Last year, Estelle Halak-Tastasa, her husband, Yossi, and their three children left their home in Israel for a 10-month adventure travelling through Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand and China.
“It was the most amazing thing we did, ever,” said Halak-Tastasa, who taught the children – now 12, 9 and 3 – while they were travelling. “We dreamed about it a long, long time [before we went.]”
This summer they embarked on another – less exotic – adventure, leaving Israel again, this time to experience life in Toronto, where they have family.
On Sundays, Halak-Tastasa, 40, can be found at Kachol Lavan, the Centre for Hebrew and Israeli Studies, where she teaches Grade 1.
“It is special to work at Kachol Lavan,” said Halak-Tastasa, who also works part-time at a daycare centre. “We’re doing the studies with a lot of songs and stories.” The teachers plan their classes together and share a common philosophy, she said.
Halak-Tastasa likes to include songs, art, drama and games as part of her lessons. She believes the experiential component helps students feel connected to what they’re learning about.
“When we need to teach them stories from the Bible,” she offered as an example, “I think the best way to really get to know the stories is with songs and drama, because if students are just hearing the stories, they’re not really feeling them.”
Halak-Tastasa’s classes are conducted in Hebrew with exceptions only when necessary, if students don’t understand. “I want them to love the language,” she said.
An Israeli who was born in Lebanon and lived there until she was a year and a half old, Halak-Tastasa grew up in Herzliyah, the second of four children in her family.
From an early age, she worked with kids, looking after her two younger siblings, babysitting, and working as a youth movement leader. She remembers saying as a small child that she would be a teacher when she grew up.
But it was only after she finished her army service and spent a few months at Neot Hakikar, a moshav near the Dead Sea, that she found the specific direction she wanted to pursue after observing a class that her aunt taught there. “She had a girl in her class who was deaf. It was amazing how she worked with her. It was fascinating to me.”
Halak-Tastasa went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in education at Tel Aviv University in 1996, specializing in hearing disabilities and learning disabilities, as well as community theatre studies.
Among other teaching positions on her CV, Halak-Tastasa taught and served as special education co-ordinator at the pluralistic (religious and non-religious) Keshet School in Zichron Yaakov from 2005 to 2009.
As well, she has a background in reflexology, aromatherapy and guided imagery, and has worked as a doula, providing support to women during childbirth, and pre- and post-natally.
A lesson from the teacher: “I think people need to know what their dreams are, and do something to fulfil them.”
