Host City Day 3: Human Rights, Student Tour Guide Heba, and a Traditional Moroccan Guest House

7/24/2024

April 24— It's Day 3 of our host city visit and I am awake just before sunrise again. Here are a few photos out my hotel window.

Just before sunrise in Fès, Day 3

And the sun is up!

Today, we began our day at Lycee Moulay Slimane High School, the public school where Hicham is assigned for his teaching duties this year. It turned out to be an outstanding

Arrival at Moulay Slimane HS

The Courtyard of Moulay Slimane HS

Meeting the principal of Moulay Slimane HS in his office.

We got to visit the student records room!

The Moulay Slimane Teacher's Lounge - note fabulous couches as usual!

The computer science classroom.

A visit to the physical education part of the school campus

Posing with the PE teacher

We got to visit the gymnasium - brings me back to my own childhood gymnastics memories!

After a tour of the school grounds, it was time to watch a master teacher. This was our first big highlight today! Hicham led us to Fulbrighter Saafa El Youssfi's English classroom. What followed was a master class in teaching, student engagement, and integrating real-world issues into the classroom. Saafa began by reviewing Human Rights Violations with her students.

The beginning of a student-generated list of human rights violations.

She asked students to help her brainstorm a list of human rights violations, which she recorded on the board. To prompt her students, she pulled up images on her phone, walked them around the room so each student could see the image, and then asked which human rights violation they were seeing. The list on the board began to grow.

Saafa shows her students images of human rights violations on her phone.

The list of violations - generated by students.

Once Saafa feels she has a long enough list, she reviews each item, makes sure students understand (in English, of course), the meaning of each violation. Then she asks students if these violations exist in Morocco - and the students answer "yes" to each. It was a moment of self reflection on the country they all love - and powerful to witness. She asked, "do we have child labor here in Morocco?" and the students simultaneously answered, "Yes." And down the list they went. The next step in the lesson was to take action by drafting a letter to the United Nations. Here is the template she provided:

Saafa's letter template for students to use as they write the UN about one human rights violation.

Before students began writing, she had them meet in small groups to select the violation to focus on and begin drafting the letter together.

Saafa meets with a small group of students as they discuss their ideas for a letter to the United Nations.

After the small group meetings, students reported out. Saafa then told them they would finish their letters during the next class and it was time to wrap up. She took a moment at the end so we could give her students some gifts from our home towns. I shared pins and stickers!

I passed out pins from the University of Michigan Museum of Art and Michigan-themed stickers. Some students immediately added the pins to their shirts or school uniforms and many put the stickers on their phone cases!

Students were very grateful to learn about our home states and we had a moment to connect with a few students. We took some photos that also capture something unique about Saafa's classroom: She has some nice decorations and bookshelves - Hicham pointed this out as really nice and unique.

I had a quick moment to take some photos with Saafa's students in front of her lavender field backdrop.

Posing with the principal of Moulay Slimane HS and Saafa in her classroom. Note the colorful art in the background!

I also shared a Pioneer HS lanyard and a sticker for the Ann Arbor Football Club. Saafa put the lanyard around her neck and the sticker on her board. She said "You're helping me decorate my classroom!"

We finished our visit and Hicham took this nice group photo. (L to R: Principal, Whitney, me, Saafa, Lisa-Erika.)

After class with Saafa, it was time for another unexpected and big highlight: We got an afternoon tour with student leader Heba! I realized very quickly that Heba would be prominent 'character' as I reflect on the story of Moroccan schools. My guiding question, how are Moroccan schools promoting gender parity, was on my mind as Heba confidently led us around the school grounds, in and out of classrooms, and shared her role as Club President for the "Girls in ICT" STEM group. She was a stunning example of a strong female student who was confident, curious, and ambitious about her future in STEM. I even to to talk about favorite books with her - I learned that she is a voracious reader.

Heba, student tour guide extraordinaire, leads us around Moulay Slimane HS.

Heba tells us about the "Girls in ICT" poster - she's the Club President!

We ended our tour in the Teacher's Lounge and talked about books, my girls group class PPI, and Heba's goals.

After this enlightening afternoon at Moulay Slimane HS, it was time to say goodbye and head back on to our evening itinerary. Hicham knew we were interested in visiting a traditional Moroccan guest house - a riad. Before we arrived in Morocco, we Zoomed with Hicham and mentioned that some of our colleagues would be staying in riads instead of standard hotels. He told us that our hotel was much more convenient - and affordable - for our week in Fès. However, he didn't forget our interest, and this evening he took us to a majestic riad that also happened to be owned by a friend. It was being refurbished and thus was not operational, but he said we could visit, have a tour, eat dinner there, and meet the caretaker. It turned out we had the riad to ourselves! What a place. Here are some photos and a video - I tried to capture the detailed tilework, the ornate furniture, the plunge pool, and the incredible bedrooms.

A traditional room key - no key card here!

A view from the second level, looking down at the seating areas and plunge pool.

The view from the terrace on the roof of the riad.

We ate dinner at the lovely wooden tables with Yuki, the caretaker (a character who could literally be in a movie) and then said our farewells to the riad. Hicham walked us back through the medina so we could head to our hotel. We once again admired the shops filled with slippers, carpets, books, and more. Hicham continued his work as the 'mayor' of Fès, stopping to say hello to people along the way.