The Fear Factor

Me

• My personality• My English skills• My Hebrew skills• My memory - for my lesson, of their names• Getting lost - in my lesson, in the building• Not knowing children, not being known• My moods, patience etc.• The staff

The Students

• Bad eggs• Unmotivated students• One particularly bad student• Too smart for me.

What I Don’t Know

• Heterogeneous classes• Judging level• How to change mid-stream• How to deal with 40 children at once• Tricks in my pocket• Grammar

The Powers that Be

• Interface/Autonomy with the administration• Dealing with parents• Dealing with The Ministry

Life/Profession

• Hating this whole thing• Not having enough time• Too much work• I don’t know enough - and never will

Deborah’s Top Ten Hints

• Go to Samoa • 2. Abe Lincoln’s Stovepipe Hat • 3. The Boy Scout Motto • 4. Never Trust Ben Franklin • 5. This isn’t a Carole King Song

• 6. You’re not the only teacher in the world • 7. Suck up to the Shichpool lady • 8. She died 6 months ago or this will be a good

one to tell at parties • 9. Never plan more than you can carry • 10. Enjoy yourself

I didn’t work this hard to make you one more cog in the wheel

• I did it so you would be revolutionaries.• I did it so you would transform lives.• I did it so you would transform your lives.• I did it so you would join me in caring.• I did it so your own children would experience

a better level of education.• I did it because I trust you to not just survive

but to flourish.

Final Words for You

You see, that’s why I really work like a dog and I worked like a dog all my life. I am not interested in the academic status of what I am doing because my problem is my own transformation. That’s the reason also why, when people say, ”Well, you thought this a few years ago and now you say something else,” my answer is [Laughter] “Well, do you think I have worked like that all those years to say the same thing and not to be changed?” This transofrmation of one’s self by one’s own knowledge is, I think, something rather close to the aesthetic experience. Why should a painter work if he is not transfomed by his own painting?