Final day at school and Beirut

The last day was filled with creativity! 

Upon arrival a bake sale was taking place! Yummy!

The graduating class put in this sale to raise money for their prom just like we do at LSA. So much choice with cakes and traditional sweets baked by families. I am certain they made a lot of money today. 

The bake sale leaders! 

We headed to Miss Sonia's art Class with miss Katia's Grade 8 students.

 We talked about Road Safety and how we can create some unusual traffic signs that make us aware of today's dangers while on the road and also for pedestrians.

 Students came up with some great ideas such as no texting while driving or playing games on tablets while crossing the road! 

They also had other interesting signs such as no polluting, or couples only parking!  

Overall the lesson brough about some interesting ideas that kept students thinking about the real issue of making sure our roads are safe no matter how it's done! They were each given a small piece of felt that they then drew their sign ideas on and glued them to a piece of felt in the shape of a puzzle. Miss Sonia and Miss Rada will then see the puzzle pieces into some cloth so that we can hang it in our school ! It was a fun and thought provoking activity. 

I talked about our school road safety and how at LSA we have a regular lollipop Lady who ensures the safe crossing of students before and after school. I brough a vest with me for students to model and see how reflective they are but also to come up with ideas on how to make them more fashionable - a project for next year! 

Miss Rasha modelling how a Rawdah lollipop Lady would look! 

Finally we worked on the handprint mural that will hang in both of our schools. One half was completed by students who attend International  club at LSA and the other by students at our partner school in Rawdah High School.

Lunch today was also delicious with traditional falafel and wraps. The farewell dinner from last night was traditional Lebanese grill. 

Traditional Lebanese grill and sweets - very similar to cotton candy. 

Another year and. Is it goes by too fast. I had almost forgotten to introduce the resident parrot of RHS named Coco - there to greet and always very talkative! 

The week was enriching, fulfilling and always a pleasure to be in lesson with such enthusiastic students - like at LSA especially when we have project work to complete. It always amazes me how motivated, dedicated and thorough students can be when they are asked to contribute to or work with a partner school. 

The results speak for themselves.

And the programme is attached! An eventful week with fabulous colleagues and friends. 

School Day Thursday October 29th

School today was very busy! Classes in Grade 8 and 9 participated in our traffic safety project which was to discuss what we should be doing to make a change to our current systems. 

I shared the video that LSA students made raising awareness of our school traffic system and also showing the clear differences that England does to help make school journeys safer for students.

We discussed issues such as the lack of road crossings in Beirut, no cycling lanes, bad drivers and an-anything-goes kind of system that desperately needs change. Grade 8 students are aware of the problems and want to make a difference. They would love nothing more than to cycle to school but the roads and traffic make this an impossible means of transportation.

Some suggested that they have Lollipop ladies/men like in England- in fact this was a fantastic idea and the students would like us to bring them over from LSA! Maybe next year!

After the video and discussion, the students completed the speech bubbles to send back to England which shows the changes they would like to make to their system. LSA students completed their own as well. I plan to make a display of these suggestions at school to highlight some of the students' points of view.

Following this lesson, we worked on the anecdote project which is an extension of the Educate X idea of inspirational stories. Students from Mr Prescott's Year 8 class at LSA were asked to write anecdotes about things that inspired them or events that had an impact on their lives. I brought them to Beirut and the Grade 8 students in Mr El Amin's class of Rawdah also wrote stories, some profoundly different to those experienced by LSA students. 

Many students read their stories aloud about family camping trips to days out at the beach while others read about their family plight while trying to escape a once war torn Beirut for America. Videos of these will be uploaded soon.

Lunch was delicious- a type of Lebanese pizza bread. Definitely a favorite of mine.

After lunch we had two more lessons where videos were shown and students participated in a "guess the accent" quiz on accents around the UK. This was a very fun activity and many found some of the accents such as Scottish and Welsh difficult to identify. No one guessed the scouse accent of Steven Gerrard or the cockney of Micheal Kane!

Tonight is our farewell dinner which will be traditional Lebanese cuisine. I will upload those later but for now. Enjoy the photos from the school day.

Ms Underwood

Day 2 Connecting Classrooms visit Jeita Grotto

Today we went into school and visited some of the students and teachers until we had a trip to the famous caves of Lebanon. 

First we had to traverse the city traffic- notoriously horrendous! 

To enter the motorway we had to drive through a check point area. 

Lena and Wassim led the way on the tour of the caves. First we stopped a memorial commemorating the entry of French troops into Damascus in 1920 and also marking the evacuation of foreign troops from Lebanon in 1946. 

Upon arrival we took a short cable car ride to the top where the entrance to the upper grotto was located. 

We then had to surrender our phones as not photos were allowed in the upper cave. We walked through the 1.5km deep cave and back which was well lit so that we could take in the breathtaking views. 

The grotto was discovered in 1836 by an American who decided to venture into the caves, fired his gun, and lit up the caves only to discover this incredible natural wonder of the world. Visitors from around the world come every day.

The caves are perfectly sculpted naturally through a process of water erosion and the unique columns are stones that have been shaped through the erosion of the sedimentary rock and limestone.

In scientific terms it is a mixture of water, carbon dioxide and calcium carbonate which dripped through the cracks from the surface and over time (over 2 Million years!) has created these stalactites-some of which have grown to 8.2 meters.

Following the visit to the upper cave we then travelled to the lower cave which is where you can take a short boat ride along the emerald coloured water which is located underneath the sculpted pillars. 

The boat ride inside the lower cave.

Here is one part of the water control system. Very fascinating and a sight of Lebanon not to be missed. 

The resident mountain goat! 

After the visit, we drove to a restaurant in the hills and had quite a feast! Lebanese food is fantastic!

Tomorrow is another day in school where I will present to the school leadership team, take part in the Connecting Classrooms coordinators' meeting and also prepare for our objectives that will happen Thursday and Friday in Art and English lessons.

Good night Beirut!