[etni] [FWD: Re: email correspondence students from USA]
- From: ask@xxxxxxxx
- To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 14:45:32 -0700
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> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: email correspondence students from USA
> From: "Judy Givati" <jesg50@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Wed, October 20, 2004 10:33 pm
> To: ask@xxxxxxxx
>
> An email was posted by an instructor from New England..My own Gr.12
> students are too overwhelmed at the moment to deal with this..However it
> might be an excellent project for schools with Native Speakers who have
> finished the BAgrut but still need to attend English classes ?? jesg
>
> .
> > Subject: Any interest in email correspondence?
> > From: "Peter L Drench" <pdrench@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> >
> > Hello, my name is Peter Drench. I'm an instructor at Phillips Academy,
> > in Andover, Massachusetts, where I teach a Middle East Studies course
> > to seniors (ages 17-19). I was given your address by Judy Givati, a
> > teacher in Jerusalem, to whom I was introduced over email by Jeff
> > Sayah, another teacher there. Judy teaches 11th and 12 th graders --
> > the same students I had hoped to link with mine in an round of email
> > correspondence. She has told me that her kids are already burdened with
> > a new set of exam requirements and, as a result, Judy recommended that I
> > contact you. Perhaps you will have older students who are interested and
> > able to find time to correspond over the course of a few weeks with a
> > group of American students.
> >
> > Let me offer what I hope is not too long of a summary:
> >
> > My students are taking an eleven-week introductory course in which they
> > go through a rapid survey of selected regional history starting with the
> > emergence of Islam, the early Arab empires, the Ottomans, the collision
> > of European/Wester societies with the Middle East since the late 18th
> > century, the post-World War I era when political Zionism and Arab
> > nationalism became the focal point for many aspirations, World War II
> > and the establishment of the Jewish State (and its attendant issues),
> > the Cold War and post-Cold War years. While we do not study most of
> > these topics in depth, my students are highly motivated and pretty
> > bright. They are reading a variety of authors, from both inside and
> > outside the region, including Bernard Lewis, Albert Hourani, Samuel P.
> > Huntington, Fouad Ajami, David Grossman, Thomas Friedman, David
> > Horovitz, Kirsten Schulze, Gilles Kepel, Rashid Khalidi, and a host of
> > others, both American and international. Each student is also reporting
> > weekly on material they find in overseas media/newspaper sites online
> > that they have chosen to follow on a regular basis, including
> > non-English language sources. Our main texts this term are Gilles
> > Kepel, Bad Moon Rising: A Chronicle of the Middle East Today, and Micah
> > L. Sifry & Christopher Cerf (editors), The Iraq War Reader, an anthology
> > of writing on the subject encompassing multiple points of view.
> >
> > In terms of content, while we will spend a week or so on the
> > Ottomans--->Turkish republic transition, the conflicts surrounding the
> > State of Israel, and the politics of oil, you probably won't be
> > surprised to hear that with the war in Iraq and a US presidential
> > election campaign reaching its climax, we are spending the bulk of our
> > time and effort investigating the current situation in Iraq. As a
> > result, while my students will learn a bit about Israel -- more than
> > most American kids -- they are not studying it in great depth, given
> > our time and workload constraints, and my choice to focus more sharply
> > on the Iraq war and its aftermath -- and the current election. (As you
> > may know, our voting age is 18, and I think that more than half of my
> > students will be voting in three weeks.)
> >
> > We use a trimester system at our school, so my term (and this course
> > group) will end in early December. They have been together for almost
> > five weeks, nearly halfway through this course. My goal is to offer my
> > students a chance to ask Israeli counterparts questions, and to answer
> > theirs in return, building what may be a brief but meaningful
> > international dialogue. Because of the busy lives that teachers often
> > lead, Jeff and Judy and I have not been able to get this off the ground
> > in a timely fashion, and there are only a few weeks remaining to do so,
> > but I thought it was worth trying to contact you, anyway. Perhaps if we
> > tried this on a pilot basis, it would tell us if continuing is worth the
> > effort. So, if you are interested in setting up some student-to-student
> > contact via email, please let me know. If not, or if you are interested
> > but unable to follow through this fall, yet interested in trying again
> > next year with more time to plan, feel free to let me know that, too.
> >
> > Whatever the outcome, thank you for your consideration of my request,
> > and for your interest.
> > Best wishes,
> > Peter Drench
> .
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