She Taught Me Good!

My first semester is officially done.  Finals graded, grades submitted, and graduation cookies have been eaten.  At our last faculty meeting, we were given our student evaluations.  Having written these as a student, it was a new experience to be on the receiving end.  Out of my 80ish students, only two weren't very pleased with the class. One said I should laugh less...

Overall, it was a very rewarding semester and I genuinely hope that some of my students left my classroom no longer fearing grammar.  I am aware that most people despise it, so if they left with only a mild distaste for the subject matter, I'll take it as a success and move on to tweak and improve where I can for next semester.

A week of fun (at least I hope fun and not riots) in Cairo awaits and I'll shall leave you with yet another awkward (awesome?) exchange I had with a student this semester.


This student approached my desk during a group assignment to eventually ask me about 'burps' via farting....the conversation went like this:

Student: Hi teacher...aaah Ok, you know the air down there?... (motions behind him while pointing down)

Me: the..air...down there???

Student: Yeah, the air down there... (whispering) it's called farts...

Me: Are you really asking me about farts in the middle of an exercise?

Student: No disrespect...aah, ok?

Me: oooookay...what would you like to know?

Student: Well...the air up here (motions to throat)..what's called?

Me: Burp...That's a burp...you can also use that as a verb...

Student: Oh. Okay! Thank you teacher!

Just to be clear, the assignment they were working on involved neither of those bodily functions.

I will miss my level 2's dearly, and wish their level 3 teachers lots of luck!

"You look like Adele!" and other strange things my students say

What does a twelve week semester with eighty students at a university in Iraqi Kurdistan make a teacher? 

That would be slightly crazy and a tad sleep deprived.

My first semester at AUIS is almost at an end, and as I'm starting to see cross-eyed, I think that's a good thing.  It's been a whirl-wind semester and rather than beating myself up for not posting to a website that no one reads, I decided to post stories about my students and my classroom.  

I  am amazed, entertained, enraged, deeply moved, enlightened, frustrated, or a combination of all of those on a daily basis with this great group of young adults, and some of their antics should be recorded. 

The following is an email exchange between a student and myself. The student in this case did not pay attention when I assigned a verb chart for homework:

(Note: Mastaw is the Kurdish phrase for brown-nosing)

Meer: Hi Mrs.Ramey

I Just want to ask you about the Home work sheet that you gave it to us... which verb should we use?

Me:  MEER!!! There were two, I wrote them on the board!!! I want you to call a friend and ask them. If you still can't find out what they are, email me back and I'll tell you...you've got to write down what I put on the board! 

Meer: I'm really really sorry.. I don't have any phone number of my friend.. I was sharing work sheet.. I didn't know ! 

Can you tell me? Please!!   

Me: To decline and to decrease. They better be the best verb charts I've ever seen!! :D

Meer:  Ohhh, thank you so so so much!!!.. I don't know how much I love you!! :) , trust me it's NOT (MASTAW) :D.. 
Thank you !

Me:  If you don't know how much you love me, there is a problem with your memory :D The phrase should have the pronoun you as the subject :D And you can show your love by doing your homework and getting an A in my class! 

Meer: Ow My God !!! I did a huge mistake... I meant (You don't know how much I love you) .. :D

Good Night :)

My battle this semester, along with teaching grammar, has been to encourage my students to think for themselves, use context clues, and above all READ THE DIRECTIONS!  Needless to say, it's been a struggle.