[etni] Fw: English teachers and money

----- Original Message ----- 
From: byk - byk@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: English teachers and money

Dear Teachers,

Sometimes, reading the discussions about literature and the necessity for 
extra pay, I feel like laughing, before I cry.

What about projects, extensive reading, book reports, and the enormous 
amount of extra work generated by the modular bagrut, not to mention the 
work involved in dealing with LD students (for which some sort of solution 
seems to be on the way)?  And all this in 4 hours, gross, per week. How many 
hours net?  How many hours are you supposed to teach?  How many hours do 
you lose?  I reckon as many as 1/4.  Work it out.  Present it to Ran Erez.

When I taught in the system, teachers from other disciplines often asked me 
why I had to do so much preparation for lessons.  Their comments went 
something lke this : " I did all my preparation in my first  year of 
teaching, and have never had to prepare another lesson since!!"

However, I see another problem with all these extra activities, and that is 
the damage they are doing to systematic learning of the language.  Yes, I 
hear your gasps of horror that I should think that these things detract 
rather than enhance the learning of the language.  Well, I see it from the 
perspective of private tutoring.  I see that many of the students I tutor 
are unable to deal with many of these things by themselves, and I am 
teaching generally strong students in the centre of the country, not in the 
periphery, as is my colleague Esther.  I see that students from 10th grade 
on are losing the skills they acquired in Junior High. NO, I am not blaming 
the teachers, but a system which starts pushing Bagrut in the 10th grade, 
often to the exclusion of other subjects.  Many students are simply unable 
to cope with all the extra work  in English, so they take "short cuts". 
(copy paste internet articles, watching the films of books which are often 
on too high a level for them to enjoy, etc.

Trying to squeeze too much into what boils down to a measly 3 weekly hours 
damages the acquisiition of language skills much needed after school. 
Pupils who read, read, and improve all their skills enormously.  But how 
many do?  How many will change their bad reading habits in Junior Hich and 
High School, if they haven't acquired them through good training in 
Elementary School.

Far be it from me to denigrate the teaching of literature and reading for 
pleasure.  I love literature and am a voracious reader, and I can allow 
myself the luxury of encouraging this in my pupils who are taught one on 
one.  And I'm sure that teachers who teach all that the curriculum demands 
are doing a wonderful job.  However, I see these same students in college 
and university, and many of them have not acquired a level of English that I 
would expect from the number of hours allocated since 1st grade to 12th 
grade.

Enough.  Everybody is probably n holiday, and won't see this rant anyhow.

Jennifer


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