I substituted today for one of Amira’s teachers that was absent. Amira took advantage of my language ability and asked to learn Arabic. We did quite well together. Using you tube, Amira learned greetings and salutations in Arabic. She then went on to learn to count from 0 to 20. I assisted with grammar and pronunciation as it is quite similar to Hebrew, which I speak. She was very happy and at the end of the session, called her mother and using the vocabulary she had just learned, and “spoke” to her in Arabic.

Amira and I started our session by discussing genetics. Amira worked on Punnett Squares and Pedigree Charts to help her visualize and understand genetic traits. She then watched Brainpops on the ocean and the Titanic and answered the corresponding questions. We ended the session by reviewing the Protist Kingdom.

We had another great double period class today. Amira shared photos with me of her trip to China with her former school in AZ. She visited the cities of Honzou and Shanghai. Amira recalls the intense pollution in China. I asked her if there was one particular outstanding site she visited there that was memorable and Amira said it was more the experiences with people and the W Hotel in Shanghai that were wonderful. It was too bad the group could not factor a trip to the Great Wall of China into their trip, so we learned about it today. The photos of the Wall along its 5,500 mile path in China are dramatic and beautiful. Amira was interested to see how wide the Wall is for people to walk atop it. She learned that it was built 2,300 years ago by Qin Dynasty to protect China from attack. The Wall crosses 9 Chinese provinces and runs over terrain such as the beach, desert and mountains. Nearly 1/3 of the Great Wall has disappeared without a trace. It is the only one of the 7 Great Wonders of the World that can be viewed from space with technological visual assistance.

Today, we did a mini-lesson on Show Don't Tell. We then took Amira's brainstorm from her nature walk and went down each image and phrase that she wrote. We discussed what she was thinking when she wrote them, and then elaborated on each one with different tools of description. I modeled by showing her my copy of what I wrote during our nature walk. (I did my own exercise while she was doing hers). We did half of them together, and then Amira independently did the rest on her own. She did a great job and even used figurative language! We will continue on this piece. We also got Amira organized with notebooks and binders so that she is ready and inspired to learn in each of her subjects.

An integer is a whole number and its opposite - positive and negative. I had Amira plot integers and fractions on numbers lines, and compare them to each other using greater than/less than symbols. The absolute value of a number is its distance from zero on a number line. She also answered questions about finding the absolute value of numbers. Her assignment is p. 20 (1-46).

This was our second hour lesson today. Our lesson focused on the mystery of the Mariana Trench, Earth's deepest location. It is in the Pacific Ocean and remains a fascinating, but virtually unexplored location. It may hold key answers to phenomenal events such as earthquakes, tsunamis,tidal waves and undiscovered ocean life.

Amira shared with me that her Dad works for Donald Trump. We spent the period learning more about Donald Trump, his personal history and personal life....from his five children aged 13 to late 30s who are the products of each of Trump's three marriages. Ivanka, Trump's oldest daughter has an MBA from Wharton School of Business. His second daughter, Tiffany, attends Georgetown Law School and his youngest son, Barron, is only 13 years old and already over 6 ft. tall! He is the first young son of a president to reside in the White House since JFK, Jr.

Amira and I learned about the four modes of writing: narrative, expository, persuasive and descriptive. Amira took notes and I left some notes on her board. This is the foundation of all writing that she will learn in the next several years of English class. We focused on descriptive writing and the literary tools that writers use in this mode: imagery (appealing to the five senses), colorful adjectives, action verbs, show don't tell, figurative language, etc.) Then Amira and I went on a nature walk and her assignment was to take a notebook with her. We walked down to the park and for 20 minutes, Amira strolled around, could not talk and had to remain in her own mind. She was to jot down what she saw, smelled, heard, tasted and touched; how she felt; memories that she was reminded of; inspirations that she had for the future; and basically anything that came to mind. She filled a page with this. We will use this for a creative descriptive writing piece. Amira said this made her feel good to be in the "quiet" and to just take it all in. She liked sitting by the water and watching the fish.

Amira and I continued our study of unit four of the vocabulary book. We reviewed the words again. We continued with the application exercises. Amira seemed to understand the definitions better this time.

Amira and I worked on lesson four in her vocabulary book. I made copies of the lesson. We studied the words. Amira then worked through the application exercises. She caught on quickly with using the difficult vocabulary.