I love life. :)
I just dumpster dove Judaica textbooks for my students for next year. I called my mentor this afternoon, and told me that he had just recycled a ton of textbooks (sets of 10-50 of each kind). Dad and I just went and dug them out of the bin. I am exstatic that now I have something really invigorating to do while I am on vacation with my family (yay sitting on the beach and building my own curriculum!) I have a funny feeling that this won't be the last time I dumpster dive for textbooks or have to scrounge for materials, and that prospect only thrills me more. Maybe I'm rediculous and maybe I'm just naieve, but I'm enjoying every second of it. Again the realization sets in of the struggle I'll have to do what I want to do the rest of my life-- but between dumpster diving, grant writing, and reinvinting the wheel, it'll all be just fine, and I'm looking forward to it!
I got back to my parent's house and starting sorting out the textbooks. They went neatly into piles about holidays, Torah, Prophets/Writings, Israel, and Liturgy. Again the feeling of wanting to take textbook writers and shake them sets in... if all of this stuff is good and worthwhile and has something to do with why we're in Hebrew school, WHY IS IT IN DIFFERENT BOOKS?! Good grief. I just organized, settled down, and had a good laugh with my mom about the prospect of writing better functioning and more interesting textbooks. My dad had a good laugh as I was going through the dumpster chucking the ones back in that I thought were too insulting for any student at any level. Sticker books?! I'm sorry. Not a textbook. Fun. Great for at home when a kid just wants to play. Not worth time in my classroom. ::shakes head:: Frustration is so invigorating. :)
I got back to my parent's house and starting sorting out the textbooks. They went neatly into piles about holidays, Torah, Prophets/Writings, Israel, and Liturgy. Again the feeling of wanting to take textbook writers and shake them sets in... if all of this stuff is good and worthwhile and has something to do with why we're in Hebrew school, WHY IS IT IN DIFFERENT BOOKS?! Good grief. I just organized, settled down, and had a good laugh with my mom about the prospect of writing better functioning and more interesting textbooks. My dad had a good laugh as I was going through the dumpster chucking the ones back in that I thought were too insulting for any student at any level. Sticker books?! I'm sorry. Not a textbook. Fun. Great for at home when a kid just wants to play. Not worth time in my classroom. ::shakes head:: Frustration is so invigorating. :)