At SG R-II, our educators strive to instill in our students a love of lifelong learning. This past summer, French teacher Mme. Bre Uzzell had the opportunity to model what it means to be excited and engaged in learning about other cultures and ways of life. Mme. Uzzell embarked on a trip to Morocco as part of a Fulbright-Hays seminar.
Mme. Uzzell was one of 16 educators chosen to participate. The trip lasted approximately a month, with Mme. Uzzell and her travel companions learning about Morocco, making new connections and excitedly planning on how to share their experiences with their classes upon their return. Mme. Uzzell was the only participant from Missouri.
This seminar was entitled: Education in Morocco: An Evolving Landscape, and its purpose was to delve into the education system in Morocco and its proposed reforms and enhance participants’ understanding of the historical and cultural context of the Maghreb (the region comprising western and central North Africa), and its influence on social, economic and political Moroccan institutions.
Hosted by the Moroccan-American Commission for Educational & Cultural Exchange (MACECE), this trip featured educational lectures and interactive, cultural activities specifically designed for educators, including visits to local schools and organizations and meetings with education administrators, government officials, policymakers, teachers, and students. The educators then draw on these experiences to create cross-cultural curriculum for use in their classrooms.
Some of the academic and educational activities included:
Visiting the Ministry of Education offices where the Minister of Education offered a presentation in French about curriculum in Morocco;
Touring the Rabat American School and discussing curriculum, student population and teacher recruitment with the principal;
Traveling to the Mohammed V University to participate in a roundtable discussion with professors from the English Department;
Visiting the London Academy, a private K-12 school focused on technology;
Touring the Université Mohammed VI Polytechnic, the newest university in Morocco in Ben Guerir (est. 2016);
Visiting the Coding School 1337, part of a 42-school network;
Participating in an “English Street Class” held in the medina (old city), where Mme. Uzzell and a few teachers had the opportunity to “teach” for a while; and
Visiting the Medina in Old Fez (Fez el-Beli) to take a tour of the oldest university in the world, the University al-Qarawiyyin! It was founded in the 10th century, and the library has ancient manuscripts and is actively working to restore, digitize and translate them.
One of the group’s favorite visits was a local primary school in Casablanca, where they were serenaded by adorable 4-5 year-old students, who sang the Hokey Pokey in French!
Throughout these activities, the group was able to immerse themselves in the cities, wandering the Casbahs (area surrounding the citadel), visiting the Parliament building, touring a mosque, museums, and gardens, and exploring antique stores, fabric shops and restaurants. They were even treated to a culinary class at the Lotus Chef cooking school in Marrakech, where they learned about how Moroccan spices used, and how to do the tea ceremony “correctly.” The group then cooked their own lunch of chicken tagine, zalouk (cooked eggplant salad), Moroccan bread and Moroccan pancakes for dessert. While there were a dozen places to love and explore, Mme. Uzzell’s favorite was the coastal city of Essaouira, known as the windiest city in Africa, where old Portuguese ramparts still stand.
“I love the warmth of the people in Morocco and the connections I’ve been able to make with the other educators on this trip, as well as the local people,” Mme. Uzzell said. “My goal in applying to the Fulbright program was to accumulate experiences to be able to share with my students, in the hope that my experiences could inspire them to seek to learn more.”
During the Fall of 2022, Mme. Uzzell set up a tea time for her students, where they sampled teas and heard about her trip, asking questions about particular activities and learning about Moroccan culture, such as how to do the Moroccan tea ceremony correctly.
Mme. Uzzell’s curriculum project centers on understanding the diversity of identities in Morocco, and it was designed for French V students. The themes explore what it means to be French, what it means to be American, and what it means to be Moroccan, and how these identities inform the linguistic challenges and educational changes happening in Morocco now.
Each level of French class includes a unit that focuses on the region of North Africa and those Francophone countries, and Mme. Uzzell is excited to be able to expand upon those units with real-life experiences.
One aspect that Mme. Uzzell has discussed with her students is the importance of learning other languages to better understand other cultures. Knowing French was helpful, as Morocco is a Francophone country, but she pointed out that knowing Spanish was also helpful in the northern region.
Her French students were excited to be able to follow along on her Youtube Channel throughout her trip! “It is so inspiring to see Mme. Uzzell take the initiative to go and engage with other cultures and bring back what she has learned to share with us,” senior and French V student Maddie Terry said. “We can tell how passionate she is through the way she talks about the welcoming, interesting people she met, the amazingly beautiful places they visited, and the vibrant customs they witnessed. Hearing these stories opens our minds to different ways of life that we don’t encounter here at home. The world is a huge place, and having these discussions in class and hearing her stories gets everyone excited to travel and see how big the world really is.”
Mme. Uzzell was chosen to attend this seminar after completing a lengthy and in-depth application process. Mme. Uzzell had help from her colleagues, who assisted in editing her work, offering feedback on her curriculum vitae (CV, similar to a resumé), and submitting letters of recommendation on her behalf.
“I want to be sure to thank all of those wonderful people who helped me in this journey,” she said. “And I just want to share with all my teacher friends that they can do this, too! There are so many opportunities for teachers to travel or do exchanges. I can’t put into words how amazing this experience has been—it has positively impacted my life as an educator and as a lifelong learner.”
Mme. Uzzell had the chance to present on her experience at the Foreign Language Association of Missouri (FLAM) Conference in October 2022.
If you would like to check out Mme. Uzzell’s vlog from her trip, visit her Youtube Channel here!