JACK PILLEMER'S HOME PAGE
GeoCities is closing on October 26, 2009.
On October 26, 2009, this site will no longer be active.
The site has moved tohttp://jackpillemer.etni.org
Thank you David Lloyd for enabling this move
Thank you Yahoo - Geocities for years of free service
Hi! I'm Jack Pillemer.
I have been teaching English in Jerusalem, Israel for the last 25 years or so. I have taught all levels and all ages from adults at the Foreign Ministry to pre-schoolers who have never been exposed to English before. Most of my teaching, though, has concentrated on high school students at the Mae Boyar High School.
Besides actual teaching, I write articles to be used
as teaching aids, create activities, exercises, crossword puzzles and so on, direct a pre-reading preparation program in primary schools , co-direct an extensive program of involvement in the Central Galilee region, mark matriculation exams, give workshops, and have recently co-written (with Sue Kerman) an English teaching course book called CHOICES (ECB) for high school - Proficience Level: stage 1
On this site I will be attempting to do do three things:
1. Provide links to material I have created and have found useful when teaching English.
2. Provide a virtual learning center for my own students to interact with me.
3. Open my door to other teachers so I can learn from them and they can learn from me.
I hope you find the site enjoyable and useful,
Jack Pillemer.
Site last updated Feb. 2007
P.S. If you have lingered here, even for a short while, please take a moment
and sign the guestbook. I notice that the hit counter at the bottom of the page
goes up, but I have no idea who has been here. So please, click on the guestbook
link here or at the end of this page and let me know you've dropped by. If the guestbook is full, feel free to send an email. jackpil@013.net Thank You s.
Click on one of the following links to move on.
Link to Jack Pillemer's Site number 2 This present site is full. Geocities requires me to pay to host a bigger site so instead I have simply created another site on Geocities and I'll continue there. The site is at www.oocities.org/pillemerjack
Recanati-Chais-Rashi Award for the Entrepreneur Teacher In 2004 I was honoured to be the recipient of this prize. By and large the materials up on this site - the ideas and methodology as well as the concept of sharing different projects and iniatives was considered to be innovative. The link above leads you to an English description of the Recanati-Chais-Rashi Award for the Entrepreneur Teacher. Here is a link to description(in Hebrew)of my iniative and the reason it was chosen
Jack Pillemer's Initiative -If you are doing something interesting in teaching or you know of someone else who is, go to site and get more information.
Runner Up of the English Teachers' Award 2008. This link leads to the announcement of the winners and runners up of the The English Prize awarded by the Inspectorate in 2008. I'm pround to have been a runner up.
"The Chief Inspector for English Language Education, recognizes dedication and excellence in teaching. The teachers who were chosen as recipients have made extremely valuable contributions, both to classroom teaching and to the broader Israeli EFL community. Their work reflects dedication, professionalism and inspiration and is worthy of emulation."
Description of my work and my approach to teaching
Interview for ESL CAFE on English-test.net -
A little while back I was contacted by one of the editors the ESL CAFE at www.english-test.net and asked if I would give an interview with regard to my work in English teaching. Here is that interview.
English Teacher as civic educator. The English class - a lot more than English! This is a link to material created for a workshop given in Jerusalem on the 5th of March 2006. The workshop attemted explore how the printed media can be used in teaching the concepts associated with elections and the democratic process as well as the English vocabulary that accompanies them. The aim of the link is to provide the participants [and anyone else who is interested] with access to all the worksheets that were used in the workshop so that they can be used as models for similar work.
Romeo and Juliet-This
site has been created to aid teachers and pupils at Boyar High School in Jerusalem
who are dealing with the play. Of course anyone else is welcome to visit and
use the ideas/links/chat facilitues/forms etc that are available. Send me aditional
ideas and I will happily add them to the site. Thanks to Shlomi (Snunit) and
Gail Mann (ETNI)who have helped me create the site.
Students write-This is a link to some creative writing done by Grade 11 pupils inspired by Romeo and Juliet.
Lyrics Project-
This is a new project (1999) for high level students from grade IX up to native
speakers. Students are asked to find songs with lyrics they like, translate
them, refelect on the process of translation, analyse the lyrics and focus on
the words/ phrases that have special personal appeal. They are then asked to
do some creative writing around the lyrics and to assess their own work.You
will find links to projects that have been done by students and been put up
on the net. Take a look and tell me what you think.
M.A. Dissertation - a study of the Lyrics Project -submitted in part fulfillment of degree of Master of Arts in Applied English Language Studies ? Department of English Languages and Literature, University of Liverpool, UK. July 2004.
Understanding Motivation: student response to a song lyrics project.
An examination of the motivational elements of tasks within a specific EFL project, The Lyrics Projects ? as perceived by Israeli students and teachers, and the implications of the findings for creating motivating EFL tasks.
Pillemer, J.
This link leads you to the ABSTRACT and from there to the full dissertation.
Millennium Project-
This is a new project (1999) for high level students (Grade XI, Grade XII and
Native speakers). It focuses on the twentieth century and gets students to choose,
read, research, write, and present on the subject: "Influencial people of the
20th century". The reading material comes from TIME magazine and can be accessed
on-line. The project is well- constructed, tried and tested and I would be happy
if it were adopted and adapted. Take a look and tell me what you think.
E-mail Writing Project -
a project for students to improve their writing by writing to me and to others
using e-mail. It allows students to work more independently than when in class.This
is one of the first projects I put up on the net.
English through Art - a project for the upper grades -
The project requires students to find famous pieces of art, examine them carefully, describe what they see, do research on one of the artists and the art movements influencing the artist, place the painting in its historical perspective and finally create something personal related to the painting. Oct. 2003
Reporting on Community Service "Mehuyavut Ishit" - a New Curriculum Project for Grade X -
The project requires pupils to use Powerpoint and to give an oral and written presentation about their volunteer work within the community. The project has worked very successfully in my class at Boyar High school (2003). I have created a Word document which describes the full procedure including the rationale drawn from the New Curriculum as well as checklists, forms and reflection pages. Take a look.
Setting up English Rooms for Primary Schools in Netanya - A detailed report on the project
Theoretical paper on the use
of e-mail in English teaching.
This paper was presented in the form of a workshop at the ETAI (English Teachers
Association of Israel) Conference, July 1997.
For a shortened version of the same paper in
HEBREW.
Dead
Poets' Society -
Using the film for teaching literature as well as for general discussion of
the issues raised in the film.?
:-) Time for a laugh (-: -This
link will lead you to a number of very funny pages. Most of them can be used
to add some sparkle to a lesson.
My Work with the Jerusalem Post Youth Magazines - Street [for High Schools and adults ], Zone [for Junior High], Kids and Snap (religious) [for Elementary Schools]- Over the years as a freelancer, I have written articles, created crossword puzzles, created games, activities and exercises, written teachers' guides , acted as a consultant and given workshops. The workshops are aimed at sharing ideas about how a youth magazine/newspaper can be used very effectively in a formal teaching environment.
Teaching English through Content-based
instruction (CBI) focusing on Civics -This
link will take you to a site I created inspired by a 6 week study course on
the subject at Ohio University, Athens, USA during the summer of 1999. The usefulness
of CBI and the vital role for all teachers, including English teachers, in preparing
pupils to be "good citizens" is the main focus. You are invited to help build
the site by responding to the ideas expressed and sharing your own ideas both
theoreical and practical by filling out a form or two or simply e-mailing me.
Quite a few sections are still under construction and a few bugs, especially with regard to sound and video, have to still be ironed out.
Holocaust Memorial Day Activity for upper
grades-This
link will lead you to a page with quotes that relate to the Holocaust and two
suggestions on how to use them.
MECA - Middle East Children Association-
For a few years now, I have been a participant in a group of Israeli and Palestinian English teachers who see education as vitally important to encouraging and accompanying peace in our region. We meet, talk, argue, listen, learn and give support to each other as human beings caught up in this conflict. We get to know each other and, as professional educators, we try to plan English-teaching classroom activities that may encourage pupils on both sides of the conflict not to de-humanize the other.
UPDATE: Since 2007 I have not been actively involved in MECA.
Intergrating computer skills into teaching of EFL/ESL - Course given by myself and Phylis Goldman at David Yellin College of Education 2003 -
This link is still under construction.
Boyar High school English site-
This is a link to the Boyar High School English site. To a large degree, it has has become a continuation of this site since the free space from Geocities is full. Please feel free to browse the site and use whatever you find useful.
Link to Jack Pillemer's Site number 2 This present site is full. Geocities requires me to pay to host a bigger site so instead I have simply created another site on Geocities and I'll continue there. The site is at www.oocities.org/pillemerjack
I would like to thank David Lloyd, founder of ETNI, for inspiring me to move into a new realm of English teaching.
I would also like to thank Avraham Loborbaum for
encouraging me to take bigger steps.
E-mail me at
jackpil@013.net
Please note that the above address has replaced all the other addresses that
you might find on the site. I am trying to get to every reference to my old
addresses which no longer function. It is a time consuming task (that I do not
have the time for!). Please remember to contact me only at this address.
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