If you would rather read this post in English – here is the link

אם אתם מעדיפים לקרוא את הפוסט הזה באנגלית – הנה הלינק

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לפני שנה, כפיר ואנחנו התחלנו תהליך של חיפוש תיכונים לכפיר.

למי שלא יודע, תיכון מתחיל בארצות הברית בכיתה ט', ורוב הילדים הולכים לתיכון הקרוב למקום מגוריהם. יש ילדים שבוחרים ללכת לבתי ספר מסויימים בגלל תוכניות ספורט, חינוך ועניין, חברה וכו'. בדרך כלל תיכונים שיש להם תוכניות מיוחדות הם תיכונים פרטיים שעולים הרבה כסף….

בבית הספר שלנו, יש מורה שקוראים לו מייק (הוא המחנך של יואב). אחד התפקידים של מייק הוא להיות יועץ לענייני תיכונים. מייק בנה תהליך של שמתחיל בינואר של כיתה ז', ומסתיים עם בחירת התיכון המתאים לך בסיום כיתה ח'. בתהליך הזה, מייק מוביל את הילדים וההורים שלהם להבנה מה הם הצרכים של כל ילד, ואיזה בתי ספר יתאימו לו. זה תהליך ארוך שכולל הרצאות ארוכות מצידו של מייק (באלוהים, כמה שהוא אוהב לדבר….), תהליכי מחשבה של הילדים וההורים, התאמה ראשונית של רשימת בתי ספר, מעקב אחרי בתי ספר, בחירה של רשימה מצומצמת של בתי ספר ואז הגשת טפסי הרשמה לאותם בתי ספר (ועל כך עוד יסופר רבות בהמשך…).
ההמלצה של מייק לא בהכרח תהיה ללכת לבית ספר פרטי. אם בית הספר הציבורי במקום המגורים שלך – עונה על הצרכים והרצונות שהילד וההורים הביעו, ההמלצה של מייק תהיה ללכת לבית הספר המקומי ובמקרה שלנו, אנחנו חושבים שבית הספר המקומי שלנו (פרימונט) הוא אופציה נהדרת בשביל כפיר, הוא יוכל להתקדם שם בקצב מהיר מבחינה אקדמית, יהיו שם הרבה ילדים שהוא ישמח להתחבר איתם, ונבחרת הבייסבול שלהם משוועת לשחקנים שאוהבים את המשחק 🙂

אבל, לפחות במקרה שלנו, כפיר ריפרף בקיץ על אתרים של בערך 30 בתי ספר נוספים שמייק הציע. בסוף הקיץ הוא צימצם את הרשימה ל 9 בתי ספר, שמיד הצטמצמו ל 5 בתי ספר. ואז, אז התחיל התהליך הקשה של הגשת טפסי המועמדות.

איזה סבל!!!!

מלבד העובדה שהיינו צריכים למלא את אותו מידע בסיסי (שם, מגורים, בתי ספר קודמים, משפחה, תחביבים, הישגים, תחומי עניין, וכו' וכו' וכו') ב 5 מערכות שונות, ומלבד העובדה שכפיר ואנחנו היינו צריכים לעבור ראיונות ומפגשים ב 5 בתי ספר שונים, ומלבד העובדה שהמורים של כפיר ומייק היו צריכים למלא הערכות על כפיר בחמש מערכות שונות (ועל כל שאר הילדים האחרים בכיתה שלו עם כל בתי הספר שהם נרשמו אליהם…) ומלבד העובדה שהיינו צריכים לשלם דמי הרשמה ל 5 בתי ספר שונים (אבל אני חייבת להודות שדמי ההרשמה נמוכים יחסים $50-$100 לבית ספר, שלא כמו בית הספר הבינלאומי באבן יהודה – קראו את ההערה בסוף…).
מלבד כל הדברים האלה, היינו צריכים גם לענות על שאלות. הרבה שאלות. הרבה מאוד שאלות, ואלו לא שאלות של 'כן' או 'לא', אלא שאלות ארוכות שדורשות בין 200 ל 1000 מילים. וזה לא רק העניין של אורך התשובה, אלא מה התשובה (או יותר נכון, כמה חפרנית השאלה, וכמה עמוק אתה צריך להגיע בתוך עצמך כדי לענות עליה…).

אפילו שמייק עשה עבודה נהדרת בלהסביר לנו את כל התהליך, וליווה אותנו יד ביד ועזר לנו המון – עדיין התהליך הימם אותנו. ואחרי שעברנו אותו פעם אחת, אני לא בטוחה שאני רוצה לעבור אותו שוב עם מי מהילדים לקראת התיכון ואפילו לא לקראת הקולג' (שילכו לאוניברסיטת בן גוריון – שם לא חופרים, רק מסתכלים על ציונים… )

בכל מקרה, אחרי 4-5 חודשים שזה יושב לנו על הצוואר ואנחנו עושים את זה בקצב שלנו (זאת אומרת לאט מדי), היום סוף סוף, הגשנו את החלק האחרון לבית הספר האחרון – ועכשיו אני יכולה להגיד, שלמרות שזה היה תהליך שלימד אותנו ואת כפיר המון עליו ועל עצמנו ועל איך אנחנו רואים אותו ואת תפיסות החיים שלו ושלנו, ולמרות שכפיר התבגר מאוד בתהליך הזה וכשהוא יגיש מועמדות לקולג' הוא יעשה את זה בידיים קשורות מאחורי הגב – למרות כל זאת אני חייבת להגיד שזה היה נורא ואיום ושמי שהמציא את התהליך הזה, כנראה חשב על דרכים חדשות לממש את המושג "גיהינום עלי אדמות" 🙂

אבל, כדי שכל העבודה הקשה הזאת לא תלך לאיבוד, העליתי לפוסטים את מה שכפיר כתב ואת מה שאנחנו כתבנו. אני ממליצה להתעלם מכל מה שאנחנו כתבנו, אבל לקרוא את כל מה שכפיר כתב כי זה מהמם (אומנם באנגלית, אבל לגמרי מהמם).

תהנו!

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רשימת המאמרים שכפיר כתב:

My Profile Multimedia Creation

My Page (or "What would you make — edible or otherwise — with squash, tomatoes and strawberries?")

What do you look for in a friend?

 If you could learn any new skill, what would it be and why? 

Explain an event or activity that has impacted your life and or your way of thinking

Describe an extracurricular achievement

Choose three words that best describe you as a person 

What books have you most enjoyed in the past year and why

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הערת אגב

מישהו הפנה את תשומת ליבי לאתר של בית הספר הבינלאומי באבן יהודה. הייתי בשוק מוחלט כשראיתי את המשפט הבא:

For new students, a one-time registration fee of 20,000 NIS per child in addition to tuition is assessed (this is non-refundable).

ומהמשפט הזה, בכלל התעלפתי

“What do you look for in a friend?” – Until I saw this question, I had never thought about what I look for in a friend. I have never gone looking for friends. I just did what everyone does: went to school. I played on the playground, participated in after school activities and sports, and then when I would meet someone in one of these activities who had similar interests, we would start talking and eventually become friends. Because of this most of the people I became friends with are people who have similar interests to mine.

What really surprised me when I started thinking of this question was that one of my best friends, Jay, did not become my friend until this year. For many years, Jay and I lived down the street from each other and went to the same public schools for 7 years. We both left the public school system in 7th grade and moved to the same private school. We share so many interests: building LEGO sets, playing Minecraft and role playing games, watching Star Wars movies and spending hours reading. We should have become friends because of all of these similarities, but for some reason we never became friends – until this year.

When I think of my friendship with Jay I see what I look for in a friend. Our friendship made me realize that it is great to share similar interests with a friend, but it is even better to be able to have a meaningful conversation about the shared interest. I have so much in common with Jay, that I can start a conversation about almost anything, and we will talk about it for hours. The other thing I like in our friendship is the way we encourage each other (and other people) to get better and excel in the things we like to do, without jealousy or competition.

My parents tell me that until I was six years old I would eat everything, but then all of the sudden I became super picky about what I was eating. This continued until about two years ago where I began trying new foods, and realizing that I liked them. Around the same time my family began watching cooking shows together. These two events sparked an interest in cooking and food for me. It amazed me that in the cooking shows, the contestants would be able to create an entirely new dish they have never made before. They somehow knew what flavors would go well together. This really intrigued me and made me want to learn about flavor palettes.

 Watching cooking shows has taught me a little about flavor palettes, and it has ignited my interest. I want to learn how to balance out flavors, and what flavors work well together. In addition, I want to learn why certain flavors work well together (like balancing sour with sweet flavors) and why others don’t. And last, I want to learn why humans like certain flavors and not others. 

Now that I know that I am interested in food and am willing to taste new things, I am planning to start learning about food palettes. I want to begin taking extra-curricular classes on cooking, baking and food palettes. I also want to take some classes on chemistry and biology to understand what reactions happen in our bodies when we eat certain foods, and how that affects how we view certain flavors. I have a feeling that learning about this will be a lot of fun, and that it can lead me to an entirely new passion in my life.

This year, my science teacher, Cory, has been showing me an entirely different method of learning. Unlike most of my previous teachers, Cory does not teach out of a textbook. Instead, the class conducts experiments and he encourages us to try figuring out what phenomena we are seeing in the experiment. As opposed to most of the experiments I have done in the past, he does not explain what is happening or why it is happening. Although he gives us the information we need to figure it out, he pushes us to investigate, be creative and find out what is happening on our own. This is both challenging and intriguing and it drives me to learn and understand the content.

One experiment we did was an elephant toothpaste experiment. We mixed hydrogen peroxide and yeast in a container, then put a balloon on top of the container. We saw a liquid that looked like water, and some gas inflated the balloon. Back in class, Cory told us that the chemical formula for hydrogen peroxide is H2O2 and explained that the yeast was a catalyst, which just speeds up the chemical reaction. He then challenged us to figure out what was going on. We brainstormed ideas and realized that two hydrogen peroxide molecules were turning into water (two H2O molecules) and Oxygen (one O2 molecule). During the school year we did many experiments, similar to this one. All of the experiments were interesting and pushed me to learn and understand the concepts.

Cory’s way of teaching has challenged me and pushed me in ways I have never experienced before. This way of teaching gets me thinking about why things work the way they do, instead of just how they work. For example, when we learned about atoms bonding, I wondered why carbon and 4 hydrogen atoms form covalent bonds instead of ionic bonds. I was intrigued by this question, so I investigated it on my own, and found out it is because it requires less energy.

I am now exercising this way of thinking in the other subjects I learn. For example, instead of just learning about historical events, I am asking about the reasons they occurred and their implications on history. I hope that my future high school experience will continue to challenge and encourage me to investigate and ask more profound questions, as I have learned to do in Cory’s class.

Each person has unique characteristics that define who they are. Choose three words that best describe you as a person, and explain how they represent you.

Happy – my teachers always say that it is great to see me in the morning as I always come in with a smile. They say that I create a good vibe around me and that it helps the students I am working with to have a positive attitude towards the task we are working on.

Reader – I started reading when I was in kindergarten, and never stopped since. I love reading. When I wake up in the morning, when I come home from school, when I am sad, or when I am happy – I read. During the quarantine I read over 500 pages every day and this helped me get through this period (My mom says our sofa has the shape of my body as I have been sitting in the same place reading throughout the pandemic).

I read anything that comes through my hands, but nowadays I am mostly interested in sci-fi and fantasy.

Learner – I was always a good student, but as soon as I moved to Helios in 7th grade, I realized I had never actually learned before.

The learning experience at Helios is so engaging. We learn in smaller classes and the teachers pay more attention to me, pushing me to expand on what we are learning in class, applying my knowledge from one subject to another and using it to further investigate topics which are not in the school’s curriculum.

Describe EITHER an academic/extracurricular achievement OR a challenge that had a meaningful impact on you. What did it take to accomplish the achievement or overcome the challenge and what did you learn from that experience?

The Jewish Bar Mitzvah is a ceremony held to mark this transition of a 13 years old boy into adulthood. Usually, the boy would read a specific passage  from the Bible aloud in front of friends and family at a big party.

Last year, a few months before I turned 13, my parents and I decided to have a more meaningful journey

The journey started by talking about things that were important to me. Then I read the specific passage from the Bible, making note of things I thought were important and related to my life. I began making as many connections as I could between the passage to my life, highlighting the ones I thought were most important and related to me. I found similarities between the characters in the passage and me, and I wrote a speech about what I had found. I ended up presenting a 15 minutes speech about three major themes in the passage and how they reflected in my life, and how I share some of the characters’ traits.

I feel the critical thinking process I used in my Bar-Mitzvah journey gained me a lot more than I expected. I not only gained new knowledge, but also found meaning in what I did which then connected me back and allowed me to develop new perspectives of something I was sure I knew all about: Me. This process was so meaningful to me that I have been using it in many other projects since then.

The Stormlight Archive is a series of books about a group of people, the Radiants, who begin to discover they have super powers. They learn that their powers are the same as those of the ancient Radiants, who were trying to protect humanity, but eventually gave up. The characters realize that they must now protect humanity from the disaster the ancient Radiants were trying to prevent, while trying to change public opinion about the mistakes the ancient Radiants made.

The character development is what makes the series great. Each character has two sides to their personality: their current better self and a bad past they are trying to overcome. The constant struggle between the two sides of their personalities is incredibly interesting. Their struggle feels realistic, because although their personal issues improve, they never really go away, much like in real life.

Another reason I like the series is that it is part of a larger universe. The author, Brandon Sanderson, has written several standalone series of books, however, they are all connected as part of the same universe. The universe has some general rules, but each world has different manifestations of these rules. You can read each series individually, and even if you read several of the series you might not realize they are connected. Once you start looking for connections though, the reading becomes a lot more interesting. You begin seeing the general rules of the universe taking effect, and some characters popping up in multiple series. This is intriguing and I am constantly looking for new connections, or learning new things about this universe on the universe's wiki.

 
YouTube Direct

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(If you are asking yourself whay are all the punctionation marks, mostly periods at the end of the sentences, are misplaced in the English posts – the answer is: it is time to move to a new posting system – WordPress sucks!)

Kfir is applying to some private high-schools. With-in this horrible (horrible, horrible) process, not only does Kfir has to write a lot of long answers (basically short essays), but his parents have to respond to some questions as well.

I would have hated doing it in Hebrew, so you can imagine how hard it is for me to do it in English

It's not hard to praise Kfir (or any of our kids) , he is a great kid (and I am very objective about it 🙂 ), but it is hard to write it in a way that will show what I think about him, with a high enough language that would overcome the other parents' reviews about their kids…

Well, I am not the right person to use high language. Maybe they'll accept him because   they'll see that even though his mom is not as adducent as others (yes, I did mean adducent and not fluent), he was able to overcome this impediment and became great student…

Anyways, I am so much better in parents interviews. It allows me to show how …passionate I am about him and his capabilities

Anyways, we've spent so much time writing this, I wouldn't want them to the abyss of  oblivion (and maybe we could use them in the future for another kid… This is the only good thing I can say about this process: I have learned a lot, and it will be easier next time).

Oh, that and Mike are the only good things about this process, but Mike is a topic for another post…

So, Here are some of the questions I've answered about Kfir (press the link to open). You don't have to read them all, just know that I bragged a lot…

School #1

School #2

School #3