Student Field Trips

Spring is over and Dust Season has began.  The past two weeks have been really hot, really windy, and really dusty.  I'm told that when summer starts in June it will be much nicer, though also much hotter.  Spring, however, was wonderful and teachers and students throughout the Kingdom took advantage of this by taking field trips to some of Jordan's most attractive places.  I was lucky enough to attend three field trips:  one to some hot springs in the Jordan Valley and to the forests and waterfall of Wadi Rajeb with my colleagues, one to Jerash and Irbid with my 4th-6th grade students, and one to the grassy hills behind my village with my 2nd-3rd grade students.

In addition to the pictures above, I also have two videos to share with you here.  The first video shows some of my 4th grade students singing and chanting on the stage of the 1800-year-old South Theater at the Roman Decapolis city of Jerash.  The second video just shows some 2nd and 3rd grade boys having fun and getting dirty.

My Regular Work Schedule

Roses in my front yard

I realize that the majority of my posts lately have talked about special events, weekend trips, or broader social issues.  I haven't really described to any of you what my typical work schedule looks like.  Let me rectify that fault of communication here:

As a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) Volunteer, my primary responsibility is to teach English with a Jordanian counterpart in the Ministry of Education boys' school in my village.  I have been working at my school and attending classes since the teachers' strike ended in mid-February and I have been regularly teaching with my counterparts since early March.

Ajlun Castle

The Jordanian (and that of most Arab countries) workweek is from Sunday to Thursday, but I only go to my school from Monday to Thursday.  This is because I go to the local university every Sunday for three hours of Arabic study in the morning and two hours of Spanish instruction in the afternoons.  The university in my region has a very strong Arabic as a Foreign Language program for non-Arab Muslims, typically from China and Malaysia, hoping to learn the language of the Qu'ran.  According to religious doctrine, any translation of the Qu'ran is not considered to be a real Qu'ran and to be a true Muslim you must worship in 8th Century CE Classical Arabic as this was the language that Allah (God) dictated the Qu'ran through the Archangel Gabriel to the Prophet Mohammed.  Considering that less than a quarter of the world's Muslims are Arabs, there is a big draw to the Arab world and to my local university specifically for non-Arab Muslims to study Arabic.  I, however, am the only non-Muslim in the course, and considering that I only attend once per week, whereas all the other students attend 5 days per week, I have to work extra hard to keep up.  That being said, I do believe I have benefited from this course and generally bring my homework to my school to work on with other teachers during our prep periods.

After Arabic class, I go to a task which is significantly easier for me:  I teach Spanish.  I made a connection with one of local Spanish professors who is from Alicante, Spain and we worked out a schedule where I teach her Spanish I and Spanish II classes once per week in the form of a Spanish club.  I was specifically asked to not teach the curriculum nor teach out of the textbook but to utilize more communicative and interactive activities.  I have to give thanks to my former colleagues and former students at Edna Brewer Middle School as I find myself often reverting to the types of activities that I would teach and learned how to teach while at Brewer.  I sometimes have wondered whether a 19-year-old Jordanian would be willing to do the same type of activities as a 12-year-old from East Oakland, and there certainly are times when the Jordanian college students are less energetic than my former middle school students, but I have been pleasantly surprised by their willingness to participate and to use the Spanish language.

4th, 5th, and 6th grade field trip to Jerash

As I stated above, my primary job responsibility is to teach English with a Jordanian counterpart at my local public school from Monday to Thursday.  In Jordan, all students take English as a regular class from 1st grade through 12th grade.  Typically 1st-4th grade students take English 4 days per week, 11th-12th grade students take English 3 days per week, and 5th-10th grade students take English 5 days per week.  My school offers English to male students from 2nd through 10th grades.

At my school there are three Jordanian English teachers with each of whom I work to varying degrees.  As a rule, I will not go to class if my counterpart is not there, which actually happens more often than you might expect.  The youngest, and most energetic, of the three is the only one who actually lives in my same village and he has been very helpful and supportive of me in my interactions both at school and in my village.  With him I teach 2nd grade three days per week as well as 8th grade four days per week.

My second counterpart is a former military officer who has surprisingly strong classroom management for a Jordanian.  Of all the Jordanian teachers I have met, he is one of the only teachers of any subject whom I've never seen raise his voice nor a hand nor a weapon towards the students for punishment.  With him I teach 3rd grade and 4th grade both three days per week.  The students in these two classes are seriously two of the hardest-working and happiest groups of boys that I have ever taught.  I thoroughly enjoy teaching both of these classes with my counterpart and watching the boys happily excel in English.

Finally, the 5th grade is the only grade at my school with more than one section of students and I attend both sections of 5th grade English with my third counterpart once per week.  My third counterpart is the most experienced of the three and his classes are quite well structured and well run with few problems.  Though I only get to work with him for two lessons per week, I certainly appreciate him and his 5th grade students for allowing me to be a guest in their classes each Wednesday.

Field Trip with the Teachers

In addition to these regular English classes during school hours, I also teach two English clubs once per week:  On Monday mornings before 1st period I teach 9th and 10th graders and on Tuesday mornings I teach 6th and 7th graders.  With both of these groups I spent several weeks using communicative activities to practice English conversation.  I then moved into units on water scarcity and water conservation.  Jordan's is the world's second most water poor country; rainfall has decreased significantly in recent decades with the rise of global climate change; population has exploded in recent decades with great advances in health care and the huge influx of refugees from Palestine, Iraq, and Syria, as well as the large immigration of foreign workers from South Asia and Egypt; and the majority of Jordan's water comes from non-replenishing reserves of fossilized aquifers.  In fact, Jordan may not even have enough water to get through the summer of 2012.  This being said, the average Jordanian is relatively ignorant of how grave and urgent the water shortage really is and I hope to educate my students to at least be aware and conscious of their water usage.

After describing my typical schedule to you, I would remiss if I did not say that the last two months have been anything but typical.  If you count up my regular English classes with my Jordanian counterparts, you will see that I am scheduled to teach 15 lessons per week; however, I rarely, if ever, teach more than 10 lessons per week.  For those of you that know me well, you know that I tend to put my job and the people I work with before anything else, including such life essentials as family, friends, food, or sleep.  I have long known and understood that this might not be the best formula for a fulfilled life; nevertheless, it is a formula that is consistent with American values and, though not the norm, can function effectively in American society and culture.  This formula, however, is (in my experience) fully non-functioning in Jordanian village society.  Work cannot be the number one priority.  Family and kinship relationships always take precedence over work.  No one would ever question you if you had to leave work early, or not show up at all, to take care of a family member.  Likewise, even at work, developing relationships and enjoying time with your colleagues are priorities that comes before teaching the students.  This is not to say that my colleagues do not teach; they are all teachers and teach for their job and the income it provides, but every single one of them would you tell you that he is a father, son, brother, uncle, nephew, and friend before he would say he is a teacher.

Some of the recent trainings that I have attended

Furthermore, I myself have been quite busy out of site as well.  Since the beginning of April alone, I have missed 10 days of school due to my attendance at Peace Corps trainings and workshops on topics related to TEFL, Enhancing Water Awareness (EWA), and Project Design and Management (PDM).  If you're still with me this far, I must say that I am impressed by your diligence, but I will spare you more stories from my work with EWA and PDM for a later date.

The Peace Corps delegation at the Full Moon Desert Marathon in Wadi Rum

Finally, as evident from my previous posts.  I am finding quite a bit of time for fun as well.  Among other things I have been on several field trips with my students and colleagues, gone hiking in the mountains of Ajlun, attended a birthday party of another volunteer in Irbid, and ran a half-marathon in the sand in 3 hours and 8 minutes in Wadi Rum.

Wadi Rum