My Moroccan partner teacher, Abdellatif, spends 21 hours teaching English. The classes range in size from 20 to almost 50 students. The building is a simple design with a courtyard in the center of a two stories of classrooms. Each classroom has a rows of double desks, a white board and a chalkboard. The walls are bare, there is no heat so I wear my jacket if I need to be at school in the morning. The teachers work either a morning shift or an afternoon shift, but everyone leaves at 12 and the students and afternoon shift teachers return at 2. Most of the students come from the edges of the town of Ain Aouda and some walk as far as 5 kilometers to get to school. Abdellatif tells me most of the teachers give rides to students they see walking every morning. I'm impressed by the classroom management although the graffiti on the walls and the desks is extensive. Education is valued but the French education system that is left from the protectorate era has complicated the process. The final regional and national exams are the final sorting mechanism that will deny or allow access to higher education.
1 Comment
3/21/2014 06:19:00 am
Hi Fran - Thanks for posting. I'd love to hear more about the classroom management strategies you watched and experienced. I hope you've had a rich, wondrous experience!
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Fran W.
I am a high school English to Speakers of Other Languages teacher. I am passionate about bridging cultures, diversity and teaching and learning in a flattened world. I am inspired by the words of Kwame Anthony Appiah, "The challenge, then, is to take the minds and hearts formed over the long millennia of living in local troops and equip them with ideas and institutions that will allow us to live together as the global tribe we have become." Archives
August 2014
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