Thursday, September 08, 2005

In Which Steg Teaches Tay-ra (Sorta)

For those of you as yet unaware, I came back from Israel at the beginning of the summer and got a job teaching Jewish Studies (a.k.a. Limudey Qodesh) in a Conservative Jewish high school in the New York area. Since, after all, as pointed out by my brother, everyone hires from their right-hand side. The Modern Orthodox hire Hhareidim, the Conservatives hire Orthodox, and the Reform hire Conservatives. So much for instilling your values in your children. But hey, we're all Jews, we all care about Yahadut as we see it, and my Conservative school is a good place. And I'm certainly not going to bash my school for hiring me!

Today was my first day of teaching. My first day on the job. My first day as a full-blown Jewish Edumacator. And I have only one thing to say:
Oh My God, Becky, Look At H—
Whoops, i mean...
Oh My God What A Rush!

So, there were some rough parts. That happens on the first day, especially when you're teaching 7 periods, almost straight through the whole day, of 5 separate classes. (Two of the courses meet twice on Thursday, if that makes things clearer.) And there were rowdy 9th graders (or "freshies" as we used to call them back in the day) who haven't quite realized that they're in High School now, and need to act a bit more Mature. To their credit, though, they were one of my double periods, and their behaviour improved markedly from the first period to the second. Markedly indeed, since I suspect it may have had something to do with my informing them that they get graded on participation each class period.

But overall, it was a Good Day. And tomorrow, with only one class to teach, will be (iy"H) an Easy Day. Kein yehi ratzon, venomar 'amein'. After that, the real fun/work begins. These first few days are pretty much just about getting to know the students and getting them to know what the class is about and what you expect of them. After that comes the actual Content!

Good luck to all the other teachers out there, especially my brothers and sisters in the Jewish Education world!

לא הביישן למד ולא הקפדן מלמד

(but the Goblin King still discusses his lesson plans with nobody!)

PS: If my blogging/commenting activity takes a nosedive, you can blame my jorb.

12 Comments:

Blogger rabbi neil fleischmann said...

Hatzlacha. Is this a Solomon Schechter? In Manhattan?

Wishing you success!

9/08/2005 11:45 PM  
Blogger MC Aryeh said...

Left you a comment on Chayyei Sarah's latest blog entry.

9/08/2005 11:55 PM  
Blogger Steg (dos iz nit der šteg) said...

RN"F:

Nope, not in Manhattan. Although i do know some good people there.

McAryeh:

thanks! :-)

9/09/2005 8:51 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hatzlacha Raba!
-kayin

9/09/2005 9:45 AM  
Blogger Mar Gavriel said...

Tell me more next time I see you.

Have you shown your kids my post on the Seven Weeks of Consolamation?

9/09/2005 11:16 AM  
Blogger Steg (dos iz nit der šteg) said...

Mar (heh btw, one of my students calls me that):

Not yet. But considering as how in the Midrash class we'll be starting off the year by doing a number of the Seven Weeks' Haftara drashot in the Pesiqata, I'll be showing it to them next week when we do our introduction to this unit.

Oh, and it's consomalation. The -ma- is infixed before the last syllable that carries stress:
cònso-ma-látion
èdu-ma-cátion
grádu-ma-tàted / gràdu-ma-tátion (notice the reduplication of the T filling the hiatus between the -MA- and the -ATION/-ATED)
tòda-ma-rába

9/09/2005 11:27 AM  
Blogger AMSHINOVER said...

Oh, my, god. Becky, look at her butt. Looks like Nike is joining stegs lexicon andwei come from we said
הבייטש למד והפץ מלמד

9/09/2005 12:51 PM  
Blogger Steg (dos iz nit der šteg) said...

Amshi:

Thanks for ruining my underhanded reference to a shallow, rude and near-explicit early-90's rap song :-P .

9/09/2005 2:01 PM  
Blogger AMSHINOVER said...

BTW SEE http://www.chayas.com

9/09/2005 2:29 PM  
Blogger Steg (dos iz nit der šteg) said...

Chayas.com is really interesting! They were the first people i ever saw after myself who transliterate hhet with HH!

Unfortunately, the link to Seifer Milhhamot H' doesn't seem to be working anymore.

9/09/2005 3:58 PM  
Blogger Steg (dos iz nit der šteg) said...

Thanks, Mirty!

Yup i've seen his blog — he's now the second-to-last blog listed on my links (as Rav Fleischmann Hamtzhhiq Mikulam).

9/12/2005 4:04 PM  
Blogger Justine said...

must be one of those rap guy's girlfriends...

9/14/2005 7:36 AM  

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