation, write, engage with narrative, and research their classroom practice. This morning, as they crafted a memory from their school days, I listened. What does the silence of a class of writers sound like? Colourful humming creeping in, buzzing fluorescents, whirring projector.  Pen scratching,  pencil dragging, pen dropping  abandoned.  Page-turning and turning back, another tearing, banished and thrown. Buttons clicking in search of a word.  A foreign tongue drifting in,  curiosity lingering.  Water bottles swish,  a whisper and another. Children laughing from afar,  a sigh. Back…

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