About my students

I was just reading, and I realized that I still had not even attempted to describe my classes and groups of students yet, and it's honestly just shameful. School has been extremely instrumental in the process of adjusting and settling into life here, and such a description of it is long overdue. And since my schedule seems relatively set now (not in stone or anything close to it, but set somewhat anyway) I can be more certain and specific.



I have two 8th grade groups and two 9th grade groups. Both 9th grade groups and one of the 8th grade groups has 8 students in each, and the other 8th grade group has 10. Here's how I'll refer to them in the future:



8-H - Regular teacher is Hanin (hence the "H"). This is the advanced class, and in my group are 7 girls and 1 boy. This is the group that told Hanin they wanted a translator after our first group time together. They can speak English....somewhat. There is a lot of struggling for words, and translation into Arabic of what I said for the other students. It is amazing how they work together and help each other though. In this group I've yet to become overly concerned that instead of translating for the other students, that they are actually just holding a conversation in Arabic (under the clever ruse of translation), but it is an issue and point of contention in some other groups.



8-M - Regular teacher is Mona, and I'm not sure about the number of boys and girls (I've only been with them once, and then only for about 15 minutes). These students were described to me as "weaker," and, for a quick insight into the Israeli public school system, the classes are set based on the strength of the student (deeper explanation possible, it's because of a test they have to take in the last two years of high school, but I promise it does make sense). These students are definitely more rambunctious than the other 8th grade group - at least they were for those 15 minutes. They know less English than the other 8th graders, and it's very challenging for me. Mona (their regular teacher) asked me to focus more on social interaction in my time with them, which actually lightens my load considerably. This means we talk a lot. She assigns them work when she has them, and when they're with me, we'll mostly just be discussing it, I'll be asking additional questions, and so on. Nice.



9-R - Rasmia is their regular teacher. This class terrified me when I sat in and observed it for the first time on Monday. This is the weaker 9th graders, and also students with behavioral/discipline problems. An interesting factoid I'm not sure if I've mentioned or not already, students attending public schools in Israel have to buy their own textbooks. In class on Monday with this group, very few students actually had the books. A few had made photocopies of someone else's books (for the few pages they were supposed to be doing) and many just didn't have either. To be perfectly honest, Rasmia terrified me at first. From the first time I saw her around to the school, until after the end of the class I observed on Monday, I was scared halfway to death. She is one tough lady, I'll tell you that much for sure. And when she was yelling/screaming at the kids during class (in Arabic) I had the thought, "I now kinda understand what Daive feels like when I'm yelling at her...scared, terrified really, and NO CLUE as to what is being said." However, Rasmia is one of the nicest people I've ever known. She's absolutely amazing!



9-H Hanin is their teacher. They're the advanced students.



The rest of this description will have to be continued...Mary and Eylon just got back and I'm tired of looking pathetic and useless at the computer. I'll write more soon, I promise.



9-H - Regular teacher is Hanin. This is the advanced class