Culture Shock, Socializing, and Frames of Mind

I think that my culture shock, such as I have experienced it, has been mitigated over the past couple weeks by the fact that I teach in an English-speaking environment, I have a number of people from the school looking after me, and that I am here for such a short time. I have also tried to stay open-minded about the circumstances in which I have found myself, and I am continuously grounded and focused by thinking about the students that I have the opportunity to teach.

This past weekend was split between traveling with others and living on my own. While I definitely learned more with others - Bartering 101 with John and Wain, Passion processions in Azazieh with Berdj and Laura, and Armenian social life with Maria and Alig – it has been important to discover that I actually can function independently in a city where I essentially do not know the language. I can go grocery shopping, get from my apartment to the city center both on foot and by taxi, and deal with small bouts of minor homesickness. (Sam Roberts and Joel Plaskett were no small help this weekend)

I have heard from foreign hires who have taught elsewhere in the Middle East that Syria has been their most difficult placement because so few people speak English. It seems to me that there are a number of teachers looking forward to the end of their contract because the challenge of learning the Arabic language makes a deep integration into the culture much more difficult. While most teachers know enough Arabic to function, one individual told me that she felt it would take a much better understanding of Arabic to strengthen any of the relationships she shared with the Syrians she had met. The majority of foreign teachers therefore feel confined to a social circle of other teachers at the school in Aleppo and the scientists at the associated research facility.

In order to overcome the challenges of living in a small community and thrive on the international education scene, I think that a teacher needs to exhibit one of three characteristics: a solid knowledge of the local language that allows the teacher to participate fully in the host community; a true love for exploring cities, the Great Outdoors, and/or tourist sites; or a enjoyment of hobbies unrelated to teaching that can be done at home regardless of where “home” is. I want to teach abroad to engage with an entirely different community of students, but I know that I will need to bring other pastimes and interests when I take on a contract to teach outside of Canada.

Right now, I am really missing having a guitar to play. Music plays a big role in shaping my frame of mind and helping me to re-focus myself. Since I hugged my parents at the airport and said goodbye, I have constantly been evaluating how I am feeling and why I am feeling that way. I am happy to report that I have felt really good since I stepped out of the airport in Aleppo. It has been difficult to get to a phone or computer for a longer period of time, which sometimes weighs me down when I first wake up or when I am heading to bed, but as one of my associate teachers often said, the promise of “just another day in paradise” helps to both start my day and send me off to sleep.

The Dreams of Teachers

I had the wonderful opportunity to sit in on parent-teacher interviews last week with a Grade 7 and 8 teacher. Although I am sure I can look forward to many interviews in my teaching career where parents are angry, apathetic, or simply absent, it was pretty spectacular to start off my experience of the parent-teacher meeting by encountering so many moms and dads who are genuinely concerned and interested in the success of their children. I listened to parents who tutored their sons and daughters, parents who advocated for their children, and parents who took the blame for putting too much pressure on their kids to get high grades. I suppose I should admit that many of these parents are in high-profile positions and recognize the effort it takes to be academically and professionally successful; moreover, there were “power-parents” who did not show up for an interview, but from purely my own experience of the day: Bravo Parents! Even where the student needed to translate for his mother or father, it was a phenomenal opportunity for the teacher, parent, and student to get back on the same page and ensure that the student was playing at the top of her or his game.

When sitting down the other morning to my last prep period of the day, I came to a point where there was no other work for me to do. I essentially have all my lessons planned and prepared until we go to visit Crusader castles! This was an alien experience for me since I sometimes found myself scrambling to be prepared for lessons during my practica in October, December, and February. At this school in Aleppo, I, like all teachers here, have between two and four hours of prep time every day. From one perspective, it is wonderful to have all this time because it enables me to take advantage of my evenings in Aleppo. The flip side of this coin is that I am often teaching for only half of the school day; consequently, I find it difficult to keep my “teaching groove” from class to class and day to day. The time that I spend with students is always the most brilliant part of my teaching day and helps motivate me to come up with compelling ways to teach the next day’s lesson. When I only see the kids for two or three periods during the day, it is hard to keep up a full head of steam!

Lesson Planning 2.0

When I am pulling together resources for a lesson plan, I usually read through the text assigned to students, read the pertinent sections from whatever books are a part of my secret syllabus for that course, and then start searching the internet for images, primary sources, black line masters, and activity ideas that can enhance my students’ learning experience. I always rely on my own resources first because I am familiar with my own books and notes, but I usually look to internet sources to avoid having to re-invent too many wheels.

At the beginning of the year, I decided that carrying a binder of photocopies and lesson plans through my career was not for me. I wanted to get with the times and keep my resources digital; consequently, I am always hopeful that the internet will provide me with helpful teaching tools. Sadly, I am frequently disappointed with the quality or availability of teaching resources, and I am sure that many of my colleagues often feel the same way. I imagine that they do what I do – lift the general concept and transform it into something that is actually engaging for students and will last more than fifteen minutes. (Because let’s be serious some of the online lessons promising to last for a whole period would not play for even half that time in the real world!) Unless the resource or lesson idea is superb, we really do not want to directly copy the resource; however, it is incredibly helpful to have digital activity plans and worksheets that can be adapted, changed, chopped into little bits, and made our own. In short, we need Lesson Planning 2.0 where lessons, skill practice, and content are collected together but in discreet packages that can be universally accessed and infinitely hacked. Lesson Planning 2.0 would challenge some educators to move beyond simply printing a worksheet off the internet and instead plan for their specific group of students, and our learners would benefit by receiving lessons that had been thoughtfully tailored to their own interests and learning needs.

The internet can provide teachers with ready access to the tools necessary for enhancing students’ learning experiences. Until we start advocating for dynamic databases that encourage users to continually add value to these applications, educators will limit the professional collaborative opportunities presented by the internet and Web 2.0.

Lesson Plans: To Share Around or Stow Away?

Throughout my B.Ed year, I have had the opportunity to share some really wonderful resources with classmates and come away with a variety of teaching and classroom management strategies. Perhaps more significantly, my Associate Teachers were willing to share their library of resources with me; however, they asked me not to pass these resources on any further. While I will faithfully use these resources only for planning my own lessons, I must argue that many teachers are overly worried about giving away lesson plans and resources. Like the chisel in the hands of a master craftswoman or craftsman, teaching tools will have the greatest impact on students when implemented by confident, competent, and reflective educators. The presentation and execution of an activity guarantees its success and value; when the activity is written down on a page, it has only the potential for creating a successful teachable moment.

I must admit that I did recently withhold complete lesson plans in favour of providing brief outlines of the activities I had led, but in the future I hope to be much more free with the content that I put together. Many of my best ideas are adaptations I have pulled from other contexts, so the lessons I create are only in part my own to begin with. If I take the time to type out, label, and organize my lessons, I should consider this a favour to fellow educators.

I suppose that sharing our treasured binders of lessons and activities strikes at the very heart of humility in education.