'A rewarding and touching experience in Konya' by Juan Alberto Lopez Uribe

"Students learn when their teacher also learns" Alicia Fernandez 

                                  Juan

I had the unique privilege of living and learning with a group of carefully selected Algerian teachers during the two last weeks of August 2014. During these two very intensive weeks I was their instructor at intensive CTS course they took as part of their initial training to teach English in the Turkish school system.

When these teachers arrived, many had teaching experience, others none.  But one thing these young teachers all shared was their dedication, willingness to learn, and to work together. Wait, the lively and contagious Algerian energy was always present!

Being together with this lively group of Algerian teachers was both a very rewarding and touching experience for me. I say it was rewarding because the group went from

a quite traditional teaching-centered approach in which most of the talking was done by the teacher to a more dynamic learning-centered approach in which students shared their experiences through the foreign language. I felt touched as I learned about their stories, hopes, and dreams. I was touched to see that our work together brought them close to living their full potential.

Small group discussions maximized and modeled student engagement.

By the end of our course, I could see them not only living a more communicative methodology, but also discussing it with each other using all the terms I had presented them. What a joy it was to see them having a-ha moments when the right question was posed.

I would like to share special three moments among the many memorable ones that we lived together:

1. Before every session students were always received with involving music and with an inspiring quote on the board (like the one at the top of this post) to set the mood for our time together. We listened to bossa nova, tango, samba, and to songs in Arabic they also chose. These moments were great because we could appreciate our own different cultures and exchange experiences about our likes before sessions started. I got very happy that when during microteaching some trainees also wrote inspiring quotes on the board. 

2. On the third day our course coordinator told me that my desk and my materials were messy and that was not good modeling at all for the group. I couldn’t agree more! On the next day, as you can imagine, my desk was pristine when students arrived. I asked if they could see any difference in the room and we discussed about the importance of being good models for our students. I apologized and modeled how it is through our vulnerability that we build rapport with the group. I loved that during microteaching one trainee was super organized and tidy with her materials. All of us learned. Yes!

3. In one of the last sessions I used the pictures I had taken of them during their microteaching as the material they used in the maximizing student interaction session. I could see their eyes shining when they talked about what they learned that far in the course. In one activity trainees experienced personalization, reflection, and different interaction patterns. Needless to say, I facilitated discussing of what we had lived.

Students used pictures of what they had experienced during their microteaching to live the power of personalized material

I am grateful for having lived this important moment in our lives in which we all evolved collectively. They are better language teachers and I am a better teacher educator. Oh, I forgot to say that I learned lots of Algerian Arabic during the time we were together. I was invited to go to Algeria and I am definitely going. This is the beauty that only genuine learning encounters bring. And now it is ours to enjoy!

I would like to thank and congratulate Chahira, Maya, Mariam, Imene, Kahina, Leila, Mohamed, Mohammed, Mostapha, Mouhssin, Karim, and the two Amines for their progress and wish them a bright teaching future. I would also like to say that I learned and enjoyed working together with Anette, Kylie, Magdi, Ben, and Rene. Special thanks to Kristina who invited me to be part of the SeltAcademy team this year.

Hugs and hugs,

Juan 

Celebrating the joy of living and learning together in the CTS course.

Getting a group photo after one session we had in the lovely garden