Finally!! After months of postponements and frustrations I finally had my first environmental ed. teacher's taller! First it was delayed at the last minute (like the day before it was originally scheduled!) because the alcaldia wouldn't give me money to pay for it (after they said they would, of course) then the second time because of teacher's strikes.
The second time around I was able to get funds through the German organization GTZ which I've talked about previously on here (actually, a month later I still haven't been reimbursed, but that's another story I suppose). Anyways, they are the organization that originally donated the Maletines to me. The maletin (briefcase) is a boxed set of four really great educational text books all about environmental ed. in the Chaco. The main purpose of the taller was simply to get these materials to local teacher's so they can use them in their classrooms because as I've said before teacher's are given pathetically few teaching resources here. And the secondary objectives where to learn new dynamic methodologies to teach EE, create and present EE themed lessons, and discuss the environmental problems of the Chaco region.
In all there where 25 teachers who attended with many more wanting to, but unfortunately I only had a certain number of maletines to give away. I had previously worked with almost all of them before so I was a lot more comfortable presenting my portion of the workshop than I think I would have been otherwise. I purposely set up the workshop for the teachers of the two schools I work a lot with specifically for that reason. I figured they already knew my level of Spanish and what to expect of me, more or less, so I didn't get too nervous about it.
Of course there are always a few slackers in every group, but overall I was really pleased with every bodies participation. Five of the participants were actually my housemates and I was pleasantly surprised to see them working on their presentations for the last day of the workshop during lunch at the house! It was a touching moment for me. You could tell that some of the groups really had put a lot of thought into their presentations. It was really nice to hear how "bonito" the workshop was from many of the teachers and how they were surprised that almost everyone had stayed till the last minute, which usually doesn't happen at these kind of things here. So I guess you could say it was a success. Vale la pena! (worth the trouble)
Roxanna (in the dark brown jacket) is actually my host sister and Acelia (in the red) rents a room upstairs next to mine.
I think Norma (on the left above) is my favorite teacher here. She was one of the first I worked with and has always been really enthusiastic about having me in her classroom and incorporating more EE into her classes. She actually comes up with themes she wants me to come in and talk about (which no one else has done) and has always been especially kind to me.
This group was giving a presentation on Suelo (soil) and started it with a reenactment of a ch'alla or blessing performed on specific holidays on people's land for good luck. Pretty cool. The girl in the middle is another one of my housemates, Emma.
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