Yesterday was frustrating, amusing and bittersweet to sum it up using the range of emotions I’ve been through today. Frustrating because (can you guess by now?) our class was once again without a room. We bumped our noses on the locked café door once again so I ran up to tell the lady in charge who said she would have it unlocked. We waited for a while until a cook came down, opened the kitchen door and began preparing food. We knocked on the glass to ask her to unlock the inside so she came out and started discussing our situation with one of the students in Arabic. She finally opened the door but apparently we weren’t allowed in because they were feeding people in there later (or that’s what I got of it). So I ran back up the stairs and tried to explain in my broken French about the crazy cook who wouldn’t let us in and the lady finally just followed me down the stairs and started talking to the cook and they concluded that we would have our class outside in the courtyard of the café. By the time that was decided the crazy cook had closed and locked the door of the café and went back to her cooking again. Our whiteboard and the chairs and tables needed to have class were locked in there with her. So we knocked and motioned towards the board desperately while she began looking strangely like someone who had just inhaled 67 Serrano peppers. We couldn’t hear her but we watched, bemused, as she started to emphatically bang things around and dramatically yell something that I don’t think she expected us to hear. Finally a student talked to her and she opened the door for us to drag our stuff out hurriedly in case a pan or piece of meat came hurdling our way.
We worked on some simple madlibs in class where we used nouns, verbs and adjectives that they have learned the past few weeks. I told them to write down their words first and then I gave them the story to fill in around the words. Each person told a story that started with “Hi my name is _____” and the first blank was a celebrity or famous person. Most of them were confused at first and tried to change their answers so I had to point to their original answers and most of them got it when they heard a few students do it and realized that everyone’s stories were funny and didn’t make sense. We almost died laughing when one of the guys said that he was Celine Dion, he had to choke it out because he was trying so hard not to laugh. We also had a Katy Perry and an Eminem (who apparently lives in a supermarket… who knew?!) So that ended up being fun, but it was a little hard and I felt bad that about 3 or 4 of them really didn’t get it. I also had them listen to a song and fill in blanks in the lyrics. That seemed to work rather well until the African Gospel Choir started belting and bellowing over the music my students were trying to understand. We asked them to keep it quieter for 15 minutes until we were done listening and they obliged us for about 2 minutes and slowly started getting louder and louder until we could hardly hear each other. It was glorious, let me tell you……..
After class some of my students came up and asked me if I was a Christian. It had NOTHING to do with anything we were doing in class or had talked about so I was kind of taken by surprise but of course I told them yes. They just nodded so I asked jokingly if we could all still be friends so they laughed and said of course hahah… then one guy volunteered that he had a girlfriend in Ireland and another added that he is going to the US in a few years and plans on getting an American girlfriend… I’m not sure how this all related but it was rather random and amusing for an after-class discussion. Tomorrow is my last class! How weird… I think I’ll miss them.
I researched the election candidates and filled out my absentee ballot yesterday! So to all you people in the States: I’m in Morocco and I’m voting… what’s your excuse NOT to vote? Hmmm? The big day is November 2nd. Do your research, be at the polls and make the forefathers proud by exercising the freedoms they fought for. Hahah okay, I’m done for now ;D
We had to say goodbye to Lori today which was sad, she is such a sweet and thoughtful person. She said some VERY kind words to me before she left that made me tear up a little. It’s so weird how few of us are left in the house now. It’s like a non-competitive game show where people just keep dropping out little by little, but everyone wins in the end :D I think the rest of the day dragged by. Not necessarily in a bad way, but I just did a whole lot of work on my computer and everyone just hung around talking or listening to Jean tell Heidi about her past life and future.
Oh! but after lunch I did get to meet with Mohammed and talk about my research and thoughts with him. We must have talked for an hour and a half because he has so much wisdom and many experiences to talk about. I really do feel like I have learned so much these past few weeks. I’m very lucky to be where I am. No doubt about that.
It really seems as if you've completely grown into the teaching ... you've gotten more spontaneous about it, you say, because of the internet glitches, and that's ALWAYS a good thing. I'm guessing that being adaptable to the particular batch of students and keeping it interesting and engaging is always better than having a rigid, set plan. I guess the best teachers eventually get so experienced they just adapt naturally to whatever comes up, and have enough materials to pull out what's going to work best right then. Seems to me like you're doing a really good job at it.
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