Dreams--My Presentation

Have you ever asked what your dreams and ambitions are? What do you need to do to achieve your goals? Is it about money or time? Or maybe your age?
Well, it's not about any of those things. It's all about believing in yourself. To believe that you can do something from the start despite everything, to help you gain confidence and make something possible to achieve. To think about the process to reach your goal, plan ahead so you are prepared, and then you can visualize the steps you need to take to achieve the goal you have set out to achieve. Strive, fight and stay positive to overcome many obstacles to retrieve the goal. Visualize your steps before going to bed, and think about the steps you are going to have to take to reach the goals.
Just take one look to the past and you'll remember when you were young, what types of dreams you dreamed about, or how many times you used your imagination to take a look at the future, when they were asking you "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Most of you said a doctor, or a lawyer and such things. The truth is, beyond all those things, there was something that you were hiding for yourself; to dream about flying maybe, or going to space, or being famous, or more than that, having your own kingdom or your own people and land. Maybe you fell in love with a girl or a boy that you hadn't met yet, the right person to stay by your side for the rest of your life, or fell in love with a place that your haven't been to yet. Maybe an island, a city, a rainy forest or even a desert. Life is full of beauty. Notice it, notice the small child and the smiling faces, smell the rain and feel the wind and live your life to the fullest and fight for your dreams. Keep them alive and understand that to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination and dedication. Stay focused, go after your dreams and keep moving towards your goals. Let your ambitions outgrow the shoes of your dreams and your expectations. It's all about discovering who you are, your gifts, and your talents. Cherish the visions as they are the children of your soul, the blueprint of your ultimate achievements. Just follow your passion to infinity and beyond...That was my presentation, I hope you enjoyed it!

By Taima

My Vacations

Hey guys, so today's blog post is going to be about a subject that we talked about in Miss Abby's class which was about things that we can draw to show people what is my daily routine, or my trips and vacations. I chose to draw about my trips, of course. Actually at first, I wanted to draw how my dad usually takes us to the mountains and historical places like Bulla Rejia, Dougga, El Feijja, and the way I run in the grass like a child, and how my mom makes us snacks and sandwiches and we talk and laugh in the car. What I like, no actually adore about these trips is that we find each other; we talk like a real family; with love and care and nothing else. And maybe it's about the way I get free and forget about the rest of the world, with music on my phone, a beautiful picture of my cute little family, taking photos of the amazing view and smelling the fresh smells, a mix of grass, flowers, wind...And I'll never forget my trips in the summer, when I spent every day taking selfies and pictures of everything. I drew that, too! :) I drew the beautiful beach touching the sky, the sunrise with an orange colour, and my family sitting on beach chairs. Or the day that I'll never forget, when I went parasailing. I was literally flying like a bird! I saw all of Sousse, and people were like little rocks. I really had so much fun remembering those things while expressing them on a paper and presenting them in front of my friends. Because this experience is one of the best experiences in my life. And next time, I'll write about a different new thing. :)

By Taima

Our Trip to Djebba

Hey, guys, so this is the second part of the trip. After having lunch at Dougga, we decided to visit a new place called Djebba. This place is known for its beautiful waterfall. We climbed the mountain to get there, and the way was kind of hard. When we got there, we couldn't find the waterfall because it has to be during a rainy time, so that we can see it--that's what Mr. Christopher said. It is great to see and know more about Tunisia and I had the chance to learn a lot of things thanks to the Access Program. This is the end of this post--next time I'll speak about another interesting thing!

By Taima

Ola!

Hi, everyone! As I promised, I'm writing you today about the Spanish class that I had at Access during the Summer Intensive. Miss Daniella was our Mexican teacher who taught us about Mexican culture and stuff like that. At first, she taught us how to spell words in Spanish like "Ola" :). I learned colours, numbers, greetings, basics and she gave us Mexican candy if we answered right. (I hated those types of candies, seriously you cannot understand if it's spicy, sweet or what type of flavour it has!) But Miss Daniella was so kind to us, and I loved her class. She was always smiling in our faces even if we said something wrong. Other than that, I liked the way she was asking me about my culture, Tunisian culture. I felt that she was really interested in knowing those things, especially when we shared the same taste of food: both Tunisians and Mexicans love spicy food. But I think when she'll try our harissa, she will regret it! I remember when she taught us how to dance salsa and some students thought that it's a type of food until they jumped out of their chairs and hit the floor to dance.

By Taima

Our Trip to Dougga

Hey guys! :) What I'll talk about in this blog post is about a trip that we took last year to Dougga. We came in the early morning full of energy, and we hit the road on the bus. We sang songs of Bruno Mars and some old songs, and we took selfies. When we arrived, we were amazed by the ruins at first and how amazing it was. We went to explore the place; there were so many ruins big and small, with giant statues and perfect architecture. It felt amazing to learn about your great, great grandparents, and to know more about your country. It smelled like home; like you belonged there, you belong to that place! We took so many pictures and we were walking in that "town" with a guide. She told us about everything that the Romans used to do there. They were brilliant although that time is way too far from us like hundreds and hundreds of years ago. They had theaters, hammams like us (the place where you take a shower). And what blew my mind is the clock that was drawn on the floor in the public space where all the people met each other and where Jupiter is placed. They could know the time by the sun, and the road by the stars in the sky. How amazing is that?

By Taima

Mr. Shane Teaches Art Again

We were pleased to give our students the opportunity to have another art lesson with Mr. Shane, an American artist and gallery owner, during the Intensive. He had them sketch “normal” seeming objects and then turn them into monsters. All the paintings turned out great—we have some super artists in our Access group!

Mr. Harbin's Creative Writing Class

Writing in English isn't everyone's favorite thing to do, so Mr. Harbin used a unique method to motivate our students to be creative during the Summer Intensive: group storying. On several pieces of paper, Mr. Harbin wrote one sentence at the top, to begin the story. Each student then had a short time to quickly add their own sentences to each paper, continuing the stories, and adding their own twists and turns to it. When the time was up, the papers were rotated to different students. Here are some examples of their work:

Story 1:
Jendouba was a quiet town. It was really quiet and peaceful. Until one day, everything changed; when people couldn't handle poverty, unemployment, and misery anymore. They were living in extreme misery; some of them were homeless. A lot of problems made Jendouba a bad town, so that you couldn't live in it. But, one day, its people decided that this is enough and they had to change it. They wanted their rights. They had a revolution, but things got worse. The police started to kill people, and the people destroyed the supermarkets and stole things. It was chaos and so noisy. But after a long time, they achieved their goal. They got their rights and they lived happily ever after.

Story 2:
Walid was walking along the road one day when a gangster attacked him and wanted to rob him, but poor Walid didn't have any money. So, the gangster wanted to kill him, but Walid was a good fighter, so they started fighting in the street. Someone in the street called the police. When the police came, they arrested the gangster. Walid thought he was safe, and the bad guys were arrested, but he had bad luck: the gangsters got out the next morning by paying bail. They were so mad; they wanted revenge against Walid because he was the reason why they went to jail. So, they started to spy on his every move. They went to his home; they kicked the door down; and they found his wife and his children. they kidnapped them, then they called him and asked for #100,000. Poor Walid, he was so desperate and sad. He called the police. They gave him fake money and told him to obey them: Walid called the gangster and told him to meet him. Then, the police came out and arrested them, and Walid saved his family with his intelligence. After all, it's not all about muscles.

Story 3:
It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a monster came from the forest to attack the party in my neighbor's house. It was very dangerous and very scary. Everybody ran away, but the weather was really awful, so they went back into the house. Everybody went to the basement, so they could hide. But the monster didn't stop; he started to run in all over the house and kill everyone in his way. But Walid was so smart and strong that he hid in a stove. When the monster was gone, he started to look for his friends, but it was so dark he couldn't see anything. He called for them in the whole house. He found his friends in a room upstairs. They had all been killed in an awful way. He was shocked, he cried and wept. He decided to get revenge for his friends' lives. He went to the garden to kill the monster with a gun, but there were a lot of monsters. He couldn't defend himself and the monsters killed him and everyone who still lived was sad.

Story 4:
The cafe was extremely crowded. It was summer and it was so hot. After about an hour, some guys came who were wearing all black and had their faces covered. All of them had weapons. They came in and closed the doors. They yelled at us “Hand up!”; we were so scared. They asked the cafe owner to put his money in their bags. The owner was an old man; he spent his life to raise his four children. He got so angry that he started to throw the glasses and was very scared. Everyone was yelling and crying. After that, they took the money and took some hostages, so that they could run away from the police. Those hostages were so scared, because the gangsters were threatening to shoot them in their faces. After they ran away, the police entered the cafe and asked some questions of the people and then sent them home.

Story 5:
Walid was bored of class, so he tried to do something funny. He thought to do a practical joke; he was good at magic, and he wanted to entertain his friends and make them laugh. He went to the kitchen and took two eggs. Then, he wanted to transform the eggs into rabbits. He put them on his head, but the eggs broke. Eww! He started crying and embarrassed himself in front of everyone. All of the pupils made fun of him and the teacher was so mad. She shouted at him and kicked him out of the class. He went to the principal and the principal kicked him out. Walid felt so bad! He felt that everyone hated him. He decided to travel to another country. He searched in the Net for the best country. Tunisia attracted him, so he decided to travel there.

Story 6:
One night, I woke up to a loud noise. I got up to see what happened, and I found my sister screaming; she saw a ghost in the kitchen, so I turned on the light. Guess what happened?!?? It wasn't a ghost. It was a monster; it's called Leviathan. They're really very old, and they can't be killed in a normal way. I was shocked when I saw him. I went upstairs and locked my door, but I knew that wouldn't last. Guess what happened!?!? I found his son in my room; I was so afraid, I tried to kill him with a gun, but it didn't work. He can't die from guns. He jumped on me and hit me so bad I fainted. After about 12 hours, guess what happened!?!?! The little monster was so cute, and he jumped on me to play. We played a lot of games: cards, video games... I felt like the little monster was my brother. I liked him so much. It was ugly, but friendly and funny.

Story 7:
The weather was so hot. So, I went with my friends to the beach to have some fun and to entertain ourselves. Suddenly, a shark came out of the water. People started screaming and yelling. But, guess what happened?!?!? The shark ate a kid. We were scared; the beach was empty, and there was no one else there, except the pirates, so we called them to catch the shark. It was a big shark with a huge hole in his mouth. Someone with the pirates was named Walid. He was a strong pirate, and he had killed a lot of sharks, but he couldn't kill this shark, because it was so big and its teeth were so sharp. The shark jumped on Walid and took his hand. Poor Walid, he was bleeding so much; he was in pain and screaming. Then, guess what happened?!?!!? Walid was a wizard and if something in his body was cut, he could create it again, and it would be stronger than before.

All About Mexico Class

The last week in June, we studied about Mexico. The most famous Mexican foods are tortillas, mole, steak, and nachos. The most famous dance is the salsa, and some Spanish phrases are “Que rico!” and “Pasele, pasele!” We also learned some cultural history, like, in 1325 “Chich-Itza” is “Kukulkan” (the god of rain) and “Tenochtitlan” is “Haitzilopocht” (the god of war).

Azza

Mr. David's Class All About Canada

Canada is big: second in the world. It is North American. Canada has two languages: French and English. It has beautiful places and wilderness. Its famous sport is hockey. Canada is very cold because of the Arctic. It even has animals like polar bears.
The ruler of Canada is Queen Elizabeth II. Canada's first four provinces in 1867 were Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Canada's provinces and territories can be divided into prairie provinces, maritime provinces and mountainous provinces. The French speaking province is Quebec. In the other provinces, they speak English.
The weather in Winnipeg is clear and cold. The items of clothing that Mr. David mentioned were coveralls, snow suit, scarf, big parka, gloves, and tuque (snow hat). Canada is a beautiful country.

Aya M

American Cooking Class

Our favorite class was cooking in Mrs. Harbin's house. We went on Monday at 10:00. It was not far from the Access Center, so we arrived early. First, we washed our hands. Then, we went to the kitchen. Mrs. Harbin gave us the recipes of the food that we would prepare. The menu contained vegetable chowder (soup), apple pie, soft tacos, tortillas, iced tea, and Mexican salsa. We shared the responsibilities as a group: everyone helped in cooking. The first group cut the apples into little pieces. Then, we mixed with sugar and flour. Then the other group prepared the dough. The second group cut the vegetables for the chowder. We loved the cooking. We did the soft tacos, tortillas, and the Mexican salsa in the same way. The iced tea was prepared before. After that, we prepared the table and we sat like a big family; we ate together, we laughed together, and we spoke together. The food was very delicious; everyone liked it and wanted to do it again at home. It was a special experience. At 12:00, she drove us in her car to the center again. Really, we liked how we tried the American foods and had a picture of the way they are cooked.

Aya T & Dorsaf

Baseball 101

It was an unforgettable day; everyone was glad and happy. On Monday, June 9th, we enjoyed learning baseball. At the beginning of class,  Mr. Chuck—he is a very nice and kind man—showed us some videos of the game in order to teach us about baseball. Also, he gave us information about very famous teams. I was fascinated by the New York Yankees. It is a professional team that is known for winning many championships.
After that, we went to the stadium. We organized ourselves into teams, then we started playing. The team that won got a nice prize. That team was led by Montasar who made a home run on his first hit.

Montasar & Maetez

The Ten Days

Before Ramadan, we studied in the Access Program for ten days. Everyday during these days, we studied new things. For example, we had Spanish class with Miss Danielle We also studied about Mexican food and dance and places. We learned about Canada and Brazil, and we cooked with Miss Tami and Miss Judy, and played American football and baseball. We met new people like David, Danielle, and Chuck.

Dhia & Nidhal Ben Henda

Novel Study with Mrs. Harbin

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott is Mrs. Harbin's favorite novel. We learned about it and watched how the sisters loved each other even through poverty and many problems in their lives. They worked to help poor people with love and success. We liked this movie because it was very amazing.

Aya J & Sirine

Our Favorite Class

Our favorite class during the intensive was Spanish with Miss Danielle. We learned new words and how to introduce ourselves in Spanish. Also, we learned the numbers and the colors and some names of animals. Added to this, we practiced what we learned and at the end of the class, Miss Danielle asked us what we remembered from the class. We liked this class because the Spanish accent is funny. In the end, Miss Danielle rewarded us with a spicy sweet.

Ghazi & Houssem K

American Football Class

After one week staying home, we returned on the 7th of June, 2015, to Access. Our first subject was learning about American football. Mr. Chuck was our teacher. We learned about rules first. Then we went to a field to play.
It was a good lesson. We liked it. In our culture, soccer is the best, but it's good to play some new games.
Thanks to Access for everything they did, and thanks very much to our teachers.

Haithem and Omar

Games

In games class, we played many English games, for example, Bingo and Basta ( or Scattergories). They were very fun. All the pupils liked these games because they were enjoyable.

Aya J and Sirine

Nursing Home Visit 2.0

During the last week of the Summer Intensive, we went to the nursing home. We visited many elderly people there. We gave them juice and sweets. After that, Yassin played music with the drum, and we danced with them and Mr. Harbin.

Mouadh

The Summer Intensive

My favorite class in the Summer Intensive was music class. We saw a lot of video clips and I liked Wiz Khalifa's song “See You Again” about Paul Walker. It was a very good song.
I also liked All About Mexico class with Miss Danielle. We had a lot of fun and we learned how to dance the salsa.

Yassin

Classes with Miss Danielle

Four days ago, we met a new Spanish teacher. Her name's Danielle. She is from Mexico, and she speaks Spanish very well; that's normal because Spanish is the first language in Mexico.
Our class finished so fast. It was very interesting. We learned something new in Spanish: greetings, like “Adios,” which means “Bye.”Also, Miss Danielle taught us how to ask about names: “?Que tu nombre es?” that means “What's your name?” “Me nombre es,” means “My name is.” Second, we learned some colors like “rojo,” which means “red.” Third, we studied about family, but I forgot it.
Two days later, we remet Miss Danielle to learn about Mexico. She taught us about Mexico's culture, music like salsa, and food.
I think both of those sessions with Danielle were the best in the intensive. Thanks, Miss Danielle!

Hassib

Drama with Miss Kirsten

In the Summer Intensive, our favorite class was Miss Kirsten's class. It was drama. We really liked that class. We had a fun time. It was amazing. We did a part of a play about Mr. and Mrs. Stiltskin and the registrar. That show made all the class laugh. Then, we did a lot of exercises about how to express our emotions and feelings like how to show happiness and sadness, etc. Moreover, we are used to Mrs. Kirsten teaching history class--she is so strict--but in drama class, we were surprised because she was super amazing. She laughed a lot, especially at our show. We really enjoyed our time with her and drama was the most fantastic class.

Amina & Chiraz

Painting Pottery Class

Last week we had a special class. It was the first time that I had a Painting Pottery class, and I liked it. Miss Insaf gave us the pottery and the colored paints and other tools. She gave us the freedom to do what we wanted and she helped us if we needed help. When we finished, she said that we can take our work with us.
It was my favorite class. I really had fun and I enjoyed every moment.

Kais