Day One at Project Hope

So today, Sunday, was our first day of work for Project Hope.  We went to the office in the morning and were sent to the local university to register for summer classes in law.  I’ll be taking Public International Law and Arabic courses.  We then returned to the offices to finalize our work schedules.  I’m teaching one English classes for children 9-12 years old and another conversational classes for university students.  Twice a week I’ll be teaching a dance aerobics class.  I found out an hour before that I would be teaching my first class today - whoa!

I was sent to the class with a local Palestinian volunteer who helped me translate.  I’ve had no experience teaching, and without a lesson plan or curriculum I was really anxious.  The children were very welcoming and respectful.  There were two girls among a class of boys, and they seemed shy to speak in front of all the boys.  Men definitely have a higher level of English here.  I ended up going over basic vocabulary such as sports, giving directions, seasons and weather, etc.  They had a firm grasp of that so I need to prepare a more structured lesson plan for the future.  Between teaching classes and taking classes, I’m sure I’ll be very busy.  We have weekends off so I’m looking forward to a bit of normalcy - Nablus is very conservative.  The people are really nice, but since they’re not used to tourists or foreigners we get a lot of stares.  At the same time, people are always offering to help you find the best deal with groceries or inviting you to tea.

 I need to go look up teaching materials though!