So a few weeks ago I was in a Service on my way to Nabi Saleh for the first time to see Mustafa Tamimi's funeral, and this young woman named Olfat tapped me on the shoulder and started conversing with me in English. She was an English teacher for an organization that sent her around the West Bank...we exchanged numbers and a week later she called and asked me to come meet her boss in Ramallah. I knew it was some sort of job offer, but I just went because I was curious about the organization. Maybe I could help them in some way, help them connect to more internationals...English education in Palestine is in such a sorry state, thanks to the Ministry of Education and their curriculum writers who know nothing about children! Child abuse, my friend Mahmoud called it...I still need to visit his classroom in Jericho. Anyways, I showed up to Olfat's office on Monday and along with her colleague, Sawsan, we planned two days for me to accompany them on their rounds and teach a handful of 30-minute lessons. They were concerned about their students pronunciation, and under pressure to deliver what their students really wanted, which was native English speakers. They designed their own 4-part conversation curriculum. I found a few errors in the Level One and they asked me to review the books for other mistakes. They asked me what I thought of their books. I couldn't say, I wasn't experienced in teaching English, but I noticed the books sometimes made the same mistakes as the government curriculum. They over-complicated the material. "Are you able to come to the party tonight?" "I'm afraid not." That's not introductory....
Anyways, so that took up most of my day today. I met the four teachers at the office for Middle East Institute for Academic Studies, and we Service'd to the village of Ras Karkar, which is about 25 minutes from Ramallah, and really close to Bil'in. It's nestled in hills full of olive trees, so I enjoyed the ride over. I wasn't excited about arriving though. I love visiting new villages and meeting new people and interacting with kids, but I'm still not thrilled about leading classes. I felt the same way in New Orleans, when I observed all the working parts of a large middle school. I was much more attracted to the position of counselor or program coordinator than I was to lead teacher. I want to provide for kids in my own way, and I just don't have the patience for lesson planning. I like art, and music, and film, and sports, maybe I'm meant to serve in those realms...
When I walked into the school, all the students' faces lit up, seriously. The girls were like, yessss, and the boys, well, they were boys, like my students back in Al Aqaba. In Ras Karkar I worked with second graders, fifth graders, and high schoolers. I reviewed colors, objects, past and future, and in general had them ask me a lot of questions. The teachers were pickier about their grammar than I was. Another thing, I'm a total push-over. But I'm also a little goofy, which they all liked. One of the high schoolers asked me to sing a Christmas song, since I'd just been in Bethlehem, so I sang Hark, the Herald. After class we all took pictures together and I was invited (literally, by everyone) to stay for the evening, but I must have lost my spontaneity chip after two weeks in Ramallah, and I hopped in the bus with the other teachers.
It was a really inspiring day. When I got to Palestine I had this notion of creating a network of English teachers in villages, whether they were living-in or just passing through to teach a lesson. I figured Al Aqaba could be a great prototype, since they're looking for both at the moment, and we'll be able to reach out with the new website. But I wanted the same opportunities for the kids of Ras Karkar, and tomorrow I'm sure I'll feel the same way about my students from the next two villages. There's a lot of brainstorming to be done.
