Teaching in Aqaba part 2

So, when we left our fearless hero he was just about to commence teaching in a high school all day in Aqaba, Jordan...

    So, the first class I was only thrown into for about 25 minutes, and Khalid told me just to talk with the kids, to engage with them and practice their English.  When I asked him what would be a good activity or exercise to go with, he said, you know, just talk with them.  Right.  As you can imagine, walking into a classroom of 25-30 tenth grade students in a foreign country with no real plan leads to a slightly absurd situation.  I think the only thing that really saved me was their initial  fascination with me being from North America - they asked me some questions about it and I told them a couple stories about canoe trips and train trips and how long it takes to get from one side to the other.  Then I started asking them some questions: What do you like to do?  What are your favorite movies?  What kind of stuff are you learning now?  The time passed and the conversation was pretty consistent, but it was pretty obvious that I didn't have any sort of plan and there was some ruckus and what teacher's call "classroom management issues".  But the time passed nonetheless.  After the class (and all the ones that followed) the students filed out and each one personally thanked me and called me "sir".  If only Canadian high school students were so respectful.

Then came the real class, the one I had actually prepared for.  About 30 kids packed into a classroom just big enough to fit all of them.  Luckily it's winter and so it wasn't sweltering.  With 30 kids in the room in June I don't think I would have been able to breathe!  And....it actually went pretty well!  The kids got into it, especially when I was speaking about water scarcity, which even the high school kids know its a huge issue.  They deal with it every day.  At one point I broke them up into little groups and had them debating whether or not a water diversion project should be implemented - they were supposed to be different people involved: the farmers who would get the water, the animals whose water source would be dried up...it was a little chaotic and I overestimated their reading ability, but I'd say about 50 percent really got it.  One lesson learned: Know your Class!

The rest of the day went pretty smoothly and we even had nice little break for sandwiches and tea.  After seeing me teach a few classes, Khalid insisted that I come and teach for them starting in September.  They were looking for Biology teachers, and especially ones that spoke English.  I would like to think it was due to my outstanding teaching abilities, but my guess is that he makes that offer to any Anglophone to walk in the door. 

I left at the end of the day, shared a cab with one of the other teacher (who we dropped off at her place before heading to the border), crossed back over, paying my 5 Jordanian Dinar to get back into Israel, and headed back up to the Institute.  What a whirlwind of an experience!