CLEVELANDER AT HOME VOLUNTEERING IN BEIT SHEAN: PART I
Zohar Aviv, 23 first visited Beit Shean in 1999 as a
Kefiada
counselor. He expressed an interest to volunteer in the Beit Shean region and made contact with the Jewish Community Federation of Celveland. Zohar arrived in the Beit Shean region a few weeks ago and is now volunteering in the Naale program and at the Ort School. Zohar will be staying in Beit Shean until March. Following is his report:
Read Part II
I am having a great time so far volunteering in Beit Shean. Over the past two weeks, I have been helping students at the Ort Clali High School and have also been privately tutoring the Naalee students at Maoz Chaim.
I help teach English at the high school Monday through Thursday starting at 8 in the morning each day. I usually work with a few (3-7) individual students for a period of 45 minutes at a time. Each period I work with students of varying levels of English and from different grades (the school contains students from grades 7-12). The students are happy to receive individual attention and are generally eager to learn.
On Tuesday and Thursday I finish around 1 in the afternoon, but on Monday and Wednesday I help teach an additional class specifically for 12th graders who are preparing for the government-issued final exams (bagrut) until 5 in the evening. These students really appreciate the extra help, and enjoy the practice they receive especially in speaking English.
In the evenings I tutor the Naalee students at the kibbutz. The Naalee are extremely friendly and are very serious students. Since they came to Israel from Russia and the Ukraine only a few years ago, they are still sharpening their Hebrew as well as English, but they are working very hard and are learning quickly. In addition to English, I also tutor them a little in math and computer programming.
I find this experience extremely rewarding. Not only has it given me a chance to teach and help others, but I've also met some great people and made some wonderful friends in the process. Thanks to the amazing people of the Beit Shean region, I really feel at home here. I'm sure that my last few weeks here will be as exciting and enriching as the first. Thank you for everything.
Shvat 5763 - January 2003