Sponsored by the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State, the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program recognizes and encourages excellence in teaching in the U.S. and abroad. It is part of the overall Fulbright Program, which promotes mutual understanding among people of the U.S. and other countries.
The Global Teacher Programs Division of the Institute of International Education awarded $224,036 to the Center for International Education, Development and Research at the IU School of Education for its first time running the program. The Fulbright grant awarded to IU was the only one given in the U.S. this year.
Sanaa Hissame is a 27-year-old English teacher at Oued El Makhzine High School in Kenitra, Morocco.
She has been teaching for five years.
IDS How does Bloomington compare to Morocco? What has the adjustment been like?
Hissame My hometown back in Morocco is called Kenitra, and it has a number of similarities to Bloomington. We have the same weather, with the exception of the snow. We have a lot of humidity and green spaces, and the people are very friendly.
We had orientation in Washington, D.C., and there they told us what was going on, where we were going to live, the area, the weather, the people and things to do over the weekend. They were very helpful in preparing us with our experience here. I was told Bloomington was a college town, and for me, Morocco is a developing nation, so things we understand vary from the things you do. For us, a college town would be a portion of Bloomington. It’s very big in size, and most of the population is students, but I think they’re friendly.
IDS What’s your favorite part of Bloomington?
Hissame I loved the Fourth Street Festival, and I go to Turkuaz a bunch because it reminds me of home. I’m interacting with people every day even while waiting for the bus. I ask people how their day is. I noticed everyone here is very friendly, and I don’t know if it’s something related to the culture, or a lot of students come from different places and they need to have that kind of mindset.
IDS What’s your daily schedule like in Bloomington?
Hissame Part of the program is auditing classes, so I go to the University on Thursdays and Fridays. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I go to Bloomington High School North, which is the high school where we observe United States teachers and shadow them. The teachers are really competent, and it’s a wonderful opportunity to learn from them, and hopefully, we will take that back with us to our home countries.
IDS What is it like teaching English in Morocco?
Hissame In Morocco, students learn Spanish or French as a second language depending on where they live. People in the north study Spanish, and people in the south study French. English or German comes third.
When we were asked to think about a project to benefit underserved children, I would argue that most of my students are underserved. I could use the example of me working last year with 54 students in one class. Those were students who have English as a major so they are tested at the end of the year, so can you imagine it was hard trying to teach all of them and get the message across.
IDS Is that the focus of your research project?
Hissame My project is about helping my students become more independent learners. If you take the idea of teachers struggling to work efficiently in large classes, one way to elevate the learning is by making the students more independent. I’m here to learn how American teachers go about doing that as well as learning interactive activities for students to learn English as opposed to just lecturing them.
One beneficial thing was the visit to a high school in Columbus, Ind. The school is based in project-based learning as the core of teaching as opposed to the knowledge only coming from one source. I noticed that the teachers are called “facilitators,” and I wondered why and then I realized because they facilitate the learning process instead of teaching all of the knowledge. It was very impressive, and I wanted to work there. Morocco is a poor country, but ideas like these that need a little bit of time and resources, but hopefully we will do something like that in the near future.
What got me here was my passion for teaching. Maybe I don’t have the same degrees and credentials as the other Fulbright Distinguished Scholars, but my heart is in the right place, I have all good intentions and, at the root, I want my students to learn. I love being a part of the program.
