hello and welcome

Hi,

My name is Ella and I've been living in Israel for 17 (phew!) years. After spending thirteen years as an at-home mother and entering the workplace relatively late, I have started my relatively late career (dare I say 'career'?) as an English teacher. I kind of fell into it really. I qualified as a fitness instructor/personal trainer a couple of years ago, and got kind of disappointed with the ups and downs of the field, although I continue to work part time as an instructor. My dear friend, M., also a teacher finally persuaded me that even if teaching English isn't a 'dream job', it is a living wage, unlike the 'combinot' that I was involved in previously. She's right, although I would use the word 'living' with some hesitation!
Where was I...oh yes after working for three months in a gym that closed down I was desperate for some 'normal work' and, after seeing that a local .@secular high school was looking for an English teacher, I applied.
Branco Weiss is a huge high school, consisting of 1300 students and basically is the one and only high school for the secular (also traditional and religious) population of Beit Shemesh. During the interview all sorts of strange words were thrown at me that I pretended to understand but the one sentence I heard repeatedly was 'You'll have to work hard, you know that>' Yeah, yeah, yeah....I mean, how hard can teaching my mother tongue be?? I go in, I teach. Az mah.
To say I was in for the shock of my life is an understatement. I was almost reduced to tears during my first class when my wild, gum chewing, filthy mouthed, aggressive and rude students proceeded to make total and utter mincemeat of me. Whilst I tried to teach, nail varnish was applied, cellphones were passed around, sandwiches were eaten and students were pummelled. What on earth had I let myself in for?
Well, as they say, you've come a long way baby. I'm still at the beginning, but I have grasped the basics of discipline, occassionally my students do learn a thing or two in English, and, more importantly, after usually a 10 minute coaxing session at the beginning of the class my students understand that they are in class in order to work, not play around. Whether they work or not is another thing.
The other major progress is that I have indeed learned to love my students, with their ADD, ripped jeans, diamond studs (boys, that is), foul mouth (in Hebrew, English and Arabic) and they actually love me (well, sometimes, that is).

More later. There's so much to say. But as a frazzled teacher, I have a house to organize and papers to mark.

bye for now,

Ella