Arabic

Another crazy/busy week at ACA! If any of my boys were shy and reserved before, they are completely comfortable now and wide-open! Classroom management is key on the boys campus, and is something we reflect on everyday. It is nice having all boys, because I can remind them to be gentlemen-they have to sit like gentlemen, walk in line like gentlemen, etc. Every morning we meet in a circle and greet each other by shaking hands and saying, "Good morning (name)" and the other boy replies back, "Good Morning (name)." It goes around the circle until everyone has been greeted by their neighbor. I like to remind them to shake hands like men, look them in the eye and use a strong voice! I also make them shake hands when they are apologizing to one another. On the girl's campus, I hear they have "Calendar Princess" in the morning, so I guess both have their perks!

I've learned a few Arabic words since I've been here.
Shukran means thank you and al'afw is you're welcome
hello: as-salām 'alaykum
and response: wa 'alaykum as-salām
yes: n'am
no: la, with our boys it's usually la la la la! (no no no no!)
yella: let's go (I hear that a lot with the boys too!)
Insh'Allah: God willing "Michael will be working soon insh'Allah."
Humdullah: Praise be to God. "How are you?-Fine, humdullah, humdullah"

And unfortunately I learned what "haram" means: sinful or something that displeases God.

Before we started math Tuesday morning, I noticed lots of trash on the floor. We eat snack and lunch in the room, so you can imagine what the floor looks like. Also, most of the boys don't really have to pick up after themselves at home, so I'm constantly reminding them. This Tuesday morning, I found an Arabic worksheet on the floor. It had a picture of a boy dressed as a policeman with questions on the back.

"Boys, who's paper is this?" ..nothing.. "Who's Arabic work is this?"....nothing..."When did you do this worksheet?" "Sunday"...."Why is it on the floor?".....nothing..."Fine, I'm throwing it away!" and just as I start on a rant about keeping our classroom nice and neat, four boys shout "Miss, Miss, Haram! Haram!" Thank goodness my teacher assistant was there! She came over and explained that the story included "Allah" or God, and I threw it away....I threw away God. Whoops! I explained to the boys that I had no idea, that I did not do it on purpose, and I put it in the recycling basket. From now on, I will put all Islam and Arabic work in the recycling basket! I learned it's also "haram" to waste food, so we usually give left over, uneaten food to the maids. Another sensitive subject is music-no music special, no music clubs and we're really not supposed to have music in the classroom. I sometimes sing songs for instruction-last week we sang a doubles addition song. Yesterday I played classical while they worked but I asked my TA first. Of course yesterday was an exception-it was last period on a Thursday...no matter what age or gender, our kids go bonkers last period on Thursday!


As you know, Arabic has different characters for writing so everything is spelled phonetically. There are a few different spellings for the Arabic words I wrote. It's also the reason English words are spelled so funny here such as "Hair Saloon."