V Congreso para Maestros at Proesur

On the main stage: The banner introduces all of the programs at Proesur

The Centro de Idiomas at UVG's Proesur campus hosts a national conference for teachers which is focused on all areas of methodology and training (aprendizaje). The theme for this year's conference was "Eliminando Barreras Educativas" (Eliminating Educational Barriers). Over 700 participants had registered for this event. Presenters came from all over, some as far as the U.S. Bani Sandoval, director of the Centro de Idiomas, had asked me a couple of weeks ago if I would present on an aspect of teaching English as a foreign language. I agreed to give two 1 1/2 hour workshops on communicative speaking activities for beginners. The workshops were well attended. I had in both sessions roughly 25-30 English teachers who were mostly K-12 public school teachers. One teacher, however, taught English at San Carlos University in Guatemala City. She was very excited about implementing my activities due to the huge number of students in her classroom.

In my workshop, I led the participants through activities I have used teaching English and German to beginners that engaged all four skills. I purposely chose activities that did not involve technology and expensive materials since many Guatemalan teachers do not have access to these. The teachers loved the activities and thanked me profusely for sharing them.

Workshop on communicative activities at Proesur

The teachers from UVG-Altiplano and I were treated as royal guests by our colleagues at Proesur. Our conference fee was waived and we were also invited to join the group of guests whose lunch was catered. The conference ended around 3:00 and we returned to Panajachel around 6:00. It was a very rewarding experience for me to give these workshops to teachers who effusively demonstrated their eagerness to learn and their appreciation of my help.

My colleagues from Altiplano at lunch:
Helga, I, Josanne, Carrie, and Brenda