Arabic Club

Our next Arabic club meeting is Dec 14. We are watching West Bank Story.

Steven Berbeco's Marhaba Curriculum: "Letter Page"

Here is a sample of the "Letter Page" of the Marhaba Curriculum. Teaching this lesson is Marhaba's originator, Steven Berbeco.

KSL News

KSL News anchor Deanie Wimmer highlighted language programs at Provo High School during the Provo-Timpview game tonight. This is Mr. Mohamed El Naggar saying hello in Arabic on camera.

Deaf in Cairo

Check out this Vlog (video blog) of a KFC in Cairo where all the employees are deaf.

http://jehanne.wordpress.com/2008/01/19/my-visit-to-deaf-run-kfc-in-egypt/

Hosting a Jordanian Administrator

Abeer Harazneh, an administrator from Jordan, arrived to begin her 10 day visit to Provo High School and Brigham Young University. She will be staying with administrators from the high school shadowing them during the day. The Arabic department is helping to facilitate a cultural bridge between her Jordanian culture and her stay here in Provo.

She just met an all-star cast who instructed her and took her around BYU, which houses a world-renowned Arabic program and the National Middle East Language Resource Center (NMELRC).

This is now the third program we’ve participated in with American Councils for International Education. This summer teacher, Audrey Bastian, participated in ISLI taking her 6 weeks to Egypt for intensive Arabic emersion. We are now involved with TCLP (Teachers of Critical Languages Program) by hosting an Egyptian teacher for a year, Mohamed El Naggar. This is the Host a Jordanian Administrator program. Our school and much of the valley has caught the spirit of the Middle East. Many are excited to have these visitors come into their classrooms and community meetings. Dr. Kirk Belnap and Dr. Maggie Nassif of the NMELRC have been very supportive and willing to help facilitate these experiences.

Mohamed El Naggar

Mohamed El Naggar is out exchange teacher this year. He is from Mansura, Egypt on assignment with American Councils for International Education and the State Department to help develop our Arabic program and help educate the community about Arabic.

Steven Berbeco

Steven Berbeco, the author of Marhaba, a new curriculum for teaching Arabic to high school students flew in from Boston to do a sample lesson for my students here in Provo. After he left I asked the students what they thought about the lesson. One of them said, “He was animated.”

We're Back!

Welcome back to those of you who are continuing Arabic and for those of you starting, we are in for an adventure! If you're new to the class, check out all the cool stuff we've been doing the last couple years.

Mr. Naggar, from Cairo, Egypt, will be joining us this year. We will be team teaching Arabic this year.

Take the survey on the right to see how much you know about Egypt. Also check out the links at the bottom of this blog. If you are a follower or subscribe to this blog, Miss Bastian will give you extra credit.

Who are my teachers?
For information on your Arabic teachers, read this post: Miss Bastian
Watch for information to be posted about Mr Naggar.

O'Falafel

O' Falafel is a new Middle Eastern restaurant in Salt Lake. A little more cazh than Mazza and specializing in a slightly different menu. Very delicious. The falafels are amazing. I took the Arabic students there today for dinner. The owner Mustafa, a Palestinian from Jerusalem, sat with us for quite a while and graciously spoke Arabic and answered questions. Super fun. The students were brave and tried out their Arabic even though he spoke in a Jerusalem dialect they hadn't been exposed to yet.

Palestinian Exchange Students

The discussion has been in the works for a while now but we are finally getting more details that we will be hosting a teacher and two students from Palestine next month. The teacher will be living with our Arabic teacher for the 2 weeks. The other two students will be staying with Arabic students and their families. Super excited. We hope our Arabic improves drastically.

BYU Class

Our students attended a Brigham Young University 101 class last week. Students learned to speak the Egyptian colloquial dialect.

Bulldog Day

We set up our booth for the middle school students to see what classes are available. It looked like quite a few people visited the booth. Thanks to the students who set up the booth and help advertise.

Middle East Cities Museum Box

The University of Utah Museum of Fine Arts is loaning us their Middle East Cities Museum box for two weeks to give students a first hand experience with artifacts from the Middle East and lesson plans that will help to bring the objects alive.

The museum has a teacher outreach program which helps bring artifacts of many different cultures into the classroom. For further information see their website.

http://umfa.utah.edu/TRC