englishboosters

   Chanukkah is finally here. This time of year brings so much light and joy for each Jew's life.     Jews around the world cherish this holiday so dearly. However it is more special in Jerusalem-the location where the miraculous Chanukkah story began. As you walk around the city, it is really exciting to see the menorah lightings in every Jewish home's window, the variety of delicious doughnuts, the beautiful big menurahs of Chabad towering over every neighbourhood, and the children playing with dreidels. Moreover, the many tourists who gather in the holy land at this time of the year, make you feel proud to be a jew.     I love Chanukkah. As a teacher, I wait for this holiday to arrive, and I am sure that other teachers feel the same. Chanukka is a big holiday for teachers because it gives us eight days of vacation after two months of hard work. We work endless hours that involve parent-teacher conferences, staff meetings, special occasions at school, and of course lots of

I have always lived in major cities.  I was born in Casablanca in 1965 and lived there until I was eight.  It was  a very nice period in my life.  In 1974 I moved to Paris, The City of Lights, but for me it was not easy.  I didn’t like Paris so much, although nobody seems to understand  this.  Paris?  How can you not like Paris?  Everybody likes Paris.  Not me.  Living in Paris was not so simple for a Jewish, religious girl. One thing in particular that was challenging for me in Paris was the weather.  In Morocco the weather was always warm and sunny, and that is how the people in Casablanca were -warm and relaxed.  In Paris this was exactly the opposite, the weather turns cold and I felt the people there were  too. I studied in Paris for four years and then decided to go on a one-year program to Jerusalem.  The one year became a lifetime and now I’m married with four children, two grandsons  and still living in Jerusalem with no thoughts of returning to Paris.

Being a mother of five children who were all under the age of ten was stressful! During those years I was busy working full time as a teacher and taking care of five little kids. My oldest one was around eight when my fifth daughter was born. I remember juggling between chores, and trying to make sure there was always enough healthy food and clean clothes. I wanted to go to all parent meetings to make sure that they were all okay in their respective schools. There were many positive aspects to dealing with five children under the age of ten. They all, more or less, went to bed at the same time, they all shared a simple dinner together, and were all happy. Furthermore, they all enjoyed the same activities on a vacation. I could take them to the nearest park and they would all be thrilled. We could take them to a youth hostel during summer vacation and they would all enjoy it. Since then, however, things have changed. Nowadays I have eight children and there is a significant age g

Correcting mistakes. It is important to say I was born and bred in Russia, former USSR, where it was forbidden to teach speaking whatsoever. Since the political situation was complicated to say the least, the country was behind the Iron Curtain thus nobody was allowed to leave it unless there was a good reason for that. So no speaking let alone listening. What we had was a boring textbook, reading, translating and a lot of writing. I acquired all my speaking skills when I started teaching with the Oxford and Cambridge materials, which were authentic and interesting. What I did was do all the students' work myself before I stood up in front of my (adult) audience. Like Roi (as he mentioned in his post), I was scared stiff of making mistakes, but I was not a pupil, I was a teacher. Who was there to correct me? Unlike USSR, Israel, correct me if I'm wrong, is a country where there is a lot of exposure to the English language, we have all sorts of population from all the corn