My students are becoming so attached. A little too attached. One of my students always finds opportunities to hug me or write my letters saying how much she loves me. One day while my students were at PE I walked into the bathroom, and found all my female students. They had been told by there PE teacher to quickly go to the bathroom. As soon as I walked in the door, my one student that has taken the bigest liking to me exclaims in a very thick Arabic accent, "My lOve is herre!" I love that my students like having me as a teacher, I just don't want them to become too comfortable with me and be so focused on making me like them that they don't focus as much on their work. This is something I will have to work on as the year progresses.
Last week, I had to pick up a package that my good friend sent me and had to leave during the school day. Getting the package took 2 hours (it was worth it though)! Apparently because of my last name they thought I was Moroccan so the process of picking up my package took longer. The substitute watched my class for twenty minutes and when I got back she told me that I had the worst class in the entire school...AND that my class is obsessed with me. The substitute had told me that when she had left the classroom, my class started to cheer that she was leaving. She heard them and came back and yelled at them for cheering and said that she could hear them...I had to muffle my laughter when she told me that story. In order to kill time when she returned to the classroom, she decided to play hang man with them. One of the words started with A and my students all thought it was Ahmadi. Despite this substitutes impression of my class as the worst class, I believe that my class is made up of so many unique individuals. Yes, my class can be hard to manage because of all the unique individuals, but I would not have it any other way. I also think that the students respect me in a way that they don't respect substitutes or assistant teachers. I remember my supervising teacher during student teaching always told me I was at a disadvantage student teaching, because I wasn't the teacher that they started out with from the beginning. Now I completely understand what she meant.
Today we went to Parliament in Rabat for a field trip to culminate our social studies unit on Moroccan government. I was so excited to go into a building that I had always seen so heavily guarded before. I enjoyed some quality time with my students on the transport over, even though my students got yelled at a few times by the substitute (same one) in the OTHER transport... agagin all I could do was laugh when my students told me she was yelling at them from the other car. However, we arrived to Parliament an hour early and needed to kill time. Thinking on my feet, I decided to take the students to the beach. I used to walk the streets of Rabat, and was not used to driving places so I had no idea how many one way roads there are! It took us a lot longer than I had anticipated to drive to the beach, so the students got out for two seconds, we took a group picture and then we got back on transport and went to Parliament. When we arrived, we met a tour guide who did not speak English. We thought because we were an American school it would be obvious that we needed an English speaking guide, but now we've learned our lesson. We were taken to a room where Parliament convenes. After 5 minutes of questions asked in Darija, we were told the tour was over. There was now walking tour. No explanation of the building. Again, finished early and with no place to eat (although we had been told there would be), I again thought on my feet and decided I would take the kids across from Parliament to a grassy area where the kids could eat. We finished eating, and made our way back to Casa in time for Arabic. Would I go back to Parliament again next year? Highly unlikely. Am I glad I went this year? yes.
This weekend I'm going with a few other teachers to hike Mount Toubkal in northern Morocco, I am both excited and nervous! It will be quite the adventure :)
Last week, I had to pick up a package that my good friend sent me and had to leave during the school day. Getting the package took 2 hours (it was worth it though)! Apparently because of my last name they thought I was Moroccan so the process of picking up my package took longer. The substitute watched my class for twenty minutes and when I got back she told me that I had the worst class in the entire school...AND that my class is obsessed with me. The substitute had told me that when she had left the classroom, my class started to cheer that she was leaving. She heard them and came back and yelled at them for cheering and said that she could hear them...I had to muffle my laughter when she told me that story. In order to kill time when she returned to the classroom, she decided to play hang man with them. One of the words started with A and my students all thought it was Ahmadi. Despite this substitutes impression of my class as the worst class, I believe that my class is made up of so many unique individuals. Yes, my class can be hard to manage because of all the unique individuals, but I would not have it any other way. I also think that the students respect me in a way that they don't respect substitutes or assistant teachers. I remember my supervising teacher during student teaching always told me I was at a disadvantage student teaching, because I wasn't the teacher that they started out with from the beginning. Now I completely understand what she meant.
Today we went to Parliament in Rabat for a field trip to culminate our social studies unit on Moroccan government. I was so excited to go into a building that I had always seen so heavily guarded before. I enjoyed some quality time with my students on the transport over, even though my students got yelled at a few times by the substitute (same one) in the OTHER transport... agagin all I could do was laugh when my students told me she was yelling at them from the other car. However, we arrived to Parliament an hour early and needed to kill time. Thinking on my feet, I decided to take the students to the beach. I used to walk the streets of Rabat, and was not used to driving places so I had no idea how many one way roads there are! It took us a lot longer than I had anticipated to drive to the beach, so the students got out for two seconds, we took a group picture and then we got back on transport and went to Parliament. When we arrived, we met a tour guide who did not speak English. We thought because we were an American school it would be obvious that we needed an English speaking guide, but now we've learned our lesson. We were taken to a room where Parliament convenes. After 5 minutes of questions asked in Darija, we were told the tour was over. There was now walking tour. No explanation of the building. Again, finished early and with no place to eat (although we had been told there would be), I again thought on my feet and decided I would take the kids across from Parliament to a grassy area where the kids could eat. We finished eating, and made our way back to Casa in time for Arabic. Would I go back to Parliament again next year? Highly unlikely. Am I glad I went this year? yes.
This weekend I'm going with a few other teachers to hike Mount Toubkal in northern Morocco, I am both excited and nervous! It will be quite the adventure :)
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