Turkish vs. American Students and me, the teacher

Teaching Turkish students face –to – face at ENKA School the past two months I see similarities and difference between the American students I taught for 20 years. 

Are Turkish students as loud and rowdy?  YES!  They burst into a classroom with the same questions I’ve always heard, “What are we doing today?” A expected practice when I taught at Tates Creek High School was to have an agenda on the board. An agenda keeps me on track AND informs students what they are doing today. (We were also supposed to list standards being taught, but no student in the world wants to know that stuff!)   So, when Turkish students arrive for a lesson,  the want to hear what's on  from my mouth.  I guess, reading the agenda from the board takes too much effort!  American students would do the same.  Every day without fail: “What are we doing today?” I sigh, point to the board, or I simply tell them.

Do they care about their grades?  Take an American student who IS motivated in the classroom and multiply this 5 times.  You will have a Turkish student.  Unfortunately, they are stressed disproportionally about every grade.  My grade 10 class wrote a short analysis of a quote recently  - it was to be a 12 point score.  One student asked me to read his paragraph and it was not good.  Instead of listening to ways to improve, he kept asking what will it score?  Less than a 9? Some students insisted they haven’t had enough “practice.”  In the end, I scored the paragraphs, but did not post them.  Yet, I STILL got anxious questions, about why I took off a point for grammar (clearly marked on their papers)  or “how can I make a this a more perfect score?”  (again, lots of ways marked on the paper).  Did I mention Turkish students stress over grades?  Oh my!  And their all-important TERM Exams are coming in two weeks! Look out!

Turkish students, like American students, are – in my opinion –  addicted to cell phones.  Before online school because of the Pandemic, evidentially Enka successfully beat back the scourge of cell phones use in classrooms.  Sadly, not today.  Enka students are not as blatant as American students…they aren’t watching Netflixs during class.   (American parents  - I kid you not!).  But phones are up their sleeves, positioned under the leg, or lying in the folds of sweatshirts.  It’s maddening.  But!  If I see one being used, I can simply take it, lay it on my desk, and the student just does not protest, threaten my life and the lives of my family,  like some American students would.  Addiction causes people to do crazy things!  One aspect of most Enka students is they respect the teacher.  They do not argue.  Body language can speak volumes, but they will not speak foully, or worse, make a move against a teacher.  Nonetheless, cell phones are a distraction and a curse teacher are living with and in America.  It’s a classroom killer.

I use to say, I would know when to stop teaching when I stopped getting a “kick” out of my students.  Turkish students are generally good-natured with positive attitudes.  And they give me a “kick” for sure.  This week I did a couple of activities I knew were “iffy” in the response I would get.  One was to have students speak a poem in a chorus.  We are reading Catcher in the Rye in Grade 10.  The poem that inspired the title, “Comin’ thro the Rye” by Robert Burns, was on the board and sections of the class had to read it aloud together, choral style.  “When a body meet a body, coming thro’ the rye.”  (Try saying in rapidly 3 times.) One class was delighted.  They laughed at the rhythms and the message… They went out of class repeating some of the lines to one another.  The other class did the activity, but were not as enthused. (Typical.  You can’t win them all).  But, I really got a “kick” out of the first class.  They laughed and wanted to read the poem again!  “When a body, kiss a body, comin’ thro the rye!”

The highlight of my week was during a Socratic seminar style discussion I organized with my Grade 11 students.  This format of graded discussion has always worked well in my American classroom. Sometimes students – American and Turkish -  help me realize something about myself… The discussion was about a documentary just watched about immigrants in America, tying it to The Kite Runner.    One student made a point of the value of going to a diverse school.  I told them about Tates Creek High School, where I taught 16 years, and its diverse student population, including Muslims.  I suddenly realized and said: “If I had not taught at a diverse high school like Tates Creek, I would not be here today, teaching Turkish students.”  They looked at me questioningly.  I explained how many Americans would be afraid of being in a Muslim country.  But, because I met, and loved, my Muslim students, I was not fearful to come to Turkey. 

And with that realization, I felt I learned more about myself and how the world works.  It is possible to break prejudice and gain understanding of other races and religions when you share a classroom.  People are naturally fearful of what they do not know.  Now I know both American and Turkish students…and I find more similarities than differences…It’s good to make this discovery.