I've been teaching English for almost 30 years now b"h and have seen, heard and used many of the "in" ideas and projects that we were told about during the different stages of my career. I've gone through having both heterogeneous classes (where the students weren't happy) and "hakbatzot" (same level groups). I remember that in the olden days, principals used to say that they got instructions from the Ministry of Education not to have "hakbatzot". For years now, we've had "hakbatzot" anyway because we've seen that in the long run it helps our students to succeed in learning English and prepare for the Bagrut when they're in the same level group from Junior High School. We have a new principal who comes from an elementary school where there are no "hakbatzot" and he decided on his own, without consulting with our English staff to abolish "hakbatzot". Students who have been studying in the same level groups for the past two years have suddenly found themselves studying in a heterogeneous class. They (and their parents and we, the teachers) are frustrated and upset but there's nothing to do about it because our principal will not budge. I was wondering what's going on in schools around the country and suggested the idea of a poll to David. Anonymous ----------------------------------------------- ** Etni homepage - http://www.etni.org or - http://www.etni.org.il ** ** for help - ask@xxxxxxxx ** ** to post to this list - etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** -----------------------------------------------