Chesed & Rochelle Krich

It’s been twenty years since I started teaching English. I’ve had countless pupils, aged 11-16 when I first started, aged 15-18 now. I’ve also known teaching reforms; reforms which affect the way we are supposed to teach. Some are useful, some not quite as much. Some are presented with modesty and hope, others with arrogance [...]

I Have Done it Again!

For about three years I have been an on and off postal subscriber of The JC, that is to say the British Jewish weekly The Jewish Chronicle. The JC is famous for being the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world. It was first published in 1841 and is an independent paper which aims [...]

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

Every new school year I like to make my own grade book. I buy a fancy notebook, organize its contents (list of students, pages devoted to what we have done in class, etc) and then I decorate it. I usually search the postcards I have purchased or received during the year and select those that [...]

Low-carb Shabbat

I have been on a low-carb and low-fat diet for four weeks – the joys of being over fourty! I am only allowed bread (preferably brown) and cheese in the morning, At lunch meat or fish is fine as long as it is grilled, steamed or cooked in a pouch. The hardest meal is dinner. [...]

The Joys of Being a Teacher

Teaching is a hard job for a number of reasons. You choose a job with a view to sharing your love of a subject with other (usually younger) people and then reality hits you in the face.
It is not always easy to initiate a relationship with 30 teenagers who believe there are countless more interesting [...]

I Have Moved

Funnily enough, last Thursday, I prepared a post entitled ‘Blogger’s block’ on the LiveJournal platform I have on my computer yet however hard I tried there was no way I could post it. I then went online and tried again, in vain. Finally I contacted LiveJournal support but they have not been able to solve [...]

Blogger’s Block

Keeping a blog is quite recent for me; I posted for the first time at the end of January after about three months of blog reading, when I decided I would keep an online journal too. This was something very new as the last time I kept a personal diary was more than thirty years [...]