Teachers: Rachel King & Maria Ramos
[email protected] & [email protected]
Hi! My name is Rachel and I am a sophomore at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. I am originally from Ohio but I call the South my "second home." I have a younger brother and younger sister. My favorite color is red and I love singing, traveling, volunteering, and going for long bike rides. While in high school, I played tennis, performed in the shows and served as an editor of her school magazine. This summer, I took a trip to Uganda, and I LOVED it! After my experience in Africa, I have decided to pursue a career in international work. I enjoy learning about other cultures and other parts of the world. I am SO excited for another great year with you all!
Hi everyone! My name is Maria, and I am a sophomore at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. I grew up in a small suburb right outside of Cleveland, Ohio with my parents and my older brother. In my free time, I like to draw, read, travel, do serivce work, and spend time with my family and friends. While I am at Vanderbilt, I hope to study study medicine and eventually become a pediatrician one day. I CAN'T WAIT for another amazing year with you all!
OUR CLASS!!
Amna Abeera Javeria
Sadia Hina Mehvish Majeed
Iqra Sajid Sana Hanif Nazia Siddique
Shehr Bano Hamna Waheed Sumaira Aslam
Majida Perveen Ayesha Iqbal Rimsha Asghar
Sadia Hina Mehvish Majeed
Iqra Sajid Sana Hanif Nazia Siddique
Shehr Bano Hamna Waheed Sumaira Aslam
Majida Perveen Ayesha Iqbal Rimsha Asghar
School Year (2013-2014)
March 27, 2014
We were unable to connect over Skype. There was no class this week.
March 20, 2014
We were unable to connect over Skype. There was no class this week.
March 13, 2014
Today's Lesson:
Student Feedback
Notes from your teachers:
Hello sweet girls! We are so happy that you all got to meet our friend, Asad, during class today. Asad is from Pakistan and couldn't wait to spend some time talking with you all! Thank you SO much for providing some great feedback to Asad about the quality of our lessons and changes you would like to see in the future. We will try our best in the upcoming weeks to do more class activities and lessons, while also making time to continue to see your beautiful homework. See you all again real soon!
Love,
Maria and Rachel
February 27, 2014
Today's Lesson:
Shared thoughts about inspiring people
Today's Homework Assignment:
Write a song! The topic of the song is completely up to you! We will perform them next class!
February 20, 2014
Today's Lesson:
Discussion about culture
Today's Homework Assignment:
Draw a picture of someone who inspires you, and write a paragraph about why that person means so much to you.
February 13, 2014
We had a bad connection over Skype and were unable to have class. See you next week!
February 6, 2014
Today's Lesson:
Discussion about communities; Review homework
Today's Homework Assignment:
Write in a few sentences about what culture means to you.
January 30, 2014
We were unable to connect over Skype. There was no class this week.
January 23, 2014
Today's Lesson:
Finishing introductions from last week
Today's Homework Assignment:
Draw a picture and write a couple sentences about a community that you are a part of.
January 16, 2014
Today's Lesson:
Introductions
Today's Homework Assignment:
Write your name and draw your favorite things.
Notes from your Teachers:
Hello beautiful girls!!
It was so great to meet you all today! We are looking forward to a wonderful, fun semester together! We apologize about the Skype connection this week, but we can't wait to finish introductions next Thursday! See you all then!
Love,
Maria & Rachel
Today's Lesson
Introductions
Today's Homework Assignment
Spell out your name on a piece of paper and surround your name with words, phrases, or pictures of objects that describe you. Be as creative as you would like!
Notes from your Teachers!
Hello pretty girls!!
We are SO EXCITED to start this new school year with you! We hope you all had a wonderful and fun-filled summer. Please see below for some pictures we took from our first class! See you next week!
Love, Maria and Rachel
September 26th
Today's Lesson
Review of last week's homework and activities discussion
Today's Homework Assignment:
Write a list of directions for your favorite activity.
Today's Lesson
Review of last week's homework and activities discussion
Today's Homework Assignment:
Write a list of directions for your favorite activity.
School Year (2012-2013)
September 27th
Today's Lesson:
Class Introductions & Flag Meaning
Today's Homework Assignment:
1. Think of a song that you can sing for us next week! :)
2. Write down something you learned either about us or American culture.
3. Write down a question you have.
Hi beautiful girls!! We just wanted to let you know that we LOVED meeting all of you today, and we are SO EXCITED for a fun year together!! You all are beautiful singers, and we love that you think we look like Barbie dolls. That made us smile :) Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!
October 4th
Today's Lesson:
Homework Discussion
Today's Homework Assignment:
NO HOMEWORK!
Homework Discussion
Today's Homework Assignment:
NO HOMEWORK!
Hello dears!! We know that this week was a little confusing with the two of us being at two different places, but next week should be all back to normal! See you all on Thursday!! :)
October 11th
Today's Lesson:
Community Discussion
Community Discussion
Today's Homework Assignment:
1) Draw a picture of you in one of your communities.
2) Write one sentence explaining your drawing.
1) Draw a picture of you in one of your communities.
2) Write one sentence explaining your drawing.
October 18th
Today's Lesson:
Hand Discussion
Hand Discussion
Today's Homework Assignment:
1) Write a couple of sentences that explain why your hand is so special.
1) Write a couple of sentences that explain why your hand is so special.
October 25th
Today's Lesson:
Discussion of Last Week's Homework
Discussion of Last Week's Homework
Today's Homework Assignment:
1) Write your name.
2) Draw a picture or write down something that your name represents. It can be one of your favorite hobbies, one of your best qualities, etc.
1) Write your name.
2) Draw a picture or write down something that your name represents. It can be one of your favorite hobbies, one of your best qualities, etc.
October 8th
Today's Lesson:
Discussion of Last Week's Homework
Discussion of Last Week's Homework
Today's Homework Assignment:
1) Write a poem about your favorite animal. It can be as long and creative as you like!
1) Write a poem about your favorite animal. It can be as long and creative as you like!
Hello beautiful girls!! Here are some class pictures that were sent to us. I LOVE LOVE LOVE these!!!!! Hope you enjoy them as much as we did!!
November 16th
Today's Lesson:
Discussion of Pet Poems
Thank you all for sharing your wonderful poems! We loved hearing about your love of cats, fish, birds and elephants! The drawings continue to blow us away! Keep up the great work.
Another highlight from today- LOVED singing "It's a Small World" with you all. How neat that Disney stretches across cultural boundaries and what a true theme that song has! Even though you are in Pakistan and we are in America, it is a "small world after all" because our love of life and each other brings us close together!
Discussion of Pet Poems
Thank you all for sharing your wonderful poems! We loved hearing about your love of cats, fish, birds and elephants! The drawings continue to blow us away! Keep up the great work.
Another highlight from today- LOVED singing "It's a Small World" with you all. How neat that Disney stretches across cultural boundaries and what a true theme that song has! Even though you are in Pakistan and we are in America, it is a "small world after all" because our love of life and each other brings us close together!
Today's Homework Assignment:
1. Draw a hand turkey.
2. Write something you learned about the American Thanksgiving Holiday.
3. Name something you are thankful for.
1. Draw a hand turkey.
2. Write something you learned about the American Thanksgiving Holiday.
3. Name something you are thankful for.
November 29th
What we did:
Recap- Rachel talked about her Thanksgiving-- the food and the fun. Then, the girls shared their hand turkey drawings and said what they were thankful for. The turkeys looked WONDERFUL!! I am always so blown away by your artistic talent! Loved the bright feather colors and the creativity!
Today's lesson "Birds Eye View"- We talked about perspective. Perspective is how you see something. It can be the way you view others, yourself, or the world. We looked at different landmarks from a bird's perspective (above) and from our perspective (on the ground). Being able to see things in many perspectives allows us to understand other people's point of views.
Homework:
1. Pick anything to draw, but draw it from a different perspective. Maybe, draw it as if you were looking down on it, or draw the side of it, or draw it as if you were looking up at it.
Example) Drawing a tree as a bird sees it when it looks down to the ground as it flies. OR Draw a flower as if a worm were looking up at it from beneath the ground.
Recap- Rachel talked about her Thanksgiving-- the food and the fun. Then, the girls shared their hand turkey drawings and said what they were thankful for. The turkeys looked WONDERFUL!! I am always so blown away by your artistic talent! Loved the bright feather colors and the creativity!
Today's lesson "Birds Eye View"- We talked about perspective. Perspective is how you see something. It can be the way you view others, yourself, or the world. We looked at different landmarks from a bird's perspective (above) and from our perspective (on the ground). Being able to see things in many perspectives allows us to understand other people's point of views.
Homework:
1. Pick anything to draw, but draw it from a different perspective. Maybe, draw it as if you were looking down on it, or draw the side of it, or draw it as if you were looking up at it.
Example) Drawing a tree as a bird sees it when it looks down to the ground as it flies. OR Draw a flower as if a worm were looking up at it from beneath the ground.
December 6
Today's Discussion:
Rachel and Maria had a very special surprise for the girls....CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS!!! We hope you enjoyed our Christmas lights, trees and ornaments. We absolutely LOVED the Christmas tree you made us! So pretty! It was so much fun to talk with you all about Christmas. We are very excited for the holiday and are happy to see you all excited, too!
As always, your homework was wonderful! All of you are such talented artists and thinkers. I loved your pictures about "perspective." Thank you for sharing your perspectives on life with us. Many of you mentioned that you want to see a world where there is peace, and we want that too! Talking about our perspectives is one way that we can make progress as people on Earth to eventually have peace everywhere.
Sorry about the Skype connection there at the end. We were going to tell you your homework but had to hang up because the connection was poor.
Homework:
Here is your homework for next week:
1.) It is almost the end of the year! Think about this past year- what is your favorite memory of this past year? What do you have to look forward to in 2013?
See you next week for our last Skype session for 2012!!!!
hugs :)
Rachel and Maria
December 13th
Today's Discussion:
Everyone shared their favorite memory from 2012 and their goals for the upcoming year. We LOVED hearing all of your favorite memories from this past year! It sounds like you all have had a happy, successful year! We wish you all of the best in 2013.... always remember to be a leader, try your best in everything you do, be kind to others, and make a difference! We KNOW that you will accomplish everything that you put you mind to in the next year and in your future.
As this year comes to a close, we would like to say THANK YOU SO MUCH for allowing us to teach you girls over the past couple months. We just found out that this was our last class together... we have no class next week because we have winter break. You have no idea how much we looked forward to this class every week! You are all beautiful girls, and you are all so inspiring! We absolutely LOVE seeing how creative you are through your artwork and your homework.... your projects always blow us away! We hope you enjoyed learning about our culture and our language as much as we loved learning about yours!
Homework (Optional- We won't see you next week!) :
1) Write about and draw a picture of the most interesting person that you met in 2012. How did they influence you?
Hugs,
Maria and Rachel
December 20th
NO CLASS
December 27th
NO CLASS
NO CLASS
December 27th
NO CLASS
January 17th
Today's Discussion
Hello beautiful girls, and HAPPY 2013!! YAYYYYYY!! It was WONDERFUL to see all of your bright, smiley (and giggly!) faces today!! We missed you all more than you will ever believe, and we cannot wait for another exciting semester of class! Once again, we hope that you all had a restful, enjoyable break off of school and you are ready to learn a whole lot of new things in 2013!!! We hope you enjoyed seeing and hearing a little bit about how we spent our Christmas/Winter break. Thank you so much for sharing who you thought was the most interesting person that you have met in 2012. As always, your homework was beautiful.... you blow us away every time! It was so exciting to hear of all of your adventures of 2012!
Today's Homework:
Write a poem about 2013. It can be as long and creative as you like!!
Love,
Maria and Rachel
January 24th
Today's Discussion
Everyone read to us their beautiful poems for 2013. Well done, everyone! We hope you accomplish everything you want to during the upcoming year! Today, we also discussed the differences in clothing between our countries. It was so interesting to learn about clothes in your culture.... We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!
Today's Homework
1. Draw your favorite outfit.
Love,
Maria and Rachel
January 31st
Today's Discussion
Thank you to all of you who were able to share your favorite outfits with us! Sorry we ran out of time and didn't get to everyone... We will finish the homework presentations first thing next class! Maria and Rachel also modeled some of their favorite clothes. Believe it or not, we actually don't wear pajamas all the time... we do have real clothes and have our own funky styles!! We hope you enjoyed our "runway show!"
Today's Homework:
Since there will be no class next week, we found it best to postpone assigning homework until after all of you return from your holiday break. We hope that you all have a great break!!! See you in two weeks!!
Love,
Maria & Rachel
Today's Discussion
Thank you to all of you who were able to share your favorite outfits with us! Sorry we ran out of time and didn't get to everyone... We will finish the homework presentations first thing next class! Maria and Rachel also modeled some of their favorite clothes. Believe it or not, we actually don't wear pajamas all the time... we do have real clothes and have our own funky styles!! We hope you enjoyed our "runway show!"
Today's Homework:
Since there will be no class next week, we found it best to postpone assigning homework until after all of you return from your holiday break. We hope that you all have a great break!!! See you in two weeks!!
Love,
Maria & Rachel