Teaching In Israel: My Internship Year
When I was a kid, my dad tried to describe computer programming to me.
“Take opening a door,” he said, explaining patiently. “What’s the first step when telling the computer how to open the door?”
I thought about it. “Turning the knob?” I asked.
“No,” my dad said, patiently. “First you have to tell the computer to walk to the door.”
And that’s when I knew I had no future in computer programming.
I’d like to turn this little anecdote into a deep metaphor, where choosing teaching as a career was my own “walk” in order to “open the door to the future” or whatever, but really I think it’s just an interesting story about how your views are shaped by learning experiences, and this showed me the very different way my father thought about things.
Ironically, I never wanted to be a teacher. But that’s because I didn’t realize that I loved teaching. I had teaching in my blood. My dad taught in a college. (His other job was a rocket scientist at Lockheed Martin). I loved every single English teacher I had in school. English was my favorite subject. I studied English in college (Literature and Linguistics). Yet, I still kept that narrative: no way was I going to be a teacher.
Then I graduated with a B.A. in English, and true to the Avenue Q song, I asked myself “What is my life going to be?”
I made Aliyah and immediately started a master’s degree for teaching.
Now, if you want to teach English in Israel, a master’s is not the way to go. The superior way would be to take a year-long course at any teaching college (such as David Yellin in Jerusalem) and make sure your Hebrew is decent enough to yell at students if they’re not listening. Fun fact: the word “Die!” in Hebrew means “Stop!” Feel free to yell this at students who are being rowdy.
However, because I did not choose the easy way, I had no idea that to get properly licensed in Israel, you need to do a year (or less) internship where you get paid as a student and get observed in lessons and have a head teacher to guide you through. Fun fact: the word “internship” in Hebrew is “staj” (pronounce the “a” like in “father”) which is a French loan word.
I was thrown head-first into teaching in Israel, and you can read how awful my first year was here.
So now, ten years into my teaching career, I’m finally getting my teacher’s license (which you get after an internship), and even after teaching in all kinds of various different institutions, a variety of ages (kids to adults), I still see I have a lot to learn.
Here are four things that you should know about the internship “staj” year here in Israel.
- The School
The school you chose is key to having a successful year. If you are religious, working in a religious environment might help you. If hate teenagers and you’re thinking of applying to teach in a Junior High, think for a second. Try to look for students who are more in your wheelhouse. I prefer to work with teenagers, and I would rather delve into longer texts and other subjects than just working on the ABCs all day. Know your strengths.
The school I’m teaching in this year is known as an “alternative education” school. I started out teaching there very slowly: two hours a week at the end of last year, and figured I knew the vibe of the school. It focuses a lot on art and performance and has this whole “no tests” rule in elementary school which I find incredibly insane, but hey, I had to choose a school.
Overall, the staff is super supportive which I really appreciate.
Also, the school is close by (a 15-minute walk away!) which is super helpful. In the past, I had taught for a full year at a school that took an hour and a half to get there each way, and I always showed up to class exhausted and disheartened. Not worth it.
2. The Hours
I really think a beginning teacher should not be given more than the four-hour requirement for the internship year. Because oh my GOD teaching is exhausting. It’s like, every day you’re drained of all your entire energy.
This year I have 12 frontal teaching hours for 7th, 8th and 9th grade and I feel way over my head.
On top of frontal teaching hours (each hour is an academic hour, meaning 45 minutes) you also have “preparation hours” and “tutoring hours.” My school also randomly added two “secret” hours that I had no idea I had until the administrator told me, but these hours are for a specific student who has learning disabilities and his parents haven’t agreed yet that he should be taken out of class for these, so I haven’t really done anything with this yet. My advice for this is learn to go with the flow and even if they give you secret hours, sometimes it really doesn’t add on to your workday.
Preparation hours are great because you get paid to grade and prepare lessons. The only drawback is you have to do it in school, but this is fine with me because I just sit in the teacher’s room on my laptop and tackle a pile of papers.
Schools also count two hours of these “prep” hours to have a weekly staff meeting. The staff meetings at this alternative school are insanely weird. There is a candle lighting ceremony and singing and that’s just the first hour. I have written about these meetings here, in another blog post.
The tutoring hours are weird. You are supposed to take a few students out of another class and review things they probably missed in class. I like the idea, but the kind of students these classes are supposed to help are the weaker students who don’t want to learn. Sometimes it’s even a struggle for them to come to class, and by then your hour is almost over. I guess I still need to figure this out.
3. The Mentor
The teacher whom you choose to mentor you is key.
Unfortunately, I chose a mentor whom I don’t see eye-to-eye with. I’ll be talking about something that’s concerning to me and she’ll turn around and be all, “Here are all the ways you are a bad teacher.”
Once, before a class she was going to observe me teach, I told her about the lesson plans I’ve been working on. Her response was, “The lessons plans you made for this other class that you weren’t talking about make no sense. I don’t understand them. They are bad.”
Then I had to teach in front of her for an hour and a half (all my English lessons are double periods). I lost all my confidence and wasn’t able to put my best foot forward during that lesson (obviously). My friends have suggested that I switch mentors. Maybe I should. But, I learned early on that you can learn something from everybody. And I am developing thicker skin for insults like, “Your lesson plans make no sense and they’re terrible.” So that’s good.
4. The Paperwork
Israel loves paperwork. Some companies even demand sending a fax of your paperwork, which is so wild to me but hey, that’s Israel.
I don’t really have a lot to add here except I found a co-worker who did her internship last year (shout out Anat!) and she helps me with the paperwork. There are surveys you need to fill out, weekly meetings with your mentor, tax forms and financial forms you need to fill out. Google Translate helps me a lot here.
Being on top of the correct paperwork is important so you can eventually get that sweet sweet Teacher’s License at the end of all this. And then I guess you’ll be a perfect teacher and you will have no flaws ever!
Anyway, teaching is tough but rewarding. I hope this helped you if you needed information about the internship year of an English teacher in Israel.
And, of course, good job to all the computer programmers, who can figure out how to first walk to a door before opening it. I hope to use my own talents to expose my students to different ways of thinking as well.
