It begins!

Today I began teaching! The past few days have been consumed with last minute preparations (along with the usual complications ☺ ) Anyway, I have 16 wonderful 14-16 year olds and I couldn’t be happier. 14 boys and 2 girls...oh those poor, poor girls.

It’s amazing how many things they were willing to put up with (and happily at that) that American teens their age would roll their eyes and refuse to do. To begin with, they walked in a line into the classroom. I started out with an introduction of myself and the class itself with literally no idea as to how much they were actually understanding. They understood well enough but they especially liked the “special” rule “No Arabic! Only English!” They enjoyed saying that to each other when one of them broke into accidental Arabic. Hey, it’s lame, but it made Arabic practically non-existent in the class.

Afterwards, I decided to ask them if they were excited, which generated some blank stares. I figured they didn’t know the word “excited” so I explained it, and then we repeated as a class ,“I am excited!” They found this pretty funny too, so we said it throughout the class. They always clapped after repeating something together.

I’m calling my class “Trip to the US” so I’m hoping to teach on a state to state basis, starting with New York. I’m hoping to cover different aspects of a number of states—traditions, attractions, and general vocabulary that fits with each area. I had a slideshow of pictures from New York City to show, but they had a hard time visualizing where the city was. They kept asking if the pictures were from Paris. They had a bizarre fascination with Paris for some reason. One of the Ahmeds asked where Paris was on the map of the US and another kid asked if the Eifel Tower was in NYC. Maybe their schools focus a lot on Paris…? Anyway, they liked the pictures but it took them a little while to orient themselves to the fact that it was called New York City and it was in the US.

Then we made “Passports to the US,” which ended up being a better activity that I had originally imagined. The project made them listen to what I was saying but they could watch what I was doing as well, so there was a simple connection of words and meanings. They learned fold, cut, triangle, share and all of the usual cooperation words. They liked writing the title on the cover (I explained how English books open opposite to the way Arabic books do) and they liked filling out their name, age, etc. I was worried they’d dismiss it as a dumb craft project that they were too old for, but they ended up liking it. They kept bringing them up to me so that I could see them every time we finished a step.

As the class continues we'll keep adding new material to these passports, preferably about each state. I took their pictures today for the personal information page and hopefully I'll get my act together and get a group shot in there as well. I guess I envisioned these being a sort of scrapbook of the class, so they can remember what they studied with the enthusiastic American who came to visit.

We wrapped the day up with “Life is a Highway” by Rascal Flatts since our class is about traveling. I’m not sure they really made that connection, but they liked the idea of American music. One of the kids kept asking over and over, “This Michael Jackson? This Michael Jackson” and could NOT deal with the fact that the song wasn’t his. I guess I’m going to have to buy some itunes so he can get his fill of Michael Jackson.

I’m excited for what’s to come with these kids, or rather, young adults. They knew a lot less than I thought they would, but in a way that’s going to provide ME with a better teaching experience. I have to forge my own territory with the things I want to teach; I can’t rely on their already huge vocabularies. They are very intelligent kids, though, and they know a lot. They could definitely out-speak any high school senior in a battle of foreign language. We’ll see how things progress; maybe they were just holding out on me the first day.

-Julie