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A Day in the life of Dhelal A.

Today, I observed my sister at her job. Dhelal is a pre-k/kindergarten Special Ed teacher at Hyde Elementary School in Washington D.C. My purpose of shadowing her was to gain insight into what the job really entails, get a feel of how a classroom should be, and gain ideas and practices so I can implement them in the classroom if I do decide to teach again.

If you wish to live abroad, teaching is the way to go. Hence the reason i decided to shadow my sister. Given that I am American, getting a teaching job abroad is extremely easy. I do however; feel guilty to be one since I know I am not the best person for the job.

I taught 5-17 yr olds while living in Egypt, and as you may recall from my previous posts, I had 5 classrooms with 30-45 students... do you remember how nervous i was?? wow, I can't begin to tell you if you didnt. I found it very difficult. Never mind that you need to acquire different skills than the skills you would possess with a business degree, being a teacher was a huge emotional responsibility.

I don’t have an education degree so I know I wasn't expected to be the very best but I knew i could do better. In Egypt, I remember constantly feeling overwhelmed, thinking and searching for new strategies to use. I wanted my students to be engaged heavily because they wanted to, bc they felt it was fun-not boring. Determined to learn, I began to follow and question Dhelal's every move.

This is how my day at Hyde Elementary went:

7:45 A.M. We arrive at her school, During this time, Dhelal prepares all coursework necessary and gathers books/activities needed for the day.

On a typical day, she teaches three students, two with D.S. and the third with Autism, each requiring significantly different demands. These students are all part of a homeroom classroom, but because these students need individual attention, Dhelal's job is to provide direct instruction and behavior modification to these students on a one-on-one basis either in their home classroom or in her office; this method is known to Special Ed teachers as "pull-in" and "pull-out".

By observing different classrooms and teachers I was able to gain different teaching strategies. Since Dhelal is a special ed teacher, i found that she uses instruction and repetition a lot as her main method. My main area of concern in Egypt was how to get the students to comprehend what was asked of them. and with time more and more questions arose. I wanted to understand how she gets her students to do what is asked? how does she communicate the objectives to her students or better yet, even keep these objectives in the forefront of their minds throughout the lesson?

before i knew it, it was 8:45 AM and the kids begin to roll in. Dhelal's day was just about to begin.

I took out my notebook and started to take notes immediately, noting her behaviors with the students and the students reactions to certain focus areas.

Anyone would be able to tell u that Dhelal is an incredible teacher. That's not because every other teacher at Hyde kept telling me so, but because her heart is completely in it. Passionate about teaching, she instructs with excitement and enthusiasm. The success of the students is owed to her strong belief and determination of education. Dhelal is knowledgeable and clearly engaged with all of her students and because of this she has been able to build an incredible relationship with them. In Dhelal's eyes these students are her very own children. She strives for the very best and challenges her "children" to reach for the sky.

Here I am shadowing to “learn” skills and ideas, while Dhelal’s acquires all of these, naturally. She wasn’t afraid to do mistakes or try something new. Her personality along with her determination is what helps Dhelal generate exceptional academic performances from her students.

Her students are very responsive and very much aware of their specific routines, such as raising their hands when asking a question, going to the bathroom, and they even knew when to transition from one activity to another (a big thing for students with special needs especially) Her students are also highly engaged, probably due to the fact that she maintains a positive attitude and jokes around with them.

Shadowing her was fun. I got some new ideas about routines that I want to incorporate into my teaching style. I also learned that the best trick in getting the students enthusiastic about learning is to find a key that will work with each individual student. Each student is different, thus each will require something special.

I found this to be Dhelal's best advice

"if we try to force a student’s success by using the same methods with all the students we’ll be setting ourselves up for failure. But by awarding their achievements, the more they will want to continue to do whatever their achievement was."

The best job an American can get in Cairo...... TEACHER!!

For countless Americans, nothing would be more thrilling than for the opportunity to live and be able to work abroad. Indeed, upon graduation, I had the opportunity to experience a new culture, travel, and simply learn and discover. My 7th month in, I was able to land a job abroad.

Teaching English offers us young wanders the opportunity to live the life we want. I got really lucky because this job came to me. I was recruited to be an English Teacher for a camp by YDC at Kattameya Heights. I had no idea what i was in for. The interview went something like this... Phone rings.. Caller ID says “Shaymaa” ME: Hey there! SHAYMAA: Hey rooj, what are you doing tomorrow? ME: mmm u know..absolutely nothing.. SHAYMAA : Ok meet me tomorrow at downtown at 7:15 am. Me: Ok?... Shaymaa: I have a job for u. Me: Perfect I’ll be there!.. Suddenly she passes the phone to a lady named, Mona, who by the way turns out to be an important lady working for the company, she tells me to meet her at a different location. The next morning, I do just that. 7:15 AM I am waiting for what i thought would be a yellow school bus to pick me up. 8:00am and no sign of a yellow school bus. I must've missed it I thought. 8:25, A white microbus pulls up and says hop in! I ride and mind you at this point I am still clueless as all hell. I am not sure how but somehow I knew I would be working in what would be considered a camp enviorment so i wore my Khakhis and a red tshirt. I go in and I introduce myself to the rest of the gang and get introduced to Mona, the executive director, who i spoke to earlier. After two hours, things are so hectic so the program manager, Ellen didn't get a chance to fill me in on everything except that days duty. I ended up teaching that same day. Completely unprepared, I had no choice but to ignore my stomach rumbles and acted like i knew what I was doing . Although i had no idea how to teach or how to even approach the kids I pretended to know. I was given the material and jumped right in and taught. My stomach continued to rumble but ignored. I was teaching 2 classes in one camp and 3 classes in another. The other camp program is called SMASH. The teacher before me ended up quitting because of the kids in that program. My kids were all very spoiled, loud and did not listen. It was the summer and I had 40 kids in some of my classes. Getting them to focus almost seemed impossible. Just imagine a bunch of 3-17 year old rich kids, who came into camp eating chocolate, for snack ate chocolate, after lunch ate chocolate and after camp ate chocolate. Sugar high 247. Unhealthy and hyper. Not a great mix while trying to teach and of course you cannot forbid them because god forbid these were rich kids who ruled over you! My gosh, I would love to be able to see how unhealthy these kids grow up to be. Egyptian culture is all about chocolate! Looking back, it was all very fun. Although, I shouldn’t have been so nervous I can understand why I was, since I had no prior experience I lacked belief and confidence.