Despite having visited a number of local schools, I still had very little understanding of what these teachers’ lives were like.  The workshop was eye-opening.  I was so impressed with the teachers’ eloquence, dedication, quick wit, teamwork, and adaptability.  We only had five hours in which to make these stories; it would have been a lot to accomplish in a day and a half.  As a result, some people got further through the process than others.

Images were our biggest problem, though a couple of people had trouble with recording in GarageBand.  The teachers had been asked to bring images to illustrate their stories, but they didn’t expect to be writing personal stories, and we had no free time in which they could gather images.  So people were scrambling over lunch time and at the end of the day to find images that might work.  Some people just inserted photos not relevant to their project in order to practice with the technology.   And because the end of the day was so chaotic, with almost everyone staying up to an hour after the end of the workshop to get something they could take home, I didn’t get any signed permission forms.  I asked Hassan via email if he could ask about permissions for me;  Hassan and Ahmed conferred with the teachers and gave me permission to post the stories as evidence of the work that we did together.  I am including all stories that had complete voice-overs.  I will add English-subtitled versions of each story as soon as possible.  I have added titles to most of the stories, to make it easier to see which might be of interest.

Ismail Bahsaine, The mustache
Ismail was the first to finish his story, and I promptly appointed him chief assistant: he spent an hour or so helping his fellow teachers pull their stories together.  The first image is a heavily pixelated photo of a man with a mustache.  Subtitled here.

Noura Yoar, The snake
Noura started by saying she had no story to tell, but her fellow teachers disagreed.  “The snake, the snake: tell the story of the snake!”  She didn’t have time to include photos, but her voiceover is fabulous.  Subtitled here.

Hayat El Allaoui, Struggling to study
Hayat tells of her frustration with an unprepared student, and how her feelings changed as she heard his story.  There was not enough time for Hayat to integrate photos all the way through the story.

Hanan Ghouzdami, Creativity under pressure
What happens when students are gathered to take an exam, but there are no copies of the exam to give them?

Sokina Essaidi, Farewell
Saying goodbye to a beloved uncle.

Siham Kadiri, Coming and Going
Becoming integrated into the village and teaching communities–then having to leave again.

Latifa Erraoui, A visit with friends
Starting a tour of duty as a teacher in this region.

Abderrahmane Maoukil, Power
Finding a way to bring electricity to the classroom.

Youssef Ait Ouamar, A tale of two families
How do families help children succeed or fail?

Raja Ezzoubaeiri, The end of a student’s career
A favorite student has to stop her studies.

Mohamed Elomari, Responsibilities
Arranging an outing for a cohort of teachers.  (Mohamed didn’t have time to find or take photos to match his story perfectly, so he practiced integrating image and words with existing photos from the group.)

Lahcen Hizem
Lahcen worked on the story after the workshop, and posted it to the group’s googledrive.  The link he sent me hasn’t worked, but I hope to access the story and post it here eventually.