New Home

We are mostly settled in our new home for year number two. Our good friends moved back to the states for the year and we moved into their place to "hold" it for them.  It's a blessing to be in this hot, dry climate and have beautiful trees surrounding us.  Lots of fruit trees including lemon, mango, fig and dates are here to enjoy and keep up.  We feel very blessed!

View from our front door

View from back patio looking at the hills

Another view from back patio at night

Brandee in the Kitchen

Kids playing downstairs

The beginning of summer officially started today.  The kids had a great year and finished well. Now they plan to swim and watch movies all summer.

Hailey graduated from kindergarten yesterday and even got to walk down the aisle in cap and gown.  She enjoyed math and swim class the most. Her teacher helped her make great gains in school this year in reading and math in particular.

Logan received the award for best in class for the subject Humanities. He improved amazingly throughout the year and we are proud of what he has been able to learn in a short time. And he still hates the attention he gets around here because of his blonde hair.

Connor received the most improved student in his class and also received the award for best athlete in primary (grades 1-6). He is looking forward to sleeping in and hanging out with friends from school.

Hailey at her last ballet practice



Hailey graduating from Kindergarten



Logan with his teacher at ceremony night

Connor with his teacher at ceremony night

Teaching

I know I'm terrible at updating this blog.  I'm sorry. 

For this month, or term, I'll give you a brief update on teaching english in the middleeast.  One of the things that I have really enjoyed about being in Jordan is the opportunity to teach english and therefore connect with people from this culture.  Of course the main objective is language, but I find debating cultural values and discussing life in general is more fun.  Most of my students have at some point learned grammar rules, but have a need for pronunciation and vocabulary usage. This works well for me, as grammar wasn't my favorite as a student either.

As far as work schedule goes , the classes are Sunday and Tuesday nights from 7 till 9pm, with a Coffeeshop on Thursday night.  The Coffeeshop nights are more laid back and it's the one day that we ask students to simply come and practice their english in fun ways.  Usually one of us teachers plans a 10-15 minute talk with games to play or discussion questions to get everyone interacting.  These evenings are fun and it's the one night where we really get to know our students and they get to know us.  Each term runs 6 weeks and then we have a graduation where we give out certificates and cheer on the students in their learning. Brandee has been able to team teach with me one term, but her schedule doesn't lend itself to teaching in the evenings very often.

Here are a few snapshots and pictures of life working as an english teacher in Jordan.

Brandee made friends quickly.

In the classroom, some students didn't want their picture taken, so only 9 out of 14 are shown here.

With two of my students and another from a different class

Graduation a few terms back