10 memorable moments

Thank you for watching my 10 moments!

Teaching through hard times

One of the most meaningful lessons from this course happened when my father got really sick and the only thing I could do for him was pray. It was an entire week full of sad thoughts and a feeling of helplessness. I had to stay, though, and continue doing my job. That situation taught me that one needs to be resilient and I thought about the many teachers around the world who do their jobs among violence, death, famine and harsh conditions. It helped me to be brave and to realize that my trouble was nothing compared to what many teachers have to endure.

Misinterpreted tasks

One moment showed me the importance of checking with a partner what needs to be done when one is not sure about an activity. We were in a workshop doing different kinds of writing tasks in pairs and one activity was writing a thank you note to a classmate. I wasn't sure about what kind of note it had to be, but I didn't bother to ask my partner, who happened to be my roommate here. At the end we exchanged notes. Boy, was I embarrassed! He wrote for me this super nice, lengthy letter telling how happy he was to have met me. While my thank you note said, "You're very nice and thank you for NOT SNORING at night."

Discovering & Sharing Culture

Awe in the morning

One nice and fun moment in the course for me, took place when Laura did her culture, and she was teaching us about one the flagship traditions in Argentina-drinking mate to share moments with friends. They lesson was very instructional and clear, but when we learned that people actually shared their metal straw to drink the mate, we started whispering and wondering if Laura would actually have us drink the mate and pass around that metal straw from which everyone was sipping. She did have us try it in the end. Everybody was trying to hide squeamish gestures which was very amusing. In the end everyone seemed to forget about that and we enjoyed the moment!

Classroom Management

In the town where I come from, we only get experience two types of weather. Extreme heat with humidity, and a few heavy rains in the rainy season. One morning, I came down and outside it was pretty cold and misty. I was amazed and had to take a shot of it.

I don't think I'll see something as beautiful any time soon.

One moment I won't forget happened when a class that was going didn't turn exactly as I had planned because I forgot about one of the principles of classroom management-checking that the resources and technology one is going to use, are ready, and functional, so that the class is not delayed because of something that could be avoided.

Putting pieces together

Working on a team is not easy for any of the people on the. Every one on the team has to be tolerant and have a clear notion of the role they on the teams. The puzzle we did with Mary Scholl showed me that in a practical way. And it also served as an introduction to cooperative atmosphere at the Centro Espiral Maná

10 Memorable Moments

at my SIT TESOL Certificate Course

Nurturing teaching with a little culture

When I got here I was a little nervous that I would have trouble with the food, because one of the main ingredients of Costa Rican cooking is one I don't like at all-beans. Anyway, we were always encouraged to make students connect with our lessons by using cultural elements they can relate to. So, I decided to use beans ours students could touch in order to illustrate a grammar topic.

By Miguel Mejía Flórez

Getting Ready for Teaching is Like a Game!

A warm welcome

One of the teaching strategies that was a hint of what would come in the teaching practice was the teaching game. In a 5-minute time frame, we had to come up with a lesson in which we presented a skill and had our peers experience it! Looking back, the teaching game seems like a metaphor of what the Teaching Practice would be a week on. And we got to experience things that are important to our classmates.

When my fellow trainees and I arrived at the Centro Espiral Maná, we were warmly welcomed by Mary, Roger, Laura, Pipa and all the people here at the Centro. One of the happiest greetings I got when I got here, was the one Jorge (a student in my group) said to me. I had a first short activity with them (a 25-minute practice) and I introduced myself. After all the activities were over, I talked to Jorge. He said to me, "thank you for coming here, all the way from your country, to helps us. That was probably one of the warmest welcomes I've ever received.

Building Community

One challenging moment for me was realizing that learning and teaching in this rural area in Costa Rica, was more about building community and knowledge together, than about transferring knowledge and skills to students. That realization was shocking to me, because adapting to that implied a radical change in my teaching practice in the past ten years. I'm glad I adopted an open-minded approach to this issue. Otherwise, I would have missed getting to know such wonderful people here!