Teaching Highs and Lows

High: Today in class we looked at “Pictures of US,” a handy teaching tool provided by the official Office of English Language Teachers or something like that. They are these large pictures of scenes of Americana- girl scouts saying the pledge of allegiance, ranchers rounding up cattle, students getting on a school bus, etc. etc. and then there is a sheet suggesting a million different ways to use them in the ESL classroom. I picked a “beginning level” activity, and had small groups of students simply write a description of the picture they had and then present it to the class. Tough to say whether or not they liked this activity; things out of the textbook are not highly accepted at Al-albayt, I’m learning this very quickly. I peaked the interest of at least one student, however, who approached me after class with a question. Her picture had been of a politically correct picture of a multicultural kindergarten classroom, almost every group that got this picture commented on how there were black children and white children (I don’t think they know the word, “Hispanic” or I’m sure they would have included this). Anyway, this student asked me if that’s really how it is in America, if all the classrooms have people with different skins. I explained that in some places, like where I’m from, there are more people who look white, like me, but yes, everywhere the students are all together and especially in big cities, there are lots of schools with people who look different from all over the world. I don’t want to sound belittling at all, but her reaction was precious. She smiled and said, “Wow, that’s very nice, I think.” I replied very proudly, “yes, it’s wonderful!” Since that moment, I’ve been reflecting on how true my statement was. I read in the New York Times, yesterday about Alabama’s new racial profiling, (sorry, I mean “immigration law”) and thought about a lot of cities where most schools are pretty solidly one ethnicity.. based on neighborhood based on ecomonic class based on past and present tense racism and cultural barriers. But, overall I do think America is pretty happily multicultural. Certainly more so than Jordan, where Asians are gawked at, Pacific Islanders are assumed to be domestic workers, Iraqis are moochers, Western women are easy, white people are rich, etc. Please, do not be offended by this generalization. This is NOT every Jordanian and I in no way mean to suggest that the U.S. doesn’t have stereotypes. I also have to own my privilege and recognize that my perception in America is much different as there I am the majority. But I cannot imagine a Latino woman walking down the street of a major city and having multiple men call out to her, “Hola, como estas? ” in the creepiest of fashions, which is basically what I get every day here. In sum, I like that a picture of children with different backgrounds sitting on the same carpet in a classroom is “American” and that for the most part, I think my country really does support that value. Low: A student who should not be in my English class because his English is way too good told me after class today that he thought I was not preparing them well for the tests. You’re going too slowly, he said. This was the same period, mind you, that a group of smarmy shebab (young men) asked what to do with their picture, and responded to my directions with sneers and, “No, Don’t speak English.” So I told this kid after class that I appreciated his advice, and I actually thought I was going faster than the book, because most students seem to already know the worthless b.s. in the book, so now I’m trying to command a better working knowledge of the language. But, they will not be prepared for the exams, was his reply. This has been a huge source of stress for me. I recently tried to find out whether or not I could create my own exams or if I had to give the standard ones used for all the English classes. Of course, no one knows for sure, and the decision maker Dr. Amr who doesn’t speak English was also not at school on Monday. The thing is, even if they have to take the standard test, I am teaching them the same information, the same grammar, the same vocab, but I am not training them to find it on a computer with an automated multiple choice exam. I am making them use it and speak it hopefully in ways that make them think and interact rather than go through this super boring book. So if I can organize a test in a way that is fair to the method I want to use, my (good) students will do well, as will anyone who can speak English. If I have to give them this standardized test (which I’ve seen a model of and there are questions so ambiguous I’m not sure I could pass) then maybe they would pass but maybe they would just not understand the stupid context and form. Meanwhile, the students are confused as to why I don’t take attendance (I only want the ones who come to learn and who aren’t going to be obnoxious) they want to know the syllabus (so do I for the record but I don’t know if I get to make it or not), and they are worried they will fail because we’ve opened the book maybe once in class (this is also partially because the photocopy is really not that good so even if I wanted to do activities from the book, I can’t read half of them). Ma ba’arif (I don’t know.) High: I really like my English 99 class. They are smarter than one of my 101 classes and only a little too rowdy. They make hilarious pop culture references- I never thought I would attempt to draw SpongeBob on a chalkboard in front of 50 college students. They tell each other to listen- “shut up” was used today and I was so grateful to hear the words I’ve wanted to say so badly that it didn’t matter that it didn’t do any good. And even if they don’t respect them, they at least acknowledge that there are rules- they pretend to apologize when their phones ring in class and laugh when I semi-jokingly tell them I’m going to kick them out next time. There is also a girl who invited me to her house for dinner and I cannot wait to find a week to take her up on the offer. English 99, anyone who mentions SpongeBob on the final gets an automatic pass. You make me laugh. There’s no low in TeacHInGH. There are many. But end on a high note, yeah?