Teaching Teachers

Most of my time in Rabat and Guelmim Morocco was spent in classrooms with students, touring sites, and eating meals with groups of locals. One morning Travis and I were able to have a bigger role by offering a workshop to English teachers from the region on effective teaching strategies.

I am very proud of the job that we did modeling active, student-centered learning. The twenty teachers who attended were thoroughly engaged throughout the workshop and were among the best participants that I have ever worked with. They were so pleased that many stayed for over half an hour afterwards to ask questions and continue the conversation.

We made clear several times that we presented this workshop not because the educational system in the US is better--frankly we had seen that the teaching is at least as strong in Morocco as in the US--but because we both were experienced workshop presenters. In this way I tried to avoid the perception of a neo-colonial culturally superior attitude.