by Ted and Jane Settle
On February 2, 2020, we returned as volunteers for the sixth time to the Mar Elias Educational Institutions in I’billin, Israel. We plan the dates of our flights around the length of time that tourists are permitted to stay in Israel, 90 days. Accordingly, our flight home was scheduled for May 1st, not knowing that the Coronavirus would be upon us and require us to change the date for our return home.
At the Mar Elias Educational Institutions, the top floor (6th) of the Mariam Bawardi Elementary School is the guest house for visitors to the school who plan to stay at least one night. The guest house has 15 rooms: 12 of the rooms have a bathroom as part of the room; and three rooms share a bathroom at the end of a hallway. In addition to the guest rooms, there is a kitchen in which Chef Badeaa plans and prepares delicious meals. The meals are served buffet style in the large area in the center of the guest house.
We come at this time of the year to help prepare the high school seniors for the oral part of the state English exam, the Bagrut Exam. This year for the first time, the students do not meet in person with an inspector. Instead, the exam is conducted through a computer program. Students have 30 minutes to complete the oral exam. There are three parts to the oral exam: in the first part of the exam, the students are given the option of selecting between two topics about which they are to answer questions (there are about 30 different topics in all); in the second part, they are asked questions about a research project they have written, either alone, or with other students. The final part is new this year. The students have to watch a minute-long video. The video has no speaking, but each video has a problem/dilemma the actor or actors face and have to resolve. The students are asked to identify the problem and the solution given in the video. They are also asked if they agree with the solution, if so, why? If not, why not?
The Ministry of Education provides the schools with a simulation that can be used with the students. Janan, the computer person at Mar Elias. set up the simulation in the three computer labs on the 5th floor of the high school. Teachers signed up to take their classes there to experience the simulation, so when the actual time came for them to take the test it would not be completely new to them. The image to the right is the screen they will see that presents them with the option of two subjects to talk about. The questions they will have to answer are stated verbally, and on the screen, and then they have to choose one of the options. Once a choice is made and they are ready to provide answers, they press the record button. They have to talk for at least one minute and not more than two. For the second part of the exam, students have to talk about a research project they have completed. Again, when they are ready to answer the questions about the project, they are to press the record button and record for at least a minute and not more than two minutes.
Our daily schedule was to go to the high school when the senior English classes were meeting. There were seven different English teachers and 12 classes. While the classes were meeting, individual students would come to Jane or me (we had separate offices) and meet with us for about 15 minutes. We would go over what the exam was like and then ask them to practice. We would give them a choice between two subjects. We told them to take some time to think about the answers they would give and then, using a recorder app on our iPhones, we would tell them to push the recorder when they were ready. They found pretty quickly that a minute is much longer than thought. Also we would let them hear themselves so they could see how often they paused with an “uh” or “ah”. We told them that points would be taken off for “uh” and “ah” pauses. We also told them that they could pause the recorder once, if they were concerned about the recording. If that happened, they had to start all over again (create a second file), they could not continue on the first file. And, they could only do this once. Any more than two files, they would lose at least 50% on their score for the question.
The opportunity to interact with individual students meant a lot to Jane and me, especially when the topic of the first part concerned their plans for their future. Mar Elias has an amazing bunch of seniors with some bright futures!
One of our assignments upon arrival at Mar Elias was to find out about the needs of the guest house regarding the purchase of a new washer and dryer, the purchase of which had been approved the Board of Directors of the Pilgrims of I’billin at the December meeting. We found that both washing machines had stopped working and that the school had already purchased a new washing machine. We arranged with Nawar for the purchase of a new dryer and they both were installed in time to do the wash after a group from the USA had spent two nights in the guest house. The oldest washer was removed and the other washer was repaired so now we had two good washing machines, one brand new, and a new dryer in the room on the roof where the washing and drying takes place. There are clothes lines (covered) on the roof also but we experienced considerable rain during the time we were there so having the two washers and a new dryer was a “Pilgrim” send. Since the school had purchased a new washer, we asked Peter if we might help in another way, through the purchase of a new stove/range. Badeaa works wonders on two very old stoves/ranges. This was arranged and the new stove was installed just in time for all the guests soon to come, we thought.
We worked with students right up to the day the school was closed by order of the Ministry of Education, due to the Coronavirus, Thursday, March 12th. While the other Bargrut exams were postponed, the oral English Bagrut exams were still to take place on Monday, March 16th and Wednesday, March 18th. It was only late Sunday night that we heard the oral Bagrut exam was also postponed. Once the schools were closed, and with travel elsewhere in Israel restricted, we changed our flight reservation from May 1st to March 21st. During the last week we were able to have dinner with the family of two of our former students Einas and Nour Abu Hjour, actually travel ot Bir’am with the Archbishop , and have our last meal, Friday night, with Badeaa and Elias in their home in I’billin. We were on the road early Saturday norning being driven to the airport by the Archbishop’s brother, Hanna, in the Archbishop’s car with diplomatic plates. Along the way a sign of hope.
*For much greater detail on our experiences, see our blog at: