Rabia El Antaki’s American Diary

May 2008
 

Rabia El Antaki, an ESL teacher from Morocco, visited PCDS in spring 2008 as part of the Fulbright Teacher Exchange. Well-versed in Arabic culture, and fluent in French, Spanish, English, and Arabic, Mrs. Antaki had much to offer students in her various class presentations. 

These are Mrs. Antaki’s own words. Minor changes have been made for clarity or brevity.

The Fulbright Teacher Exchange program has been a great experience for me. It provided me with a cultural give and take, with professional training and development, and with the most exciting personal understanding of myself on one hand and of other people on the other hand.

At the cultural level, my experience was so fruitful. I must confess that, although I had no prejudices towards any people, I did not expect American people to be so nice and so open. I was treated, wherever I went, with the highest respect, and I have never ever felt any sort of discrimination. On the contrary, people would just talk to me, ask me about my origin, and have a nice chat with me.

I had one of the most positive experiences in Disneyland, where I was invited by two American ladies to spend the day together, and now I am friends with these people. I was invited to a museum and dinner by the assistant head of school, James Calleroz White, and his wife and everything went smoothly and nicely. I was invited by some parents of the students, and the experience with each family was just wonderful.

At school, I liked the kids and they liked me. After the first week, I felt that I was part of that setting and went to the dining room alone, talked to teachers and administrative staff without any problem whatsoever. All teachers without exception were so welcoming and extremely polite.

I did a lot of presentations about Moroccan aspects in various classes, and teachers and students were invited to compare or to comment. I learned a lot from them about America and they learned a lot from me about Morocco.

I was so impressed by the diversity of the American culture; I fell in love with native American handicraft, with Japanese sushi, with Mexican flautas, with the huge malls, and with country music.

All I can say about my experience at the cultural level is that, I think, I could live here with my family, wearing my scarf, going to the mosque, enjoying movies, making friends with people of different origins and expressing my opinions.

My professional experience was one of the richest. I started teaching from the first day. I was lucky to teach in a very nice school where the number of students in classes is very small. I had the opportunity to teach in other classes or just to observe, the classes are not large at all. The largest class does not have more than 16 to 17 students. (My own classes have 45 to 50 students.)

I taught French by following the program and I did a lot of presentations on my country. Students were able to interact with me and ask me questions.

I was able to do some of the projects at the level of the classes and at the level of the school. At the level of the classes, after reading a short story (that is included in the program) by Guy De Maupassant and discussing it, students of level 3, when asked about their impressions about the story, expressed their lack of interest in such stories, as they were boring and sad. So I seized the teachable moment and asked them to write a short story themselves and make it happy if that was what prefer. So, I explained to them the elements of a short story: the initial situation, the plot, the setting, the dénouement, etc. They were very interested in the project and had two weeks to write the stories.

Another project that I carried out at the level of the classes too was the ‘Me Books’. This project was done with more-advanced students. I started the project by a PowerPoint presentation about me: my country, my house, my family, my school, etc. I shared with them my pictures and my life story. Later, it was up to them to share their lives with me. However, I told them that for the sake of variety, we should use another means. And so, their task was to write a book about themselves. They took pictures of their family members and friends, and they wrote, in French, all the information and feelings they have vis-à-vis those people. It was a great experience, and a challenging one for students as they went on, day after day, writing about their loved ones. This lasted for weeks, as the writings of students needed a lot of corrections.

Technology was a blessing to me, so I could implement so many activities that I could not do with my students in Tangier because of the large classes and because those means are not provided in my school.

I must say that I learned a lot from the observations and teachings. I also learned from the discussions that I had with other teachers. Besides I could see that, for students, studying in a relaxed environment helps them learn more. This informality in the American classroom can be one of the things that I can adopt once back in my country.

At the level of the school, besides all the cultural presentations that I gave, I did a project called “Magic Carpet Ride Through Morocco” together with my host. I spoke to [Project Excellence students] and they stayed in school for 3 hours to go on a ride through Morocco. They were exposed to Moroccan handicrafts that I brought with me from Morocco, they did a fashion show wearing Moroccan traditional clothes, they ate Moroccan food that I prepared the night before. They were invited to invent the end of a Moroccan tale, to make them participate actively in the project. The project was really a success as students showed interest in all parts of Moroccan culture and they showed no sign of boredom (I was afraid they would), since the activities were varied and motivating; they were also able to do some art work: Moroccan Arabesque.

After this project, I got in touch with Melanie Sainz, Director of Community Outreach and Diversity Coordinator in Phoenix Country Day School to implement other projects at the level of our two schools on a long-term basis, and both of us have already started working on that.

As I coach two clubs in my school, the drama club and the public speaking club, I was very much interested in attending a drama lesson as well as a musical. I was, in a way, drifted away by the beauty of the musical rehearsals I attended, as well the lessons that the teacher implemented. I have adopted a lot from the drama lesson and will surely adapt it in my classes.

I may seem very optimistic, but I have the firm intention to talk to my principal about study halls. I loved the idea so much and I hope he can do it even if it can be done at a limited level at first.

I consider myself as very fortunate to be part of this experience. I have learned a lot and my view about myself as a teacher and my students will never be the same.