Students (Finally)

After mid-terms were all over, I finally got a schedule.  It very clearly told me when I would teach, and which groups I would be teaching, but it neglected to say what books I would be teaching and where in the books the students were (or should have been) at this point in the semester.

I was taking over the classes of a woman who had a heart attack, and it was unclear when she would return, so I couldn't ask her.  I asked Dr. Doha, the woman who had given me the schedule and didn't speak much English, but she just told me to ask the other English teachers.  They couldn't tell me much, but I was able to narrow down the books I was using at least.  Finally, after asking three different people, someone finally told me what unit they were on, in the last 5 minutes of the day before the weekend when I was supposed to start teaching on Sunday.

So over the weekend, I carefully planed an opening lesson with ice-breakers and lots of activities for that unit.  I showed up ready to go with markers and an eraser. I had to buy my own since after asking around it became clear that the college did not provide those - but did somehow have it in their budgets to give everyone pleather bound desk calendars and notepads - never-mind that most of the teachers didn't even have desks. (Actually those calendars came in really handy since they included both Gregorian and Hijri dates).  I went to the classroom and wrote my name and some rules on the board, and I waited for students to show up.

I waited for 10 minutes past the start of class, and then thought perhaps they all went to the lab instead of the classroom.  So I went to the lab.  No students.  I wrote a note on the board for them to come to the classroom just in case, and went back to the classroom to wait some more.  After 30 minutes and not a single student.  I gave up and went back to the teachers lounge.

I told Dr. Doha that there were no students and she didn't seem surprised.  The students probably just assumed their teacher was still sick and so they didn't have class. She also told me I probably should have waited a little longer since it was the first class of the morning, and students often came that late to class, but usually not all of them.  I went back to the classroom and sat there for the whole 2 hour class period, just in case.  No students.

They must have gotten the word out to the students somehow that they had classes now because the next day my students did in fact, show up.  One small problem.  The attendance sheet was in Arabic.  Although I can read Arabic, I read it the way a kindergartner reads, sounding out each letter, and just taking a stab at the vowels, since they didn't use any vowel markers in this font.  The girls thought this was hilarious.  The worst was when there were girls with the same first name, because then I also had to sound out the father's name, the family name, and the tribe name.  I think it took about 20 minutes to take attendance that day, which as it turns out was fine with the girls, since many of them were still strolling casually into class at half past.

Anticipating a problem, I told them from the start that anyone coming more than 10 minutes late would be marked late, giving them a 10 minute grace period, and that anyone missing more than half of the class would be considered absent for that day. I also told the girls that class was scheduled for 2 hours, but that actual teaching time would only be 1 hour and 45 minutes. I gave them the choice to either end class 15 minutes before the next hour with no break, or 10 minutes before the next hour with a 5 minute break in the middle.  They unanimously chose to end class 15 minutes before the next hour with no breaks.  I was surprised, but grateful, since I was sure they would be late coming back from break too, which would ultimately make class time even shorter.

This all took much longer than anticipated, and since we had already lost a day, I decided to skip the ice-breakers and go straight on into the material.  This might have been a mistake.  It's always nice to develop a good rapport with your students right away, and ice-breakers or a fun little game in the beginning is a nice way to do that.  Instead, my students first impressions of me were bumbling through the roll, a list of rules, and then straight on into some grammar.  Granted, we did play a few games that class, but the students seemed more confused by it than anything else.  Teacher, you want us to move? We can move the chairs?  We should work in groups?  What do you want us to do teacher, you didn't tell us what page?

When I clarified that what I was asking them to do wasn't from the book, several students looked shocked.  These were the same students that I would realize later had old books from the previous semester's students already filled out.  So when we did exercises in class, mysteriously, many of the girls with the worst English would volunteer to give answers, and usually gave correct ones, since they were simply reading someone else's work.  No wonder they were terrified that first day when I was asking them to use English for communication rather than  copying.

Overall, the students seemed friendly and respectful, I didn't have to shout to get their attention, and they didn't talk over me.  I hope this isn't just first day nervousness and excitement putting them on their best behavior... but we will see.