Anachnu Omrim, We Are Talking

I teach five English classes a week at the school where I volunteer and do my research. All of the classes are co-taught with another instructor because a) I do not yet speak enough Hebrew to teach them on my own without frustrating both the children and myself, b) they do not trust me and my western, graduate-school-acquired techniques for language instruction and prefer instead to employ the more culturally familiar approach of failing to plan engaging lessons, of avoiding the clear articulation of any achievable expectations for student work or social behavior while in class, and of yelling at the students when they inevitably act out. Hmmm. Good thing they don't let me teach on my own because I would do away with all of that, right quick. Yes ma'am.

There is a phrase in Hebrew, ha derekh eretz, that means "the way of the land." It refers to the customs of any given community or situation, and ha derekh eretz of elementary school in Israel is that teachers do not tell their students what to do, then yell at them for not doing what the teachers didn't say. Huh? This is in complete opposition to the social-emotional curriculum of my own constructivist classroom and as a result is very difficult for me to observe, not to mention impossible to implement.

So, I do not participate in ha derekh eretz. Instead I slog along using mysterious and alarming techniques like: Making students raise their hand so only one person speaks at a time! Insisting that students stop talking when a classmate is giving an answer or (G-d forbid) I am actually teaching something so that we can all hear one another's ideas! Planning lessons (in advance--ooooo!) that involve partner work, small group activities, or some other instructional technique besides me standing at the front of the room and talking for the entire period!

The teachers, interestingly, have had a very strong negative reaction to all this American-style hoo-ha going on in my classroom and have insisted I was trying to show them up or get the students to like me better than them. Um, no, I'm just trying to use some instructionally effective techniques in my classes. At first the students were confused and did not know quite what to make of all this, and some of them still don't. They come up to me, they touch me to get my attention (a HUGE no-no in my book), they interrupt. It is tiring.

I remember once when I was quite young my mother tried to explain to me that sometimes the way you can get people to listen to you is actually by speaking very softly. I think she meant this not as some deep metaphorical construct, but rather as a way to get me to stop yelling about something. I have never been able to really put this advice into practice until now. It is like fighting fire with...I don't know. A raindrop. Maybe not even, maybe fog. But for once I can talk softly to get my students to listen to me. It is my only recourse when they are all yelling at one another and at me.

They constantly come up to me when I am teaching, when I am speaking to other students, when I am speaking to teachers, and interrupt. I hold up my hand in the Israeli version of "wait, please" (impossible to describe so I will include a photo in this post to demonstrate, once my camera battery is recharged) but this only provokes them to stand closer, grab my arm tighter, and talk louder at which point I look at them. In the eye. Silently. No one has ever done this before to most of them--not their teachers, not their parents, no one. No one is ever silent in Israel. They are shocked and look back at me, unsure what to do. This is when I use (one of) my famous Ms. Kotleba motion(s), holding my hand upright as if to make a karate-chopping motion but instead moving it back and forth between myself and the person with whom I am actually having a conversation, and use my most frequent phrase in English class.

"Ulai at lo roeh, aval anachnu omrim. Maybe you do not see, but we are talking."

Shuts them up every single time.