Beit Jala School

Hey all! I just got back from my amazing Galilee trip last night and have begun the job of sorting through pictures. I'm embarrassed to admit I took a little over 1,1oo pics over the four day trip, so I have quite the task of sorting, deleting and editing (my goal is to get them down to 700). I'm working on that and a few papers right now, but I will blog the trip as soon as I can.

I did want to post this blog real quick as I was working on uploading it when I left but forgot to finish. These pictures are from a school I help teach at on Tuesdays.
The school is an extension of the American School of Jerusalem and was started when the separation wall went up between Jerusalem and the West Bank. The kids couldn't get to their school anymore, so another one was started in the city of Beit Jala, right next to Bethlehem. It's called the "American School" because it is mostly in English. Some of the kids are Christian, some Muslim, and some un-religious. On a side note, I was really excited to find out that they use a lot of the Abeka school curriculum from the States that I am super familiar with from my school days. It made it really easy to teach. My day entails arriving at 8:30 and teaching/overseeing first grade for the first couple periods while the head teacher, a lovely Palestinian woman, takes the kids out in little groups to read. I am more of an "overseer" and I spend a lot of time answering math and English questions with the occasional class game or group instruction. After a few breaks we do art. Tuesday is the only day we can do art because it is just to difficult for Lilly to do art with all the kids on her own. Last week I led PE instead of art while Lilly worked with a few of the struggling students. I definitely lost my voice from all the yelling- being heard above 23 extremely excited voices and getting them to follow instructions left me ready for a nap! But I love it, and as you might guess, Tuesdays are a highlight for me as I get to spend time with these beautiful children who can't help but capture your heart. Take a peek and smile...

Boys being boys-Malek, Ali, Simon, George, Bashar...enjoying break

Sweet Natasha and Taleen

Yazen and Ali kept playing a little game with me where they would pose just long enough for me to grab my camera and then run off and want me to chase them. What they didn't realize is that I had a zoom...

Some close ups...

Strong Taleen

Yazen was my biggest ham, he posed for me for several minutes (as opposed to seconds)... He is quite smart but always pretends he doesn't understand so he can ask me questions and get some one on one time. I'm on to his game... (-;

Zoyah is the trouble maker of the class but so smart!
To Andrew I give the title "stinker," he would only give me these goofy faces

Malek (I love this name! It means king) is one of the sweetest kids you will ever meet

This beauty is actually in second grade, but she was having lunch when we were and I only needed one look at her eyes before I begged for a photo- she happily obliged

Time to go back to class. Part of my kids make up the very first line