My First Day in The New School

It was Saturday, a busy day for me, I got up earlier that ay so as to pack up luggage. It was a little confuse because I was going to travel somewhere I have never heard of before_Tamanart, a small village which is 80 km to Bouizakarne but it belongs to Tata province. Sunday, September 19th, I got up earlier an went out searching for a cab to take my luggage to the bus station hoping to come on time so that I can take a seat in ‘Bani express’ bus-the one bus which goes to Tata direction; yet, to my bad luck, I had to wait for an hour and a half in vain. Sunday is the day when the weekly market takes place here that’s why cabs are hard to find even if one gets up earlier because some people take them to the market. At last, I found a cab and asked the driver to come to our house to take my luggage to the bus station in order to take another bus till Bouizakarne where I should find an other means of transportation to get to my destination .

Again, I had to wait there for an hour or thereabout before a bus departs. I took a booked a seat in it till Bouizakarne where I get off to take a taxi to Tamanart. The taxi driver asked me to pay 3 times a normal passenger had to pay for I had lots of luggage and I was traveling somewhere which is quite far than the main road, I agreed since there was no other option. After an hour rand a half of driving, I arrived in Tamanart. I unloaded my luggage from the taxi and get them to the house I rent with 3 other new teachers. It consists of 2 rooms , a quite large hall ,a kitchen and a bathroom. I spent my first day there quite uneasy about this new world I only had my solace in ‘Kabul Beauty School’ novel. At night, I was thinking about my first day in school and how things should go like so I was reading all articles I had already printed about classroom management and rules so as to create suitable atmosphere where learning can healthily take place.

The next morning was Monday, September the 20th. It was my first day in the new school. I had two hours 10 till 12.I felt this new responsibility like a heavy load on my shoulders. At 10 a.m, I plucked up my courage and entered the classroom. Firstly, I greeted the students and introduced my name in their native language Berber. Second, I shed light on the importance of English both at the national level as well at the international one, trying to whet their appetite for this new language. Afterwards, I asked each of them to take a sheet of paper and write about their names, age, address, and their hobbies. When they finished, each one of them had to read out what s/he wrote about himself/herself before handing in his/her sheet of paper to me.

Later, I tried to set up the classroom rules with them. I began by asking them what it takes to create a suitable atmosphere for learning so as to brainstorm some ideas they have in mind. I then appointed one of them whose handwriting was good to write what we agreed on the blackboard for the rest of class to write and later on to copy on the first page of their English notebooks by the next session we would meet. The procedure went similar with the other groups throughout the week. When I returned home that day I felt as if I got rid of 30/. of the load out of my shoulder but there was still much work to do. I was thinking of how to prepare an easy and interesting lesson which can make English language appealing to students. Thus, I chose to start with communication. Wednesday Morning was my first encounter with students using English. I began by greeting them in English « good morning » and I helped them to respond back: ‘good morning teacher’. Then, I tried to elicit the components of the date that day. I asked « what is the date today, accompanying this with some gestures to make it easier for students to understand.

After some silence, students started uttering some incomplete words such as « wesday, Tudesay, etc...Finally, I provided the correct pronunciation of the word and made them drill it individually. I followed the same process with the other components of the date before I write it fully on the board. Afterwards, I presented how to introduce oneself in English. Thus, I began the process like this: ‘My name is Mohamed ‘repeating this several times to make sure everybody heard it. Then, I introduced another chunk: Teacher: my name is Mohamed. What’s your name? Student: my name is Nora. Then I asked her to ask her class mate so as to encourage pair work for the sake of more practice of the newly learned chunks. Whenever, a student get blocked I intervened to help either by providing the missing words or to provide correct pronunciation. When students get accustomed with more practice, I changed correction techniques. I tried to get pair correction from fast learner students; if I could not then I provide it myself. I followed the same process to present other chunks such as: How are you? I am fine How old are you? I am … years old. Nice to meet you As for the general atmosphere of the first week in the classroom, luckily I didn’t t encounter any serious problem apart from some mild disruptive behavior.