Dear teachers
During the last three years, I've been trying so hard to think of a best practice for Language teaching in Morocco. I've just come to the conclusion that there's no single method or approach that could work perfectly with the Moroccan system. However, I think I might have the solution to this issue. It's called: "Motivation". Yes, that's the keyword that could make all the teaching methods and approaches a success in language teaching specifically, and teaching in general, in Morocco.
Our primary problem as teachers is that students don't give a damn about schooling, and sorry for the term, but the majority does so. From my personal experience, in a class of 40, only 5 to 8 pupils engage actively with the lesson for what we call a standard good student's attitude. The others are just sitting there and watching and waiting for the bell ring. But guess what, those sitting, waiting and watching students got their moments where I sense that something got their attention, and suddenly they are following the lesson and some are even trying to participate. Well, as teachers who care about their students' performance in class, we should be asking: What happened then? What thing got their attention? Well as I said, something caught their attention ... They got motivated. That's what I'm trying to convey in here. We need as teachers to get students' attention, we need to motivate them.
One of the best practices to get students' attention is to engage them. This should be our main objective while designing a lesson. But how to engage a generation of students that got so immersed in technology that blackboard and chalk or even the whiteboard and markers don't mean nothing to them. They feel or are sure that it's dull. The moments I talked about where the students were excited and tried to concentrate on the lesson and see what's going on in class are those rare moments where I used technology in class.
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| As you can see, I managed to hang my tablet on the blackboard and it works! |
From time to time I struggle to get my old laptop to class and strive to get a data-show projector and present a vocabulary lesson through pictures or a communication lesson through a demo video. The sessions turned out to be a success. Unlike those normal days where I struggle to teach without any equipment or teaching aids, it's just boring. Every teacher should have his or her teaching aids, from posters to simply A4 paper sized pictures to make it easier for the students to understand. As the saying goes: "A picture is worth a thousand words". Or, if you can't print images or buy posters, just bring your laptop and show them the pictures directly from there or the videos, if you can't get a data show. In addition to that, you can get one of those cheap tablets and fill it with visual aids and use it in class; it turned out to be a success too.
However, there are challenges, I know! Most of the teachers who don't use technology in classes; are because they don't know how to, but a lot of others do so because they don't want to. Those who don't know how to, it's, firstly their responsibility. Since this falls in the scope of professional development. However, the state's also responsible to train its staff to have better teaching practices, through continuous training sessions. But for those who don't want to, I say: "Shame on you". How can't you use anything possible to engage students in your lessons? Stop concentrating on those brilliant students and forget the unmotivated ones. Notice that I didn't say stupid because every one of them is intelligent in some way, it's just that we haven't yet come to the stage where we adopt the multiple "intelligences" theory in our educational system.
Bearing that in mind, the teacher shouldn't be left alone in his classroom and let him, literally, guard the students. As the Chinese proverb says: "It takes a village to raise a child" and not just the teacher, or the parents. And unfortunately, some of the students are not well raised within their families. So, there should be great support from the part of families and the state also should accompany those in need of support through the centres of hearing and listening. Also, Civil Society should interfere more with the schools and organize extracurricular activities to promote school life, beyond lessons and exams.
All in all, teaching is a noble job. It's the job that teaches all the other jobs, as they say. If we think about this deeply, we would know how important the teachers' mission is. We need to take it seriously and try to get the best of our students and turn an eye on how they behave and not treat them as sloths. They're young, inexperienced, lost and most of all, teenagers. They don't know what's best for them. And, in order to forgive their carelessness, think about when you were a teenager too.
Best regards
By: Nabil Es shaimi
