"Did you live near Black people?"

This question from one of my students gives you a peek in to the curiosity and interest of the native students towards American, specifically Black Americans. I took no offense. I was just surprised that my Southern accent shined through even though I have consciously made an attempt to be as articulate as possible! Although, I reported last week, today was my first official day in the classroom. I am replacing a teacher named Joe, who is currently recovering from a surgery and will be out for the next few weeks. I was a little apprehensive because I did not know what to expect. It honestly is a little intimidating to be in a foreign country and to teach a class of 20+ Arabic teenagers that seem to have little in common with you. How was I wrong. The majority of these students love Hip-Hop and some of them can easily be mistaken for Black students in the U.S. One student told me how much he loved 50 Cent. If only he knew how lame he is considered in America!

I teach three different sets of students for a total of five classes. Two of the classes came to me twice so I had to try to keep the lesson interesting. I started with an icebreaker activity called, "Two Truths and a Lie". I changed the word "lie" to "joke" so as not to offend any students. I have been warned to be very careful with choice of language because you can easily say something that may be deemed as inappropriate or "haram" or forbidden. These violations are in the area of relationships (since Muslims don't "date" in the Western sense), inappropriate dance or music, anything about pork, and disrespect towards the Islamic culture. I have always maintained appropriate professionalism but I am sure that it will take some getting used to. The ice breaker activity went over well! I made it a competition between me and the students to see if we could figure out which of three statements were each student's joke. I lost in every class!

For the rest of the lesson, we used their E-CART (project-based unit) packets, to help students with their upcoming PowerPoint projects due on comparing and contrasting an ancient leader with a modern leader. The packet is somewhat scripted so I attempt to make it as interesting as possible. I have the higher level twelfth grades so the challenge is to keep them engaged with their work. I will soon start to differentiate the lesson. This means that a teacher can make different collaborative stations with heterogenous groupings so that students can complete a variety of activities that provide both variety as well as remediation and acceleration for the students that need it. Some students horse-played just as you would expect in the West but were very respectful and interested in learning for the most part. I received a lot of handshakes, questions about whether I am Muslim/Arabic, assistance from students, and even praise from some. One student asked if I will continue to teach at the school because they loved me! I was told by other teachers to take the compliments with a grain of salt because some students give praise and brown-nose to receive high marks during their senior year! Regardless, I have an intuitive hunch that we made a genuine connection. No need to rush, though. After all, it was only my first day!