HappyinGreen

So brother is supposed to land in Pittsburgh from San Diego at 5;10 pm. We'll meet all three of us - Haim, Ivry and me as a "hurrah" in Oakland whenever that will be. I don't have to worry - the house is vaccumed, dusted and Haim will cook tonight's meal. We're (my coauthor and I) are 3/4 away from sending the manuscript to Corwin Press. Our plan is to rest until December 29th and then go full-steam ahead and send it to our prospective editor on December 31st. That is our plan. So many times we work to fulfill those desires as part of our mission. This is one mission that I know is right.And it will be in his inbox come December 31st.

So on that hopeful note, I'm waiting to spend some quality time with my brother. He already expressed a desire to be a part of soon-to-be four year old Ivry's life. I've made things extra special for him: made sure he got our clean (!) bedroom, with sweet-smelling sheets and roses to brighten up a room that faces cement.

It's been over a year and a half since we've seen each other and much has happened even though we speak on the phone often. Still, it's super awesome that we have this opportunity to feel connected in a cold uncertain part of the world known as the Diaspora after living in a traditional type lifestyle in israel for many years. Together we'll skype to Katzrin, Israel (in the Golan Heights) where our parents live and experience the rising surge of a home-like state of being just like old times years ago. 

When I dust away the cobwebs of thoughts, I know we'll have a good time. We have our altercations but we've bonded and tonight is our time to find that cobweb that hasn't been dusted. Every get-together is a homecoming.

Merry Christmas.
Happy Chanukah.
May you have a happy new year full of eternal peace and many blessings.

Dorit

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we do have much to be thankful for.

I realize this is our second Thanksgiving which we are spending without family. NYC is a hassle to get to for just two days, and being carless, it makes no sense to be stuck in an airport with the prices of flights being what they are *sigh*.  Another hassle.

Israel of course, is just too far away. Brother is in Santa Barbara with relatives.

So we've opted (perhaps out of choice) to stay in a warm cozy (I love cozy) albeit small apartment in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh with my little guy (Ivry - almost four) and my big guy (Haim - almost 50!)

Tomorrow at this time, I'll be dreaming Laura Ignalls Wilder in our kitchen and probably shopping for last minute Thanksgiving supplies.

Our refrigerator will be full as will our bellies. Ivry will look at the shredded carrots and say "It's a leaf pile!" and over cranberry and apple aroma, I'll be wishing the distances between my friends and family wasn't so far.


So I put my sometimes shadowy and lonely self in the lavender and allow the Thanksgiving spirit to emanate from my grandmother's boiling turkey dish, the last one she gave before she died.

I have many things to be thankful for - but that is another post.

Other people have eaten from that dish - other hands fished out the remaining turkey bones and leftovers.

The Pilgrims of yore did too. Not from that dish. They used clams to dish out their food. I know this because I have this old (1971) book from Scholastic "If You Sailed on the Mayflower..." I kept it all these years thinking .. "I'll use this book one day for my family. I wonder if someone else has this book. It's such a gem. Old books. I've been rereading it all these years.

I xeroxed a few of the pages for  Haruka, a Japanese student who we'll be hosting from the Pittsburgh Council of International Visitors. We'll show her the American tradition of Thanksgiving as I know it. I forget that for others, it is the making of the new memories, the one I know as a child.


Wishing you all a pleasant and peaceful Thanksgiving.

Blessing and peace,
Dorit

Dear teaching community:

Tomorrow we celebrate Thanksgiving . I would like to take this moment to say "thank you" to this teaching community for your support and wish you and your families "a Happy Thanksgiving."

And on this special day, I always give thanks that I'm part of a writing/teaching community.

As the creator of the New Teacher Resource Center, please check out the two Thanksgiving Specials - I'm extending the deadline so you'll still have time to enter. You don't want to miss out on these books!

Please check the special giveaway here.

http://newteacherresourcecenter.com/?p=374

Oh and while you're there, register to receive your FREE ebook and FREE bimonthly Ezine containing specials, news, information, and other teaching tips.

I've also just posted about my latest teaching report on effective classroom management tips.

-Dorit



(x-posted with my journal and first year teachers)

My last paycheck I received just before I took off for a 19 year journey to Israel that would bring me back, full circle to the US. That Year was 1989. I worked for CTI Messengers in downtown NYC delivering small packages via the subway and my bike. I owned the streets of Manhattan, knew how to time my three-subway ride in twenty minutes from Fulton Street in Lower Manhattan to East forty second. Boy, I was a pro.

The image you see in front of your (and my) very own eyes is the paycheck I received from CCAC Allegheny Community College a few days ago - a grand total of $432.00 and some pocket change for teaching an ESL written composition class for two days a week, an hour and a half each time. I am loving it! My students are from East and West Africa, Pakistan, various provinces of India and some other areas of the world I can't remember now. The feedback has been positive and students are affable and earnest and motivated. It is a definitely refreshing break from twelve years of the Israeli classroom. As I noted recently to a friend, I keep expecting that an Israeli student will step into the classroom, raise his/her hand as in salute, then cry out my name, do something to disturb the classroom of today so deliberately so that I can't teach.  They are VERY direct and verbal. It is no wonder that they have the appellation "chutzpanim" (im relating to plural of students) But none of those scenarios I've built in my head in fact happen with my students, leaving me to conclude that my cultural reality in the US is very different than what I have experienced for the last 12 years as an ESL teacher.

I also received a paycheck from the Pittsburgh BOE as a sub. I sub at least a few times a month to get to know the educational system and how things are run. I'll save my comments in the meantime to myself until I can clarify certain things. Twelve years of teaching in israel is different than a few days subbing in the US. Y'know?

So back to the paycheck issue - I am now a US taxpayer of Uncle Sam - all over again. I don't mind so long as I am learning and growing. Even in today's crazy economy, I must not be afraid. I WILL NOT succumb to fear. It is paralyzing. it's hard though not to. But the media does a damn good job of relating to it as such.

And a few updates:

1.I just joined Suzanne Lieurance's Build Your Business Write. I participated in her Working Writer's summer boot camp, and it just boosted my confidence to take my writing to a completely different level. You can hear my testimony about on the left side link of my new teacher's blog . Just scroll down a bit.

2.I've just purchased six months worth of my own domain name usaing bluehost - newteacherresourcecenter.com Yay! I'll have my own domain name which I'll be setting up probably tomorrow when I'll choose a new template "face" for the website using wordpress. My writing coach will help me organizing and setting up parts of that so I won't feel completely alone.

3. I'm also very excited with my marketing efforts until now. It has been a satisfying experience and I'm learning not to be intimidated from the technical issues that have been popping up as a result of the process. So far I've been able to successfully:

1. establish two of my own informational products including a FREE bimonthly ezine and ebook
2. post three times to my blog.
3. send already a FREE ezine to my 65 new and seasoned teachers on my mailing
4. establish a mailing list
5. network with teachers all over the world
6. submit articles to the EZine article directories thus increasing traffic to my blog

4.Today I got a nice congratulatory email accepting  my personal essay "Taking Control of the Cultural Classroom," for publication. It will be published by Adams Media Company (the same company that publishes A Cup of Comfort series) in an anthology of new teacher stories in the spring.


Anyhow, I've celebrated the Jewish New Year with the birth of my new website. Let's hope the New Year rings in business!
 

Hey teachers,

I'd love to receive feedback on my new ebook "Succeeding with Mixed Ability Classes"

If you are interested in receiving it, please drop me a line so I can inlcude you on the list for sending testimonials.

Email: sasson 92 at gmail dot com

Many thanks!

Dorit Sasson
"Take Control of the Classroom" -
The New Teacher Resource Center - your one stop for all your new teacher needs
http://newteacherresourcecenter.blogspot.com

Hey gang,

I'm just adding to the pot of gratefulness. I've been seriously out of touch. It's time for an update.


I've decided that I cannot write at home on the weekends - so I've retreated to the Squirrel Hill public library. I'm grateful for silence and quiet and friendly librarians.

I'm grateful to my prospective editor at Corwin Press, who, after two revise and resubmits, is allowing us yet to resubmit a third because he believes in what we have to say.

The Chabad community in Squirrel Hill was very helpful to me during my kidney stone surgery and made sure Ivry was taken care of and I was well fed and watered. A wonderful doula accompanied me to the hospital and stayed with me the whole time. I am truly grateful to her for helping me cope better with the pain. 

Again the Chabad community made me feel very welcomed after my sprained ankle last year during Rosh Hashana. So I was able to enjoy my dip in honey and taste the sweetness . To my Jewish friends and community, may you have a sweet New Year.

I'm grateful to have a teaching job at the Community College (CCAC)- I wish I had more classes but I know someone is looking out for me. So I'm grateful for that. But on the other hand, my phone is constantly ringing from the Pittsburgh Board of Education. They constantly need subs.

I'm grateful for blue skies and intermittent rain. We need a balance of the two. I get too depressed when there is prolonged cloudiness.

I'm grateful to the UJF people who are taking Ivry and I out to Simmons farm tomorrow. We don't have a car and while we miss having one, we just can't afford having and maintaining one especially with the low economy. so we get to go apple picking and see foliage. Yay! We are craving for this kind of trip.

I'm grateful to my mother's social worker and tax accountant who beat the holes of bureaucracy when it comes to renewing my mom's Medicaid and updating me and my brother with important financial information. That is truly a blessing.

I'm grateful to the writer's group at Squirrel Hill who  is so supportive with comments and cares about helping me progress and grow as a writer. Thank you group!

I'm grateful to my the presence of my coauthor - She is currently buried under school work but we have a good collaborative relationship going!

I'm grateful to the caretakers of my son at the JCC - they are truly great with my son and I/we am happy!
See updated pictures at http://ivrydavid.blogspot.com

I'm grateful to my online writer's group from the Suzane Lieurance writer's boot camp - they are my fellow soliders and we continually march and support each other!
Hear my testimony at http://newteacherresourcecenter.blogspot.com

Finally, I am grateful to the every day opportunities of my writing and what the day brings.

There are so many more blessing of which I am truly grateful for.. so maybe in another post.

Thank you for reading this !

Have a good weekend.

Today marks the one year anniversary of our arrival in the States from Israel. Exactly.

It's a milestone... for all of us...Haim with his work, Ivry learning English and adjusting to life in America and the children at the JCC. (Jewish community center)

In the course of a year, Haim and I deepened our family relationships as we adjust to America from a tiny little kibbutz out in the middle of nowhere..

As far as writing and teaching goes...


1. I've been accepted as a national workshop presenter for teachers.

2. My coauthor and I have a manuscript under discussion on English language learners with two educational publishers.

3. I'm pumping up the freelance writing business with the addition of a new blog for mentoring new teachers - http://newteacherresourcecenter.blogspot.com. I hope to eventually provide a mentoring service  for school districts.

4. I'm enjoying the freelance life and  working with a writer's coach who has taught me to believe in myself and to focus on my goals even when the going does get tough. (and it does)


Just a year ago, I sat in an air-conditionless Israeli EFL classroom wondering how and when I would return to the classroom. Now, I'm not so sure.

When I catch moments like watching rain or thunder clasp the sky and the purple rain drips from the venetian blinds, I know I've missed the feeling of the pen to the paper.

Enough of diaper changes or figuring out which bus I need to take to get to a mother's meet-up, or trying to squeeze Praxis studying with weekend planning.

When hubby finally comes home, I think to myself: "ah, let's get right down to it!" I lay my head on the pillow, turn on the AC, turn off the lights, light a scented candle and just chill a bit. My thoughts quieten and steer me for the night journey ahead - will I take to the pen or will I simply think? I've been in this scenario many a time. I become a eighteen year old with some pocket change, wild in some ways, domestic in others. Still wound up by silly images of Winnie the Pooh with a jar of honey stuck on his head and laughing eerily at the the next thunderbolt striking the sky.,

Of those images, I can write.

 

Can't start the new week without mentioning that our four day getaway to New York was hot, hot, hot! We spent most of the time at my mom's apartment in front of the cool A/C. We did manage to go to Abingdon Square park and Hudson River Park "the beach" but that was it. The WIFI at Wesbeth was erratic and unpredictable but mangeable. 

It was nice to see my mom and her caretaker and familiar things like the security guard and the exterminator who knew me as a little girl. It's amazing what five minutes of seeing somebody you knew for so long can give you such a sense of belonging.I'm truly grateful for that.

Ivry watched the construction of the townhouses being built across from Westbeth with cranes loading and unloading and a massive display of people at work putting our books of building in motion. A  three year old paradise.

It was still nice to be there, watch the Wheel of fortune and enjoy the company of folks that I can safely call "Grandma Yvette" (Grandma Carmen's caretaker) and "Grandma Carmen" (my mommy). My mom's Alzheimer's does not allow her to give Ivry hugs and kisses, but Ivry was so cute and sweet and ran up to Grandma Carmen's knee and kissed it and ran back to me and said, "I kissed Grandma Carmen!"

I'm posting pictures of those days of New York City - memories will take those days over.

You can find them here
www.ivrydavid.blogspot.com since I can't post them here. 

Yesterday, I received the final email confirmation from my coauthor which I wanted to hear: she will send the book proposal to our propspective editor at Corwin Press.  How sweet!

It's hard to believe that what started as a dream back in Israel, has evolved into subsequent drafts, 50 to be exact.  

I  put the dream in motion as a new immigrant in Pittsburgh, writing on my own in the Squirrel Hill library in Pittsburgh from my laptop along with files of the teacher's life, then collaborated with a coauthor after a talk with my editor. Now, our editor will see the fuits of the process: two proposal chapters, a resource file and a chapter synopsis - come tomorrow morning.

It has been a journey.

We have chapters 3-4 to revise and another one to fully write.

Now, the waiting time begins.