Job Discussion Forums

[americanjoe]

By the time you are done reading this you'll be mad at me...

I do remember Nizwa fondly.
Most every Thursday evening at sundown I would go to the souk at the fort and wander about -- in all honesty I usually had nowhere else of go.
The Nizwa souk on Thursday evening is, I think, arguably the most genuinely Arabic "feeling" place I've ever been to.
I would have to wait until after maghrib sala was over, as the little charcoal grills would then start cooking the kababs, and I would buy one or two and sit watch the crowds of Indians and Bangladeshis who seemed so happy to be off work as they swarmed by me as I sat on the wall across from the fort.
If I was lucky, my cell would ring and my friend I____d would be screaming "Where are you? Come to the Tulip -- they've got a new dancer from Uzbekistan!"

I did make some really good friends there.
And my female students were just lovely girls to teach.
When I left I was given about eight different gifts of halwa, Omani souvenirs and even a glass kanjar.

I even had a couple male students I was found of, especially a bedu boy whose name has slipped my mind right now.
No, I remember it: Hamden.
He was from Adam.

We spent one whole day visiting his family's camel farm, which was 30 miles into the desert.
We ate lunch at his house and generally just "hung out".
I even met his sister who was about 17 and still in high school -- she didn't even wear an abaya!
Which is quite shocking in this area by the way...

By the end of this story I'm going to sound like a terrible teacher -- but he was actually trying to learn English (well, as much as an Omani Bedu boy from Adam tries to learn English) and he could actually phrase a simple question, state what he wanted in a declarative sentence and even tell you simple little stories in English by the end of the semester.
On the first day he showed up in class (which was about 2 weeks into the semester) he could basically say nothing in English, so he was learning.

So here's where you'll start thinking I'm the bad teacher and where I got in trouble by the administration...

By the end of the semester he just wasn't passing.
No way.
So I "adjusted" his grades up about 12%.

Yes, I admit it.

My method was not complex: I just added some points to his mid term and final.
I won't go into how it was discovered, but it had something to do with a friend of P.G -- no, it was BECAUSE of a friend of P.G who reviewed my grades and caught it.
So my office phone rang and I was called to "Dr. Doolittle's' and 'Dr. _.s" office.
And they showed me on the submitted grade sheet what I had done with Hamden's grades.

I admitted it, but said the boy was trying (and he truly was in his own lazy bedu-boy way) and that he was able to speak and write a little English now, and remember please he absolutely couldn't do that when he walked into my class.

I also explained that I am a high school teacher, and that I worked several years in public schools in three American states and that I am state certified to teach English, so I bring a lot of the "individual progress" concept many high school teachers embrace with me to TESL.

Basically, agree with me or not, my theory of teaching is that some people are smart and good at school, but then some students are not so good at academics.
And that's OK with me.
But if a student is showing individual effort and progress, then I'll pass them.
Yes, I'm a bit of an outlaw -- but then a large percentage my students actually learn, which I do not think is a coincidence.

Like it or not, that's me as a teacher.

At our meeting, Dr. _ smiled and said "Don't do that any more."
I was not allowed to enter any more grades into the database.

But I did really enjoy the year I spent there.

And I do believe that Nizwa is the best duty station in entire Gulf.

[water rat]

In Indonesia grade adjustments are pretty much expected behavior. I have argued long and hard against it with school owners, but gradually I came to see that no one is served by flunking students out. The English course loses customers. If a student who is paying his own way, or is at least old enough to be thinking of his near-future job prospects, why not encourage him to sign up for another level of study by passing him - if he's not completely abysmal? The school owners are happy, the student's happy and you're happy because you have a new chum. Everybody wins.

Don't get me wrong. I've failed adult students who actually resorted to visiting me at home because their jobs depended on a passing grade. I turned them down because that was the school policy. (I was only following orders )

I had a smart alec high school senior who spent most of eleventh and twelfth grade English class mocking me, heckling me with a 'So what?" after everything I said in class just to show his friends how cool he was. He never even tried to finish an exercise although I sometimes persuaded him to begin a worksheet.

About a year after graduating the principal came to me and told me the dude's father had died, and he was now desperate for office work to support himself and his widowed mum, but no one would hire him because his high school English grades were terrible. I refused to change his grades. "Based on what!?" I asked my principal. He knew the boy and had to agree.

[americanjoe]

There is always a little subjectivity involved in grading.
And it gets so political as well.
I learned this in 1991 at Kahuku High School on the north shore of Hawaii while I was still in college myself.
I was in my last semester, and was completing my student teaching with my mentor teacher, Mrs. L.
She was old school.
Do your work, get your grade.
At least I thought so.
I was a student at Brigham Young University, which is a church school, so I played it all by the book.
I taught two classes under Mrs. L's supervision.
So there was this senior kid, I wont use his real name, let's call him Pono, but he was Hawaiian and just had a bad attitude towards me.
He was the quarterback for the football team, all the girls' were crazy for him.
He had even been recruited to play for BYU Provo in the coming fall after he got out of high school.
Other students even wore t-shirts with his last name first written on it saying "A-----: Pride of the North Shore."
I mean he was as close to a high school God as you are going to find.
I had not problem with him.
But he did with me -- he would either be arguing with me, making stupid jokes in class or ignoring me.

And he absolutely would not do his homework or class project.
And he failed the mid term -- like he got like a 30% on it.
I kept telling him, "P, do you homework."
"P, are you working on the class project?"
"P, study for the tests, you're failing."

Well, he sure failed the mid term.
And remember, I'm still a kid myself sort of -- I was a senior in college, so not that many years older than the students I'm teaching, and they were a mixed group of low income kids and recent immigrants from the pacific islands, Samoans, Tongans, Cook Islanders, and even some of the political refugees from Laos and Viet Nam that got to Hawaii and California in old fishing boats then called "Boat People" -- a tough group to teach let me tell you.

Anyway, as I come by the teacher's office in the morning, I hear the football coach screaming, deliberately loud enough so that I can hear him "How can a student teacher do this? He's ruining a young man's career! If he doesn't pass he won't get to go play at BYU! What's the matter with that guy?"
And he was talking about me.
But what could I do?
He wouldn't do his homework
He didn't finish his semester project.
He failed the mid term -- spectacularly!

So then Mrs. L. came to talk to me later in the day.
She said she'd 'Take care of the P. problem.'
Later she told me she gave P. an "oral" exam.

Guess what?
When I looked at the grade sheet, P. passed his high school English class with an oral exam!
So in a writing class, he passed by answering spoken questions.

Politics are just a large part of teaching.
A bigger part than what some want to admit.

And again, if a student is trying, and they are making progress, I'm going to pass them.

That's just me as a teacher.

[water rat]

Good story. Two questions.

Why do you say 'with his last name first written on it saying "A-----: Pride of the North Shore." - if his name was Pono?

And does 'Pono' mean something in Hawaiian?

Thanks.

[madrileno]

You were on the North Shore of Oahu? I grew up in Kailua. Lots of fond memories of Hawai'i. I especially miss the Aloha Fridays!

[spiral78]

[americanjoe]

Well, I do admit there are two sides to the argument.
I'm 57 now and I have taught at 6 universities now if you count UAF.
Plus 5 different high schools in three US states.
This would be just a guess, but I would estimate I've taught perhaps 7,000- 8,000 students in five countries over my career.

And here is what I've learned:
Politics are just as much a part of education as is theater.

Teachers who tell me they would never compromise on grading a student's work are either new to the business or lying.

[CVN-76]

It's my personal policy to pass those who are exerting effort. If a student shows genuine progress, has had a good attitude in a class, has not been afraid to make mistakes, has participated in class, and has tried to learn from mistakes, he or she will pass. This student has shown aptitude for the subject and should be nurtured, no matter how far behind he or she is from the day's lesson and expectations.

But it is also my personal policy to flunk outright those who do not exert effort, don't participate in class, show disrespect for the subject, the class, his or her peers, the teachers, the school, or himself / herself. Coming late, not participating, being absent, not bringing books or anything to write with, or cheating on homework, tests, or exams is a sure way to get the F from me. The schools where I have worked required lots of effort by the administrators and teachers to establish and keep running, and at least some of the students in my classes at those places were serious and actually wanted to learn. Out of respect to these folks, I did, and will, crack the whip.

[spiral78]

Well, if we're going to trot out creds, I'm very similarly qualified and experienced - MINUS the US high schools (which I admit I'm happy to have missed). Been at (3 different) universities since 2002. Related post-grad quals as well.

We don't compromise, nor did my previous two universities. And all three have very high credibility in global stats. For some very good reasons.

[spiral78]

[americanjoe]

My general teaching philosophy matches very well with "The Gipper's."
(Hope I got the vessel designation right and also have the nickname correct)
That's one hell of a vessel by the way...

Anyway, it seems to me I've taught a lot of kids -- in fact the majority -- whether high school or college, who don't come from families with much.

And some of the girls you teach in rural Oman will be beaten if they return with poor grades... yes, it happened.
Islam does not always provide a lot of opportunities for women, so if one of those young ladies is making an effort, and showing improvement, you bet I'll pass her!

And the Arab young men I taught: Oh. My. God.

When I find one of those who tries, I practically go into a spasm, and they most assuredly will get through old Mr. E.'s class.

But, I guess we do need some teachers to "hold the line" I suppose.
I just ain't one of them, hence the warnings throughout the post.

However, in the places I worked in the ME, that was not only discouraged but could mean you most likely wouldn't have your contract renewed.

And in the American public school classroom, if you start having class failure rates that get somewhere close to 20% or go over it by much, well, you better start coming up with some extra credit assignments pretty fast.
If not, you're most likely going to have a 4:00PM meeting with the principal of the school you are teaching at, because kids talk to kids and compare grades and then kids talk to parents and then parents talk to parents and then parents call principals and superintendents...

[johnslat]

"Teachers who tell me they would never compromise on grading a student's work are either new to the business or lying."

Thirty-five years in EFL and ESL, plus American high schools and universities.
I've never compromised - and that includes twenty-years in the Middle East, mostly in Saudi Arabia.
So, am I a liar - or are people who make generalizations about compromising on grades just projecting their own feelings upon everyone else?

Regards,
John

[americanjoe]

Well, since you only gave me the two choices, and considering you have taught for that number of years, then I believe that you are a liar.

[johnslat]

And I believe that you are an idiot. But cheer up, maybe we're both wrong.

[happyinshangqiu]