I’m really interested in how the kids do at school. Mostly I’d like to know how the home side of an ESL (or in this case ASL – Arabic as a Second Language) is for a student. So, I’m doing a little side research on that. The kids are getting interviewed to see how things go. Pre-questions: Will: He will be in the upper school. Will is excited. He is however, NOT going to tell anyone that. He keeps saying…
Still on school vacation. I’ve never been more ready to go back to school! In the meantime, we are entertaining ourself by tooling around town. We went out on Tuesday and the city was quiet. Everyone was home with their families still. There were a few shops open (maybe the Christian ones?) so we were able to get our shopping done. On our short list of things that we needed in the apartment (and couldn’t do without): stoppers for…
It’s been fun playing with language the past few weeks. I spent the first week trying out the Hebrew expressions that a nice girl on the plane ride over shared with me. Now that I’ve completed our first week in Palestine, I’ve switched over to Arabic. Basically, all I know are some survival Arabic expressions, but I’ve been using them on anyone who will listen. It’s pretty amazing how quickly you can pick up some phrases when you’re immersed in…
During my time here, we aren’t just hanging out and eating good food. (Hard to believe, right?) The purpose, funded by Fulbright DAT, is to research methods in teaching writing to native Arabic speakers, perhaps by using oral history as the tool and motivating factor. Many of the native Arabic speakers that I have taught in the past have struggled the most with writing. As I speak to more people, anecdotally I have been told that many Arabic speakers have a…
Just in case you’re wondering, here’s this week’s forecast!
It kind of reminds me of “Always Accurate,” a great Woot shirt Will likes to wear…
The VERY first thing we did the morning after arriving was to register the kids at school. We weren’t sure what city we would be located in until about 3-4 weeks before we left, so we didn’t start contacting schools until that time. The first 2 or three schools just flat said no. Registration for private schools begins in March. The kids can’t go to public schools because we aren’t local citizens. Luckily we contacted someone who was able to…
Forty-eight hours in our home for the next 4 months, we have finally settled in. As Dan said, we walked through the apartment and it looked fine, but when we got in and started looking at everything, it has only been superficially cleaned. It was apparently a disaster before so I’m glad we didn’t see it that way! The next morning, we headed first to register the kids at school (more later) and then dug in cleaning. Stripped the beds, bleached every…
Ok, today we are going to jump right into it. Right in early at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Ok, that was kinda funny because it isn’t really bright and early. It is 2 o’clock in the afternoon! That is not bright and early! So much for jumping right in! But it is kinda early because we usually do it at 7 o’clock at night and that is kinda a really big deal. Today I am going to talk about…