January was a roller-coaster of highs and lows. One of the first things I did was play laser tag for the first time in my life with a friend and his 9 year-old son. As I posted on FB, I upheld not only my national honor, but I was also a credit to my gender because I kicked a**. 😉
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| Laser Tag, Casablanca, 2020 |
I flew to Oujda, a city on the Algerian border to work with a colleague. While I was there, the Amazight New Year happened and I went to a music event to celebrate.
The second week of January I had to give my final exams. I wasn't worried about this. For the composition class, I was using the rubric provided by the department head who was teaching the other two sections. Also, to be certain that I was grading validly, I had another Fellow grade a few and compared our scores; they were the same. However, after submitting my grades, I was informed by the dept. head that I could not give a grade higher than a 16. They use the French grading system here which is 0-20 and 10 is a passing grade. Therefore, the highest grade that a student could receive would be a 20, but Moroccan professors don't give anything higher than a 16. I argued that I had graded fairly, my grades had fallen (without manipulation on my part) into a bell curve, and the high scores reflected the students' ability to write a very good paragraph. Finally, I told the department head that she had the authority to change my grades, but I refused to do it. I felt that I had no other ethical choice.😞
The following week I was at conferences in El Jadida and Tangier. We attended workshops on many areas of EFL teaching and a colleague and I presented a workshop on differentiated learning. The conferences were a lot of fun; EFL instructors know how to party after working hard! We also visited historical sites and the beach in both cities. However, I was very happy to return to Casa and have "quality alone time" after constantly being around so many people. The El Jadida conference had over 700 attendees!
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| Luxurious Conference Site in El Jadida |
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| Fellows from around North Africa/Near East |
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| American Legation in Tangier |
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| Left by the maid in Tangier |
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| Train notice to remember all your belongings |
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| Leaving Tangier on the TGV |
When I got back to Casa, I immediately jumped into preparing for spring term. I am creating "flipped classes" this term to try to deal with the huge number of students. Since I am not a tech wizard, this has been challenging for me, but I am slowly getting the hang of it. I'll see how successful it is. The university where I teach is really pushing to incorporate online/blended classes.
The last week of January was probably the most emotionally up and down. On Thursday a protest of the American Middle East "Peace Plan" was scheduled for the consulate in Casablanca. There aren't many tourist sites in Casa and I have told many people that the one place where Americans gather (and which would be a good target) is the consulate. It also happens to be right next door to my apartment! Although the street was closed off and there were approximately 40+ soldiers outside, there was no need for any preparations. The protest never happened. Friday I went to the university to attend a meeting of all faculty in the university system (5 or 6 campuses) on the proposed change next year to a 4 year bachelor's degree modeled on the American system. The meeting was held in French and Darija and then, at the end, the president asked me, as the only Anglo-Saxon present, to speak. Aaaahhh! It was nerve-wracking!
At the end of the month, I had to deal with many students approaching me to ask why they had gotten such low grades. I had to tell them that the dept. head had changed them and that there was nothing I could do. This made me think about spring term. My grammar classes will be easy to grade, but the composition/essay writing class will be just like fall term. At that point, I decided I would teach and edit the students, but I refused to grade them and then have the grades changed again. My argument is that the university requested an American and in the US, changing grades like that would not only be unethical, it would be illegal. That's my line in the sand. 😎
Maybe February won't be quite as crazy. We'll see.
