Prior to traveling to the Holy Land, I was torn on what to bring to my host to show my gratitude. I wanted to include  my students in this gift so that they too would be connected with the Latin Patriarchate School in Beit Jala. Inspired by a project previously done by Judy Maly, I decided to make a quilt with my students.  I gave each child a square with the same  directions: to draw what they thought represented their faith. Many chose to represent their faith with crosses. Others picked the chalice or a rosary, each a beautiful way to show what the Catholic faith means to them. As a class they selected a favorite Bible passage to be placed on the quilt,  “For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish, but might have Eternal Life.” (Secretly, I hoped that they would pick a shorter passage, but they were insistent that John 3:16 was the one they wanted.) The passage is written on the quilt in both English and Arabic (I had a helper with the translation.)

Upon arriving in the Holy Land, the quilt that was made by the loving hands of  my 6^th graders was received by the loving hands of my new partner teacher, Mirna. Mirna told me that she plans to hang the quilt in school. So a small piece of my children will remain in the Holy Land, in a school not so different from our own.

After sharing information about our families (and of course a tour of Bethlehem) Mirna and I had the opportunity to talk as teachers. Together we sat on the couch in her lovely home and shared ideas for things to do with our students. Of course being that we are teachers we had to have a little fun.

We made critters out of our names and talked about the different ways this can be used in the classroom. In the past I have used this project as a creative writing assignment where after making a critter my students have to write a story about the creature. Well, when you put two teachers together the ideas begin to fly. Mirna and I talked about how the critters could be used differently by having the students write descriptive sentences to explain what their critter looked liked or  by writing a story.

In our recent Skype session, Mirna and I decided to exchange class lists so that we can continue to have our classrooms grow together. Our plan is to match our students as pen pals and allow them the chance to meet through Skype. I look forward to seeing our students grow together as well as continuing to grow in my relationship with my new friend.

 By: Abby Petrozzi