Wahat al-Salam - Neve ShalomHome > Oasis of Peace > Projects & Outreach > Children’s Educational System > Spotlight on teachers: Yasmin
Spotlight on teachers: Yasmin
Monday 6 June 2016
Yasmin is always smiling when we see her at the school and when she stands in front of the class the kids always look at here and listen intensely. Yasmin was one of the first Palestinian teachers who came to live in Wahat al-Salam - Neve Shalom and to teach in the Primary School. She has been teaching for 19 years, and works primarily with the 1st and 2nd grade with her main subjects being Mathematics, and Culture & Religion.
Yasmin grew up in the town of Lydda (Lid, Lod) 25 kilometers from WASNS. She dream of becoming a teacher early in life: “I have loved educating children in their first years of school for as long as I can remember!” In her free time, she would look after her neighbors’ children. She volunteered as an educator in her neighborhood and as a group-leader in youth-camps. In her last years of high school, she began to work as a substitute teacher at the Christian Orthodox-School in Ramla where senior high school students were allowed to stand in for teachers when needed So, already at the age of 18, she taught mathematics. Later she joined the CRB Foundation Further Education Program for informal Education; there she learned how to teach mathematics in a more applied and creative way. Afterwards, she completed her studies in mathematics and special Education at David Yellin College of Education in Jerusalem.
Before she started teaching here, she worked at various Jewish, Muslim and Christian schools. This enabled her to compare between many different systems, and this was useful to her when she came to teach at the WASNS School. She first joined the School in 1998, at the invitation of then principal Anwar Daoud. After a year of teaching, she began to bring her own children to learn at the School.
Talking about the opportunities and challenges at the school in recent years, Yasmin reveals: “The school enrollment has grown. I’m very happy for the high numbers of applicants for next year. The majority of parents send their children for ideological reasons, to support the idea of peacebuilding and bilingualism, as well as to learn about different religions and narratives. Our main challenge is to go beyond simply educating children to coexist, and to get also the parents to participate in our special programs and social activities. In this way, not just children, but their parents and families, can become agents of change in our society.” Accordingly, the graduates of our school leave the system with the tools, social skills and ability to convey to society the way of life that we and they believe in.
