Teaching...

In terms of teaching, I barely got to do it because only about one third of the students showed up. During the first week Saghriah said we should just let them play so that is what I did.I mostly baby sat and secured the front of the classroom door. They loved using the play dough and made such a mess with it. It made me happy to see how each child interacted with each other. It's amazing to see how different their personalities are when they are so young. Nwal was miss sassy and had to be in control. Hamed was a sweet and calm boy. Salem was the trouble maker. Nasser was the mamas boy and thought he could do anything.

I was ready to teach at least one lesson by thursday of the first week but that didn't happen. On Thursday, Saghriah explained she probably won't be teaching at our school anymore. I was like oh no that's too bad. In my head, I was jumping for joy. She was rude to me everyday during that week. The worse event that took place was when I was explaining with gestures where the students should put their bags she just yelled at the students to sit down. She had no respect for me as a teacher. Also, she would have other Arabic teachers come and visit, and when they did their conversations would last more than fifteen minutes. In the states, if a teacher did that we would be in trouble.

When I asked why she was leaving, she told me her husband didn't want her working o far away from home. She told me she lived twenty minutes away. I thought to myself twenty minute?! That is great timing. People would kill in the states to only live twenty minutes from their workplace. The way she told me the news, I could tell she wasn't too happy but she had to listen to her husband. It quickly passed my mind that I could get someone worse but I tried to stay positive.

On the second week,  I met my new Arabic teacher Mrs. Amal. She was a wonderful lady. The students loved her immediately. Before class started she introduced herself, explained her background and asked about mine. She was the total opposite of Saghriah. I was so relieved to learn that she had experience with English teachers and she was happy to be working with me.

The first English lesson I had for the students was to learn the letter A. I showed Amal my lesson plan. I had it written down  on a sheet of paper. I wanted to tell and show them the letter, have them repeat after me and then I'd point out which pictures started with the letter. At the end of the lesson I would have them color the letter and the pictures. Mrs. Amal told me that lesson was way too hard for the students. I was like really? My daughter was three years old when I taught her the alphabets. She didn't know everything but letter recognition is a good starting point for pre school children. Mrs. Amal strongly suggested I have them color the pictures that started with the letter A. I took her advice but I felt I should have done it my way. I felt like I cheated the students out of learning the right way. During recess, I asked the other English teachers what was going on in their classes. They had it worse than I did. Some teachers could still barely get the students to stay in class and commit to one task. The other teachers had issues with their Arabic teachers and didn't even get a lesson taught. I just thought to myself, clearly the way the students were learning English in the past wasn't working so why couldn't the Arabic teachers let us do it our way? It was hard but I kept trying each day with Amal to make it work. I was able to teach some math lessons dealing with colors and shapes. I also was able to read a few stories to the students. They were engaged and excited to learn and mimic what I was saying to them.

Emirate women

After meeting a few Emirate women, I noticed their gestures and mannerisms were the same as island women. I say that because of the way they spoke to each other. While at school, during recess, I'd notice how some of the Arabic teachers would whisper and look at who they were talking about. They would laugh and make "ah and oh" sounds just like island women would make. I was surprised to see this and realized that all of us women are the same.

The hand movements were the similar as well. I observed some older women putting their hands on their hips when they spoke. Even my pre school student Nwal had some sassiness when she spoke. She was clearly behaving like a woman figure (probably her mother) from home.

Homer wearing a moo moo. I had to add this for comedic relief!

Oh and clothing! I noticed some of the Emirate teachers didn't like wearing their abayas in the school. It seemed to me wearing them made the teachers uncomfortable. The teachers wore clothes underneath them so I can see how it can get very warm wearing the abayas. There weren't too many men around by the middle of the day, so it made sense why the teachers took them off. When some of the teachers took the abayas off, I realized they love to wear moo moos! That was another surprise for me. A moo moo is a Haitian word for night gown. In the Haitian culture, the women wear moo moos in the day and night. They are also mostly worn inside and at home. It was interesting to see the emirate teachers did the same. The moo moos they wore were a bit stylish. They had many different floral patterns and colors.

I found this on google. This is what Moza wore.

It took me two weeks to realize one teacher assistant was the same person. In the daytime, there was an older woman named Moza who was dressed in her complete abaya with her face completely covered. I would say good morning to her and that's about it. In the early afternoon, a woman wearing a moo moo would make short conversation with me outside during recess and brought the students bread from time to time. I didn't realize at first that Moza was the same woman that brought the bread to my class. Finally one day I gathered the courage to speak to her and realized it was Moza! I was like hey it's you! She didn't really get what I was saying because her English wasnt so great but I was happy I figured it out. I could identify most of the women out of their abayas but Moza was a completely different story.



In conclusion, I learned that women are alike no matter where we are from. We might have some differences because of our skin color, culture, language etc. but we are the same. This observation and experience helped me remember to treat people like I would want to be treated and that we are all connected in some way.