Anat and Ido,

Please forward to Yonny as I don't have his address.

I wanted to offer some econ feedback from one person's perspective.  I would strongly suggest some easy changes for next year's econ class if it involves Mr. Brodet.  The following comments aren't a criticism of him, just some feedback that culminated for me.

** The most important point is that I would strongly suggest that Mr. Brodet's final exam be a final paper instead.  With the below points, you'll hopefully see why.  Although these points really only impact the internationals, to be fair to the entire class, the paper is the best course of action.

     Mr. Brodet uses the dry erase board as a key teaching element.  He uses Hebrew words written on the board to drive home points through-out a 90 minute lecture.  If you can't read Hebrew then you miss significant elements of the lecture.  For example, in one lesson he listed elements of Macro-economics.  It wasn't until after the lesson was over, when I was able to have Yulia translate them, that I understood the list.  Obviously the lesson was long over at this point.  As another example, I remember him saying later in the lesson while pointing to a word on the board, "this point here..." and then would continue talking about it.  By using the pronoun instead of the noun, the interpretors dont repeat the noun.  So, as an international, I had no idea what "this" was.  

     After some brainstorming we decided to have "the booth" open up a word document and translate as he taught.  This was helpful, however it is quite challenging for the interpreters to do this while also working.  I would strongly suggest that an ISMO person be present during his lectures to work the issue.  

     As you know, Tali takes computer based notes during all lectures.  For classes with tests, these notes are a useful study tool.  For the take home open -notes test we had late 2017, these notes would have been very useful while taking the test.  For Mr. Brodet's test these notes were critical.  Too late in the game, we asked ISMO to translate but it was overwhelming for them and they weren't able to due it completely.  Tali's notes are provided to all Hebrew reading students, obviously.  However, I would suggest that for all classes with end of course tests that these notes be translated into English, as the standard, and offered to the international students.  In brainstorming with ISMO, they suggested that one of the internationals could also take notes on a laptop.  However, with the Brodet example, these would be quite challenging and incomplete.  

     Finally, Mr Brodet doesn't teach out of a text.  So, a student can only follow along via class lectures. Studying therefore is 100% from those in class lectures.  I wonder, does he use an outline that could be provided to the class?  

Open for your discussion.

Cheers,

Doug