New ideas from a new class

Iman Ibrahim stands in an empty classroom, an Interwrite Pad in hand. The technology is marvelous but frustrating for her. She tries again to write an H, for high pressure, on the hand-held pad. Her invisible marking, projected electronically on a weather map displayed in front, looks like a squiggly blot. She quickly tries again.

In a few minutes, 19 students will look expectantly at Ibrahim, as she teaches her first lesson in America. "I'm not nervous," she says with a shrug. "Everywhere kids are the same."

Before she packed two suitcases and flew more than 20 hours to America, Ibrahim was the head of the biology department at a high school in Alexandria, Egypt. Her classroom did not have the type of technology she has seen at Jackson Junior High. She had considered herself lucky to have a computer in her classroom at home, even if it was not wired for the Internet.

Ibrahim applied for the International Leadership in Education Program to be exposed to new ideas. Through classes at Southeast Missouri State University and her internship at the junior high, she has developed a list of programs she'd like to implement back home.

At the top of her list is modeling Jackson's Alternative Learning Center, where students are sent for in-school suspensions. Most of the 12th-grade students from her school have private tutors, and it is difficult to get the students to come to school. Often they arrive late and are sent to the playground to socialize until the next period.

She has carefully examined the Jackson center's 16 desks, which face the walls with wood dividers on either side. "I make interview with discipline teacher. I like this method. It's something to be applied to our country. Face the wall. Do the work," she said.

On Wednesday, she has no discipline problems. As earth science teacher Leanne Thele models how to label a map with symbols to show precipitation or fronts, Ibrahim sat at her desk, chin in her hands, tapping her fingers. Thele models her lesson using a U.S. map. For Ibrahim's part, the map is of Africa.

"She doesn't know our states. I wanted to even the playing field," Thele said.

As Ibrahim teaches, the students sit nearly silent. There are few questions that Ibrahim asks she doesn't answer herself. "Where is Libya? We have used before. It is right here. How we draw the drizzling?" she asks. "How we draw the fogs? Like this." She demonstrates.

Thele said their methods of teaching vary. "We do more visual and hands-on learning. They spend most of their time using books or worksheets," she said. "That can be good and bad. We spend a lot more time on details, while they can cover more topics."

Ibrahim's thick accent does not appear to affect the students, who ask no personal questions of Ibrahim and make no off-topic comments. "She did really good. She speaks pretty good, so I can understand her," said Kelsey McDowell.

Brandon Strop said some words are expressed differently, like when Ibrahim named a country in French. Ibrahim speaks Arabic, English and French fluently. Strop said he likes learning about other countries.

Ibrahim's dorm room in Dearmont Hall is decorated with a few pictures from home, such as a picture of her 19-year-old son when he was a boy, and flowers from when she was hospitalized overnight for a thyroid problem last month. It was when she was sick that she missed her family the most. She talks to her husband and son every day.

"My husband said, 'That's enough. Come home,'" she said. She still gets tired even bending over to tie her shoes but said she is feeling much better. Her husband, who works for the government in Egypt, is planning to visit soon if he can take time off work. Her flight home is scheduled for May 31.

Ibrahim still has much planned before her return home: trips to Memphis, Tenn., Indiana and St. Louis. She is applying for a grant so she can incorporate new technology into her home school. She has yet to see how state tests are conducted. And she can't wait to show Missouri to her husband.

lbavolek@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123

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