Another week gone by in Jordan

Hello again.  I thought it was about time I added another blog post.  This past week I visited the historical city of Jerash, ate freshly caught fish at an outdoor restaurant, ate another wonderful Jordanian dish at Abla's home (one of the KG teachers), thoroughly enjoyed eating more of Rachel's famous cinnamon rolls, and spent time in Amman with Wedad (the sister of Naibil’s wife Nadia) and the other American teachers (except for Nori who was invited to an engagement party).  However, I am not going to give you all the details of those excursions in this blog post.  I want to share stories about the kids.

First, there is Safaa's first grade class...bouncy and beautiful might suit them for a title.  Safaa has the kids with the greatest energy and enthusiasm as well as the kids who speak the least English.  Her class is quite a challenge for me to teach.  I usually end up surrounded either before, after, or during class with hugs from the kids.  There is one little boy, Anas, in Safaa's class who cut his hair the first week of school only to claim when caught by Nabil that he was just cutting his paper and the scissors miraculously ended up catching some of his hair along the way, lol.  Manaalshah, whose name took me forever to learn to pronounce correctly, told me this week that I was her English mama.  Manaalshah, Zain, and Jood usually ask me before class is over if I can just stay in their class all day (which actually, it would be nice if I could stay with one group all day).

Next, there is Reem's first grade class (by the way, Safaa and Reem are the Arabic teachers).  Reem's class reflects her teaching style so perfectly when she is in the classroom (which is quite calm and focused) but if she leaves the room some of the more rambunctious personalities begin to display their true colors.  However, on numerous occasions I have somehow managed to keep the peace while she is away. 

In Nadia’s second grade class there are the most students, somewhere around twenty-eight, so you can just imagine the diversity.  There are a few students in her class who are little math geniuses and some who are still trying to get their numbers down.  My favorite part of math in her class is sitting individually with the students and helping them with their assignments.  Although it is quite a challenge when nearly thirty students are vying for your attention, it is worth it when I sit with one child and he finally gets the concept.  I sat for the longest time with Ali one day last week until he understood what I was trying to explain to him and now he runs and hugs me every day with a big smile.  I think that it really makes a difference when I can just sit and give them even a little individual attention.  The kids in Nadia’s class seem the most determined to learn.  Even when I tell them they can put their books away at the end class, there are always a few students who ask for more time because they really want to finish their task.  It makes me a happy teacher when I witness such excitement and determination to learn.      

Lastly, there is the third grade class.  From the beginning, this class has always held a special place in my heart.  I spent my first week of school with this class exclusively and really got to know and love each of the students.  From Moalwia’s soft heart to Jaber’s lively personality and from Omar’s never-fading smile to Seham’s quite disposition, each one of these kids has truly captured my heart. There has been much difficulty securing a permanent teacher for this class.  Shereen, the first Arabic teacher to lead this class, left after the first few weeks of school.  After Shereen, Walaa and Mary came along.  Mary was wonderful with the kids, and they loved and respected her, but the ministry of education would not approve her paperwork as her degree is not in education.  Walaa is the teacher currently in the third grade, and she is wonderful with the kids.  However, she has already faced many difficulties in securing her place in this class.  I greatly hope that she will be able to remain in the third grade class for the rest of the year, as the kids have experienced enough insecurity in regards to their teacher already. 

I will save stories about the KG kids for another day.

As you can probably tell from this post, I am growing to love these kids so much.  I hope that I will treasure each moment I have been given with them and make the most of our time together.  I know that I can learn so much from them as I already have, and I hope that when our time together is over I will have left something with them as well.