Summery of the first month
Kassem Al Tarras
Dear all,
I miss you so much. This is a brief summery of last month which was the first after the arrival from the US.
My family was waiting for me at Damascus Airport. I was so pleased to hug them warmly with flashes in my mind of my last minutes leaving Philadelphia Airport.Your words Baereble have come true. In Jordan you said that I wanted to see you at the end of the program so happy going back home but at the same time sad leaving those people and that area. I believe that you and the staff of the P4L went beyond teachers’ success into a great achievement that I can’t give a name but I can feel and we all need it.
My family and my friends:
Right from the beginning my cousin was driving me home with my family in the car and they started asking me about America and the American life. I told them, and later my friends, how beautiful the nature is and kind the people are. I showed them the photos. They liked them and asked for explanation. Who is this in the picture, where and what were you doing?
After my arrival I slept for six hours and went immediately into business. There was a book fair started the same day, so I went there and continued managing things for the bookstore again.
After three days I started my new course in the institute.
My students:
There is a sentence in the workbook talks about the Empire State Building. I made use of this sentence and told them that I have been there. Then I developed it and talked briefly about Delaware as the first state. They have never heard about it, but now they know a little bit about it and quite well about the people there.
The first week I was concentrating on students’ projection through out taking roles in acting some conversations and using the body language at the same time.
Last week we had a unit about Telling Tales. I put students in groups and we wrote the first two sentences of a story on sheets of paper. Then each group added one sentence only. After that I circled the sheets and again each group added another sentence. Finally, we got different stories of the same theme. I am planning to do it again but this time using emails. A student adds a sentence and passes it to another one with a CC to the teacher. (Thank you very much Deb. Really you’ve got useful ideas and activities that can be adapted in our classes).
I also attended with my students two movies in the American Culture Center. The first one was “The Road to Perdition” and the second “My left Foot”. Students loved the second one so much. We did some vocabulary activities in class the next day.
I met an American in Damascus who is very special. He is a rap singer, so I invited him to class and he had a lovely conversation with students. It happened that he lives in Washington D.C. and studies National Affairs at University, so he talked about that. He had his laptop with him and we listened to a song of his.
My Colleagues:
Last Saturday we started our first teachers’ meeting in the institute. Some of the teachers were waiting eagerly to talk to me after my arrival. During the meeting I summarized the P4L program and gave them two important reasons for why they should be interested in this program. The first one, they still have a good chance to be directly involved in the program next year because this is the first year in Syria and there might be other programs. The second one, they are indirectly one of the participants as far as I am supposed to share what I had with them.
I drew a sketch of the map of Delaware and the states around it. I put the teachers within the general atmosphere.
I made a list of the books in the box and handed it out to the teachers after explaining about the idea of Books in a Box. I told them that I am ready to share them and they can use them as materials for themselves and their students.
I picked an important book out of the box “A Course in Language Teaching” and I suggested making a photocopy of it, then splitting it into chapters and giving each teacher a chapter to give a workshop about it. They all welcomed the idea and I will be the first one next month, so please wish me a good luck. Next meeting, I will provide them with a list of the workshops we attended and the ones of the mini conference we did. I will email you the lists on the yahoo group so that you don’t need to do them again in case you need them.
The public school in Syria is starting in two weeks. Hopefully, I will have a good start there. Well begun is half done.
Finally, I would like to thank Dr. Scott Stevens very much. I remember when he visited us in the institute in Damascus and we first heard about the program, one of the things he mentioned is that this was the third year for Morocco and some other countries. I asked him at that time to give us some of the results of the program and he did. However, I myself can touch, feel and possibly say the results now.
Thanks also to Mr. Abed Al Raouf Adawan in the ACC in Damascus. He was the first face I saw for this program and the bright face all the time supportive and of great help.
posted by Kassem @ 2:23 AM
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