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