Ruben and Armineh experienced a variety of activities on their last day at South. They both started out the day in Susan Miller’s business class. They answered questions about the economy and business climate in Armenia. Near the end of the class the students asked more general questions about day to day life in Armenia. At this point Armineh and Ruben went their separate ways for the rest to the day.

Armineh visited Tony Keller’s Geography class and spent the whole hour answering questions the students had for her. Tony had his students working on an assignment concerning Armenia and the questions generated much classroom discussion. Armineh then visited Sam Moscato’s International Business class where she again fielded questions from the students.

Ruben spent the middle of the day back with the Math department visiting several different classes and teachers. He reported several interesting experiences. In Bruce Thornquists’ Calculus class Ruben said he watched while Bruce showed the students how to solve a problem on the blackboard. Then Ruben told me he raised his hand, went to the board and solved the problem using a completely different method. He seemed very pleased that he was able to get the same correct answer using his method. In Randy Zamin’s Statistics class Ruben was able to observe and talk to the students. One of Randy’s students is from Russia and she and Ruben were able to have a conversation in Russian near the end of the class. Ruben told me he was especially impressed with the number of computers in the classroom (there were 24), and he reminded me again that his school of 1000 has four computers for the entire school. In Terry Kent’s Geometry class Ruben was very interested in seeing how the computer was being used to help teach geometry.

Ruben ended his very busy day with a two-hour session with Mike Mayfield talking about computers. Ruben said he really learned a lot in these one on one sessions.

I asked both Armineh and Ruben to reflect back on their time at South and make some comments. Both expressed thanks to all the teachers and other staff members who spent time with them. Armineh was impressed with all the teachers she observed especially Jeff Blei who prepared a special lesson on Armenia for her visit. Ruben was especially thankful to the computer teachers and Tim Elliott for all the help and advice they gave him.

A personal note here from me. I was so impressed with the welcome and the kindnesses that everyone at South extended to Ruben and Armineh. It makes me very proud and grateful to be working with such a wonderful group of people.

Submitted by Carol Redell