Update #12 From AMIT
Yesterday marked the one-month anniversary since the massacre on October 7.
Amir Kalangel, AMIT’s Director of Gogya, and his platoon sang Ha’Tikvah at Kibbutz Beeri, where so much tragedy took place just 30 days ago. Please see a short video of the tribute.
Shifting from Immediate Response to Wartime Routine
As we enter month two, AMIT’s focus is shifting from immediate response into wartime routine. AMIT is managing the needs of the displaced students from Sderot, as well as 40,000 additional students across the country who are in desperate need of some sense of normalcy.
Four New Learning Centers
We put four learning centers into operation for the evacuees of Sderot – in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, the Dead Sea region, and Eilat. An AMIT director, educational team, and national service volunteers are in place at each of these new centers.
We are faced with two top challenges as we attempt to run these “schools.”
1. Low Student Attendance
Many parents are not pushing their children to attend school, given the recent trauma and the instability everyone in Israel is experiencing. AMIT is working directly with both families and students to help them return to class.
2. Transitioning from Informal Programming to Academic Content
Academic learning is being adjusted to be sensitive to students during this difficult time. AMIT’s holistic, student-centered Gogya methodology has been effective in conjunction with AMIT’s 1:15 model (one educator to 15 students), where students belong to a group, guided by an educator who knows them and looks out for their well-being.
The remainder of our students and schools are following the daily guidelines from Home Front Command and regional municipalities regarding the capacity schools can meet, whether in-person, on Zoom, or in a hybrid manner. Schools are also dependent on the number of teachers who have been called to the frontlines. Teacher staffing is another significant challenge in the current climate.
Adapting Skill-Based Learning
AMIT has always placed a focus on skills-based learning. As part, one of the critical skills that we try to instill is self-management. With the wartime routine and recognizing our students’ current challenges, Dr. Michal Aflalo, AMIT’s Director of Assessment and Evaluation, and her team have developed a self-management kit. The foundational aspects of this self-management are a sense of safety, certainty, and clarity. These are areas where students need additional support and guidance during this time.
The kit includes various tools for mapping out our circles of influence and impact; task management tools; task organization tools; a tool for prioritization of tasks and reflective processing, and more.