I'm taking more risks with my students this semester. In so many ways, for me at least, teaching is acting. Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday mornings just before eight o'clock, I put on a persona of someone who's got it together, who's confident in front of all those immaculately dressed Khalijis, who knows everything...at least if it's in the textbook. This semester, I'm letting my real self shine through a little more (and my real self is not necessarily mutually exclusive with the traits I mentioned above. Or at least I like to think so). Sometimes the kids say funny things and I want to laugh. Sometimes I say funny things and I want everyone else to laugh. Sometimes we arrange the desks in a circle - if the carpet weren't so filthy, I'd have us sit on the ground. Did you know that even the guys who wear kandura can still sit cross-legged? It doesn't seem like it should be possible, but it is.
Taking class outside today was my way of keeping things interesting, of enjoying the great outdoors even when we have work to do. The cool weather is so fleeting here, it would have been a crying shame to sit inside and look at PowerPoint slides for two hours. Still, my outdoor class period could have totally flopped, I suppose. But it didn't.