The kids started their 3rd week of school today. There were a few minor things they had to adjust to: the “weekend” is Friday and Sunday, they wear uniforms, and they have to carry their lunch every day. Surprisingly though, I was completely wrong about who would adjust better. To begin with, Maggie was by far the most excited about starting a new school. She had been telling people for months how she was going to learn Arabic and make…
I can’t really answer the question what the schools are like because I have only been able to go to 1 school so far. I really enjoyed the school, but I know that any one (of anything) is not a full picture. I have been able to attend 2 classes: 1 English and 1 Writing. Both were actually good. The English class was really interesting. It was grade 11, I believe. She was reviewing past tenses: simple, continuous and perfect….
When I was in St. Petersburg my senior year of high school our hosts referred to the field trips we took as “excursions.” This cracked me up. I don’t know why I found it so hilarious, but I had never heard that term used before. In MS, they are just plain ol’ field trips. So because of that, I always think of anything slightly educational as “excursions” now. Last weekend (Sept 25) we took an excursion to a nearby province…or…
Here is Will’s interview after his 3rd day of school! After school – Will: What was the most fun thing? The most fun thing is recess. On Saturday, the day that our class and one other class gets the field, I go down to play soccer. On other days, I walk around and see if anyone wants to play. What was one thing that was different? One thing that was different was it is in Palestine. People speak Arabic. What…
Today was my first class in Arabic. It began at 8 am so I had to travel from my apartment (north of the city) to the class in the center. We have only traveled by taxi and someone had told me that you can prearrange a taxi, but I was too chicken to talk to the cab driver the day before. I thought I’d go to the cab office in the morning and ask. Ha! In the morning there are…
As I have mentioned before, my research deals with finding better ways of teaching writing for Arabic speaking students. Possibly using oral history as a motivator to WANT to write and thus gain better proficiency. To get a handle on the situation and how it is taught in the schools here, I am doing 3 main things: 1) taking an Arabic language course 2) observing English writing classrooms and 3) interviewing teachers and students. Class starts Tuesday: check. So the…
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…
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…
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…