In this special "Welcome Back to School" edition of our REED On Newsletter, you will find lots of ideas for putting the fun back into the English classroom! You'll learn how to get a "Book in Every Bag", clarifications about the Literature Program and how to register for our national Spelling Bee contest. There are cool ideas for different ways to "break the ice", information about this year's REED Video Contests, as well as our new concept for REED in-service training. To sum up, there's a section about different forms of communication in our field and finally, a link to the Wix site where the insights from our REED Summer Study Days have been preserved.

A wealth of interesting and useful information awaits you, but first....

..... a message from Judie!

August, 2016

Dear REED Teachers,

Ahhhhh, a new year begins -- full of excitement, anticipation and energy!

This year is all about FUN, CREATIVITY, RELEVANCE and INNOVATION!

The focus will be on JHS and on trying out new things in your classroom - jazzing it up!

This Newsletter will begin to stream new ideas for your classrooms this year and to remind you of some of things that happened at the end of last year which seemed challenging then, but now will seem quite simple.

I wish you all a superb year, full of new ideas, new experiences and lots of success!

When we enter a classroom, remember that we are educators first and English teachers second. See EACH ONE of your students, their strengths and weaknesses and be versatile in your teaching.

Your REED counselors and I are here for you, to advise, help, enthuse and inform. Please do not hesitate to contact us at any time.

On a final and more personal note, for the last few years now, I seem to think a lot about Rita Pierson at the beginning of each school year and the legacy she has left behind for us. I am sharing her last TED Talk with you here. She was an inspiring educator and her message energizes me each and every time I watch her. I hope she manages to inspire you, too.

Best wishes for the new academic school year!

Judie

This year's focus will be on having fun in the English classroom.

This was the Presentation that Judie gave at the Summer REED Days a couple of months ago. While watching try and choose at least one thing you would like to try out in your classes and actually try it out!

Every photo is linked to something. Sooooo..... Grab a cup of coffee, sit back and watch in Presentation Mode. Click on EVERYTHING. Enjoy!!!

"This year I see each and every student with a reading book in their bag

This year I see each and every lesson beginning with 10 minutes of reading

This year I see each and every school with an English library of books

This year I see reading books not as a chore but as an adventure!" ~Judie

As you know, reading books is one of the most influential and impressionable activities in life - it helps develop proper language structures, enhances vocabulary, encourages higher order thinking and inspires imagination and creativity. It is also a lot of fun to escape into a book.

There are books on all levels for all students. Your counselors can help you put together a list of books to purchase that will suit your students’ needs.

In this presentation which Amy gave us at the REED Summer Days a few months ago, you can find tips and great ideas on how to start and enlarge your school English libraries.

Here is a presentation that explains the Literature Program in its current version, as it should be taught to ALL of the high school classes. If you still have questions about the program after reading through it, please be in touch with your regional counselor.

Special thanks to Carol Wolff, formerly coordinator from Shaar Hanegev, who made the original, shared it with us, and we have adapted it.

Remember Sandra's session at the REED Summer Days, when she taught us about the exciting potential of Spelling Bees? Here is a reminder of how WE plan to take advantage of Spelling Bees this year in REED!

Read all about it in this presentation and register here.

We are back for our 4th year with a brilliant opportunity to bring English, Technology, Creativity, Collaborative Learning, and plain 'ole fun together in your classroom. Enroll your class in one of our video contests, and bring your classroom to life!!

This year's contest categories will be:

• "Courage" a 5 minute film. Your English class will brainstorm on the importance of courage in our lives. The class will collaborate on creating a film that will develop this theme. To read a full description, click here. This contest is open to grades 7-12.

• Book Trailers: 2-3 minute trailers on books read for the extensive reading program. Small groups of students will read a book, and create a video trailer that will interest others in reading the book. This is a great way to do a book task! To read more, click here. This contest will have 2 categories: JHS, and HS.

• Sign-up via this google form by September 25th.
• Contest winners will be announce for each category in January
• Certificates of participation will be sent to your schools.

Contact Melissa Weglein with your questions. melweglein@gmail.com

Teacher feedback:

"a phenomenal way of bringing English alive and fun in the classroom"

"really what authentic learning experiences are meant to be. "

"Fun book task idea"

This year we have come up with a concept that will enable us to hold the REED days, and enable participants to get credit for them. Here is the deal: We will incorporate all of the following into a course that is worth 30 academic hours with gmul:

• Three regional cluster meetings (to be explained) of 4 academic hours (3 hours on the clock) each
  
• One online session (2 academic hours)
• Two face-to-face Study Days (8 academic hours each)

The "Cluster Meetings" will be meetings that are held in a school in your region, by your regional counselor. The larger, more spread out regions, will hold the same session twice, in two different areas of the region. If you miss one of the Cluster Meetings, you will have the dates and venues of other parallel sessions, where you can make it up.

Your regional counselor will be in touch with schools and announce the venues by the second week of the school year.

This year you will be able to be more in touch than ever with the REED Counseling Staff. So what’s new?

• Our REED Website (along with the rest of the Rural Education Region) will be moving house! (We’ll update you when that happens)

• This year, ALL of the counselors have developed mailing lists for the regions they are responsible for (your regional counselor will update you).

• Starting at the end of last year, when we were coming up to the Bagrut date, and we realized that there were likely to be more problems than ever, since there was no Chief Inspector, ALL of the counselors opened up regional WhatsApp Broadcast groups, with the coordinator for each school. We’ll be updating those groups, and using them as needed again, this year.

And as in the past…..

• We still have our national YMLP mailing list, which will be used to send out newsletters and updates from Judie, for the entire REED population of teachers and coordinators. Please be sure you are subscribed to the mailing list, with the appropriate status (teacher/coordinator/principal)

• We will also continue to communicate with coordinators through our REED Coordinators’ Facebook (ONLY for REED Coordinators).

Last year, Sigalit Arditi began a WhatsApp broadcasting project to encourage reading in the classroom. She sends out a reading passage in a WhatsApp Broadcast group (like we have our coordinators - where the Administrator of the group sends out broadcasts, but recipients cannot respond to the group - only to the Admin). The passages she broadcasts to those subscribed are on the JHS level and are relevant to the students' lives. Here is a blog post she wrote about it, where you can learn more about the project, and sign up, as well!

And as long as we are on the topic of WhatsApp Broadcast Groups, for those of you who have tried using WhatsApp with your classes and may not have been satisfied with the results, you might want to try having a broadcast group this year with them, instead of a regular WhatsApp group. It might work more successfully for you!

Best wishes for an inspiring, invigorating and educational new school year!

Website: http://www.mchp.gov.il/School/REED/Pages/default.aspx
Location: Rehov HaShlosha 2, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel
Phone: (03) 689-8824
Twitter: @EnglishREED