Bonjour! Hallas! Uffda!

This morning at 8 am, my small group of 12 6th graders, (officially known as my Advisory Group,) began their 3 day marathon event of studying, preparing, and tackling the midterms for their required classes. First out of the shoot was French.

So picture this, the students, whose first language is Arabic, are asking me questions, in English, about what's written on the French test. I am in awe of their brain power (those who did well on the test) and am humbled by the opportunities they are presented with. Bon-jour!

Then came the time when I had to keep them in my room, and keep them occupied and sane. And, in this case, keep them from "killing" each other. (one of the students said something about the other one's mother, which you DO NOT DO in this culture). There was a grand fuss, fists almost flew (I got in the middle--tough and mighty!) counselor came, parents were called in and at the end of the day, they were playing a version of dice together. It was finished...Hallas (said with your hands crossing in front of each other)

Their second exam of the day was Math. Those who know me well understand that I am numerically dyslexic AND I have almost no Math comprehension skills. They decided that I could help them figure out the toughtest problem. Well, of course I couldn't. But it became a matter of principle,(on my part) and I ended up going to the Math teacher and asking him to explain it to me, so I could explain it to them after the test was over. Uffda! My brain is fried and I'm only monitoring the tests!

Tomorrow should be more fun with exams in English and Science. I'll probably be hallas by the end of that day.

I did get the supreme compliment today when one student said "Miss, you care so much for us, I feel at home here". And another one, trying to be sincere said,
"I thought this was going to be the most boring-gest class, but it's not. I love drama"
And the ultimate, someone has written on the wall outside my room
"Drama Roxes"

OH By the way--I spent two hours (while they were taking the tests) trying to download pictures for you to see, and for some reason, the computer and camera are still not talking to each other. Maybe Santa will bring me--US (so you can see more pictures) a better camera for Christmas. (David if you're reading this...hint! hint!)