Thursday 2/12/15
Today's challenge was four 5th grade boys with limited English & boundless energy. The teacher did not provide an assignment & suggested we use the time for them to practice their conversational skills. The kids were so roundy, I used the hand signal for " time out " and told them we had 2 rules. They had to be nice to each other and they had to be nice to me! They laughed and settled down. I reached back into my memory of my own kid's elementary school experience and suggested each student have a turn, speaking in English and telling the group something nice about each of the other students in the group. They helped each other to find the English vocabulary words and really got engaged in the process. I then distributed sheets of paper and asked them each to write something nice about their teacher & give it to her when they returned to class, which they did. At the end of the day the teacher sought me out to show me the pile of papers. She was very pleased. since I am generally not around children, I have taken great delight in the tutoring experience!
This afternoon we had an outting to Haifa University. After an indoor tour of the facilities (too much rain to walk around campus) we went to a small conference room, learned about the various research programs.
Then 3 undergraduate students spoke with us. A young woman who participates in student United Nations. She has been on the Israel team at various international conferences and reports they have won many honors. She is of Ethiopian heritage, a political science major, smart, personable and an engaging speaker. The second student coordinates an online Ambassador program, which is a social media sight which responds to anti Israel and anti Semtic postings on the itnernet. And
the final student was a 20 year old Arab young woman ( approx. 30% of the university are Arab students) who speaks 5 languages. She feels linguistics is the key to creating understanding among groups. She has started a language program in the local community she lives in, for 4-7 year olds, teaching the Jewish children Arabic and the Moslem children Hebrew. Poised, talented, commited and articulate, at age 20! I left the presentation feeling great optimism about the quality of young people pursuing their education & dreams to build a peaceful, stronger nation.
Our final stop was at the marine science lab building. A professor presented an overview of the research and also discussed the recent discovery of the natural gas source under the Meditteranean. Later then we met with 2 PhD students and visited their labs. they briefly explained their projects. I took written material about the programs, but don't remember much of the details, as I grew tired and on information overload!
I hear more snow is expected in Boston this weekend. Hard to believe. ... Heading home 2/18/15, re-entry may be a challenge!
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