Just got a phone call from the brand-new education director of the Hebrew school

[xiphias]

"Just wanted to remind you of the teacher's meeting this Sunday."
" . . . . okay."
"Did I spring this on you?"
"Yes, a little, but it's fine, I've got no conflicts."
"Oh, I was under the impression the education committee contacted the teachers and set this up before I came."
"That's okay, not a problem. Um, when does school start?"
"The next week."
"Okay. And, um, what class am I teaching?"
"[paper shuffling] Dalet-Hay." (that is, third and fourth grade combined, eight and nine year olds -- it's the smallest class, which is probably good because I'm the least experienced teacher . . . but it's not the grade I taught last year.)
"Okay."

It's not going to be a problem, really. I like the kids in the Dalet-Hay class, and I told them that I was happy teaching any class they wanted to put me in, which is true. And, frankly, this IS enough time to prepare. It just, y'know, caught me off guard.

Comments

[alaria-lyon.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't dalet-hay be at least 4th and 5th grade? In my school it would have been 6th and 7th (starting alef in 3rd grade I believe). What's after Hay and before high school?

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

I guess it differs by community...I was in second grade and Alef at the same time, but there were some 1st and 3d graders in my class too. Our school went up to Vav, when I (and most of my classmates) were in 7th grade at regular school, but the older kids (the ones who started Alef when they were in 3d grade) tended not to come back to school for that last year because they'd already had their bnei mitzvot.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

My Alef class was first-graders -- six years old. The Bet class will be seven years old, second graders. Gimel-Dalet will be third and fourth graders, eight and nine years old. Hay-Vav will be fifth and sixth graders, and that's all the students we have this year. Next year, we'll have a Vav-Zayin class, and I suspect that bar and bat mitzvah students will form something called a Bar Mitzvah class instead of a Zayin-Chet class. After that, they'll be in the Madrichim program.

That's the plan, anyway.

[alaria-lyon.livejournal.com]

Interesting. It makes more sense, in a way, starting earlier. We had Alef - Hay was 3rd through 7th - most were bar/bat mitvahed in their Hay year. Then we could go on to Hebrew High School, which I did, for 8-10 grade. Hebrew High school was better than any of the other grades!

[navrins]

It could hardly have been worse...

(I found "Hebrew" school incredibly dull. Learning another language would have been fun if they'd actually taught any of it beyond the letters and memorizing the service, but only one teacher out of eight or ten made even the slightest attempt. He was a lousy teacher, but at least he tried to teach something interesting.)

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

I was bored too. Which is odd, because I like history and philosophy and I really like languages. A number of our teachers, especially in the older grades, were very visibly dissatisfied with their jobs, and students can always tell if a teacher doesn't care whether they learn or not. :)xiphias's students are very lucky.

Dalet-Hay

[shmuelisms.livejournal.com]

In Israel we "number" the classes with the letters, 1st Grade being Aleph, all the way through Yud-Bet for 12th grade. so Dalet-Hay would naturally be the 4th-5th Graders. I guess that that is the system they're using here as well. I think it would be more natural to call the group of 3rd graders Gimmel, EVEN if this was their first year of Hebrew school, no?

Good Luck xiphias!!