Nearing Celebrity Status?

"Teacher! Hi, Teacher! Hello, Teacher!"

This is a now familiar chorus that greets me everyday as I pull up to the women's center where I teach my English classes in the village. The students surround the taxi, vying for a turn to open the car door for me. I'm sure I will never be treated more like a celebrity again in my life.

I don't have my own key to the women's center where I teach, so I wait with the early students until we are let in. The time standing outside in the street has become some of the most precious time during my experience here. During the classes, I only speak English, but before class I get to practice my Arabic and learn more about my students than their limited English would otherwise allow. Sometimes we sing songs I have taught them in class. Other times we swap words in English and Arabic, expanding my Arabic vocabulary immensely while helping them build their English word banks. At first the exuberant mob that surrounded me was overwhelming, now I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

After the last class, I get to spend a little more time with my students. I walk to the center of the village to wait for the servees (the shared taxi). A few of the students live close to the place where I wait on the street. They always come out to wait with me. Often they bring their baby brothers and sisters to introduce to me. When it was colder, some of the older boys would build a fire out of the burnable trash they could find. An amusing (if not dangerous) endeavor that had the added benefit of warmth.

Sometimes I meet students and their parents walking along the street as I wait for my ride home. The street is a prime social gathering spot in Deir Al-Hatab as most people walk everywhere in the village. I look forward to building stronger relationships with the adult members of the community, moving beyond the casual meetings on the street. I am making progress in this area as next week I have invitations to the homes of several of my students. To add to the excitement and busyness of the week ahead, I am starting up a girls' football team and a weekly women's English class in the coming days.

Hanging out with the boys before class.

Some of the girls in front of the lemon grove that provides before-class snacks. Yes, they eat raw whole lemons.

The girls on their perch where they wait for me to arrive.

Two of the girls show off a poster they made for our classroom highlighting some of our newest vocabulary. 

Mohammed and Mohanned came to me at the bottom of the pack but are nearing the middle of the class.

Rafif is the sweetest student I have. She is working hard to catch up after a stint in the hospital. 

Four of my best, most enthusiastic students.

Inclement Weather: a Cause for Celebration?

Today was my first ever day off from school as a teacher. I'm not sure what to call it. It wasn't a snow day; there was absolutely no snow. Maybe a rain day or perhaps a hail day? Well, despite not knowing what to call it, it was lovely. Why didn't I realize that days off from school are even more magical when you are the teacher?

The weather turned out to be considerably pleasant: only a few showers, a little bit of hail, and a surprising amount of sunshine. The past two days were comparably worse. Despite my negative feelings towards the cold and white precipitation falling from the sky, my fellow Nebulsi citizens seemed to find it an occasion to celebrate. Or in the very least, an occasion of such rarity that it inspired true awe.

Yesterday, as the hail started falling, I went to my window to inspect the substance making small tapping sounds against the glass. Although, I had seen it hail before in Nablus, this was different. It came down so hard and fast that it actually started to collect on the street below. People wiped it off of the cars parked on the street, tossing the icy precipitation around with their bare hands.

As I stood at my window, I noticed many of my neighbors were doing the same thing. Across the street, several of the windows in the office building opened and people stuck their hands out the window to collect the hail in their hands. With the range of my camera, I was only able to capture two of these windows, but in one building alone at least six people were at the window enjoying the hail.

Down the block, a group of shebab (young men) were literally dancing in the street, gleefully kicking the slush around. In the following video you can hear them cheering after the the thunder. Growing up in the Northeast of the United States, I had always learned to dread such weather. But perhaps I had it wrong, maybe inclement weather is something to celebrate after all?

Things are sunny... in the classroom at least.

Despite the seemingly constant deluge of rain outside and a series of health-related trials in my personal life, things have been quite bright in my classrooms. 


I started teaching general music at a school in Nablus and am enjoying it immensely! Along with tutoring and my TFP classes in the village, I am humming along at a happy busy rate. 


The following is a version of the post that will most likely be posted to my official TFP blog (http://tfpdeiralhatab.wordpress.com/) in the next couple of days. As it is only about what I am doing in Deir al Hatab these days, I hope to get another post out soon that has a fuller update. 


We started several new exciting projects in Deir al Hatab this week. The students worked on their vocabularies, learning and labeling all the common classroom items. My two younger classes learned everything from eraser to desk to trash can. Now the students can ask for the pencil sharpener by name instead of grunting and waving their pencils around! 

We have a new project called Student of the Month. The students will compete against each other for the next four weeks to earn as many points as they can in order to win the title of Student of the Month. There are lots of ways to earn points including never missing a class, memorizing and spelling new words, and even inviting Ms. Violet for tea. I'm hoping to meet some of my students' families in the next couple of weeks, and of course drink some delicious tea. 

The new song this week was a hit! We learned "Miss Mary Mack" and all the accompanying claps. The additions to the students' vocabularies were great (buttons, silver, fence, etc.) and even better was the amount of fun the students had learning it. They have taken to singing it before and after class. See the video below for a snippet of some of the students singing before class. 

Three weeks flew by in the village!

I finished up my third week of teaching in the village of Deir al Hatab yesterday. I'm amazed at how fast the time is going, despite the often lengthy feel to each day. I'm thinking of ways to celebrate the one month mark for myself as well as my students. A solid month of classes with lots of learning feels like an achievement worth recognizing. In the very least, I'm thinking of naming a student of the month for attendance and progress; I am lucky to have quite a few stellar candidates.

The oldest class has made huge strides in just the past week. We worked on answering why questions, conjugating regular present tense verbs quickly, mastering short vowel sounds for reading and spelling, and even wrote a short drama. I had a few new additions to this class this week which served to highlight how much my class has already learned. It was a very inspiring week!

My two younger/lower level classes are going well too. They learned two new songs, "The Hokey Pokey" and "If You're Happy and You Know It." Both were huge hits and helped the students practice their new vocabulary focused on the body and people. We started doing a little bit more reading this week. Although some students read quite well, there are a few who don't. I have the students reviewing phonics and simple sight words, so I hope to have everyone up to speed soon.

I aim to take some better pictures and videos next week, but hope you can enjoy the following brief clip.