First 3 Weeks Teaching

Teaching.....has been an adventure. Maybe more of an adventure than moving to Casablanca. While I love my students, there are so many challenges that come along with teaching young students who are all english learners. Although I am used to the United States' standard of third grade, my third graders here are on a much lower level. Reading is quiet difficult, due to lack of vocabulary. I find myself loosing patience as the day go on. I need to repeat the directions. I need to write the directions on the board. I need to have students repeat to me the directions. I need to have students following along by repeating a word in the story. I am most frustrated when students are just not paying attention. In order to keep their focus, I constantly find myself looking for new ways to make sure the students are engaged. I credit this to both Breakthrough (my summer teaching job) and working with my 3rd grade supervisor last year. Breakthrough taught me to always have students actively involved. When one student does not know the answer, I have another student tell me the answer and then I go back to the original student to tell me the answer. This way I am ensuring that the first student, who originally did not know the answer, is listening and can repeat it in their own words. I often find myself asking multiple people to repeat the correct answers, because many of the students have trouble listening. The most frustrating times are when 5 people have already said the correct answer and the 6th person was not listening. My work with my 3rd grade teacher has taught me to always have the directions placed on the board so students can have a visual, and to provide alternative ways of learning for students who need it. These alternative ways include having things printed out, and allowing students who work diligently but slower to do fewer problems. 

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Now for some interesting things the students call me:

I am mostly Miss. At times I am Miss. Olivia, and other times I am Miss. Ahmadi.

3rd grade girls: They are clingy and will not stop hugging you. I have already been called mama 4 times. I have also been called Mul Hanout, which means shop keeper, because I like to keep my pen on my ear.
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So far my students have learned about the King of Morocco, worked on reading, addition and subtraction, and have learned about making inferences. Two weeks from now we will be going to the Parliament in Rabat for a field trip!

Besides teaching, life has been flying by here in Casablanca. Last weekend, I spent friday watching a movie and staying in. Saturday I made a trip to the beach with a few other teachers, and Sunday I made a trip to the mall to buy a few necessities. Even though my sense of direction can be off at times, I am starting to find my way. The other day a fellow teacher and I were shopping for classroom supplies at Derb Omar and needed to get a taxi back. For some reason (maybe due to traffic) cabs will not take us to our street, so we had to pray that we were walking in the general direction. With my broken Darija we were  able to eventually find our way home! Success! (it did take an hour and a half)

My biggest goal right now, in addition to becoming more patient with my students and connecting with them all individually is to improve my language. I had my first Darija tutoring session today and am excited to keep working on it! At times I think the language pressure takes more energy than my teaching. Due to my appearance, parents, taxi drivers, and people on the street all assume I am Moroccan. Its not a bad thing. In fact I love it. At times I feel so accomplished when people speak to me in Darija (even though I don't really have to do anything for them to assume I am Moroccan). However, trying to listen closely to what people are telling me in Darija, comprehend it and then respond takes so much energy. As I am writing this, I am starting to see that maybe the patience Moroccans have with me is the patience I need to have with my students language abilities. It is not easy to learn a new language, and we often take our native language for granted. This week, I will be more patient, I will improve my Darija, and I will become a better teacher. Inshallah. 

The beginning

Day 1: After a day of traveling, I finally arrive to Casablanca, Morocco.

My first reactions to the city- busy, not very friendly, and definitely not home. That very same night I went back to Rabat to visit my host family to celebrate Eid. My immediate reaction when I got off the train at Rabat: this is home. I once again was around familiar things and people. It was then that i realized, although I adored Rabat, I just had to give Casablanca time.

Day 2: I returned to Casablanca with my host sister and it was the day of Eid. Everything was closed. Meaning we had nothing to eat. So that night one of the other teachers at my school invited the two of us to her apartment to have some Tajine that she had made. She saved us!

We also had the most delicious ice cream after. We walked about 10 minutes from her apartment to a place called Oliveri. There was a huge line, and after you payed you entered a big glob of people where you had to push your way through to give your ticket to  the icecream man so that you could get your ice cream. Despite the chaos, and despite a taller woman leaning over me to give the guy behind the counter her ticket, it was delicious and worth it. I'm definitely back in Morocco I thought to myself. 

Day 3: I ventured with my two host siblings to the Morocco Mall! What an adventure. Its nicer than any mall I have been to in the United States. The mall is apparently the largest one in Africa and has stores like Louis Vuitton and Gap. It also had a starbucks and a pinkberry (the one thing I missed last time I was in Morocco Froyo!) The mall also included an indoor aquarium and an imax theater!
After having dinner and leaving around 9, my host siblings and I tried to catch a cab. Which became adventure number 2. Everyone was looking for a taxi and there were people just randomly standing around because we were close to the beach. Every time we tried to flag down a taxi, the taxi drivers said that they weren't working and taking passengers, or they already had passengers, OR someone else had immediately flagged it down before us. Then, we decided to walk towards the boardwalk hoping to find a cab further up. We walked for about 45 minutes. Finally we found a Taxi that we told the driver we were willing to pay more than we should so that he could take us home. Hamdullilah we made it home safely! 

Day 4: My roommate arrived and the other new teachers! I was so glad, finally other Americans new to the school were here and I was no longer alone in the apartment. At times I find it hard to balance my previous knowledge that I have from Morocco and what the returning teachers are telling me. I am trying to be really conscious of not sounding like a know it all (hopefully I am achieving my goal). My Darija is better than most of the other teachers, so I have a leg up in terms of getting around. I am quite impressed how much these other American teachers have been able to get around without Darija (Moroccan Arabic) or French! I remember feeling like I had no choice but to learn Darija when I studied abroad in Rabat. - One reason to love Casa: Diversity! 

Day 5: Orientation started! I had many highlights this day. First, all the non-teaching staff who were Moroccan were pleasantly surprised by my Darija. I talked to two staff members in the copy room and they said my Darija was better then their English. I told them I want to become fluent and they said they would only talk to me in Darija. Thank God! More practice!

Then we came home and a bunch of us went for a run, which was nice but also proved to me I need to get back in shape! Surprisingly, other than someone clapping, I didn't have too much trouble running on the street. 

After that we went to the Head of Our School's apartment and had Cous Cous. The wife of one of the drivers had made it for us. He was a little late (which was unusual for him, so the Head asked me to call since my Darija was pretty good). - To be honest my Darija is not as good as everyone thinks. 
He ended up being downstairs and myself and another teacher went to help him. On the elevator he asked the other teacher "Who is this?" in English...I was standing right there. haha. oh well. 

Then! After Cous Cous we got transported back to our apartment and I got to my favorite part of the day. I took my roommate to buy an apple from a local market. I talked to the man in Darija, and because I was with someone who wasn't Moroccan it was obvious I wasn't either. He was surprised I knew Darija and encouraged me to keep trying so that I could become fluent. They started teaching me the names of the fruits and vegetables that I did not know and told me that slowly with time, I will get better! This incident reminded me why I love Morocco. Moroccans can be so encouraging when I am trying to speak to them in Darija. Their reaction and excitement always makes me want to push harder to become better at the language. Inshallah with time, I will become fluent. In the mean time I will work on speaking with the locals as much as possible, trying to learn some on my own, and finding a tutor. 

My teaching doesn't start until a week from Monday, but I can already tell Casa is slowly becoming my home.