So today we’re going to be talking about being famous, because I am. I started my work when I was 7 years old. I have been doing it for 1 day. And I’m famous! Hehehe. Ok, that didn’t really happen, but it is my famousness so I can say whatever I want. I’m famous for a fun run that I did and I got a picture for doing it! So first we went to the fun run and we walked…
After school – Maggie: What was the most fun thing? I can’t answer that because everything was fun. What was one thing that was different? Can I name 2 things? Everybody speaks Arabic and we had different teachers for every class. The teachers move, but we don’t. What is your favorite class so far? Art. Because we get to color, draw and she (teacher) looks pretty. She is also the music teacher for my school and Will’s school. How did…
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…
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…
