In the past two years classes in Stark County schools paired with those in the Western Galilee have grown not only in number, but also in the bonds that develop between the teachers and the pupils on both sides of the sea. Visits of teachers from the Western Galilee to our community have produced the strongest programs and are the most important tool for building lasting relationships. Canton, the smallest Jewish community in our Central States P2K consortium, has the largest number of classroom twins. (Indeed there is a waiting list here for classes that want to join the program.)

While in our classrooms the Israeli teachers recognized significant differences in the milieu between classes here and in those in Israel. A simple example is that students in Israel call their teachers and principals by their first names. Classes seem to have much less structure; often there is more movement and talking. This is not a matter of better or worse, but rather of differences. Our students worked with the visiting teacher learning about the Israel, the schools and student. Together the teachers prepared and planned projects for the coming months. The Israeli teachers also visited other classrooms in the same building. This led to understanding more about our educational system and the making additional pairings.

The teachers met with their "Student Support Team" at the Western Galilee College

During these two years there has been reluctance on the part of our teachers to go to Israel. But last fall several teachers and administrators expressed interest. Personal reasons and international events reduced to three the number of Stark County teachers who eventually made the trip.

On December 27, Terri Baumgartner, with husband Bill, from Newman Elementary School in Tuslaw, Melissa Blocker from Pleasant View and Pamela Schmuck from Hazen in Minerva and I took off for Israel. We met Stacie Franklin, a teacher from Des Moines (part of our consortium,) who joined us for our whole visit. For this report each Canton teacher has written a personal description of her experiences. Again differences in the atmosphere of the classrooms were readily apparent. Meeting and working with others in the building provided the structure for a stronger relationship than that between the pair of teachers.

Terri Baumgartner, with husband Bill, from Newman Elementary School in Tuslaw in a "hot" debate with Israeli teachers:

Yehuda Peled, the coordinator for our P2K education component, has been in Canton. He is a skilled teacher of teachers and demonstrated this talent again when all of us met together, with host teachers and some principals and with students from the Western Galilee College who are acting as aids to the twinning programs. Under the direction of the teacher they help with translation, the technology involved with distance learning and so forth. Discussion of these activities helped each of us understand the problems encountered on the Israeli side as well as effective ways of planning each program. As twins, all but the language problems are pertinent to us as well.

The workshop for all involved with the education twinning gave us a chance to meet others who play vital roles in this program. After breaking into small groups Yehuda gave us the assignment to criticize the vision statement. This "simple" exercise provided a personal understanding of our individual goals as well as those which fit the whole program.

We visited the Ghetto Fighters House, the Children's Holocaust Museum and learned more about its book sharing program. Later with an understanding of Dr. Korczk's kites, we built our own kites and flew them with delegations from Dallas and Dayton.

We saw the sights of the Western Galilee including Acco, a crusader castle in Gorin Park and a fantastic nature preserve in the mountains just south of the Lebanese border to name just a few of many. Yehuda was as proficient a guide as he is a teacher. We visited kibbutzim, The Western Galilee College, falafel parlors and shopped.

Tamir was our guide and guardian during the whole visit. All of us know him and were so pleased to be with him again. Some of us got to meet his mother, Beba, a founder of Ein Hamifraz, who brings the history of the kibbutz movement and early Israel to life.

On the way to Jerusalem we walked the steps of the Bahai gardens in Haifa, (down only,) saw Caesaria. In Jerusalem we drove past many of the sights, spent a morning in the old city (some of us returned to welcome Shabbat,) spent an afternoon at the Israel Museum and carried on the tradition of this trip: eating great food and shopping.

  Tevet 5764 - January 2004