Every morning, students in the mixed Bedouin-Arab school in the Galilee village of Ras Ali swarm the gate of their school to hug their English teacher, Lena Novins-Montague.
“Every morning when Lena walks in, the students all run to the gate and give her a hug. You can hear them yelling ‘good morning’ and ‘I love you,’” a local teacher at the school recalled on Wednesday, Novins-Montague’s last day at the school.
The 23-year-old English teacher from Colorado and her co-teacher, Toronto native Cole Shiner, are finishing up an unforgettable year bonding with children from a very different world than they were used to.
The Ras Ali School, located outside of Haifa, brings together children from the Bedouin village of Khawaled, population 710, and the Arab village of Ras Ali, population 643.
“I asked to be placed in an Arab school, specifically,” Novins-Montague said. “I’ve been to Israel before and I’m an American Jew, so I’ve had a very specific experience and exposure. I wanted to be in a different environment and learn about another culture.”
She added that after finishing college, she decided that she wanted to go abroad to teach English. Initially, she wanted to teach in Spain or Japan, but because of the coronavirus pandemic, Israel proved to be both a unique opportunity and one that was easily available.
Before arriving in Ras Ali, she had never heard Arabic spoken in her life. Through teaching and speaking with the students, her Arabic improved – as did her relationship with the students.
“I feel incredibly grateful. I think we’ve had a really unique experience and we’ve been welcomed into this community,” Novins-Montague said. “I’ve learned so much this year and have really gotten close to a lot of my students. I also learned this year that I want to be a teacher. Now I know that’s what I want to do with my life.”
Shiner, 27, came to Israel from Toronto on Birthright two years before and decided he wanted to return to teach English. Although not speaking Arabic created a language barrier at first, he described how the community welcomed him regardless and allowed him to form meaningful relationships with students.
“There’s obviously a language barrier, but I just feel so welcomed that I forget about it,” Shiner said. “Just the way the students communicate, even if I don’t understand every single word, I know I understand the way they’re feeling.”
THE TWO English mavens got to the school via the Masa Israel Teaching Fellows (MITF) program, a joint project by Masa and the Education Ministry. The program is run in Haifa, Rishon Lezion and Bat Yam by Israel Experience.
They worked closely with the school’s regular English teacher Kholood Swaid, who has run the English program there for three years.
“The most important part of having Lena and Cole is that the students have to speak in English, because nobody is going to translate, Swaid said. “When I speak in English in the class, sometimes they don’t understand, and I can translate. But with Lena and Cole, they have to use their memory and figure it out. It’s challenging, but it’s a good way to learn, with good challenges. And we have so many success stories with our pupils that are so advanced in English because of it.”
Amos Hermon, the CEO of Israel Experience, stressed the importance of incorporating teachers into the communities and schools.
“It’s amazing that we have hundreds of Jewish teachers, mainly from North America, who are so integrated into elementary schools to teach English. It’s vital that they are integrated in the children’s lives, whether it’s after school or knowing their family and social environment, while everything is in spoken English,” Hermon told The Jerusalem Post.
The teachers also focused on trying to tell students about their lives at home, and in turn, learning about the student’s lives in Ras Ali.
“They’re so curious about our lives at home,” Novins-Montague said. “We show them pictures of our dogs, our homes; I’ve had so many students asking me what my parents’ names are, because they don’t hear names like that.
“It’s been really fun to share it with them, and I think in turn, we love hearing about their lives,” she said, stressing the importance of such a cultural exchange, both for the students and for her own understanding about the world.
Such cultural exchanges could have faced challenges when fighting broke out in May between Israel and Gaza. However, the teachers described how the community came together, both within the school and with the surrounding community.
“We have no politics here; politics is outside. This area is a safe zone, and we want to live together and be together. We believe in peace,” said Mysoon Kabiya, the school’s principal. She described that while violence was occurring across the country, people from neighboring Jewish villages came to visit the school to show their support and bring the community together.
STUDENTS ALSO stressed their appreciation for the program. In an interview conducted by the Post entirely in English with 13- and 14-year-old students, they raved about the program, emphasizing how much having native speakers around helped improve their English” Ameena Somre said.
Often, Novins-Montague and Shiner would conduct one-on-one sessions outside of class with students who were particularly motivated or interested in learning more English. The coronavirus provided unique opportunities for this, as students could Zoom with the teachers easily outside of class.
“We talk for two hours once a week over Zoom in one-on-ones,” said Aysha Khawaled, another student. “Every week Lena and I would talk about a different topic: friendship, school, what I want to be in the future, countries, fashion, a lot of things. I loved doing it.”
Jolan Khaldy, another English neophyte, summarized her experience with Novins-Montague and Shiner: “It was nice to talk to them because they’re young like us. They’re like friends, not like other teachers. We’re really going to miss them so much.”