Nafisa: Taryn, I would like you to go roll around in that fetid pool of fish guts over there. Can you do that for me?
Taryn: Uh…sure Nafisa.. I’ve got plans this afternoon, but I can do it later tonight maybe.
Nafisa: No, actually I was hoping you could do it now. Do it right now.
Taryn: Sure, yeah, no problem. I’ll go do it right now? Sounds good, I’ll go do that right now. Exactly how long would you like me to roll about in that putrid mess? Okay, I’m going now. Thanks Nafisa!
I don’t know how she does it, but that innocuous-looking, grandmotherly, old Yemeni woman has got me wrapped around her little finger! She will frequently come sleuth me out in the teacher’s room, and as she is barreling down on me, I make eye contact with Amira who makes a “S” shape on her forehead and mouths the word “sucker!” at me. Everyone knows I'm completely incapable of denying this woman a damn thing.
Because of my inexplicable inability to say no to this woman I have done a million, mostly spur-of-the moment activities such as
- gave 3.5 hour lecture and discussion on President Obama’s address to the Muslim world in Cairo and the social, political, and cultural ramifications of such a speech- I, the facilitator, was also the only non-Muslim present. A bit daunting.
- Helped plan and supervise many student community/cultural events- beach clean-up, visits to local refugee camps, historical ship viewing and presentations, etc
- Consulting, supervising, and advising on the final projects of the Yemeni scholarship students.
-delivered a many hour, many day lecture-series on such interesting topics as- civic participation and volunteerism in present day America, America: a history in brief, and a timeline of American social change. I was all, listen.. I’m only 23.. wasn’t really around for all this social change/ couldn't care less either way
-allowed local teachers/wannabe teachers to job shadow me, and review my classes
-more minutiae, add tedium ad nauseum
So the other day Nafisa informed me that some new teachers are coming at the end of September (nice!), and asked me to write one of them an email talking about Yemen, living here, teaching here, life here, etc. I’ve had to do this a few times for various other teachers and it was no problem. After I sent an email I got rather anxious about it- did I just send an informative, albeit perhaps viewed as condescending email to an older career-teacher, someone with far, far more experience than I? Or was this a good email, the type I wish someone had bothered to send me before I packed up my life and moved a million miles away from everything that was familiar. Hmmmm… I decided to Google the teachers name, maybe, just maybe I could deduce who this gal was- another old-lady teacher? A possible kindred spirit? In the very least it would assuage any absurd anxiety I was feeling.
I knew her name, and where she was from- AND THIS IS WHAT I DISCOVERED!!
http://www.trinitynews.ie/articles.php?tn=1&issue=8&id=492
Oh my god! Could this be her?! I still have no idea her age or anything personal, this probably isn’t her. BUT WHAT IF IT IS!?! This is exactly the type of person that Yemen needs. WILD.
Showing posts with label Job. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Job. Show all posts
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
I'm all grown up now
Today, the smartest kid in my class tried to say "peanuts" but clearly said "penis". I just said uh-huh, yeah peanuts, that's great Yazeed! and with a great surge of maturity, moved right along. This is a big step forward toward being a real-life adult.
job
Over one weekend Amideast put windows in all the classroom doors- ostensibly so that you wouldn’t inadvertently walk into the wrong classroom, but really so the boss can check up on us, make sure we are behaving ourselves, meeting Amideast’s exacting standards of professionalism- not sitting on top of the desk (oops), not teaching them Spanish (oops), not doodling pictures on the whiteboard (oops), not throwing your pen at a student to get his attention (oops), not locking a student out when he went to use the restroom (oops), not telling personal anecdotes instead of teaching phrasal verbs(oops)… and so on.
I find these windows extraordinarily distracting- the window is right up front by my whiteboard, and I’m constantly distracted by previous students dancing, and making faces at me, and just clowning while I’m trying to be a consummate professional. It does have the unanticipated bonus of making me appear extremely popular though.
I find these windows extraordinarily distracting- the window is right up front by my whiteboard, and I’m constantly distracted by previous students dancing, and making faces at me, and just clowning while I’m trying to be a consummate professional. It does have the unanticipated bonus of making me appear extremely popular though.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Ramadan + morning classes = tricky
Ramadan day 2....
I'm sitting in class eyeballing my students with a cool, calculated look of appraisal- they are taking a quiz so it's okay that I'm typing this.
Is it difficult to stay up until 3 am because culture and society mandates it and then get up and teach early in the morning? Well let me tell you. It is.
And let me also say this,
Teaching a class when you are hungry, tired, and thirsty and your students are sleepy and listless is NOT ideal.
I'm sitting in class eyeballing my students with a cool, calculated look of appraisal- they are taking a quiz so it's okay that I'm typing this.
Is it difficult to stay up until 3 am because culture and society mandates it and then get up and teach early in the morning? Well let me tell you. It is.
And let me also say this,
Teaching a class when you are hungry, tired, and thirsty and your students are sleepy and listless is NOT ideal.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
D-WORD
HELL AND DAMNATION!
My boss just told me to go ahead and renew my apartment lease- further indicating that I’m not going to transfer anytime soon. Alright, alright.
A blender is the quintessential cooking apparatus here in Yemen. An incredible amount of Yemeni dishes involve the blender( juice, chutney, sauces, vegetable mush, etc) and I have been coveting one for quite some time, the caveat being that they are EXPENSIVE. Even by American standards they are pricey. Plus I’ve been trying to eschew my little tendency of acquiring an astounding array of needless possessions. I have been hesitant to buy a bunch of stuff because I want to remain mobile, I don’t want to get too sedentary and ensconced in Adenee life so that I won’t get transferred. I have one singular pot in my kitchen…But now that I’ll be here for sure for another couple of -months at least, I decided to buck up and get myself a glorious prize. Really it came down to the fact that I was super dehydrated while in a store that sold blenders. Blenders made me think of fresh juices and smoothies and milkshakes, the resulting images in my mind pushing me into a buying frenzy.
But first let me say this- fruit juice stalls here are AMAZING, super unhygienic, patronized by dirty men, but delicious. They make the juice right in front of you- sometimes with additives from a recycled soda bottle filled with murky and mysterious contents- but they use the whole piece of fruit. I’ve seen it over again, they’ll fling an entire orange - rind and all into the blender, add a little sugar, a little water, strain it and voila! Sweet, sweet nectar. Seemingly uncomplicated, right? Well let me tell you, it’s not. I followed that exact procedure and wound up with a chunky, bitter, mush the consistency of oatmeal. It tasted acidic and harsh, I gagged and spit it up. Okay fine, I will continue to buy my orange juice. I dumped it out, the rind pieces clogging my drain. Next I decided to make a strawberry banana smoothie. Nice! I found some frozen strawberries at the market and was super pumped to have them. The smoothie came out frothy and deliciously pink looking- there’s something about pink foods that really make me want to eat them. If you saw a giant pink-frosted cookie and a giant blue frosted cookie, wouldn’t you go for the pink one every time? I took the blender off of the base with a dexterous twisting motion and lifted the pitcher. Great except that I somehow managed to remove only the shell of the pitcher (I don’t even know how I did that!) the base falling away dousing my floor and body in the sticky goodness. Okay blender, strike two. I’m currently on a blender time-out, which really is the only thing keeping me from drop-kicking it across the room.
*ADDENDUM*
I almost forgot the best –or worst- part! In an incredible design flaw that’s perpetuated throughout the whole apartment, the kitchen doesn’t have any electrical outlets. There is one in my bedroom conveniently located behind a big, built-in wooden vanity and one in the living room halfway up the wall. To further complicate matters the cord for my fancy-pants new blender isn’t long enough to reach the floor so the whole time I’m trying to make a delicious beverage I’m standing in the middle of the LIVING room, holding the machine in my arms, just blending some fruit. Absurd.
My boss just told me to go ahead and renew my apartment lease- further indicating that I’m not going to transfer anytime soon. Alright, alright.
A blender is the quintessential cooking apparatus here in Yemen. An incredible amount of Yemeni dishes involve the blender( juice, chutney, sauces, vegetable mush, etc) and I have been coveting one for quite some time, the caveat being that they are EXPENSIVE. Even by American standards they are pricey. Plus I’ve been trying to eschew my little tendency of acquiring an astounding array of needless possessions. I have been hesitant to buy a bunch of stuff because I want to remain mobile, I don’t want to get too sedentary and ensconced in Adenee life so that I won’t get transferred. I have one singular pot in my kitchen…But now that I’ll be here for sure for another couple of -months at least, I decided to buck up and get myself a glorious prize. Really it came down to the fact that I was super dehydrated while in a store that sold blenders. Blenders made me think of fresh juices and smoothies and milkshakes, the resulting images in my mind pushing me into a buying frenzy.
But first let me say this- fruit juice stalls here are AMAZING, super unhygienic, patronized by dirty men, but delicious. They make the juice right in front of you- sometimes with additives from a recycled soda bottle filled with murky and mysterious contents- but they use the whole piece of fruit. I’ve seen it over again, they’ll fling an entire orange - rind and all into the blender, add a little sugar, a little water, strain it and voila! Sweet, sweet nectar. Seemingly uncomplicated, right? Well let me tell you, it’s not. I followed that exact procedure and wound up with a chunky, bitter, mush the consistency of oatmeal. It tasted acidic and harsh, I gagged and spit it up. Okay fine, I will continue to buy my orange juice. I dumped it out, the rind pieces clogging my drain. Next I decided to make a strawberry banana smoothie. Nice! I found some frozen strawberries at the market and was super pumped to have them. The smoothie came out frothy and deliciously pink looking- there’s something about pink foods that really make me want to eat them. If you saw a giant pink-frosted cookie and a giant blue frosted cookie, wouldn’t you go for the pink one every time? I took the blender off of the base with a dexterous twisting motion and lifted the pitcher. Great except that I somehow managed to remove only the shell of the pitcher (I don’t even know how I did that!) the base falling away dousing my floor and body in the sticky goodness. Okay blender, strike two. I’m currently on a blender time-out, which really is the only thing keeping me from drop-kicking it across the room.
*ADDENDUM*
I almost forgot the best –or worst- part! In an incredible design flaw that’s perpetuated throughout the whole apartment, the kitchen doesn’t have any electrical outlets. There is one in my bedroom conveniently located behind a big, built-in wooden vanity and one in the living room halfway up the wall. To further complicate matters the cord for my fancy-pants new blender isn’t long enough to reach the floor so the whole time I’m trying to make a delicious beverage I’m standing in the middle of the LIVING room, holding the machine in my arms, just blending some fruit. Absurd.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
I kinda blew it
I'm sitting in class right now, typing this as my students take an exam I wrote. They hate it, and they hate me right now. I guess it's just way, way too hard. I had a fever when I wrote it so actually getting it done as opposed to making it fair and moderately easy was my main concern. But now I feel rather chagrined and i'm slinking down behind the computer monitor right now so that I don't have to make eye contact with any of them.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Kors + meetings = stick a fork in my eye
Kors came! Korstiaan Kors (or something like that) came to Aden this session, our Amideast office in Al Mukullah was shut down- Previously I wanted to go there, but it is in the highly lawless region of Hadramout, so clearly, that wasn’t going to happen. And also I discovered that the Al Mukullah “office” was really just Kors teaching four classes a day and running all the administrative duties as well… so okay, I’ll stay here. But I (in a completely uncharitable act that goes against my angelic, benevolent nature) decided that I was predisposed to not like him. EVERYTHING I had heard about him was overwhelmingly positive. “Oh Kors is the best teacher!” “He is so funny!” “He plays the guitar!” “He really knows what he’s doing, what a natural teacher! He just makes class alive!”
Oh barf. What a goody-goody. Matt reminded me that it was other people saying these things, not Kors himself. But still, no thanks. I choose not to like him.
The first time I met him was at the pre-session teachers meeting. Already a hellacious endeavor, Kors only exacerbated a dreadful, mind-numbingly boring situation by being APPALINGLY enthusiastic about teaching. He isn’t the only one, the amount of joy some people attain by discussing teaching theory, learning style, grammar instruction, and classroom methodology among other equally stimulating topics absolutely boggles my mind.
Everything really came to a head when someone mentioned spelling lists. It piqued my interest momentarily because I was all, huh? We are supposed to give them spelling lists before the tests? I just say if it’s in the book, if I write it on the board, learn it. Know it, it will be on the test. Verbal debate ensued about providing students with spelling and vocabulary lists prior to exams to aide studying (it promotes rote memorization vs. it helps the weaker students/multi-level classes succeed). People were getting downright heated, many a voice was raised with everyone shouting exuberantly at the same time, with no progress being made or end in sight. As the spelling list debate waged on (and on and on and on…) I doodled some pictures (swine flu, life under the sea), and made some bullet points on a piece of scratch paper:
- I am soooo young (this was in regards to starring around the circle of my colleagues realizing that besides Ben, I was the only one without multiple children, or even grandchildren)
- I cannot work here anymore (listening to even one more minute about teaching methodologies was going to put me perilously close to an explosion of some sort, probably involving loud yelling)
- Spoon analogy? Really? Get it together.(in regards to a horrible, misused analogy of spoon-feeding the students answers that was enthusiastically repeated over and over and over again)
- I need to work on my footwork for left-handed hooks (boxing)
Throughout this trying and traumatic ordeal Ben and I had many occurrences of burning eye contact and giving the secret “we gotta get the hell out of here” signal expressing mutual commiseration, horrification, and an undercurrent of nausea.
Eventually I had to meet Kors. I called him out on perpetuating the absurd spelling list debate, he manned up and apologized. He was forgiven. I apologised for making an unfounded snap-judgment of his character. I was forgiven. All is well.
He laughs at my jokes which is clearly a point in his favor, and it’s nice to have someone fun and young in the office. He teaches in the same room after me and sometimes I don’t wipe off my dry-erase board after class so I can wow him with my superior in-class time management, Pictionary-style teaching approach. And the frequency with which I jokingly teach my students a Spanish word instead of English. Yeah, I’m pretty good at my job.
Oh barf. What a goody-goody. Matt reminded me that it was other people saying these things, not Kors himself. But still, no thanks. I choose not to like him.
The first time I met him was at the pre-session teachers meeting. Already a hellacious endeavor, Kors only exacerbated a dreadful, mind-numbingly boring situation by being APPALINGLY enthusiastic about teaching. He isn’t the only one, the amount of joy some people attain by discussing teaching theory, learning style, grammar instruction, and classroom methodology among other equally stimulating topics absolutely boggles my mind.
Everything really came to a head when someone mentioned spelling lists. It piqued my interest momentarily because I was all, huh? We are supposed to give them spelling lists before the tests? I just say if it’s in the book, if I write it on the board, learn it. Know it, it will be on the test. Verbal debate ensued about providing students with spelling and vocabulary lists prior to exams to aide studying (it promotes rote memorization vs. it helps the weaker students/multi-level classes succeed). People were getting downright heated, many a voice was raised with everyone shouting exuberantly at the same time, with no progress being made or end in sight. As the spelling list debate waged on (and on and on and on…) I doodled some pictures (swine flu, life under the sea), and made some bullet points on a piece of scratch paper:
- I am soooo young (this was in regards to starring around the circle of my colleagues realizing that besides Ben, I was the only one without multiple children, or even grandchildren)
- I cannot work here anymore (listening to even one more minute about teaching methodologies was going to put me perilously close to an explosion of some sort, probably involving loud yelling)
- Spoon analogy? Really? Get it together.(in regards to a horrible, misused analogy of spoon-feeding the students answers that was enthusiastically repeated over and over and over again)
- I need to work on my footwork for left-handed hooks (boxing)
Throughout this trying and traumatic ordeal Ben and I had many occurrences of burning eye contact and giving the secret “we gotta get the hell out of here” signal expressing mutual commiseration, horrification, and an undercurrent of nausea.
Eventually I had to meet Kors. I called him out on perpetuating the absurd spelling list debate, he manned up and apologized. He was forgiven. I apologised for making an unfounded snap-judgment of his character. I was forgiven. All is well.
He laughs at my jokes which is clearly a point in his favor, and it’s nice to have someone fun and young in the office. He teaches in the same room after me and sometimes I don’t wipe off my dry-erase board after class so I can wow him with my superior in-class time management, Pictionary-style teaching approach. And the frequency with which I jokingly teach my students a Spanish word instead of English. Yeah, I’m pretty good at my job.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
bah...sorry!
I also played little jokes on two of my students today- I, a Hanley girl, have a rather healthy regard for my own abilities. In fact I find myself thoroughly enjoyable. I mean I think I’m pretty dang great, I think I would definitely be my own friend. In addition to being delightful in all manner of company, I feel that I am smart, talented and QUITE HILARIOUS. I don’t know that my little jokes always delight other people though…
One of my students had to make up an exam that she had been absent for. In order to avoid all distractions I decided to take her up to the library and have the staff proctor the test. Gamely, she gathered all her stuff and followed me to the stairwell. Just to see her reaction I blew past the library and proceeded to take her all the way up on to the roof of the building. I went over to a dark, dusty corner, plopped down her exam on the roof and said “There you go! I’ll be back in 45 minutes. Good luck, no cheating!!” and turned to walk away.
I gotta give her so much credit here, she with only slight hesitation and a muttered, “yes teacher….” started to sit down on the dirty rooftop! It was completely hysterical. Hah! Good one! And so dang professional! I then took her down to the clean, blessedly air-conditioned library and we all had a good laugh over it.
Today as I was lazing about the office, shirking my duties (no I wasn’t!), one of my favorite students came up to me and asked to see his grade- Upstairs I had his final exam, session-long grades, and proficiency certification that allows him to move to higher level courses. We got about three quarters of the way up to my classroom chit-chatting idly when I whirled on him, “Hey Waleed, I don’t even know why we are going all the way up here. I don’t have a certificate or anything for you, unless of course you want to see just how badly you failed this course.” All the color drained from his face and he stopped dead in his tracks. “OH I’M SO SORRY! WALEED! OH I WAS JOKING! THAT WASN’T FUNNY AT ALL! OH I’M SO SORRY!! YOU DID GREAT, YOU DID SO WELL!!! SORRRYYY! WAHHHHHHHH!” I felt so bad I gave him a piece of cake. After sufficient recovery time, we all had a good laugh over it.
One of my students had to make up an exam that she had been absent for. In order to avoid all distractions I decided to take her up to the library and have the staff proctor the test. Gamely, she gathered all her stuff and followed me to the stairwell. Just to see her reaction I blew past the library and proceeded to take her all the way up on to the roof of the building. I went over to a dark, dusty corner, plopped down her exam on the roof and said “There you go! I’ll be back in 45 minutes. Good luck, no cheating!!” and turned to walk away.
I gotta give her so much credit here, she with only slight hesitation and a muttered, “yes teacher….” started to sit down on the dirty rooftop! It was completely hysterical. Hah! Good one! And so dang professional! I then took her down to the clean, blessedly air-conditioned library and we all had a good laugh over it.
Today as I was lazing about the office, shirking my duties (no I wasn’t!), one of my favorite students came up to me and asked to see his grade- Upstairs I had his final exam, session-long grades, and proficiency certification that allows him to move to higher level courses. We got about three quarters of the way up to my classroom chit-chatting idly when I whirled on him, “Hey Waleed, I don’t even know why we are going all the way up here. I don’t have a certificate or anything for you, unless of course you want to see just how badly you failed this course.” All the color drained from his face and he stopped dead in his tracks. “OH I’M SO SORRY! WALEED! OH I WAS JOKING! THAT WASN’T FUNNY AT ALL! OH I’M SO SORRY!! YOU DID GREAT, YOU DID SO WELL!!! SORRRYYY! WAHHHHHHHH!” I felt so bad I gave him a piece of cake. After sufficient recovery time, we all had a good laugh over it.
Oh heyyy girls
IT’S OVER!! I successfully made it through my first session being a real-life, somewhat professional, adult, English teacher! It was utterly exhausting! I have received SEVERAL concerned emails- am I all right?! Did something happen?!?! Why haven’t I been blogging?! WHAT’S HAPPENING!?
Yes, yes, of course I’m all right, sillys! This last week has been extraordinarily chaotic- Saturday final class reviews, Sunday oral exams- we all had to proctor orals for classes other than our own(because I totally play favorites…), Monday final written exams, Tuesday final grades due- for the entire session! Also btw, final grades actually means, FINAL MATH!! Those who know me can imagine just how well I reacted to hours of intricate number calculations... This included the grades for the 12 page final that they had literally JUST DONE. I spent 7 hours grading in one sitting. And then there were many more sittings. And today was feedback day aka students milling about whining about their grades, demanding clarification, trying to steal copies of the exams, insisting upon higher marks…etc. It was a trial and a tribulation. I did however come to love my students very, very much. They are so kind, and earnest, and sweet. Although teaching is in NO WAY a part of my overall career aspirations, I can see (somewhat!) why people continue to do it.
There was one unexpected and delightful surprise though! The unveiling of the ladies! I have many burka wearers in my first class, and at first it seemed that I was fighting insurmountable odds trying to figure out who they were- initially I was only moderately successful pretending that I knew who they were- I came to dread handing back papers, awkwardly pretending to be super engrossed in the papers as I would call out their name, and try and catch some sort of movement out of the corner of my eye that would show who was who. Clearly I wasn’t fooling anyone as they always sat in the same seats and I knew all the boys names and would just had them their papers without any awkward name-calling or excessive sweating. It was also difficult to tell who was talking, with their entire faces covered I often found myself staring at one girl only to hear, “uh teacher… over here please” and I would turn to fine the actual speaker. Embarrassing. As time went on I became extremely familiar with their eyes. Seriously though, out of a line-up of burka clad women, I could pick out my girls no problem.
I have always wondered how little children find there mothers in crowded places when all women are dressed exactly the same, covered head to toe in black. I guess I understand it a lot better now. So today after class all the women brought cakes and cookies, and juice and tea and we had a mini-party on my desk. I shut the door to keep the air-conditioning in, and after glancing about the room- acknowledging that their were no longer any men present- one-by-one they started unveiling. I did NOT see that coming. I was like WHATT?!?! YOU’RE TAKING OFF YOUR VEILS?! COOOOOOOOL! I couldn’t have been less non-chalant about it and it was such a wonderful treat to finally see my students, to see more than just a pair of eyes smiling at me. We had food, and laughed, and talked and talked. Every once and awhile there would be a knock on the door, I would spring up and open the door just a crack “oh bint, bint” they would say and allow the girls to enter. Finally I had to let the men in and they all re-veiled. The faces that were so new and unexpected became sets of familiar, piercing black eyes all over again. But it was so touching that they wanted to let me see their faces before our time together was through.
Yes, yes, of course I’m all right, sillys! This last week has been extraordinarily chaotic- Saturday final class reviews, Sunday oral exams- we all had to proctor orals for classes other than our own(because I totally play favorites…), Monday final written exams, Tuesday final grades due- for the entire session! Also btw, final grades actually means, FINAL MATH!! Those who know me can imagine just how well I reacted to hours of intricate number calculations... This included the grades for the 12 page final that they had literally JUST DONE. I spent 7 hours grading in one sitting. And then there were many more sittings. And today was feedback day aka students milling about whining about their grades, demanding clarification, trying to steal copies of the exams, insisting upon higher marks…etc. It was a trial and a tribulation. I did however come to love my students very, very much. They are so kind, and earnest, and sweet. Although teaching is in NO WAY a part of my overall career aspirations, I can see (somewhat!) why people continue to do it.
There was one unexpected and delightful surprise though! The unveiling of the ladies! I have many burka wearers in my first class, and at first it seemed that I was fighting insurmountable odds trying to figure out who they were- initially I was only moderately successful pretending that I knew who they were- I came to dread handing back papers, awkwardly pretending to be super engrossed in the papers as I would call out their name, and try and catch some sort of movement out of the corner of my eye that would show who was who. Clearly I wasn’t fooling anyone as they always sat in the same seats and I knew all the boys names and would just had them their papers without any awkward name-calling or excessive sweating. It was also difficult to tell who was talking, with their entire faces covered I often found myself staring at one girl only to hear, “uh teacher… over here please” and I would turn to fine the actual speaker. Embarrassing. As time went on I became extremely familiar with their eyes. Seriously though, out of a line-up of burka clad women, I could pick out my girls no problem.
I have always wondered how little children find there mothers in crowded places when all women are dressed exactly the same, covered head to toe in black. I guess I understand it a lot better now. So today after class all the women brought cakes and cookies, and juice and tea and we had a mini-party on my desk. I shut the door to keep the air-conditioning in, and after glancing about the room- acknowledging that their were no longer any men present- one-by-one they started unveiling. I did NOT see that coming. I was like WHATT?!?! YOU’RE TAKING OFF YOUR VEILS?! COOOOOOOOL! I couldn’t have been less non-chalant about it and it was such a wonderful treat to finally see my students, to see more than just a pair of eyes smiling at me. We had food, and laughed, and talked and talked. Every once and awhile there would be a knock on the door, I would spring up and open the door just a crack “oh bint, bint” they would say and allow the girls to enter. Finally I had to let the men in and they all re-veiled. The faces that were so new and unexpected became sets of familiar, piercing black eyes all over again. But it was so touching that they wanted to let me see their faces before our time together was through.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Hurry up and wait
I have noticed that some cultures have a loose definition of "on time" in Honduras it was always "manana, manana, siempre manana"(tomorrow, tomorrow, always tomorrow) and here I have taken to saying "bookora, bookora, bookora" (tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow). I happen to have a high regard for punctuality(in most instances) and have been trying to instill the healthy habit of punctuality into my students BY DEVASTATING THEIR ATTENDANCE RECORD WITH MY LITTLE RED PEN! I jest...
I have one student that is chronically late. Only a few minutes, but just enough to disrupt the whole flow(I know exactly where he is coming from because for one class in college, I too, was "chronically late girl". I would bustle in right after class started, wildly plop down in my chair, make an explosion of rustling and noise as i settled in, and then proceed to doodle pictures of palms trees for the remainder of the period). So he casually mentioned attendance and tardies one day and I was all HECK YES I'VE BEEN MARKING YOU LATE.
I teach from 8:15-10:15 and then 10:30-12:30. He is in the later class, and he usually busts in around 10:35-40ish or so. So the other day he explodes into the room at 25 after the hour- "oh teacher look! 25 after! I'm on time! I'm actually five minutes early! No tardy for me today!" and then he looked around at all the startled faces staring him down. He hadn't come at 10:25, he came at 9:25, an HOUR and five minutes early, right in the middle of my other class! It was really sweet. But then I made him go sit in the lobby for an hour. oopsies.
I have one student that is chronically late. Only a few minutes, but just enough to disrupt the whole flow(I know exactly where he is coming from because for one class in college, I too, was "chronically late girl". I would bustle in right after class started, wildly plop down in my chair, make an explosion of rustling and noise as i settled in, and then proceed to doodle pictures of palms trees for the remainder of the period). So he casually mentioned attendance and tardies one day and I was all HECK YES I'VE BEEN MARKING YOU LATE.
I teach from 8:15-10:15 and then 10:30-12:30. He is in the later class, and he usually busts in around 10:35-40ish or so. So the other day he explodes into the room at 25 after the hour- "oh teacher look! 25 after! I'm on time! I'm actually five minutes early! No tardy for me today!" and then he looked around at all the startled faces staring him down. He hadn't come at 10:25, he came at 9:25, an HOUR and five minutes early, right in the middle of my other class! It was really sweet. But then I made him go sit in the lobby for an hour. oopsies.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Damn you ESL! You've screwed me again!
Over the years I have come to have a rather healthy regard for my prowess in the realm of linguistic expression- I both eschew obfuscation and espouse elucidation. At times I can be extremely loquacious and magniloquent but I believe I maintain an eloquent and articulate communicative style. My verbosity, acquired by copious amounts of reading, stimulating confabulation and colloquy(and my smarty-pants family) has always been a source of pride. I’m a bit of a wordsmith if you will( and upon reflection, I think you will). When referring to teaching English as a Second Language, I have often heard people remark that teaching this subject will absolutely ravage your vocabulary. And I thought hah! Never! I love vocab! Won't let the man bring me down! But then I find my self frequently thinking(luckily not saying. Yet.) things like-
I am went for shopping at mall
or
I am being hungry for lunch meal for now
I am went for shopping at mall
or
I am being hungry for lunch meal for now
Bah... I'm a teacher
So I finally had to start my job…Damnation! I just want to play and eat and explore and learn Arabic all day… life is hard.
But anyway I can sum up my first class like this- Bah….what?
I spent a lot of time preparing for my first class, I had to teach simple past tense- specifically the verb “to be”. Fine, I can do that. Classes are two hours long which I find woefully daunting, I don’t have the capacity or focus to talk about anything for two hours let alone boring grammar. So my first class went like this- Me talking about class rules, Amideast policy, what we are trying to get out of this class, course-wide project ideas, etc, etc. This is what they heard- lalalalalalalalalala Amideast lalalalalalalalalalalala tests lalalalalalalalalala my name is Taryn lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalallalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalal....
After talking for a few minutes(in a way that I felt was slowly, articulately, enthusiastically, and simply) I looked around and was met with blank stares, OH MY GOODNESS THEY HAVEN’T UNDERSTOOD A WORD I JUST SAID. And Then I had to keep teaching for another hour and 57 minutes. And then another two hours after that.
My first day was really just discouraging. I was met with a much lower proficiency level than I expected and it didn’t help when Matt kept roaming around my apartment, in my face boasting “I’M THE MAN! I ROCKED THE SHIT OUT OF THAT LESSON! WHY HAVEN’T I BEEN DOING THIS MY WHOLE LIFE?! WOW, I’M SO GOOD AT THIS! ALL MY STUDENTS WANT ME. HELL YEAAHHHH!”
I probably deserved it after a week of bragging about my superior living situation, in-apartment internet, and beautiful terrace…
Today was much, much better. I simplified, changed my preparation strategy(still just a jumble of notebooks on my bed though..) and did lots of vocal, full-class, work.
Also at break one of my students brought a friend into class and introduced me, I said “oh is he going to be joining class?” “Oh no teacher, he just wanted to come look at you, okay bye.”
Also in my other class yesterday for the briefest of seconds someone mentioned movie stars and Brad Pitt was mentioned- I said “I love Brad Pitt, he’s great” and then we moved on. Today one of the guys downloaded a MILLION different pictures of Brad Pitt to his phone and brought them to show me after class. It was really quite sweet.
I’m feeling quite anxious about class tomorrow.. the problem with being a teacher is that you actually have to teach them things. You know what I say about grammar? Eff grammar. I just want to talk about cultural differences, food, hobbies, and things that interest me. And I want them to teach me Arabic in class. Is that too much to ask for?
But anyway I can sum up my first class like this- Bah….what?
I spent a lot of time preparing for my first class, I had to teach simple past tense- specifically the verb “to be”. Fine, I can do that. Classes are two hours long which I find woefully daunting, I don’t have the capacity or focus to talk about anything for two hours let alone boring grammar. So my first class went like this- Me talking about class rules, Amideast policy, what we are trying to get out of this class, course-wide project ideas, etc, etc. This is what they heard- lalalalalalalalalala Amideast lalalalalalalalalalalala tests lalalalalalalalalala my name is Taryn lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalallalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalal....
After talking for a few minutes(in a way that I felt was slowly, articulately, enthusiastically, and simply) I looked around and was met with blank stares, OH MY GOODNESS THEY HAVEN’T UNDERSTOOD A WORD I JUST SAID. And Then I had to keep teaching for another hour and 57 minutes. And then another two hours after that.
My first day was really just discouraging. I was met with a much lower proficiency level than I expected and it didn’t help when Matt kept roaming around my apartment, in my face boasting “I’M THE MAN! I ROCKED THE SHIT OUT OF THAT LESSON! WHY HAVEN’T I BEEN DOING THIS MY WHOLE LIFE?! WOW, I’M SO GOOD AT THIS! ALL MY STUDENTS WANT ME. HELL YEAAHHHH!”
I probably deserved it after a week of bragging about my superior living situation, in-apartment internet, and beautiful terrace…
Today was much, much better. I simplified, changed my preparation strategy(still just a jumble of notebooks on my bed though..) and did lots of vocal, full-class, work.
Also at break one of my students brought a friend into class and introduced me, I said “oh is he going to be joining class?” “Oh no teacher, he just wanted to come look at you, okay bye.”
Also in my other class yesterday for the briefest of seconds someone mentioned movie stars and Brad Pitt was mentioned- I said “I love Brad Pitt, he’s great” and then we moved on. Today one of the guys downloaded a MILLION different pictures of Brad Pitt to his phone and brought them to show me after class. It was really quite sweet.
I’m feeling quite anxious about class tomorrow.. the problem with being a teacher is that you actually have to teach them things. You know what I say about grammar? Eff grammar. I just want to talk about cultural differences, food, hobbies, and things that interest me. And I want them to teach me Arabic in class. Is that too much to ask for?
And also I will at no point, ever, ever, be able to remember their names- perhaps partly because I can only see the eyes of the girls in my class...
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