THE MOMENT YOU REALIZE THAT …

On the front door was a sign: “Welcome to my English class”. I was really excited to open this door for the first time.  Ever since I was young, I wanted to be the owner of a successful private English school.

I was sure I will succeed in high school as I was at my previous school, pass successfully the matriculation exams with high grades. During my final exams, my grades were deteriorating, especially in English

I approached to my English teacher asking for help, but she refused. She claimed that there are a lot of students and she can’t teach me individually.  I was disappointed and confused because unlike my previous school, the teacher refused to help me and provide a solution.

Eventually, I failed the final exams and when I finished my military service I was wondering “what do I want to do in the future? which career should I choose?

I decided that I want to be an English teacher because of my experience in high school. I want to make a change for the future students, so I sign up to an English course there I got personal attention and I passed the test. Then I sign up to Kibbutzim College and a couple of years later I’ve become the principle of my own school.

SAYING GOODBYE

DANIELLE SHIMONY

There he was, lying on the surgery table at our veterinarian, looking at me with his old brown eyes, telling me that everything is okay, the time has come.

He looked kind of hazy and obscure, but that was just from my tears.

I grew up with my beloved dog since I was born and when I turned 6 years old, he got severe cancer.

I couldn’t believe he was so sick, I loved this little guy because he was like the younger brother I never had.

His name was Bony. I knew I would miss him, but I also knew that it was his time to go.

The hardest part about this was enjoying the first year of school when your dog just died.

I felt like something is missing, not only at home but mostly in my heart.

I just couldn’t believe that Bony was gone, and I need to go school every day like nothing had happened.

I was really angry that I couldn’t do anything to save him. I had many regrets; one of them was that I hadn’t spent more time with him in his last moments.

 When I looked at his picture; I felt as if a whirlpool of emotions was in my brain. I knew we made the right decision to put him to sleep. Bony suffered a lot; he cried everyday because of the pain.

I couldn’t stand the thought of living without him but I mostly couldn’t hear him suffer.

I thought Bony would live with me forever and will go with me wherever I will go, Even if it sounds ignorant.

The only good thing about Bony’s death was the realization I came to.

I fully understood that nothing last forever and we need to enjoy what life gives us right at the moment without any regrets.

Also deep down I felt that it was time to let him go and move on, and that’s exactly what I tried to do. 

Two years later I was mostly over what had happened.

It was probably a good thing that I found the courage to put him to sleep because it taught me a lesson about life, that life is unexpected and you can’t always be prepared, I was very naive before that, but then I understood that Life can put you in unpleasant situations, which you won’t always be ready for.

sometimes you have to let go and move on with your life.

My goal is to be academically educated in the kibbutzim college and to become an English teacher.

Many people ask me why do I want to become a teacher, and why English.

Well, it all started when I was a little girl, my grandfather didn’t know Hebrew very well and the only way I could have a serious conversation with him was in English.

As a teenager I liked to watch movies in English,

listen to songs and translate them and read books.

I truly believe that languages are important and especially English because it’s an international language,

I can prove it with a story:

the first time I traveled abroad I went to Thailand, although not many of the people there knew how to speak in a proper language, it is how they communicated with the tourists, back then I thought that most Israelis did know English well enough but I was wrong.

On the last day of my journey I was in the airport waiting for a flight to Israel, I was standing on the line to the passport checking when suddenly a young couple with two kids at the age of 15 asked me to tell the clerk that they are all family and want to sit together, of course I was willing to do that but later I thought to myself that none of them, the parent nor the kids was able to ask for what they wanted.

How could they go to such a far and foreigner country without being able to communicate?

That was when I understood that something had to be done.

Why do I want to be a teacher? I see it as a kind of obligation and a challenge,

obligation because I will be responsible of the ability of the future generation to communicate all over the world, and challenge because this duty demands unlimited passion, creativity, caring, leadership and many other qualities.

All my life I was contemplating what would like to be in the future. I was very influenced by my father, who is an engineer. He has encouraged me to choose Engeenirng profession. And I, being a obediant child and wanting to please him, accepted his advice, so I graduated Electric Practical Engineering Diploma. I have always hated that occupation.

My goal for the future is to be a good teacher. For this kind of goal I think I should have the following qualities: be interesting, have a good rhetorical skills, have some acting skills, be thoughtful, have patience, accept different people, be assertive, responsible, positive, flexible, confident, open-minded, plan ahead and to be a leader.

After working in the computer networks field and hating it,I started thinking about characteristics I possessed and I find that my habit in the past 5 years must make me good with standing in front of crowds. This habit is lecturing in front of different crowds and sharing my personal story with them. On top of that, in the last 2 years I have another habit which is make stand-up comedy and making people laugh. In order to tell my personal story I have to be interesting, have a good rhetorical skills, have patience – because sometimes listeners have a lot of questions, sometimes rather bizarre ones, I accept different people – sometimes the crowds are people with special needs, I have to be responsible – to be on time, and find the way to the place I lecture in, positive – I have to give hope about the future, and my story is full of hope, flexible – because sometimes things don’t go as you planned in ways of time-limits, strong emotions that people might reflect, I have to be confident because sharing your personal story isn’t easy, and I have to stand up and be proud, I have to plan ahead what I want to say, because different crowds require different emphasize on different aspects of the story. Doing the stand-up comedy also involve having acting skills, be assertive, confident and more traits which was already mentioned.

Both lecturing and the stand-up comedy are about my coping with emotional problems or mental issues I have had in my past. I was 17 years old when my first mental breakdown happened. As a result I was not recruited to the army, and I had many difficulties in my personal life. Even though, in the following years, I have managed to live an ordinary life – if there is something you can call ordinary life in our days. We all have problems, we all deal with them or prefer to run away from them. Since my first breakdown, I have managed to start a family, study, work and in the last 5 years as I mentioned to share my experience with others, both in a funny way and in a form of lectures. So I think that I am ready to gain all the information and skills in order to be a good teacher, and I think I am on the right track and happy that I chose the Seminar to be the place to acquire all the skills I need.