Success Stories by School Principales and Teachers
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Everyone wants the same: that they succeed
December 2018
A School Principal about the Last Hurdle Program
"Last Hurdle created a positive educational space between the teacher and the student, because the student felt that there was someone who supports him and takes care of his success, a feeling he did not feel clearly and emphatically before. Moreover, there is more trust and cooperation between teachers and students, because everyone wants the same: that the students succeed."
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"Everyone is able"
December 2018
A teacher in the Last Hurdle Program
"I think the idea behind the program that every student is able, that every student can succeed at school, I believe it personally too.
The program comes in line with what I think and believe.
When I worked in the Last Hurdle Program, I enjoyed a lot and was convinced even more and believed even more that every student could succeed."
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"A higher rate of eligibility of matriculation "
December 2018
A School Principal in the Druze Sector
"In the end, this led to an increase in the percentage of success in all subjects, and not only in the Last Hurdle subject.
When a teacher that was not part of the Last Hurdle Program realized that one of his students succeeded in the mathematics program while talking to other teacher, he began to think that he, too, could bring this same student to success in his class.
Then the transformation begins and the Eligibility rate becomes higher."
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"I'm proud of my students who learned that everyone can do it"
October 2007
“I’m proud of my students who learned that ‘everyone can do it”Ruth Biton
Tafnit “Start” Program coordinator
Zayin Comprehensive School, BeershebaAnd in conclusion…
Three years ago I was chosen to coordinate a new, unfamiliar program – the Tafnit “Start” Program.
I had no idea what I was getting into, although I understood that the job required enthusiasm, motivation, and belief that we were right.
I was thrown into a whirlwind of work and activity in front of a group of students whose only connection to school and studies was purely coincidental.
The students lacked study skills and belief in their abilities. School was at best .a social club for them, or otherwise just a place to “mess around”.
For the school these students were a bothersome, annoying nuisance without any suitable framework, and the greatest aspiration for them was that they wouldn’t disturb others, and maybe even complete 12 years of school.
The Tafnit Program methods are special and unique. The requirements from the teachers, the coordinators, and primarily from the students, are demanding and rigorous. However the support and advice from the program advisor – Mr. Motti Shitrit – was of great help. Every problem, whether from the teachers, school management, parents or students, was solved by him. Without such help, I am in no doubt that I would have been unable to do my job.
After three years of dealing with a large number of difficulties, sometimes progressing and sometimes regressing, I finally reached the finishing line with 35 students most of whom will be eligible for a full matriculation certificate, with the others missing one or two subjects. In any event, I am proud to have completed three years as a coordinator and proud of my students who have learned an important lesson in life including ‘everyone can do it’ is not just a cliché.
I am full of pride that I have played a part in a true revolution in the system, a revolution that devotes much attention to the pupils who have fallen between the cracks, who have minimal self-confidence, with the program concerned with improving their status in their own eyes and that of society around them.
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"The Program principles have created a revolution in our school"
October 2007
“The Program principles have created a revolution in our school”
Mrs. Matty Mindlin
PrincipalVav Comprehensive High School
Be'er-sheva
Tafnit Program’s “Start Success” Program classes have been functioning in the Vav Comprehensive School in Beersheba in three grade levels. There are 150 students in the 12th grade classes, comprising around 20% of those in the high school.
The first class has just graduated at the end of the 2006-2007 school year, and 40-42 students out of a total of 48 will be eligible for a matriculation certificate. These students usually started off with hidden dropout, problems with behavior and functioning, and with a 9th grade report card showing failing grades in many subjects.
The principles of Tafnit Program’s “Start Success” class have created a school revolution. The change has come about through involving an external body; however the program has been carried out by the school teaching staff.
The change necessitated hard work and demands for both the students and the teachers, with our central motto being the idea that success is a function of the amount of effort. The principles of the program quickly proved that success is possible and that everyone can do it. Both the teacher and the student.
The program brought success and a sense of satisfaction to a large group of students, as well as the large number of teachers who took part. Our educational credo, together with both the teaching staff and the management, is that we believe that success is not measured only by grades and examination results, but also by the level of responsibility that every participant learned, and by the level of determination and strength everyone gained from the program, to continue to participate in it and set himself greater future challenges.
These characteristics of belief in one’s abilities, changes in the organization of learning and teaching; disciplinary guidance; the Tafnit Program’s success-orientated and “mock” examinations; concentrated, marathon study days just before matriculation examinations, while at the same time paying attention to the study environment and teaching conditions, all allowed our students and teachers to succeed.
Success was infectious. Students, teachers and parents underwent an experience that left each one full of satisfaction at the results. The school’s atmosphere became primarily infused with action, but I also can identify the beginnings of group pride with the students, teachers and parents having a greater sense of belonging.
In conclusion, I would like to thank all those who are partners in our educational work with emphasis on disadvantaged populations – to the Ministry of Education, to the Beersheba Municipality Educational Department, the Rashi Foundation, the Tafnit Program and the honorable donors.
A special thank you goes to the Program’s creator, Mr. Nissim Cohen, the director of the Tafnit Program and to Motti Shitrit, advisor and program coordinator at the Vav Comprehensive School, Beersheba.
Matti Mindlin,
Principal of the Vav Comprehensive School
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"The success story is the change that has taken place in our school"
October 2007
"The success story is the change that has taken place in our school".
Selait
Tafnit “Start” Program Coordinator for Matriculation, dropout prevention
Zayin Comprehensive School, BeershebaThe success story is essentially the change that has taken place in our school.
The change that has taken place in our school – at management level, with the teachers teaching those classes, and with a ripple effect on all the teachers in the staffroom, and the students.
The students – they have started to see themselves as part of the school. Their self-confidence and self-image have been boosted. The most significant change amongst the students, whether or not they were eligible for full matriculation or only partial, is that they have learned not to give up on themselves, to take responsibility for their actions, to set themselves goals and, most importantly, they have learned to dream and to realize their
Dreams. The dreams are verbalized in the questions that the students have begun to ask themselves about the future – What should I do in the army? What do I want to study? What do I want to do with my life?
The teachers – without a doubt in the first year, and even last year, there were teachers who remained skeptical about the program’s success in general and the students’ success in particular. Gradually the teachers themselves experienced the sweet taste of success with their pupils and began to believe that miracles can indeed happen, with hard work and lots of faith. The teachers began to use the teaching methods and the thinking process in
many different classes that they were teaching.
The school management – as soon as the school management was provided with the tools and the chance to allow the “weak” and “badly behaved” pupils to remain in the school, they were not prepared to give up on even a single pupil, and were thus able to apply the school’s credo.
“If you don’t believe in miracles, you are unrealistic.”
Golda Meir