Sean the Teacher

You know that saying “Stick to what you know”? Well, generally, I disregard this expression. I try to keep one foot squarely planted in unfamiliar territory, and I avoid sticking to anything except my loved ones and my convictions. That said, I will admit that my recent African adventure has me uncomfortably submerged in the unknown with a short snorkel and few opportunities to surface. So when I was approached by the town pharmacist regarding the possibilities of me teaching an English class, I seized the opportunity, and slathered on the proverbial glue. A few days later, I brought him a schedule of times in the week when I was available, and we came up with a tentative schedule. "I've only found two or three others who are interested so far", he warned, "So it might be a small class". "Mashi Mushkil" (No problem) I said. The fewer the people, the easier this will be, I thought.
The plan was to meet at the local association building the following Tuesday evening. Luckily, I had already read a book on teaching English as a second language, so I went home and diligently looked over the notes I had taken. Besides the pharmacist, I didn't know who my students were, so first I would have to assess the student's current skills and expectations for the course. But, people would be disappointed if that’s all we did, so I prepare a short lesson in addition. I struggled for some time with the logistics of teaching unknown students and varied skill sets, but finally, I settled on an exercise called "The False Story". In this exercise, the teacher reads a story to the class, and within the story there are some statements that are not true. The students must identify these falsehoods and correct them. In case we still had time left over after that, I also brought along Bananagram (a spelling game with tiles like Scrabble).
That Tuesday, I arrived at the center of town near the classroom about half an hour early and watched for students. At 7:25pm, just five minutes before class, nobody had arrived and I began to prepare for a one on one session with the pharmacist. As the clock struck 7:30pm, however, people mysteriously emerged, collecting outside the classroom door. In all, I had five students ranging in skill level from total beginner, to one gentleman, who has a B.A. in English. I introduced myself and asked for everyone to introduce themselves as best they could in English. Then I asked them some basic questions. Why do you want to learn English? How do you use English now? How do you want to use English? Etc. But these were odd questions to be asking. Morocco is a country whose education system regularly forces foreign language upon its pupils without thought to what the pupil wants or needs. The teacher is supposed to know best. My student's answers reflected this cultural phenomenon plainly. "We just want to learn everything about English". "We want to know it all; as much as we can; as soon as we can". They looked confused and a little concerned. My apprehension was palpable. Everyone in the room, myself included, was wondering the same thing; "Does Sean know how to teach"? Ironically, in my haste to "stick to what I knew", I had neglected to ask myself this question. But it was too late to turn back. So with a manufactured smile, I steadied myself, handed each person an empty notebook, spun on my toes, grabbed a piece of chalk, and began my lesson.
On the blackboard I wrote, speaking, listening, reading, writing, and grammar. Above that I wrote beginner, intermediate, and advanced with the number one over beginner, connected by a line to the number five over advanced. "These are the five elements of language" I said. After translating all the words I had written into TashlHite, I continued, "In the notebooks that I have given you, rate yourself from 1-5 for each element." My ability to answer the students’ questions in their own language was confidence building. My students were now the ones out of their element, and as I moved on to "The False Story", my poise improved.
"There is a souq here every Friday" I announced, writing the words on the board as I spoke. Smiles cracked among the classroom and a couple of the students yelled out, "No, souq is on Thursday". "Good" I said crossing out Friday and replacing it with Thursday on the board. "So when do we have souq"? Answers rang out freely. As the story continued, it occurred to me that the classroom dynamic had shifted again. Now we were all having fun, and the students were engaged and learning. When the story was complete, I assigned everyone a bit of homework, and announced that we had arrived at the end of our class. With a sigh of relief, I accompanied my new students out into the dim twilight of the desert.
The next class came the following Friday, which was enough time for me to start doubting my success in the previous class. I prepared for the class as if the same people would attend, but worried that nobody would show up because they didn't like the last class. First, of course, I prepared a short review of the previous week’s lesson. Second, I decided to try a new exercise called "What am I Describing". In this exercise, the teacher describes something with simple sentences and adjectives, until the class can guess what they are talking about. Also, I prepared a short exercise, similar to the "Telephone Game", where each person must tell one other person an English phrase, and it is passed along until everyone has heard it. Then you compare what the last person heard to what the sentence was in the beginning. If anybody showed up, I thought, it would be a good lesson.
Very curious about the attendance, I biked into town that Friday a little before class to see if anyone had arrived. Before I could assess the situation, the pharmacist invited me back into his office for a quick snack of cake and apple. Finally at exactly 7:30pm, we exited the pharmacy to go to class. As he locked the pharmacy doors, I looked over to the classroom across the road. Waiting for the doors to open were ten or more people. By the end of class that night I had fifteen students of all ages and skill levels. Standing in front of a class that had tripled in size, my nerves briefly got the better of me. Like last time though, I worked through it, and like last time, the class was a success! So successful in fact, that I may have to begin another class to accommodate all the people. That's what happens when you stick to what you know (or when you offer free language classes to Moroccans).