Egypt Trip
Egypt Trip
March 23rd, 2010 – April 1st, 2010
I took a group of some students and two colleague teachers from Burlington Notre Dame on a trip to Egypt. The trip was excellent.We saw the pyramids, the sphinx, the Egyptian Museum and some churches which dated back to the fourth century in Cairo.
In Alexandria, we saw the Mediterranean sea, we visited Alexandria library and the old Citadel of Quaitbay. Also we visited my home school in Tanta, Al-Salam Private Language School. We observed an ESL class and my students practiced their Arabic with their counterparts in Egypt.
We cruised the Nile for four days. We enjoyed the nature along the banks of the Nile, the longest and the oldest river in the world. We visited almost all the ancient temples in Upper Egypt. We visited the Nubian Village in Aswan and we went to a school there where they teach us their own alphabet and their own number system.
“THIS TRIP IS A LIFE CHANGING EXPERIENCE.” one student said. Really it was a wonderful opportunity for those kids to know a different culture and to practice the language with natives
Quick Events
Today we have been in the US for forty days. It seems so far since we were here, so many events happened, so many people we knew and so many things we learned.
I can’t imagine that all these things happened. I want to give myself a minute to remember how excited I was when I was chosen in this program and how confused I was concerning working in the US as a teacher of my native tongue for the first time. BUT the successful orientation in Washington DC acted for me as a glass of fresh water in a long race towards the unknown. It put all the teachers’ feet on a solid ground through real experience in real schools and by real professionals. We learned how different the American schools are and that they do vary in almost everything. Suddenly our HONEY MOON in America has passed and the time for our transition has come. Everyone has left for their communities.
Traveling to Burlington
I took three flights to reach Burlington (IOWA) and I have experienced all kinds of planes the big ones as well as the small ones. I remember that we were only eight passengers on board a tiny plane from Kansas City to Burlington.
Notre Dame High School
My school in Burlington is a pretty small school with about 900 students. The principal introduced me at the first faculty meeting. All teachers are friendly and they were eager to know more about Egypt.
I consider myself lucky as I have a very nice Principal, Mr. Glasgow, and a wonderful mentor teacher Mr. Dunshee. In fact Mr. Dunshee is a great help to me in almost everything.
At the first week at school I started teaching the language exploration classes and the world tradition classes from the very beginning of the school year.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009 was my first day teaching my Arabic as a foreign language classes through the ICN (Iowa Cable Network) technology. It is my first time to experience distant learning and it’s really a wonderful opportunity for me to gain this experience.
My birthday 9 / 9 / 2009
Yesterday was my birthday. It’s the first time in my life to celebrate it away from my family. I wished my wife and my twin daughters had been with me. I miss them so much.
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