When I went home in December everyone asked me how my experience had been so far and what is was like teaching here. My response, "It is totally different from teaching back home. It takes a lot of energy, not only because I'm teaching all boys but because I'm teaching all boys who don't understand most of the words coming out of my mouth. I am constantly repeating myself over and over...and over." Teaching here has almost put me back in my first year of teaching. I say almost because now that I have had the classroom experience, I have tools I can pull out of my tool belt when necessary. On the other hand, I have never taught like this before. Let me break it down:
- I'm at a new school in a new country. So not only did I have to get used to new procedures and routines (which is something you have to do at any new job) but I also had to adjust to a new culture. When making a decision to move here I definitely didn't think too much about how the school would be. Once I stepped outside of the little bubble I lived in, I realized that not everyone thinks or operates the same way we do at home.
- Some of the students I'm teaching have never been to school before. Not only am I having to teach them my classroom procedures, but I also have to teach them how to be a student.
- I'm teaching students who don't know any English at all! The best thing I can compare that to is teaching a baby how to talk. When I talk to my students I don't know if they are comprehending anything I am saying. I have to repeat myself several times and I am constantly playing a game of charades. Pictures and hands on items are my best friends.
Now that I have started my second trimester (yes, trimester) my students and I have really started to get the hang of things. We are both starting to understand each other better. Let me break it down:
- When my students come to my classroom, they still might run around before they get in line, but they know they need to get in line before they enter my classroom.
- As a teacher, you create your classroom environment and build relationships with your students. I wasn't quite sure what that was going to look like here and I'm still not sure how it will look by the end of the year, but it's slowly forming into something. As my boys enter the classroom I shake each of their hands. Now some of my boys have decided to kiss my hand when they enter and I have two who give me hugs (hugs from the boys isn't very common).
- When you are teaching students a new language growth is very clear to see. My students are really showing progress. My higher students are beginning to blend their sounds to read words. My students are writing sentences correctly from left to right (keep in mind that Arabic is from right to left, so it takes them some time to get used to writing or even opening books from left to right). Every day during our warm-up we unscramble a sentence and the boys write the sentence on a small white board. If they finish quickly I allow them to draw a picture to go along with the sentence because it usually includes science vocabulary we are covering. One of my students actually drew an octopus, but decided to make it a Ms. Britni Octopus.He pointed out that he gave this octopus hair which made it me. He thought it was the funniest thing. I actually laughed as well. The fact that he was able to make that joke and explain it to me was major (proud teacher moment). I had to take a picture -
Ms. Britni Octopus
This is from one of my lower performing students. He is unable to write independently. I create the tracing dots on his board and then he traces over them. - My students are teaching me now! This past week we went over the letter M. I have a book that shows things that start with M. While I was teaching them how to say it in English, they were teaching me how to say it in Arabic (because they are so young I can trust they are teaching me that actual words and not profanity). They get a kick out of me saying words in Arabic.
