For some reason the creators of "blogspot" think I'm really in to Christianity, all the blogs the "next blog" button takes me to are hard core testimonies. proof I love Jesus, I guess.
On that note, I had a divinely inspired lesson plan the other day that proved to be a great success. While I still don't like it really, I must say I am getting the hang of this teaching business. Anyway, when Mia was here she brought me a bundle of "Time For Kids" Magazines which had short and informative articles about a variety of topics (including how bats are becoming extinct from White Nose Syndrome where they basically grow mold on their face that then suffocates them. NAST) So I gave each couple of students a magazine and they had to summarize the cover article for the class, tell whether or not it was relevant to their life, and pose two discussion questions. One of the articles was about gender segregated schools and their rising popularity in the U.S. i.e. one school for boys and one for girls which is the way of all public schools in Jordan, only some private schools are mixed. So the obvious discussion question was, do you think boys and girls in school should be mixed or separate and why? In my second class, one of the smartest girls in my class one of the best english speakers raised her hand and said, "well I read in an article that boys are actually genetically smarter than girls, so i think they should be separate so the boys can learn more." Now, up until this point i was trying to stay out of the discussion. I generally do because a. I want them to be speaking, not me and b. teaching English is enough imperialism without all of my vastly different cultural views. However, while my feminist self has certainly become more tolerant of dissenting viewpoints while living in the Middle East, at this point I just flat out told her, "No. That is not true." She responded with "but, I read it." I did not have time to go into a "you can't believe everything you read" lecture so I just said, "I can show you a million articles that say the opposite." And class was over.
In my last period, the same article, the entire class insisted that all schools should be segregated because the other gender is an unnecessary distraction. One student went as far as to say colleges should also be separated by gender. Because they all agreed, I played the devil's advocate and asked what would happen when they had to work together as employees, to which I was told "people can make the choice of where to work based on where they are comfortable." Which I roughly translated as, "women should hold "feminine" professions like teacher and mother while men can have "male appropriate" positions and they still won't really talk to each other except for the floozies." This was a test, I knew it, and I swear to God if anyone ever calls me an imperialist for spreading "western" feminism, I will tell this story and how I kept every opinion about gender roles and oppression to myself. One student did specifically ask me what I thought, and I replied I think boys and girls should be together always so people can get along better, that diversity is always better than sameness whether it be gender or ethnicity or anything.
In my last period, the same article, the entire class insisted that all schools should be segregated because the other gender is an unnecessary distraction. One student went as far as to say colleges should also be separated by gender. Because they all agreed, I played the devil's advocate and asked what would happen when they had to work together as employees, to which I was told "people can make the choice of where to work based on where they are comfortable." Which I roughly translated as, "women should hold "feminine" professions like teacher and mother while men can have "male appropriate" positions and they still won't really talk to each other except for the floozies." This was a test, I knew it, and I swear to God if anyone ever calls me an imperialist for spreading "western" feminism, I will tell this story and how I kept every opinion about gender roles and oppression to myself. One student did specifically ask me what I thought, and I replied I think boys and girls should be together always so people can get along better, that diversity is always better than sameness whether it be gender or ethnicity or anything.
Another article was about whether or not schools in America were loading kids down with too much homework. This was laughable to me when one of my Malaysian students started talking about how she went to school in China and how much homework she had, 9 pages of math problems every night and reading and etc etc. Then of course, she said, "I liked it- it helped me not to waste time." and I just imagined all the TV that would be watched if American kids had less homework.
A different class posed the question. "does homework help students do well on tests?" One student replied, "well no it doesn't because all the students will just copy it from one student" So, of course I said, "well, that's cheating.. what about the student who actually DOES the homework, will it help him on the test?" To which the kid replied, "No, because he will just copy it off the internet." I told him that was cheating and my entire class agreed, "No, that's just being smart." Despite my patience earlier, at this point, I lost my temper just a bit and jumped up and down yelling "NO THAT IS CHEATING!!!" Then some kid had the guts to pull the "Well, in our culture..." Unfortunately, it doesn't matter what country you are in, copying someone else's idea and not giving them credit for it, is cheating. End of discussion. I may have kind of yelled that part too.
Stay tuned, I am going to try and write a bit more about the last few days in the next few days.
A different class posed the question. "does homework help students do well on tests?" One student replied, "well no it doesn't because all the students will just copy it from one student" So, of course I said, "well, that's cheating.. what about the student who actually DOES the homework, will it help him on the test?" To which the kid replied, "No, because he will just copy it off the internet." I told him that was cheating and my entire class agreed, "No, that's just being smart." Despite my patience earlier, at this point, I lost my temper just a bit and jumped up and down yelling "NO THAT IS CHEATING!!!" Then some kid had the guts to pull the "Well, in our culture..." Unfortunately, it doesn't matter what country you are in, copying someone else's idea and not giving them credit for it, is cheating. End of discussion. I may have kind of yelled that part too.
Stay tuned, I am going to try and write a bit more about the last few days in the next few days.
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