Why I Love Or Yehuda

I visited Or Yehuda today with my friend Ilan. Or Yehuda is a city full of motivated teachers, bright eyed students, and digital boox. 

How can I not love them? 

Ilan started off by offering me a cup of nana (mint) tea. Not bad. 

But then we spied the Shiba.  Tea with shiba always brings me back to my first days in Israel back in 1969. 

We went with the shiba. 

The first people we met were the folks from Laha”va. They are Ourboox enthusiasts. Lilach wrote us a whole ‘megilla’ on things we can do to improve the website and community. 

She offered to volunteer to help. I told her that she will get nothing for her hard work except a box of Godiva chocolates. She negotiated and won. She will have a box of Leonidas chocolate. 

Only the best for our volunteers!

We visited many kindergartens which have already created boox on our platform. 

How exciting!

We visited Gan Hahartsit…

And Gan Hacalanit…

And Gan Erez

In Or Yehuda, they are crazy about flowers and plants. They name their schools and children after them. 

They have gardens in the kindergartens and schools (something we never had in Canada). 

And when there are no plants, they plant artificial ones. I hope the kids know the difference. 

The kindergarten teachers here are AMAZING!

They hang seas on walls. 

They collect water condensate from the air conditioners into old containers and the children use them to irrigate the garden. 

They have their own puppet shows on television. 

We met Michal, the principal of a very cool school.

She has a box for paper refuse.

Ourboox is making that box superfluous too.

Michal and her senior teachers are Ourboox addicts. They believe in what I call “reverse literacy” – children not only as consumers of literature, but also creators of their own literature. 

We met Aviv, an even cooler artist whose students (kids in Grade five!!!!) use every trick in the book to make beautiful constructs. 

Here is the history of their city in copper. 

In Or Yehuda, the teachers and kindergarten teachers were motivated and excited. 

I hope they stay that way forever!!!

After all, who says that school can’t be cool!!!