The End Goal

The first thing I noticed when we arrived in Morocco was the color. The streets are decorated with every color you could imagine – from the radiant kaftans that the women wear to the bright clothes and trinkets that catch our eyes in the market. The inside of our house, like many others, is lined with carefully painted tiles that reflect all the colors of the rainbow. Even the sea of white buildings visible from the beach has its own color, contrasting so sharply from the bright blue sky that they pop in front of your eyes. The most beautiful parts of Morocco, however, are the kids we get to see every day at school. There are eight kids in the class that Katie and I teach together. They are all bright and full of joy, but each of them has their own unique personality. Ibtissam is the class clown, but she is curious and full of questions, and she brightens our day when she asks them. Mohamed is quiet, shy and is afraid to share his voice, but when we encourage him to participate he always knows the answer. Youssra is also quiet, but she loves to paint, and she dreams of being a doctor. Already, it has been a pleasure to get to know them. They are the most eager learners I have ever worked with. They are always asking questions and excitedly jump in to every game we play. Working with kids like these reminds me how much different students are in the US. At home, I have seen students use their phones as a distraction, wander the hallways so they don’t have to be in class, and pack their bags minutes before the bell rings. I’m guilty of a lot of these things. Here, however, the students stay after class to finish their assignments and ask questions. They bring English games from home to play in class. They know how important it is to learn this language, and they don’t waste a minute of their time with us. It’s a valuable lesson for those of us who take our education for granted. We are so lucky to have been born into an English-speaking country, and to have as many opportunities as we do.

Teaching, as always, has been a challenge, with unforeseen barriers. The kids knew much more English than we anticipated, which was a welcome surprise, but it means that we have to find better ways to challenge them and get them to think critically. Despite being at a level that was higher than expected, the kids have been making noticeable improvements in their grammar and comprehension skills since we have gotten here. As a teacher, when you put in the hours of work at home and hours of trial and error in the classroom, to see student’s ability shift even slightly because of what you are teaching is a breath of fresh air. It is easy to lose confidence when you are teaching. One confused look from a child, and you may think you are failing them. In fact, teaching is allowing yourself and your student to make mistakes over and over again until something clicks between the two of you. And when they finally understand, it reminds you that you can make a difference.

So far, we have built a strong foundation in the classroom. However, teaching nouns and verbs is not enough. Our goal is to leave these kids with not only a better understanding of English, but the ability to use the English that they know to make themselves more successful. We don’t expect to be able to teach them an entire language in the two weeks that we are here, but we hope that we are able to inspire them to continue down that path. When they finally learn, we hope that our students will have the confidence and ability to become anything that they want to be. There will be barriers holding them back, but learning English will no longer be one of them, and they will have proved to themselves that they can break through those barriers. It has been such an honor to teach them thus far, and I am so excited to see them grow both as people and students in the rest of the time I am here.