AGNON'S MOSHE GLAUBER'S VISIT TO NEVE EITAN - 25-28/12
by Micah Winston, Malkishua
Itinerary
Neve Eitan
Moshe visited 7th, 8th , 10th and 12th grade classrooms. In the 7th and 8th grades, he showed a video prepared by Agnon 8th graders, handed out red,white and blue M&M's and answered many questions about Cleveland and Agnon. He also brought some gifts with him from the 8th graders at Agnon. He visited with the 10th grade Na'aleh class and was very impressed with their Zionist outlook and personal bravery in coming from Russia without their parents. In the 12th grade class he answered some tough personal questions about how it is to be a "Yored" living in the USA.
Moshe met many of the staff members and received a tour of the campus. In particular he was impressed with the greenhouse and the biology Bagrut projects, Kitat Naveh (the autistic classroom), and our computer classes. He also got a glimpse of what Parent's Day is like at Neve Eitan, including our teacher's potluck lunch before the parents arrived.
Moshe also received many gifts from Neve Eitan students to their partners at Agnon to take back with him.
Moshe, Yariv Karin (principal), Karen Nevo and I met to discuss Karen's trip, Moshe's visit and the future of the project.
Beit Sefer Dkalim
While discussing our partnership, Moshe and I both felt that beginning the contact in 7th grade was a little too late, especially since Agnon is 1st-8th grade. We agreed that if our students were to begin working together, even on the class level, as opposed to the individual level, in 4th or 5th grade, we would be able to accomplish a lot more. Thus, we contacted Hamutal Gilboa, the principal of Beit Sefer Dkalim, the elementary school from which most of our students come, located on Kibbutz Hamadia. She and their English teacher, Genia Taylor agreed to meet with us. They both seemed interested in beginning some type of cooperation next year. Genia will be going on maternity leave soon, so this is not the right year to begin. Genia had some reservations about the correspondence being in both English and Hebrew (she would prefer it to be all in English) but we feel we can win her over. I have invited her to visit a class at Neve Eitan when we are working on our correspondence. Hamutal said she would get back to us in the near future.
ORT Clali - Beit Shean
We met with Avi Schwartz, Principal of ORT Clali in Beit Shean, the sister school of Solomon Shechter in Cleveland. He told us about their program and offered to serve as a resource for study materials, particularly in regards to Bible projects. We were impressed with his program and we were both motivated to attempt to add a little more content into our partnership. We pledged to stay in contact and update each other from time to time.
Malkishua
I teach at Malkishua, the drug rehabilitation village on Mt. Gilboa. I invited Moshe to come visit, and requested that Eti Gonen, the Director, give him a tour. Eti was previously the principal at Neve Eitan, and under her guidance, the partnership between Agnon and Neve Eitan began. Moshe was very impressed with Malkishua and with Eti herself (Eti earned an Outstanding Educator award in the past).
Partnership 2000
Moshe met with several different groups at The Cleveland House
Otzma - He met the 3 youth from Cleveland who are volunteering in the community
Noar L'Noar - He prepared this group for their visit to Cleveland, and answered questions
Bonei Kehila
He met with Sagi and Tzvia and found them to be very helpful. He was very impressed by Tzvia's energy.
Tzvia arranged for Moshe to tour the archaeological site in Beit Shean, along with a visiting family from Cleveland
Tzvia took him to see the Homa U'Migdal (Stockade and Tower) living museum at Kibbutz Nir David.
Miscellany
Moshe experienced the security emergency in the Valley on Tuesday morning. He was stuck in traffic and arrived to school late. It was an opportunity for him to see how the school handled such a situation, and to see how it was nothing out of the ordinary for the residents of the region.
I took Moshe to visit the art museum at Kibbutz Ein Harod.
Moshe was a guest at the annual English Department Holiday/Christmas Party at Vera Altshuler's home in Moshav Menahemia.
Changes to This Year's Program
Increase e-mail contact among students, outside of class. We will collect and exchange students' personal e-mail addresses.
We would like to have more videoconferencing meetings. We see them as one of the most effective ways to forge personal ties between the students.
We would like to focus on a holiday or two, and possibly have the students prepare some sort of trivia game to be played by videoconference.
Moshe will check about the possibility of Agnon having a fundraising activity to parallel Neveh Eitan's Purim fundraiser fair for Kitat Naveh.
I will check into activities at Homa U'Migdal for Agnon's class trip in March.
Possibilities for Next Year's Program
Exchange music and/or CD's - present songs by videoconference.
We hope to have each grade focus on 2 holidays for which they will prepare various activities such as games, recipes, stories, comparison of traditions etc.
Parallel study of Bible with "Nachshonim" (7th grade integrated curriculum program). Moshe is a Bible and Hebrew teacher. He met with Tamar Arieli and Ilanit Eran, two Bible teachers from Neve Eitan and discussed ways to study material together.
In summary, I believe that Karen's visit to Agnon, and Moshe's return visit were invaluable steps towards deepening the partnership between our schools. In our opinion, the most rewarding aspect of the exchange was the increased interest and excitement of the students. Many of them prepared gifts and letters to send back with Moshe in response to gifts that they received. We expected the visits to be successful and were not disappointed. We are looking forward to next year's exchange already.
Adar 5762 - March 2002