Airplane

Israel

1. Hello, my name is Aviva Zussman Balsam. I live in Israel with my husband and my brand new adorable baby girl. To introduce myself I posted a picture of an airplane since I feel that in all areas it is important to reach the sky. I believe in pushing the limits and going beyond expectations and I plan on making my students into stars.

2. If I were to write a book about myself 

chicken


 I would name it "Spring" since my name is the Hebrew word for the season spring. In addition to being born in the spring, I feel that the season has a deeper meaning to my personality. In the spring the trees blossom with new flowers and there is life and growth everywhere. As a person I love life and search for better ways to improve myself.

3. My favorite jokes are the chicken jokes crossing the road because one time when my friend was on vacation she actually saw a chicken crossing the road! 

4. I taught in a formal classroom for two years. I taught first grade, sixth, seventh and eighth grade, and tenth grade. Now I am tutoring Israeli children in my home how to read and write in English. I am in my third semester in the Teacher Education Program.

5. In addition to teaching, I also assisted a language arts teacher for about two months. We were teaching middle school girls and managed to read the book “The Call of the Wild” and cover some grammar rules. This was my only experience teaching language arts and I am looking forward to enhancing my future “language arts teaching” skills.

6. I am unfamiliar with new literacies.
7. My concern about this course is that I have a preconceived notion that language arts and literature is evaluated in a very biased fashion. The quality of a piece of writing in my opinion is bases on the reader’s taste. I hope that this mindset will change and not interfere with my performance.