A proud peacock!

While visiting a primary school, we saw a small herd of sheep with lambs passing by. Their fleeces were white as snow!

Fulbright Exchange Alumni: Building Networks & Understanding through Teacher-Student Collaboration

(BELOW) Debrief of the International Field Experience

(BELOW) Eight of us decided to experience a Moroccan Hammam, a bathhouse with multiple rooms (dry and steamed) for cleaning the body and soul according to traditional ritual performed by another person.

Today was one of my absolute favorites!

(ABOVE) A yoga lesson with Moroccan primary students!

We visited THE uncle, and boy, did he put out a spread (5 course meal)!! Each of the 8-top tables had its own individual course of Sweet Appetizers, Bread, BBQ Lamb with fixings, Couscous served with Buttermilk, Ice Cream, Fresh Fruit Platter, Fruit Drinks, Soft Drinks and Water. Each table had 1-2 servers. All of this fabulousness took place in a great big ole ROOMY HOUSE on multiple acres of land on the countryside!

I ate my first Lamb Pizza!

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(ABOVE) Beautiful architectural designs, walls, structures, and workmanship!!!

We visited Complex School Khalil Abdelhafid (CSKA), a private non religious school serving primary, middle, and high school students.

Cultural visit to Chellah, a medieval fortified Muslim necropolis and UNESCO World Heritage Site…where the eagles fly.

We had an option to catch the train to Tangier, visit the Mohammed VI Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art, or do an outing on our own. Four of us chose to have brunch and debrief on the previous week. We discussed the essential questions we are required to answer as a part of our research on the Moroccan Education System. We spent a couple of hours comparing and contrasting our education system vs. the Moroccan education system, sharing our educational ambitions, and detailing our specific job duties. Even though we talked incessantly, it felt so relaxing, refreshing and quiet (we could hear ourselves think) with this particular small group of educators.

We visited Volubilis, a UNESCO World Heritage Archaeological Site with many remains from the Roman Empire. Roman Empire Ruins (below)

We toured Fes el Bali (the historic old medina) with a Fulbright Teacher Exchange alum from Fes. This medina reminded me of the scene from Demolition Man where there was an underground world of “havenots“ but they were still living their best lives. It was grungy, dirty, exciting, noisy, fabulous, mesmerizing, and smelly. The sensory imagery was off the charts!! You had goat heads dripping with blood, and roosters cock-a-doodling minutes before they’re weighed and decapitated before our very eyes! You had people riding motorcycles and mopeds throughout the narrow corridors of the medina, huge buzzing Africanized Bees flying around the sweet treats for sale, people laughing, and street vendors semi-aggressively inviting us to sample their wares. There was an older man who whistled and imitated the sounds of different species of jungle birds for hours! There were beggars, hustlers, drunkards, elderly people, young people…everybody was looking for something. Tone Loc got it right, “Funky Cold Medina.”

We visited Almotanabi High School in Sale’. International Leaders in Education Program (ILEP) alum Houria Kherdi teaches at this school.

This was actually the BEST DAY EVER (in my Sponge Bob voice). The students kicked off our campus tour with a presentation on Morocco’s history’s, education system, and issues they face as students. Similarly to many schools in the U. S., some of their issues center around the lack of resources, technology, decreased graduation rate, and a decrease in students attending a 4-year university. However, they do have opportunities for students to pursue vocational education. There appears to be more young ladies than young men in many of the high school classrooms we visited. The student’s presentation on various topics were quite impressive, and they revealed it only took approximately two weeks to prepare the PPT Presentation and determine what their delivery would look like. I instantly cringed when I heard this, because it takes some of my students six weeks plus to put together a presentation on a topic we have studied and worked on after days and sometimes weeks of constant reminders. Anywho, it made my heart sing as I watched the students and how poised, confident, fearless, and articulate they were as they bared their souls to adult educators with whom they were not familiar with at all. Did I mention they have far less school resources and materials than many U. S. schools? After their stellar presentation, we (2022 Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms Moroccan Cohort) participated in an intellectual round table type dialogue with students. They had many questions for us regarding what and how American students learn. They also asked us to share stereotypes, expectations, and impressions we had about them prior to our arrival. One of our teachers mentioned terrorism because the media has fed and perpetuated those types of stereotypes to our society at large. A male student quickly dispelled the stereotype and looked somewhat dismayed that it was even a perception. One teacher lightened the mood by playing a nifty Science game with students where they had to guess why the small red strip of cellophane paper from a card either curled in their palms or stayed relatively flat. Students were actively engaged and all participated. We popped in a Science, Math, and French class and were equally impressed with each group’s natural curiosity about everything, as well as their academic acumen. We met a Scientist (science teacher) with a PhD in Avocado growth (or something like that). He had planted most trees on their campus including edible and non-edible fruit. He has created a compost area, grows a school garden, etc. They even have a water recycling station where the water used to wash hands is routed to other plants and the garden area. The students learn by doing all things hands-on! There was a beautiful little symphony going on with the WHOLE plant life cycle (pollination and ALL) happening right before our eyes! I was so tired of being impressed by how much can be done with so little, and how some people do it naturally and do it well.

Panel Discussion & Presentation: Ecole Normale Superieure (ENS) Teacher Training Institute. This was a discussion with teachers, teacher trainers, and students on teacher training in Morocco.

Cultural Visit: Mausoleum of Mohammed V and Hassan Tower – a 12 Century minaret that was never finished and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Today’s cultural excursion was Kasbah des Oudayas, a UNESCO World Heritage site founded in the 12th Century, which includes a castle, Andalusian Garden, and Moorish Cafe

A second cultural excursion was to Parliament of Morocco, where we toured the seat of Morocco’s legislature with an introduction to its two parliamentary houses.

Today we received an overview of Moroccan life from Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms In-Country Consultant, Meriem Lahrizi. Our first exercise was to complete a K-W-L Chart on Moroccan history and culture. Some of the topics we explored were: Colonial Education System vs Current Education System, Education Statistics, Higher Education, Technical/Vocational/Trade School, Moroccan teachers and school administrators, and Youth Issues/ Concerns, just to name a few.

We received a security briefing and overview of the U. S. Embassy’s public affairs and English Language programming. We also learned about multiple educational and cultural exchange programs. MACECE coordinates Fulbright programming in Morocco.

I was originally supposed to leave Phoenix at 8:43 AM on 3/14/2022 and arrive at JFK Airport in New York by 4:29 PM to meet 16 other Fulbright TGC Scholars. Then, depart JFK Airport after a layover, arriving in Casablanca, Morocco by 8:40 AM on 3/15/2022. However, shortly after taxing down the runway passengers suddenly heard a startling sound and the plane slowly stopped on the runway. We were told by the Captain that the nose landing gear had malfunctioned and we needed to return the plane to the gate. The plane was towed back to the gate, passengers were de-boarded, and I (along with two other Fulbright Scholars) tried to get a flight to Casablanca asap. To make a long story short, we ended up getting roughly a 10 hour flight from Phoenix Sky Harbor to London. We barely made the flight from London to Rabat, Morocco which arrived 7:10 PM on 3/15/2022 WITHOUT our checked luggage!

No luggage, so we exchanged currency and were transported to our hotel to get ready for the next day. I had to utilize a few more math skills than usual: Moroccan currency (Dirham) conversion to the U. S. dollar, time zone differentiations, convert temperature from Fahrenheit to Celsius, distances and travel time between various locations, etc.

Wheels down…finally arrived in Morocco to complete my Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms International Field Experience after two long awaited years!!