Stan_CP3

On Tues 7/10 I met with Amr, Ahmad, Samer, and Nassar(one of my TP's)...my group is growing(today I may even have a couple more!)!!! On both this occasion and the previous, it seems like it took a little warming up to get a conversational fire sparked. Admittedly I felt as though I was reaching in the dark for a bit, firing away with simple questions that required simple answers. Then I began pestering Amr about his music which on the surface he is quite shy about but I know that he takes great pride in. Nassar and Ahmad (who left earlier than the others on the previous occasion) had not had the pleasure of hearing Amr's work. After egging him for a while with a bit of flattery I was able to get him to play a song for us that he had stored in his fancy phone. The song he chose, was even more beautiful than the one he had played for me previously. It was a song that he composed for his family on their last night together before his departure to America. Though Nassar seemed apathetic, Samer and Ahmad were as impressed as I was by Amr's mastery. Ahmad said he was a poet and that Amr's work was truly poetry(a great confirmation for me who doesn't speak Arabic). It was at this time that I decided to share with them my newly created writing lesson...

I was "ever so" pleased that Ahmad disclosed the fact that he writes poetry, because I had just created a writing lesson(which you are all familiar with now) based around the Japanese form of poetry, "Haiku." Yes, I actually got to sample this lesson on a group of internationals before I sampled it on my peers (I hope that's not cheating ; ) They did quite well with it. They grasped the concept of syllable relatively quickly and were soon assisting me with the composition of Haikus! Later we talked about rhyming and we hit the "surfed the web" for some Dr. Seuss...Oh, the places we went (yeah, I'm a nerd)!

As I am sure most of you have experienced, time spent with international students is time well spent. Yes, quite enjoyable! Had my classtime not approached so quickly, I could have easily sat there for another hour or so : )