Hi, my name's Osama and I live in Kom El-Ahmar. It is a very small town. My father works for the Ministry of Education as an administrator of the same school that I go to. My mother doesn't have a formal job. Instead, she looks after the house. My favorite sport is soccer, and my favorite school subject is Islamic Science. I would like to become an architect in the future. Here is a quick sample that I drew of a house.

Greetings all,

It's been a number of months since the last post. Since that time, we have finished the first semester of school and I (Michael Greer) am now in my final teaching semester at Kom El Ahmar school. My teaching partner this year is named Salim Eflih, and he has been crucial in managing the 7th grade class with me. Since I'm largely in charge of planning and giving lessons, I have the freedom to undertake various projects with the students throughout the year. This semester's project has been creating student profiles for this site. After much work, six students have managed to write a bit about themselves and their lives for this posting. Once all the profiles are up, we will create a poster for our class which features pictures of the students online profiles to be displayed in the classroom. We hope you enjoy learning about these students and we would be thrilled to receive feedback and questions. Below are pictures of Salim and me with 7B, one of the two 7th grade classes we teach. Enjoy!

 

 

 

    A lot has happened this summer since the Kom El-Ahmar students finished the photography camp. We had some funding left when the project finished, so I've begun a second stage of the project to publicize our photography in Amman. I've entitled the exhibition "Portraits of Kom El-Ahmar" because the emergent photographic theme was family and friends.

    My goal is to create a student photography exhibition to be held in one of Amman's art galleries. Ultimately, I hope such an exhibition would yield two results: first, that we would be able to cultivate interst into rural Jordanian life; second, that we could plan a field trip for students to come see their work displayed in Amman.

    I became very picky when selecting a location for exhibition since I want to find a place which would also prove educational for a student field trip. Currently I'm in final negotiations with a venue in Gebel Weibdah next to the National Gallery of Fine Art. I'm thrilled that the management is willing to support "grass roots" artistic projects like ours. They have also been welcoming and flexible about hosting the student field trip. Stay tuned for another update when the exhibition starts in the next week or two.

    You can see thumbnails of all 33 of our gallery pictures here on this website. Just click on the "Photo Gallery" icon in the white box above the title. I apologize that a few of the captions have been cut off, but at least you'll be able to see all our pictures. The first 13 pictures are mine, and the last 20 are all student photos.

This website was created for the students of Kom El-Ahmar Secondary School for Boys in Mafraq, Jordan. I, Michael Greer, am a Peace Corps Volunteer teaching English at this school. I've just finished my first year teaching 6th and 7th grade boys. After our school year ended, I coordinated a photography camp for 22 of my students. For two weeks they learned how to use disposable cameras to capture images of value in their lives. The camp was a success, and now we're seeking to publicize our student photography among the Jordanian arts community. The creation of this website is the first step in sharing our photographic stories with the outside world. Please feel free to check out our photography and stay posted for more stories from students during the coming academic year.