[etni] visit to Kseifa Atid Jr. High

I want to share with you the wonderful day I had in Kseifa Atid Jr.
High School. I work there as an EFL counselor. For those who aren't
familiar with the south, Kseifa is one of the recognized Negev Bedouin
towns, located near Tel Arad Junction. Pupils from the town and nearby
unrecognized villages attend the school.

Maha Gaboa, EFL teacher, arranged my first day at the junior high.
After meeting the principal, Halil, a very warm and caring man, Maha
introduced me to her 9th grade class that she has taught for 3 years;
she's also their homeroom teacher. On Maha's request, I'd brought my
guitar and prepared songsheets for the pupils...American folk songs.
We sang our way through 2 lessons and also invited Sami's
late-starters group to join us for part of the time. To accomodate the
non-readers, I taught songs orally and chose appropriate ones with few
words. I could see their lips moving, too. Sami's been working very
hard to help them close gaps. 

Afterwards the pupils plied me with questions galore about everything
under the sun: what I like to eat, how many children I have and their
ages, my favorite singer, my hobbies, how long I've been playing the
guitar and singing and more. Then I asked them to tell me their
stories and I learned how some love horses and others like to play
computer games. Some enjoy reading and they all seemed to love American
films! Maha, I know, has turned her classroom into a cinema, complete
with popcorn more than once!

I had a chance to see beautiful creative work hanging on the walls.
Maha's pupils wrote decorated diaries on display in the classroom and 
others made shoebox models of their rooms and wrote paragraphs
describing them. 

Before our end-of-day teachers meeting, we concluded my classroom
visit with a photo session! I could ahve stayed home yesterday morning
as it was Shavuot Eve but I'm glad I decided otherwise. Three cheers
to Maha and the rest of the staff!

Laurie
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