Vacation December 2009

Happy Day After Christmas!

Spent a nice day yesterday with the other two teachers who remained here during vacation. Made a nice “soccer team” brunch ala Whaler soccer! French toast casserole, fresh fruit, coffee, tea, YUM! Then went to Maggie’s (she is from Fiji but lived in VT for 8 years a while ago) beautiful home in Ma’adi with her wonderful family. Turkey dinner! Her husband and his 3 siblings (Americans) lived in Cairo as children and now they live with their spouses all over the world. Their mom lives in DC now but basically lived everywhere in the world and still travels all over. One in India, on family in Columbia, one in California and then Maggie’s in Egypt I think their 9^th country?? Lovely, kind, and interesting family and we were so grateful to be included in their celebration.

Of course, the highlight of MY day was SKYPING in to my home in Nantucket. Casey, Russell, Geoff, Becca, Charles, and Friday were all there – and I got to say hello to everyone. AND! See the snow!! Nice!

Funny story about Maggie and me. We have a mutual friend of course! Her friend from Fiji – Annette – and I met at Harvard when I was doing my masters in 96. Small world!!

Here in Egypt I am getting used to the new apartment and the neighborhood. Checking the water/electricity/internet service is like the weather for the day “Spotty hot water in the AM changing over to completely steaming and no cold by evening – excellent internet reception throughout the day followed by a complete electricity blackout during the early evening. For those of you staying up late enough you will be able to see the lights on in the residence through the use of the generator and the only other light visible in the night sky will be the red flashing light at the top of the fake palm tree/cell tower.” Today – right now – all the elements of the universe are aligned and we have it all! And I am grateful!

Even though every building I can see from my balcony is empty we went for a walk and found that there is a more (relatively speaking) established area just behind the mosque. There is a large school – looks pretty traditional ie poor – complete with busted glass windews - and more inhabited houses. We also found a huge construction supply “mall” so if we need to buy a sink – or gallons of paint which is more likely – we are allll set!

 here is a google earh view of the school from a year or so ago - not much around us has changed but the school is more finished.

We also timed the walk to school – 22 minutes -  and then continued past it to time the walk to the local gas station (gas stations seem to always have a small market AND coffee shop and therefor is a HANGOUT!! Yes, I am beginning to hang out at gas stations! Every time I do I think – If they could see me now . . . ) which only added another 10 minutes. Also there is a new McDonald’s!! Of course!! Then we kept walking through MAJOR construction area (complete with many folks in hard hats and BIG machinery unlike around the school and residence where manual labor is building everything one stick and one brick at a time) to time the walk to the bank – 45 minutes total! Doable now when it is not hot! but I am afraid that by early-mid April will be impossible.

A bonus of this trip was our finally checking out an “eatery” we have always wondered about that is visible from the way we approach the bank. It is called the “Time Out” on its sign written in English. We all have a good chuckle at the irony of teachers going to Time Out. We never rushed over there to check it out as it is literally up against some piles of fill near our bank since it is an unfinished office building and there are many in this strip. The “roof” of the “Time Out” is tent like and looks really, really local i.e. we thought probably a little too rustic and a little too much risk for tummy trouble if we went. R. and I were VERY pleasantly surprised!! That is the back door entrance to the group of FOUR different outdoor restaurants!! And the front door side is very complete and modern looking. YAY! Seating at all of them is on comfy couches and they have big screen TVs too so now we know where to watch soccer – VERY important. One had wireless interent (we think! The English was Shway shway. One had Shisha and one had a beautiful setting with each table under its own little tent (getting addicted to my own little tents!) but a more expensive menu. And the people there were all dressed in Western fashion and style so more comfortable for us. We are here for the exotic experience but every so often it is nice to take a break! So, “meet you at “Time Out” may become an oft used message – we’ll see!

In addition to exploring the neighborhood this week I am also thinking a lot about teaching. It is interesting to be “learning” about Christmas and the lessons it teaches us all during this week off when I am also supposed to be regrouping for this next term at ISE. Not that I mean to compare my teaching with that of Jesus and/or any of the prophets but I am just thinking about teaching and “lessons” and their  multiple layers all the time this week.

(There is so much to learn about the Christian faith here! I thought I was a pretty well-schooled Catholic but by adding all the authentic Middle Eastern themes and traditions to the stories they have become fuller, richer stories. The multiple layers of cultural references that I knew nothing about before and their metaphor and symbolism also continue to intrigue me.)

So, I find myself wondering what are we REALLY accomplishing here in our little school? Some of us wish we could just have a class that would come in to the room, find a seat, get out their supplies, and be ready for some interesting dialogue and practice! That is a looooong list of wishes here since we think that these children have only been ordered around like trained circus animals in their past schools. We have tried to give them the freedom to operate independently and for the sake of getting to learn (which they DO want!) but it seems to be too much freedom too soon. So, there are many trials and tribulations and sometimes by the time everyone is sitting and ready and not fussing 15 minutes or MORE have gone by. We shake our heads wondering if it is worth it but I know it is. If we can get through this year getting the kids to respect the idea of “This School is for You!” will we have accomplished much. Then next year there will be a core of students who know the ropes and will be able to show the new students (who will no doubt experience the same shock at not being ordered around every step of the way) how to participate.

So, classroom management has taken up a majority of the teaching time here and that causes frustration but I think I will have to remind everyone that it is OK to be teaching that – in as kind and gentle a way as we possibly can. It will mean a lot for the future of the school! And if there is less social studies learning then so be it! They will catch up later.

The MAJOR classroom management challenge here is the volume of the classroom and the amount of talking out of turn and off-topic that occurs. It is partly because of their complete lack of training in the last few years but also it is partly cultural. The Egyptians here do talk over each other and they are loud! It is impossible to run our classrooms this way though so we are retraining a new culture to adopt at school. This is pervasive through all the grades and even with some of the Egyptian teachers. So! If the teacher is loud then the classroom is loud! Walking down the hall some days I am sure you would see my eyeballs popping out of my head when I hear just the type of sound coming from a room!! WOW! We each seem to have a story of shame where we cannot believe the words that have left our lips in order to maintain some sense of order! That is very frustrating and for the most part we are left on our own in this wilderness to cope without any help from the admin. They are too busy trying to put out fires to possibly notice any details such as “What is getting taught here?” Luckily this group is completely dedicated to the ART of teaching even though there are many who have little experience and are still learning what that means. So, we fumble along and support each other as best we can. It may be the effect of vacation and distance from the classroom, but today I have confidence. I hope it lasts for a little while at least once we are back in session – for myself and others.

We had parent conferences recently and here a few tid bits:

Most parents say there is toooo much homework. Something I suspected from the get-go and have asked for help with coordinating among the EIGHT! Teachers that the children see! We have yet to coordinate though! My homework is minimal reading each night and practice spelling for the most part. We do not use the 5^th Grade social studies book much since it is written for accomplished American 6-8^th grade students who speak English. There is so much wrong with using this particular text with my ESL Egyptian 5^th grade students that I cannot go into it. However, I think other teachers ARE using their Textbooks-That-Shouldn’t-Be-Used and forcing the students to pour over them for a couple hours each night with their parents. These students, for the most part, are pretty high strung as are their parents and I cannot bear to add this stress on to their evenings!

One parent asked if I could add more competitions to the week’s work. Her son, she said, would do better if I made it all a contest. This is a VERY common theme and one that the Egyptian teachers respond to. They have competitions all the time and give prizes – small toys and candy – to the best students. The students are obsessed with points and scores etc.. BUT! If I say “Do your best work.” When I hand out an assignment – they all ask what it means and how can they tell if they are doing it right!! This dichotomy in the school is extremely frustrating for us American teachers. We do have to deal with it eventually but it is so embedded in the system that we are stymied as how to go about changing. Again, no voice from the admin. We do not have a teaching hand book etc.. and it already feels as though the Egyptian teachers are feeling undervalued so cannot choose this battle yet.

For now, I do not grade! Ever! I will correct – using my trusty red pen – so children can see where they need to work on skills or redo something. They are getting used to the idea that few red marks means they did pretty well! BUT! Every once in a while I will say “You will get extra points if you do this!”. Of course, they do not get ANY points in the first place but every time I get more effort out of them after announcing this! More head shaking on my part!! I had to explain that I did not need a grade on a paper in order to know if they are “good” at reading, writing, spelling, speaking, and understanding. I have done this a few times and I THINK they are getting the idea that I can observe their skills accurately just by how well they read, write, and speak as they are before me in the classroom and that numbers on their papers cannot tell me any more. We are getting there!! Now if the E. teachers could join in!

For the parent who asked for a competition in order for her son to learn I answered without skipping a beat. I told her there IS a competition in my classroom EVERY day! She seemed incredulous. Of course, the language barrier makes all of us second guess what we are hearing so incredulous looks are pretty common here! I told her that each student is expected to do better than they did the day before every time they walk in my classroom.They compete with their own performance each day! I told her that I take note of everything they do from how they walk, sit, get ready, turn in homework, take turns speaking, take turns reading, etc. etc.. And judge how much better they are doing from the day before. She was silent and thoughtful and then smiled. I am not sure if she really got it but am chalking it up to the first of many conversations. I can just imagine the phone calls between parents that night. “Did you hear what Mrs. MaryAnn said?”, “She has competitions every day!” and “She even counts how well the kids SIT!”  I hope they are all amazed!! I can only wonder if my students are practicing walking and sitting with their parents during this vacation!! (probably!)

I am going to wrap this up now. I have to go read about Sumer and then the Hebrew kingdoms. The more I know about the view of Jews here the more I am curious about how teaching that unit will go! And we all want to study poetry school-wide for the month of February and we actually want to PREPARE beforehand!! And we want to include the observation of ART with this study at the risk of worrying the parents that the children will learn nothing during this month - MORE education to do! So lots for ME to learn as well in absolutely every direction! I will keep you posted. And I have to say MY students ARE getting it – 4^th and 5^th seem to be mostly civilized (4^th more so than 5^th) so I have a handle on things and hope it just gets better and better.

AND! Russell comes in three days!! Today is Saturday and he arrives on Tuesday at 5ish! Can’t wait! And we will explore Egypt together so that will be fun to report back to you on as well. Can’t wait to share it with him – and you all!