Eleanor's Page

January 17, 2009

Hi, My name is Eleanor and I live in Jerusalem.  I am a tech instructor and facilitator  at the David Yellin Academic College of Education and at an elementary school in Jerusalem.  The fact that in this group we are working in a multicultural as well as multiliteracy environment is facinating to me as I am totally emerged in the dissonance of people from different backgrounds working and learning together, trying to find a way to communicate and develop togehter.

The elementary school that I work in is an environment where religious and non religious people of the Jewish religion try to find a path to work together.  I do not know if you are aware that religious background in Israel has its own schools so religious Jews have their own schools, secular Jews have their own schools and other religions (Musulim, Christian, Druse, etc.) each have their own schools. 

At the college, interactions are between more different groups of people.  Our staff and student body are made up of Christians, Muslums and Jews.  People are encouraged to express their views and feelings, and encouraged to learn together, which is not always easy, especially in times of tension.  One of the courses that I teach is an online course with 8 other colleges in Israel, 3 being secualar colleges, 3 Jewish Religious colleges and 3 Arabic colleges.  It is very interesting to see the students working as teams in the special interest groups that they chose online.