The new year
Assignment: Every year we wish each other a new year, make resolutions and plans, make wishes to our loved ones and for our fellow citizens for peace, prosperity...
What wish do you have for the new year that you think has a chance of coming true...
Shai Aron
For the new year, I would like to wish for all of us a more stable economy. I really think it will happen, because the situation cannot get much worse than it already is. I want to wish for alot more, but I suspect it will not come true. Another thing I wish for is for Maccabi Haif to win Mancester United...and I have to believe it can really happen!
Remembering September 11
Tehila Amselem
It was 4 p.m. I had been nervous before an optometrist check-up. Then I heard about the unexpected news about the first building. When I look at all the pictures of September 11, it reminds me how worried I was about my brother--he worked in the same unit with the first building. It was a feeling I can't describe. After a few days, we talked with him. But even now, a year after, I can't believe what happened.
Langston Hughes
"Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly."
Roneli Yeshurun
I think this is a beautiful poem. I agree with the writer: If a person doesn't have something to wish for, then he has no goal; and then he doesn't have anything to live for.
When a person has dreams, then during his life, he will try to make them come true. And when he does, he feels satisfaction, he achieved something. The life we live should be interesting in order for us to have fun and like it. Having dreams gives us something to hold onto and look forward to. It gives us a reason to live.
You can create dreams as much as you want to. The more dreams you have, the more you have to taste of life.
Not all dreams come true, and they always stay just dreams. That's OK. But those that do are worth everything you've been through to get there.
Shai Aron
That is a beautiful poem, but is it true? In some ways, yes. Without dreams there is no ambition. But dreams can also let you down, break your heart.
My opinion is that you should know the difference between dreams and fantasies.
Starry, Starry Night
In conjunction with a new unit on Astronomy and Astrology, "Looking Up: The Universe and Beyond, students listened to poems and songs.
Jack London--"I would rather be a meteor
every atom of me in magnificent glow
Then a sleepy and permanent planet.
"
The Rainbow Connection, sung by Kermit the Frog
Starry, Starry Night, Don McLean, viewing in conjunction Van Gogh's masterpiece.
Shai Aron
I have heard "Starry, Starry Night" so many times in my life and always thought that it is a nice song. But I never knew what it is about and today I was blown away by it. I suppose I did not listen, I did not know how, perhaps I'll listen now.
Tehila Amselem
"How I Understand What you Tried to Say to Me..."
We all have hard times in our life when it all looks dark and there is no hope around us. This line reminded me of some difficult period in my childhood when all the people close to me tried to explain to me that the world works as you take it. If you will be sad and frustrated, that's how your life is going to be. But if you will start to smile at the world, it will smile back. You can't see that when you are having hard times but now I understand what you tried to say to me.
Yuval Matan Kishik
If a man says that he understands you, your feelings and your actions, does he really understand? Do you really know the man or woman you live with, is he insane? Are you insane? And who decides insanity in the world? Actually, nobody knows what is sanity or insanity. So just loving and understanding the people that you live with, and always remember that people sometimes act strange. Maybe it's not so strange or wierd and unacceptable.
Ronely Yeshurun
I picked the song "Starry, Starry Night" by Don McLean.
I always loved this song, it's so beautiful and every time I hear it, I want to cry.
Only recently, I found out that the song is talking about Van Gogh and his painting, "Starry, Starry Night".
In high school, I studied art of the 20th century. I learned about Van Gogh and about this painting. When I first saw the painting it was hard for me to accept it, because it is very different from what I was used to seeing. We learned about the artist's history, he was a crazy man but also a lonely and poor man. In art, Van Gogh is considered an expressionist artists. In all his paintings, he uses strong colors and lines. All his paintings are powerful.
When I realized that the song is talking about this painting and Van Gogh, I started looking at it differently. Suddenly, I fell in love with the painting. I saw how powerful it is and how it influences me. Now, for the first time I heard the song while I was looking at the painting, and I got very excited. The combination of this powerful song that talks about this poor artist, that like me, at the beginning nobody understood, and the pwoerful painting, almost made me cry.
Leaving
Saying good-bye to people is often very hard, even for a little while, and even harder forever…
Sometimes we do it for our own good, and sometimes we don't have a choice, and sometimes we do it without thinking that this is what will happen…
Listen to the songs. What comes up?
Our songs:
Follow the Sun, the Beatles
Leaving on a Jet Plane, sung by Peter, Paul and Mary
I'll Never Find Another You, the Seekers
Turn, Turn, Turn sung by The Byrds, based upon a passage from Ecclesiastes
I Will Survive, Gloria Gaynor, sung by Aretha Franklin
Yuval Matan Kishik
This is the time to "Turn, Turn, Turn." To everything in life there is its time, things are happening with or without our will. "A time to build up, a time to break down." But it is important that we will have our mission in life, and to be ready to "Turn, Turn, Turn." To lern to expect the good and the bad, in love.
Ronely Yeshurun
"Breaking Up"
There are many kinds of break ups. Breaking up is always hard, and it doesn't matter between who or why it happened. When you need to say goodbye to someone you love or used to be with, it is hard to give him up. Break ups can be caused by a choice or not. For example, you may have to break up from a family member who goes abroad to live or to study. this is an example of breaking up without being asked, it wsn't your choice. But sometimes people decide to break up because they think it would be better for both of them. In that case, even though the breaking up happened from a choice, it still hurts.
Break ups can happen when two people don't get along anymore, or when two side choose different ways to walk through. When people break up, whether its because they want to or not, they know they'll have to get over it in order to continue with their regular lives. Sometiems, it would be harder and sometimes it would be much easier. It depends on the person you break up with, how much time you spent with him, and how much he means to you.
Shai Aron
Goodbyes
There are many different types of goodbyes.
All of them occur in separation when we hear about someone or something who is leaving or being left.
We almost automatically get a sad feeling of loss.
But the fact of life is that everyone and everything we know, at stome point, will have to leave.
Whether we like it or not,
Whether we chose it or not. In the end we'll even be forced to leave ourselves.
But not to worry. Every end is a new beginning.
Goodbye.