Before Fulbright, I didn't have a lot of experience speaking at conferences. It was actually something that I thought was a big weakness in my application for the Distinguished Teacher Award, because they wanted a list of your previous presentations. But in the last two months, I have made formal presentations at four professional meetings in two different countries, and I think they went well. I was comfortable doing them, at least. The first was at a symposium for doctoral students from all over Morocco at a university in the coastal city of El Jadida. I was actually the keynote speaker on Friday! I shared my observations regarding the speaking ability in foreign languages of Moroccan students compared to American students, and I got a lot of valuable feedback from the attendees about the differences here of public and private schools, rural and city schools, and written and spoken language skills. This really helped me focus my further research, and a couple of the doctoral students from the conference, who are teachers by day, invited me to come to their schools and learn more.
The second conference was in Konin, Poland in the first week of May. It was entitled: Speaking in a Foreign Language: from Controlled Production to Spontaneous Conversation. As you can tell probably from that title, it was right up my alley, though I think I was the only public school teacher in attendance, and one of two Americans (three if you count the husband of one the plenary speakers). It mostly for university linguists-- and boy did I love it! It was so exciting to be back in the world of research into language-learning and applied linguistics, and it was a confirmation for me that it really is time to start my own doctoral program. At that conference, I spoke about the movement in US secondary language classes to a focus on communicative competence rather than learning vocabulary and grammar as independent entities, and on student assessment via spontaneous conversation. I made some wonderful personal connections with other attendees there, and hope to keep in touch with them and their research. The third talk was at the 24th Annual Moroccan Studies Symposium. I delivered a talk entirely about the findings of my research here, and suggested some hypotheses about the reasons for the trends I was seeing. There was a "discussant" who came to the symposium to share his professional opinions about my work. This was Youssef Nait-Belaid, a high-level administrator in the Academie in Marrakech (essentially, I think, he's a superintendent of the public school system), who holds a PhD himself from the Sorbonne, and who has been studying these issues for quite a while. He was immensely helpful to me in the pursuit of my research, and I was so humbled that he came to Rabat for the symposium. I was also so grateful to hear about the work of some of the other Fulbrighters-- like Mark Dressman whom I had not really met yet-- and whose work was in some very similar fields to my own. Again, I was inspired by the opportunity to collaborate with them both now and in the future ( incha Allah!) Finally, I gave a talk to the English teachers of the Salé school district. There were about 40 of them gathered for a professional development meeting, and I talked about both my research findings-- and congratulated them as representatives of all the Moroccan teachers whom I observed--- about the great strengths that I saw in the teaching of spoken foreign languages here. I also talked about the challenges of teaching differently now, in the age of global connectedness and social media, than the ways that might have been effective in the past. I pulled on a lot of information that I had learned by attending a fifth conference ( at which I did not speak) of the Moroccan Association of Teachers of English in March, which was called "Reforming Teacher Education and Training in Times of Change". One thing that struck me at that conference was just how similar are the challenges for teachers in all countries as we deal with the intersections of the internet, technology, and global competence requirements. Again, I was gratified that the feedback that I received in Salé was positive, that some of the teachers are interested in remaining professionally connected, and that they affirmed that I was on the right track with my observations, interpretations, and hypotheses. Had time allowed, there were two other schools where I was invited to speak to students, but the school year and my grant time just ran out before we could find dates that would work. I am quite disappointed about that. But I am ready to take my Conference Presentation Skills on the road in the USA!
0 Comments
Everything changes in Ramadan. It's a month-long religious and cultural event, a moveable feast every year because it follows the lunar calendar. As a Christian, I am not fully participating in Ramadan, but as a resident of Morocco, it is impossible not to have it impact your life. Ramadan is a time of fasting, reflection, and increased prayer (like Lent in my faith experience) , and, like Thanksgiving and Christmas, a time of increased charity, special foods, and family togetherness. At the end of Ramadan, I think there are gifts was well. It seems to be a pretty good party, too. The first thing that happened was that Morocco changed time. Not too long ago, we "sprang forward" to daylight savings time. On May 25, we "fell back." (Interesting side note: "spring forward" happened on the morning of Alex's return to the US, and it was just plain lucky that we figured it out and he got to the airport on time; Eric's return was on the morning that we "fell back"-- but we were better forearmed with knowledge. Since Europe and the US didn't change times, we were notified by Air France that the time of the actual flight was an hour earlier than we expected.) Now the sun is setting about 7:30 pm, and dawn is about 4:00, as far as I can tell. The rhythm of Ramadan rests with the rhythm of the five daily prayer times, so sunrise and sunset are immensely important. Muslims neither eat nor drink between sunrise and sunset. Adil invited me to spend the first night of Ramadan with his family so that I could see how it all works. I went to their home to have "ftor, " a meal which occurs when the sun sets, and just before the evening prayers. There are classic ftor foods: a soup called harira, a hard-cooked egg, a few dates, and a baked sweet called a shebekia. People also drink water and juices at this point of the day. At Adil's, we also had some little empanada-like pastries with a ground beef mixture inside that were quite yummy. After the fast is broken, men go to the mosque to pray (and in my limited experience) the women pray at home. Then the evening begins. People become a lot more lively than they were during the day, and the socializing starts. In Adil's family, everyone goes to bed about midnight, and rises again at 2:30 am so that they can have another meal. There was mint tea and pastries, but I just couldn't manage to eat much that early. About 3:30, the aden is called and the men go to the mosque for the morning prayers. They return home, and everyone sleeps until either a) the small children wake up and need attention; or b) it's 9:00 or so. In other families, people don't sleep between midnight and 2:30-- they eat another meal. Here in my neighborhood, all the restaurants and cafes are closed during the day. Some open at 7:30 pm for the ftor, but most don't open until about 10 pm and they stay open until -- well, the morning prayer, presumably, but I don't know that from personal experience. What I do know is that there is an incredible amount of the noise of people eating, drinking, and socializing until about 2 am. And in the morning, about 8 am when I wake up, there is silence. Only the birds are up. Well, teachers must be up, too, because school is still going on-- in fact, this past week was the beginning of the high stakes end of year tests. In the Frederick County Schools, when we have big common tests, we serve a breakfast to kids, and we supply water and peppermints during the breaks. I appear to be the only one concerned by the end-of-year tests going on during Ramadan-- everyone else says that people get used to the fasting and it isn't a big deal. (Though one person told me that parents do try to make sure that their kids eat well in the pre-dawn meal.) Most business have different hours during Ramadan. Some open an hour late and close an hour early; some have very restricted hours. Just a handful of places are available for tourists to get food (think McDonald's and Pizza Hut). There is no smoking during the day. People get cranky-- anecdotally I can say that there are more street altercations between shouting people and a lot more horns blowing in the streets. There are more disadvantaged people on the streets looking for charity, and more people sharing with them. Sometimes, places that are usually hives of activity are just plain deserted. Coming from a pluralistic society, I find it fascinating to witness how a 98% Muslim country celebrates an obligatory religious festival. It's not like you have to wonder if someone is fasting or not: believe me, they are. Men are carrying their prayer rugs under their arms. More men are wearing djellabas instead of western attire. The closed cafe below my apartment is a spot where men lounge on the floor during the day and read the Koran. Did I mention that cafes or restaurants are closed during the day? So, this is one way that Ramadan has really changed my life. I have been primarily eating in restaurants and cafes. (Don' t judge me. In a country where restaurants are unbelievable affordable, I have really enjoyed having someone else do the planning and cooking, and especially the cleaning up after meals! )However now, I must do some shopping and prepping and cleaning up. I'm eating more salads, and it's lucky that my roommate Abi has brought with her a lot of kitchen tools! Abi is fasting during Ramadan, and I admire her for sticking with it. Ftor is a time for socializing though, so we cooked one night and invited our friend Rachel over to enjoy the meal with us. Along with the classic ftor foods, we made an avocado/date/almond/banana smoothie and a beef tajine as our main course. Here are some pictures: One evening, I went out to my "spot" overlooking where the waves crash in to the rocky shore and there's a small linear park. There are some benches to sit and watch the sea, and there are a bunch of soccer fields, which are ALWAYS in use. Not during Ramadan though! I was nearly alone on the bench watching a beautiful sunset one night. Everyone was at home waiting for the ftor to commence, I guess. But there was an older woman watching the sunset, too, and she had brought a snack with her to break her fast at the appropriate time. We had a lovely conversation about what a blessing it was that Allah/Dieu had given us such a beautiful "couche-soleil". The sunset was phenomenal that night. Here are some pics. Last night, we had a picnic at Rabat Beach with a group of the Fulbrighters here in Rabat. This is apparently a more popular spot for Ftor Picnics. There were tables and chairs for rent if you wanted them. Zach and his visiting brother grilled some chicken kabobs, Hannah brought all the fixings for s'mores, and Abi and I brought salad and our soon-to-be-famous avocado smoothies. It is really wonderful and so interesting to be part of this community of amazing scholars and researchers. Hem du li la! (Thanks be to God!) Here are some clarifications to my blog, thanks to comments that I got from my Moroccan friends Ghislane and Ahlam. Thanks ladies! Shokran!
1) Women do have the choice to pray in the mosk or pray at home. but men are obliged to pray in the mosque unless they are sick or something 2) Only boys or girls who reached the age of puberty who must fast; and for those who haven't reached it they are free either to fast or not. 3) You saw men reading the Quran because Muslims try to conclude reading the whole Quran at least once during this holy month of Ramadan, for in it the holy Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. |
Marcie StutzmanTeacher, Researcher, Adventurer, Explorer; Maybe crazy; Possibly too old for this Archives
October 2018
|