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xiphiasWe only had about a half hour of regular class: I did a version of blackjack using the numerical version of Hebrew letters. The goal was to get as close to 613 without going over.
See, the values of the letters are, for the first ten letters, 1 through ten, for the next nine, 20 to 100, and then 200, 300, 400. So 613, which is the traditional number of commandments G-d gave to us (although, when you count them out, you have to be real creative to hit 613 without going over or under -- there are several different lists out there of what the 613 are), is a pretty good number for this.
We had a deck of cards with Hebrew letters; kids could hit or stay.
Since there was only half an hour, and the four kids I had were spending a good portion of their time talking (which I didn't mind for the last day), when we were told that it was time to go upstairs, Kalilah was ahead with 184 points, and Annessia was in second place with something like 92. But Kalilah wanted to do just one more round.
Annesia pulled a ת, the final letter in the Hebrew Alphabet, jumping her ahead to 492, and she won.
Anyway, none of the activities that we had in the all-school program were particularly Jewish-educational (just fun things like making things out of graham crackers and marshmallow fluff, things like that), so I didn't mind that Annessia and Kalilah didn't want to participate, so we just sat and talked. And they were annoying at me in the way that they tend to be. And when someone came by to give me my paycheck for the day, I stuck it in my guitar case, and Kalilah grabbed it, and ran into the other room to look at it and see how much I was paid per class.
She came back and gave me the paycheck and said, "That's not a lot of money. That's really pathetic." I pointed out that it IS only for one day of teaching.
"Yeah, but then the only other thing you do for money is tend bar."
Anyway, we kept talking, and Annessia asked who did the cleaning in our household, me or my wife, and I said, mostly me, and she asked about laundry, and I said, always me, and she asked about cooking and I said, almost always me. She said, "So what does your wife do?" I said, "She WORKS. A lot. She's a designer at a software company."
Kalilah nodded in sudden understanding. "OH! So THAT'S how you get money!"
Yes. Yes. It is true. A designer in a software company makes better money than a Hebrew School teacher/bartender. It's a fact of life, and one that eleven-year-old kids are quite aware of. I had to explain that the reason I tend bar and teach Hebrew school is because I really do genuinely love doing it, and Kalilah looked truly dubious.
Ah, well. It IS true, though.
See, the values of the letters are, for the first ten letters, 1 through ten, for the next nine, 20 to 100, and then 200, 300, 400. So 613, which is the traditional number of commandments G-d gave to us (although, when you count them out, you have to be real creative to hit 613 without going over or under -- there are several different lists out there of what the 613 are), is a pretty good number for this.
We had a deck of cards with Hebrew letters; kids could hit or stay.
Since there was only half an hour, and the four kids I had were spending a good portion of their time talking (which I didn't mind for the last day), when we were told that it was time to go upstairs, Kalilah was ahead with 184 points, and Annessia was in second place with something like 92. But Kalilah wanted to do just one more round.
Annesia pulled a ת, the final letter in the Hebrew Alphabet, jumping her ahead to 492, and she won.
Anyway, none of the activities that we had in the all-school program were particularly Jewish-educational (just fun things like making things out of graham crackers and marshmallow fluff, things like that), so I didn't mind that Annessia and Kalilah didn't want to participate, so we just sat and talked. And they were annoying at me in the way that they tend to be. And when someone came by to give me my paycheck for the day, I stuck it in my guitar case, and Kalilah grabbed it, and ran into the other room to look at it and see how much I was paid per class.
She came back and gave me the paycheck and said, "That's not a lot of money. That's really pathetic." I pointed out that it IS only for one day of teaching.
"Yeah, but then the only other thing you do for money is tend bar."
Anyway, we kept talking, and Annessia asked who did the cleaning in our household, me or my wife, and I said, mostly me, and she asked about laundry, and I said, always me, and she asked about cooking and I said, almost always me. She said, "So what does your wife do?" I said, "She WORKS. A lot. She's a designer at a software company."
Kalilah nodded in sudden understanding. "OH! So THAT'S how you get money!"
Yes. Yes. It is true. A designer in a software company makes better money than a Hebrew School teacher/bartender. It's a fact of life, and one that eleven-year-old kids are quite aware of. I had to explain that the reason I tend bar and teach Hebrew school is because I really do genuinely love doing it, and Kalilah looked truly dubious.
Ah, well. It IS true, though.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-02 02:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-02 05:09 am (UTC)(my heading-for-rabbinical-school partner is interested to know, and I'm curious, too!)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-02 11:46 am (UTC)The "cards", in this case, were actually the things that my mother made decades ago when she was teaching Hebrew School, that she gave to me when I started.
They're pieces of wood, actually, with felt letters glued to them. There are two complete alphabets, because there are two sizes of felt letter, plus there are silent letters and letters which are different when they have a dagesh are there in both dagesh and non-dagesh forms.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-11 03:07 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-02 06:25 pm (UTC)isn't rosh chodesh on the new moon each month? i ask because my handy dandy "jewish women's daily planner" says rosh chodesh is weds this week, whereas my handy-dandy "phases of the moon firefox widget" called LAST night the new moon. thoughts?
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-02 08:25 pm (UTC)Even so, Rosh Chodesh can appear to be a day off, because there is a little calendar shifting done by one day in some years in order to prevent Shabbat from falling next to Rosh Hashana, since that would lead to an amazing difficulty of trying to prepare for a holiday on a holiday, which is just too annoying.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-02 08:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-11 03:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-11 03:16 am (UTC)